Before time
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As the earth reclaims it's dueAnd the cycle starts anew
We'll stay always
In the love we have shared
Before timeUmmi was the prefect northern Water tribe girl. She was gentle, polite, soft-spoken and above all obedient. She was everything a father could want in a daughter and yet her father could barely to stand to look upon the child who reminded him so much of the wife he had lost by obtaining her.
He remarried of course, as quickly as possible in fact. It wasn't for love though. Some said that after the loss of his wife Yupik lost the ability to love but love or not he was a man and a man needed a woman to take care of his household and to warm his furs. That's what women along with healing were for. So a week after the death of his wife and the birth of his daughter Yupik married Akani.
She was a young woman barely past her marriage age and Ummi had always suspected that her step mother had had her eye on a boy closer to her own age before her father had informed her of her marriage to Yupik. Akani was pretty and sweet and like Ummi hopelessly trapped with a man who didn't love her.
It couldn't have been easy being barely fifteen and married to a man like Yupik with a child who wasn't hers to care for. To make matters worse Yupik refused to consummate their marriage denying Akani the one thing she would ever be considered of worth for, baring a son. It must have been heartbreaking knowing that she was to care for the child of another woman but to have none of her own. She would never be able to hold her head high in the streets.
Akani couldn't however bring herself to hate Ummi; her poor start in life was hardly her fault. Despite what her father thought. So she raised Ummi as though she were her own and taught her everything she would need to know to be a good wife even if Akani had never had to put such things into practice. Yupik seldom came home to his own house any more instead he spent most of his spare time drinking leaving Akani's free of any cooking and or cleaning duties. Beyond the bare minimum of course.
And so Ummi grew into a beautiful young woman and on the full moon at the gathering of the two tribes she fell in love. With The Avatar.
Avatar Kuruk was proud and arrogant and hopelessly charming. Many young women had fallen in love with him and he certainly didn't mind the attention. In fact if anything it made him worse. There wasn't a woman in the Four Nations they said that hadn't allowed themselves to be enchanted by Avatar Kuruk. He was extremely charismatic with a heartbreaking grin and a cocky manor that was simply irresistible even for a sensible girl like Ummi.
The only catch was that while Ummi had fallen in love with Kuruk, Kuruk had fallen in love with Ummi. It was if the Spirits had struck them down with a magical arrow or something. Kuruk proposed to Ummi on the next full moon.
You see there comes a time in every mans life where he decides what it is he truly wants. And what Kuruk truly wanted was to be with Ummi, forever, he would do anything for her, in fact since he had met her Kuruk had been startled to find himself for the lack of a better term, mellowing out. It was a slightly scary revelation, He could remember when, not to long ago, he hadn't been able to walk down the street without looking for a challenge of some sort, something he could show off in. But now he was more than content to spend his time with Ummi.
They were married beside the Spirit Oasis on the next full moon in full Water Tribe regalia. Akani had risked her husband's wrath in giving Ummi her mothers wedding robes. But he wasn't coming to the wedding and would never find out.
Kuruk and Ummi had barely been married a minute when in a sudden chill that seeped into the Avatars bones passed over the constantly fair weathered oasis and Ummi fell into the sprit pool her body vanishing as it was enveloped by the water. Her kind eyes wide and her tweaking moth screaming in pure horror.
Kuruk dived in after her but Ummi was already gone and no trace of her ever being in the sprit oasis remained. He had loved her and now she was lost, even her footprints so light they barely made a mark on the snow were gone.
And deep within the realm of the spirits in a hollow tree stump a black centipede laughed through Ummi's lips as her faceless body struggled along the ground slowly suffocating.
"Don't worry dying is not so bad, you'll get another face. Except, your eyes are so lovely, you don't mind if I keep them do you?"
Koh the face stealer turned to Avatar's wife lying dead among the rotting wood and smirked.
"Didn't think you would,"
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She was proud and arrogant and loved to show off, it didn't matter whom for. She was the worlds greatest Earthbender and no one was going to forget it! And he had kind eyes and footsteps that were so light they barely left a trace on the ground.
Yet still Aang felt a deep chill seep into his bones whenever he gazed into Toph's sightless eyes. They never focused behind those milky films instead they stared into space like they were really somewhere else.
If the years take awayEvery memory that I have
I would still know the way
That would lead me back to your side.
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STORY NOTESUmmi: I know nothing of Ummi's family so everything you read here as far as her family concerned is non canon.