_Tui and La are the ocean and moon spirits. Instead of the water tribe having a deity I chose to use the spirits that helped form their society. Saying "Tui and La" is the equivalent of saying, "Oh my God."
_Also, when Tara was saying that every other person is named Katara, and Sokka, she was over exaggerating. She is just angry that her parents couldn't have invented something more unique. Not everyone is named Katara and Sokka, but it is the has been the most popular baby name of the year since the war ended. This is the list below for all the nations:
Girls: Boys
Katara 1. Aang
Toph 2. Sokka
Suki 3. Zuko
Ty-Lee 4. Iroh
Mai 5. Haru
CHAPTER 2: LIAR LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE
"Tui and La! We are late." When I say late, I mean LATE. Almost two full hours. I quickly made a small tunnel out of the snow to where we would normally sit. Shen, Miku, and I were used to being late to these sorts of things, so we had our own special seating area.
And a tunnel to get there.
I quickly moved all the snow to the side before we crawled into the eerily lit tunnel. Shen pushed me on my butt so I was free to use arms to bend the snow aside.
"I think we're getting closer, I can hear-" I fell into the room and everyone looked at us. "Voices…"
"Yes, you did." Said one of the elders. I nervously grinned at the council. Oh Tui and La I am screwed. Elder Tsumi is going to own my sorry seal butt.
"Ah Katara, we were just talking about you." I looked around, there was no one here but the Elders, the Avatar's child, Miku, Shen, and I.
"Uhhh… It's just Tara?" Where was everyone else?
"I'm so glad you took my mother's name, she would be very proud to see someone like you carrying on her name's legacy."
I rolled my eyes.
"Yes well, I'm sure she will be proud of half the female population as well."
"Katara! Show respect!" I glared up at Elder Tsumi, then immediately dropped my gaze back down. Her piercing blue eyes glared me into shame.
"So… uh… what were you talking about?" I asked and looked up.
"Miku, Shen, you are dismissed," Master Tsuyo waved his hand towards the guys.
They looked at me to protest but I just shook my head. "I'll tell you later," I whispered.
Shen growled but was silenced when Miku pulled him out the door.
I watched them leave. I don't know why I made them leave. Probably because the air felt like it was holding back some great secret.
"Katara, you have had a difficult life, and have gained much wisdom from it." The Avatar's child started.
I wanted to snap at him but I knew that it would be futile. I would just be shot down by the Elders and get in trouble for it later.
"When you were born, you were denied a certain right given to all Water Tribe babies because of the tragic circumstances. Therefore we were never certain. That is until the night you put your father in a coma. Do you remember that?"
I looked up at the Avatar's child, his face looking much like Avatar Aang, minus the blue eyes. His head was shaved, arrows tattooed onto his head and arms. What a poser, he couldn't even bend air.
"Of course I remember that. What child wouldn't remember putting her only parent into a coma." What a stupid question.
"We would like you to pick out some toys, if you wouldn't mind."
Were they serious? I scanned each of the elders' faces. They remained stoic and humorless. As always.
"I don't play with toys anymore." That was the best I could say? Oh Tui and La I'm losing my touch.
The Avatar's child gave a hearty laugh. It was kind of nice, not in a weird way, but because I haven't heard a deep laugh in a long time. Master Tsuyo never laughed. Neither did my father.
"Yes, well, everyone here tells me your still very much a child at heart. Am I wrong?"
I wanted to say yes but I knew he spoke the truth. Even thought I didn't play with toys didn't mean I didn't enjoy them. One time, Shen and I were cleaning out his closet and we came across some toys that he had when he was a child. We played with them all day till Shen's mom yelled at us to throw "those silly things" out.
The Avatar's child smiled at my silence. He stood up, his orange robes billowing around him. He started to walk towards a back room. I didn't even know we had a back room.
He opened the door and inside were thousands of toys. "Wow!" Unable to contain my excitement I ran into the room and dove into the toys.
I'm not kidding when I said dove. There were mountains of toys stacked to nearly the roof. High enough that I could jump in and still not hit the bottom. From inside my fortress of fun I heard the Avatar's kid say, "Choose four toys."
"How could I choose just four? They all look like so much fun!" I picked up a doll, frowned and threw it behind me into another massive pile.
I was playing with a boomerang and a stuffed platypus bear when my eyes fell upon a large stick like thing.
I imagined I started to drool when I saw the long stick thing. Oh yeah. I grinned before I waded, almost swam, towards it. When I wrapped my tan fingers around it, there was a spark of electricity and suddenly I wasn't in the toy room.
I blinked. What the fire nation? I wasn't supposed to say that anymore, because everything was at peace, but that didn't stop most of the population from making small stabs at the nation that caused so much imbalance.
I opened my waterskin, ready for an attack when an old guy suddenly appeared before me. Before either of us blinked I had flicked my wrist to slap him in the face with water. I leaped backwards cause I knew the little water splash would have surprised him, giving me time to jump away.
Only, he wasn't drenched in water.
I was.
Almost like me jumping backwards had spilled the water all over me.
The old man in front of me laughed, his mouth impossibly large, similar to mine.
I crouched low to the ground, my hands curled around what I had to assume was grass. The green stuff beneath me was super soft and stringy.
"Don't worry Katara." He grinned again. The wrinkles on his face becoming more pronounced.
Another thing about him was his large grey eyes. And his blue arrow inked into his bald head. "Your an airbender." I said. I narrowed my eyes, though his orange robes and large necklace bearing the Airbender symbol on it gave me no reason to doubt his affiliation.
"Well, almost." He smiled again. Did he ever not smile?
"Let me introduce myself. My name is Aang, and I was the previous Avatar."
Oh Tui and La. "You don't look anything like your picture." I said. Though I was still trying to wonder how the HELL I was talking to the previous Avatar.
He laughed again, closing his eyes and showing off his old man teeth. "Yes, well they drew that when I was much younger."
He quickly stopped laughing and stared at me with his stormy eyes. "Katara-" I stopped him. "It's just Tara."
He frowned, "What is wrong with the name Katara?"
"Other than the fact that I am forced to share my name with everyone else in the Water Nation? Or perhaps that it carries no individuality. Take your pick."
"Katara is a beautiful name."
"It was when it was original and held by a powerful waterbender. But now, I am forced to share my name with hundreds of other women not even using their powers similar to their name sake. Don't they even know that the first Katara was a fighter?" I was, of course, referring to the three Katara's in the Water healing class. They were offered to learn how to fight, but they decided that fighting was to manly and stayed in the healing classes.
Avatar Aang smiled at me sympathetically. Geez, even when I was insulting his wife's name he still smiled. "Tara, I will respect your wishes, but your name's sake also was an accomplished healer as well as a fighter. She would be satisfied with any way you used your waterbending powers." I opened my mouth to say that it didn't matter what she said because I wasn't even related to her and cared nothing of her opinion but Avatar Aang went on;
"When I was young, about your age, I was murdered by a woman named Azula," I nodded, everyone knew about Azula and her psychotic rage. "She zapped me in-between my shoulder blades. Unfortunately I was in the Avatar state and my heart stopped. I had died, in the Avatar state. Do you know what happens if an Avatar is killed in the Avatar state?" I shook my head no. I was too wrapped up in his story to care about how he sounded like he was talking to a toddler.
"Well, it means you lose all of the powers of the previous Avatars, as well as their knowledge."
I shook my head, my eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "I don't understand. I know the Avatar is recreated into the following nation but I don't understand the rest."
He nodded, "When you are an Avatar, you can meditate and enter the Avatar state to ask a previous Avatar a question. Also, when you are in the Avatar state you can use the power of the Avatar before you. For example, when I went into the Avatar state, it was like Roku was fighting for me. Do you understand now?"
I nodded once in confirmation. He nodded back and continued, "Well, when I died, all of the previous Avatar's disappeared. Which means that all the knowledge, the power, was lost when I died the first time."
I held up my hand for him to stop, "That doesn't make sense. Before you fought Fire Lord Ozai you sat upon a Giant Lion Turtle and talked to your previous selves, trying to draw knowledge in what to do." He opened his mouth to say something but I continued, "And! When you fought Fire Lord Ozai you went into your Avatar state."
"When I sat on the Lion Turtle I was halfway to the Spirit World. I wasn't quite there but I was able to talk to the Avatar's spirits. Before I was able to just call upon their knowledge and skill without much trouble, almost as if they were traveling with me. But after I died for the first time I had to go into the Spirit World and have them find me, or visa versa. And when I went into the Avatar state I was calling upon my own knowledge. I knew everything I needed to know to defeat the Fire Lord, but I wasn't able to put it all together. But in my head I knew how to do it, which is how I used the Avatar state."
I blinked a couple times. I was really trying to absorb all this but one question was taking over my mind, "Why are you telling me this?"
"Of all the things I just said, you want to know why I'm telling you this?"
I nodded.
"Well Tara, it's because you're the Avatar."
"No I'm not.
"Yes you are."
"No I'm not."
"Tara, I was the Avatar, I think I would know."
"Apparently not cause your not really the Avatar, you're just a figment of my imagination."
"No, I'm the real thing."
"Don't be silly."
"I'm not."
"Yes you are."
"No, I'm being completely serious."
"I don't believe you."
I saw his eye twitch and his mouth pulled into an exaggerated frown. "Well Tara, if you don't believe me then wake up and find out for yourself. Remember, I am your only resource, the only Avatar you have communication with. All the others are essentially gone." With that he dissipated into the air and I felt a sucking motion as I was pulled back into consciousness with everyone hovering over me.
Everything was still blurry and man, I was tired. "Tara, are you okay?" It sounded like it was Elder Tsumi.
"I'm really," I giggled, everything was so swirly, "I'm really tired….."
I yawned and stuck my tongue out as I usually do and tried to drift off to sleep.
SMACK!
"What the hell!" I jumped up and glared at my assailant. Luckily my vision wasn't blurry anymore and I saw exactly who hit me.
"SHEN! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU! I WAS TRYING TO SLEEP!" I leaped off my feet and tackled him. My body was exhausted, every muscle, tendon, and blood vessel was sluggish. Even my toenails. But my mind was alert and ready for revenge.
I wrestled him onto his back before he bucked up and threw me off. I landed on my back and gasped. Tui and La that hurt. I struggled to get up but I barely managed to sit up straight. I opened my mouth to say a couple choice words about Shen when he bended a large ice band around me. He effectively rendered my hands useless. I growled and stomped the ground. A large ice block flew into the air. I rolled onto my side and kicked it at Shen. I grinned in satisfaction when his eyes grew three times their regular size as my ice block came flying towards him. He tried to jump out of the way but I kicked my leg towards him and it hit him square in the chest.
I was basking in my triumph, soaking in the warm feeling of being better than someone when my basking was interrupted by a smack to the head. Again. "HEY!" I yelled, "What's the big idea?"
I glared upwards toward my second attacker. "Tara, if you ever expect to master the elements then you must learn to control yourself."
My mouth hung open. "Aw man! I'm still dreaming. Here, dream Tsuyo, pinch me. I need to wake up."
He hit me instead. "Katara you need to listen to me." He moved down to my level. His funny mustache and beard twitched in the wind. But his eyes remained steady. "I'll say this slowly. You. Are. The. Avatar."
"Well I know your lying because the Avatar is revealed when they turn 16, and I am only 13. So ha!"
Master Tsuyo took a deep breath and released me from my icy prison. "Katara when you were three you put your father in a coma."
I pulled my hackles back and growled. "Shut up!"
"When you were just three he came at you with a knife. And you, you needed to protect yourself. So what did you do?"
Why wasn't he stopping he didn't need to say this. I knew what happened. I covered my ears but he only raised his voice.
"You burned him till his skin was bubbling, even though there was no fire in your house. There were ice daggers sticking out of him, almost like you had put them there. But you never had a waterbending lesson in your life."
"SHUT UP!" I screamed and launched myself into the air, into the clouds.
I pulled my hands up and created a giant wave and slammed it down. Master Tsuyo must have blocked it for everyone was safe down below.
I dove downwards at speed I had never known. I kept slicing my hands in front of me trying to cut the people below. What did they know about my father? What did they know about me?
Nothing. They knew nothing.
I felt the anger burning inside me. I think I was screaming, trying to release the pressure building from my anger. But I was moving so fast I couldn't hear anythingl. I felt my hands heat up and I knew what I could do. I shot my feet out and landed on the ground, creating tremors through the glacier.
I gathered all the energy inside me and let it out. I think I heard someone cry out but I couldn't tell. At the moment, I don't think I really cared.
They had crossed a line. And no one crosses a line that tender, that unresolved.
When I finally looked around I was mortified. It looked like a war zone. I was standing in the middle of a large glassy crater. Outside my crater was melted ice and more glassy spots. No one was around, they had all fled.
To my left I heard a whimper.
I twisted my waist and cried out. Shen was on the ground, writhing back and forth. His face contorted in pain. Every hair on his head had been burned off. Parts of his clothes were smoldering and his hands, oh gods his hands…
They were crumpled tight, like he had used his hands to try and block a fire blast.
"Shen!" I screamed and bolted towards him.
"Shen," I whispered, I moved to touch him but I was to afraid.
"…...An accomplished healer and fighter."
"Tara, you can heal him." I looked around for the voice that sounded like Avatar Aang. But here was no one around.
"Shen, I promise I'll fix this." I scooped him into my arms, ignoring his weight, and ran.
