I'm glad I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender. Really… I mean, it's fine… that's okay… twitch

Posted originally in theavatar100 livejournal community, for the challenge: Music and culture. This would be for culture. The 'drug effect' here is from oxygen deprivation.


Chasing the Dragon

They wouldn't let their parents see.

They would stand behind closed doors, their minds on war and their eyes closed, chilled at the thought of dying and feverish with anticipation. They would pull a breath deep into their chests and shudder as the energy drove through their veins.

Once they had become experienced, they knew to hold back, just at the end, to invoke that split second of ecstasy.

And then the soldiers-in-training would jerk their stances upwards and turn in the air, wrenching the flow of energy back into their bodies just as flickers shone at their nails. They would land and fall to their knees as the fire they had created burned, now, by that forbidden distortion of Firebending, within their own throats.

One comrade would stand by. Another would stand watch.

Their muscles would fail and their world would spin, and their sanity would seep away as it was consumed by the flame.

Wrath would rush upon them and it made their spines rigid, and hopelessness bickered with their control.

Wild thoughts would come to them – of glory,

of revenge,

of murder – and an ache stabbing every muscle would oscillate to their breathing.

The fire burned within them. And, slowly, they would forget.

They wouldn't let their parents see. Afterwards, when they asked him, the Prince agreed.

That rapture was worth the risk.