Sooooo, I had this dream about the Avatar world, but with some changes. It basically is an alternate universe, set before Aang and all that happened in the show. Basically Harmonic Convergence does not exist here, but there is a similar event that occurs every fifty years or so. Umm, but beyond that, I think I explain everything relatively well, and will be trying to update somewhat regularly. I want to get on a better schedule of writing, which is why I'm posting this. But I am writing a lot more stuff, some not fanfiction.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the rights of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Just am here to write some dreams I had about benders. Enjoy.
Zhi Ruo grasped tighter to the shell of the tortoise and the chain connecting her to the benders above her. The water pounded into her relentlessly, the only thing keeping Zhi Ruo and the tortoise from falling into the watery depths below being her mind, her strength, and the earth wrapped around the tortoise's legs. She hated this. This practice ritual and the ritual in and of itself was stupid. It was old. It was dumb. The gods themselves were stupid.
She grunted, waiting for the rest to finish getting in position. She cursed Yoskolo for being so fierce, so angry with the way he formed the water right on her. Zhi Ruo knew it was procedure, that it technically wasn't his fault. Everything was calculated. But the curses still flew, and she felt the water lighten just a little. She smiled, waiting for his tug on the chain to let her know she could start moving, to start the umpteenth practice ritual.
But, this was one of the last practices before the real ritual. The one with people surrounding them and the spirits watching, the worlds moving to be in sync with each other. Those long gone watching over the four benders, working together, working to show off the skills of the years they've trained.
Zhi Ruo couldn't wait until it was over. Finally, after years and years of practice, of mastering bending and watching the other three train, of learning what each element had to offer, of nurturing this tortoise and living away from the life she wanted to live, it would be over, forever if her plan went accordingly.
She was tired of remembering her grandfather's words, saying, "I'm so honored that you've been chosen. That my family has been honored to take part in the sacred ceremony." He had smiled and patted her head, and that was one of the last times Zhi Ruo spoke to her grandfather. She remembered him speaking so highly of when he saw the ceremony fifty years ago, and she never understood why.
The chain tugged, and Zhi Ruo changed her thought process. She moved automatically, left hand holding the rough shell of the tortoise, right hand gripping the chain. Despite her hatred for the ritual, Zhi Ruo smiled. She had connected to the tortoise, to this sacred animal, and could bend through him. Her? She never actually knew. Zhi Ruo just knew them as an entity greater than her, wiser than her, better than her. All the sacred animals were like that. They were the greatest and purest form of each element, the oldest beings in the universe.
She reached with her mind, her senses, the techniques she had drilled into her since she was a child, and searched for the earth still connected to the giant tortoise.
This difficult way of bending without touching the ground, without moving and going through the motions, was the hardest form of bending, and Zhi Ruo was the only one of the four to be able to do it. The reason for that was because Zhi Ruo started on the animal and she never truly left it. Whereas, the other three started on the ground and moved in conjunction with their animal, whether on it or next to it. Zhi Ruo thought her favorite combination was Sangye and his hawk, as Sangye held tightly to the chain underneath his hawk, flying and bending as if an acrobat in a show.
Zhi Ruo was jealous, as her section of the ceremony was the most difficult. It took Zhi Ruo years to master it. Yet, she was the youngest. She was twenty four now, old enough to be a productive member of society but she had been stuck with monks and master benders and professors for well over fifteen years. She didn't even remember going to her grandfather's burial ceremony, becoming one with the earth, giving back what he had taken his whole life. She wished she could cry for him, but her mind was preoccupied with the water giving up on pounding her into the ground.
The giant tortoise crested the waterfall to dry land, the source of the water beneath the path of the earth and ceremony. It dripped water into giant puddles on the ground, and Zhi Ruo stood, letting go of the shell but holding on to the chain. She still had a decent time to go before she reached underneath the deep red clay bridge. Between the edge of the cliff and the bridge were countless routines, most of them done atop the animal.
Zhi Ruo twisted and contorted, rocks and hearty earth lifting and flying and landing in heavily calculated areas. Precise. Exact. Her movements were perfect, feet lifting and gracing and dancing atop the shell of the reptile. Her face was stoic, perfect stone, muscles clenching with force exerted. Her arm twisted further and further atop the chain, moving her closer and closer to Yoskolo where he stood, near the edge of her bridge, serpent moving about in the stream next to him. He did not smile. Everything was calculated.
And then Zhi Ruo was there, underneath the bridge and she felt her chain tug towards Yoskolo, and she was free of the metal, save for the remaining chain at her feet. It was long enough to stretch the length of the entire ceremony, enough to be loose and free for each bender to move until Kulap reached the end. It was long enough to serve the purpose that Zhi Ruo had planned. Zhi Ruo was calculated and exact as well. She had thought long and hard about the ending of the ceremony since her grandfather's death.
She knew what she had to do.
All the other benders knew what they had to do, as well. It would all go down in a few days, and then they were home free.
Zhi Ruo smiled, eyes focusing back in on Sangye and his air routine. His twists and turns and flips and the breezes he created as he moved. She smiled and leaned back slightly in the tortoise. With all her hatred for the ceremony, she still enjoyed the movements of all the other benders, and the way they knew exactly what they had to do. Despite all of her built up spite, she had grown next to these people and knew their styles.
But, just as Sangye's hawk flew high up into the air, everything fell apart. There was a section of the routine that Sangye had a portion of the chain that he threw up to hook on to the feet of the hawk and climbed up to ride the beast. During that section, he was airborne, floating and flying and graceful. Well, not this time it seemed. This time, Sangye leapt and reached and snapped the chain to arch up high into the air. The hawk knew its portion of the routine by heart. Any blame fell on the benders if something went wrong.
Sangye flew and the chain missed. It didn't even get close to the bird. It landed on the hard ground with a ringing of metallic. There was a shrill cry from the ending of the road. Sangye fell to the ground with the air supporting him causing dust to fill the area.
Zhi Ruo cringed, knowing exactly what came next. The cry had come from Bolormaa, way up the path, voice multiplying throughout the gorge. She had been on the receiving end of Bolormaa's wrath plenty of times, and she did not enjoy her harshness, especially this close to the ceremony. She could imagine Bolormaa's words, shrill and high and carried by the wind. It was not going to be a pleasant experience for Sangye or for any of the benders, for that matter.
Zhi Ruo subconsciously straightened her back when she saw Bolormaa floating towards the benders. Everyone felt incredibly small at this moment, as they had whenever Bolormaa was angry, or whenever Bolormaa was speaking, or whenever Bolormaa was around. She was terrifying, there was no doubt about that. Her eyes, a piercing gray, never showed fear. They took everything in, every false movement, every falter step. Zhi Ruo did not know how old Bolormaa was. In fact, neither did the other of the benders. For all they knew, she was immortal. She had seemingly not aged a day.
Her blue tattoos shone brightly, painted blue like a clear sky. She was a master, and she knew mistakes when they were made, especially in airbending. In Zhi Ruo's mind, Sangye got the brunt of Bolormaa's wrath, and he was about to receive all of the pent up anger that she had been holding in for days.
Zhi Ruo could see Bolormaa pass Kulap, the firebender, and move quickly to Sangye. There was fire in Bolormaa's eyes, clear as two white hot braizers in the distance. She flew, unassisted and easily, across the dark red clay. Zhi Ruo had heard rumors for years about how only a handful of airbenders could reach that level of enlightenment, but she had learned to accept it as fact after years of Bolormaa floating high above training sessions and battle practices. She could do it effortlessly, and the effect was immediate to those around her.
"We are two days away from the ceremony!" she yelled. Zhi Ruo's breathing stopped, as if Bolormaa sucked the air out of the immediate area. "If you cannot make it that high up in the air, how do you expect to be at my level?" Sangye floundered for words, mouth opening and closing. Zhi Ruo knew nothing he would say could save his hide, that he was done for for the rest of the day.
"We are two days away from two worlds lining up, and you fail a simple jump! We are too close to this to have a failure. You are expected to be able to do this in your sleep. You better act like all that training-all those years, everything this community has done for you-was worth it."
"Yes, Master Bolormaa. I'm sorry. I will do better next time," Sangye said, bowing and avoiding eye contact with those two fierce gray orbs.
"There will be no more mistakes. We will run this through until perfection, again and again." Bolormaa jumped away from the other airbender, high into the air, wind rushing about her and bringing more red dust into the trainees' eyes. "We will restart the ceremony again! From the top. Zhi Ruo, do not hesitate upon the beginning of your section. Yoskolo, more water! More fluid movements. You look so stiff when bending with the serpent!"
