What do you guys think of the new story cover? That's what Tora looks like, that's what her necklace looks like. Coloured it on deviantArt Muro. Drew it by myself. :D

PLEASE - No one comment on how late this chapter is. I've been dealing with a lot of stuff at school - course selections, IB stuff, projects and tests in pretty much every single class to name a few - so I really haven't been thinking about this a whole lot. I'm sorry its late, but that's all I can say.

goddamn these fighting scenes… they suck. (Nerdania, I assume that you've written and/or thought something about my sucking at writing bending fight scenes, and I'll agree with you. I struggle with the "based on actual martial arts that actually exist in real life" part, because I know no martial arts whatsoever, except for one Tai Chi move that a substitute science teacher taught my class in grade nine, and some other Tai Chi moves that elderly people do in the mall in the mornings when I'm walking through.) I don't think my sword fighting is as bad though. I'm still learning.

You know… if I could go back in time and stop myself from adding one thing to the story… it would definitely be the wolves. Or at least, the talking-wolves-in-packs part. I thought it was cool back when I was writing it - and I still think it's cool, it's just that now I realize that I didn't really add them for any specific reason. I just added them because they were cool.

NOTE: For the sake of the story, I am completely ignoring Legend of Korra's theory of how the benders came to be. Because I came up with my own theory when I started this story, a LONG time before Book 2 came out, and it doesn't match up with the Lion Turtle thing.

That's one thing I don't get. People say that animals (dragons, sky bison, badgermoles, the moon and ocean(not animals, but ignoring that)) were the first benders, and they learned from them. Yet the only time we see any of those creatures bending is when we see Wan doing the dancing dragon with a dragon - but he had already had firebending for a presumably long time before that.

So, in conclusion, I am going to ignore the 'Lion Turtle gives out the elements' thing.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender or any characters thereof. Nickelodeon, and Mike and Bryan the proud owners of the fantastic show, while I am just a High School student and am writing this for my own amusement. I only own my own characters, and/or any plot twists that are caused because of them.

Umi

For a split second, all I could do was stare, dumbfounded.

Before I could do anything, even just yell, the water smashed into me, sending me flying and skidding backwards, across the ground, through the snow, all on my back. As soon as I had stopped skidding, I let out a groan and opened my eyes, staring up at the sky. What the hell…?

I blinked once, twice, before my vision cleared enough to see that the water that had hit me hadn't just disappeared, soaked into my clothes, fallen into the snow, or whatever else it could have done. It was above me in a great big churning sphere, ready to come splashing down on me at a moments notice.

That's when the ball of water turned to ice and came crashing down to the ground.

I moved on instinct, rolling out from under the falling ice ball just before it hit the spot on the ground I had been just a moment before. The moment it hit the ground, it shattered into millions of frozen shards that flew in several different directions. I turned towards the entrance of the cave and punched my fist towards it, and a blast of fire burst from my punch as I let out a yell. A wall of water suddenly rose, forming some sort of curtain or door that protected the entrance from my fire blast. If I hadn't been distracted by the fact that the snow surrounding my feet had suddenly melted, I would have wondered how Whoever-It-Was knew what I was doing, when I couldn't see anybody in sight. Besides the wolf, but I highly doubted it was the wolf. Besides the rush of water had left the entrance of the cave, and I assumed that meant that Whoever-It-Was was in the cave - which left me wondering, again, how the person knew what all of my moves would be when they couldn't see me.

But anyway - the snow around my feet had melted. I barely had time to think about it before I was yanked off my feet and pulled into the air as the melted snow became a pillar of water, the water somehow being able to suspend me by my feet despite the fact that it was just water. As in, something that shouldn't have been able to hold my entire weight up.

Then again, it was being controlled by someone who was, I presumed to be, a master waterbender, so I suppose the laws of reality could be put on hold at that moment.

"You know, I thought, for some reason, that you'd be better than this."

As I had been too busy to try and bend my body forwards to see if I could get free without using my bending, I hadn't noticed that an old woman - middle-aged at least - had emerged from the cave, and that the white wolf - who had been sitting by the cave entrance and hadn't stirred at all despite the fight going on - was standing at her side, and was tall enough to reach the woman's chest. I let myself hang, and tilted my head backwards so I could see my opponent better, but I couldn't see much, seeing as I was hanging upside down and things were beginning to get blurry from my lack of focus.

The woman continued, sighing a bit. I managed to notice that her left hand was raised into the air, bent at the wrist so her palm faced the ground. So she's the one who's controlling the water. "I mean, you can hardly call this a fight. It's not fair at all. Darn, I really thought those things would have some effect on you…"

"Who the hell are you?!" I snarled, flailing my arms to try and grab at the woman. Sadly, but fortunate for her, I was just a bit too uncoordinated due to the blood rushing to my head, plus the fact that I was dangling from the air so high up that the tips of my fingertips were at least five inches away from her no matter how much I strained to reach her.

"Umi, of course!" The woman said cheerfully. "And you're Tora, aren't you? It's a real pleasure to meet you, I've heard quite a lot about you."

I paused. "So, you're Umi?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?"

"So, can you let me down, then?" Maybe this is all just a misunderstanding and she thought I had been an intruder or something.

"No, I don't think I will." The smile didn't fade from her expression.

I spluttered incomprehensibly for a moment, shocked by the bluntness of her response, before shouting, "What do you mean, 'no'?!"

"Hmmm…" Umi tapped her right pointer finger against her right cheek, as though she was thinking. "Well, I suppose it's because if you're not strong enough to get out of this by yourself, you're useless, and I wouldn't have any reason to help you." She smiled again, ignoring the look of hurt that appeared on my face as she used the exact word that I feared the most when it was being used about me.

Useless.

"You're wrong!" I yelled, clenching my fists. The effect was ruined by the fact that I was still upside down. "I'm not useless!"

"Really?" Umi tilted her head to the side. "How so? I can't see any reason why you wouldn't be useless. If you can't even get out of this by yourself, how will you be able to protect your friends? How will you be able to face the pain of losing part of your soul?"

I barely registered the second half of what she had said, because the first part made something inside me snap. "I will protect them!" I yelled, swinging my fist in her direction, swearing multiple times in my mind as well as praying that I would get a good punch in. "I'll show you I'm not useless!"

"Alright, then." Umi sighed, the smile dropping from her face. She closed her eyes, turning back in the direction of the cave. "When you've given up, just give me a yell and I'll drop you. You can leave when that happens - I have no interest in teaching someone so pathetic-"

I snapped.

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" I screamed, and as a rush of adrenaline filled me I jerked by body upwards, fists blazing with fire. Without even thinking about it, I cut through the water holding me by the ankles with a flaming hand, breaking myself free. As I began falling to the earth, a blaze of fire filled my vision, and the next thing I knew I had twisted my body around, landed firmly on both my feet in a crouching position, throwing my arms out so they were in a diagonal position. My left hand was down by the ground, while my right was in the air, and a streak of fire connected my hands. I watched as Umi turned around, watching me carefully, while the wolf didn't seem very bothered by my sudden viciousness. With a scream of pure rage, I ran forwards toward Umi, fists completely covered in fire. She simply flicked both of her wrists, and two streams of water rose from the snow on either side of her and surrounded her hands.

The moment I had reached her, her water-gloved hand covered my flaming fists, extinguishing my fire. "That's enough." She said calmly. "You've proven yourself." She smiled again, and her eyes - which were blue, Water Tribe blue, Southern Water Tribe blue - sparkled mischievously.

I gaped, open mouthed, at the woman, completely stunned by her quick defensive move. I had never seen anyone extinguish my fire like that before - then again, I had never gone up against anyone who was skilled at waterbending with my firebending before. But I had still never seen a move like that.

Umi's eyes flicked down to my right cheek. "You're bleeding." I blinked, even more surprised now. She's acting like nothing even happened… "Must have gotten cut from one of the shards of the ice sphere." She clucked her tongue. "Well, come on in. I can clean that up for you." She released her grip on my fists, letting the water coiled around her own hands splash into the snow. I found myself dropping my fists, any flames that had been left going out now that I was too confused to focus on keeping them around. Umi took my by the hand, turned around, and led me to her cave, pausing at the entrance to look at the wolf and snap, "Nanu, in." The wolf got to its paws and joined Umi at her side, and with that, Umi pulled me into the cave, dragging me behind her like I was some sort of child, while I could only stare, dumbfounded, at the back of her head.

~~Water~~

The inside of Umi's cave was not what I had been expecting. I was expecting it to look just like… a hole in the ice, I guess, small, with a cot for a bed, maybe a small dresser for clothes. I thought the wall's would be scratchy, like ice should be when it's been carved out.

Instead, the walls were completely smooth, almost like glass. I felt like I was inside a glass bubble, because the walls had been carved into a perfect spherical shape - except for the floor, which was, naturally, flat - and they were blue like… well, ice. I even brushed my hand against one of the walls, and my hand slipped off immediately, with it being so smooth. The entire room was probably about thirty feet wide in total, in a perfect circle. There was a large pile of differently coloured furs at the back of the room, and I wondered why some of the furs were flat against the ground while others were thrown to the side, until I realized that it was her bed. I watched as the wolf left Umi's side, padded over to the furs, and flopped down onto them before immediately falling asleep. The walls weren't bare - instead, tapestries hung from certain places on the walls. There were only four, and I realized that there was one for each Nation. There was a red one with two dragons, red and blue, with their tail tips in the others mouth, forming a circle around a flame looking like the Fire Nation symbol. One next to it was orange, with three white circles in the center, looking like clouds that were formed into spirals, with two sky bisons curving around it. It took me a moment before I realized that it was the symbol for the Air Nomads. I hadn't seen it enough to automatically know what it was, though I supposed the sky bison should have been a hint. Another was dark blue, with a lighter blue Water Tribe symbol in the center - the crescent moon and the three waves - looking like it was made out of water, with two koi fish, one black with a white dot in the center of its head and a white one with a black dot in the centre of its head, swimming around it, looking like Yin and Yang (why there were koi fish, I had no idea.). The last one was green, with an image of the Earth Kingdom symbol, carved out of rock, with a badgermole curved over it, one of its claws pointing at the center of the swirl in the symbol.

There was a large wooden chest at the back of the room, next to Umi's bed, carved with different images of what I think were Spirits and Gods, locked with a steel chain and a lock. Naturally, I was immediately insanely curious about what was inside. On the right side of the room was a small wooden table, with four candles, a bunch of rocks, what looked like - shudder - animal bones, and leaves. Where she had found leaves in the North Pole, I had no idea. I was under the impression that there was a severe lack of what I considered normal vegetation here.

Covering the floor was a thick, dark green rug. There were no elaborate designs on it, unlike the tapestries and the wooden chest. In fact, it didn't have any designs whatsoever. Instead, it was just a normal, plain shade of dark green. I think I liked it more than I should have just because of this.

"Sit down." Umi ordered, releasing my hand and leaving me to stand awkwardly at the entrance of the room, while she headed towards the wooden chest. Finally I just walked onto the rug and sat down, tried to cross my legs (which was very uncomfortable, due to the fact that my parka reached my knees and wouldn't allow me to cross my legs), gave up, and then ended up sitting on my knees, hands folded in my lap. I glanced at the wolf - Umi had called it Nanu - and found that it was staring right at me, with a piercing yellow-eyed glare. I swallowed, trying to figure out why I felt so intimidated by it, when it growled.

You smell of Fenris and Accalia.

I nearly jumped when I heard a female voice… in my head. I blinked, and then stared at Nanu in disbelief. "You can speak?" I demanded.

"Ah, so Nanu's spoken to you, has she?" Umi said, not turning around while she rummaged through the chest. "You don't sound very shocked."

Neither did she. Umi, I mean. I mean, I knew that I had heard a wolf speak before, and although I hadn't expected Nanu to talk, I felt as though hearing a wolf talking wouldn't surprise me at this point. But Umi didn't know that I had heard a wolf speak before, so I thought she'd be surprised that I wasn't surprised. I opened my mouth to point this out, before Nanu spoke again. Do you know what's become of my pack members?

I closed my mouth and licked my lips, turning back to Nanu. "Fenris and Accalia? Yeah, they're fine - the last time I saw them, anyway. They joined another clan, belongs to a friend of mine and her… wolf friend." I finished lamely. "What do you mean, I smell of them? It's been weeks since I last saw them!" I suddenly demanded, realization setting in, and I gripped my clothes. "I wasn't even wearing these clothes when I last saw them!"

Nanu seemed to sigh, before lifting her head. Scents do not fade for a long, long time, human. It takes months and months before they fade completely, usually a year. And their scent isn't on your clothes - it's on you, your skin and your hair. I am glad, though, Nanu added, sighing again, but this time in relief, that they have found another pack. I was worried about them.

"Why were you separated?" I frowned. Neither Accalia or Fenris had mentioned anything about Nanu when I had been with them - granted, I had only been with them for about a day, half of which I had been unconscious for.

We lived in the northern part of the Earth Kingdom. Me, Fenris and Accalia were the oldest of our pack, and I was the alpha. Just a few months ago, the Fire Nation soldiers came, and they burned down our forest. When the pack tried to stop them, the soldiers armor protected themselves from our teeth and claws, and they wiped most of us out. Nanu rested her head on her paws. I haven't seen any other wolves since then.

"Oh." I coughed awkwardly into my fist. "I'm sorry."

Umi snorted at that. I glared at her. "What are you laughing at?"

"Oh, nothing." Umi said, not turning around. "Just the fact that you're apologizing for something you have nothing to do with." She finally turned around, holding a small scrap of light blue cloth above her head in a very triumphant fashion. "Got what I needed!" She came forward and got down on her knees in front of me, put the cloth against my bleeding cut, and gave it a small wipe. She smiled at me. "All done."

I stared blankly at her for a moment. "Seriously? That's all you needed to do? I could have done that by myself."

"Ah! But you didn't!" Umi pointed out, pointing her index finger at the ceiling in a 'I know something you don't' kind of way. "You could have, but you did not, so don't look at me like I'm some sort of idiot!"

I sighed, momentarily closing my eyes, and when I opened them again I fully examined the woman in front of me.

She wasn't old, exactly. Her hair was clearly beginning to grey and there were already some bright strands of silver mixed in with the dark and light brown, but for the most part her face was free of wrinkles. If I had to guess, I'd say she was in her mid fifties or early sixties. She had hair loopies like Katara did, looping around to the nape of her neck where it connected with a small bun. She looked like a regular Water Tribe citizen, with brown skin and blue eyes. But as I had noted earlier, her eyes were a lighter shade of blue than most of the Northern Tribe's citizens, matching Katara and Sokka's eye colour more than they matched Yue's or Arnook's. She wore a long, light blue parka, the hood back, and it certainly looked warmer than mine - I was immediately reminded of the fact that I was freezing. I had momentarily forgotten in the heat of the battle, but now that I could focus on it again, the cold had come back at full force, and I wondered if Umi would mind if I asked to borrow her parka. Underneath her parka, the only part of her clothing that I could see was a ankle-length light blue skirt with a darker blue hemline, and other than that the only other thing she appeared to be wearing was a pair of fur moccasin boots.

Arnook had said that she was the Wise Woman of the Tribe. She didn't look like one, that was for sure. She just looked like a normal woman. But she looked familiar, and I couldn't figure out why.

Umi's eyes went to my earrings, and she smiled. "You're still wearing them! Good!"

That's when it clicked.

She looked older, her hair was greyer and slightly longer, she had a few more wrinkles, and she wasn't wearing any green as far as I could see, but I remembered where I had seen her before.

"You're that woman from the shop in that Earth Kingdom town!" I shouted in realization, pointing my finger at her face. "Why do you look so old now?!" She had looked like she was in her thirties the last time I had seen her! And now she looked like she was almost sixty! How in the world had she aged thirty years in just a month?!

Suddenly, I found myself holding my head in pain. Umi had bopped me on the head, and now she was glaring at me with a bright red vein popping up on her forehead. "I'm not old!" She yelled. "Take that back and show more respect for your elders!" She crossed her arms, scowling. "And for your information, I looked like this back in that Earth Kingdom town too." She sniffed, sticking her nose in the air in a very haughty fashion. "You just never noticed because I was shielded by an illusion, given to me by the Spirit of illusions himself, Megudo! Incidentally, one of the creepiest Spirits ever. You'd think that he'd use an illusion on himself to hide his hideous form! Unless, he is using an illusion to create that form, so that we all fear him. Hmmm…" She seemed to be distracted by this sudden inspiration, and stared off into space for at least two whole minutes while I stared at her in disbelief and confusion. Finally, I lost my patience and snapped my fingers in front of her face, bringing her out of her thoughts. Umi seemed annoyed by this. "You are just filled with disrespect, aren't you?! I should never have given you those things! I should have just left you in your inner chaos!" She scowled, crossing her arms and slumping.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." I said sarcastically, giving a mocking gasp and clapping my right hand to my cheek. "Please, forgive me for snapping my fingers in your face, woman who attacks me for no reason and hangs me upside down."

"My name is Umi, girl who is rude to her elders."

"I already know your name, woman who states the obvious."

"Then why don't you use it, girl who I was testing by attacking her?"

"Because you're literally the most infuriating adult woman I've met, and I've met a woman who calls me 'Weakling' just because I happened to be lying down when she met me, woman who infuriates me."

"That does sound like a weakling move, girl who is a weakling."

"Are you going to tell me why you gave me the stupid things or not, woman?!"

Umi scoffed. "Run out of things to call me, have you?"

I clenched my fists, resisting the urge to punch Umi right in her stupid face. Instead, I sniffed, sticking my nose in the air like she had just done, and flipped my hair over my shoulder. "No, I've simply decided that I'm much too mature to be doing such an immature thing. Perhaps you should learn how to act your age, old woman."

As we made eye contact, you could practically see the lightning spark.

Suddenly, Umi smirked.

And then she started chuckling.

And then she threw her head back and laughed, loudly, while I stared at in complete confusion. I lowered my head, burying my face in my hands, while Umi continued to laugh boisterously, completely unaware of her own surroundings. What's happening?!

I felt a hand on the top of my head, and I lifted my head out of my hands just enough to see Umi smiling at me, rubbing my head fondly. "I like you. You were raised decently, I can tell. In any case, you have enough will in you to be able to get through it."

She's talking so fast… It was practically impossible for me to keep up with what she was saying. Her moods kept changing, from annoyed to cheerful to haughty and then right back to annoyed, doing a complete cycle. She also kept changing what she was talking about - first she was talking about how she wasn't old, then about some 'illusion', then about some Spirit, then she was insulting me- wait. Inner chaos? What was that supposed to mean? What was she talking about?

"-so, yeah, that's how it all happened." Umi continued blathering on, completely ignorant of the fact that I hadn't been listening for the past ten seconds or so. "It was one of the worst moments of my entire life, I'll have you know, and I've been through some really awful times, I'll tell you that. But-"

"Wait." I interrupted, stopping Umi mid-sentence. She blinked and looked at me in surprise, looking a little taken aback by the fact that I had spoken. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about-"

"What did you mean, 'inner chaos'?" I continued, once again interrupting whatever she was about to say. "What are you talking about?" Then I remembered what she had said earlier, when I had been attacked by her. "What do you mean, I'm going to lose part of my soul?" I yelled, standing up and clenching my fists, looking down at Umi. She looked up at me in surprise, still sitting on her knees on the floor.

"You - don't know?" She said, sounding confused. "I thought - but-" Umi closed her eyes, putting a hand to her head and looking conflicted. "I can't believe this. You don't even know… this is awful."

"What in Agni are you talking about?" I demanded, planting my hands on my sides and cocking a hip.

"Of all the-" She lowered her head. "I never expected this. I thought you would already know."

"Know WHAT?!" I yelled, grabbing my hair and pulling on it in frustration. "What are you talking about?!"

"The truth." Umi said softly, making me look down in surprise. Umi was staring at the floor. From what I could see of her face, her expression was one of pure distress."I don't want to be the one to tell you. But if I don't, no one will." She combed her fingers through her hair, pulling a few strands out from the tight bun. Finally she sighed. "Tora, do you know how the benders came to be?"

I froze, taken aback by her question. What did this have to do with anything? "Uh… no. I've heard the stories about the dragons being the original firebenders, but they're just legends." I slowly sat down, looking at Umi with curiosity now instead of hostility. "Aren't they?" I asked uncertainly. I had thought a lot of things were legends, or impossible, before Katara and Sokka had found Aang. Airbenders still existing, for one. The Avatar still being around, for another. And they had all turned out to be real and very possible.

Umi shrugged. "Partially. They were the first creatures on earth to use fire the way they did, but they weren't the first firebenders period. Entirely different things." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "This will take a lot of explaining…"

"So just give me the basics, or skim a little." I said, shrugging. I didn't need to know the entire history of the elements and how they came to be.

Umi shook her head. "No there's too much to be explained to just give the basics, or skim." She added a glare in my direction on the last part, saying the word 'skim' like it offended her. Tossing her head a bit and throwing the loose strands of hair behind her shoulder, she sighed again, crossed her arms, and closed her eyes. "Alright, here we go. Don't interrupt me." She added, opening one eye and glaring at me again. I gaped at her, insulted. When had I ever interrupted someone when they were telling me something important?

... Okay, maybe that one time. And that other time. And the time before that - you know what, it doesn't matter!

Ignoring the insulted expression on my face, Umi abruptly stood up, approached the chest, opened it up, and pulled out a thin scroll. Sitting back down in front of me, she unrolled it, held the parchment up to her face, and began to read.

"Agni, Mazu, Bhumi, and Shu - the Spirits of fire, water, earth and air, respectively," Umi added, seeing my blank look when she said the names of the last three Spirits. "Mazu and Bhumi are both female, Agni and Shu are male."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." She shook her head a bit, before beginning again. "Agni, Mazu, Bhumi and Shu crossed into the mortal world to see how the humans were living, and to claim territory for themselves in order to teach the humans about the Spirits and to ensure that the humans worshipped them properly. Agni claimed the land made of islands to the south, as the land was made of volcanic islands, and Agni himself was born from the volcanos, so he claimed that the lands were his birthright. Mazu claimed the icy North and South, as it was a calm, but dangerous and cold place, like water. Bhumi claimed the large land to the East, as it was a rocky place, very mountainous, and a hard place to live, but Bhumi was up to the challenge. Shu claimed four separate pieces of land, to represent the four cardinal points, and chose mountainous lands like Bhumi, but unlike the Earth Spirit, who changed her land to her will, Shu kept his land the way it was, allowing only the natural elements of wind and rain and time to corrode the terrain.

"As time went on, the Spirits all saw how the humans were struggling to live. They were not entirely fit for the harsh climates of their land, as they lacked the Spirits abilities to withstand the heat, cold, rocky terrain, and at times harsh winds of the four Spirits respective lands. The Spirits knew that, if they wanted the humans to survive, they would need to pass down their powers to the humans.

"So the Spirits visited the humans of their respective lands while the humans slept, as it is when a human sleeps that they are closest to the Spirit Spirits slipped into the humans dreams, taking part of their soul and placing it within the humans soul, and blessed them with the gift to control the element of their birthland. The Spirits taught the humans how to use the elements properly, and when the Spirits had to return to the Other World, they created animals that used their elements to live so the animals could teach the humans how to control their element should the other humans forget. Shu created the Sky Bison, who used the power of air to fly. Bhumi created the Badgermoles, who used the power of earth as an extension of their senses, to see through the earth when they could not see with their eyes. Agni created the dragons, whose essence had been created from the purest of fire, the white fire. Mazu was the only one who had no need to create anything, for she only had to show the people of her land the way the moon pushed and pulled the ocean tide. When the Spirits left the human world, they entrusted the power of the elements in humanity's hands."

Umi rolled up the scroll and set it to the side, before looking back at me. "What I'm about to say to you may come as a shock, so I completely understand if you want to leave when I tell you." She said.

"Whatever it is, it can't be that bad." I said, grinning. It faltered when Umi sighed and shook her head.

"I'm afraid you're wrong about that." She said grimly. "About a hundred years - at least - after the Spirits gave the humans bending, they - the Spirits, that is - wanted to find out what would happen if they gave one person two opposing elements. So they experimented on these two children, a boy from the Fire Nation and a girl from the Earth Kingdom. They visited them in their dreams, and gave them fire and water, and earth and air, respectively, and watched over them."

"How do you know all of this?" I suddenly asked, unable to stop myself. It wasn't interrupting, exactly, it was merely questioning Umi's story. Completely different things.

"I told you to not interrupt." Umi said crossly, scowling at me.

"Just answer the question!"

"I know because I've spoken with the Spirits personally. Happy? Being the Priestess of the Water Tribe isn't all just telling the people what their dreams mean or what kind of future their babies will have, it's also conversing with the Spirits. The Spirit World isn't only for the Avatar, you know! Humans can go there as well, though it takes a person with a special connection to the Spirits to actually succeed. I won't say anymore than that, now shut up. For a while, the children grew up completely normal. They were training on how to master their elements. But you know what happened?" Umi continued talking without waiting for me to say anything, and I noticed how she was waving her hands around, gesturing in different directions as she spoke. "To put it simply, they lost control of themselves. Their emotions controlled their elements, and they were unable to control their emotions. The smallest thing could set them off, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that when the teens were in life threatening situations or when they were stressed out, the human part of their soul would lock itself away and allow the spiritual part - the part that the Spirits had blessed humanity with - to unleash itself and control them, and the spiritual part of their soul was willing to do whatever it took to survive, even kill another living being."

"What does this have to do with me?" I asked, unable to stop myself from speaking up. It was not interrupting. It was questioning.

"I'm getting to that." Umi sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose with one hand and rubbing her temples with the other. "It was when the teens turned sixteen that the Spirits realized what was happening, why the teens were as unstable as they were. Two complete opposites were within their very souls. The spiritual essences in the teens were at war with each other, trying to force the other element out of the body. Unless there was only one element they could control, the teens would never be at peace."

I felt my mouth get dry.

Umi, noticing the expression on my face change, started speaking quicker. Like she was trying to get it over with faster. "So the Spirits went to the teens, visiting them in their dreams like when they had blessed them with their elements. They all asked their respective teen to choose a single element to bend for the rest of their lives. The teens chose, and the element that they didn't choose was pulled out of them by the Spirit. But it was a painful ordeal, to have part of your very soul, the very thing that makes you you, ripped out of you. But the teens lived on, happy now that they did not have to spend their lives with their soul at war with itself.

"Normally, humans who are born as benders only have one element. But there are still some humans out there, who the Spirits still force two elements upon. I once tried to ask the Spirits why they did this, but they wouldn't answer me." Umi sighed, and closed her eyes. "And it's not just those who can bend opposite elements. It's all humans who can bend two elements. It doesn't matter if the elements oppose the other or not, the person bending them will still have to choose once they turn sixteen. I myself," she put her hand to her chest. "Once was able to bend both water and earth. When I turned sixteen, I had to choose. And someday," Umi opened her eyes, staring at me sadly. "Someday soon, you will have to choose as well."

Right. That sees like a good place to leave it off.

So, beyond Agni being the spirit/god of fire, we don't really know much about the gods or spirits of the other elements. So I made them up. I researched water, earth, and wind deities, and selected Mazu, a Chinese water goddess (I tried to find some Inuit or Native American spirits, but none of them sounded quite right), Bhumi, the personification of Mother Earth in Hinduism (tried to find some deities of earth, as in the earth that is bent, but could only find 'Mother Earth' deities so I just went with it), and Shu, the Egyptian god of air and wind.

I tried searching for air/wind deities, but none of them really seemed right. I wanted to stay away from European deities because I didn't really think they would fit in the Asian based world. And the Japanese and Chinese deities were all either monstrous, or had a sort of complicated name that didn't sound quite right, or were tricksters. None of them sounded like they would be proper influences on the nomadic, pacifist airbenders. Shu is obviously not Asian, but his personality in the myths about him say he has a calming influence, and is a pacifist. Clearly, this fits the ideal image of an Air Nomad. So he fit the role.

The reason I didn't have Tui and La be the ones to give the humans waterbending is because… well, they're the sea and moon. They don't exactly control all water, they control two things that are locked in a constant force of nature. Whereas Agni is a fire god, Bhumi is a earth goddess, and Shu is an air god. So I wanted to find an actual goddess of water, and like I said, I tried to find Inuit or Native American spirits, to tie in with the Inuit-based Water Tribes, but none of them seemed to fit. And I searched through Japanese or Chinese water deities, but most of them were for different sea regions, and if I wanted gods of the seas, I would have stuck with Tui and La.

My theory is that just like in Harry Potter, where there are muggles - squibs - born to wizards, even at the beginning of bending, when bending was giving to like 99% of the human population, there were non-benders born to benders. So if the whole Oma and Shu legend is actually true - which Legend of Korra decides it isn't, but ignoring that - then my theory is that the land where Omashu is, was a place where non-benders went to settle and get away from the benders, because in my world, benders became discriminated against at some point in history. So when Oma and Shu were born, there were literally no known earthbenders there. But Oma and Shu had the ability to earthbend, they just didn't realize it, until, of course, they learned from the badgermoles.

Also, I realized just a few weeks ago - remember at the end of an author's note, when I wrote my headcanon that the Avatar story takes place over the course of a year, with all of the books corresponding with a different season? Book 1 during winter, book 2 during spring, book 3 during summer. I realized, just a couple of weeks ago, that that's exactly what was happening in the series. The Winter Solstice occurs during book 1, and the show ends at the end of summer? Obviously the story takes place over a year.

The tapestries in Umi's cave were inspired by pictures on deviantart, by Znapple, called "The Original Fire bender", "The Original Water bender(s)"(there's one with Tui and La, and then another with a polar bear dog), "The Original Air bender", and "The Original Earth bender".

Oh! And to answer that guest review from SIL3NTJAY, when this season is over, I'll be starting a new story for season 2. I feel like if I keep using this story for all three seasons, I'll reach probably… 100 chapters, and that's not really something I want to do. ^^; For my own reasons.

Last thing: I'm working on a oneshot for a different fandom, featuring one of my favourite crack pairings, and it's all based on 50 one-word prompts. So if my beloved, dear readers could give me some one word prompts, I would be very grateful.

Goodbye! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! :D I certainly did! (Hope it was worth the four month wait!)

Also - um, if you guys could review or PM me and tell me why it is you like this story, I would be grateful. Because I've been looking back on past chapters, and I realize that they aren't all that great - in my mind anyway, and I have been getting better! - and I'm wondering why you like this story. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful that you guys have stuck with me for so long (this is my most famous story! More than 200 reviews and follows, and almost 200 favourites, and 57, 663 views!) but I want to know why.