When I look back to the times before, it's hard to recognise how we ended up this way. I wasn't old enough to understand the significance of anything as I was growing up, to me, the world had always been like this: broken and dangerous.
It wasn't always this way. When Avatar Korra was alive, things were much better. She remained the figurehead for peace throughout the world, holding her famed court of justice from the international refuge of Republic city.
The stories I hear of those times seem unbelievable. According to my mother, Korra was able to finally able to complete avatar Aang's plan to unite the four nations in a way that had never been attempted before. In fact, she succeeded so well in Republic city that after a couple of decades, the residents of the city refused to be identified as one nation or another: they preferred to be known as republic citizens. They discarded the old colour coded clothes of the nations, and gave themselves over to the mix of cultures. After Korra squashed the extreme equalist revolt, better rights and protections were guaranteed to the non-benders of the city, and the discrimination and tension between benders and non-benders rescinded substantially as well.
In other words; life under the watch of Korra, Avatar of the Water tribe, was peaceful.
Dark times rolled in however, when Korra passed away to the spirit world in her hundred and fourth year. Panic engulfed the city. They had looked up to their avatar to guide and protect them for so long that they were at a loss as to what to do without her. In her absence, certain people took advantage of the uncertainty to revive something everyone thought that Korra had stomped out with the utter defeat of Aman: Equalism. The leaders of this group knew that the new avatar would not be capable of defeating them for at least twelve years or so; the time for them to strike was now.
Groups began to whisper, then mumbled, then talk, then yell, then roar. The benders were overwhelmed and unorganised. The equalist party seized power first in republic city, then the rest of the world. With their rule came the purge. Hundreds of benders were killed by chi blockers , but thousands more were killed when their own neighbours and friends turned against them. Benders were powerful, but they were no match for the wroth crowds of vengeance.
And so, the benders went underground, hiding from the normal people and trying to piece together a world in hiding. Some communities were literally underground; the earth bender hideouts were scattered throughout mountains and caverns. The water benders retreated so far up the glaciers that non-water benders would die in the attempt to reach them. The fire benders found tunnels and passages to hidden locations through their beloved volcanoes. The scant air benders, descendants of Avatar Aang, returned to the impossibly high mountain tops they had occupied as nomads, before they formed their air temples centuries before.
Years passed, but with the persecution of the benders, all thoughts of the avatar were lost. In a usual time, he would have been found amongst the millions of earth kingdom children and shielded from harm until he reached maturity. Ten years passed, there was no sign, no hint that the avatar was coming back. Twenty years on, the benders lay low, hoping that the avatar was simply trying to gain strength in order to come back to help them. Thirty years of hiding broke their spirits. The Avatar had likely been killed as a child for displaying signs of bending in an equalist world. After nearly fifty years of silence from the avatar spirit, it became assumed knowledge that the avatar would be killed over and over again. Hope of rescue from their greatest master would never come. The Avatar was doomed to be reborn over and over again, never knowing what greatness he could achieve.
I'm writing this down as a… confession of sorts. I live in a small town in the earth kingdom, if you can even call us that anymore. My name is Kaiyu, Kai for short. I'm a nine year old girl who lives happily with my mother, father, older brother and younger sister above our tiny town green grocer.
My life is simple. I wake up every morning, help my parents get the shop ready, then we all sit down to eat breakfast together. My brother then drags my little sister out of her bed, and we all rush to the combined school that caters to kindergarten kids to senior high school kids.
After school, I usually run around, playing games with my friends. One of our favourite games is the revolution, where we pretend to be equalists in the old days fighting the evil benders. Only recently have I really begun to look into the deeper meaning of this game. It never bothered me when I was little. Most of the people in my town believe that the benders died out long ago. Certainly none had been born in our area of the earth kingdom in living memory. Our children's games were the only reminder of the extraordinary people that had once walked freely among us.
We played all afternoon, and would have played longer, but eventually our games came to an end when the high school bell rang, and all the older kids came out. At this point, my brother would take me and my little sister home, where we would all have a children's supper before my little sister was put to bed. In the evenings, I would either help my father clean up the store for closing time, or me and my brother would sneak off together to 'play'.
My brother is fifteen, tall, lanky and intimidating. With chin length black hair and his dark green eyes, he always looks a little shadowy. He looks sleek and cool; like no challenge would ever faze him. Sometimes I wonder if we have the same parents. I'm shy, and have an embarrassing habit of babbling nonsense when I get nervous. We both have the black hair, but where his is smooth and tidy, mine is thick and curly, and tangles easily in the wind. I keep it back with a headband, but it doesn't do much good. At least I get compliments on my pretty eyes; they are dark blue, with brown patches. My brother likes to tease me about having eyes that can't make up their minds whether they want to be brown or blue, but I like them. They might be my best quality.
Well… there is one other thing… but I'll get to that soon.
Today is the first day of spring, so there's no school. It's been tradition to celebrate the beginning of the growing season with exuberant festivals in the earth kingdom for at least a thousand years. While many of the cities may have discarded the festivals as relics of the past, my town still celebrates the coming of new life with a holiday, and many people still hold parties. It's second only to the New Year celebrations here.
Many people prefer New Years: but both my brother and I love this time of year. So I started the day with the same way I do every year.
"Ling! Ling!" I launched myself onto his sleeping form. "Ling! Wake up!"
He groaned, and tried to pull the covers up over his face. "Kai… It's five in the morning!"
"I've been up since four!" I poked him in the place I assumed his ribs were hiding. "Hurry up! It's finally the first day of spring!"
He sighed, then sat up, rubbing his bleary eyes. He yawned, reaching out to ruffle my hastily brushed hair. "Spring, huh?" He blinked. "That's good."
I couldn't help but giggle. "Do you think that we can plant some flowers yet?" I asked eagerly, sliding off his bed with a small thump so he could get up.
Ling frowned. "Maybe not yet." He glanced out of his window, out through a large crack in the curtains. "It still looks really cold out there."
I huffed out crossly. "The first day of spring should mean instant sunshine and flowers." I complained. "Waiting is boring!"
Ling laughed as he walked over to his wardrobe, looking for a shirt. Lately, he only seemed to sleep in pyjama bottoms. "Haven't I told you a million times that earth is a slow thing, it doesn't do anything quickly." He turned to me with a serious expression. "Are you ready to go?"
I saluted jovially. "Yes sir!"
He gave me a rare grin. "We'd better get out of here then, right?" He picked up his beaten up leather jacket and walked out of his bedroom.
I nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah!" I picked up my grey woollen coat from the floor and hurried out of the room.
We snuck out through the kitchen, slipping some fruit and muesli bars into our pockets for our early breakfast. I jammed my feet into my pink sneakers, impatient to get out of the house. Ling was altogether more patient, lacing up his combat boots with quick precision. I bounced up and down on the balls of my feet, trying not to hurry him. If I did that, he would slow down even more in order to tease me.
Normally I was as patient as him, but today was special, and I hated to waste even a second of this holiday. "Come on!" I moaned under my breath, hand on the door knob.
Ling laughed quietly. "Okay brat, I'm ready."
The town was quiet as we left for the outskirts of the city, but that was a good thing. While it wasn't unusual for Ling and I to go places together, today was a family day, and people didn't really go off on their own much. People might start to wonder what was so important that we had to do it today, not tomorrow.
It took us a quarter of an hour to make our way through the quiet streets and through into the forest. The forest was big, dark and scary. The only people who went in there made sure to stick to the road. As far as I knew, Ling and I were the only ones able to navigate the thick foliage without getting hopelessly lost. As soon as we were under the cover of the trees, both of us breathed a big sigh of relief.
We weren't wandering aimlessly, though it may have looked like it to an outsider. We took several sharp turns through the trees, and crossed a small river by the way of a fallen tree trunk. I thanked the log by patting a stunted branch every time we crossed over. It had fallen down in a storm a few months ago, making life for me and my brother a hundred times easier. Before that, we had to track a mile more upstream in order to wade across the river at a shallow point.
At last the two of us arrived at our destination: an almost invisible cave nestled into the side of a small hill. Well, I should say; we arrived at a usually invisible cave. Today, the cave was gaudily visible, with coloured ribbons tied onto the tree trunks around the entrance. I giggled as I saw them. They were mostly made up of my old hair ribbons which I had smuggled out of the house every so often.
A small smokeless fire burned in the centre of the cave floor, a bubbling pot steaming on top of the flames. Inside, I could smell the scent of frying dough. Licking my lips, I peered around in the darkness, wondering where our friend was.
Ling frowned. "Do you think he's below?" He asked in a thoughtful tone.
"Sensei said that we would be celebrating Spring Dawn today, like they used to in the old days." I peered over the pot, and saw that there was only oil inside; the dough had already been deep fried inside it and taken away.
Ling sat down, with his back against the cave wall. "He's probably out in the forest digging up roots or something." He complained. "He's so late!"
"Who's late?" a gruff voice grumbled from the cave entrance. Both of us looked up sharply to take in the ragged clothed old man blocking the sunlight from filtering into the cave. He sounded cross, but his eyes twinkled over his bushy white eyebrows. He had his knobbly hands wrapped around a handmade basket stuffed with red berries and something that resembled a white carrot.
"Sensei!" I squealed, jumping up in joy to inspect the contents of his basket more thoroughly. "What is all this stuff?" I asked.
Sensei smiled mysteriously. "I couldn't get a lot of the usual festival food that goes with a Spring Dawn festival, but I did find some substitutes." He placed the basket carefully down on a raised hump of dirt covered in a grey cloth next to a huge covered platter, then kneeled on the ground in front of the makeshift dirt table. Ling stood up to take a place opposite him.
"Tell me again what they used to be like Sensei!" I begged, slipping into the seat beside him.
"Well…" Sensei took three chipped china plates out of a little hollowed out cubby under the table to place one in front of each of us. He then began to dish out a few of the berries and white carrots. "Things were very different fifty years ago, and I was very young the last time the festival took place."
"How old were you?" I asked curiously.
"About the same age as you." He gently tapped me on the nose with one finger. "But I was much more sensible."
I rolled my eyes as I tried a nibble of one of the red berries.
"The Festival was the highlight of the year." Sensei continued. "It was the day before the planting season started, so it was like a final holiday before the hard work started. There was always lots of food, especially winter vegetables and fruits that everyone would eat raw..." He gestured to the basket of berries and carrots, "… as a way to thank the spirits for the sustenance they gave us throughout winter."
"Why did you have to eat them raw?" Ling asked as he picked up a carrot, examining the white variety with interest. "Wouldn't they taste better cooked?"
Sensei shook his head. "Eating the food in its purest form is our way of thanking the earth for its harvest; it's not cooked, flavoured or even washed before we eat it."
Ling nodded as he took a bit from the carrot. "I get it… it's like telling mother earth that we love her food just the way it is."
Sensei clapped his hands, the sleeves of his robe swaying slightly. "Exactly!" He picked up a carrot for himself and took a huge bite. "In a proper festival, there would be a much larger variety of fruits and vegetables, but this was all I could find today."
"It's wonderful." I reassured the old man as I took another handful of red berries from the basket. The berries were tart and juicy, and I rolled the fruit around on the tip of my tongue, savouring the flavour.
"The last thing we would eat would be the first grain of the last harvest, prepared into dough which we would then fry up and eat as the principal festival food." Sensei whipped the cover off the large platter with a huff of pride. The dish was laden with round balls of fried dough, golden and steaming. Ling and I admired them with round eyes. "Unfortunately, the grain used to make these ones wasn't the first of the season; it's just the flour that you two managed to smuggle to me here." Sensei sighed in disappointment. "They should at least taste the same though."
Ling smiled as he took one. "You did your best." He said solemnly. "Not everyone is supportive of the traditional ways in these times."
Sensei nodded. "It's a pity that the festivals fell out of fashion." He said dolefully. "Festivals weren't anything to do with the benders, but they got cast down as if they were. It's the saddest thing that happened in this world. Loss of culture is a terrible thing children, never let go of your heritage."
I nodded as I ate my first dough ball, but didn't speak. I was too busy savouring the flavour of the age old festival food. Different towns had different traditions in festivals, I recalled dimly, so we must be eating the traditional food from where Sensei grew up. It was a fascinating thought.
Soon the conversation turned from a lesson on the old festivals to general chatter. Sensei was very interested in some of the school work that Ling was working on at the moment; a study into the formation of Rupublic City.
"Most people in my class chose the reformation of Republic city as their project." Ling said scornfully. "They seem to be deluded. I don't think they realise that Republic city had a hundred and fifty years of history before the Equalists succeeded in taking over. Everyone seems to gloss over the fact that Aman lost the first equalist war too. It's so stupid."
Sensei nodded in vigorous agreement. "Try to be careful about this topic though." He warned however. "You will need to portray the city before the equalist uprising in a negative light."
Ling huffed, putting his chin in his hands. "I know I have to, but it's so unfair it makes me want to scream."
"All things pass in time." Sensei poured out another cup of tea for my brother. "We have to be like stone. Be calm, be patient. Change will wash over this land once again."
Ling sipped his tea. "I know." He said sullenly. "The world had to wait a hundred years for Avatar Aang to come back. I must be as patient as the people then."
Sensei chuckled. "Most people had almost given up on the avatar after a hundred years." He pointed out. "But at least they still had hope. It only took our people forty years to give up completely on a reappearance of the Avatar. We are a much tamer people than we were back then."
"Maybe the Avatar will come back after a hundred years, like Avatar Aang." I piped up. "Or he could already be born, and just waiting for the right moment to come back."
Sensei ruffled my hair. "It would be extraordinary if the he came back." He agreed. "But I doubt he will."
"Why?"
"Because not all children are as lucky as you and Ling. Being born a bender in these times is very dangerous." Sensei stood up, dusting his tunic off as he did so. He held out his hand. "Shall we go below now? I shall show you another tradition that is sacred to the Spring Dawn festival." He smiled ruefully. "And this part does involve bending."
I jumped up like lightning. "Let's go!" I grabbed his hand and gave it a tight squeeze. "I can't wait!"
