AVATAR
THE LEGEND OF DA-SENG
Prologue
The cold wind blew in the night as Suyeka looked out over the black waters of the southern ocean. On the moonlit cliff where he was standing, his ebony hair danced like dark flames in the breeze. Deep in thought, his sky blue eyes watched as two turtle seals splashed in the waves.
"They are beautiful creatures," said a soft, elderly female voice from behind him. "Peaceful, too. Have you come here to calm your nerves?"
"I have come here to accept what the spirits have decided," he replied.
"The spirits did not decide that your time would end like this, Avatar. They only decided that it was right to tell you."
"So it is tonight, then?"
"There is no question."
Suyeka sighed deeply.
"You should be glad," the woman said in a cheerful tone. "It was much more of a surprise for me when the rock hit me in the head!"
The old lady laughed for a few moments before spotting that her conversation partner had not moved.
"It may be a joke to you," he began. "But it's not the same. You didn't have a family when you passed over."
"You are wrong. I did have a family. They did not share my blood, but they were family all the same."
The Avatar turned, tears in his eyes.
"Why did they choose to show me that vision? Why would the spirits want to torture me in this way? For two years I have had to keep myself from telling the ones I love that I will die before my time! Why, Avatar Ceba?"
"Listen, Suyeka," she replied, her voice slightly firmer than before. "No one is taken before their time. Remember this, and remember that the spirits told you for a reason. Think, why have you come to this cliff face by the sea? Was it because the spirits showed you in that vision?"
Suyeka nodded.
"And what could have happened if they hadn't shown you?" Ceba continued." You would have been in your house right now, with your wife and daughter. The spirits showed you because they want your family to live."
"So what must I do now?"
"The only thing you can do," said Ceba.
"Wait?"
"Fight!"
"Fight?"
"Yes. Just because you know that death will take you doesn't mean you have to lie down like a tired old man. If you must go, then go kicking and screaming into the night!"
"I will," Suyeka said with a smile. "Thank you, Avatar Ceba."
He placed his hands together and bowed.
"And goodbye."
"Not for long, Avatar Suyeka," she replied, as she began to fade into the wind. "Not for long."
The black-haired man stood for a moment, staring into the space where the old woman had once been. He then sat down cross-legged on the snow, eyes closed, and waited.
The sound of footsteps on the snow made Suyeka open his eyes. There were no plants, but the snow drifts all around him provided the same amount of cover. And these people knew how to use it.
The Avatar stood up and stared straight ahead, away from the sea.
"I know you have come for me," he said in a calm tone. "I will not make the first move."
There was a long pause, silent except for the sound of the night breeze.
Then from behind one of the snowy hillocks a warrior leapt into the air, blasting a fireball from his hand.
Suyeka jumped to the left just before the flames hit where he had been standing. Whilst in the air, he used his bending to smack the man away with a blast of wind.
Seven more of the soldiers charged forth. Each wore a black hooded cloak and a leather mask of the same colour. Beneath the cloaks were sets of amour crafted from dark leather and metal. This protective gear evidently had little effect on their agility, however, as the troops easily dodged another air blast from Suyeka, who was still floating three metres above the ground.
Two of the assailants pushed themselves into the air using the same technique, and each threw a sharp gust at the Avatar.
Just in time, Suyeka threw up a wall of ice to block their attack. He then broke the wall apart and sent shards hurtling towards the entire group, forcing them to defend themselves instead of assaulting him with all four elements. While they were recovering, he sent a blue fire-slice through the air, aimed at both the air benders and their allies on the ground.
One of them, however, wasn't in the firing line. She summoned a blockade of stone from beneath the snow and fired it at Suyeka. He parted the rock and used one half as a shield to block oncoming lightning and flame blasts from the two fire benders in the group. Then, spinning quickly to gain momentum, he launched the other half at one of the air benders.
She tried to dodge the projectile, but it caught her right flank and she was knocked to the ground, badly injured.
On the ground, the group had fanned out. Three members shot tentacles of water up to Suyeka, freezing them at the tips to impale him.
The Avatar froze the water into a ball around himself and caused the sphere to shatter, sending barbs of ice in all directions. The two fire benders melted the missiles that were heading towards the group before sending the flames up towards their target.
At the same time, the remaining air bender fired a bolt of wind at the Avatar. Suyeka deflected both attacks with air bending and then threw a mix of snow and rock at his attackers.
The water benders pulled apart the snow while the fire benders melted it. The earth bender, then spotting the lumps of stone, slammed them together into three spears and threw them at Suyeka.
The Avatar was focusing on these sharp missiles as he heard the air bender launch another wind bolt. He pushed himself back just in time as the two sets of projectiles crashed together, shattering the force of both and the form of the spears.
Now Suyeka had to quickly dodge again as the fire benders began assaulting him. One fired a continuous stream of lightning while the other bombarded him with rapid bursts of fire.
While he was busy with that, the water benders began following him with ice-tipped snakes of fluid.
Eventually, one of the streams met with the lightning, and now the benders worked together to try to hit him with a double shock.
The earth bender had now brought up a pillar of rock from beneath the snow, and was firing disks of stone towards Suyeka.
The Avatar managed to get clear of the various elemental weapons for a moment and spun around, creating a deflective sphere of air, which knocked the projectiles back towards the cloaked individuals. Several of them were hit with their own missiles.
Something hit Suyeka hard on the back of his neck. The air bender had slipped around behind him. The Avatar fell to the ground.
Four of the group gathered around, each holding their respective elements, ready to strike.
The Avatar was badly wounded; he had fallen on a patch of black ice.
"Nodachi," said one of the water benders. "Finish him."
The fire bender nodded. She increased the size of the blue flames in her hands and brought her arms back.
A blue light shone from Suyeka's eyes that made her pause and the other attackers pull away.
"He's going into the Avatar State!" the air bender cried.
The wounded master of the elements rose from the ground. With him came snow that was quickly converted into ice. It began to creep up his arms. The air around him began to spin into a giant ball, and the ground began to shake. Suyeka took a step forward, his face filled with rage, and a desperate need for survival. As powerful as he looked, however, from the way he walked he was obviously seriously injured.
"What do we do?" asked Nodachi.
"What we were sent here to do," replied the water bender who had ordered her companion before. "If we kill him now, then phase two is cancelled. And we win."
Something inside Suyeka registered what she was saying. All at once the Avatar turned back to his normal self, and collapsed onto the floor.
"Finish it now," he said weakly.
There was an awkward pause as everyone in the group stared in shock.
"Do it!" boomed Suyeka.
One of the fire benders launched a bolt of lightning at the Avatar. Suyeka let out a cry of pain before falling silent.
"Check him," snapped the leader.
The one who had delivered the final blow ran to the Avatar and checked his pulse.
"He's pretty much dead, Falchion," she said. "He's in a coma and fading. No-one can save him now."
"Good. How many did we lose?"
"No fatalities," replied the air bender. "But Dagger, Halberd, Scimitar and Pike are badly hurt."
"Alright," said Falchion.
She walked up to Suyeka's limp body and stared down at it.
"Let's hope Burēdo pays us well for this."
Naoaka kept her head down as she trudged across the frozen earth. The night breeze had picked up, and now fresh snow had begun to fall. She stabbed the bottom of her spear into the ground and stood up straight. Scanning the horizon, she took a deep sigh.
Nothing.
She sighed again and then turned around.
"Katara!" she yelled.
An older girl dressed in the same blue-grey fur coat stepped forward out of the falling snow.
"Have you found anything?" Naoaka continued.
Katara shook her head.
"What about Bato?"
Another shake of the head.
"Spirits be damned!" Naoaka said under her breath. "Alright, keep looking! He has to be out here somewhere!"
Naoaka took a few more steps before a shout came from her left.
"Hey!" shouted a male voice. "I've found him!"
"Katara!" the younger girl called joyously. "Tonraq's found him, tell the others!"
Naoaka ran towards the sound of the man's voice. She rapidly climbed her way up almost a dozen hillocks, falling several times. She reached the top of one of the drifts and her smile faded. Tonraq was kneeling next to Seyuka's body. Naoaka dropped her spear and ran towards him.
"What's going on?" she asked in a panicky voice. "Is he hurt?"
"Badly," replied Tonraq, not moving his hands from above the Avatar's chest. His torso was laid bear as the young man bent water above it.
"He's been hit by lightning." Tonraq continued. "His heart's practically stopped and he's got a bad burn on his side. Not to mention all the other-"
"Well do something!" Naoaka screamed.
"I'm trying!"
Naoaka looked up from Suyeka and spotted a faded figure in the snow. All sound but the wind seemed to disappear as she squinted to try and make them out.
"Dad?" she whispered.
The Avatar's spirit nodded.
"But, if I can see you, then that means…"
"Yes," he began his voice distant. "I am passing. I knew this day would come."
"Then…then why didn't you tell us?"
"It was to keep you safe. The spirits need you alive. I walked here, knowing my fate, so that it would not be yours, too."
"Why do they want me?"
"Naoaka, the people who did this to me are planning something. Something only the Avatar can stop. You must find the new Avatar before they do."
"But, you are the Avatar. Why couldn't the spirits let you live, you could have stopped them!"
"No, my time has passed. Your time, however, has begun."
"How am I supposed to find the new Avatar? I'm not even a bender!"
"You are as brave, capable and honourable as any bender I have ever known. Remember what I have told you. And trust in yourself."
"You can't leave like this!" she cried, tears rolling down her face. "The village needs you, the world needs you, Mum needs you, I need you!"
"No," Seyuka said quietly, sadness in his eyes. "You don't need me. You only need yourself. You can do it Naoaka, you must believe you can."
"Okay," she said, wiping away the tears.
"That's my girl," he said with a smile. "Remember, I will always be with you. And I will always love you."
"I'm going to miss you Dad."
"I love you, Naoaka," he said, tears in his eyes.
With that he began to disappear with the snow-carrying wind, as the sounds of the world started to come into existence once more.
"Gah!" said Tonraq. "I can't do anything, I'm sorry Naoaka, he's gone."
"I know," she said with closed eyes. "And there's no need to apologize."
Naoaka opened her eyes again with a determined, angry look on her face.
"I'm going to wait for my mother, and then I'm going to say goodbye."
"Goodbye?" Tonraq asked as Seyuka's daughter got up. "Where are you going?"
"To the Earth Realms," she began, not turning her head. "I'm going to find the Avatar."