Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: the Last Air Bender, just the nonsense I came up with.
prologue
year 40,000 B.R. (Before Ritual)
The night was peaceful and calm, with the stars and moon glowing brighter than normal as well, it was a perfect night to star gaze. But the calm was shattered like a pane of glass, when something started to fall out of the sky.
It burned and screamed all while it fell from the heavens at a speed unnatural for anything at that time.
And when the comet hit the earth, the earth shook, but with luck two men from a local tribe were near by and found what they saw fly through the sky.
"Hey, Chimalli come look at this!" Huitzilin yelled out to his friend, who was many paces behind him.
"Have patience Huitzilin, have you not learned anything under my teaching?" The older man said as he caught up with Huitzilin at the edge of the crater. "Now tell me what the was first lesson I taught you, and please get it right I am tired of teaching you this over and over again."
The younger man sighs "To always be cautious, and never run in head first." Though the shame of disappointing his teacher quickly faded with the excitement of exploring the crater.
The large build up of excitement and impulsive desire from just standing still for a few seconds took its toll on Huitzilin, and he started to sliding down the side of the crater.
"Hey! Did you not listen to what I just said?!" Yelled Chimalli has he had to start moving at significantly faster pace than normal for one his age, in order to try and keep up with his young student.
At the near center of the crater stood the hyperactive young man looking over a pile of smoking rocks, with greater curiosity than he's ever had.
Huitzilin started to poke the rocks with a stick he found earlier. He thought it looked cool, though this did not last as long when he heard small muffled crying coming from under the rocks.
"Chimalli someone is caught beneath this rubble!" Huitzilin shouted to his mentor as he frantically tried to remove the rocks, but the rock were too hot to be touched and he hurt himself in the process.
As the old hunter finally reached his protégé, and seeing him pull the very hot rocks off whatever it is underneath the pile, he proceeded to help by using some animal skin rags he had for minor injuries to handle the rocks safer for his friend.
Eventually there was only one large rock left trapping whoever was underneath. "Alright, we are going to have to move this together, so on the count of three lift. Ok?" Chimalli told his student with a commanding tone. " One, two, and three." Both began to grunt under the strain of lifting the heavy rock.
When the rock was removed it revealed a small crevice which billowed smoke and steam, which was blocking the view of whoever was crying. As the smoke cleared it was revealed to be a child of what looked about six months old.
"W-what?! How?" A perplexed Huitzilin said in absolute shock. "It barely has any scratches on it. How is it still alive after falling from the heavens?"
Chimalli ever the more cautious and careful of the two, picked up the child and began to look it over for any injuries, both external or internal. As he inspected it he also removed the pure white cloth that swaddled it to see it was a girl or a boy.
"Well, now we know it is a boy." stated the old hunter, as he put the cloth back around the child. "And that he has no injuries either."
"Why is his skin so white?" Asked the impulsive initiate, not really thinking that far ahead, "I mean he would look so out of place in the tribe."
"No, of course he wouldn't look odd in a tribe where everyone's skin is a dark shade of red." Chimalli said in the most sarcastic voice he could muster. "I mean just look at him, his skin is whiter than the purest ivory our tribe has ever seen. He wouldn't stick out at all."
Huitzilin looked away clearly embarrassed after realizing the dumb question he had asked. "So... uh, what should we do with it?"
"Well, the only option right now is to take him to the chief, and see what his opinion will be." The old hunter said. "And if things went well with the birth of his sixth child, well he may just be in a good mood for once."
"Ok, then I am going to go ahead and meet you there, and give them a heads up while I'm at it." The speed freak said as he sprinted as fast as he could, oblivious to his mentor's words of not running off.
At the tribe village.
After an hour of fast walking, Chimalli finally reached the entrance of the village, with the child still sleeping safely in his arms, well after he calmed him down. The entrance itself was nothing more the some wooden poles with animal skin stretched inbetween them, with the tribes name written on it.
At the entrance stood Huitzilin, who had a very deep frown on his face, which is very odd to those who know him.
"Huitzilin what seems to be the matter?" The old hunter asked with a very worried tone. "Don't tell me it has happened again."
"Yes, it was another stillborn, again," said a very mournful young man, all the while trying to hold back tears. "This SUCKS! What did our chief and lady ever do to deserve this, and the shaman does not detect any curse of any nature on them!?"
Chimalli just stood there thinking what to say to what he just heard, and to also internally grieving a bit himself.
"I have no answer as to why my student, or at least not one that will satisfy you." Sighed the old man, while rubbing the head of the sleeping child though not for the comfort of the child. "I have lived long enough to see the chief and lady get to were they are now, but also long enough to know life is not fair."
The only response he got was a single sigh, all the while the young adult kicked the dirt and rocks, not really comforted by what his mentor told him.
"Come. Let us go see the chief and lady, even though they will not be in a greatest mood. This is still something that they need to know," stated the mentor in the closest monotone voice he could muster.
As they walked to the chief's hut, Chimalli noticed how eerily quiet it is in the village, not even the frog or bugs made a noise. The only thing really making any noise was the crackling fire in the middle of the village, but it was not much in terms of noise.
When they got to the large hut the old hunter simply knocked on the door, though not too loud. When there was no response instead of knocking again he walked over to the back of the hut, which proved his small hunch to be correct when he heard the muffled weeping of a woman.
At the back of the hut is a small porch, which the chief and lady use to star gaze or to simply relax together and talk. But now it was a place of mourning with the chief's wife weeping into his chest, as he and the shaman comfort her.
"Chief Yolyamanitzin and Lady Zeltzin, I am sorry for intruding on this most grievous night, but I and Huitzilin have come back from exploring the crash sight of the comet that flew across the sky not that long age," reported Chimalli, a bit unsure if he should be reporting this at the moment.
Chief Yolyamanitzin turned to face the most accomplished hunter in the tribe, "I am greatly displeased by this intrusion, old friend. Do you know the pain my wife and I feel? This is the third time in a row, in three years," the chief said in a calm, but intimidating voice.
"I-I am sor-" Chimalli was about to apologize, when the child in the old hunter's arms suddenly started to cry and draw attention. It caused Lady Zeltzin to turn her face away from her husband's chest and to the wailing child with great curiosity and sorrow.
"Why have you brought that here?" Asked the chief in a sorrowful and annoyed voice, oblivious to his wife's curiosity for the wailing baby boy.
"I am sorry, but this why I came to report. You see this baby was the comet," explained the old man.
"Yeah, we found him under some very hot and heavy rocks at the center of the crater. He did't even have any scratches, wounds, or burns." The ever hyperactive Huitzilin added, completely forgetting the grievous tragedy of the chief and lady's third stillborn.
"How it that possible?" both the chief and lady said in unison. Both looked at the other slightly amused.
"We don't know. There are a few oddities about this child, like for instance his skin is a near pure white and his eyes are purple with flecks of emerald green," stated Chimalli, while trying to calm him down again.
"May I see him?" asked Lady Zeltzin in a shaky voice, but fully removing herself from her husband's embrace, and holding her hands out for the child.
The old hunter gently handed over the baby boy over to woman. She cradled the baby in one arm, while rubbing the head of the crying child to calm him down. It worked very well, as the child started to calm down, and even started to giggle as he tried to put her hand in its mouth.
"He is a very cute baby. His eyes are so pretty, and skin so very soft. Though he weighs far more for a child his size. I wonder why that is?" pondered the lady, while playing with the child.
The chief turned to the shaman, and asked, "Citlalee what do you gather from this, could this be just a coincidence or something more?"
Now, the shaman is an odd case among the tribe. In fact, many feared the shaman for his wierd abilities, and for how he spoke to others, which was not often. He speaks very little, but his voice is quiet and haunting, like the whispers of the dead one would think they heard in the burial grounds of the tribe.
"No. The death of what would have been your sixth child has nothing to do with the appearance of the comet, and the boy that came from the comet," Citlalee said in the near whisper that is his voice.
"Then what do you sense from the boy?" asked the chief, clearly wanting to know if the child was a threat to his wife and village. "He is clearly not from our world. If he fell from the heaven, he could be a threat."
The shaman in response, shuffled over to Zeltzin and placed a bony hand on the forehead of the child. When the hand touched the head of the child, a dull ethereal glow came from contact, and caused all but the shaman to feel a bit of dread.
"I sense great power both physically and spiritually. I would not be surprised if he ever became a great warrior or a powerful shaman, though how powerful I cannot determine," said the shaman, still scrying for information through is magic. "I also sense the touch of the Great Spirit on the boy, this does confirm that he is blessed and not cursed."
"Hmm, I guess this means he is not a threat at the moment. Is there anything else you scry from him," the chief inquired, still not fully convinced that the child is not a threat.
Citlalee closed his eyes to focus his scrying to find anything else to salve the chief's fears. "The boy's soul is older than his body, and does not feel the same as other human souls," said the frail man. Any shock in the shaman's voice could not be noticed by the others as they could not understand the meaning of such. "His soul must not have originated in our world but in a different one, an older one."
"May we keep him dear." Zeltzin asked in a tone that conveyed that this was not a question, and that any complaint would not be tolerated. "Just look at how cute his face is. How could you possibly say no? Besides, if you fear the child, why not take care of him and raise him to be good if you fear him evil?"
"I don't know darling. It's just not how things go in the tribe, and no chief in the history has ever taken in a child that was not his own." The chief said oblivious to the rhetorical question his wife proposed.
His wife in response gave a glare the signaled for him to shut up. He quickly looked away.
"Look, I am just tired of all of this. I have carried six kids, with only three successfully being born alive. I just want a break from that, and to actually care for baby again. Yes, it may not be ours but if things keep going the way they are, we may never have a child again without it dying." The middle aged woman stated.
"Fine. We can keep him, but because he is not of our blood, the title of chief can never be passed down to him, only earned, if he chooses to do so," Yolyamanitzin said, still unsure if he should be humoring her. "So, what shall we name our new son?"
All five of them thought on it for some time. Chimalli and Huitzilin both came up with ideas, but none of them stuck. The chief and his wife had a harder time thinking of any, and the ones they came up with lacked any confidence of it being the right name.
"How about the name Xihuitl? It means comet after all," the shaman said in his haunting voice.
"Yes, yes Xihuitl it is! Oh it's a perfect name for you little one!" Zeltzin joyously exclaimed, excited to finally be a mother with a child again. She began to gently hug the child, as her husband watched this scene with uncertainty.
An two hours later.
Yolyamanitzin stared at the sleeping child, who was on a small bed laid out on the floor. His wife was a few feet away, fast asleep due to the emotionally draining day. He himself was still not in a good mood after the death of his sixth child. He just could not wrap his head around the events that unfolded this day, or night technically.
"I do not know how or why you came to us, but you managed to steal my wife's heart, so there is nothing I can do," the chief whispered to the sleeping child. "But you will never replace my true children, especially not my first born son, but I will treat you as though you were my own. I just hope you won't be a mistake, and that you will prove to be truly worth being called my son."
And with that, the chief bade the child goodnight and went to bed himself.