Duel Elements: The Legend of Kira
Book 1 Water Chapter 2 Duel Identities, One Destiny
She walks into the house to her uncle being home from his job at the local library and staring at her with a serious expression unusual on his typically humor filled face, his brown, bespectacled eyes boring into her own turquois ones.
"Uncle Satoru?" asks Zira, "What's wrong?"
"Zira," states Satoru thoughtfully, "Your aunt and I have some important information we need to talk to you about."…
"What is it?" asks the confused teen.
"Zira, do you remember what today is?" questions Yumi.
"Um…Tuesday," replies a confused Zira, "The 3rd year anniversary of the day I started my sword fighting training under Master Piando after he visited our village seeking out a new student from the colonies. The day I have been officially declared a Master Swordswoman and I have a signed paper from Master Piando to prove it."
"Why did Master Piando come out all this way to specifically train you?" elaborates Satoru.
"Because for my thirteenth birthday I wanted to start sword training since I couldn't join my friends at their school and I was sick of feeling so helpless against the local bullies," states Zira as she suddenly realizes how she must be the most forgetful girl in the entire world, "So on my birthday exactly Master Piando arrived because he trained you when you were thirteen too and you asked him if he would consider training me. I forgot today was my birthday!"
"You friends didn't remind you?" as Yumi suppressing her laughter.
"No one remembered!" stated Zira sadly.
"That's not true," Yumi disagrees, "I wished you happy birthday but you ran out of the house so quickly you did not hear me."
"And I made you a special birthday breakfast consisting of your favorite pancakes, fire flake pancakes with papaya syrup, but you snatched a roll my little fire ferret and skipped my breakfast," announces the black haired bespectacled professor looking librarian disappointedly.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," apologizes Zira sadly, "I was running late because I didn't get any sleep last night. I shouldn't be so inconsiderate of what you both do for me. Aunt Yumi, Uncle Satoru, you are both the closest thing I have had to parents since my own were taken from me. I don't think I'll ever be able to repay either of you."
"How many times must we remind you we are family and your parents especially trusted you into our care when they couldn't take care of you themselves my little princess," comments Satoru affectionately, "There is nothing you can repay us for. We wanted a daughter of our own and we were blessed with taking care of you. However as of today you are sixteen years old. According to your mother's side of your family you have come of marrying age and are now an adult in their eyes. While the final choice is up to you, we are willing to let you go and begin your journey of finally being reunited with your parents, aiding you anyway that we can Zira, because we love you."
"How?" asks a nearly speechless Zira.
"Fifteen years ago today a mutual close friend of ours and your parents brought you to the safety of our home. He is an earthbending fisherman named Riku who lives in a fishing village about a week away from Kiyoshi Island, which in turn is a month away by foot. If you go to him he can help you get the supplies and transportation to get you to the South Pole, where members of your mother's family still live," Yumi states seriously, "Last I recall you have an Uncle named Hakoda, your mother's nonbending twin brother, Aunt Kya, grandmother Kanna, and cousin Sokka who is a few months younger than you from what I can recall from your mother's letters. You were born in the Southern Water Tribe and after nearly a year later they thought it would be safer to move to Ba Sing Se and completely out of the danger of the Fire Nation, only they never made it. So instead you were raised in a Fire Nation colony, right in plain sight. I have not had contact with your mother's family since before your parents' imprisonment, but fortunately I do have remote contact with your parents via my older brother Shang, who is the main guard in charge of them. They are alive and their main form of punishment and torture is being separated from each other and you but knowing you are not so far away, and you growing up without them. The previous Fire Lord Azulon enjoyed this form of torture, however Ozai seems to not care either way and if there was ever a time to rescue them, it is now. We will support you either way."
"If you need time to think this over, we will gladly give it to you," Satoru states after a moment of silence from his niece.
"No, my parents might not have much time left!" announces Zira urgently, "I will take on my real name, find my family in the South Pole, learn waterbending from the masters in the North Pole, and free my parents. And help end this war like I always dreamed of! Maybe I'll even help find the Avatar!"
"It's a good plan Zir…er Kira," Satoru comments, "But remember to do one thing at a time if you can, doing all that at once will be too overwhelming for just one person."
"Kira. It's going to take me awhile to get used to my own name," states Kira absent mindedly.
"Kira or Zira you are still our niece and we still love you," acknowledges Yumi as she embraces the shaking teen on the verge of tears. In just one night her world is completely upside down and changed forever.
"Besides, you will always be our little princess," agrees Satoru without a bit of hesitation as both he and Yumi hug their now grown up little girl.
The next day Satoru is finishing purchasing Kira's supplies. He knows through minimum quarter yearly contact with Riku that the earthbender will help Kira get to the South Pole. In order to be in steady contact with his niece/adopted daughter, he also purchase's a messenger hawk whom Kira affectionately names Leechy after the hawk threw leechy nuts at Sieto who tried yet again to flirt with her.
The hardest part will come the next day when Kira will be alone for the first time in her life, and traveling outside of the colony for the first time in her self-aware life. Although to the teen it feels like the hardest part of this journey will be saying goodbye to her friends, which she plans to do so as soon as her father is done helping her purchase useful supplies. She knows how to camp and gather supplies, her aunt and uncle would take her on many camping trips and always take her to the market to learn about how to survive in the world, but as much as they did their best not to spoil her, Kira was their baby girl. No, not Kira…Zira, Kira was a novice waterbender forced to live a double life that the new identity nearly took over her true self. But not anymore, Zira is no more…gone…left behind in this small Fire Nation colony/village. Once she says goodbye to her friends, she knows in her heart she won't be able to see them again until the war is over, although they were never really her friends. They were Zira's friends. Zira the librarian and former Noblewoman's niece/adopted daughter who was a nonbender and liked to make fun of the Fire Nation Royal family in the gossip scrolls and push Seito into the water from the docks, forceful but harmless. Outside if she encountered Seito she would be almost obligated to attack as he will have gone from a nuisance to the enemy, well that's not really a stretch he was always the enemy.
Kira decides to walk to the dock one last time before she will head out on her journey the next morning.
"Surprise!" cheers her friends at the dock, somehow she had a feeling they would all be there.
"Happy belated birthday Zira!" they chant, they meaning Leiko, Hina, and little Taka. Rin just smiles, which is surprising in itself since Rin almost never smiles or shows any kind of emotion. Tears well up in Kira…no right now she is still Zira's eyes.
"We are sorry we forgot, but you did forget too you idiot," smirks Rin affectionately, in her own way.
"Guys, thanks so much for this!" Zira states gesturing to the large cake and pile of presents, "You know you didn't have to get me anything. Your friendships are all I could ever ask for from all of you, and I already have that."
"Zira we know you are moving to the Fire Nation to go live with your grandmother for a while and get a chance to know her. We will miss you so much, but honor and family is most important. We understand and our glad your uncle decided to tell us in person today while you slept in like always," Leiko reveals.
"Most people from the Fire Nation tend to rise with the sun. You seem to rise more with the moon. Sometimes I swear you were a waterbender in another life Zira," comments Rin sarcastically.
"I'm gonna miss you so much!" sobs Hina with tears gushing out of her eyes, being overly dramatic as usual, "We all are! Even cynical Rin!"
"Will you come back and visit. Will we ever see you again?" asks Taka sadly, even though she was only Rin's little sister, she still looked up to Zira as a mentor and as a friend.
"My uncle bought me a messenger hawk so when I am not busy I will do my best to send as many messages as I can, but I'll be spending most of my time with my grandmother. She hasn't seen me since I was a baby," replies Zira, although she is conflicted about whether or not she is actually going to write to any of her old friends once she completely steps into her new life. They share one last group hug before Zira walks home, as always by herself.
With his friends doing their best to distract the bounty hunters from noticing their friend holding their daughter, the earthbending fisherman holds onto the infant tightly as he runs off into the night, the necklace buckled securely around his left wrist. It takes a couple of weeks, but on the one year anniversary of Kira's birth, Riku finally makes it to the small house just outside the Fire Nation colony where Satoru and Yumi are waiting. He had sent Tara's emergency letter to Satoru via Satoru's own personal messenger hawk that had found him with a message asking how the trip to Ba Sing Se was coming along. After quickly handing Kira over to Yumi, Riku disappeared into the night, heading on his own way home.
"Satoru, what are we going to call her?" asks a conflicted Yumi, "I don't want to change her name, but Kira is a Water Tribe name and this is a Fire Nation colony!"
"Kuzon told me he and Tara named her after his mother, my aunt Zira, but he insisted on using the Water Tribe version of that name," replies a thoughtful Satoru, "If we call her Zira, we are not really changing her name, just using a different version. We will be her aunt and uncle but we will treat her like our own daughter."
"She's a waterbender Satoru," comments Yumi worriedly, "We are going to have to train her to hide her abilities until she is old enough to leave this colony."
"We may not be waterbenders, but control is a similar lesson in all bending forms." States Satoru as he looks directly at his firebending wife, "I am not a bender, but I do know some self-control training from studying the katana, although Kuzon was better at it then me since I am not much of a fighter. I am more of a man of words then action."
"And that is why I love you 'Toru," comments Yumi affectionately as she kisses her husband on the right side of his face just below his glasses line and above the chin, "And we will love Kira too, she needs us 'Toru and we need her." The young couple look on at the sleeping Kira/Zira with a bittersweet smile, overjoyed at having a baby of their own, but saddened by the bleak fate of her parents. The lunar light and power are completely absent from the sky on this new moon night.
