Three years have passed since Sapphyre was named avatar. While she is not fully realised, she is able to bend each of the elements in one form or another.
The fire-princess had already mastered fire-bending, including combustion, lightning and redirection techniques. Next she managed to quickly master air-bending, though she laments that she was not allowed to get tattoos. While she did not master water-bending, the avatar showed remarkable progress. Her masters offered their son to teach her. Earth was another story entirely.
Sapphyre never managed to pick up regular earth-bending. She simply could not seem to even begin to move a pebble. Somehow Sapphyre was able to pick up metal-bending, changing from her old wood and paper fans to metal and meteor. Sapphyre was exstatic about this abbility, having long adored all the 'advanced' forms of bending.
Gon Zhee, a young but sensitive earth-bender offered to try and aide the avatar in learning the basics.
The avatars training was rushed due to the global enviroment, parts of the spirit community had been less than pleased with the murder of avatar Talen. Now, fifteen years later, those elements of the spirit community were lashing out more violently.
Spiritual water-benders, air benders and the odd energy bending clan had been forced to save abducted citizens near the portals and spirit-wilds. Without an active avatar, more humans began to fear that spirits would take over the physical world as well as the spirit world.
*A boy with brown hair was tied to a rack, seemingly asleep. The room was covered in shadow, figures shifted in the dark. Restless yet slow, whispers spread in the dark and gloom.
"Wake him." One voice said, slightly louder than the rest. Water flew from the shadows to the teens face, after a second he struggle as he tried to move his arms. After a minute of him struggling, the water dropped.
The boy gasped for air as a girl walked out. Half her face was covered in some sort of dark growth, red vines grew instead of hair above the growth. A bit more than half her body was deformed.
"Hello Avatar Talen, saviour of Basing-se." She sneered, her long dark fingers caressing his cheek. "Do you know who I am?"
The avatar tried to oped his mouth but the girl scratched his cheek. " Do not talk to miss Sato without permision." One of the shadows growled. The teen nodded his head in response.
"Do you know what happened to me, Avatar?" The girl growled before starting to scream at him, withdrawing the long disfigured arm. "Do you know why I have half a body? Why I can't go out public!"
The boy shook his head slowly, fearfully as he tried to draw back into the hard wood of the rack. "Answer me or I'll take your eyes!" She screamed, raising two forked fingers.
"No..." He whispered.
"Speak." Another shadow commanded.
"No." The child replied louder this time. The girl, miss Sato walked back. Her steps were heavy despite her small, frail frame.
A light flicked on, Aiko Sato stood next to a machine attatcked to a simple plank of wood. " Because of you..." she growled, eyes narrowed and hands caressing the device. "You let the spirits back into our world, you let that thing into my body."
The girl kissed the thing then turned to Talen with a smile. "My pretty here will make it better." She grinned, eyeing the avatar. "You will be gone... the avatar will be gone and everything will be allll better"
"Fire it up."
The weapon sparked into life, a low buzz emenating from the object. The peice of wood began to glow and a bolt electricity formed over between two cones. "Everyone, out." Sato ordered as she walked to the door swiftly "Leave the traitor to suffer."
The black cloaks swiftly exited the room, passing into long corridors which led away from the room and the device.
Talen anguished for two more minutes before being vaporised in a purple glow.*
The current avatar awoke violently, drenched in sweat and screaming. She felt her fear, soaked into the bedding, as she swung herself to the side and left the bed. The girl shivered in the cold air, the sticky moisture coating her body only worsening the problem.
With a few fluid movements of her arms, Sapphyre managed to remove the filth and terror from her skin, depositing it in a jug on one of her endtables.
With a few more movements she managed to do the same with her bed-clothes. The girl looked back at her bed and shivered, opting to rather visit the bathroom and wash the stench of dispair from her flesh.
Hours later she came across another boy roughly her age. His skin was dark like chocolate and his eyes shone like the ocean. One of the sleeves of his furred robes hung empty, the result of an accident which left him without his right arm. "Morning, Avatar Sapphyre." He greeted with a curt and almost hesitant bow.
"Hello Kon-dar." She replied, trying to return the gesture without revealing her pain.
"What's wrong?" He asked "...the sun isn't even up yet." Kon-dar held her as she attempted to push past.
"Nothing, I'm just up for a stroll." The avatar responded, relenting to his steel grip.
The waterbender didn't relent, his cold eyes stared into her ashen ones. "You never liked being woken up early." He stated, his tone cold and resolute. "Your brother and I are good friends Sapphyre, what is wrong."
"I don't want to talk about it."
"You will need to talk to someone." He stated flatly. "That is the first step to healing."
"It was just a nightmare Kon, nothing important."
The water-bender looked straight into her eyes, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Very little that goes on in your head isn't important." He replied softly. "Just remember that we are here. Me, your family, my family, our friends and even the White-lotus is here to help you."
"I know." Sapphyre sighed "But I still want to act somewhat like a normal girl, to worry about my own bad dreams and create my own future."
"You don't want to end up like Avatar Talen and Avatar Kanna." The other child stated, more or less summing up her feelings. "We won't let you devote everything to being an avatar Sapphyre. Your friends will stand by your side."
"Thanks."
Kon-dar gave a brief, rare smile. "Don't worry, just be ready to make the job your own."
-[Fire-lord Kiyi is married to the Fire-duke Kordak, a member of the northern water tribe. Together they have three children: Sapphyre, the oldest and the current avatar; Azulon, a skilled fire-bender and avatar fanatic; Yue, a water bender and their youngest child.]-
Sapphyre carresed the face of her dragon, a sleek sky-blue reptile with bright fur. The sun floated lazily in the midday sky, almost as if the heat of the day tired it out as well. Yang-chen, Azura's sky bison slept beside the dragon.
Yang-chen's saddle was packed with supplies. The avatar and her friends were going to be leaving to journey the world and try to restore peace to the world, those without other flying transport would ride with Yang-chen.
"Sapphyre." A girl called out as she exited the palace. A grin on the girl's painted face revealed her teeth. "I see you're up."
Sapphyres lips curled slightly, barely a flash before they returned to a nuetral, unemotive state. "I've been awake for hours."
"Zu-zu went to get you ready." The girl giggled. "Everyone else is headed here."
Sapphyre looked at her friend, head tilted slightly. "What's so funny about that Zhuri?"
"Nothin', Everythin'. I just like to laugh."
"Hmmmhm."
The palace doors creaked open, young boy around ten walked out. He was bare-foot with three-quarter pants and a sleeveles shirt. While the sides of his head were cut short, the top and back were allowed to grow. His green eyes were soft, like a baby, as he looked at the two girls.
Kon-dar and Sapphyre's families followed the boy. Yue left last, her light-brown hair tied in four buns hanging loosely at her shoulders. The nine-year-old princess hung close to her parents legs, scared of the other benders.
"Don't be scared, Moonbeam." Sapphyre soothed as she hugged her little sister. "No-one's going to hurt you." The girl peeked out from behind her mother's leg, looked at Sapphyre then Azulon but hid again after looking at Kon-dar and Gon, the earthbender.
Kiyi sighed; a faint smile flickered across her lips. "You may need to overcome your shyness, my little moonbeam." She soothed "I don't know if the people will want a 'Fire-lord Avatar Sapphyre' ruling them when I retire."
Yue objected, audibly but not verbally. She hid further in the robes. Kiyi sighed "All right dear."
The third sibiling moved to hug his sister. He whispered something into her ear, something that brought on a reaction. Azulon shouted "I'm not saying goodbye. We'll see each other again soon Yue." He promised as he mounted his golden dragon, Hotahn. Sapphyre smiled faintly, gently shaking her head as she moved to mount Ursa.
"We're off." Azura shouted as she flicked Yang-Chen's reins. "Yip-yip"
The large mammal flicked its tail, rising into the air. Yang-chen let out a bellow as it began to float away from the fire-palace. The two dragons each blew a jet of fire before joining the other airborne creature. The trio flew through the clouds, at one point almost moving through a storm cloud which their passengers quickly objected to.
Occasionally the three would rest on an island where the passengers would get off to stretch and they would all share a meal. Yang-chen guzzled down more food than the rest while Zhuri would usually try to get her friends into embarassing situations.
At one point, a pirate ship attempted to capture the group Yang-chen and the dragons. To Sapphyre and company, it began merely appearing as their mounts tiring. Azulon took a look around, spotting the ships before the ropes.
"Pirates!" The boy shouted, blasting the rope closest to him with bright blue fire. "I think the want the animals... no offence Hotahn." The dragon merely grunted before burning off the remainder of the rope.
Sapphyre freed her dragon who was busy burning off Yang-chen's bonds.
Zhuri was quick to respond. "We should teach them a lesson." She screamed, drawing her fans.
"Violence is not the answer, friend." Azura responded in a typical eastern air-nomad fashion. "Yang-chen, Hotahn and Ursa are free, we can be on our way without conflict."
"And what of their next victim Azura Khan?" Kon-dar questioned from behind her. "Avoiding conflict will not solve everything."
Gon looked over the bisons saddle. A new rope was being thrown, this time one more resistant to fire. "They are still trying." Gon shouted, evidently a bit shocked or perhaps he was shaken by the event as a whole. "I have to side with the non-bender."
"What was that, twerp?" Zhuri retaliated, fans itching to strike.
"Leave him be." Sapphyre called quickly "Remember the racist upbring he was subjected to."
"You should apologise, little one." The air nomad cautioned.
"Focus Azura." Sapphyre shouted, pulling a net off course with metal-bending. "Fight the pirates now."
The bender in question let out an exasperated breath. "As you wish." She responded before grabbing her glider and jumping off her pet. Upon landing, she sent a gust at the captain, knocking him down. His fancy pet bird squawked angrily before flitting off.
"Captain's down!" One of the pirates shouted.
"They're benders!"
"Avatar!" Another shrieked. "Run."
"Man the oars." The pirate-captain commanded. Unfortunatly his crew was otherwise occupied, scrambling below deck to avoid blast of fire and wind as well at the water tentacles or jumping overboard.
When the pirates seemed subdued, Sapphyre called to Kon-dar. Toghether the pair created a water-funnel to deposit the crew back on their ship.
Azura and Azulon worked to aquire or free the crew questionable goods and tools for crime. Most of the later was simple dumped or burned, much to the protest of the crew.
-[Despite the best efforts of the White Lotus, the Red Lotus remains a constant danger to the worlds order. The Red Lotus remains particularly powerful in parts of the Earth Kingdom]-
A white bird spirit flitted into a dark system of caverns. Light flowed out of the things feathers, illuminating some of the seemingly impenatrable veil that shrouded the lair.
"'Tis the day." The bird said, it's masculine and feminine voices just barely louder than a whisper.
Two great bloody eyes opened in the black, glowing like burning coals. "Who dares wake me?" A irratable womans voice rumbled from the abyss. "Why do you disturb my slumber?"
"The avatar has left her home. She has completed her training." The bird replied in a barely audible whisper. A low growling brought about a repeat reply, louder this time.
A deep purr resounded through the tunnels, having grown from a strong feminine laugh. "Good, the peices are all finally moving into place."