Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Each element is separate, having its own specialty and purpose.
Water is the element of change.
Earth is the element of substance.
Fire is the element of power.
Air is the element of freedom.
When these four elements work together, they create harmony and peace. If one of these elements tries to overtake the other, there would be chaos.
My mother once told me of a time when the world wasn't at war, when everyone seemed to get along. Dragons were seen flying in the skies, creating beautiful works of art by their twisting and turning, the Air Nomads were readily awaiting the new Avatar in their temples, and citizens communed under the shared peace between nations. This peace was strengthened under the watchful gaze of Avatar Roku, but when he passed...things seemed to go out of control.
The Fire Nation attacked the Air Nomads twelve years after the death of Avatar Roku to ensure the new Avatar, an unnamed child, was slaughtered with the rest of his people. However, the Avatar evaded death and somehow hid for the past one hundred years. War raged on, calling on great warriors and benders from every side to arms against their foes. The Fire Nation reigned victorious in almost every battle, and fire began to spread in places where it had never been leaving scorch marks as scars in their path.
Eighty-Two years into the war is when my mother said she went to the Fire Nation.
One thing about water benders, if you didn't know, is that they can heal people's injuries exceptionally well if properly trained. My mother was sent to the Northern Water Tribe at a very young age to learn these techniques, though she never learned combative water bending due to the cultural restraints of the Northern Tribe. Being one of the only water benders in the Southern Water Tribe, my mother was sent to the front lines of the Earth Kingdom to heal soldiers and civilians who were injured during battle.
It was here that she was captured by a Captain Zhao. Zhao was young...for a captain, handsome (apparently), and newly widowed with an infant son. He gave her a choice: stay locked up forever or marry him and be free.
She realized after two years of marriage that prison would've been the better choice, until my brother and I were born. Having us, she would always say, made her life seem like it had purpose.
A year later, Fire Lady Ursa birthed a son, and two years after that we were living in the palace. My brother and I served as friends for little Zuko, while my mother served as a handmaiden to the Fire Lady. I discovered I could bend at the age of six, and my mother was surprised when it was fire. I was to remain untrained by order of my mother, to keep the news from spreading to my father, but I secretly went to training sessions with General Iroh whenever he was at the palace. I became proficient enough, learning all of the basics through his teachings and scrolls that he would leave behind for me.
Things seemed to be going well until my brother discovered his bending when we turned twelve.
Water Bending. He was a water bender.
We left the palace a couple of nights later with Fire Lady Ursa, partially out of fear and partially because my brother needed a teacher. She took us to the North Pole, dropping us off under the care of Master Waterbender Pakku. It was here where my brother learned to strength his bending, and I learned how to use my opposite to strengthen my own. The war didn't touch the Northern Water tribe while we were there, and my brother was able to flourish where his element was his strongest.
Everything changed when the Spirit Oasis began to glow after one hundred years and the Avatar came to our doorstep.