Last Chapter

Circle

…but Irony is a cruel teacher. Sometimes it punishes us. Sometimes it gives us exactly what we want.

Zhen stayed in the temple, not having anywhere else to go. She patiently relearned her air bending, though she never gained her true skills back.

She got back into the swing of life in the Easter Air Temple, a life of peace and quiet. Soon everyone accepted her as a Sister of the Temple again.

But still, Zhen would find her self looking towards the sun as it set, looking southwest, wondering what her son was doing.

Eventually, Zhen was allowed to teach with some of the young women. She did not teach air bending or dancing. She taught those preparing to leave the Temple. She was to serve as an "example" so that they would brace themselves for a hard life if they let their guard down.

Zhen didn't mind. She thought those girls would need all the help they could get. Every time she heard the young girls talking about their dreams, of getting married and having children, she couldn't help but sigh.

She wasn't crushed. She was sad.

She wasn't depressed. She was lonely.

She was not a bad person. She just wished she could see her baby again.

And years later, by the time she had gotten over the pain, Irony and Fate granted her wish.

The Western Air Temple, deep within the heart of the Fire Nation, was the next location of the Festival of Four Winds. Once again, there was loud music, too much food and young people flirting with each other. The elders enjoyed themselves, but still found things in the Festival to look down on and judge. Zhen saw the hypocrisy. No one else did.

Zhen didn't want to the Festival, but had too. Ji made her. Ji had moved up in the ranks, and she refused to leave her good friend alone at home. Ji thought she was being nice, b Zhen knew beter. Ji had become more rigid over the passing years, changing into stone more than air. Zhen suspected that the real reason Ji brought her along was to keep an eye on her.

Ji was doing a fine job of filling the empty space Kyoko left.

Zhen, like Ji, stayed at the far edges of the Festival, minding the children half the time and spending time alone the other half. On the first day, she laughed and danced a little but the Nuns looked down on her and she quickly stopped. Surrounded by judgment, she learned how to behave and obey.

Five days passed and Zhen spent most of her time near the Bisons, combing their fur. She walked into the festival grounds only to get food.

On the fifth day, she wandered into town with a craving for fruit custard. And with no Elder Monks watching, she figured that she could get away with indulging herself for a short time.

Everyone around her was smiling, she noticed as she walked. She loved the sound the string instruments and the unusual stories that the bards told. Everything was moving; everything was alive!

Dozens of stands and carts were settled around the sacred ground. The entertainers did not plan on leaving until the very last day, and there was something reassuring in knowing that they would keep playing until they absolutely could not anymore.

The wind blew gently and, Zhen noticed, how the weather was always nice around Festival time.

Zhen inhaled deeply, closing her eyes, enjoying the breeze…when…

…something gentle touched her foot.

Zhen looked down and saw a red ball teeter around her ankle. Still smiling, she bent down to pick it up.

A second pair of hands reached down at the same time. Smaller hands. A child's hands.

Zhen looked up…and saw a pair of very familiar grey eyes look back at her. She froze.

A nervous little boy looked back at her, rosy cheeked. He had the ball in his hands, but did not move, fearing that he might have done something to offend the strange women.

Zhen didn't need to second guess. She knew who he was. It was her boy. Something (instinct, hope, the Spirits) told her that it was her son.

She gawked, unable to say anything. Luckily, the kid spoke first.

"Hi." He said. His voice was crisp as an apple and his smile, as gently curved as the horizon, looked like Zhen's when she was young.

"…hi?" Zhen kept staring. She nodded and slowly stood up straight.

"That's my ball Ma'am." He pointed to the red orb.

"Oh. Sorry. Here." Zhen let go of it and the boy held it close to his chest.

"Thank you." He took a few steps back, but didn't look away because The adult was still looking at him.

"Uh, wait!" Zhen walked towards him. The boy shook a bit, out of shyness, but didn't run. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I just…thought that I recognized you."

"Um…I don't think we've met." He smiled again. "This is my first time away from home. I've lived in the Southern Air Temple my whole life."

"The Southern Air Temple…" Zhen sighed. "I hear the people there are very friendly. It's…nice to meet you. My name is Zhen." She smiled a bit.

"I'm Aang." The boy held out his hand for her to shake.

"Aang." Zhen repeated it many times in her head before grabbing his thin hand. "That's a nice name."

"Thanks. Zhen is nice too."

"How…old are you. Aang." Zhen took deep breaths between sentences and spoke softly, like Aang was a bird and she was sure that he would fly off if she made too much noise.

"I'm nine years old. I'm almost ten!" He said proudly.

"Nine. I had a hunch you were. You're practically a man already." She smiled.

"Yeah okay." He rolled his eyes, thinking that she was mocking him.

"Sorry. You're right. You've still got a lot of growing up to do." Zhen looked to her right and saw the sweet stand she was looking for. "I have some extra money Aang. Would you like a fruit pie? Or some custard?"

"Yeah?! I love custard!" Aang's eyes widened with hunger.

"So do I. It's one of my favorites." Zhen walked him over to the tent and bought him his choice. Strawberry. He ate it so quickly that it was gone by the time Zhen got hers.

"Thanks. Thanks a lot Zhen." He wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "But…why did you buy that for me? We don't really know each other."

"Is it really so bad to trust someone that you've…" She tried not to gulp. "…that you've never met?"

"Well…"

"I only want to be nice. We are at a party."

"…yeah. Okay." He moved a bit closer to her and bowed. "Thank you very much."

"My pleasure." Zhen smiled, still holding her desert. "But I am not finished eating. Do you mind if you keep me company while I eat."

Aang looked at the open bench next to them, then back at Zhen. "I guess that would be okay."

It was the longest desert Zhen had ever eaten. She asked him questions casually, with great and hidden intrigue.

He loved flying and that he had an incredible talent for Air Bending. He liked playing sports and laughing. He had a Sky Bison back home and they were the best friends.

After a few more questions, he said "One day…when I am older…I want to leave the Southern Air Temple. I want to see the world, go places that some people never go see. Like the South Pole. I've always wanted to go sledding on a Penguin-Seal. That would be great."

He was exactly like her.

Zhen wished she could have nagged him right there. She wished she could have been there to worry about him getting in trouble when he went out to play games.

"I don't know who my parents are." Aang said out of nowhere. "Gyatso is a nice guy…oh, Gyatso is the man who watches over me. But he's not my father. I'm an orphan."

"We all are." Zhen reminded him.

"Yeah…I guess. But still…I always wonder about my parents. Like, I wonder why…my mother didn't want me."

"No, Aang…don't say such things! She loves you Aang, all mothers love their children. If she saw you know…" Zhen nearly started crying "…she'd be so proud."

"Are you alright?" Aang knew she

"I'm fine. I'm okay…little Aang. Don't worry about me." Zhen begged her son, the stranger she'd never get to know. "Please, whatever happens to you, don't worry about me."

There was never anything more soul crushing, more painful for Zhen then not being able to tell Aang who she was…and who he was to her.

The Festival ended as quickly as it started. Zhen did not see Aang again during that week. She did not want too. She couldn't bare it. It was too much.

She went back to the Eastern Air Temple broken again. She did not speak to anyone, taking another (unofficial) vow of silence.

When they all got back to the Temple, Zhen had nothing else to do but meditate on what had happened to her. She could not act, she could not run away, she could turn back time. She could only do what he other nuns told her to do.

So…Irony is a cruel teacher. Sometimes it punishes us. Sometimes it gives us exactly what we want…without us even knowing.

Zhen had wanted to leave her home and see the world. And she did.

She wanted to have an adventure, and she did.

Zhen wanted to get married and have a child…and she did.

And, unfortunately, Zhen's greatest dream came true as well, even though she would never know it.

She met the Avatar. Twice. Once when she gave birth to him and once at the festival. And she was right; if they had spent more time together, they would have become the best of friends.

The little hero would never know his mother. Even more tragic, he would never know the girl she use to be.

The girl that used to dance with the wind.

The girl that used to laugh a lot.

The girl that would smile, even one cloudy days.

The boy would never know how much he was like his mother, or how much she loved him.

Now Zhen was older and her youthful spark, her blissful innocence, had been ripped out of her heart. The real world, which seemed so alluring and attractive, cut her down the way a lumberjack cuts down a tree that had grown too tall.

Yet her suffering had a greater meaning to it.

Had Zhen stayed in the temple her whole life, had she never encountered such hardship, her son…Aang…the Avatar that would save the world…would never have been born.

Separated, the boy would never see the sad human his mother had become. In giving him up, she gave him a chance to be the person she once was…someone who laughed, and danced, and watched over people. Someone who gave people hope.

He was more than just the Avatar. He was another chance to reclaim the innocence that Zhen had so foolishly gambled away. He had a bright future ahead of him…without his mother…

…and, though Zhen would never know it in her lifetime, she had given the world an a savior.

That was her gift.

I learned an unfair fact in my Shakespeare class. Tragedies are so much more interesting than happy endings. A happy ending teaches people that everything works out in the end, even though they do not always. A tragedy teaches people to be human.

If you felt sad by the time you finished this, that just means you have a heart.