"So I'm presuming you have no idea who I might be then, no?" Aang and I walked along the spirit fields, on our way to some unknown destination. He looked down at me with a smirk on his face and I used the short distance between us to study him up close. He was definitely older than me and I kept to my earlier presumption of him being in his early twenties, give or take a few years. Height also seemed to be something that separated us; I may not be tall but I was nowhere near small and yet he still stood to be around five inches bigger.
I focused on our conversation once again and tried to think about a truthful answer without seeming rude."Well, to be honest, no. Your name rings some bells and you look quite familiar but I can't quite pin point where from." Looking down at my feet, I shuffled through my memories and tried my best to figure out when or where I had heard of him from. I had seen him before, definitely.
"Okay, okay, so we'll answer the questions you asked earlier first then, right?" I nodded in reply and looked up. Up until now we had been walking in silence for the first ten minutes of leaving the house and I had been balanced on the edge of having a panic attack or bursting from the excitement of new places. So to break the flustered phase I had been going under I supposed getting the answers would be a great start.
"First off my name is Aang and I was the previous avatar." The way he said it made me feel as though he thought of it as nothing. He just said it so simply with a quick shrug of his shoulders whilst avoiding my gaze and looking forward into the nothingness that was our path. All I knew was that the avatar was a being that connected the spirit and human worlds and that a girl name Korra was the current avatar. I recalled the powers that such a being possessed and as a child I would be envious of such 'cool' attributes, wishing them upon myself.
Suddenly understanding this made me realise why my parents were bowing fifteen minutes ago and it then proceeded to make me feel extremely underdressed and self conscious in his presence.
My clothes, however, were not what were making me most embarrassed, but instead it was the way he looked expectantly in my direction afterwards, as though he was ready for an excited puppy to emerge after finding out about his true occupation.
"Oh..." I murmured. And then it hit me, how is he even here? He should be dead, especially if Korra is alive. None of this made sense and I clutched harder onto the petite silver box I had received from my parents.
Aang must've been reading my body language because at that exact moment, he turned from being beside me and instead chose to walk in front, effortlessly stepping backwards. Instead of seeing a disappointed frown on his features I was instead greeted by a friendly grin that was almost filled with awe. If anything, it accentuated his childlike behaviour that had been appearing the more he had gotten comfortable around me. He certainly may have looked bigger in appearance, but he was the puppy here.
"I understand what you're thinking, how? Why?" The look he flashed at me made my heart melt; he was eager to tell someone about the Avatar, to be the teacher for once instead of the scolded student. It almost gave me the idea that he was..happy.. to know that I was nearly oblivious to the situation we were momentarily in.
The cheerful scene ended as quickly as it came.
"Well the truth is that Korra had...an incident. You see, the avatar is a human soul entwined with the spirit Raava, which is why, when the human dies, there is still a spirit that can move on, creating the new avatar. In this case that's Korra." I continued to nod; all of that had made sense but still didn't explain why Aang was here. He turned back around and returned to his position at my side as we continued to walk into the spirit woods. Obediently, I continued to listen.
"You see, even when the human dies, Raava is still entwined with their soul taking it with her as she moves on. This means that when the Avatar State is summoned, the past souls that Raava has collected share their knowledge and power; the more avatars there are, the stronger the avatar state gets. Understand?" It was getting complicated but I could still keep up and, surprisingly, it made sense. I wasn't completely certain what the Avatar state was though but it sounded intriguing, something I would want to hear more about.
As we walked, we were faced with bigger and bigger obstacles and had to duck and weave through any branches that sprouted in our direction. The air was getting thicker and the sky was gently turning from its light blue to a dull purple haze.
"So that's why the Avatar can sometimes change to look like their predecessors? What about Korra's...incident?" I questioned, waving my hand a little to accentuate the 'incident' part. His little speech made it so that I understood how avatars work, but not why he was here. I was aware of the little tricks that this mysterious bender could perform due to the books that my Father kept in the house, all of which contained the same man: Roku.
We continued walking through the woods, stepping across overgrown tree roots and hopping over any small stray mushrooms that were growing within the pathway as I awaited his response.
"Yes, exactly. Korra was in a fight with Unalaq, someone that had entwined their self with Vaatu, Raava's opposite. You could even go as far as saying that together, Unalaq and Vaatu were the Avatars opposite, hungry for destruction and ruin. She was struck down by this man and had Raava ripped out of her soul, along with the past lives she was entwined with." We had exited the dense area of the forest and were nearly out in the open. I had never been to this part of the World and a giant, aged tree ahead caught my attention for a second before I returned to listen to the man by my side.
"With Korra mentally broken and injured, Unalaq lashed out at Raava, supposedly destroying the past lives she had kept within her. Korra then used the spiritual connection she had previously mastered with my son to later defeat her enemy and regain her use over Raava and the Avatar state." The Airbender next to me had slowed his pace and seemed engrossed in his own storytelling but you could still see the longing on his face to be reunited with his children and wife. I steadied my walking to match his and we seemed to dawdle for a bit before he reached the end of his tale.
"She didn't however, gain her past lives back." A frown appeared on Aang's face and his forehead furrowed whilst he retold the devastating memory of his successor.
"Like I said earlier, the previous avatar's souls travel with her and, as you know, souls do not die, some even transform into spirits if the Gods allow it. The past lives that Unalaq thought he destroyed have nowhere to go and need a body to hold themselves within." He stopped talking completely and moved so that he was stressfully looking at me. I widened my eyes at the final statement- need a body- I looked to my right, stopped in my tracks and stared straight back into Aang's eyes, trying to comprehend what was just mentioned. Images of having the life transferred from one person to another appeared in my vision and immediately I regretted imagining such a nightmare.
"M-me?" I looked at him disbelievingly, the avatars needed to hold their souls within someone and I thought that must be me...
"Yes, Evelyn, you." He stopped to remain by my side and placed his two large hands on my shoulders to help steady me. "You see, you father was originally human, a man that died in battle and the son of a good friend of mine." I stopped thinking about being a human shell and this revelation left me utterly speechless. Human? I glanced over at Aang and a small, sad smile graced his lips. I tilted my head to the side, a sign to continue.
"He was an honest man with no wrong doings and died at a young age, fighting a battle that wasn't his. The spirits took care of his pure soul and has lived here ever since. You mother is a spirit, one of those that first took care of him. They grew to love one another and chose to have a family." I thought back to a few moments ago and recalled him mentioning the Gods being linked to the spirit realm, everything made sense, it all linked.
"Being their child means that you were born between two species and that means that you are half of each- roughly." I looked down at the ground worried. Half. I moved over to a nearby tree and sank down to my knees and tried to breathe in slowly. Aang also knelt down to my level, placed a hand on the bark by my head and continued.
"The body that the souls need has to be able to travel to the human's world in order to give wisdom to the avatar if needed. Pure spirits cannot travel using the portals, their aura is too strong to pass through safely so only weak ones or humans can make the journey. You are neither, so I ask of you, beg of you, for you to help us" I got to my feet once more and noticed the pleading look painted onto his features and looked directly ahead.
"This has got to be a joke-" I began.
"No. This is nothing of the sort. I believe that this could be a life changing experience for you and me alike, your parents believed so too." He moved from his crouched position and stood up straight to prove just how serious he was about the decision I would have to make.
I thought back to my parents, the people that willingly let me travel with someone they hardly knew, the people that would put me into this type of situation. Those same people are the ones that have done all they can to make sure that their child has an adventurous future and lives a life away from the confinement of the village. They obviously didn't like the fact that I was leaving and yet they have had all of this planned for years. I am not the only one having to make sacrifices. . I was also surprised as to why he was entrusting someone like me with his wisdom and mind. But some other things still didn't make sense too, if I was to have full trust in Aang, I would have to know all that I can to try and make everything add up
"Aang, I still don't understand how you are here; you say you need a body yet here you stand." It had gotten dark yet the spirit portal was bright enough to see, it was mere kilometres away. We had walked for little over twenty minutes now yet we had managed to walk over ten miles, being with the Airbender was an unusual experience in more ways than one.
"You see Evelyn; I am the souls of past avatars, reincarnated into a spirit, just like your father, but only as a temporary form, I cannot stay like this for much longer. But as I mentioned earlier, pure spirits cannot pass through the portal, technically I or we..." He gestures to himself "... are a pure being, we need you." After a moment of pause I looked up at the sky, following the seemingly endless beam of light coming from the portal ahead. I walked forward, ignoring the avatar by my side.
The village was nice and quiet...But that was all. Living a calm and serene life in a dainty village might sound nice to some, but me? No. I didn't like the idea of working alongside Mrs Briggs at the bakery or having to put up with Mr Norson's constant complaining about his fat wife. Life had its funny moments and I enjoyed the silence that could be occupied by my reading or drawing. But spending the rest of my life living in a routine is boring. Talking to the same people about the same things was boring. Living my life as a housewife or gardener was boring. I didn't want any of that. I would settle down some time. Just not right now.
"My family is back home, my loves and treasures are back home, but my life is still ahead of me. I.. will.. help you Aang, just promise me a life of thrill and adventure." Looking back up at him I noticed that he has stopped in his tracks. Turning round I found him standing still just looking at me in wonderment with a gentle smile painted across his lips. I returned the gesture.
Hope you liked this chapter. I'm starting to get further into the story now, explaining how and why my story line works. I think this should make it all more understandable...
Anyway, I will be updating every Sunday so I have plenty of time to write up a chapter in between school work and exams :(
See you in a week :D