Young

They were young.

Some say too young. Too naïve to realize the dangers of their mission, for them it was all sort of a game. Many were sympathetic to his burden, being the Avatar, having to safe the world, end a war, kill a man. I'm jealous.

The rein of Avatar Aang was over 100 years ago and to this day no one has been half as good.

I first learned about it when I was sixteen. They told me there was a reason I was such a good Earth bender, which resulted in me learning I'm the new Avatar. I was sad. Overwhelmed, to say in the least, but every time I was about to cry they would tell me of Aang, and how he was twelve when he first found out, and he still managed to save the world. They would tell me he was a man when he was a child, and I should suck it up and be the man that I am now.

If I was young, they would sympathize with me, too. I would go down in history, and other Avatars would have to live up to my legend. If I was Aang, I would have wonderful friends that travel with me and help me save the world, but all my friends are at home in the Earth Kingdom while I'm training in the Air Temple. The only kid around here my age is some bookworm of a girl who spends all of her time reading.

But Aang's friends are just as famous as he is. Everyone knows about Master Katara of the Water Tribe and her brother, the Warrior Sokka, and of Sifu Toph and even Appa and Momo. They know of the loyalty these people had for Aang, and the tolerance they had as his teachers.

As for me, my teachers are all stuffy old Masters bent on making me in the next "Avatar Aang" even though they know I can't do it. No one can.

But if I could have one thing Aang had, it would be the love of a girl. Everyone knows the story of how Avatar Aang and Master Katara fell in love, and had a family and lived happily ever after.

My teachers tell me there is no hope for my happy ending. They say the only reason Aang was allowed to marry was because he had to continue the Air Nomads, that he didn't have a choice.

Looks like I don't have much of a choice either.

They were young. Too young, and in love, and carrying a powerful burden, and living and laughing and learning and teaching and saving the world, and going down in history.

Then again, I was young once, too. I had the option to fall in love, but back then we were all to busy pulling each other's hair, and skipping rocks on the pond, and acting like we didn't have a care in the world because we didn't. And now it's too late because I have every care in the world sitting in the palm of my hand, and weighing down my shoulders, and squeezing the air from my lungs, and blocking the path to my heart.

And even though I think about how young Avatar Aang was a lot, the thought doesn't hit me until just now. The way that he and his friends grew up, it was almost as if they had thrown away their youth. Perhaps the stress aged them, suppose they were too old instead, or maybe just old enough.

I think everyone has it all wrong. Avatar Aang isn't the youngest of the Avatars to save the world, in fact, I think he was the oldest, because that's what happens when you don't have the time to be a child. Maybe it wasn't his youth that made him great, but it was his love.

And maybe tomorrow I'll ask that bookworm girl to pull her nose of out the scrolls and take me to Avatar Aang's statue. After all, she seems to know a lot about him, and she's very pretty.

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Note: Wow, I have one more drabble after this, and it's going to be really hard to end this. I want to thank everyone who has ever reviewed, and I would really like it if I could hit 300 reviews before this is over. Thank you so much to everyone, this has been my favorite thing to write, and I poured my heart into it.