A/N. This is my first Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfiction. I'm rating it Teen because of violence and certain subject material that will show up in later chapters. I will appreciate any reviews :) Thank you for reading!

"I'm sorry, Yisi. But your son does not seem to have an aptitude for earth bending."

Huo looked up at his parents, silhouetted against the clear blue sky, already prepared to see their sullen looks and their disappointing gazes. Master Shi had been giving charge over Huo in the attempt to teach him bending. Everyone thought the young boy had aptitude for the art of earthbending, but it was definitely not his talent. All his attempts had led to Master Shi's disapproving glares and the laughter of his fellow students. Both his parents were benders, and while their skill was around average, they at least had bending.

Raising tentative green eyes to meet his mother's, Huo saw a feeble smile that she was directing towards him. His father was refusing to make eye contact and was staring at the bending master with a stern gaze. "Very well, master Shi. You tried your best, and I assure you, Huo did as well."

Master Shi bowed to Huo's parents, muttered his condolences, then left: leaving the courtyard of the sprawling mansion.

"Mother!" Huo sobbed once the bending master was out of sight along the road. "I'm so sorry! I tried, I really tried! I wanted to make you proud but-"

"Shh..." His mother consoled, wrapping her arms around her small son. "It is alright. There is nothing wrong with not having bending."

"But—" Huo tried to protest, but his tears clogged his throat and he could no longer speak.

"Shh..." His mother continued, and was going to say more, but his father interrupted.

"Two bending parents can produce a child without bending. Let us hope that is the case." Mumbling to himself, Huo's father walked back into the house, his face creased in a frown, leaving Huo with his mother. Chén looked after her husband, and sighed.

"Why don't you go and play, dear?" She suggested to her son. Her eyes held a firmness that insisted this was an order not a suggestion.

"But...no one will. No one will want to play with me after what happened in the training yard..."

"I don't think that's quite the case." Turning her young son around, he was given a view of the gate and there stood his friend.

"Maia!" He exclaimed, rushing to meet his friend who greeted him with open arms.

Chén laughed after him. "Behave yourselves," she told them.

Huo grinned as he disentangled himself from Maia's hug and bowed to his mother. "We won't."

"We won't Mrs. Huo's mom!" Maia responded, waving her hand in goodbye as she led her friend off. She brought him to the edge of town where the flat plateau of the village met the sloping edges of the forest.

"I saw what happened," she said, folding her legs beneath her as she seated herself on the ground.

Huo hung his head as he took a seat on a sturdy stump. "Was it embarrassing?"

"To you: yes. To the rest of us: no. Mostly everyone found it funny."

Huo drew his legs in closer to his chest, biting on his lip in an attempt to curb uninvited tears. "That's what I was afraid of."

"Hey! Maybe you have a different kind of bending!" Maia suggested, standing up and grabbing his hand; pulling him up to stand next to her.

"A different...kind?" He tested the words on his tongue. "But I'm from the earth kingdom! The only kind of bending I would have would be earth."

Maia continued to gaze at him with her large green eyes. She seemed to have everything figured out so Huo sat down and waited for her to continue.

"Maybe you're the Avatar," she stated solemnly, but her eyes were glimmering with the hope that this could be possible.

Huo laughed, but on the inside he was shocked, almost daring to believe her. Almost. "But the Avatar is gone. He disappeared! My tutor says that the cycle must have ended for good, and it couldn't be me because the next one would be an air bender since Avatar Roku was fire-"

"It has been a hundred years. He could have died in the air nomad massacre—he would have only been a kid at that time—then he would be reborn in the water tribe, and you know they've suffered a ton of attacks over the course of the war. Maybe he—or she—died and was reborn as you!"

Huo picked up a rock experimentally to see if he could summon some hidden power, then threw it to the ground with a scowl. The only thing he could feel was the dirt against his toes and the heat of the wood beneath him. "But I can't earth bend! The Avatar would have to be able to do that as well as the other elements."

Maia shrugged, once again fully confident in her theory. "Maybe it doesn't come naturally to you. Let's try something else!"

She stood up and Huo rose to his feet reluctantly. They were around the same height, so he usually would stand on his tiptoes to pretend they were on the same level. However, he did not do it today. There was some sort of solemnity in the air, and he didn't want to break it.

Maia put out her hands and indicated that he do the same. Huo followed her lead, intensely curious about what she was going to do.

"We're going to try airbending. Feel the wind," she told him. "Feel it. Feel it between your fingers and your toes. Close your eyes if it helps. Once you feel it, try to grip it like an invisible string and bend it!"

Huo closed his eyes tight and tried to feel. There was a slight breeze and it wound through his fingers, tickled his toes, and blew stray strands of hair against his cheek, cooling the atmosphere around him, but the heat persisted. He tried to grasp at the wind, but it just kept blowing like usual and he thought he heard it laughing at him in the distance. Opening his eyes, he gave a great huff. "I don't think I'm an air bender."

Maia opened her eyes. "Oh well. Let's try the next one!"

She scampered to the line of trees and began to trot down the steep path that meandered through the thick trunks. Huo followed right behind her, his feet churning up a small cloud of dust, and soon they came to a flat rocky spot next to a waterfall. Below, nearly ten feet or so, flowed a creek. Maia climbed up on a rock next to the waterfall that was wet and slippery due to its proximity to the water. "Come here," she ordered.

Once Huo was by her side, she began to instruct him. He hung on her every word, and tried not to focus on the hot sun beating down on the back of his neck and instead on the cool misty spray of the waterfall.

"Hold out your hands and focus on the water. Try to pull it towards you. Be gentle and flowing with your movements. You're not an earth bender after all..."

Huo focused, staring at the water and willing it to listen to him. Then he moved his hands and it didn't move. It just kept going down, and the sun continued to beat down on his back. "I really don't think I have a connection with water," he responded.

Maia tapped her chin. "Well, that leaves us one more option."

Huo's eyes grew wide. She thought he might be a fire bender? His heart raced and he tried to calm it by reminding himself that there was no way that he could fire bend. He couldn't earth bend, he couldn't air bend, he couldn't water bend. Therefore he most certainly was not able to fire bend.

Despite his sudden fear, he still followed Maia to a flat dry spot where she was striking her flint against steel upon a pile of twigs. Soon she had started a small fire. She brought tiny rocks around the fire, careful not to let it spread.

Huo stood there, paralyzed, as she grabbed some fuel. "Don't be afraid," she told him, dropping a few larger sticks on the pile of burning twigs.

"But...what if I-" he found his breath coming quickly and his heart racing through his chest. He wanted to admit to her he was scared that he might have fire bending, but he couldn't. "—I start a forest fire?" He redirected quickly.

"You're not going to," she responded, her eyes staring at the orange flames licking up the sides of the dry wood. She crouched next to the flames. "Try to pull the fire out of the ring."

She didn't offer any more advice like she had with the other elements. Huo couldn't help but feel that she didn't want him to be a fire bender any more than he did. But he decided he had to try—try to prove his thoughts wrong. He didn't have any bending and that was okay.

He crouched down beside the fire. Taking in a deep breath, he held out his hands and felt the heat of the fire centered in his palms. He exhaled and the flames leapt towards him. His heart jumped and he nearly pulled his hands back. It was just a trick of the light. A trick. That's all it was.

Inhaling again and exhaling sharply, he focused on the heat in the center of his palms. He had them facing out toward the fire so he couldn't see what was happening, but soon he became aware of a tickling sensation on his palms. Careful not to upset whatever it was that was creating that feeling, he drew his hands towards him and put his palms up. Two tiny little flames rested in the center of his hands. Cupping them together, they formed a slightly larger flame. Maia stared at him from across the fire, her eyes wide and her jaw dropped. "You—you can—"

Huo felt a pang of fear and his flame diminished, but both of them knew what they had seen. He rose to his feet and ran up the path, never stopping to see if Maia was following. He dashed tears from his eyes. Hot tears. Wondering whether Maia was alright was the least of his worries. She would never be his friend again, and that was what he was truly afraid of. Would he ever have another friend again.

"Huo!" He heard Maia call out, but he wasn't listening. He needed to go home and wake up from this terrible dream.