A. N. : Nice... Anyway, uh, good news first ? Kind of ? This fic is turning 6 years old on sunday ! I don't have anything special in mind this year, time kind of just flew by me to be honest, but as always if you guys want to drop by on my tumblr (crescentmoonrider) and ask stuff, or just say hello - I'm always happy to talk ! (6 years... Man...) On to the bad news... This chapter is, and I believe this is the academic way to describe it, A Fucking Bummer. We're talking genocide and ethnic cleansing themes, and while nothing is graphic, I'm still going into detail as to the general events that took place and the mechanisms put in place to ensure the deed would be done. So like, don't feel bad if you need to skip this one. I'll try to provide a summary at the start of the next chapter, as I've done before.
At first, no one thought it was real.
Shami wasn't yet born, first child of the Sky Stern to come after the red skies of Sozin's Comet that she is, but she holds the memories of her ancestors, keeps them like the treasure they are. Her children did not ask, too caught in the changing times, and she did not tell them, too busy listening to the voice of the elders. Too busy carrying their grief and her own.
Sanae and Saeko ask, sometimes. Their generation is too young to quite understand the weight of what they see as old folk tales, and in a few years they might not even ask anymore, changed by the suspicions of the Ground Walkers' school, much like young Miume was.
But this child of Air understands, and asked, and so Shami tells him.
At first, no one thought it was real. The sky had turned blood red for a day, like an omen of things to come, of things they did not yet know had already happened. Back then, news did not travel quite so fast as they do now, especially not on the seas, with contact with Ground Walkers few and far between.
The child knows, of course. Trade was everything, be it for goods or for information, says he remembers adults complaining about Earth Kingdom ships growing rarer, remembers them thanking his people for their continuous help.
Shami nods. At the time, it had been some years already since the start of colonization, and though there was no blockade as there is now, maritime travel was still getting harder for Earth Kingdom vessels. Even outlaws did not dare stray so far from the coast anymore. And with Fire Nation Islanders so distrusting of Sea Walkers, most Families found themselves relying on Air Nomads and Water Tribes of both North and South for goods the sea could not offer them.
So when the first few survivors from the Temples came to them begging for shelter and support, talking of death and destruction and fire, of bisons being shot down from the sky and of Ground Walkers learning to fly for the sole purpose of killing… No one truly believed it.
No one could even comprehend it, in truth. So has Shami been told.
But they were asked for help by old friends, adults and children and infants carried in their tired arms, seeking refuge on board of familial ships, and no matter how unbelievable this all seemed, she knows not of a single Family that refused to host the fleeing Air Nomads.
Not at first.
Some died of their injuries on board, of course. Many, many more simply never made it to a hospitable place. Shami doesn't know what became of the Eastern Air Nomads, as these waters did not hold enough fish for Sea Walkers to have roamed them. Bisons could not follow the ships and were either sent away to become wild once more, or – so she's heard – died of exhaustion, trying to keep up with their lifelong friends and masters.
It only gets worse from here on, she tells the child as he puts a hand to his mouth. He shakes his head. He wants to know.
He needs to know.
After the first day, after maybe only a few more, the navy put up a blockade around the islands. The War had started, Water and Earth united by the horror of the Temples' destruction, and the fear of what it would mean for them. The army advanced deeper inside Earth Kingdom territory, too, and what used to be a regional, coastal issue for the Kingdom became much more than that.
Sea Walkers were simply too Fire to be traded with at all. The outside of the blockade now meant a sure and slow death for them – or a much faster one if the navy decided to see them as the enemy as well.
What could they do against metal war ships ? Theirs were wooden homes, built to be lived in, not to kill.
To survive, they had no choice but to restrict themselves to a now closed sea, inside the Fire Lord's territory.
Some of the Air Nomad refugees, those who could do so, had already left for the Earth Kingdom, or Kyoshi Island, or the Water Tribes. Whether they felt what was coming, or simply thought it would make it easier for them to find each other again, Shami does not know.
What she knows is this – the Families who wished to cross the blockade were demanded to prove their loyalty to the Fire Lord.
What she knows is – if, during the ensuing search of their ship, Air Nomads were found, if the Families hadn't betrayed their friends' trust when asked to, then they would share the fate of all enemies of the Fire Nation. Execution, their ships burned, their children either killed as well, or taken if they were deemed young enough, given to childless Fire Nation loyalists or to orphanages, but never to Sea Walkers already inside.
Burnings were frequent at first. Then, as word spread and the War looked less and less like it would end, as starvation turned into more of a reality, they…
She knows of Families that tried to at least save the children. The Masters' arrows gave them away, the men's shaved heads could only be hidden by flimsy scarves that were so easy for soldiers to unravel, condemning the whole ship, but children – babies –
They did to the Air Nomads what the Fire Nation did to them. Took their children and lied, all in the name of saving them.
And the worst part of this all is that Shami dares not say that they were wrong to do so.
The Sky Stern were not among those. They were already inside when the blockade was put in place and were thus spared that choice. Still, the Air Nomads they were hiding grew distrustful – and who could blame them ?
All around, they heard tales of Sea Walkers sacrificing Air Nomads in order to survive – to cross the blockade, yes, but even inside, some Families had the idea of perhaps getting preferential treatment in trades if they proved their loyalty to the Fire Nation. Or even of getting trades at all.
Perhaps it was pity, too. The realization that Sea Walkers could just as easily be disposed of as the monks in the Temples were. By the time Shami was old enough to understand the existence of Air Nomads and their place in the world, most of them had left their Sea Walker refuge, either by choice of through force.
The few Air children left in the care of the Sky Stern turned out to be benders – she has heard that it was the case for all Air Nomads, but knows not whether it is true or not. Regardless, hiding them, keeping them hidden with the growing pressure of the National Guard, with the restrictions on fishing zones, with the demand that they take the census and send their children to Fire Nation schools on land…
They could not in good faith send away what were, by then, essentially their own people. But much like firebending Sea Walkers nearly always seek out tutelage on land, away from the flammable sails of their homes, so too did her airbending cousins leave, pushed by fear and the rumors of survivors on the highest volcanoes of the islands.
Promises were made, to keep in touch, or even to just signal they were alive and well. None were kept. Whether by choice, to avoid trouble, or because the so-called survivors were but another trap laid by the Fire Nation, Shami doesn't know.
Ukon the Yellow, she remembers, had chosen to believe they had found safety. She tells the child so, and does not tell him Ukon had been called a madman and a lunatic to his face for as long as Shami can remember. Only in death did this stop, out of respect for his memory.
Shami was already too old to be forced into a Fire Nation school when the pressure finally became too much for the Sky Stern to bear, and they beached their ships for good. She could only watch as the children left for the day and came back changed, over and over.
Could only watch as the elders stopped teaching the old ways and the old truths, in fear of losing a son or a daughter to the mines, or to the frontlines.
Could only watch as Azulon decreed the conscription order. As her children and grandchildren were taken, sent back to her side years later only to be different – or to not come back at all. Some of those who came back found that they could not stay.
They call themselves Sea Walkers still. Keep what traditions they can alive. But when all is said and done, no matter the sacrifices and the betrayals and the compromises they committed and still commit to this day –
The death of the Air Nomads was theirs too.
Perhaps it was the whole world's, even.