Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender does not belong to me.
A: TLA - Genwei's Tale
Chapter 1: The Fire Nation Arrives
The sun was bright in the morning sky, its light striking the earth without being hindered by even a single cloud. I was down by the river collecting water for the laundry in two wooden buckets when I smelled smoke. Recently our village had heard that the Fire Nation soldiers were in the next village over, and so many of the villagers here fled. My family was one of the few that stayed, hoping the Fire Nation would skip such a small village as ours.
I dropped the buckets and ran back to the village, trying as hard as I could to see through the trees. As I reached the tree-line at the edge of the village I slowed down and tried to scope out the situation. My neighbors were chained together in a line, being led by several Fire Nation soldiers in red armor, and behind them was my family; my sister and my mother. Immediately my anger rose, and my fists clenched the dirt, crushing it into a small ball. The ball became denser and denser until I expended my anger, allowing calm thoughts to resume control. The handful of dirt was now a small rounded pebble, ready for launch. The soldier in the lead appeared to be more of an officer and was giving commands, so I made him my target. Holding the pebble in my hand, I raised my arm behind my head, and swung it forward like a catapult, throwing the rock harder than any non-bender could ever do. The officer's helmet dinged loudly, and he collapsed upon the ground. My neighbors gasped out loud and the soldiers instantly spun around, searching for the attacker. I flung myself out at the soldiers, forgoing my cover to attack with a barrage of pebbles and rocks off the ground. The fire nation soldiers did their best to stop the rocks with shields of flame, but the soldiers who took the brunt of the stones were overwhelmed and fell down. As I charged I looked to my family, suddenly aware of their shouts and gestures to run away. I hesitated, and the soldiers used that as an opportunity to bend at me in a group effort. I threw up a wall of rock at the last second, but the leading edge of the combined flame singed my hair and clothes.
Outnumbered and quickly losing my chance at an offensive advantage, I lowered my charred shield and sank the ground under one of the firebenders at the same time. He sank quickly below ground level, making him unable to attack until he could pull himself out of the sinkhole. The other soldiers looked towards their sunken comrade and began to shoot fireballs at me randomly in an attempt to make me put up my shield again. Instead of doing what they intended I simply continued to sink each of the soldiers while dodging their flames. As the last soldier disappeared below ground, I ran to my family
"Mom!" I shouted.
"Look out!" I spun around on the run, seeing one of the soldiers, probably the first one I sank, clambering out of his hole and snarling at me. I quickly made them ground beneath him turn into a steep incline, sliding him back own into the pit.
"Leave! Go home, I'll take care of this." I shouted at the villagers, but realizing as I spoke that their homes were on fire.
"Hide in the woods together instead, I'll come for you." My family ushered the rest of the villagers and eventually led them into the woods, still shackled together.
More fire nation soldiers were getting near to getting out of their temporary cages, so I needed a plan to get them out of here, or trap them for a time. I decided to trap them in a cage that they would be able to get out of, so that I wouldn't have to kill them. I didn't want be like them, simply killing out of ease and convenience. Concentrating hard, I raised a circular wall of earth around them, and another wall within that one, but these walls were high enough to be out of reach and slanted inward so that they could not be scaled easily. Hopefully, this trap would hold them long enough for me to round up the villagers and leave this place.
I was tired after that intense bout of bending, so it took me a while to find my fellow villagers, who should be hiding in a large group beneath the trees. As I approached their location unknowingly, I was struck in the forehead with a rock.
"Ouch!" I said clasping my forehead with my hands, rubbing furiously.
"Oh, I'm sorry big brother," my ten year old sister Bao said, stepping out from behind a tree, unbound by shackles,"I thought you might have been a Fire Nation soldier."
"Well you had pretty good aim for not looking well enough to know it was me. And how did you get out of the shackles?" I said.
"I freed us using earthbending." She said grinning like a wolf-squirrel pup.
"Good! Is everyone here then?" I inquired, scanning the bushes and tree trunks.
Soon after I asked the villagers made themselves known, stepping into view. A woman from the rear of the group ran forward, embracing me in her arms tightly.
"Oh, Genwei! I was so worried." She said, tears soaking my shoulder.
"It's ok mom, I'm here, but we all need to leave quickly." Still holding my mother, I turned to the villagers saying,
"I have trapped the soldiers in a cage of stone, but it will not be long before they break out. While they try to do so, we must gather what we can and leave. Where we go, I am not sure, but it is impossible for us to continue on here without being harassed by the Fire Nation. We will meet back here in half an hour." The villagers bowed and picked their way hurriedly through the brush back to the village, as did my family and I.
Back in the village, the fires had just about burned themselves out, allowing the villagers to safely peruse their belongings and determine which they would take with them and which they would leave behind. As my mother and my sister gathered things they wished to bring and needed to bring, I was absentmindedly putting things into a pack and thinking of a place we could go. Where had the war yet to conquer? More importantly, where could the war never go and succeed? Then it hit me like a rhinoceros-zebra, we should go to Ba Sing Se! The Fire Nation would never be able to get inside its walls no matter how fancy their bending could be.
Being just south of the city Gaoling, we could make that our first stop. Plus, I'm sure that's where the rest of our village migrated.
"Alright," I said, "I know where we're going." My mother and my sister turned to me, laughing.
"We know too, of course-" My mother said, but my sister interrupted her saying, "Ba Sing Se!"
"Right, I've always been a bit behind everyone else haven't I?" I said in a soft, playful voice.
Bao stuck her tongue out at me and continued packing her clothes and her favorite earth puppet. That earth puppet was constantly being played with; it was basically a small doll made out of finely crafted pebbles with holes punched through them and were held together by durable strings. One would use earthbending to make it walk, or dance, or whatever else you could think of. Smiling, my mother came over to me and led me to her room. Without saying anything she gestured me to wait at the door, and she went to her dresser. Digging in the bottom drawer for only a moment, she turns around while keeping her hands behind her back. Bowing her head, she said softly
"There were two objects your father left behind when he left to be in the Earth Kingdom's army. He left one item for you, and one for your sister," here she paused thoughtfully, and then said; "here is what he left for you." Taking her hands from behind her back, she presented me with an item I was already familiar with.
"This is father's sword," I said, taking the ancient family heirloom into my hands, "I thought father had taken it with him."
"No, he told me that when you turned 18 to give you the sword, but now that we're leaving here; and seeing how you proved yourself earlier, it is rightfully yours."
"Wow…" I raised the hand-and-a-half sword, unsheathed it, and looked at its near forgotten features. The 32 inch blade was wider at the rounded hilt than near the tip, and inscribed upon opposite sides of the blade were the words "Terra" and "Strength". The hilt itself had the Earth Kingdom insignia on it; gold outlined a green coin upon a brown background. The brown handle was rough, making an easy grip, and the pommel was a sphere with a deep green jade set into it. Father used to carry this sword with him at all times, but just before he left, he had ceased to do so. Despite that, I assumed he took it with him, because I knew how skilled he was with it and how useful it could be. After gawking at the sword for a minute, I stood and bowed to my mother.
"Thank you," I said, before straightening up and hugging my mother.
"I must go to Bao, wait for us outside." I nodded and left with my pack.
The sun had settled on the below the tree-line now, coloring the sky and clouds with scarlet. The Fire Nation would not harm my family or villagers ever again, I told myself. I must not allow it, as long as I am an earthbender and my father's son. My father had never and would never let it happen, and so it will be the same with me.
I am Genwei, 17 years of age, and I will be the guard these villagers with my life.
As the sun crept below the horizon, my sister and mother emerged from our home. Both had their sights on the ground, but when Bao looked up her eyes were red from crying. Taking one last long look at the house, I tucked it away in my mind.
"We should go," I said, to which my sister sniffled and my mother nodded. We left then, but we did not truly leave it behind, because I realized that this place where we grew up will not only always be in our hearts, and in each other's eyes, hair, skin, and memories.
As we reached the battle site from earlier, I noticed that the firebenders were making progress, as part of the rock wall was reddening and crumbling from the intense heat targeting it from the inside.
"You guys go on to the forest, I'm just going to reinforce this wall and check to see if everyone has made it out of the village."
"Be careful, Genwei," My mother said, touching my face, "I don't want to lose you."
"Me either." Bao said, sniffling again.
"Don't worry; just be swift!" I said as I handed my pack to my sister. My mother looked into my eyes and grabbed Bao's hand, and they dashed off into the woods. Clearing my mind, I focused on the earth surrounding the outer circle of stone, and began to raise it when the firebending blasted through the outer wall.
"No!" I shouted, and blasted the soldiers back with the remnants of the wall. I hastily brought up a huge stone section to fill the gap and ran into the small village.
"Hello? Is anyone still here?" I shouted again and again; each time I was met with no answer. Good, I thought. Running flat out for the woods now, I spied the firebenders once again escaping the confines of the earthen cage. Bolts of fire followed me under the foliage. I needed a plan, and fast; one that I could pull off with the small amount of energy I had left. What could I do? I racked my brains as I hid behind trees and dodged blasts of fire. It was clear that the soldiers were no longer going for capture, and had switched to simply killing me, and probably the villagers if they found them. I would certainly be incapable of facing them head to head now. Under the cover of a particularly massive explosion of flames, I came to rest behind a massive boulder where I noticed children's etchings on it. Breathing heavily I noted stick figures fighting a dragon, and the dragon appeared to be controlled by a magician behind it.
Suddenly, I was struck with the inspiration. I would not face these soldiers directly; I would lead them back to the village by creating a life-sized earth puppet of myself, and making it run away. This would be tricky, so I'd have to follow them a ways to continue my bending and make it believable, but in the darkness of the forest, it should work. I simply had to hope that the light of the fires didn't illuminate it well enough to identify it as a moving pile of rocks. I leaned off of the boulder and took out several pieces by earthbending carefully, and fashioned them into roughly limb-like and torso shapes. I practiced moving the limbs, and it seemed to work well enough. The pieces weren't held together by strings, so it would take more concentration to keep them moving in unison. Finally, I made it "run" out from behind my hideout.
It was immediately attacked by fire, but it kept running under the cover of darkness, leading the soldiers away from myself and the villagers. It was hard to bend something I couldn't see well, so I did follow for a bit. It didn't make it to the village by the time the soldiers caught up and caught it in a massive final fireball, probably using up the last of their strength in doing so, because they each sagged and walked over to examine the deed they had done. Now, I myself slipped away like my puppet before they discovered the thing they had killed was "dumb as a box of rocks".
By the time I located my family and village again, the moon was rising. In total, there were 23 of us, which consisted of my family, my neighbors, and several other families. Together, we slipped like apparitions between the trees on our way to Gaoling, and eventually, Ba Sing Se.
Hello! Thanks for reading!
I would very much appreciate constructive criticism on this story! I scoured this text several times before I posted this here, and caught a couple stupid and silly mistakes. I'm trying to match it up with the main avatar show in such that it occurs while Aang and company are also traveling across the Earth Kingdom. I'm also trying to keep all the information the same, such as I will not have Genwei or anybody start metalbending, or have him discover some other avatar that isn't Aang. I feel like I am pretty up to date with the avatar world's culture, but if you find any mistakes, please notify me and I will do my best to correct them. Anyhow, I'm pretty stoked to continue this series. I'm hoping to post new chapters on Saturdays, hopefully weekly, but maybe every other week if I get busy (that whole being in college thing).
The next installment, Chapter 2: Seeds of Hope, will have the villagers travelling to Gaoling, but they run into a Fire Nation encampment blocking the most direct route. How will they get around this problem? Find out Saturday, Novemeber 5th, 2011 (the projected release date (I'm pretty nearly done with chapter 2 as I type this ;D))!