"Swampy, Swampy, Swampy." Cupun splashed the water and a woman with wrinkles at the edge of her eyes giggled softly, her hair was brown and speckled with white from the strain of her lifestyle. The stink of swamp water reeked through their nostrils, but they paid no mind. A squeal in the forest revealed the sound of a squealing lemur. The woman popped her head up, causing one of her older sons to giggle comically at the sight of her questioning face.
"Why'd it yell Bo?" She whispered, he hands cupping around her ears as she peeked over a crate on their porch. The porch they were all seated on wrapped around their house. The wood was darkened to a deep brown, the edges softened from the water that surrounded them as it softly floated down the river. Currently it was hooked to the base of a wildly rooted tree so the rest of the family hunting in the boats are able to find their way home.
"Dun know." The fifteen year old stood shirtless with just cloth wrapped around his hips, his deeply tanned skin showing his Water Nation heritage. "Pops say's that Kirou can tell the difference between lemur screams. Wake him up from his a' nap."
The Mother smiled a little bit and looked into the open doorway of the house to see a toddler sleeping in a cluster of blankets with his thumb stuck in his mouth. A bird tweeted from a branch in the house and the child nestled in deeper with his hoard piled around him. The woman popped up from behind her crate she had let herself lean on. Cupun, her second youngest clutched at her skirts as she got up. A wash of immense feeling fell over her, she stumbled a bit and Bo reached for her arm and steadied her. He gazed at her worried, but Pops has always said Ma got these times were she got really weird.
The Mother grasped the crate and willed her legs to bring her to the other side of the house, walking through the doorway and out the next to the other side of the house. The Father of the many children she seemed to hold was gently using his water bending to drift the family boat across the water. His boat was full of kill from his hunt, fish in a net in front of him. Sitting in his lap though was a brown haired child with her locks resting on her pale cheeks, tear trails whispering soft lullabies on the soft creamy flesh. He had her wrapped in his shirt, his lean muscles quivered when he used his bending. When his approach happened, the Mother swooped to where her breasts touched the wooden boards that kept the house afloat. Cupun watching curiously by her side. The man carefully shifted the girl into his arms only for the child to be wrapped in his lovers arms before he could notice. The child awoke quickly with that sudden movement and began wailing for her Mother.
"Shh, Set my lines by the river bed….~"The child cooed softly, her chubby hands grasping for the singing woman who smiled upon the child who looked to be of the age Cupun was. He was barely out of his toddler days he was, but was capable of memory, perhaps the child could show them how she ended in their swamp. She rocked the child and looked to her husband with a questioning eye as he washed the small boat onto their porch.
"S'een her over yonder by the rooted brush in the north, cryin o'ver her Mamma, askin for her Brothers asking fore her Pops too, thinkin she's abandoned she is." The man spoke this in thought as the fish were picked from the boat, hitting the wooden boards with a thump. The child in the woman's arms cried softly in her sleep and she cooed at it, whispering the broken lullaby she'd been taught by an equally broken person.
"Can we keep her?" Cupun whispered softly, still holding his Mothers northern water tribe accent, regal and poised it was. The man chuckled and looked expectantly at the spot where his wife was at, but it was empty and his eyes bugged out of his head, causing Bo to laugh while trying to lug the fish to the gutting table. He quickly released it when his Pop smacked him into the water.
Meanwhile, the Mother softly padded into her home, making way to the nest her youngest had made. Kirou was very still when he slept, so the woman set the young girl by him while still wrapped in her lovers shirt. The girls eyes popped open on their own accord, her eyes wide with fear as the woman sat down beside the two children.
The woman tilted her head at the girl before slowly smoothing out the child's brown locks as she stared at the yellow eyes that reminded her of the sunrise.. Trouble loomed deep in her pupils the woman saw, but she didn't care. A kiss to the forehead and a soft hum, the new daughter was asleep.
I grew. Different I was from my new Brothers, but I grew all the same. I don't remember much from before they found me, but the memories were still there like a kite long forgotten in a tree, still fluttering, but never seen. My Brothers made sure that I had felt at home, and they would never make me feel along and unwanted.
I still remember my true Mother though. She was fresh faced with sharp features unique only to her nation. Her skin was pale like fresh milk, almost as clear as the bubble foaming up at the froffy edges. When I was little, I could recall my Father remarking about how her eyes looked like melted butter in the sun. She slapped him. The last things I remember are hiding behind her skirt while she faced off with soldiers, her hands wielding fire as she scowled at them with harsh movements in her chubby body filled with fat from our past residences. My Brothers were trying to protect me when she went down, but they fell just as soon. I don't remember how I got away or when I did, I just remember sloshing through swamp water for hours until curling around some tree roots.
I don't very much think of my Father from before though. I think he came by only occasionally, just enough time to give me a wooden ostrich horse and a jade pendant from some faraway place. He wore many layers of armor and he built a playhouse out of stone for us in the back yard. His smile was straight and formal, his hands were clasped behind him as if awaiting an order from a higher up. Every time he bended earth, my brothers and I would try and mimic him, those times were few and far between from him leaving for long periods of time. One of my brothers was actually able to bend the earth. The relief that pushed its way through his eyes then, it was just remarkable.
The only emotions I remember in my household was grief and relief. Grief from the times that a brother would accidently bend fire with my Mother sadly watching in a corner, relief when they purchased themselves a firm hold in earth bending. The rest of the emotions were lost on me, for I was constantly worried on, worried that I might bend fire, or that I might bend earth. But I was normal, like a fox antelope that littered the plains near the train tracks. I felt pressure from the idea of bending, was I to bend or not? Was I to be a prodigy from my Father or my Mother? I was neither, and that was a relief and pure grief from both of their parts.
Although most of my childhood with my birth family was horrible in many terms, my new family actually felt better. Honest to the spirits, it actually felt nice, like warm soup when you're sick. Buniq was the Mother of all the boys on the house boat, and her warm wrinkly skin was soft to my cheeks when I rubbed against her neck for comfort was absolutely heaven. I had four new brothers when she took me in. Bo, the oldest, Cupun, Kirou, and finally the baby Nilak.
Harshul her husband and Buniq once lived in the Northern Water tribe. Despite his exterior of being warm and harmless looking, Harshul was once a soldier and teacher to the students who bended in the army. Apparently, Buniq met him during this time, her healing skills just barely surfacing, so her practice was small cuts and many broken bones from the water tribes training.
They were married within a year from what I've heard. Had a child before Bo, he died in the war when he was drafted. His body came back filled with burn marks.
Just from their son dying by the fire nations hands, I wondered why they took me in. I obviously held features of the fire nation. Yet the hatred was not there, for that, I was thankful.
My time in their care was short compared to most in surrogate terms. I came into their care at the age of five, and stayed for seven years, leaving only when Buniq told me I had mastered healing. It was hard learning to heal without any water bending, but I thrived on the art, and I succeeded.
Shrills rang out through the swamp, and the soft swish of water echoed around the floating house. Buniq was weaving a basket in her hands with careful movements. Nilak was gutting a fish, his face chubby and small red strains were around his eyes, dry tear tracks running down. He was blubbering this morning about not going hunting with our brothers. He was stuck gutting fish with my dead weight and Buniq.
His little whimper brought me forth from taking the scales away from the meat. "Maaaa!" He whined, his fish being tenderly dealt with, his hand limply throwing the head into the bait bucket.
The elder woman simply smiled as she cleaned the four eyed fish, its eyes glazed over, murky like the swamp water. "Hmm, yes little Nilak? Something on your mind?" Her smile was full of mirth, her eyes closing slightly, obviously expecting Nilaks question.
His fingers twiddled slightly as he set down the knife that was rusted from many encounters in the water depths the house floated on. "I was a' thinkin that I uh… should uh, help out with mah brothers in the huntin over in the north side of the uh swamp." The poor boy kept stuttering with his Ma, he kept on saying uh, over and over, and it made me giggle. This caused him to harshly turn around and glare at me for a moment, which led to me trying to hide my humor behind a hand.
The old woman turned to Nilak softly, brushing her white hair behind her ears, with a gentle cough into her hands she shifted her body to angle slightly towards him, her body still holding straight posture in the chair she sat in. "I don't believe that's what you should do." Cue Nilaks sigh. "You know its tradition to start hunting at the age of eleven, you only have a year left little Nilak, then Bo can take you out." She laughed slightly when her eyes darted to Nilaks sullen expression. "You're time will come, just you wait." Her eyes glazed over then as she watched the sun glimmer in-between the trees.
I knew of what she spoke of when she talked of the traditions. I myself had done so when I first went hunting, despite not being a water bender. The sound of Harshul reciting a water nation speech as I was plunged underwater back and forth for five minutes.. It was horrifying, but it was a must, a must to be part of the water nation. It was funny, I was from the earth and fire nations, and yet, I was introduced to the water nation with just a mere adoption of a water nation family in the swamps. I flinched a little when I thought of it, it was not a pleasing experience being dunked under water, but it was tradition, and tradition was tradition for a reason.
"But Ma! I'm ten! Just do it a year early please, I'm old enough!"
I was twelve when they did it to me, according to the first bleeds is when a water bending girl is supposed to be given the coming of age ceremony. Boys did it when they were eleven. It was just how things worked in the tradition.
The woman silently looked at her boy, then sighed. "Boy, I swear…" She made a move to stand up, but Nilak screeched when the sound of water bending was heard, he stood, almost tossing the entire catch of fish we were gutting. Buniq sighed a little and continued to gut. I went to go stand, but fell immediately, seeing Harshul being pulled onto the porch of the house by Bo, Cupun, and Kirou. He had a long jagged burn flowing down his side, his sides gasping for breath as Buniq threw her chair and lifted water from the side, healing the wound to the best of her ability.
For the first time, I found that my fire nation heritage was not something to be proud of. Crying was heard through the swamp a lot then, and this is what finally spurred me to leave to offer my skills to the world.
I actually researched the shit out of these names. I hope they seem real. Been drawing tons of Avatar related characters to get some ideas and writing notes on the side. It's so cool!
I've had several characters pop up, and sadly they've all been very similar compared to this one. This one is my love baby compared to the rest. The rest were water benders with some kind of deer thing going on. It's just weird shit. Nothing as sad as what I want to take this to. But then again I did have a fire bender once. That was very interesting to write. Please don't be offended if my accents suck too, I tried.
Canon characters will not be showing up for a while too, the first one to show up is when she is of sixteen years old, and she's twelve right now. Also, I have quite a bit of this written, so this should be updated perhaps once or twice a week to be nice. About two chapters are written after this, so have fun waiting and welcome to my mass of fics, and have a nice day!
P.S You know what scares the shit out of me and the Avatar universe? Writing about the animals. Yo, also, I'll be borrowing things from several different fanfictions, such as water tribe traditions.