TRIS:
A few hundred years ago, the four nations coexisted in perfect harmony under the ruling of the Avatar; a master of all 4 elements and the only individual who could manipulate and possess such prowess.
He ruled over the land fairly. He harboured no ill feelings towards anyone and was loved by everyone he came across.
The land was in a perfect state of peace and tranquillity.
But it didn't last.
One other powerful being hungered for the sane authority and position that he had over the land.
"He" was the fire nation's leader. And he began the First Great War between benders in his pursuit for power
As expected, the other three nations sided with the Avatar. They established a strong alliance. But in the end, their combined powers could not match the strength of the fire nation's.
They were ultimately defeated.
Even the Avatar; the supposed saviour of the world.
No one had seen his defeat coming.
No one thought that his ex-student would eventually manage to surpass him. And yet, he did.
Since then, the land had been controlled under the ruling of the fire nation.
They stole the peoples freedom. They eradicated those who tried to turn against them. And ruled without compassion.
The other nations were powerless under them.
They had suffered insurmountable losses during the war and the decrease of benders were one of them.
Only a few were left in each nation now. All except, the fire, of course. They continued to grow in number without any complications.
At some point, their cruelty even exceeded to the kidnapping of women so that they wouldn't reproduce any further benders.
And if they did reproduce, it was to one of the fire benders, in order to keep their own bloodline going.
They constantly kept an eye on the numbers growing within each nation and made sure that none were to outnumber the fire.
One day, however, a man who claimed to be a clairvoyant, fearlessly prophesied to the fire nation, that a day will come where one of the reincarnations of the Avatar would finally conquer them and free the people of their reign.
In response, they laughed in his face, labelling him a man of foolish imaginations before exiling him. And he wasn't heard from ever since.
However, that prophecy gave hope to the people.
Hope that their freedom would one day be restored. Hope that peace would come again.
And when the fire lord started to see this hope, he worried.
Worry became anger and soon, he doubled the security on the nations.
He made it his goal to search high and low for the new Avatar.
And when he found him, years later, he killed him while he was in his early stages.
This horrific event, suddenly became a cycle.
Decade after decade, each fire ruler that came about, erased the Avatar of their time, leaving the people to continue to mourn for their freedom.
Alliances would form again.
And again, they would fall.
The Second Great War occurred and the outcome had been the same.
Just recently, the Third Great War had passed, again killing many. Among them were my parents, who fought desperately, not for their freedom, but the freedom of the upcoming generation.
But they, too, had fallen.
Even though the fire lord had been defeated as well, so was the Avatar of their time.
And so the cycle continued, all over again.
Now, we were in the ruling of the 9th fire lord. Nothing had changed and hope was diminishing.
And I...
Well, I lived alone now, as an Earth bender in a nation of small numbers, wondering if the prophecy was even a real thing
-..-
Our nation lived near forests, surrounded by the beauty of nature. And that's to be expected considering our element was Earth.
We settled far away from the centre of the city which was overrun by the fire nation and their leader. Their area was considered wealthy while our three smaller nations were submitted to poverty.
Others may see our nation in particular as outcasts - since we rarely ever set foot off of our designated land - but we preferred it that way.
Breathing the same air as the fire nation was something we didn't dare dream of doing.
Unfortunately for us young benders, it was a must to travel to the land of fire, for schooling.
And along with this schooling opportunity, interacting with the fire nation was inevitable.
The now fire lord, Marcus Eaton, had actually built a school within their nation's lands when he came into ruling. And he passed a law that claimed that it was compulsory for every bender between the ages of 10-18, to attend.
He tried to place the generous offer as a gesture to renew peace between the nations, but no one believed him.
Everyone knew that this was his way of finding the Avatar.
However, by then, people had already began to lose faith in the prophecy. And no longer, did they seek such a being.
And why wouldn't they?
There was no sign discovered yet of him in this decade.
Besides, we had already waited years and years for one of the reincarnated Avatars to conquer the fire, yet their fruits had been less than favourable.
People were beginning to believe that it was a lost cause.
And I was one of them.
Yes, at some point, I too believed in the Avatar. My parents had firmly believed in the prophecy and so I trusted that that was the truth.
But after their passing, I refused to be hopeful of such a being, any longer.
If he was a master of all 4 elements and a supposed saviour to the world, then why did my parents die?
The truth was, the prophecy was never going to come to pass.
I mean, who could destroy such a strong nation?
Sure, strength doesn't lie in numbers.
But it certainly does help. And we've seen the evidence of that through the years.
As I prepared myself for school, I pondered on my life after my parents' death.
Unlike the rest of the earth bending children, I learned to keep to myself.
I stayed within the four walls of my home and never dared to step out of my sanctuary.
While kids my age ran around enjoying their lives - despite the ruling of the fire nation - I never left the comfort of my home unless it was for school.
But even at school, I voluntarily chose to be alone.
That was changed however when a mocha skinned girl named Christina approached me one day.
She was an earth bender too and was persistent in becoming a friend of mine.
After many long days, I finally relented and made my first and only friend.
Since then, we've become close. And she eventually became the only person I allowed to enter my life.
As I slung my backpack over my shoulder, I exited my home just as Christina exited hers. She waved when spotting me and came to walk beside me.
"Hey Trissy" she greeted, casually.
I returned the gesture. "Hey."
"Excited for another day of school?" she asked sarcastically. I grinned and nudged her shoulder.
"Who wouldn't be excited for another day of intense scrutiny?" She chuckled softly at first but then slowly, she trailed off awkwardly.
Finding this strange, I glanced over at her worriedly.
Understanding my concern, she lowered her voice and stepped closer to me.
"Did you hear?" she then questioned secretively.
My brows furrowed when hearing the serious tone. It was rare for Christina to be like this so I figured that what she had to say, was of the utmost importance.
I shook my head and leaned in so it would be easier for her to whisper in my ear. "I overheard my parents talking last night" she continued, while checking our surroundings.
I nodded. "Okay. And what happened?"
She visibly gulped before spilling. "The nations are thinking of forming an alliance. They want to ambush the fire nation."
My head jerked back as I stared at her, incredulously.
"We don't have the numbers for that" I stated in disbelief.
She sighed and agreed. "I know" she replied. "But they're putting their faith in manpower. They can't wait any longer for the prophecy to be fulfilled. And they're losing hope in the Avatar since there's been no sign of him anywhere. Could you blame them for being slightly impatient?"
A sharp sigh escaped my mouth. "The impatience is understandable, alright Chris" I answered. "And they have every right to be. But if they're not careful and they start acting irrationally, this could turn into another Great War."
No more lives needed to be lost, went unspoken.
Although there weren't many people that I knew, in the end, I still cared. This, after all, was my home. And I knew what it felt like to lose a loved one.
As we drew closer to the train station, we put off the subject for the time being and chose to walk in comfortable silence.
Boarding the first train that came, we stuck by the door instead of taking a seat. There were benders from the other nations in the same carriage as us, but we refrained from interacting with them.
Though we had a common enemy, we didn't fully trust the other nations.
I mean, just look at what happened to the fire nation. They too were once allies.
As we arrived at our destination, Christina and I quickly headed to school.
We stopped by our lockers, grabbed our books and headed to class before the fire nation students could storm the corridors with their great numbers.
It was fortunate that Christina and I shared most of our classes together. It was the only way I managed to survive through school.
The first part of the day managed to fly by fairly quickly and before we knew it, we were grabbing our lunches from the cafeteria.
As we headed for the rooftop - where we always had our lunch alone - we turned into the next corridor, just to do an immediate U-Turn.
Standing unexpectedly in the centre of the hallway was Four Eaton - the fire lord's son - and his friends.
They, like his father, were rulers. Except they ran the school.
They were feared amongst the student body and only kept to themselves.
Everyone avoided them like the plague.
No one dared to even thinking of messing with them. And though they were quite good looking, they were not approachable in the least.
In fact, their dangerous auras tended to scare people away. And Christina and I were an example of that.
It's not that we were afraid of them, per say. We just didn't want anything to do with them. They were guaranteed to cause trouble; trouble that we didn't want to get involved in.
Taking a detour, we managed to reach the rooftop before the lunch break was over and avoided the group altogether.
Knowing that no one was around as we took our seats, Christina decided to speak up about our earlier topic.
"You know?" she then started quietly. "I sure do hope that the alliance is successful this time. Don't you?"
She expected me to agree with her, straight away. But when I shrugged nonchalantly, her mouth fell agape.
"What?!" she exploded in perplexity. "What the hell does that mean?"
I sighed when hearing the slight betrayal in her voice. "It means I'm not sure" I answered truthfully. Before she could've responded though, I quickly cut her off. "Yes, I want my freedom, Chris."
She instantly shut her mouth.
"But", I continued, "if the alliance does win, would they want retribution?"
"Of course they would!" she bellowed. I could tell by her expression that she couldn't believe I was even asking such a question.
I sighed again as she jumped to her own conclusion before explaining myself.
"Yeah but how exactly are they going to do that?" I calmly asked her. "Are they going to erase the fire nation? Are they going to treat them like how they treated us?"
She frowned. "I don't see what's so wrong about that."
"Exactly" I pointed out, rolling my eyes. "No one sees that this is just going to be a never ending cycle of revenge. If we attack, they'll retaliate. And vice versa. No one really wins in the end" I explained. "And the only thing we do end up with, are more losses."
When she didn't say anything in return, I saw this as an opportunity to continue.
"If the alliance is strong and they find a leader who is willing to show mercy towards the fire nation, then I'll support the alliance wholeheartedly" I offered. "Don't get me wrong though, they do deserve some sort of... judgement" I then added, hoping this would rid of any doubts or questions she may have about my loyalty to our nation.
"But," I continued nonetheless, "the only reason I think they need a bit of mercy is because - despite the hatred I feel for their fire lord - the fire nation still consists of people. People like us. And who knows?" I asked her. "Maybe some of them even disagree with Marcus Eaton and his ruling but... what can they do? They're just as hopeless as we are."
Taking a bite into my sandwich, I watched as she thought about it for a moment before slowly nodding.
"I guess you're right" she finally conceded slowly. I slightly smirked at this.
"Aren't I always?"
She softly laughed.
"You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you should lead the alliance" she then commented.
I chuckled in response. But when I noticed that she wasn't laughing with me, I choked.
"Wait, you're serious?" I questioned incredulously. She nodded with a straight face.
"Yeah! I mean, you're the one who came up with... all of that."
"What? You're insane!" I accused. "Chris, I'm only a kid." Yes, I'm well aware that I'll be 18 in two years time but that doesn't count. "And just because I said all that stuff," I went on, "doesn't mean I was volunteering myself. Besides, I'm not someone who could show mercy to the fire nation."
It was almost hysterical that I could suggest such a thing and yet have no desire to practice it, at all. I always found that to be one of my many odd features.
"Just like everyone else," I then continued, "I, too, want them to burn to the ground. Finally make use of their element, if you know what I mean."
I muttered the last part under my breath. But she heard it anyway and eventually smiled.
"Fine" she relented. "So... what do we do then?"
Shaking my head, I answered. "Nothing. We leave this up to the adults."
Even as I said that though, I couldn't help but to admit that I felt useless.
I wanted to do something, anything that could help. But I was only an earth bender.
And a pretty sucky one at that too.
Grabbing my water bottle, I took a quick sip before placing it back down as my thoughts continued to irritate me.
The more I thought about my uselessness, the more annoyed I became until finally, I groaned.
"Argh!" I let out while face palming myself. Christina's eyes instantly turned to me. "This is so frustrating" I finished, using hand gestures for emphasis.
Shutting my eyes, I tried to rid of my thoughts when Christina's screams suddenly violated the atmosphere.
"OH MY GOSH!" she yelled.
My eyes snapped open in concern, only to find that she was now standing.
Slowly, she backed away from me with a hand covering her mouth.
Shock could be seen overwhelming her.
My brows instantly furrowed in puzzlement.
"Christina?" I slowly asked in curiosity.
She didn't answer.
I studied her for a while and found that her hands were slightly shaky.
"Christina, what's wrong?" I asked.
"You- You're..."
For a moment, she stumbled over her words before finally giving up, leaving her sentence unfinished.
A sharp sigh escaped my mouth at this.
"Dammit, Christina" I lightly growled at her. "Out with it."
When hearing this, she paused momentarily. And then suddenly, snapped out of her stupor.
With newfound confidence, she stepped towards me. Determination blazed behind her eyes now.
"Tris" she calmly started.
I rolled my eyes. "Yes, Christina?" I answered sarcastically.
She heaved in a swift breath before pointing to the object in front of me.
"You just froze your water."