Story Title: Forbidden Love
Rating: T
Pairings: Oma and Shu
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Avatar: The Last Airbender themes or characters. That is all owned by Nickelodeon, Mike, and Brian.
A/N: Because I love the story of Oma and Shu. Umm, there is alot of switching of views in this chapter, so bare with me. This is something different for me, I've never tried to work off of a story that has already been written. So, yeah. Please tell me how you guys liked it, otherwise I won't continue.
They met on top of the mountain that divided their two villages.
The villages were enemies so they could not be together.
But their love was strong and they found a way.
"Yes, I am. Mother asked me to go to the sakura tree up on the hilltop."
"That hilltop?" Her friend seemed utterly confused; why would Oma's mother send her to that hilltop? The one closest to the border between their village and their rival village?
"Yes, that hilltop. That's where the best sakura blossoms are found." Oma's eyes traveled backward, to the wooden gate. "I really must be going, I will return shortly."
Her friend hesitated a moment, beginning to reach out to Oma, before her eyes softened and a small smile filled her lips. "Alright, Oma. I shall play along. I know your love for that hill, ever since you were a child. Go ahead, then. Please be safe." She reclined her hand and turned and walked away. Oma smiled softly after her friend, before turning back to the wooden gate. She took in a deep breath and let it out before her hand touched the cool surface of the silver and she unlatched the door, stepping through onto the cobblestone path and shutting the door behind her.
The dog barked excitedly, jumping from side to side. "What is it, boy?" The young man asked, once he had securely put his hair into a topknot atop his head. "Why do you seem to be so excited on such a dreary day?" The brown and black dog spun around, chasing its long, cat-like tail, before suddenly whipping itself out of the house. The young man, startled, followed suit. Once he left the safety of his hut, he whistled for his dog. The dog was nowhere to be seen. However, the sound of his barking was getting farther and farther away.
The young man began to follow the sound when a hard grip fastened itself on his shoulder. "My son, where are you going? Shouldn't you be getting ready for the feast?" The young man glanced back at his father.
"I am, Father. I just need to get the mutt." His father nodded.
"Make it quick, Shu, your younger brother has his first real hunt today." He released his son, and Shu quickly made his way after his dog. He reached the broken gate leading up to the hilltops that separated his village from their rival. He glanced up the hill before looking down at the broken gate. He wrinkled his nose.
The sound of his dog's barking could be heard up the dirt path leading up to the hills. He sighed heavily and swung the broken gate open, the rusted hinges squealing distastefully.
She carefully snapped off the branch of the sakura tree. She looked at it before sliding it back into the ground, her eyes sad. "These trees are nearly dead," she said to herself, "they have never looked so dull before in my life." She looked down at the branch, and then up the cobblestone path leading to the next hill. There was another tree. She picked up her skirts and began walking in that direction, her brown eyes narrowing into the sunlight. The hills got bigger and bigger as she went further up.
She reached the tree. It had a single branch, with perfect pink blossoms. She reached out and in that instant a bird above her head squawked angrily and swung down toward her. She let out a screech and ducked, the bird passing over her head and disappearing over another hill. Oma looked back from where the bird had just disappeared before reaching for the branch once more, her heart pounding in her ears out of fright.
Her fingers touched the branch, and one of her fingers slipped. She cut herself on a strange thorn and immediately her finger went into her mouth, a scowl placed firmly on her face. Stupid branch… She removed her finger from her mouth and swiftly broke the branch off the tree. It was at that exact moment that she heard the barking of a dog up ahead, on top of the mountain that separated the two enemy villages. She looked at the branch before gripping it to her breast. She began to turn around and walk back to her village when the barking continued. She paused and looked up the mountain.
"What if it's a stray and its hurt," she wondered fearfully. She began to pick her way up the path, until the stones disappeared and instead there was just dirt. Lots and lots of dirt.
He whistled loudly. The dog barked, but continued forward. The boy sighed heavily. Stupid dog… He paused, one foot on a rock, his hand lifted to shield his face from the sun. How high did these mountains and hills go? He sighed heavily once more and lowered his hand, continuing forward. There was the mountain ahead. The dirt path got heavier filled with grass and roots. He began literally crawling his way up, the mountain getting so steep he couldn't stand straight without falling back dangerously. The dog's barking was hushed, there was no more barking. He quickened his pace. His hand grabbed hold of a sturdy root of a tree atop the mountain and he heaved himself upward, only to nearly drop off backward in surprise.
He lowered himself slightly so the being petting his pet would not see him. Her hair was covering her face, the black locks coming to her shoulders, a small topknot, half up, pinned to the top of her head. She was speaking low to the dog, rubbing behind his ear and over his muzzle. The dog seemed to be enjoying himself quite well. Shu glowered. The girl was of the enemy tribe, he could tell by her robes: a pale green and brown. His were blue, the color of his village.
"Look at this now," the girl was now saying, her voice rose to its normal tone now, "you have a thorn in your paw?" The dog sat back and whimpered in reply, and she picked his right paw up and looked at it carefully. "You poor thing, you. Here, this might hurt a little." Her index finger met with her thumb finger over an unseen object under the dogs paw, and then she yanked back and the dog let out a soft yelp. Shu's eyes widened and he was suddenly hoisting himself onto the mountain, and letting himself known.
The girl looked up quickly in surprise and let out a short cry before grabbing the sakura branch at her side and lifting it up as if it were a weapon. Shu's eyes widened even more so, now that he had a look at the girl's face. She was utterly and completely beautiful. Her creamy tan skin made perfect contrast to her brown and green robes, her eyes a dark brown, her frown pulled gracefully down her lips. She looked absolutely gorgeous, and Shu found he could not continue to speak as he was going to. The dog barked to his owner and pranced over to him, licking his master's loose hands before bounding down the mountain.
Oma was nearly having a heart attack. Why had she even come up here? That stupid dog; it belonged to the enemy tribe! She could see that now, as clear as the young man standing in front of her. She held the bushed tightly, despite the feeling of the strange thorns burying their way into her palms. And what a fool this village boy was! He stood there as if he had just seen a spirit. He looked completely lost, his eyes bulging, and was that drool falling from his mouth? Yuck!
She slowly began to inch her way toward the path leading from the mountain back to her village; her side of the mountain was a lot less steep than his. She began to turn around to make a quick escape with her sakura branch when suddenly he snapped out of his trance. "Wait!" She stopped, shutting her eyes tightly, not looking back at him but not making a movement back to the village. "What's your name?"
She still didn't turn; her grip on the sakura branch even tighter then it had been originally. She shook her head for a long moment; not believing what she was just about to do. "O-Oma…" she turned slowly back to him, a wind whipping up around them to force her strands of hair around her face in a whip-like fashion, "my name is Oma."
"Oma," he repeated to himself, "a lovely name, for a lovely girl."
Oma's face reddened and she shook her head. "I should leave…" she turned to leave once more
"My name is Shu."
Her hands loosened on the branch slowly, her arms lowering so that it did not look like she was using the branch as a weapon. His hands reached for a branch of the tree that sat on the mountain and he stepped forward. Instantly her hands tightened once more and she stood back. "I shouldn't be here," she said softly, looking down, "I should leave." Before he could say anything more, she made her way down quickly from the mountain, picking up her skirts along with the sakura branch.
Shu watched her fleeting form and sighed heavily leaning up against the trunk of the small tree. "Oma," he repeated to himself. He pushed himself from the branch and began to make his way down the mountain, collecting her features of her face in his mind. He would not forget her face. He would see her again. He was sure of it.
Oma opened the gate perhaps too swiftly, and she caught her friend's attention. She was sitting on a stool, milking a pig-cow. She looked up, startled, and then she smiled at Oma. "That's a beautiful sakura branch, Oma, but what took you so long?"
Oma looked down at the branch, and then at her friend. "Nothing, I had to find the prettiest petals for my sister's engagement feast." She smiled weakly, and her friend narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Her eyes traveled to Oma's hands, and then her eyes widened.
"Oma, you are bleeding!"
Oma followed her friend's gaze and then she blushed deeply. "Oh, dear, I am. I should go get these wrapped. I'll take these blossoms to my mother." Before her friend could question further Oma made her way to her home. The hut was quaint, made of wood, and had the smell of home-made noodles and chicken stew wafting from inside.
She opened the door, and her mother, a stout woman with a bitter outlook, looked at her daughter for a moment before a light grin spread across her lips. "There are the blossoms! Thank you, dear Oma. Oh, how lovely these are!" Her mother took the branch, admiring the pink blossoms with a twinkling eye. "Can you believe your sister is to be married? And this feast her engagement. Oh, it's a lovely thing!" Her voice was wistful, dream-filled. Oma was looking down at her hands. Her mother finally broke her gaze from the branch and followed Oma's look to her hands. "Oh! Go get those wrapped, dear. You do not want to fall ill!"
Oma nodded and left the hut.
Oma sat at the low tables, the small band that resided in their village played loudly, and people laughed and clapped and danced. Oma sat by her father's side at the head of the table, as the chief's un-married daughter, she was supposed to. Her eyes were sad, her mind filled with confusing thoughts. Since she got home from the mountain, she had not been thinking clearly. Every thing she had done to help her sister get ready for that night had brought her mind to the villager she had met on the mountain. Shu. She was going crazy with these thoughts, she knew it. She almost wanted to scream and storm from the party, but that would be disgraceful.
She looked down at her hands, now wrapped in bandaged. She clenched them into fists and looked back at the party. There was her sister, wearing a lovely white dress, swinging around and clapping her hands, dancing with the man she was to marry with a wide, goofy grin on her face. Oma smiled and waved when her sister waved at her.
"Oma," her father was speaking to her. She looked back at him, "when are you going to marry, huh? You are nineteen, a ripe age to be married. You're sister, only of sixteen, has been married off. But what about you?"
"Oh, Father," Oma started with a sigh. She picked herself up slightly so she could lean against her father's shoulder, "I will always be with you. I will be an old nurse-maid by the time Sister has her first child. Un-married, and un-loved." Of course, Oma was just playing with her father and he knew it. He smiled down at his daughter and kissed her on her forehead lovingly.
"My child, you were born with a destiny. You just have to find it for yourself."
Oma's eyes were saddened but she nodded. "Thank you, Father."
"You are welcome, my child. Now go, dance the night away!" He lifted his goblet of wine and random people sitting at the tables raised theirs as well and cheered. Oma smiled at her father and stood, and, following her father's bidding, she went to the dance floor and began to spin gracefully in and out with the many villagers. Carefree. Innocent.
And oh, if only it could stay that way forever.