Legend of the Reborn Benders: Fire
This is the second book in my four part Avatar parallel. This story is about a young African, who happens to be an exceptional Fire Bender. His name is Devontai Jones, and he is not someone you want to cross in a dark alley. I won't reveal much about him because I'm scared that you will not want to read on, so I'll just say this. If you love dark stories about people, who have the ability to kill others without much of a thought, this is the story for you. Devontai will shock you around every corner, I can say that with confidence because as I have begun to write about him, he has shocked me. As I lie awake, developing my characters, asking myself why someone would make the decisions that they do, he is the one that I think of most.
Also, if you happen to have read Water, then you don't have to read the Prologue, you can skip right to chapter 1
I remember that it hurt as the hand was plunged into my chest. I could that the man in front of me was beginning to glow with a cynical red light, my vision was beginning to blur. I could see that his pupil dilated and it made me sick. This person is a monster. I don't know why I would ever wanted to help this man. I tried to save his life, and it was now costing me mine…
"You don't have to think like that, you aren't going to die. I have much more use for you alive." His words shocked me, I'd never heard him speak, I'd never known that his voice seemed so raspy that it was almost impossible to understand him. I looked into his green eyes, the only thing visible through his blood red mask. I looked into the hatred that was visible in his eyes. This hatred that the man had for me, for anyone who had more power them him.
"After this, you will be a cold, mindless being. Your only purpose will be to serve me. You will only live to die for me when the time is right." With these words his hand slide from my chest, the white glove was spotless. The hand had never gone into my body, it had instead reached into my soul, pulling the very essence of me from my body. I hit the ground as though I were a brick, dropping with my face towards his feet, my nose inches from his black boots. His right hand grabbed my collar, raising me above his head as though I were a child. He looked me in the eyes as his left hand rose to my forehead.
Placing his thumb on the bridge of my nose, his eyes glowed with that sick red light. It felt like hooks were digging into my body from all sides, trying to rip the soul from my body. Then I was no longer inside myself, I was instead watching the scene unfold. My body dropped to the ground like a sack of flour. I could see the rise and fall of my chest, but I was not moving it, I was not in control of my own body. The man stood across from my body his eyes closed, for a small eternity. He didn't move, he didn't even breath, he just stood there. I thought for a moment that time had stopped, I could see nothing moving, I couldn't hear the wind. I couldn't see anything. Then his eyes flashed open, one glowing blue, the other red. He sighed and a faint silver light came from the hole in his masked that served to supply him with air. It floated down toward my body surrounding me and slowly beginning to flow into nostril. It began circling my body, slowly sinking into the pores of my body, my nostrils, my mouth, any open area.
"Rise!" The man said. My body trembled, then shook violently for a moment, before beginning to obey his command. For a moment I heard my lungs fill with air. A deep dark sound that I had never heard before. My eyes opened, but instead of the normal blue they had turned to a colorless black.
"What is it you want from me, Shoufu?" The words floated into the air, without the mouth moving. It wasn't my voice, it was instead a whisper that I could not describe. Even if it could I would not, it was too evil. "What do you ask of me, Shoufu?" he said, repeating himself
"There are four Benders on this planet with exceptional talent. I want you to find them and capture them." He paused turning away "Bring them to me alive so that I may absorb their abilities as I have done yours. Do you understand?"
"Yes, I obey." The voice spoke, the corpse began to walk away.
"Avatar!" The man said, calling me by the title that he knew me by. The corpse stopped, and turned to face him. "You no longer have the ability to bend, I've taken that from you. You will have to find another way to fight. Your Ki is no longer there, so find something else that you can learn to fight. You are void now, empty space."
"Void….?" The voice spoke, the air around it beginning to ripple with power. "Yes, I am Void" With that, he faded into the night without another noise."
The man chuckled, a chuckle of someone who had just played a move that would ensure victory. His laugh was absorbed into the night air, the darkness swallowing it as though it were nothing. He turned to face me, looking me in the eye as though he could see me. Then he walked toward me, stopping an inch from my face. I was unable to move, to act at all as he whispered.
"You shall be the last Avatar, because now your body contains nothing but Void. You have lost, Avatar. Nothing in this world can stop me now. There is no longer anything that can stand against me." With that, he vanished. Leaving me alone to wander the forest and the world outside. Though I didn't know it somewhere in the world a young man was just beginning to develop his Bending skills. This person would play a crucial role in the world, and since the Benders have become all but extinct and those who remained live in secrecy, his role would be unknown to all but a few lucky individuals.
This is where my story becomes his, where I begin to wait and see how the world must unfold.