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"…And, just like this, move your hands in a circular motion, letting the energies flow…" Katara said calmly, moving her hands in the soothing motion
At the bottom of the world, contrary to some uneducated people's beliefs, you would not fall off. No, in fact the South Pole held the newest city in the world. It was also one of the largest, second only to Ba Sing Se. And it was constantly being added on to, updated by the newest water benders. The ice city was considered to be the most beautiful in the world, if you could stand the cold. Unique and large architecture made up the homes and streets of the large city, fascinating to look at, bust constantly having to be re-done if the temperature got even a little above -30 degrees. The great city also was home to some great, famous people. All of them were heroes from the Water Tribe, of course. Sokka, the chieftain and famous general ruled the city, and all of the southern Water Tribe. His younger sister, the famous water-bending warrior Katara, served as a counselor and ambassador on several occasions. Most of her time, however, was spent teaching her children Kenai, Snow, and Irluk. The first of which she had the most problems with.
"…And, just like this, move your hands in a circular motion, letting the energies flow…" Katara said calmly, moving her hands in the soothing motion. She had done this a thousand times before, it seemed, and the familiarity comforted her. She was giving her oldest – Kenai – a healing lesson. He never seemed to get it, even if it was mainly for the females. One of her younger children, Irluk, had already gotten it, and he was only at the age of eight.
"Ugh! Why won't this work?!" Kenai stopped moving his hands as his mother had been and balled them into fists.
His dark hair, styled like the typical water-bender, was always shaggy and it would sometimes fall out of his already short 'wolf-tail'. His skin was lighter than most benders, although it was still pretty tan. He was tall, but he was not taller than his mother yet. His arms and legs were stronger than the rest of the kids his age; he always wanted to be stronger. He wore the usual parka of the Water-Tribe peoples, but his boots were black instead of brown and didn't wear any of the Water-Tribe accessories. His eyes were a sort of whisky color. He had never thought much about it, but some of the elders and gossiping ladies talked about it a lot, since his mother was so important. Some thought that his eye color meant that he'd do something important, like the northern princess Yue. Other's thought that Katara had gotten a strange curse, and that it had affected Kenai. No one on his family paid any attention to these crazy theories.
Katara pried open one of her closed eyes and replied calmly, "You're very tense, your form is too offensive. Think about the push-and-pull of the water, not the push-and-push." Her response to his outbursts always sounded the same 'too much anger' 'let it flow' 'your legs are too far apart, you're too offensive'. The list went on.
"I know, mother!" Kenai's anger flared up. This broke his mother out of her trance.
"You will not talk to me that way, young man." She demanded, her voice low and dangerous. "You will not forget that I am not only your mother, but also your mentor."
"No, you're just a cranky old mom who wants her oldest to be as good as all of her younger prodigies!" His fists went high.
"What?! How dare you, you have no right-!"
He tried to cut her off, but her voice only grew louder and angrier. She had long ago learned to control her bending when she was mad, but she felt the small pool of water that she had been twirling turn to ice and drop to the ground.
"You will not treat your mother this way! You're not too old to be paddled, young man! Now leave, and go to your room. You will not have any dinner for this outburst." She sat down and un-froze her water, resuming her twirling. That signaled that she was done, and it was Kenai's cue to leave.
His fists and jaw clenched, he spun angrily on his heel and stormed out of his mother's large ice bedroom. The water-bending master sighed once he was gone, and stopped her swirling for a moment to caress her necklace. It wasn't her mothers; she had gotten a new one since then. It had twirl design that turned into a little ball at the end of each twirl. Altogether, it seemed to have a sort of flame pattern, but only after hours of looking at it. She Pursed her lips and resumed her twirling, leaving her son to his sulking.
Kenai growled low. Being the chief's sister had certain perks, like having your own house joined with the chieftain's palace, where her brother lived. His mother used to tell him stories of how, when she was little, the southern water tribe consisted of only five or six small igloos. Since then, however, the northern water tribe had helped re-build it, making the southern city just as lovely as their sister northern tribe had been. But that had been before it had been destroyed. But for the largeness of the city he was truly thankful, even if he had recently started causing some damage to it in his rage.
Every time that happened, his mother would yell, his father would rub his temples and sigh, calmly telling his wife to calm down, and his oldest younger sibling, Snow, would tease him. Oh, how he hated that child sometimes. She was the best out of all of Katara's children, the best bender out of all of them and the perfect princess. He usually couldn't take it when she displayed her bending powers, because she'd show off. And she was always bending. It made his eyebrows furrow just thinking about his younger sister. A girl wasn't even supposed to be that good at bending!
Well, besides his mother.
But he didn't want to think about it right then. He had always heard stories about how his mother was the greatest water bender, and that she had been the Avatar's girlfriend, but his mother always denied both. Kenai didn't think that she was woman enough to be with someone as powerful as the Avatar, honestly. She was too preachy. He didn't even think that she could be with that one rogue Fire nation leader that he had recently been hearing rumors about.
His friends had told him the rogue had decided years ago that he didn't like the way the nation was headed, and decided to take matters into his own hands. And apparently, he had managed to get half of the nation on his side. Kenai didn't really care. Let the fire nation tear itself apart. It had done the world enough trouble already.
His mother paddled him hard when he had mentioned that one night at dinner.
His uncle always agreed with him, though. He told Kenai stories of how the fire nation was nothing but a bunch of evil people who murdered and raped and se fire to whole world. Kenai doubted the last one; the southern water tribe would never let some small island nation set fire to its skies. Not like the northern had. But he took everything else that his uncle said to heart. He looked up to his uncle even more than he looked up to his own father, who was captain of all of the guard in the entire city.
Sokka had always treated him as a son, having none of his own. Kenai thought that he had been married at one point, when he was a small child, but when he had asked Sokka about it, his uncle had laughed.
"No," he had said. "Never been married. I'm a wild penguin, and I need my space!" He had joked.
But Kenai also liked spending so much time with his uncle because he didn't tolerate his mother that well. It made Kenai smile inside. She was always put in her place when his uncle was around; always reminded that she wasn't the one in charge. A female shouldn't ever be in charge.
Kenai, despite being high-up in the political places, only had one real friend. His name was Kirrlu, and it seemed that he was one of the only few who could actually tolerate Kenai's personality. He didn't say much (for who could when Kenai wanted to talk?) but when he did, he made Kenai feel like a three-year-old compared to Kirrlu's reasoning. Which he kind of was.
So, Kenai's life, for the most part, was pretty good. His father never bothered him with anything. He only taught Kenai how to fish. His mother nagged him, but was one of the most famous teachers in the world; she still refused to train almost everyone except for her children. The youngest siblings looked up to him, even if Snow was a show-off who was constantly nagging him and making fun if him. His uncle loved him like a son, and taught him many things about real life: especially the horrible ways of the Fire Nation. His best friend was always good company, and it was extremely easy for Kenai to vent his problems with Kirrlu. His training had been going well, although his mother refused to teach him some things that Kenai thought would make him just as good of a bender as his mother. But he knew that she would eventually, with enough persuasion.
Yeah, for living in the freezing part of the bottom of the globe, life was good.
The southern mountains of the Earth Kingdom were some of the tallest in the world, all covered in trees and grasses. Each of the mountains went uphill at a very slow pace, making them seem more like hills than actual mountains. But their height said otherwise, because eventually, after countless fields and forests and slow elevation, you would find yourself at the top of one of them, looking over what seemed to be all of the beautiful Earth Kingdom. Even the clouds would seem to be below you.
The view wasn't why Atari's mother had chosen this location for their home. No, the view her mother couldn't care less about. Mostly because her mother, Toph Be Fong, couldn't see the view. Atari had always felt bad for her mother because she couldn't see the flowers or the trees or the animals, or the clouds and the sky. Especially the clouds and sky. That's what Atari loved the best in the whole world. Her mother hated the air. Not breathing, necessarily. Just being up in the air. Everyone knew how her mother saw, so she guessed that it was common sense that she wouldn't ever want to be off of the ground.
But not Atari. She had discovered her special gift at a relatively young age. Her mother couldn't help at all with her gift, since it was pretty much the exact opposite as hers. But Atari didn't mind. She loved learning, no matter how slowly. She loved being able to bend the air around her, making the wing around her fiercer, even if only a little.
Yes, she loved being an air-bender.
"Atari! Get back on the ground." Atari's mother called from their house made into the very mountain. Toph had learned, Atari figured out, that when she couldn't sense her daughter's heart beat or footprints that she was floating in the air.
"Hang on, mom!" Atari laughed, trying in vain to figure out an old trick that Toph had said was one of her father's favorite old tricks. Atari was only successive in blowing herself about a foot in the air for a moment or two under some pocket of air that resembled nothing like a circle before dropping to the floor. She laughed loudly before calling out to her mother, "Ok! I'm coming!"
Atari had strange blend of blonde and brown for her hair, so she didn't technically have 'light brown' hair just every other one of her hairs were blonde. Her hair was only shoulder-length, and she had bangs that fell into her face, which was one thing that annoyed her to death - and she was always blowing them out of her eyes - but she never cut them. Her eyes were a dark green, the color that her mother would have had if she hadn't have been blind. Her frame was small; also something that she had gotten from her mom, but she was sort of scrawny, something that her mom demanded came from Atari's dad. She wore plain black slippers common of girls in the Earth Kingdom, and long green shorts. She also had on a plain mint-colored undershirt and a breezy beige-greenish over-tunic that was plain except for the Earth Kingdom symbol at the bottom. There was nothing extraordinary about her skin, but in the summer, when she was outdoors a lot (like now) a few freckles would pop up along her nose. Atari had been told that she had gotten her freckles from her father, so they were one of her favorite parts.
Atari's mother had never told her that it made her both very sad and very happy that Atari was an air-bender. But Atari figured it out by herself. It was all in her mother's eyes.
Atari didn't have any friends, really, besides the random squirrel or bird. Her mom let her meet a badger mole once, but she didn't like the stuffy caves that they lived in. There was no sky there at all. But she didn't mind; she wasn't ever lonely. Not like her mom.
Their life was the best to Atari, no one could reach their home; Toph blew anyone who came within a mile of their home ten miles high into the air. No, they lived in paradise. Or at least, so Atari thought. She loved people, to be sure, but was perfectly happy with living alone with just her mother. She could tell her mother was different, and it saddened her, because she loved her mother dearly.
Toph didn't like people per se, but more of she liked certain people and missed them. She had told her daughter stories of when she was younger – and stupider – and how nothing had stood in her way even then. Back when Atari's dad was still alive. She could tell when her mother thought of him; her eyes would glaze over and a small smile appeared. It wasn't her usual smile; it was one that Atari had only ever seen on her mother when she thought of him. It was a sort of smirk, like she knew something that Atari didn't.
For the most part, they both loved the outside. But for different reasons, Atari knew. Her mother loved the familiarity of the ground and dirt in-between her toes; Atari loved the air and freeness. You could say that she was sort of claustrophobic.
So, the two most opposite people that you could think of to be mother and daughter lived there, in there own hide away in the side of their mountain, away from all other people and concerns.
The circus always was, by nature, a very strange thing. Everything seemed backwards there; men with very oddly-shaped heads, women who grew beards (and weren't supposed to), and clowns who – even if they acted happy – were always suicidal. Completely and utterly backwards and, according to most, not even worth the thought. Jai would be like most people…If he hadn't been born to a ring-master.
It was almost predictable, if you thought about it. Jai was a very quiet and critical boy by nature, so of course his mother would be a ring-leader. It made perfect sense, in a 'the spirits have a very bad sense of humor' way.
He had been born most like his father in almost every way. He was even an earth-bender like his father, Haru. It seemed as if he had gotten everything from his father - except that his mother, Ty Lee, had insisted on making him taking gymnastics lessons all of his life. He was still taking them, despite the looks that he gave his mother.
The bad looks never messed up any of his looks, though. Maybe that was why his mother could ignore them so easily. His big grey eyes resembled his mother's, but he had gotten almost everything else in his looks from his father's side. His built, although not extremely big, was firm and tall. His mother was constantly telling him of how he needed to eat more, but in his opinion, he ate just fine. He was strong, but his strength was most like a runner's – strong but lean and not that showy. He wore plain brown pants with black boots, with a plain dark green undershirt and black vest. His mother always distressed over his lacking of color wardrobe. His short dark brown hair was just long enough to fall into his eyes, but he never let it get any longer than that.
If you didn't know him well, Jai seemed almost mute. His own mother hadn't heard any more than 50 words from him his entire life. His father was in the Earth Kingdom military most of the time, so he barely even saw him. But even then their family, no matter how strange, was a close one.
He had never had any desire to get out and see the world – he was quite content to read about them in his books – but he had the undeniable urge to leave the circus. And he would, in a few years when he qualified for The School for Gifted Benders. It was a college that only the most educated got into; despite its name which suggested that you had to be a bender. Of course, you did, but you didn't exactly have to be…Excellent. This was perfect for Jai. He was good…But his father hadn't taught him anything of the master's level yet.
"Jai! Time for your lesson!" Ty lee called from the main tent, counting on his excellent hearing from all the way across the circus.
Unfortunately, he heard almost everything.
But his mother had taught him a few good things, however. The hearing had come in handy numerous times in bending. He could pick up the slightest shuffle of feet on the ground. Of course, there were limits as to what he could do, but his abilities were extremely impressive anyway. His accursed flexibility came in handy, too. It added extra edge to his bending; his style was extremely rare, or so his father had told him. Few other people had ever mastered earth-bending by being so flexible. Of course, Jai hadn't mastered it yet, but still.
He was close enough.
"Good! Good! You are getting better by the day, my young student!" An old voice came from across the large courtyard. The old man's voice held age, but most certainly was not tired or weary; it actually had its own sort of energetic energy to it.
"Thank you, Master." A young teenaged girl said thankfully, bowing elegantly to her old master.
"Oh, Zephira, forget all of that old banter. I'm your great uncle, for spirit's sake! You don't have to bow to me." Iroh laughed both hands on the walking stick that he had started carrying everywhere shortly after great niece had been born. No one doubted that he didn't need it; everyone knew that he just liked the respectable look that the glossy wooden-carved cane gave him.
Zephira Smiled slightly. "But you deserve respect, Uncle." She demanded sweetly, bowing again before going back and starting back to doing the practice stances that Iroh had directed to her.
Zephira's hair was long and dark, but it was wavy, and she liked keeping up in a bun while she practiced or when she was working. Otherwise, she liked to keep her thick mane unrestricted. Her eyes were dark, but you could see the dark blue color if you looked up-close. Her built skinny, but she wasn't without some curves. There was nothing spectacular about her height; she was taller than her great-uncle, but shorter than her father. But there was something about how she stood; it commanded respect and obedience. Ker skin was light, but slightly darker than the average fire-nation. She wore the usual colors of her nation, but her clothing style – while regal – wasn't as stuffy as it had been back when her father was young. She still wore the boots, but the pants were breezier, and looser. So were the sleeves, although she tied them close around her wrists. She wore finger-less gloves and the usual red, gold-trimmed, sleeve-less tunic with the high collar. Nothing special, but at the same time, it gave her the regal elegance that someone in her position was both desired and unexpected.
"That's enough training for today, Zephira." Iroh chuckled as he made his way over to her, his cane making a clicking sound as he strolled across the stone courtyard. "You push yourself too hard. You'll end up like me if you keep at it." He winked his old eye at her.
Zephira Stopped and bowed, smiling. "All of the more reason to do it." She complemented him, and walked with him to the other end of the courtyard.
They lived in a large beach house that had been her grandmother's a long time ago. It also served as the head-quarters for the "Rouge" side of the civil war. The war had been going on for several years, but this was the first that Zephira – now being old enough – could actually help the effort. Her father was in charge, and she learned a great deal about leading from him. He was, of course, the famous exiled prince Zuko.
Things hadn't really gotten better or worse for them lately. On thing had been keeping all of the rouges on edge, though. The Firelord, as everyone knew, had a new apprentice, but so far – even after 15 years – the Student's identity had remained unknown. Zuko's worst fear was that it was someone just like Azula.
Zephira, not ever having to meet her deceased aunt, didn't feel the same fear that anyone who had met Azula felt. But she did feel the burning hate for the unknown person that only she and a few others felt.
They had killed her mother. Mai had died just after Zephira had turned 13. Mai had been sent on some important mission, Zephira couldn't remember what. She had supposedly made enough of a fuss as to bring the new 'Student' out. From what Zephira had heard from the only survivor, her mother had challenged him for whatever it was that she was trying to do, and had lost. That Student was the one person that she really and truly hated, and she looked forward to frustrating their attempts at anything and everything that she could. She wanted to make sure that he paid for her mother's death ten-fold.
Only Iroh knew about those feelings, and he discouraged them. "When in battle – and life –" he said, "You need to keep your personal wrong-doings out of your thoughts. Having your wits about you is essential."
While Zephira agreed with him on the last point, she had always had trouble letting go of personal offences. And murder was more than an offence.
"Father." Zephira called as she and Great-uncle Iroh entered the lowest room in the mansion – the planning room. Every inch of their battle against the Firelord was mapped out there.
Zuko looked up from a large map with a bunch of markings and numbers on it. You could hardly even see the actual map on there anymore. "Zephira, Uncle." He greeted, sparring a small smile.
Iroh nodded in greeting and leaned on his stick. "How's it going, Nephew?" He inquired.
Zuko's lips pursed, and he began his lengthy report on how their efforts were going. At first, Zephira's head spun. There were so many statistics, so many details. But after a few minutes, her business side kicked in and everything started making sense. She wouldn't have to actually make any decisions, but she absorbed any and all information that she could; there would be a time when she would be the one making the decisions, and she'd be ready.
She was going to make sure of it.
Chapter 1, as promised! Review, review, review peoples!
All the credit for the ideas, character, and everything except for the writing goes to tonks-lupin524! Thank you!
