I don't know how.
I don't know why.
But when I awoke.
I awoke in the dark.
An inky blackness that encapsulated me.
It moved through me.
A consuming darkness.
Yet, all the same, I felt not the tinge of evil.
Instead, from this blackness, I didn't feel the nature to destroy.
It was almost as though it was being possessive of me.
It wasn't trying to protect me.
It would never try to protect.
Instead, it was as though it was obsessed with me.
like a rare piece of art, it wished to keep me from harm. So as to retain my value
I didn't know the world I entered.
But it was a warm dark place.
It was comfort in a jar.
So I didn't fight.
I rested in the dark.
I rested for the first time in a long time.
But in the distance, a glow appeared.
It called.
So I crawled.
In inches, I moved to the sudden, unexplained, mysterious light.
It roared and cracked like a campfire.
But I did not feel the overwhelming heat.
So I ruthlessly placed my hand within the glow.
Suddenly a great noise exploded upon me.
The sounds of tribal beats filled my ears.
The low sound of the tsungi horn scarred my ears.
A flute whistled its sad tunes.
A pipa was struck forcing loud popping noises from its strings.
Each an untuned catastrophe.
Each an unwelcome cacophonous scream.
And then, suddenly my vision faded.
And I beheld the vibrations of this unholy song.
my eyes received visions not to be shown to any men.
Suddenly the sounds became my new sight. I witnessed the roaring noise like I would view a summer day.
Vibrations waved through the air like a series of thin mile-long hairs.
Each a unique voice amongst thousands of small tunes.
And suddenly once more,
my senses changed.
as my sight suddenly morphed into the perversion of soundly sight. My hearing had transformed into taste.
And I tasted the sickly sweet taste of chaos.
This orchestra formed an image for my eyes to witness.
An indescribable experience.
One that cannot be expressed through something so inaccurate as the spoken word.
There has not been a word that could express what I saw.
There is not a word that can express what I saw.
And there will never be a word that could express what I saw.
The sound crescendoed suddenly and with a final glorious shout.
It died.
And as it did. I felt such an overwhelming loss as my vision return to normal.
I clutched for it as it said goodbye.
and it vanished.
The world changed rapidly once more.
The glow faded away and the darkness did also.
And the world took form around me.
A world full to the brim with colors of overwhelming saturation.
And in the years that would follow. I would meet the numerous spirits that inhabited this realm.
This realm cut off from our world.
-Excerpt from the Journals of Firelord Zuko-