Chapter 1
Two men in their early twenties sit on the edge of a glacier at sunset. They sit casually without a care in the world, although they may have many. They are brothers, one is a few years older than the other. The older one is built like a warrior, and the younger one is built like a harp player-lanky and fluid. They are dark in complexion, like a lightly roasted coffee with a hint of milk. Long dark braids cover their heads like cooling towels.
They appear to have been here on this precipice for a long while.
When the older brother speaks it gives the air of a break in a long silence.
"The air is nice, is it not brother?" he says.
The younger brother laughs, and replies,
"Surely you have not brought to this spot to discuss the pleasantness of the breeze, Tonraq?" Tonraq laughs in reply, then speaks with laughter still gracing his lips,
"No, I have not." he lets out the remainder of his chuckle. " the younger brother keeps his gaze focused on Tonraq. Tonraq notices.
"Relax, Unalaq," he says and shakes his younger brother on the shoulder.
"This is hardly earth-shattering news, but what I will tell you will shake a couple of trees to be sure, both here in the south, and back home."
The brothers look each other in the eyes sternly.
"Out with it then Tonraq, I think I've waited long enough."
Tonraq breathes a relieving sigh. "Indeed you have my brother." He falls back into a laying position and stares at the sky. Unalaq stares at his brother's face, preparing himself for whatever his brother may reveal to him.
"I do not want to be Chief, Unalaq," Tonraq says still staring at the sky.
A confused expression crosses over Unalaq's face.
"Why?" Is all he can say.
He shrugs, "It doesn't align with my self-interests."
"A chief must consider the needs of his people before his own '"self-interests'" Tonraq."
"Exactly my point, I do not believe I can be the chief I need to be, -the chief that will continue the path that Father has set out for us and the tribe, because my mind and my heart are elsewhere, increasingly so."
Unalaq looks to speak, but Tonraq holds up a hand. "Let me finish,"
Tonraq stands up and motions for his brother to do the same, and so he does.
Tonraq continues; "As Father's health continues to decrease, and more responsibility is placed on my shoulders as his successor, I find that I am enjoying the presence of home, less and less." Tonraq's gaze is fixed on the setting sun.
Unalaq now speaks; "You wish to leave home? What permanently?"
Unalaq is incredulous. His brother chuckles.
"I do not wish to be tied to one place all my life."
He grips Unalaq's shoulder firmly. "My brother, let me cut to the chase, shall I?"
Though the question is largely rhetorical, Unalaq nods anyway.
Tonraq continues; "Once our father is gone -and be realistic now, he will not recover, our mother faced the same thing, we know how this goes." he says regretfully.
"I will abdicate of my position as chief, and I want you, Unalaq, to replace me."
He turns to face his brother, whose mouth is agape with shock.
Tonraq chuckles heartily and shakes his brother by the shoulder. " Just wait, I am not finished," Unalaq closes his mouth and Tonraq continues.
"I intend to marry a young woman from here in the south, and I want to live with her here."
He gestures to the vast southern sea, "This is where my heart lives now brother."
Unalaq stares at his brother, astonished by his words. He expected something drastic but not something this far planned out.
"You've certainly planned this out quite a bit," Unalaq says.
The sky is now dark, the sun a distant thought.
"Yes, I had to."
"But what if I say no? That I won't take the throne, that some weasel man takes it and destroys the entirety of the Tribe?"
Though the night covers their expressions, the brothers know exactly the way they look at each other. Unalaq is completely serious in his question, and Tonraq is slightly amused but not worried one ounce.
"Then it is decided. You will take my spot as Chief, and we will bring new meaning to the word "prosperity" Tonraq says.
Unalaq sighs, "It's gotten quite dark hasn't it?"
"No, I think it could not be brighter for the two of us."
The brothers return to their encampment in the dark. They feel their way in the night by shifting the ice in the glacier beneath their feet. They return to the camp and sleep away into the morning.
In the morning, the brothers make their way to the main village of the Southern Water Tribe.
The low glacier blows frigid air into the tents in which the brothers sleep. The sun shines brightly and creeps slowly over the edge of the high glacier. It wakes Unalaq as it breaks over the edge of the ice peak, and spreads its light through a slit in the tent.
He grunts and sits up. The winds blow quietly, and Unalaq hears a rustling outside the tents.
He squints to focus on the sound. It rustles steadily, "Tonraq is up early. The south really must have changed him." He gets up to a low crouch in his tent. He gets dressed and opens his tent entrance. "He's only been here a short bit. Hopefully, this place won't change me too much before going home." He chuckles at the thought, but his amusement is short-lived. He opens the tent to find not Tonraq, but a bandit, sneaking around the encampment. Unalaq keeps low to avoid notice but to no avail. The bandit spots him immediately and runs off. Unalaq dashes out of his tent after the bandit. "Tonraq!" he calls, to no response. "The south hasn't changed him that much I guess. Damn!" He chases after the bands for his water sleeve at his side, it's absent from the spot it would normally occupy on his hip. He swears under his breath.
"Do you know who you're stealing from?" he yells out to the thief. Who is two yards ahead of him, Unalaq quickly gains on him reducing the distance to one yard in a near-instant.
The ground shakes slightly beneath them, the thief starts breathing heavily,
"You can't bend this ice, if you do, the whole thing will break up!" he yells back at Unalaq.
"He's right" Unalaq realizes, he hadn't thought of it and would have lifted the ice up if he couldn't gain any more ground on the bandit.
The glacier beneath their feet shakes again. The Bandit screams nervously, "I'M WARNING YOU MAN, DON'T FREAKING DO IT!"
Unalaq wonders why the glacier is shifting, but his inner thoughts are cut short by what feels like an earthquake on the ice. Both men stumble, and the bandit falls over from the rumbles, while Unalaq nearly does.
The bandit scrambles to his feet and starts running again as the quake is gone in an instant.
A figure BURSTS from the ice below right in front of the bandit, and in one motion hits the bandit and knocks him clear off his feet and three yards to the left.
Unalaq recognizes the figure as Tonraq, crouched in a landing position.
They both act instinctively and jog towards the bandit.
Tonraq gets in his face and grabs his collar, "Why are stealing from us?"
"Stealing? I never seized an item from your tents." his eyes are closed in anticipation of a punch. Tonraq glances over at Unalaq and the younger brother shakes his head slightly, his face stern.
"What is your reasoning for being at our tents then, Pilgrim?" he says the last word mockingly as to let the bandit know he is fooling no one.
Despite the frigid air, the bandit starts sweating, "I saw your tent, and I wanted to look at it closely." he says the word "closely" almost as a question.
"You're not very good at this," Unalaq chimes in. "Let's take him back to the tribe, they'll know what to do with him, there might be more of him as well."
Yeah, you are right. Knock him out." Tonraq says.
The bandit coils up as Tonraq releases him, expecting a physical hit to come his way, but none do. Instead, Unalaq uses his ability to blood bend to rush the blood of the thief from his body to his head and back down throughout his body, which causes him to faint.
Spittle seeps out of the thief's mouth.
"I'll let you do the honors of carrying him back to the tribe, Tonraq," Unalaq says lightly.
"Thank you so much," Tonraq says unenthusiastically, as he wipes off the thief's face with snow.