Chapter Three: Silence
Disclaimer: If I owned Avatar, the world would be in dictator control, where everyone's forced to eat applesauce all day.
The fire from the candle flickered before his eyes, casting shadows across the room. But these shadows weren't real. They were just illusions.
Aang closed his eyes.
Everything was just an illusion. Everything. The world was just a lie.
So why was he still here? Why was he still living this lie?
Aang sighed.
His whole past had just been an illusion. It was so real, so real. He turned away from the candle. His past. His past life. It had been perfect.
But it was all fake. It was all wrong. Nothing could last forever.
So why was he still here?
The candle was bothering him now.
It was still dark outside, and the moon had probably just reached it peak.
But Aang couldn't just close his eyes and go to sleep. It wasn't that easy. Because if he let the luxury of sleep take him, he would lose consciousness. And that just allow his to lose control.
And he couldn't do that. Not now.
Aang stared at the fire. Flickering higher, higher, then lower.
It seemed so calm right now, so tame. But in a blink of an eye, it could turn deadly, turn into a lose monster and destroy everything.
Like it destroyed his life.
But that didn't matter anymore. He couldn't even remember his past. Everything was so blurry and a illusion.
But it had been perfect compared to his state now.
Casually, he waved his hand, and a stream of air came from it, blowing out the fire. And just like that, everything went dark.
Katara gently knocked on the wooden wall of Aang's cabin. No response. She knocked again, this time a bit louder. No response again.
Katara placed her hands on her hips, clearly annoyed. The boy had seemed nice yesterday, and he hadn't been the one to be rude. But you never know.
She pulled back the covering of the door. She blinked, her eyes adjusting to the dimmed light of the cabin.
"Aang, you have to…" Katara stopped, realizing the boy wasn't here right now. She crossed her hands over her chest, her annoyance increasing. So she shows some kindness to him, and he decides to just go off like that?
Katara turned towards the door, ready to tell Sokka what happened, and gasped as she saw Aang by the doorway. He stared back. Katara brain registered what happened, and she took a deep breath.
"Aang! You scared me!" she said, a hand covering her heart. The boy smiled slightly and apologetically. Katara's heartbeat slowed a bit, enough for her to take the boy by the hand and lead him back to the house.
"What do you mean he can't cook?" demanded Orko, slamming a fist down onto the table. Katara's chopsticks rattled.
"I told you, he doesn't know. Unless you want to try to teach him!" Sokka answered, angry with the boy. The two had never been morning people.
"He's supposed to know! We paid good money for that slave!" Orko shouted back. Katara's clenched her fist. That was it.
"Shut up!" she screamed, standing up abruptly. The two teenagers stopped their bickering, and glanced up at her. "What's wrong with my cooking?"
Aang stared at the group, an amused expression crossing his face. So this was what happened in the house. It reminded what it was like to have a family. Suddenly, his expression darkened, and he pushed that thought away.
Orko burst out laughing, "Your cooking? Really Katara. That food could wake the dead!" Katara clenched her jaws, fighting back the urge to just pound on the boy. Orko ignored her, and returned back to the original topic.
"That man who delivered him said he knew things like farming and all that. So why not cooking?" Orko said, pointing to Aang.
"Look, I'm sure he can do other things. We can have him do other stuff," said Sokka, also sick of the bickering.
"Stupid slave. Can't even cook," said Orko, poking at the rice.
But Orko wasn't going to give up right there. He wanted to put Aang to good use.
"Hey you! We're running low on firewood! Go and chop some up, and fast!" Orko shouted to the boy, before shoving him out the door. "And Katara, make sure he does that!" He reached over to shove her out the door, before she shoved him back. She turned away, marching out the door with her basket and an ax, leaving an angry Orko lying on the floor.
"Okay, I've got an ax for you. All you have to do is just swing it like this," Katara said, picking up the said ax and swinging towards the tree. Aang watched attentively, fascinated at how wood chippings fell off each time the ax hit the tree, leaving a yellow scar. "Just do this a couple of times, and the tree will fall."
She handed the ax to Aang, who surprised at its heavy weight, but soon got over it, examining the weapon. Katara chuckled. "Just don't stare at it too long, you've got to get the trees chopped before Orko really gets mad. I'll check on you later, okay? I've got to get some fish from the river."
Katara glanced back at Aang one last time, satisfied that he was taking a swing at the tree, before heading off in her direction. After stepping over some rocks and pushing aside low branches, she heard the gentle rustle of the water.
Katara smiled, taking in the scene. Although she came her almost everyday, she still was amazed at the beauty of the river. It was one thing that the Fire Nation didn't destroy.
Katara walked over, gazing into the clear water, laughing at how her reflection wiggled back at her. She picked up both hands, holding them to chest level, before concentrating on her bending. Soon, a bubble had formed in the water. Raising up her arms, Katara watched as the bubble rose, with a fish trapped inside.
Katara smiled, dropping the fish into her basket.
The easy part of her chores was done. Now all she had to do was cook it.
Aang soon got tired of the ax, finding it tedious and redundant. It took much too much effort to swing it back and forth, and he hadn't even chopped down a tree yet. He wiped the sweat off his brows, casting the ax aside.
And then he smiled. Time to do chopping his way.
Airbending.
Aang jumped up, turning a full circle in the air, bringing his arms back. As he landed, he spun his body around, and a sharp gust flew through the air. He lowered his hands, taking a deep breath.
Before him the trees were neatly cut down, and all stacked in front of him.
Aang brought his hands to the ground, bring them up rapidly, slicing the trees vertically. His hands went to his sides, before running back the opposite direction, chopping the strips down even further horizontally.
Katara picked up her basket, something that had gained considerable weight since she came to the river. She walked through the shrubbery once more, before stopping at the spot that she had left the kid.
She smiled, pleased that the wood was cut, and surprised that he had finished so early. Her suspicion grew as she examined the pile. It was cut just too neatly; it couldn't have been an ax. And was it just her, or were the leaves all in one area, not scattered around enough? And the axe was way too far away from the pile.
She called out to Aang, before hesitating, realizing he wasn't here.
Katara groaned, vowing to give the boy a lecture when she found him. He couldn't just run off like that.
She placed her basket down, crossing her arms over her chest. The branches rustled overhead, and she looked up, wary of who was there. She opened her mouth to call out, before someone interrupted her.
"Hey little guy. Where did you come from?"
Katara paused, searching frantically. This was new.
No one in her family had a voice like that. It had a twist of childhood innocence, soft and curious. And yet, it was dark and foreboding at the same time, as if the speaker had been stripped of all things good at an age too young. And it was calm, quiet.
Katara's eyes scanned the treetops, looking for anyone there. She knew that she should run home, and away from strangers, but she was just too curious.
Suddenly, she saw a bright flash of red and orange, flying from one tree to the next. There was only one person she knew that wore those colors
"Aang?"
Aang sat from a branch, observing his new friend. It was a lemur. Somehow, the creature seemed familiar, as if he had seen it before. But Aang couldn't remember.
The creature purred, head cocking to one side as if to better observe the boy. The boy smiled, reaching a hand out, gently placing it on the animal's head. The lemur didn't flinch; it just sat there as if it knew that Aang wouldn't hurt it.
"Hey little guy. Where did you come from?" he asked. The animal seemed to think that it had stayed long enough, and spread out its wings. Before Aang could stop it, he jumped off the branch, before gliding to the other. Aang jumped from his, landing exactly where the lemur had stopped, grabbing it.
"Aang?"
The boy froze, hearing that voice. He had completely forgotten why he was in the forest due to the animal.
"Aang? Are you there?" came the voice again. Aang hesitated, wanting to stay in the forest forever. This was him- free, wild. He couldn't go back to those people again.
The boy sighed, knowing what he had to do.
Katara scanned the trees yet again, before her eyes landed on an autumn-colored figure nestled on a branch. She called to him again, wondering how he got that high. He must have been a good climber.
"Hold on Aang, I'll get you a ladder," Katara called, turning the opposite direction. But he had already jumped off the tree.
Katara gasped, frozen in time as she watched the kid fall down.
He's going to die! It's at least 30 feet!
Don't just stand there, do something!
But Katara couldn't move. She could only watch as he pummeled down, falling faster and faster.
Before a gust of air blew her back a few feet. She covered her eyes to avoid dirt blowing into it. When she removed her hands, she was shocked to find the boy standing her in one piece.
What, how? That's impossible!
Katara ran over as soon as she recovered from her shock. "Aang! Are you alright! I say you up in the trees, and you jumped down, and I thought you were just going to die! But you didn't because something happened and this big gust and-"
Aang cut her off. "I'm fine, Katara."
Katara took a deep breath, letting out the air, trying to calm her self, before something hit her. "Wait, you can talk?"
Aang's pupil's widened, realizing he had revealed his secret. He shook his head, rapidly, trying to cover his mistake, but it was too late.
"Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you say anything?" Katara asked. Aang sighed, looking down, avoiding eye contact. After an eternity's worth of silence, the boy finally spoke.
"Because I didn't have anything to say."
I know, I'm MAJORLY late! I am so sorry, but you know, end of semester- tests, presentations, papers, all that.
As you can already tell, I do LOVE dark Aang. He's awesome when he's all angst-y, isn't he?