"Ever?" Hiromi had asked, eyes wide in disbelief.
"Probably not." The shaman had answered as she walked out of the room.
Hiromi attempted to get up, but found that most of her lower body was still numb from the cold. The woman returned shortly after with a change of clothes for Hiromi.
"I'm going to take you to a hot spring. It will help warm your bones back up."
The woman assisted Hiromi as she led her to a secluded spring surrounded by tall trees and large rocks. Hiromi looked at the woman expectantly as she waited for the shaman to leave so she could undress, but received little more than a dismissive glare in response.
"You don't have anything that I haven't seen already. I did rescue you from drowning in the middle of the ocean, after all."
Hiromi looked down at her clothes and noticed that she wasn't wearing the same thing she was when she had been knocked off of the ship. She blushed and began undressing, but did so with her back turned to the woman.
Hiromi felt the shaman roll her eyes at her as she walked away, "I'm going to get some herbs for your bath."
Hiromi thanked her and eased herself into the water, its warmth sending a tingling sensation up throughout her body.
Hiromi closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall of the spring as she waited for the woman to return.
"Eat this." The woman said, startling Hiromi.
Hiromi nodded her head and took the bowl from the woman, eyeing its contents suspiciously.
The food wasn't bad, it was quite good actually, it just wasn't something Hiromi had ever eaten before.
"What's your name?" Hiromi asked the woman, realizing she didn't know what to call her.
The woman smiled and looked at Hiromi, her eyes crinkling as she laughed softly at the younger girl's question.
"I was wondering when you'd ask." Her old voice replied. "My name is Drisana."
Hiromi nodded her head and smiled back at the woman, "This soup is wonderful, Drisana. What is in it?"
"It's a special medicine I've made. It's going to help you become more connected to the essence of light that is still within your spirit."
"Is that going to help me firebend again?"
"It's not what its intention is, no. But it's not impossible I guess. Have you not wondered why you're still cold?"
Hiromi reflected upon Drisana's words, she had known she was cold- it just wasn't something she took note of.
"Uh, not really I suppose."
The woman raised an eyebrow and reached in her bag for something. As she spoke, she poured several jars of herbs and liquid concoctions into the water. "You're cold because you are no longer one with your inner fire. It won't kill you, but it took me years to figure out why I was so cold all of the time after I returned from the spirit world. Once you connect with the light inside of you, it will act as the fire did- to some extent." She paused to examine a jar before putting it back inside of her bag. "I'm not real sure why I brought that." Drisana mumbled to herself before continuing, "The light will keep you warm, which is basically what the fire inside of you did. This fire, however, just so happened to also allow you to firebend. Now that the light is all that's left, that's all you are able to bend. "
Hiromi figured that what Drisana was saying made sense.
"So, did my fire go out when my spirit left it?"
"Yes, and because you were dead." She responded, barely looking up from her work.
"Then why wasn't I able to light bend in the spirit world?"
"You carried the light with you then, but your body wasn't there to harness its power. Without your body, your light was useless." Drisana said as she put the jars back into her bag.
Hiromi sank her shoulders under the water, letting it bring warmth to her body. She wondered if being resurrected had an effect on all types of benders.
"What would've happened if a water or earth bender had lost their inner, uh, river or rock, I guess?" Hiromi asked confusedly.
The woman smiled, "I admire your curiosity, but I can't answer that question. I have never met someone from another nation that's experienced what you and I have."
"Has this happened to other fire benders?"
"Oh yes, but not many."
Hiromi wondered if Drisana has always lived in the tree she was in earlier. She wondered how old Drisana was and if she hated the fire nation like her parents did. Though she had many questions, the one that she asked was one that had been prodding at her mind since she met Drisana.
"How did you get resurrected?"
The woman's smile faltered and Hiormi immediately felt guilty for asking a personal question like that. "I'm sorry, you don't have to answer that if you don't want to."
"I know I don't have to." The woman snapped, and Hiromi's face turned bright red from embarrassment. "But I'm going to." Drisana's voice softened as she sat at the edge of the spring, her white hair sparkling in the sunlight.
"I was young, probably a few years younger than you are right now." Drisana looked into the water as she spoke, remembering what had happened so vividly it seemed it had occurred only yesterday.
Drisana heard the water beneath her feet splash against the rock it was on as she ran towards the small village she hoped to find sanctuary in. Several men dressed in green and gold uniforms surrounded the main roads, but she was able to avoid them by cutting through the back yard of a large house and hiding inside of a shed that was surrounded by tall grass and rusted gardening tools.
Drisana found a small space under a shelf that she would rest in for a couple of hours so that she could continue to run. She used a small tarp and made a makeshift sleeping bag out of it to stay warm.
Before she knew it, she was fast asleep.
"Hey, who are you?" A young boy said as he shook Drisana awake.
Her eyes grew wide, "Did you tell anyone I was here?"
The boy shook his head, "I only just woke up and found you here. Why are you sleeping in my grandparent's garden shed?"
Drisana looked around as she thought of what had brought her to this exact moment in her life.
"The fire nation destroyed my home." Drisana wasn't lying, but she still felt guilty for not telling the whole truth.
Many of the members of Drisana's large village, which had been home to people of every nation, were against the Fire Lord's decision to go to war with the other nations. After Sozin's comet and the Great Battle between the Fire Nation and Air Nomads, almost the entire town where Drisana lived was questioning whether this war was the right thing to do or not.
Drisana didn't know much about what had been happening, but her parents told her that the Fire Lord wasn't happy with the town's choice to fight against the Fire Nation rather than help with the war efforts. Drisana remembered her mother calling it a "pointless war." She said that it wasn't right for Fire Lord Sozin to hurt so many people, and Drisana agreed. Even though Drisana felt like her parents were making the right decision, the Fire Lord disagreed. He called the town's acts treasonous and sent his troops to destroy it.
Drisana's parents helped her escape, but they both stayed to help fight off the troops for as long as they could. She remembered her mother's and father's last words to her before she left.
"Let this help you to learn that you don't always have to do something just because someone tells you to. You must do what you feel in your heart is right." Her mother said, squeezing her hand.
"You must listen with your heart, and keep your mind open to the possibilities." Her father said as he kissed her forehead.
She said goodbye to both of them and ran until she ended up where she was now- sitting in a garden shed that evidently belonged to this young boy's grandparents.
"I'm sorry about that." He said, looking at the door. "I'm only here because my parents are trying to convince my grandparents to move back with us to Omashu."
Drisana remembered the stories she used to hear from her neighbor, who was a traveler, about the great city of Omashu. Her eyes gleamed as she remembered the story of its founding, about the two people who were in love but were forbidden to be together. The romance of it all interested Drisana beyond measure, and she couldn't help but wonder what the city was really like.
"What's it like living in Omashu?" Drisana asked, sitting up and crossing her legs as she talked to the boy.
"It's wonderful! We have this mail system that goes all throughout the city that is run completely by Earth benders. It's basically a system of chutes and stations placed strategically throughout the city so that mail delivery is super efficient."
"This is incredibly boring." Drisana thought, wondering why he was so excited about the mail.
"What's so wonderful about an efficient mail system?" Drisana asked, scrunching her face.
The boy smiled deviously, "Because, I use it for something else."
Drisana smirked and eyed the boy. He looked like he was about her age, with brown, unruly hair and tan skin.
"How much use can it possibly be other than for mail?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, it's useful for many things, when you open your mind to the possibilities." He said, cackling and snorting at his own words.
Drisana felt a painful reminder of her parents as he answered her question, tears coming to her eyes as he laughed quite loudly. She began to stand up, but was stopped by him placing his hand on her knee.
"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked as Drisana sat back down.
Drisana shook her head and placed her hands over her face, hiding her tears from the boy.
While she was sobbing into her palms, the boy moved next to her and put his hand on her back to soothe her.
"Are you crying because you're confused about Omashu's multi-purpose mail system?" he joked, attempting to comfort Drisana.
She smiled at his feeble attempt at humor and looked over at him. His kind eyes stared back at her, pleading for Drisana to stop crying.
"What do you do for fun at your grandparent's house?" Drisana said as she shrugged the boy's hand off of her back.
He smiled mischievously as he stood up and began to walk out of the door, "Follow me."
Drisana shook the tarp off of the ends of her feet and hesitantly followed the boy. As they exited the shed, the boy looked around to see if anyone was watching and then made a run for the surrounding woods. Drisana mimicked his actions, her hair beginning to fall out of the bun that hung loosely on the top of her head.
The boy slowed down as they approached a small clearing in the forest. It was a secluded area with lush grass and a large, flat rock in the center of the clearing.
"You play on a rock for fun?" Drisana asked, stifling a laugh.
"More or less." The boy said as he jumped on top of the rock, a wide grin plastered on his face.
"Welcome to fort Bumi." he said, stomping his foot on the rock.
Drisana watched in awe as she felt the Earth below them shift to allow an opening below the rock come into view.
"That was amazing! I didn't know you were an earthbender!" she said as she ran forward to examine the small tunnel that materialized upon Bumi's request.
He smiled down at the girl before jumping off of the rock to join her on the ground, "Would you like to see the inside?"
Drisana nodded her head eagerly and slid down the dark tunnel for several seconds before landing in an equally dark room.
"I can't see anything." Drisana said as she walked straight into Bumi, bumping him into a wall.
"I thought I had a torch already lit down here." He said. Drisana heard the boy scratch his head as he thought.
Without thinking, Drisana produced a flame from her hand to light the room. Bumi briefly turned his head and nodded appreciatively before doing a double take.
"You're a fire bender!" Bumi exclaimed.
Drisana backed up into the wall behind her, "Are you going to tell anyone?"
He arched an eyebrow at the young girl, "Why would I do that? We're friends."
The children smiled at each other in understanding.
"I'm Drisana." She said as she held out her hand to the boy.
"Bumi." he said, grabbing her hand firmly and shaking it.
Drisana took the unlit torch from Bumi's hand and used her fire to light it so that the two could see where they were going.
Bumi stomped his foot to move the rock above them back over the opening they came through.
"We can't have anyone following us." He cackled as he led the way through the small cavern.
After a few minutes of walking, they approached another room.
"Do you just walk around this tunnel for fun?" Drisana asked.
"Why are you so curious about what I do for fun?" Bumi countered.
Drisana shrugged her shoulders in response, unsure of how to answer his question.
"But, if you have to know. No, walking around tunnels and playing with rocks are not the only things I do for fun. We're almost there."
The two walked in silence for several minutes before Bumi stopped suddenly. "We're here."
Drisana looked around his shoulder, but saw nothing. "Where's here?"
Bumi put his hands on his hips and continued to look at the wall in front of them.
"Do you know the story about my city? About how Omashu came to be?"
Drisana nodded her head eagerly before he continued, "Then I'm assuming you know about the cave of two lovers?"
She blushed as she nodded slowly.
"Did you know that the maze still exists today?"
"This isn't the maze, is it?" She asked, eyes wide.
Bumi laughed, "Not at all, but it's close. Take my hand."
Drisana grabbed his hand, "Wait, did you mean close as in distance?"
"Just wait."
Had Bumi walked Drisana all the way to Omashu? Is that why they'd been walking for so long?
Drisana smiled and stepped forward, still holding Bumi's hand.
Bumi kicked the wall in front of them down and stepped out into the void before them. Drisana followed, but then lost her breath as the floor beneath them slid down a steep hill.
Drisana screamed and held onto the boy next to her as they fell. Bumi snorted and laughed as the cold air around them bit at their skin as the speed at which they were following steadily grew faster.
The torch they had carried had long since went out, but Drisana felt that he was still holding it in his other hand.
"What are we doing?" Drisana screamed with her eyes squeezed shut.
"Having fun!" Bumi laughed as they continued to fall and turn in all directions.
Just as Drisana began to feel as if they were never going to stop falling, she felt the path they were on begin to level out and their speed decreased exponentially. Once they reached the end of the trail, both of them were lying flat on their backs, Drisana's eyes still closed. She thought about what had just happened, and realized they probably hadn't been falling as long as she thought they had been. This however, didn't stop her from remaining terrified and keeping her eyes shut.
"Drisana."
"Yes."
"Are you seeing this?"
"No, my eyes are closed."
"Well open your eyes."
"Do I want to?"
"Probably."
Drisana carefully opened one eye and peeked first at Bumi, then at the ceiling above them as she opened the other eye.
Drisana was breath taken at the sight before her. Thousands of small, blue-green crystals illuminated the world around them. She stood up and placed her hand on one of the crystals that casted its turquoise glow in front of her.
"It's cool, huh?" Bumi asked as he nudged Drisana with his elbow while he walked past her.
"How did you find this place?" She asked, the crystals showering them with their color-tinted light.
"By accident." he said before he stopped and turned to face her. "I actually found it a long time ago. I used to spend the summers here with my grandparents, and over the years I've expanded my tunnel to reach all corners of the forest. I believe we're close to Ba Sing Se."
Hiromi remembered when her parents would tell her stories of how they used to travel in and out of the nearby city Ba Sing Se as they pleased when they were young. It was actually how they had met, at a merchant's stall in the middle ring of the city. Drisana had heard the story a thousand times, and she never got tired of it. She sighed, knowing she would probably never hear her parents tell the story again.
"How far underground are we?"
"Very."
Drisana shivered, already knowing the answer to her question. She hadn't felt the sun's energy since they fell down Bumi's slide. She tried to firebend, but failed hopelessly.
"I can't bend this far underground." Drisana frowned.
"Do you want to go back up?" Bumi asked disappointedly.
She smiled and shook her head, "Not one bit."
The two continued to talk and play around in the cave around them. Bumi would occasionally drill Drisana with questions about her past, but she didn't mind answering them. She told Bumi all about how the fire nation had attacked the city she lived in- burning it to the ground.
After a few hours, Bumi and Drisana decided it was time to go home. "How do we get back up?" Drisana asked, remembering the horrifying way they had found their way down.
"It's a lot faster than getting down here." He said, walking back towards the slide they had entered on.
Once they approached its end, Bumi motioned for Drisana to stand right next to him.
"Do you have good balance?" He asked as he moved himself into a squatting position.
"I suppose." she lied.
"Good." He said, winding his arms windmill style behind him and propelling them forward. The sudden movement caused Drisana to stumble a bit, which earned her a condescending glance from Bumi. He continued to move, though, and even moved a bit faster to test Drisana's balance. She expertly kept her place and smiled at Bumi, who laughed maniacally in response.
Rather than sliding back up the way they had gone down, Bumi pulled the section of rock they were on out of the ground and pushed it straight up to where he had kicked down the wall earlier. They both stepped into the room and Bumi pushed the rock section back and pulled a wall up.
Drisana felt the warmth of the sun begin to seep back into her bones and she produced a flame from her hand to bring light to the darkness around them.
"Do you have the torch?" Drisana asked Bumi.
His eyes grew wide, "I think I forgot it down there."
Drisana rolled her eyes, "We aren't going back to get it. We can just go by my light."
Bumi nodded his head and walked close to the fire bending girl until they reached where they had first slid into the large cavern.
"We have to crawl back up here." Bumi said, stomping the rock out of the way again.
Drisana sighed exhaustedly and complied with his orders, quickly making her way up the narrow tunnel she had slid down previously.
It was a short climb, and once the both of them reached the top Bumi closed it back up and looked at Drisana.
"Are you going to leave now?"
Drisana shrugged her shoulders, "I don't have anywhere to go."
Bumi thought for a second, "Well you can't sleep in the garden shed again."
"I don't know what else I could do."
"I think I have an idea."
Drisana watched as Bumi earthbended a small structure from the ground, "You can stay here. I'll help you get some stuff to sleep on and we can play with each other every day!"
The idea of being on her own initially scared Drisana, but she was then excited about getting to see Bumi and play with him whenever she wanted. Her smile faded, however, when she came to one realization.
"What about when you return to Omashu?"
It seemed Bumi hadn't thought about this yet either, as his smile also disappeared from his face.
"I'll figure something out. I'm going to try to get my parents to let you come with us!" He shouted, confident his plan would work.
Drisana smiled and hugged the earthbending boy in front of her, happy she made a friend to confide in and trust even after she had lost everything.
Over the next few days, Bumi and Drisana continued exploring the cave and coming up with new games to play with one another. At the end of every day, Drisana and Bumi would say their goodbyes and she would go to her small fortress and eat the food Bumi had brought for her.
One morning, Bumi didn't show up as early as he usually did. Scared to leave the forest, Drisana stayed inside her home and hoped he had just mistakenly overslept.
A little bit after noon, Bumi came running to her door, out of breath.
"Drisana, are you still there?"
She shot up from the corner she had been meditating in, practicing her breathing techniques.
"What took you so long to get here?"
"I was talking to my parents, they said we're leaving for Omashu in two days."
Drisana's eyes grew wide, "Are they going to let me go with you?" she asked, her voice full of hope.
"I haven't asked them yet, I'm still thinking of a way to ask them."
"Why don't you just ask them straightforward?"
"I have to think of a way to ask them so that they have to say yes. Being straightforward isn't ever the best option with my parents. I have to approach situations like these differently than they would expect."
"But they're not expecting you to ask anything, they don't even know I exist."
"Just give me until tomorrow. I'll think of something by then." He said as he pulled a sack of food from his bag.
"Here, my grandmother always makes these amazing sweet cakes. I know you'll love them."
Drisana grabbed one from the sack and split it in two pieces, handing one half to Bumi. She placed the bag on the mat where she slept and bit into the sweet cake, its taste overwhelming her senses.
"What's in this?" She asked, her mouth full of food.
He shrugged his shoulders, "No clue, but it tastes awesome. She's like, super good at making medicines and stuff. There's probably a potion in it that makes you like the way it tastes."
Instead of playing in the cave, the two simply walked around the forest the rest of the day, spending their time climbing trees and telling stories and racing.
At the end of the day, the two said goodbye and Drisana went into her small house, nervous about how Bumi's parents were going to react when he finally decided to ask them.
The more she thought about it, the more high-strung she became. She decided to practice her breathing again, like she did earlier.
She started by grabbing one of the candles Bumi had brought her and used her firebending to light it. Drisana watched as the small flame grew and shrank along with her breathing. Eventually, she closed her eyes and continued to breathe, focusing on making the flame perform to her commands.
She was so focused on her meditation that she didn't hear the footsteps outside of her door as dawn approached.
"Do you see that?" A man dressed in earth kingdom fatigues asked the leader of his cohort.
"She's a fire bender." He replied, moving into a squatting position. "I'm taking the building down."
"But she's just a girl!" He whispered at the earth bender.
"You saw what the Fire Nation did to that village last week. Do you want your family's home to be next?"
The man shook his head.
"That's what I thought." The man dramatically moved his hands above his head, inhaling deeply as he felt the earth around him. "It's what we have to do." He forcefully brought his hands downward, using the earth Drisana was secluded in to crush her as she meditated- unknowing of what had happened.
Her death was quick and painless, but her spirit still waived in the physical world. Drisana's spirit was barely hanging onto her body.
When the sun rose, Bumi found Drisana's body, bloody and barely recognizable, in the rubble of the house he had made her.
"Drisana? Please wake up." Bumi cried, not attempting to refrain from crying over her body.
He looked at her golden hair, which was now grey from the dust in it, and remembered how she had wore it in a bun the first few days they knew each other. She lost the ribbon that had been holding it up and he told her that he would get her a new one, but he forgot. He looked at her closed eyes and wished they would open. He wanted to see her light brown eyes sparkle under the light of the crystals again. He thought they looked so pretty like that.
He stayed there for a long time, holding Drisana in his arms.
First he lost Aang, and now Drisana. Bumi felt as if he was always going to lose the people he loved.
This was his last thought before he cried himself to sleep.
His grandmother found him there, sleeping with a dead girl in his arms. His eyes were red and swollen from crying. She picked him up and moved the girl off of the pile of rubble. She listened for a heartbeat, but nothing was there. The woman closed her eyes, sad that there was nothing she could do to help.
Just as she was about to wake Bumi, a strange feeling overwhelmed the woman. A glowing butterfly beetle landed on the girls shoulder, a sign that she believed to mean a spirit was lurking by.
"Her spirit is still here." she whispered, carrying Bumi back to her house.
She returned to the girl with her medicine in her satchel, ready to perform an ancient ceremony her grandmother had taught her mother, and that her mother taught her.
She painted the girl's face with a clear mixture, one that was used to draw the spirit's energy back from the spirit world.
"I hope this works." She said as she worked, chanting as she continued to apply medicine to the girls wounds.
After several hours, she saw the girl's eyes flutter. She smiled and left her bag and a note with the girl's reviving body. Drisana was breathing, when she woke up she would find a note left by Bumi's grandmother, telling her of how she came across Drisana's body and that she wished she could have helped more, though Drisana felt the woman did more than was asked of her and was grateful enough for that.
Drisana never saw Bumi after that day, and Bumi never knew that she was still alive.
Drisana traveled the world searching for a cure to return her bending, but never found even a lead.
"Eventually, I gave up searching and decided to live on whale tail island. No one has ever found me here and I intend for it to stay that way. But I'll be prepared when they do." Drisana said mischievously. "Our light bending isn't harmful at all, so most would find it impractical. It can, however, come in handy if you know how to use it. I'll teach you to fight, and how to survive and adapt to your new element," She stood up and nodded her head at Hiromi, grabbing her satchel and walking to the teenage girl to help her out of the hot spring.
"But after that you must leave. You need to find your own path to destiny."
Hiromi nodded her head. "Your story has inspired me, Drisana." Hiromi bowed at the woman, showing her the respect Hiromi felt she deserved.
Drisana smiled, "Are you warm?"
Hiromi nodded her head.
"Then we are ready to begin."