Last of Our Kind
Yep, another post already. I really get into new stories when I write them, but I start to slow down a bit later on. Well, you all know the drill. I don't own Avatar the Last Airbender or the following quote.
"The persons on whom I have bestowed my dearest love lie deep in their graves; but, although the happiness and delight of my life lie buried there too, I have not made a coffin of my heart, and sealed it up forever on my best affections. Deep affliction has only made them stronger; it ought, I think, for it should refine our nature."
― Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
I've Been There
Wenona hadn't slept well that night. She kept tossing and turning in her sleeping bag, having a really bizarre dream. In the dream, she was standing on the top of a rock pillar with three other women, each of them from the other three nations. Suddenly, a dark form arose in the distance. She heard evil, sinister voices coming from the darkness that filled her with terror. Then, she and the other women knelt down and their eyes began to glow, she instinctively knew that hers were glowing too. The light from the Earth Kingdom girl immediately to her left was green, the Fire Nation girl next to her had red light coming from her eyes, and the Air Nomad girl had yellow light coming from her eyes and tattoos; Wenona could only guess that her eyes were glowing in a blue light. The darkness drew closer and began to circle the four women. Then, without warning, Wenona felt a surge of energy rushing through her body that forced her to look straight up in the sky, her mouth open and her eyes wide as the energy tried to escape. That was when she woke up in a cold sweat. She looked around; the sun was just barely rising in the distance. She heaved a sigh, she really hated mornings.
"Good morning, everyone!" Aang exclaimed cheerfully.
"Shhh, Aang, not so loud." Wenona grumbled. "It's way too early for this much noise."
"Oh, sorry." Aang whispered.
Slowly, the others started to wake up.
"Wooo! Air Temple time!" Keng shouted enthusiastically.
"I can't wait for you guys to see it." Aang said. "The Air Temple is one of the most beautiful places in the world."
"Aang." Katara spoke up. "I know you're excited, but it's been a hundred years since you've been home."
"That's why I'm so excited."
"It's just that…a lot can change in all that time."
"Come on, Kit-Kat, don't be such a downer." Wenona said, her mood drastically improved since waking up. "We don't know what we'll find there."
"Yeah, I need to see it for myself." Aang concluded.
Aang then leapt down from Appa's head and made his way over to the sleeping form of Sokka.
"Wake up, Sokka! Air Temple, here we come!"
"Sleep now. Temple later." Sokka grumbled as he turned away and went back to sleep.
Keng came over and whispered to Aang that Sokka really hated snakes. A devious look crept over the young Avatar's face and he picked up a stick.
"Sokka! Wake up!" Aang then moved the end of the stick over the top of the sleeping bag. "There's a prickle snake in your sleeping bag!"
"Ahhhh!" The Water Tribe boy exclaimed as he shot up and began hopping around, still encased in his sleeping bag. "Get it off! Get it off! Ahhh!" He fell forward with a thump while the others began to chuckle at his misfortune.
"Great, you're awake." Aang stated. "Let's go."
"So, where do I get somethin' to eat?" Sokka inquired as the group made their way up the path around the cliffs to the temple. He was clutching at his stomach hungrily and making his grumpy-face.
"Man, I'm starving." Wenona added. Like her brother, she had a pretty big appetite. "Why did Aang have to make the campfire out of our seal-jerky? I mean really, how could anyone think it was anything other than food?"
"You two are lucky enough to be some of the first outsiders to ever visit an Airbender temple, and all either of you can think about is food?" Katara inquired.
"We're just simple folks, with simple needs." Sokka explained. Food was one of the few areas where he and Wenona agreed, and it was as if the two of them had their stomachs programmed to get hungry at the exact same time.
The four Water Tribe kids walked up to where their Air Nomad friend stood waiting and looking out at the remnants of his old home. Aang pointed down to a place where there was a collection of goal posts.
"So that's where my friends and I would play air-ball." Aang said. He then pointed to another location. "And over there's where the bison would sleep, and…" He let out a sigh.
"Something wrong, Aang?" Wenona asked.
"This place used to be full of monks and lemurs and bison. Now there's just a bunch of weeds." He was quiet for a moment, his expression sad. "I can't believe how much things have changed."
Realizing how sad Aang was, Sokka decided he would do the friendly thing and try to cheer him up.
"So, uh, this air-ball game…how do ya play?" The teen asked, not realizing what he was getting himself into.
"You do realize you were totally asking for that, don't cha?" Wenona asked through her fading laughs.
"Ha ha." Sokka replied sarcastically, as he began to rise from the bush that Aang's little air-ball game had resulted in knocking him into. "Making him feel better is putting me in a world of hurt." Sokka then gasped in shock when he noticed something. A Fire Nation helmet. "Nona, Katara, check this out." He whispered.
"Fire Nation." The two girls growled.
"We should tell him."
"Aang, there's something you need to see." Wenona called over to the Airbender who was receiving a high-five from Keng for his victory.
"Okay." Aang replied as he and the younger Waterbender hurried over.
Katara thought for a moment and then Waterbended snow down from the hill so that it hid the helmet, also hitting Sokka with the snow in the process.
"What is it?" Aang asked.
"Uh, just a new Waterbending move I learned." Katara replied.
"Nice one. But enough practicing."
"Let's get up to the temple." Keng said. "Aang says it's even more incredible on the inside."
The two twelve-year-olds eagerly headed up towards the temple, completely oblivious to the find made by the older children. Sokka brushed the snow off of himself and turned to Katara.
"You know you can't protect him forever." He stated.
Wenona put a hand on her sister's shoulder and the two began to walk, followed closely by their Nonbender brother.
As Aang and Keng raced through the halls and passageways, Sokka had a few things to say to his sister's.
"Katara, Nona, Firebenders were here. You two can't pretend they weren't." He admonished them.
"We can for Aang's sake." Katara responded.
"Sokka, how would you feel if we went back home only to find that everyone was gone and that the Fire Nation had attacked when there was no one there to defend our people?" Wenona asked. "I know I would be devastated, angry, vengeful even. Aang's just a kid, how do you think he'll take something like this?"
"What about Keng?" Sokka asked. "Should we tell him?"
"No. Keng shouldn't have to know either. You know how tender-hearted he is."
"Personally, I think that's your faults for making him do girly stuff like sewing."
Before either Wenona or Katara could snap at him for his incredibly sexist comment, Aang called them over to see a statue of his former teacher and mentor, Monk Gyatso. Aang then walked somberly in the direction of the Air Temple sanctuary, explaining that there was someone he needed to meet. They arrived at a door with an intricate lock, which Aang opened with Airbending. Inside, they found thousands of statues.
"Statues?" Sokka whined. "That's it? Where's the meat?"
"Ya know," Wenona said as she turned to her meat-loving sibling, "that lock on the door kinda reminds me of a hippo-whale intestine."
"Mmmm, stop with the talk of exquisite, meaty, delicacies like that, Nona. You're making me even hungrier."
"Me to." Keng agreed, rubbing his stomach as Sokka had done before.
"Who are all these people?" Katara asked.
"I'm not sure." Aang replied. "But it feels like I know them somehow. Look, that one's an Airbender!"
"And this one's a Waterbender. They're lined up in a pattern: air, water, earth, and fire."
"That's the Avatar Cycle."
Wenona instantly had a flashback to her dream. She was kneeling beside the Earth Kingdom girl, next to the Earth Kingdom girl was a Fire Nation girl, and then an Air Nomad girl.
"Of course." Katara stated. "They're Avatars. All these people are your past-lives, Aang."
"Wow, there are so many." Aang began to walk around and look at more of the statues.
"Past-lives?" Sokka questioned his little sister. "Katara, you really believe in that stuff?"
"Katara's right, Sokka." Keng said. "When an Avatar dies, he or she is reborn into the next nation in the cycle. After Aang, there's going to be a Water Tribe Avatar."
"Whatever, I know Nona agrees with me that this is all just ridiculous, magical mumbo-jumbo. Right, Nona? Nona?"
They turned and saw their oldest sister looking up, as if in a trance. She was staring straight at the ceiling, her eyes fixated on something. They followed her gaze and saw what was painted on the ceiling. It was four panels, each one contained a figure that was depicted Bending a certain element, these too were in the pattern of the Avatar Cycle. Wenona was looking specifically at the figure that was Waterbending, she couldn't see the features very well as the painting was too high up, but she felt a strange sense of familiarity with the Waterbender.
"Nona? Hello? Sokka to Nona, wake up." Sokka said as he waved a hand in front of her face.
"W-what? Sorry I kinda spaced-out there." She responded. She then looked over at Aang. "And it looks like I'm not the only one."
"Aang, snap out of it." Katara said as she lightly shook the young Airbender out of his daze.
"Huh?" He mumbled.
"Who is that?"
"That's Avatar Roku, the Avatar before me."
"You were a Firebender?" Sokka inquired.
"Nooo, Sokka." Wenona said sarcastically. "He was a stupidity-Bender, like you. Of course he was a Firebender. He's the Avatar." Sokka glared at her.
"There's no writing." Katara pointed out. "How do you know his name?"
"I'm not sure." Aang replied. "I just…know it somehow."
Sokka gave an annoyed grumble.
"You just couldn't get any weirder." He said.
Then, they heard the sound of someone approaching. Fearful that it could be a Firebender, due to the shape of the shadow that was approaching, they all ducked behind some statues.
"Firebender." Sokka whispered to the others. "Nobody make a sound."
"You're making a sound." Katara quietly snapped, earning her some shushes from the others.
Sokka and Wenona nodded to each other as they both raised their clubs, prepared to attack.
"That Firebender won't know what hit 'em." Sokka whispered.
As soon as the two oldest members of the group moved out from behind their hiding places, they saw much to their embarrassment that it wasn't a Firebender at all, just a little lemur.
"Lemur!" Aang exclaimed.
"Dinner." Sokka said, his mouth watering. Wenona threw Sokka a 'look'.
"Don't listen to him, you're gonna be my new pet."
"Not if I get him first!"
The two boys charged forward; Aang shouting for the lemur to come back, and Sokka adding that he wanted to eat the animal.
"I hope Sokka doesn't eat that poor creature." Keng said worriedly. "It looked too cute to eat."
"It's okay." Wenona said as she put a reassuring hand on the boy's shoulder. "Knowing Meat-head he'll goof it up big time."
The three Waterbenders continued to look around at the statues, when the eyes of every one of the statues suddenly began to glow.
"Aang." The three gasped at once. They then began to run as fast as they could in search of the young Avatar.
"Aang, you have to calm down!" Wenona shouted as she and her siblings held on for dear life to any stable thing they could to avoid getting blown off the mountain. "Aang, please! I understand how you feel! I know what it's like to lose someone important to you! To lose the ones you love! We went through the same thing when our mom died and when our father left! Monk Gyatso and the Airbenders may be gone! But you still have a family! We're your family now! And we promise we'll look out for you!"
Aang slowly left his Avatar State and descended to Earth once more.
"We're not going to let anything happen to you." Keng promised as he hugged his friend.
Aang's eyes and tattoos stopped glowing and he began to fall over, only to be caught by Katara.
"I'm sorry." Aang apologized.
"It's okay." Katara assured him. "It wasn't your fault."
"But you were right. And if Firebenders found this temple, that means they found the other ones too. I really am the last Airbender."
Katara pulled the boy into a hug. Wenona looked at Aang with sympathy; she too knew how it felt to be one of a dying race, she was one of the last three Waterbenders of the South Pole after all, it was a horrible feeling to be the last of a noble heritage like that.
"Everything's packed." Katara stated as she and the others reentered the sanctuary to retrieve Aang. "You ready to go?"
"How's Roku supposed to help me if I can't talk to him?" Aang asked.
"Don't worry, Aang." Keng said. "He's a part of you. Somehow you'll find a way."
They then heard something approach again, and they turned to see the lemur from earlier standing there with arms full of food that it brought over to Sokka and Wenona, who immediately began scarfing it down.
"Looks like you two found a new friend." Aang stated.
"Can't talk. Must eat." The two siblings said in synchronization as they stuffed their faces.
"Hey, little guy." Aang said to the lemur as it clambered onto his head.
The others waited for a moment as Aang and his two pets stared at the temple one final time.
"You, me, and Appa. We're all that's left of this place. We have to stick together." He then turned to his friends. "Guys, say hello to the newest member of our family."
"What are you gonna name him?" Katara asked.
The lemur suddenly snatched a peach from Sokka before the Water Tribe boy had the chance to bite into it.
"Momo."
They all began to chuckle at the vexed look on Sokka's face.
As they all flew away into the sunset, Aang looked back sadly at his former home.
"Hey, you alright?" Keng asked.
"I guess." Aang replied unenthusiastically.
"Come on. You can tell me."
"It's just…" He gave a sigh. "It's really hard to let go of everyone and everything I cared about."
"Hey, it's okay. Even though the bodies of our loved ones turn to dust, they are always with us. The ones who love us never really leave us; they stay with us in our hearts, right here." He pointed to the place over Aang's heart. "And just because your old friends are gone, it doesn't mean you're alone. We're your friends, and we'll always be there for you."
The two boys smiled and hugged each other.
"Thanks, Keng. You know, you're pretty smart for a kid."
"Hey, I'm no younger than you." The Waterbender chuckled.
Wenona watched the exchange and smiled as she lay down to get some sleep. Her dreams weren't terrifying and violent that night.
She was sitting on a rock, looking down at her hands. Tears were running down her face. A hand touched her shoulder.
"It's gone." She sobbed. "It's not coming back."
"Hey, it's alright." The voice comforted. "We lost just as much as you, but it was all for the good. Now the world is safe."
"I know. But it was always such an important part of my life. It's so hard to have a void like this."
"You'll be fine, you always are."
She turned to face the person comforting her and saw the Airbender girl from her last dream. The girl's grey eyes were kind and affectionate like those of a sister or a very dear friend, and she began to feel her spirits lift a little.
"We'll always be here for you. We'll always be friends."
"Friends 'til the end?"
"And even longer."
In the world outside her head, Wenona smiled.
Ooh, wonder what her dream means? Well, I know but I'm not gonna tell you just yet. You'll have to wait and see. Well, see ya.