Dimension 292
Southern Sea
Month 1, Year 81 AG
The crew of the Fire Navy ship felt the collision, of course, but they had no reason to suspect that the crush of ice beneath the hull was in any way different from the hundreds of times it had happened before. The ship was specifically designed for travel inside the waters of the antarctic circle, after all, and the sensation of steel cutting its way through ice was a familiar one. The ship had continued to meet up with the rest of the Southern Raiders' vessels without incident and not one sailer ever gave a second thought to the submerged iceberg they'd hit during their patrol route.
Avatar Aang drowned beneath the waves. After over eighty years of continuous use, the avatar state was dispelled by the unknowing actions of a single Fire Nation vessel. The broken ice at the top of the domed iceberg allowed freezing water to rush in and fill the cavity before the young bender inside had the chance to regain consciousness, sapping what remained of his strength and stealing away the air he needed to survive. Aang died without waking from his decades-long sleep.
Southern Water Tribe
Month 10, Year 81 AG
The avatar spirit didn't travel far for its next incarnation. The new avatar was a healthy, screaming babe that had inherited her father's amber eyes.
War is ugly, and the protracted conflict of this one had seen its share of unspoken traditions crop up on every side and in every culture it touched. Nearly all of them had been sparked by the people's anger and pain, crafted by the fires of hatred and fear, and left behind only the ashes of bitterness with their completion. The events before and after the birth of the newest avatar followed the same terrible patterns and traditions the war had long since established.
The woman didn't look at her child even once, born a full year-and-a-half after her husband had left with his fellow warriors, before the midwife took the baby away. Babes birthed with yellow eyes and too pale skin were not as uncommon as they should have been in what remained of the southern tribe, and this one was no different in that regard. Hearts hardened by the wrongs done against them, the tribe had developed its own way of dealing with their circumstances. (No one dared to speak of the haunted look in the mothers' eyes. If any of the mothers ever mourned for the children they had forsaken, none of them dared to speak the words aloud.)
Yet another unnamed, unwanted daughter was given over to the waves. Yet another avatar's life was claimed by the ocean in less than a year, both without a people either able or willing to mourn them.
Huo Lingyu Province
Month 6, Year 82 AG
The avatar spirit went north to find its next host. It settled in a village nestled under the morning shadow of Mount Makapu.
The new avatar was born to a non-bending couple living a stone's throw away from the nearest Fire Nation colony, with six fingers on each hand and a twin following shortly on his heels. As his father grumbled over unexpected expenses, his mother cooed over him and his brother.
She caught one of his hands in her own and grinned down at him. "Oh, look at you! You're gonna be something special, kid. I've Seen it!" Her husband only scoffed, well used to her wild and often flawed predictions. Neither of the new parents would have any inkling of just how true her statement was until several years later.
And so began the legend of Avatar Ford.
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