Author's Note: This is from Piro's perspective and voice after Aang left the Herbalist Institute in Blue Spirit (episode 113).
I've been planning these scenes for quite a while. Please enjoy!
Warning: This story, starting with this chapter, may contain material, situations, and themes not suitable for younger readers.
It is hard to bring up these memories after burying them for so long. What I'm about to tell you is the honest truth.
With a rush a wind, Aang left my institute perhaps quicker than he'd arrived. I stepped to the threshold to see if I could follow him for a while, but he was already gone. Far above, a powerful storm gathered. Dark roiling clouds billowed high and seemed to glow with a sickly green light I hope to never see again. Big, fat raindrops already fell from the sky in sheets and lightning split the sky. The sheer speed at which the storm developed unnerved me. Miyuki rubbed against the back of my legs and meowed. "I'm sure he'll be fine. He is an airbender after all," I said.
For the next few minutes I prepared for the storm. Closed windows, move perishables from areas that might flood, douse any unnecessary candles - that sort of thing. It pays to be prepared for anything when you live completely on your own. With the institute settled, I sat and watched the storm from the front door. Don't you look at me like that. Neither before nor since have I witnessed a storm so powerful. It looked like it was going to be a hell of a show.
Brilliant blue-white lightning snaked across the sky and exploded on touching the earth. The wind screamed and carried the rain sideways at times. Thunder boomed so loud and often it felt like the beating of some monstrous drum than a storm. I watched in awe and, I will admit, some fear.
Some time later, at the height of the storm, I heard some thing bellow. You could barely hear it over the cacophonous wind. At first it sounded like a person screaming. Screaming in rage or pain or frustration and with all of their being. Yet, it did not stop. It continued to grow in strength like the gathering wave of a tsunami. I tried to pinpoint the source, but before long the scream transformed into a thunderous, ear-splitting roar. I clapped my hands over my ears and threw myself against the wall, but I couldn't escape that noise. Every fiber of my being screamed with it. I felt it in my heart, heard it in my mind, tasted it as it poured out of my own mouth, saw it stream from my eyes.
Then, all at once, there was silence. An uneasy, tenuous silence. As if the merest whisper or cough would unleash divine retribution and doom the whole world. I slowly drew my hands down from around my face. Before me lay the institute, untouched. Shadows of plum blossoms danced in the candlelight. Books, papers, and mixing bowls were all as I'd left them. Everything was as it should be.
In my haste to find the mundane anchors of my solitary life, I almost missed Miyuki. She'd leapt down from the table. She was still there, mid-leap, frozen. Her hackles were raised, teeth bared, claws unsheathed. Not a whisker twitched nor did gravity hold any power over her. I reached out and almost touched her soft fur.
The earth lurched suddenly and I lost my footing. I crawled towards the institute entrance while the whole of Taku and beyond convulsed violently as if some colossal being alighted on the earth. That the whole of the world shrank away from its presence. One by one the candles toppled to the stone floor and shattered. Even after the tremors ceased, I hid in the darkness. From what? I don't know and at the time I didn't care. It wasn't until the first rays of morning teased the East and Miyuki bumped her head against my shin did I even dream of looking outside.
Not that there was much to see. A thick blanket of fog cloaked the world below the Institute. I descended the familiar, smooth steps down to Taku into that white sea. The mist was so thick and the way it swirled about you'd swear it was alive. The once worn, but solid steps took on a pitted and shattered quality not far from the top. Before long there was naught but muddy earth under my feet. Taku, too, seemed destroyed. Scoured from the mountainside with such force that I could see gouges in the earth where entire buildings took flight.
What lay at the base of Taku I never saw. The fog was too dense - my eyesight too poor. Still, I could sense the devastation that surrounded me in the absolute silence. Not a single bird called in the chill morning air. Even my own footsteps sounded muted.
I knew it was stupid to go out by myself, but there might be someone hurt, though I prayed not. In my wanderings I stumbled on a sharp rise in the ground and fell. Landed in some kind of pit. Banged up my arm pretty bad. I got to my knees and nearly screamed. There, at the center of the pit, lay Aang. Limp and twisted like a discarded doll. What remained of his clothes were mostly tatters. Deep bruises mottled his face and chest. Blood dripped from arrows sticking out of his left wrist and thigh. My pain forgotten, I ran to his side and desperately looked for life.
For several agonizing moments I felt his neck, held his wrist, listened to his chest. Nothing. I was too late to do anything. I pulled his head into my lap and cradled him there. I cried. I'm not ashamed of to admit that. Another life snuffed out in that abomination of a war. I rocked slowly, closed my eyes, and sung him a lullaby - something my mother used to sing to me when I was scared or frightened. I thought that, maybe, if his spirit still lingered, I could sooth him.
I'm not sure how long I stayed there holding him. Long enough, I suppose. I bowed my head gave a silent prayer. I got up and turned to go. I needed a shovel. I'd be damned if I let Fire Nation soldiers bring his body in like some sort of trophy.
"Why..." The whisper stopped me in my tracks.
"Why is your song so sad?"
I turned back and grey eyes stared at me through the fog. With strength I didn't even know I had I lifted the barely conscious boy in my arms. I walked a few feet before turning back to look at the pit one more time. I marveled at destiny. It should've been impossible for anyone to find your father and here I almost fell right on top of him. How long had he waited there for me after falling in himself?
I put all that I'd gone through the night before out of my mind and started the slow trek back. I carried your father up the steep incline to the institute. He was with me the whole way with an odd, slight smile - as if to tell me everything's going to be OK. I had quite a bit of work ahead of me and I could still lose him if I didn't hurry. Despite my best efforts, my mind kept returning to the pit. How it looked less and less like just a hole in the ground and more and more like a crater. As if the young airbender were swatted out of the sky like an errant mosquito.