Synopsis: Aang recieves a vision of the future during the storm in which he freezes himself and is presented with a choice: Envoke the Avatar State and remain frozen for one hundred years or drown and reincarnate so the next Avatar can save what remains of his people post-genocide. The choice is not easy. It takes a full cycle to bring the world to back peace.
Author's Note: Welp. This second installment kicked my ass. I've concluded that this will not be a four shot. It's going to take a lot more than that to finish this. I thought I could make Kei's story one giant chapter but this here alone is nearly 8,000 words and I'm only about half-way through with it. I really tried to hone in on creating a unique personality/voice seperate from Aang and Korra. While I love Korra, I thought that the Hundred Year War and Aang's subsequent actions had a huge impact as her journey as the Avatar and she just wouldn't work well in the world I'm setting up in this fic.
[In answer to a few questions left in the comments of the last chapter, there are three Water Tribes in the ATLA universe: the Southern Tribe, the Northern Tribe, and the Foggy Swamp Tribe. The swamp tribe is introduced in season two, episode four, where its revealed that at some point long before the One Hundred Year War, a group of waterbenders immigrated to the swamp and made it their home. They refer to the polar tribes as their "kin" but, as seen with Katara's reaction, the polar tribes are unfamilar with the swamp tribe. This, along with the fact that I think swampbenders are greatly underrated, has a lot to do with why I chose the Foggy Swamp as Kei's place of origin. Also, how does Kei master airbending? That is for me know and for you to find out ;) I've had to do a lot of rewatching and rereading of the comics and the Avatar Wiki page to get my facts straight so hopefully the explaination is adequate.]
BOOK TWO: WATER
PART I
AVATAR KEI
Some friendships (and grudges, too) are so strong, they can even transcend lifetimes.
i.
It's in the little details, the small things, that the tribe knows who Kei long before she's even grown tall enough to climb the first branches of the giant banyan-grove tree.
They see it in the way Kei bends mud–too sturdy, too strong, too solid to just be waterbending. And sometimes when Kei is angry or sad, a strong wind finds its way into swamp, past the leaves and trees and still waters.
They see it in the way Kei speaks of her spirit friends. One old man with a dragon-like beard and a boy just a few suns older than her with funny blue tattoos all over his body.
They see it in the strange little snake Kei finds when she runs away and tries to climb the First Tree alone. The waterbender either doesn't notice or doesn't care that it's grown from half the size of her forearm to something longer and stronger than her whole body. She calls the snake Ryuu and the tribe watches its black whiskers twitch with affection each time she hefts the creatures across her shoulders.
Kei does not know who she is–but the tribe does and so does the tree.
When Kei has only been thirteen for several nights, the tree calls an earthbender to her.
It's a man. He's much older than her but not near as old as her papa, and his eyes–green, but not the same green as the swamp people–are wild and wide.
She finds him wrestling Uncle Bo's catgator.
Kei bends her knees, sinks into the swamp, and separates the two in her mix of water and air that she doesn't even recognize as strange. Then she searches for the vines in the water and uses them to pull the stranger to a tree. Ryuu has to adjust himself on her body but Kei doesn't notice; Ryuu is as much a part of her as her heart and lungs and she's used to bending with him on her body. The vines pull tight around the stranger's wrists and waist.
He doesn't fight back.
Kei frowns. Her hands are still raised defensively. "Who are you and why are you here?"
The stranger looks like he's seen a ghost. Maybe he has. The swamp is known to show people their past, especially the most painful moments. It only shows her the dragon-beard man and the tattooed boy. Kei thinks that she wants tattoos someday, too.
"Something called me here," he says. He tugs experimentally on the vine holding his right arm in place. Kei tightens it and her eyes narrow.
Strangers are bad for the swamp. Ma and Pa told her so. Not since the Fire Lord started looking for the Avatar in the Water Tribes.
"He don't know we live here," Ma said. "And if he don't know we live here, he can't come lookin' for the Avatar."
Avatar, Kei thinks. Wonder what that'd be like.
She doesn't even think about the wind and the water or the way the earth slides under her feet. You have to be old to be the Avatar and Kei certainly isn't old.
"The tree doesn't call outsiders here anymore. It's dangerous."
Ryuu slithers down her leg into the water at calf-height. He's a good swimmer and Kei snorts with pride as he shoots across the surface and latches onto the stranger's leg. He yelps–startled, not scared–and tries to shake Ryuu off but Kei straps his legs to the tree with another set of vines.
Kei laughs as Ryuu settles on the stranger's shoulder and stares at him. Ryuu, like the swamp, doesn't like strangers.
"It was a vision," the man says, his eyes flickering to the serpent on his shoulder. He sounds oddly relaxed for a trapped man with a snake on his body. "I saw Aang, the last Avatar. He told me the new Avatar needed an earthbending teacher, and we were friends when he was young."
"There isn't an Avatar in the swamps."
The stranger looks at her and blinks several times, like he can't see her quite right. Then an understanding dawns on his tan face. "Well, this is where he sent me," he challenges.
Kei cocks her head at the man. She can't let him go because then her Ma would be mad. But she's not sure her Ma would like her leading him straight to their village either.
She huffs. Only one other thing to do.
Kei slides across the water and hops up the tree she's pinned the man to. She can hear him talking to her, but she isn't listening. No, her eyes are closed and her hand is on the tree. She's looking, looking for her Ma and Pa and maybe even Uncle Bo so she can tell him she found his catgator.
It takes a minute but she finds them all sitting at the base of the great banyan tree. She wills them to see her, see the stranger, and she pulls her hand away when a feeling, not an emotion or pain of some kind, just a feeling, washes over her like midsummer rains.
Kei hops back down. Ryuu is still on the stranger's shoulder. With her Ma and Pa and Uncle on the way, she doesn't have to worry about what to do with the stranger.
She tries to stay quiet and scare him with a serious face and crossed arms, but she's only thirteen suns old and curiosity gets the better of her.
"Where do you come from?" she asks, swinging from a low-hanging branch by the stranger's face.
"I live in a city called Omashu."
Kei ponders this. "Does it have a big, great tree like here?"
"No, but it does have super slides. Some people use them for mail. I just like to use them as slides."
"I don't think I'd like it there. I like the tree."
The man shrugs. "Easy to say when you've never left here."
Kei gasps. She grips a vine and swings in front of him, hanging there like a baby hog monkey.
"How do you know I ain't ever left?"
His eyes flicker from side to side. Ryuu no longer bothers him and the snake has curled contentedly into his neck.
"Intuition?"
"I don't know that word."
"It means I just felt it in my bones."
"Oh! Like I do with the tree!"
The waterbender decides she likes this stranger. She can feel the energy in him the same way she can feel the energy rippling through the swamp, and she likes what she feels. It's safe and sound but there's something fun and familiar about it that sets Kei's soul at ease.
"My name is Kei," she says finally.
The man's hand moves by his side, but it's still pinned. He moved his shoulders and looks back at her with those unfamilar-familar eyes.
"My name is Bumi."
ii.
The village leaders tell Kei of a vision the First Tree showed them.
A boy with arrow tattoos drowning in the South Sea. The death of a thousand airbenders. An evil, evil man with hot coals for eyes and a star so close and so bright that the smallest flame grew into a great inferno.
"A great spirit called Raava lives in you, Kei," says Elder Renshu. He sits with his long, skinny legs crossed and a banyan leaf hat covers half his face in shadow. "The First Tree showed us who you are and told us what we had to do keep you safe until you were old enough to leave. You are the Avatar."
"Raava?" she echoes. She's never heard of a spirit called Raava, but it echoes through her like she's a cave, filling her with sound and surety.
"A light spirit," says Elder Asha, "that's responsible for peace and order."
Kei looks at her chest. "I have light inside me?"
Renshu chuckles. "Something like that."
Bumi sits to the side by her Ma and Pa. Since untying him from the vines, Bumi hasn't said a single word. Kei looks to him and he smiles at her, crooked. Something flashes behind her eyes–a little boy, with wild brown hair and a green headband. Laughter rings in her ears.
"I'm really the Avatar?" asks Kei.
The elders nod.
"Is Bumi going to train me?"
Renshu and Asha look to one another and then to the earthbender who is quietly sipping from a bowl of water.
They haven't had a stranger wander so far into their swamps in nearly ten years. When the tree told them of little Kei's destiny, it promised the girl protection for as long as it could. Now, it seems the tree's blessing has worn thin and they know danger will soon come looking for Kei.
"Yes," says Renshu. "It seems he is."
iii.
Kei learns earthbending easily enough. Bumi guides her through stances and technique and pushes her until she doesn't want to ever bend another rock in her life.
A year passes. Kei grows stronger. Outsiders begin to wander further into the swamp.
Kei overhears her mama and papa one night. She's fourteen now and every bit as curious as the year before.
"Bumi made a trip into Gaoling for information. People are saying Fire Lord Sozin's beginning to round up southern waterbenders and has laid siege in the north," says Ma. Kei notices that her voice is sad and low. She wants to hug her Ma but then she won't hear the rest of what she has to say.
"They're getting desperate," Pa says in a hushed voice. "They know the Avatar isn't a baby anymore. And Sozin is getting old. He knows he doesn't have much time left before his heir takes the throne."
"She's just a child, Nobuo. How can we expect her to do this? There's no way she'll be strong enough–" Ma breaks off in a sob. Kei's heart twists and she decides she's heard more than she wanted to hear.
The next morning, she arrives at her training grounds long before Bumi arrives. It's a square-shaped plateau of earth that her teacher ripped out of the swamp so she could learn to seperate the feeling of water and earth. (Kei thinks its weird not to have mud caked in her bare toes when she bends, but Bumi is the master so who is she to argue?) Her feet slide shoulder width apart, her arms raise. She tells herself she is an immovable, unstoppable force. She's a mountain and nothing–not even an ugly, old Fire Lord–can move her.
Kei jumps, kicking a large rock towards the trunk of a nearby tree. It doesn't quite reach it, not enough power behind the move. She tries thrusting her first forward in a sharp jab to give the rock extra momentum, but her reach is still unreliable.
The rock lands in a puddle of water with a disheartening splash. She sighs and readjusts her stance. Somewhere behind her, the dragon-beard man tells her to sink deeper into her feet and square her shoulders.
Breathe into the move to give it power and out when you release, the bearded man says.
You're a lot better at this than I would've ever been, the tattooed boy says. He's always encouraging her.
Kei nods. She tries again.
This time, the rock blows a hole straight through the center of the trunk.
iv.
Four months later, Bumi declares he's taught the young Avatar all he knows. And while mastery of two elements is something to celebrate, the course of action that comes next is a troubling one.
Kei must learn fire and air, but both are short-handed in the field of teachers.
The elders, her parents, and Sifu Bumi discuss Kei's training for several days. Eventually, they come to the inevitable conclusion: Kei must leave the Foggy Swamp.
Bumi makes one last trip into Gaoling alone and returns with clothes that are scratchy in comparison to the simple wraps Kei has worn her entire life. He also brings a rucksack large enough to curl Ryuu into and a small amount of supplies that should last them until they make it to Ba Sing Se.
Kei isn't supposed to know why they're going to the capitol city but from what she's gathered from eavesdropped conversations, Bumi thinks a flower can help. A White Lotus.
How he came to that conclusion, Kei isn't sure. But the tree has magic even she doesn't understand so maybe the flower does too.
When she leaves, her Ma and Pa see her off. Ma's eyes are wet and Pa squeezes her in a bone-crushing grip. Bumi lays a hand on her shoulder to comfort her and when they've disappeared into the labyrinth of trees, set first for Gaoling and then Ba Sing Se, he makes funny jokes and shows her how to use earthbending just for fun.
He almost makes her forget that she's leaving everything she's ever known.
They make it to the edge of the swamp. With a few twists of her hands, she bends the water out of her boots and reaches up to stroke the side of Ryuu's scaly face.
Kei looks over her shoulder one more time and searches the tree line. She hopes to see something–someone–familiar peaking out at her, but all she sees is a screeching bird. Her mama and papa are long gone.
"You'll be back before you know it," says Bumi. His voice is light and chirpy but even Kei can sense that something weighs it down.
"You really think so?"
Bumi nods. "Absolutely."
They both know he's lying.
v.
Kei discovers that Bumi's White Lotus isn't a flower–it's a group and they've been around for a long, long time.
Unlike the elders of her tribe, they talk to her like she's all grown up. They listen to her and they include her in their meetings. How should the Avatar continue her training? When will she be ready to confront the Fire Nation? Where will she learn airbending when the Air Nomads have all been murdered or enslaved?
Mostly, Kei just listens. The few things she has to say pertain to her training.
The members of the White Lotus fascinate her. Kei has only seen the pale skin and green eyes of the Foggy Swamp Tribe but she's heard enough stories to know the four nations haven't gotten along since early in the dragon-beard man's life. Nationality didn't seem to bother the White Lotus. Fire Nation swapped old war stories with Northern Water Tribe and benders mixed with non-benders all the same.
Kei listens. She learns and waits. This is the kind of world I want to make, she thinks.
The White Lotus find her a firebending teacher but she's far away from their base in Ba Sing Se, located in one of the outer Fire Nation islands. There are concerns about her traveling so far, that she might be caught by the Fire Nation; but Bumi reminds them that they still think the Avatar has been born in the Southern or Northern Tribes. (Kei forgets that the world doesn't know a third tribe lives in the swamp. She considers how different Fire Lord Sozin might be if he had grown up with the First Tree to guide him.)
In the end, Bumi and a waterbender from the Northern Tribe accompany her. The waterbender teaches her how to heal and fine tunes her bending for combat along the way. Bumi continues to drill her until she's able to bend earth with the simple jut of her chin.
They arrive in a town called Hira'a. It's small and secluded, far away from the capital. Only a few Fire Nation foot soldiers are in town and they spend most of their time at a local bathhouse drinking fire whiskey.
Her firebending teacher lives in a small hut at the base of the mountain that looks over the town. It's sagging to one side with a few koala sheep outside.
Bumi knocks on the front door.
A woman, old like her papa, answers.
Before anyone can make introductions, Kei grins wide. "Rina!" she blurts.
The woman looks down at her. Her eyes are a familiar shade of amber and her cheekbones sit high and proud.
"You must be Kei," says Rina, smiling. "I've been expecting you."
"You're the bearded man's daughter!"
Rina laughs and steps to the side so that they can come in. It's cozy inside with a hearth pressed to one wall, a small eating area and a doorway that leads into another room where Kei thinks she probably keeps her bedroll.
She's still adjusting to the idea of houses with more than one room, houses made out of stones and wood, not leaves and vines.
"Yes, I am Avatar Roku's daughter. The White Lotus told me that you're in need of a firebending teacher. Tea?"
Sifu Bumi and the waterbending master, Kamiko, accept the offer gratefully. They sit around a rickety wooden table. Rina pours Kei a cup, too, and sits it down next to her.
With Bumi on one side and Rina on the other, she can feel happiness bursting through her. She feels the same way with Rina as she had with Bumi. Her energy is like a small flame dancing in Kei's palm, big enough to keep her warm and light her path but small enough to keep from burning her.
Kei scoots to the edge of her chair and peers into her cup of tea with thin eyes. Small pieces of leaves have settled at the bottom and its a pale yellow color. She's never had this drink before. She sniffs it and her nose wrinkles.
The girl notices all three of her teachers are looking at her with humor. Kei feels embarrassed and the tips of her ears, which are thankfully covered by her tangled brown hair, grow warm.
She picks up the cup and sips. She wants to spit it out but manages to swallow her drink and she sets the cup back down.
Maybe her past lives liked it, but Kei was sure she could go the rest of her life without another cup.
Kei pulls her rucksack from her back and pulls Ryuu out. Maybe he'd enjoy a drink.
Ryuu wraps around her arm and his head settles on top of her palm. His forked tongue flicks out and his whiskers wiggle.
"You carry a water serpent with you, Avatar?" asks Rina.
"His name is Ryuu," says Kei. "I don't know what he is. I found him in the swamps. He was sick. I helped him get better and I tried to send him away but he kept coming back. Bumi says every Avatar has an animal guide. I think Ryuu is mine."
"I think so, too."
Kei continues to stroke Ryuu's head and hums under her breath. She hasn't been able to simply be since she left home several months ago. With her teachers' energy wrapped around her like a safety blanket, she lets herself think like a girl for just a little bit.
No more bending. No more Fire Lords. No more Avatar duties.
For now, she thinks about her mama and papa and the great banyan-grove tree. She thinks of all of the wonderful (and terrible) things she's seen on her journey. So many new animals and plants and people and cities. She wonders how much more of the world there is to see. Right now, she wants to go to one of the other Water Tribes and see what snow looks like.
Then reality settles in when Rina asks her if she's ever been able to firebend before. Kei scratches the back of her neck and something akin to shame grows in her chest. "I've tried," she says. "I just… can't."
Rina smiles that soft, motherly smile Kei hasn't seen since she left the swamp and shrugs. "That's quite all right. Most Avatars struggle to master the element furthest from their personality. Typically, it's the element opposite their origin so it makes sense you struggle with fire. My father struggled with water the most."
In her mind, she sees a vision of the bearded man. His hair is still a deep brown, pulled into a Fire Nation bun with the crown on top, and he's wearing a blue parka that swallows him. His waterbending master bends a snake-like drill of water at him that breaks off the portion of the glacier Roku stands on. Roku twists and bends his arms but the water ignores his command and he flies into the water. He emerges, frowning as ice water drips into his eyes.
Kei blinks and her spirit returns to the small hut.
"When can we start?" Kei interrupts Rina as she asks Bumi and Kamiko about her mastery of water and earth.
"Well, you've just finished a long journey and I'm sure you're tired–"
"I don't want to wait. Can we start tomorrow, Master Rina?"
Bumi interjects. "I'm all for you finishing your Avatar training, squirt, but we just spent almost two months traveling to get here and you spent the entire time training with us. You need a little rest."
The young girl in her disappears and something older and wiser takes its place. "I don't have time to rest. Fire Lord Sozin is destroying the Water Tribes. The western coast of the Earth Kingdom is filled with Fire Nation colonies and the entire kingdom itself is full of spies. Even with Sozin so old, the war isn't going to stop when he dies. People say his son, Azulon, is even worse. You treat me like I'm just a regular kid but I'm not. You plan my training and my future without me and you don't tell me all the things I need to know. I have a duty to bring balance to the world."
Her teachers watch her with careful eyes. Behind Rina, the tattooed boy nods at her.
Are you sure? Kei asks
They need to know, replies Aang.
"Aang didn't die during the attack on the air temples. He'd ran away the night before." Bumi already knows this but she figures if she explains it to her other teachers they'll understand her urgency.
"That's impossible," Kamiko exclaims. She's old, older than Rina and Papa, old like the great banyan tree. Lines run through her brown face and around her blue eyes. It makes her look like she's angry all the time but Kei knows that the woman really just misses her home.
The Avatar turns and stares at the waterbender. Its not the stare of a fourteen-year-old girl. It is the look of an ancient, powerful soul. "He died in the South Sea. A storm pulled him under the waves. Avatar Roku provided him with a vision so that he could make a fully-informed choice: Use the Avatar State and remain frozen for one hundred years or drown and allow the next Avatar to reincarnate so they could stop the war from destroying the balance of the world for good." Kei paused. "My life shows the sacrifice he made. I will not waste the extra time he's given me resting."
vi.
Kei arrives at Rina's hut at dawn. Her master says firebenders draw power from the sun the same way waterbenders draw power from the moon; she says the rising sun will help her find the fire in her soul.
Rina sips from another cup of tea as she instructs Kei how to breathe and meditate in the morning sun.
"Breathe in through your nose and release through your mouth. Your breath becomes energy within your body and is released in the form of fire. Without proper breath, there cannot be fire."
Kei hums. "Yes, Master Rina."
They spend the day breathing and basking in the sun. Kei finds that she likes the feeling of it on her skin. In the swamp, only a few choice pieces peak through the canopy and she hasn't had the time to sit and enjoy the feeling of it while traveling. It turns her skin dark and lightens pieces of her black hair. If Ma and Pa saw her, she doubts they'd recognize her. (She's also grown significantly taller and her body is corded with muscles that are only strengthening by the day. When she looks at her reflection, she feels so sure and strong about the person she's becoming.)
Later, when the sun finally begins to sink into the horizon, Rina releases her from her tutelage.
"Be here tomorrow," she says, "at sunrise."
Kei bows and makes the trip back into town where Bumi and Kamiko have secured a hut for the duration of her training. It's small with only two rooms but Kamiko makes it cozy and she and Bumi always have food ready for her when she comes home.
Kamiko feeds her a bowl of sticky rice and fish. Kei eats, drinks what water remains in her flask, and falls asleep promptly on her bed roll.
All too soon, a pigster crows at dawn. Kei rises from her bed roll, shrugs on her new Fire Nation clothes–a sleeveless red top that crawls up her neck, baggy brown pants with a belt with the Fire Nation insignia, and gloves that reached just below her elbow, hooking on her middle finger and leaving her palm bare–and makes her way to Rina's hut.
She does this for what feels like years but must only be a week or two. The strange, controlled way Rina makes her breathe soon becomes natural and slowly a small speck of light begins to emerge in her. When she's sitting in the sun with her eyes closed, her body folded into the Lotus position, she can feel it pulsing in her like a tiny heartbeat. She coaxes it, feeds it, encourages it with each breath.
Finally, when Kei arrives early in the morning after several weeks of patient breathing, Rina says, "Come with me. We aren't practicing your breathing today."
Rina leads her to a path in the forest of bamboo behind her hut. It climbs up the mountain, soft in some spots and so harsh in others that Kei wishes she could use her earthbending to carry herself to wherever Rina is leading her.
It's midmorning when they reach their destination. Kei concludes it's a training area. It's a large open circle with rocks defining the border of the ring. There are scorch marks in the dirt and on the rocks and there are a few burned trees nearby.
"Am I going to firebend today?"
Rina shrugs off the wrapping over her deep red tunic. "That is entirely up to you, Avatar."
Her master begins to lead her through forms that flow into one another and look nothing like the sharp, angry movements she's seen from the firebenders on the road. Rina's firebending reminds her of waterbending in the way it constantly changes, moves, adapts to the commands Rina provides.
Rina finishes a set and intructs Kei to follow her movements. Excitement bubbles in her. This is it, she thinks. I'm finally going to do it.
One fist follows the other and Rina stops her several times to correct her footwork. As they continue moving, Kei understands why she spent so long just breathing. Each punch, each kick, demands her breath and by the time lunch arrives she's covered in sweat, gasping for air. She hasn't created even so much as a small spark which frustrates her to no end but Rina assures her that it's alright. It took Roku months to even learn how the ocean pushes and pulls.
Aang assures her too and Kei has to hide her smile on the back of her fist as the boy cheers her on. She can never see him but his voice flickers in and out of her mind like a second conscious.
On her seventh week in Hira'a, she bends her first flame. Kei shouts and juggles the small thing around her body before it sputters out.
"Rina! Master Rina! Did you see it? I did it!"
Her teacher is laughing full belly laughs that shake her entire body as she watches her student thrust her fist out and another small flame fights its way into existence. With the fire in her hands now, she moves through the sets Rina taught her and the flame begins to grow until Kei is bending a full inferno around her body.
Kei finishes with a roar and watches with wonder as a long, messy stream of fire erupts from her mouth. When she's finished, she brings her hands to her chest and exhales the way Rina taught her.
Rina's laughter quiets and pride glows in her eyes. There's also a hint of sadness, but it's not the bad kind. "Congratulations, Avatar. Now let's work on perfecting that roar."
vii.
While Rina hones Kei's firebending, rumors of surviving airbenders in the Earth Kingdom reach their small village.
"There's a rumor spreading that there are safe houses high up in the mountains. Airbenders are gathering in them in hopes that they can keep those who remain safe and alive," Kamiko says one day over dinner. It makes Kei perk up, puts a little energy in her step after a long day of fire fists and hot squats.
"There are airbenders still alive?" Kei asks. Hope spreads in her chest. This is what Aang sacrificed his life for. She'd thought that she'd lived in the swamp for too long, wasted too much time, to save the Air Nomads from extinction.
Kamiko nods. "It sounds like it. This makes finding you an airbending master a lot simpler. When Master Rina finishes with you, we can start looking for one of these safe houses."
Kei can't help the wide grin on her face. She shovels down what food is left on her plate and excuses herself, running through the front door as quickly as she can.
Even though their hut is situated in town near all the hustle and bustle of people working, Kei still manages to find a quiet spot for meditating behind an empty apothecary store. When she lived in the swamp, she meditated almost every day. She connected with the tree and it showed her visions of the swamp's history and of all the creatures that lived there. Sometimes it showed her visions of other people's lives, which she now realizes were memories from her past lives. Her journeys had taken a lot of her past-times from her, but she needs to talk to Aang and so she makes time to meditate.
Kei throws herself on the ground and quickly twists herself into the Lotus position. She calms her breathing and opens her mind. Aang? she whispers.
"Hello, Kei!"
The young girl opens her eyes. Aang sits in front of her, mirroring her position. His gray eyes sparkle and Kei knows before she even says it that he knows too.
"Aang, there's surviving airbenders! They're still alive!"
The tattooed boy smiles and laughs. "I heard when your waterbending teacher told you. I was so worried. I thought… I thought that maybe the Avatar would be too late to make a difference, but wow!"
Their happiness is a contagious thing. Aang still appears as young as the day he died and Kei has long outgrown him, but together they talk like they're little children. They plan rescuing the airbenders and Aang promises he'll teach her what he can as a spirit so she can prove that she's one of them, too. (He's adamant that he teaches her a move called the air scooter, something he invented himself that allowed him to become a master.)
Kei and Aang talk for so long that soon a pigster crows and the young Avatar realizes she hasn't slept a wink. She's strangely not tired, rather filled with an energy and wonderment she hasn't felt since she first learned she was the Avatar.
"I have to get to training, but we can talk again tonight and you can teach me airbending movements."
Aang nods excitedly. "Absolutely. Good-bye, Kei! Good luck at training!"
viii.
As the months pass and Kei's skills grow, she grows more and more anxious about the surviving airbenders. If she's heard about it in little Hira'a, she knows Fire Lord Sozin has in the capitol.
Rina senses Kei's anxiousness and does her best to adjust her training. Kei trains harder, longer, and Rina pushes her to perfection. She knows the urgency in her student and she knows what is at stake.
Kei goes home exhausted, covered in soot, with the occasional burn that Kamiko has to heal, almost every day, but she wouldn't have it any other way.
She's been with Rina one year and three weeks, only three months after the airbending rumors began, when the master says Kei has completed her training.
"I've taught you all I know. You still need to practice form and strengthen your breathing, but it's nothing you can't do by yourself." Bumi and Kamiko are with her and Rina looks to them. "I think she's ready to find her airbending teacher."
Kei jumps and squeals almost louder than when she firebended for the first time. When she sees Kamiko's serious gaze on her, she composes herself quickly and diverts her gaze. "Sorry," she mumbles.
"I can provide you with enough supplies to make it to the Earth Kingdom. After that, you'll be on your own," Rina says. Kei's still struggling to stay still and suppresses a giggle when her master winks at her.
Bumi nods and bows. "That's more than enough. Thank you, Rina."
"It was my honor teaching the Avatar," says her teacher. She looks sad for a moment, but Kei rushes forward and smothers it with a tight hug.
ix.
The journey back to the Earth Kingdom flies by like nothing. Kei feels more confident than ever. She's the Avatar. And she's going to be the one to save the Air Nomads.
Frequent lessons with Aang have taught her basic airbending moves. While her predecessor can't actually bend anymore, that doesn't stop him from guiding her through the circular footwork and defensive stances. With his instruction, she's even been able to create a less-successful version of the air scooter. When she shows Bumi and Kamiko, the two are amazed and Bumi wants to try what she's learned against earthbending.
Kei gets hit with rocks more than she'd like and she wouldn't consider herself a master by any means, but she begins to easily incorporate air into her routine multi-bending drills.
It's almost disheartening when she realizes that finding the airbenders isn't so cut and dry. Bumi says he's not sure what she expected. They've survived twenty years after the genocide for a reason and it hasn't been by posting flyers that say, 'Surviving airbenders this way! Come find us!' he says.
But they travel from small town to small town, asking about odd events or people with strange coverings. They follow a bread-crumb trail to the mountains in the north. On the way, they travel by serpent's pass and Kei releases Ryuu into the lake. He's grown too large to carry in a rucksack and Kei knows she can't take him into the icy mountains without hurting him.
She cries when she sets him in the water and nuzzles cheeks with him.
"Hey, I'll come back for you, bud. We can go live on Whale Tail Island and swim everyday."
Ryuu, the size of a baby dragon and much too heavy for Kei to carry now, hisses and shakes his head before he disappears under the water. She sees his dark purple scales flash under the surface before he disappears.
The Avatar is quiet for the rest of the day. It's the longest she's ever been away from her animal friend.
When Kei has nearly given up all hope, the owner of a small vegetable farm tells her about a small group of vegetarians living in the nearby mountains who frequently come down to buy food from him.
"They're always wearing full coverings even if it's summer in the middle of a heatwave!" says the farmer.
Kei grips Bumi's hand tightly when the farmer says this. Finally, she thinks. Finally, I've found you.
The group replenishes their supplies and not even a day later begin their trek up the mountain.
The higher they go, the colder it gets and Kei finds herself miserable. She's never been somewhere so cold but Kamiko says it reminds her of home, just with more rocks. After a day of traveling, Kei sees snow for the first time and Kamiko takes the opportunity to further the young Avatar's knowledge of phase changing in combat.
They follow a narrow path through the mountains that appears as if it hasn't been used in years. There are no footprints or trail markers, only the howling wind and a churning in Kei's gut.
She feels like someone is watching her. Kei can only hope it's the airbenders biding their time.
When the sun begins to set, they camp for the night and squeeze around a small fire that Kei coaxes to life. Bumi stays awake to keep guard and Kei falls into a restless sleep. Her dreams are filled with nothing but darkness and in the morning she wakes covered in a cold sweat.
At high noon the next day, they discover a cabin. It peaks out of the mountains on a flat area of land. Tall trees surround it and make it almost invisible to the average traveller.
Kei stumbles through the snow until she reaches it and pushes the door open. She isn't sure what she thinks she'll see, but this isn't it.
The cabin is empty and whatever excitement Kei felt sours until it tastes like ash in her mouth.
Still she enters and begins to look around. She pushes back the hood of her coat and tugs off her gloves. In one corner, there is a wooden table with a few items and books on it. Walking over, she begins to inspect and her hope returns.
A book titled Sky Bison: A History of the Original Benders and a golden locket with a bald man on the front are among the items. Then Kei notices an air glider and orange robes in the corner and she lets out a small noise of happiness.
"Bumi! Kamiko!" she calls. "Come look!"
Her teachers enter the cabin and begin to look with her. At first glance it seemed like nothing. But now it was everything. Proof that an entire people hadn't been destroyed.
Kei moves to inspect a fireplace in the corner and brushes her fingers across the mantle. Her fingers catch on something and she picks it up. It's a piece of jerky, probably dried from a koala sheep. Kei frowns as she looks at it.
Then she looks up and, for the third time, takes in the room. At first glance, it was empty. At second glance, it was full of timeless artifacts and proof that the airbenders were still alive. At third glance… Everything seemed perfect. Perfectly placed and organized, almost strategic.
Kei looks back into the jerky in her hand and she remembers the vegetable farmer. Air Nomads are vegetarians, she remembers.
"Bumi," Kei calls slowly, placing the jerky down. "I don't think any airbenders live here."
"What are you talking about?" he says happily. "Look at all these artifacts! And the coals in the fire are still hot. Aang would be so happy."
"Bumi, there's no kindling."
Her earth master looks around and his face begins to fall and harden.
"And I found jerky over here. Air Nomads don't eat jerky."
Kamiko inhales sharply, her eyes wide and alert. "They're luring them out with the rumors and cabin. It's a set-up! We need to–"
The cabin's front door bursts open and four Fire Nation soldiers, clad in their coal black armour, spill through the door.
"You are under arrest by order of his eminence Fire Lord Sozin! Keep your hands visible and do not bend."
Kamiko's hands twitch for the waterskins at her side and Kei watches Bumi go deathly still. Three on four? They could take those odds, right?
Kei makes the choice for them.
Stomping down, she rips a chunk of the earth out of the ground and launches it at the group of Fire Nation shoulders. It hits two of them, blasting them through the wall behind them. Bumi and Kamiko burst into action, launching a volley of attacks on the two remaining soldiers. Kei leaves them to it and hops through the hole she made in the cabin wall.
The two soldiers are recovering, dazed by the blow. One of them adjusts the helmet on his head and snarls, kicking out with one of his legs and bringing his right fights forward for a powerful jet of flames.
Kei ducks and swings low to the ground, kicking out her foot so a trail of rocks hits the soldier in the foot and puts him off-balance. The soldier falls and Kei finishes him with a sweep of her arms, the snow beneath him carrying him off the side of the mountain.
The remaining soldier gapes at her. "No," he says.
Kei doesn't respond, only changes the snow near her into a whip of water that she lashes out and uses to grip the soldier. She pulls her arms around and then pushes them away, flinging the soldier to the ground, and brings her arm down quickly to slam him in the stomach with her water whip.
She's feeling rather proud of herself when Kamiko calls her name. "Watch out!"
Kei spins and her gut sinks. An entire squadron of Fire Nation soldiers marches down the mountain, surrounding the cabin and closing off any means of escape.
Three to four odds she can handle. But this? She isn't so sure. Not without the Avatar State and she's never entered it, never even felt it brush the edge of her spirit.
She tries. She really does. She uses every lesson she's been taught and even employs a little airbending here and there to slam soldiers into trees.
But there are hundreds of soldiers, all dying to claim the honor that bringing the missing Avatar back to their Fire Lord will give them and she's no match for that.
They tie her up and separate her from Bumi and Kamiko. She's bleeding and bruised and burned in more places than she cares to count and it hurts to breathe. When they load her onto an airship, her eyes are too swollen for her to even see where they lead her. All she knows is that it smells like metal and death, and she's never wanted to go home more in her life.
Once they've reached a cell far away from anyone else, they unlock it and toss her inside like she's no more than a sack of rotten fish.
She cries out through the cloth they've tied over her mouth, her body throbbing. She's crying; she can feel the tears making tracks down her filthy face.
"Enjoy the rest of your life in a prison, Avatar," a soldier hisses and the metal door screeches shut. She can hear his boots echoing down the hallway, growing distant and quieter until all she's left with is the aching hole in her heart and the sound of her own broken breathing.
tbc.