Chapter Four: The Past


Li started to tell Sokka the story of why she was able to shape shift, and some other things that she'd been waiting to be able to spill to somebody. He listened intently, sitting on the ground.

"It was a hundred years ago when this all started. My monk, Guiszo, was teaching me dark bending. He'd taught me everything about it I know, including shape shifting."


"Now, picture the animal in your mind, and-"Guiszo instructed. He and Li were in a Northern Temple of the Air, on one of the balconies. Li was sitting on the edge of it, staring into space.

"Guizo, why did you teach me dark bending? " Li asked him. She was ignoring his lesson.

"Because you're my pupil, and it is my duty to teach you everything I know about bending. I have always been a dark bender, and now you are one as well."

"But aren't dark benders evil and tainted?" Li questioned him.

"Some of them, yes, but not all of them." He said sitting next to her. "We aren't evil. Do you feel evil?"

"Not really…" she said quietly. "But why don't the other air benders like me that much? Like they say that I'm only a dark bender, and that's all that I'll ever be."

"You shouldn't listen to them. They don't know what it's like to go through what you are. I have a bit of good news for you."

Li perked up. "You're getting me a bison?" she hoped.

"No Li. You're going to a Southern Temple of the Air to learn light bending with a friend of mine."

"Light bending? I thought that you can only learn dark bending or light bending. How am I supposed to learn light bending if I'm a dark bender?"

"It's because you're special. You're a descendant of the avatar who created them. She was Avatar Jui, an air bender. "

"Am I the avatar then?" Li asked him.

"No, a boy in a southern temple is"


"That must've been Aang." Sokka said.

"It was Aang, I knew him for some time, that's why I recognized him. Unfortunately I messed up on a light bending move and wiped out all his memories of me. That's why he didn't recognize me."

"And then hewas frozen in ice for a hundred years. Wait, how did you live that long? Shouldn't you be dead if all this happened a hundred years ago?"

"When my light bending training was almost finished, the fire nation attacked us. I never got to finish because my light bending master was killed in the battle. I was the only one left. Since I'm a dark bender, I'm immortal. I can live forever and look like a child until somebody kills me."

"How old are you now?" Sokka asked her.

"A hundred and thirteen." She told him.

"Who was your light bending master?" he asked, still questioning.

"Monk Tang. Before he died he taught me light bending."

"What lesson did you never learn?"

"How to bring peace between fighting parties." She said sadly. "I could've ended the war if I had only learned how to do it."

Li looked out towards the ocean. Tears were almost in her eyes for remembering these things. "I could've saved their lives! All of them! Then this war never would've happened!" she cried.

She noticed something on the horizon. It looked like a large black boat. She reached into her back pack and pulled out a telescope. She put it up to her eye and gasped. "Of all the rotten luck…" she murmured. "Fire nation. We need to ready the village for an attack. Come on!" she said, getting onto her air board and flying into the village.


I edited this. Yay for editing.