Not long ago, the world was at balance. The master of all four elements, and bridge between the human and spirit worlds, Avatar Korra, alongside the Order of the White Lotus, implemented a society of harmony between nations, people, and spirits. Humans would look to spirits, and experience a profound sense of admiration, reverence, and respect. Spirits would look at their new-found relevance to the planet with joy and delight. This all changed, however, when Quinu the diviner came into power. It was then that the world lost its joy, and became shrouded in a cloud of ambiguity. Destiny cried for light in the night, and into the whispering winds of the Si-Wong desert, that light was born, Dun, the second avatar of the new age…

Book One: Separation

Chapter 1: The Child from the Oasis

The cries of the newborn were never heard in the night. Tears fell from his eyes, but he made not a whimper. His older brother gazed into his eyes in wonder.

"Here he is," said Shenji, as he placed his newly born brother into his mother's arms.

"His eyes are more radiant than the stars," whispered Mingxing, the infant's mother.

A weak smile appeared across Mingxing's face as the child fondled her pinkie finger. "Hello my swee—egkhough kough!"

"Mom, you have to rest!" Exclaimed Shenji. "I'll bring you water. Here, take this and lay down. I'll be right back!"

"Wait, my little miracle," said Mingxing lovingly, "Come hold your mother's hand."

Shenji sniffled as he reluctantly returned to his mother's side. His mother held tight to his whimpering seven-year-old body, and kissed his cheek. They both eased against the corroded walls of their ramshackle apartment. Shenji stared downwards, his eyes running with tears. A warm desert gale danced through the window. Then, the brave mother closed her eyes, let in a deep breath, and exhaled calmly.

"Shenji, I need you to be strong…for Dun. You have to be unwavering, like a saber-tooth moose lion, hehe…I already know you're just as brave as one," Mingxing said with a smile.

She looked at her son with a gleam in her fading eyes. Shenji didn't respond. But she was persistent.

"If he slips up, just give him an antler to the rear, and a nudge in the right direction."

She nudged her son as she said this, and the playfulness brought an end to Shenji's whimpering. His gaze continued to face downwards, but at least now he looked less distraught. He seemed calm enough.

"I love you two. Always remember that."

Dun awoke from his dream, the vague voice of unconditioned love still echoing within his heart. It'd been nine years since that night had really happened, but for all Dun knew, he'd been living with his aunt and uncle ever since he was born. They, along with his brother Shenji, were the only family he ever knew.

Suddenly water splashed into Dun's face. As Dun shivered and shook his head, there came a loud, "Wakey, wakey! You'll miss breakfast again if you don't break this habit of sleeping in you have! Soon you'll have less meat on you than a winged lemur, except you won't be able to impress anyone by flying…so it'll kinda suck."

Shenji raised an eyebrow at his indignant brother with a face that looked as if it warned, "It will suck." After a brief stare down, the two of them busted into laughter, Shenji a hearty one, and Dun, more of a mild chuckle. "Ugh. Give me a sec. I'll be down after I dry off you imbecile," said Dune, laughing inside at his snarky remark.

After Shenji left the room, Dun turned to look at his terrarium of spider-ants by his window. As he'd expected, there was one less ant than there was yesterday. At least he didn't have to feed them. But still, he wondered, which spider-ant would be the last one standing? And then, what would happen to it? As he pondered this, his eyes shifted outside his window, where the Misty Palms Oasis was beginning another beautiful day of buying, selling, and commandeering without asking. The latter made it an iffy place to live for some, but for Dun, it made things exciting. The bazaar was just waking up, store-owners beckoning and shouting to passerby to buy their new shipments that just came in from the railroad. "Fresh Panda Lilies straight from the most popping volcano in all the land!" shouted one merchant.

"No buy my Moon Flowers! There much more spectacular and rare in this sunbaked pancake!" argued another.

"Pancake? Really!?" questioned the Panda Lily man.

As the two merchants began their typical ritual of morning argument, the early morning sun's rays shone through the open curtains and cast a light upon the turquoise colored walls of Dun's bedroom. The boy made out the outlines of a few buzzard wasps flying high above the city, their silhouettes barely visible upon the background of the beautiful light blue sky. "Dun come on!" shouted Shenji, "we're all still waiting for you!"

At the sound of his brother's voice, Dun snapped out of his hypnotic trance and stamped the olive-colored floor. A thin square of dust appeared around his feet.

Beneath him, his aunt's patience had just expired. "I'll get him down here," she declared with a stern and mother-like glare. But as she began towards the stairwell, the ceiling above her gave a loud "crack!" and a then a "thud!" as a chunk of it fell down to the first floor. The woman released a loud screech as her curled up nephew nearly laughed himself to death upon his stone pedestal, his hair half stuck to his face, and half stuck up. Miku's reaction was priceless, and it wasn't just hers. The usually collected man in the house, uncle Neji, sat in his chair across the room with his jaw agar, and with his coffee, which was seventy-five percent up to his face, spilling in his lap. In the other corner of the room, at the eating mat, Shenji's eyes rapidly expanded into spheres of amazement at the audacity of his brother, but when Shenji recalled what his aunt's temper could do, he put on his Pai Sho face and began frantically engulfing his breakfast. In no way whatsoever, was he getting involved.

Dun finally began to wipe away his tears of laughter. He let out a sigh, and expectantly awaited his family's response with a young and satisfied grin. That face, however, wasn't met with a reflecting one. It was met with the face of doom—quintessential, terrifying, primal doom.

For from forth the fatal curtains of dust arose not Miku, but rather a monstrous beast of maternal rage. Her short hair levitated as energy welled up from within her chi. The beast's breath began to air bend the dust in the room, and caused it to spiral in a wild dance. From the tinted living room, mere feet away from Dun, her beady eyes glared into his soul with the wildness of a goat gorilla in the avatar state, and while she didn't have tusks or horns, she did have a spatula.

It was at that moment Dun knew: he messed up. He felt every hair on his head jump straight up. "Here…let me just…put this back," he awkwardly croaked.

He bended the slab, and every pebble alongside it, back into place in silence. Dun saw Shenji in the other room, still gulping down food and breathing intensely, as if he'd seen a ghost. The warrior before Dun stood strong, apron clad, a twitch in her right nostril. The spatula was tightly clenched in front of her chest, and was slowly ascending to the point of no return. "Please don't be mad at me auntie," Dun pleaded as he approached her with open arms, "you know I love you."

The boy innocently embraced the bewildered aunt and stared up into her eyes, or rather her soul, with mystic, twinkling radiance and wonder. She couldn't be mad at him like this could she? After all, with eyes like those, how could anyone ever even think of being mad at him? "I mean…look at them!" she thought to herself. Neji, across the room, sensed that the disturbance had passed, and proceeded to read his paper as if nothing had ever happened.

Dun, didn't really acknowledge his own appeal. It was all fake. He just knew he had to do it to survive. It was tragic that he had to fake his personality, but an unavoidable part of life. Dun had wanted them to be amused, not angered. They wouldn't know fun when they saw it, and that bothered him.

Aunt Miku walked back into the kitchen and sat down at the mat. "Neji, turn off that Varrick-Vision and come sit down," she told her husband, "You too Dun…uuuhhh."

She breathed a long sigh. The four sat together as Neji said a blessing.

Through the crowded alleyways of town, there walked a woman, dressed un-like the citizens of Misty Palms, who typically wore eccentric traditional-based garbs from the different lands. Rather, this woman wore a dark blue business-like dress, which may not have been all too uncommon, if it weren't for the collar which decorated her collarbone. It was decorated with elaborate swirling patterns, swiveling around what appeared to be a lotus flower in the center…

There was no school that day, on account of it being Unification Day. Instead, there was to be a carnival in the center of town where the Great Uniter's Railroad passed by the world-renowned spirit glacier. All of the kids in town who were around the same age as Dun, went to this festival with their families to remember how Kuvira of Zaofu re-united the Earth Kingdom in its time of need, but more importantly to celebrate cultural-diversity and people's eternal ties to one another.

Eventually, the family arrived in the center of town. There was much hustle and bustle, especially surrounding the Earth Kingdom-renowned Cactus Cantina. Hordes of folks waited to get inside, eager to taste the sword blended fruit smoothie goodness that beckoned to their pallets. Dun's family jumped into the multi-filed line as well, but Dun's heart wasn't all in it. He was distracted by something else. At one of the booths in the circle was a strange contraption that caught Dun's eye. He slipped out of line and headed towards it. His older brother noticed. "Aunt Miku, Uncle Neji, I'm going with Dun to that booth over there!"

"Stick together!" shouted Neji as Shenji ran off.

When Shenji caught up to Dun, he didn't hesitate to ask, "Are you stupid? How could you run off like that without saying anything?"

But Dun still didn't say anything. He blankly stared into the elaborate, hourglass like object before him. Sand ran through its eight glossy, spherical chambers and tubes. It was entrancing, like water. Without form, in a constant state of flux, with no rule aside from continuity. It was controlled disorder, it was beautiful, and it called to him…

"Oh, hello young ones!" greeted a very amicable shop owner.

"Hello sir," said Shenji as he shook the man's eager hand.

Shenji gave Dun an elbow. "Hey, show some respect!" he whispered.

Dun was suddenly back. "Oh…hi, or…hello sir!" he stated as his hand was crushed and blended by the shop owner's.

"I apologize for my brother's lack of manners," Shenji told the man.

"Do not worry, haha, I'm more flattered than offended. I see your brother has an interest in my clock," said the man.

"That's a clock?" Shenji questioned, "I mean, with all due respect, sir, it looks nothing like one I've ever seen. I mean, clocks run on battery power and all."

The man smiled fondly "This clock is special," he told Shenji, "You see, this isn't your usual clock. It's a work of art. The lack of electricity is a reminder of the time in which we used to live. The sand represents the flow of time, as well as how we must become one with our past to create progress. The glass represents the clarity we need, in order to create a better future. And above all that, it tells time!"

The man let out a loud laugh at his own joke. "Where did you get this piece?" asked Dun, as he continued to look solemnly at the clock.

"Well actually—"

Suddenly, there was a large crash of barrels. "Those are mine! Come back here!" a voice called out.

The boys swiveled around, to see two sand benders, both covered in rags, running towards them. One had a large sack of goods slung over his back. "Aaack!" came another shout.

Only this time, the shout came from right behind Dun and Shenji—from the storekeeper's shop. The boys turned to see another sand bender, this one more beefy than the other two, holding the shopkeeper from behind, with a blade to his throat. The bandit's face was masked, but it was clear that he wasn't in a good mood. The storekeeper, barely noticeably, gulped. "Listen to me, whatever this is about, I don't want to get involved. Just take what you want and please, leave."

The bandit didn't seem satisfied. The other two sand benders ran up to the larger one. "Come on, we don't have much time," said one.

He was right, the MPPD were showing up on the scene. The quiet bandit, who was wearing a cloak, made a gesture with his hand symbolizing a diving motion. "Time to go," said the one who'd spoken already.

Just then, a sinkhole opened in the ground between them. The silent one swiped the clock, and the three bandits, still holding the shopkeeper captive, dove into the ground.

Thanks for reading! Come back to find out what happens next!