AVATAR: LIGHT THE WORLD (The Illevitus Chronicles)
BOOK 1
-Air-
Chapter 12
-The Choice-
Scar had never seen anything like it before in her life, a gigantic flying bison, in person! When she was a child her parents used to tell her bedtime stories about these rare and elusive creatures, but all this time her parents had her convinced that they didn't exist. This particular bison had a slightly lavender tint to it's fur, and there was a visible gash in one of it's horns. "TIKI! PINGU!" Mim called out as the lavender bison and another slightly smaller bison approached from the left, "Pingu is my personal bison, but she'll be your ride today. Pingu cannot carry many people, she's getting older and much weaker than her daughter Tiki here. Tiki has some difficulty carrying others, so in case she drops from the sky I can at least in good conscious know that you two are not going to perish in a gross impact with the canyon below." He gracefully maneuvered himself onto the young bison with a swift air spin out of the large window.
Scar was still too fascinated to move from her spot, DeMungus had to take her hand, and guide her out the window as she just gazed upon the purply beast. "Seems like you have a new fan, Pingu!" Mim looked back at his bison with a gleeful expression that made him appear more sinister. Pingu grunted in a bland approval as the mother and daughter bison began to make their descent around the mountain towards hallowed out portion in the mountain itself. It was just large enough for Biggita to fit with Scar and DeMungus on her broad back. The tunnel seemed to go on up for a while, into the buried portion of the temple. When the tunnel started to widen the smell of rotten eggs had hot them all causing the group to all cover their mouths and noses whilst they gagged. Up ahead, a caldera had formed in a buried temple room albeit a strange square one that jettied out slightly from the entryway, except for the top left corner of the room that appeared to have caved in, but this time the bison had to descend down a long tunnel that must have been an created from the destruction of the temple and the mountain. Twisting and turning as stalagmites and stalactites created a tight series of turns that Pingu was handling with grace much to the surprise of DeMungus and Scar who were holding on for dear life in the essential freefall. To the two it seemed to go on forever with them just clenching on to the purple fur of Pingu, both drenched in sweat and tears streaming out of their eyes at blinding speeds, they watched incredulously as Mim sat in perfect lotus position on the vertical baby bison Tiki. Eventually the tunnel began to level out much to the delight of DeMungus and Scar who were both still crying from the sheer terror of an approximate three mile freefall through a dangerous and intricately formed cave. Ahead they could smell fresh air and felt a breeze hitting them all in the face. It wasn't much, but it was a sign they had to be close. The darkened cave began to lighten up as they continued on into a meadow.
"What the-?" DeMungus was looking up at what appeared to be a rock dome with hundreds of mushrooms that glowed giving the chamber it's intense lighting. "Mim, are we underground still?" He shouted to the air bender nomad who was now flying directly next to the two on Tiki.
Mim smirked at the man with a wicked grin that pierced DeMungus's soul, "Techically speaking, no we are not, there is a rumor that this patch of land was saved in a rather unexpected way." He snickered, "Right now we're at the base of the mountain, and if you look ahead you can see where the wall cresses and curves downward. The meadow was though to have a gigantic cliff covering the area. As the lava flowed that destroyed the temple in cascaded off the cliffside and created this bubble of rock that prevented this land from being scorched. Here is where the bison reside, the last of the Northern breed anyway."
DeMungus's face contorted in confusion, "Wait I thought you said that pretty much everything was destroyed by the lava?" Scar was starting to get more suspicious as well
Mim flinched slightly and gave his rebuttal, "Did I now? Well, this place is special, and managed to survive a great travesty." Mim looked ahead to see more bison coming into view as they got closer to the rock wall, "We should be so lucky the bison were spared." Something in his tone made DeMungus think he wasn't just referring to the bison.
Scar was now interested in how this all came together, and how Niko got out here without a bison or proper air-bending form, "How did you know Niko would be here?" She scanned the ground were dozens of baby bison were hanging out surrounding Niko licking him and getting pets from the Avatar who seemed unbothered.
"Call it intuition," Mim bluffed with a snide sneer, and before Scar could respond Mim commanded Tiki to start descending, creating a space between the two bison, and confusion for the Avatar's acolytes.
Once on the ground again Niko approached the bison and the human cargo they were carrying, the baby bison all followed him and stood behind like he was a shepherd of their flock. Scar and DeMungus looked further back noticing a few parents watch their children closely, "Niko, are you okay? Have you been here since yesterday?" Scar blurted out running up to him with a hug, "Don't scare me like that!"
Niko raised his arms to return the hug, "I'm okay… I just woke up here earlier," Niko then started to tangent, "a baby bison started to lick my face, and I've been just hanging out. I'm kinda hungry though."
Scar turned tail and made a beeline towards Mimiro who was petting Pingu, "What the hell did you do to him?!" She had her fists clenched, cocked one back and socked the creep right in the cheek. In response Pingu sent Scar flying back with a growl and a quick flick of her large tail. Luckily for her she landed on a baby bison, but unlucky for all of them the parents started to whip up from the ground in a frenzy. Scar got off the baby as Niko dashed to her side pulling her into a run away from the stampeding parents behind them. Seeing Niko running then also got the younglings riled up causing them to join in on the stampede. At this point Mim was getting back to his feet accessing the blow to his cheek, but startled more when he noticed the herd of bison charging them. He quickly hopped onto Pingu's back with DeMungus, and ordered his bison to fly. "Wait, Mim! We're leaving them, stop!" DeMungus retorted trying to get the air bender to see reason.
"They can get on Tiki!" Mimiro looked down to where Tiki had been standing, but she was gone already, most likely spooked by the enraged wild bison. "Oh no! Where's Tiki?"
Scar and Niko kept on running through the large fields of flowers and saplings, neither looking back at the bison herd trying to trample them. Then there was a huge thud on the ground behind them. They looked back for a second to see a bison twice the size of the adults facing the stampede, roaring at them as the herd began to slow up, "That must be the alpha bison…" Niko whispered in amazement. He and Scar marveled at the magnificent beast who managed to calm the rest of its species, and with a mighty swing of it's tail it hopped around to face the two. The giant sky bison had a look of longing in it's eyes that seemed very reminiscent to Niko, they reminded him of his mother's kind eyes, and how with one look she could sooth him. He approached the bison with care and extended a hand to pet it. Somehow this bison was speaking to him, not with words, but it's eyes- and they told a story of a past connection. "You're so kind, thank you, for the help!" He petted the bison on the snout graciously, and it leaned in close to nuzzle the Avatar. Then it did something unexpected, it knelt down to him.
"That means she wants you to mount her, Niko!" He heard Mim's voice from above, and at the sound of it the wild bison got up and started to holler at Mim and Pingu in a harsh rage. Niko turned back to the furious animal trying to console it.
"She really doesn't like you," Niko stated in a flat tone hugging the bison as it kept grunting and howling at the airborne bison and his human companion.
Scar glared upwards at Mim who a bit shocked by this turn of events, "I think I know why…" She looked back at Niko, "Does anything hurt," tears were streaming down her face as her voice got huskier.
Niko took a deep breath, putting the pieces together in his mind, he starting filling with anger not looking at Scar or Mim, but his face was just starting to bury itself within the abnormally large bison's fur, "YES!" he screamed into the bison's leg crying horribly. The bison picked him up with care in the front forearm as Niko began to glow causing the glade to glow in his transformation, but he didn't want to change he would end up destroying the glade in a rampage induced fervor. The light started to fade from shining bright to extremely dim as the larger of the two bison charged the purple one, causing Mim to throw air back towards it to lessen the collide. The two bison were locked hand to hand minus the hand cradling Niko who was starting to fade out quicker feeling his consciousness slip as he suppressed the Avatar spirit. Pingu's free hand was slapping the larger bison around with heavy hits causing the two behemoths to ping pong around in the air as a ball of deadly fluff. "Biggs…" Niko started to mumble low.
The titanic sky warriors were still locked in their fight with the bigger bison managing to whip the smaller purple bison around and slap it out of the sky with it's tail. Scar ran over to the fallen bison checking on DeMungus who was now dizzied and gripping onto a tree with all his might. The bigger bison began to charge again as Scar rolled for cover screaming at DeMungus at the top of her legs, "Get out of that tree, DeMungus!"
DeMungus was seeing many rotating views of his vision, he felt completely disoriented, but did as directed, landing below the tree in a dried out stream gully. "Oof… my back!" He wheezed out lying flat on the ground and rock. In that instant the bigger bison had made impact with Pingu causing the tree behind it to crumple and fall over into the gully nearly hitting DeMungus, "Oof… my life!"
The larger bison landed on the ground a few feet from the older, weakened Pingu who was breathing heavily. She grunted feeling Niko's pain in heart having him clutched so closely to hers, "Stop Biggs!" He managed to get out before the bison could attack again. It stopped growling in the same instant, seemingly over the fighting now. She gently placed Niko back down on the grass and nuzzled him again as he laid in the soft blades of green, "Thank you, but I have to do this."
Niko got up from under the furry beast with a scowl of repugnance, shaking his head as Mim was stroking Pingu's stomach with care, and the elder bison was barely breathing. He quickly lost his anger in one breath, now he could only feel pity for Mim. It was clear Pingu wasn't well after that crash landing, and as Niko stepped closer he could hear Pingu's breathing get more shallow. Mim cleared his throat and started to talk in a hallow voice, "Do you know how long I waited to see you again. I loved you!" Niko could hear the whistling again in his ears, "I loved you again last night in this field." Niko pushed through the whistling ignoring his words this time, "The only other thing I ever loved was Pingu, when she came into my life she wasn't a replacement she was my coping mechanism. For losing you."
Niko was about a foot away from the grieving man. In the surrounding sky the adult bison had flown over to see what happened, all visibly shook by the looks of it, yet none dared to intervene. "I used to think you were a way out, my chance to leave Zaofu, and make something for myself without my uncle turning me into a slave or the town cougar treating me in ways you treated me. I used to blame myself for what you would do, forcing myself to enjoy it because I owed you, hmph… how twisted is that." Mim stopped sobbing, "I pity you today- your lies, your ways… you're sick man, and as the Avatar I'm supposed to help people. You are not someone I can help, but you can still help me. I forgive you, but when we're done training we will part ways without further incident. If you try to hurt me again Biggs here is gonna flatten you like a pancake." He gestured back at the bison who scoffed and looked away indifferently, "What? You don't like the name Biggs?"
Scar and DeMungus were sauntering over towards them with glum expressions having heard everything. Scar seemed slightly less distraught rather than DeMungus, "You think any woman wants to be called Biggs, let alone a beautiful bigger one, emphasis on the bigger." The giant bison growled at her, "Sorry, but you are beautiful and big!" The bison backed off a bit. "How about Biggita?" Scar suggested as a joke mildly chuckling at the comment. On the contrary the bison was rather fond of that name and did a small gleeful jig with all six legs.
"How much longer does Pingu have left?" Niko asked still keeping his distance from the broken man.
Mim shrugged, "Why would you care?" He turned his head to face him, "Your bison did this to her, Tiki is orphaned now." He spat on the ground, "How does this help anything?"
"Reflection on your actions," Niko coldly stated with fleeting patience, "realizing when you do bad things to other people there are consequences." Mim sunk his head down lower, "Learning to control yourself!" He yelled these last words. Mim broke down and locked eyes with the dying bison.
The afternoon went by as Pingu's life faded, there was no way that they could do anything, the internal damage must've been severe judging by how shallow the breathing was getting, their was also a small trickle of blood coming from the corner of her mouth, and Tiki was now back cuddling up with her mother a bit confused by everything. As Pingu took her last breath Tiki started to whimper in fear as she attempted to wake up her mother. As the baby bison struggled Biggita turned to the bison surrounding them from a distance and growled loudly causing a chain reaction from the other bison. The haunting sounds they produced were mesmerizing and filled the untouched glade with a reverb that was unbelievably splendid.
Biggita flew high in the air as Niko, Scar, DeMungus and Mim set off back to the tower. Instead of going back the way they came the massive Biggita punctured a hole into the dome of the glade letting in sunlight for the first time in ages. The trio looked back down at the lifeless Pingu who laid motionless in the sun's rays.
Later that evening no one had spoken to anyone else as the air of death was still fresh. DeMungus was sitting out on the rooftop training deck watching the stars alone with a fire cackling by his side. It was peaceful laying under the inky blackness and the bright stars that cut through the cosmos. The quiet was immediately broken by a whistling tone followed by a loud outburst from DeMungus, "AHH!" Something had smacked him right in the face and was now laying in his lap quite winded. It was a messenger hawk, and a rather uncoordinated one at that. The bird meekly got up as DeMungus rubbed his stinging forehead, "Learn how to fly ya- huh?" He noticed the message attached to the hawk's foot and gently unwrapped the binding, "What? Is this for me?" The bird just looked back at him with a dumb stare, "Yeesh, this is what happens to domesticated animals when they're relegated to years of inbreeding." He unfolded the letter and written there on the parchment was a familiar scrawl that was lovely and flowy.
DeMungus Klenshaw
Hope this letter finds you well, you're messenger hawk is quite, umm… exceptional. Currently I'm finishing my work, I hear you've all met up with Mimiro. That is wonderful news! I will be by in a few days to complete the Avatar's training. Until then please send my deepest apologies to the Avatar, and I look forward to our meeting.
Air Master Jinora
The messenger hawk was now walking the deck without any direction. DeMungus just looked at the bird with a face palming motion , "I own this? How?" The hawk flopped to the ground and began running in a circle, "This thing is dumber than rocks?" He sighed, "I've got to show this to the other's though!" He got up at the same time as the hawk did. The idiotic bird ran into his leg and caused him to trip. As if it couldn't get any worse his grip loosened on the letter it flew right on the fire, "Nooooo! Are you serious!?"
The silly bird was hopping gleefully and was staring at the distraught man pounding the wooden deck. Technically due to the bird being cock-eyed it was hard to truly tell. Nico was quick to appear on the scene expecting a fight. His demeanor softened to a slightly disappointed frown, then to a bewildered smile, "What's wrong, man? I thought you were under attack." He walked closer towards DeMungus and the strange bird, "I heard the pounding and got worried."
DeMungus got up from the ground with Nico's assistance, "I just got a letter from Jinora! She's on her way to the temple!"