Author's Note: Okay this one is supposed to have a very serious, maybe a little sorrowful mood. But I like it because it shows even in the smallest of accidents, people can live beyond their last breath.
All That a Weapon Can Tell
I heard my twin sister calling my name.
"Sin Ji! Sin Ji!" Kam called. I kept running, determined to find a good place to hide this time. I wouldn't let her distract me again.
I stopped in a clearing and looked around for a place to hide. I could hear her coming closer, the leaves crunching under her feet. I jumped onto a low branch and made my way up the maze of tree limbs until I was right above where I entered and where she would soon walk through.
I could tell by her crashing through the forest she was close.
When she entered I jumped down behind her, quiet as a spirit.
Just as she was turning around I sent a ball of fire to her feet. I could tell it was too much by the way she bit her lip and winced.
"Are you okay?" I asked her.
"Let's not play any more hide and explode okay?"
"Okay I'll race you!" I said, bouncing a little.
She nods and gets into position as do I.
"Ready...set...go!" She said slowly, yelling the last word.
And we were off, dodging trees, and at times, when we felt the need to make it more exciting, fire.
Then my foot struck something. I shouted with surprise as I went tumbling down. When the woods stopped spinning, I sat up. Kam was soon right beside me, pulling wet leaves off my back and out of my hair.
"Your bleeding!" She cried and pointed to my foot. A cut had been slashed across my foot by something sharp.
"So I am" I said simply, shrugging off Kam. "It's nothing!" I stood up and started walking back, retracing my steps.
"What are you doing?" She asked me, still sounding worried.
"Finding what made me lose the race."
"Does it matter?"
"That it made me lose? No. That it cut me? Yes." I said, still following the trail of marks I made in the leaves.
Then I found it, the clear sign in the leaves that I had fallen here. Jutting from the roots was something sharp, perfectly sharp enough to make the cut that was still bleeding on my foot.
I ripped my shirt much to the dislike of my sister. "Sin Ji! Mama just sewed that!" I wrapped the cotton around my hand and carefully grasped the strange object. I had to tug hard to free it from it's prison of roots and time.
The thing gleaming in front of us shuts my sister up.
"What- what is it?" She says nervously. "Don't touch it!" She cried as I unwrapped my hand and stretched out to touch it.
I ignored her and felt the smooth surface beneath my fingers.
"I don't know Kam. I really am not sure."
She soon relaxed and started to help me tear the roots off of the mysterious thing.
I gasped at what we uncovered.
"A sword!" I said, amazed.
"A sword?" Kam repeated, clearly doubtful. "I don't think so Sin Ji. Sword metal wouldn't be able to last that long-"
I put my hand up to silence her and she stopped abruptly.
"What?" She asked, sounded huffy.
"It isn't metal, or at least not a metal I have seen before." I told her, her gaze growing with curiosity and amazement.
I grasped the hilt and pulled it fully out of it's prison. Well only after Kam had bound my foot tightly with the shirt shred to stop the bleeding.
It was heavy, built for someone with stronger arms. But then again I am only twelve.
I started to drag it back towards the house, my sister warning me about every root, rock, branch, and hole that she could see.
By the time we were inside the fence I was sweaty and annoyed.
"Kam is that you?" I heard my mother call.
She stopped at the doorway, taking in the sight of us. Kam's hair tangled with branches and leaves, blood from my wound on her hands. My face smudged with both blood and dirt, my shirt torn, the blood-stained "bandage" on my foot, and the sword in my hand, the black blade glistening in the sun, despite it's years of imprisonment.
Her blue eyes widened and she opened her mouth as if about to say something but closed it after a moment of thought. Then she held up her hands as if surrendering.
"You can tell me after you have washed up, eaten, and I take a look at your foot. Inside, come on quickly."
After we had been hosed down, fully fed, my wounds tended to, me scolded for ripping my shirt, and Kam praised for her idea to bandage my foot until we got home, we sat next to the freshly built fire, the sword lying on the table between us, my mother studying it with wide eyes.
"What's wrong mom?" I asked her, worried about something that sparked in her eyes. Was it recognition?
"Sin Ji I think you uncovered a piece of history." She said to me. Kam gasped, clearly excited now, not doubting it at all.
I was confused and it must have shone because my mother gave me a small smile and nodded.
"Let me explain. I am going to tell you a story." Then she began her tale.
"You both know the story of Avatar Aang and his friends." She asked. We nodded. I mean who didn't.
"Avatar Aang stopped the fire nation from burning down us, I mean the earth kingdom, and it happened only miles away from this very house. Right?"
"Correct. Well I lived here as a little girl, when all this took place. I remember fleeing from the houses, seeing the flames in the distance. There was so much fire, the smoke burned your lungs, and the heat was so intense." She shuddered and continued. "Well days later, a young water tribe man came to our house and asked if we had seen a sword. His name was Sokka, the avatar's friend and future brother-in-law."
"So he did marry Katara?" Kam asked eagerly.
"He did." She said, and I could sense a girl discussion that I did not want to be a part of approaching.
"Who cares!" (A.N. I do) I said loudly. "Get on with the story." I told her. "Please" I added at the sight of my mother's raised eyebrows.
She nodded and looked apologetically at Kam.
"His sword was like no other, it had been made from a meteorite. Space rock. We searched for hours, but did not find a thing. He thanked us but left sad and discouraged. I have looked every year since but found nothing." She told us.
I described where I found it to her and she listened intently.
"Why did you keep looking for it mama? Did you think he was handsome?" She asked dreamily.
"Ehhhh!" I groaned. She shot me a venomous look while my mother just chuckled.
"Kam I was only nine years old at the time. No I promised him I would find it for him, and look my children have kept this promise for me. And yes I did think think he was a little handsome."
"Ahhhhh" Kam cooed.
"Ehhhhh!"
"The problem is Sokka died two years ago when the boat he was riding in hit a hidden block of ice and sunk. I shall send it to his wife and children up in the north pole."
And so she did. She kept her promise, and we learned all we could about Avatar Aang and his allies after that. We like to think that we helped a family reunite with a part of their past. That he was still hear, the brave warrior and loyal friend. He still walked, but invisible.
