Responses to Reviews:
RonaldM40196767: It's an interesting community, an outpost of earth kingdom culture who've been mixing a bit with the south, to the point they wear blue instead of green; who still venerate Avatar Kyoshi so much they named the whole island after her. They also seem to place more emphasis on female warriors than anywhere else, except maybe the Fire Nation.
Zigzagdoublezee: Yes, during Yue's vision at the Southern Air Temple it came up. And Legend of Korra (or Legend of Whatever Earth Avatar it is during that period) would be pretty radically different in this timeline.
As Always, Please Review!
The door swung open, and Rinzen stepped inside, the nomad looking around anxiously.
"Hello Rinzen," Wu greeted him from her place next to the fire. "Have you come to learn your future too?"
"Of course!" Rinzen said. He set his staff aside and walked towards her with light steps.
"You sound more sure than your friends did," Wu observed.
"Why shouldn't I?" Rinzen asked. "They... have doubts about you. But I do not."
"Do Air Nomads respect the gift?"
"We have people who do it," Rinzen said.
"I do feel for you," Wu told him. "In some ways your circumstances are the most difficult of all your friends. A pacifist thrust into the middle of a war. That must come with terrible choices."
Rinzen just shrugged.
"I wouldn't be so sure," he said. "Yue's home was destroyed. Sokka and Katara's father was a prisoner, and their home was almost destroyed. Suki's home was invaded by the Fire Nation too. Plus, I think that could describe all of my people."
"Not necessarily," Wu said. "Your people sit on top of lofty peaks, where none can touch them easily. You have swift mounts which can get you out of danger quickly. You could sit this one out if you wanted."
"But that would not be the right thing to do," Rinzen pointed out. "People are suffering. We would have to be heartless to do nothing. And then we might just end up being next anyway."
"Quite possibly," Wu conceded. "But it is a question your people need to think about."
"I did see some nomads," Rinzen remembered, "they were going to Ba Sing Se for a conference."
"Interesting," Wu raised an eyebrow. "I take it you're on the side of intervention."
"Did you see that in your bones?"
"No, I saw it in your eyes just now."
"Oh." Rinzen blinked.
"Now," Wu gestured to the bones. "Shall we move on to what these can tell us?"
Rinzen picked one up, with some distaste, and cast it in. The fire swirled, and the heat in the room picked up.
"Ah yes," Wu nodded. "Yours is a heavy burden, and one you did not choose. But you will carry it far, and be greatly rewarded for it."
"You mean I'll get my tattoos?" Rinzen asked excitedly.
"I think so," Wu nodded. "But there's more. You shall gain respect among your people, and will finally step out from your grandfather's shadow."
"I'm already out of it, aren't I?"
Wu chuckled.
"All Avatars cast very long shadows," she said. "Their actions live on after them for generations. Your friend Suki comes from a society which venerates one from hundreds of years ago. And your grandfather was only the most recent."
Rinzen nodded, his excitement having dissipated. What Wu said made sense, but was annoying.
"Do you not like your grandfather then?" She probed.
"It's not that," Rinzen said. "To be honest I never really met him. He might have held me a couple of times as a baby, but that's it. It's more being constantly compared to him. Avatar Aang mastered airbending at 12. I'm still not quite there yet. And some people never let me forget it."
He gestured to his forehead.
"It's just a lot of pressure, that's all."
Wu nodded.
"That's the good news."
"Right," Rinzen went to stand up, "that means we're finished here..."
"Not quite, there's also bad news."
Rinzen stopped.
"I was hoping you weren't going to say that."
"It is not usually so easy as that," Wu said apologetically. "You shall have to compromise your morals more than any of your friends. You will make hard choices, and you will know regret."
Rinzen closed his eyes.
"Because I'm a pacifist in a war," he said regretfully.
But that wasn't quite true any more, was it? He had attacked that girl- Ty Lee, they'd said her name was, with only the minimum of hesitation, when he had come out to find his friends laying in a heap at her feet.
No. It still was. One incident was not enough to change that.
"You are," Wu said. "Or at least, you were."
"I still am!" Rinzen replied forcefully.
"You joined this group because you were told to," Wu said. "Your elders offered you your mastery tattoos in exchange for getting the Avatar to the South Pole. I know how important that is to you. But that's not why you stayed, is it?"
"What do you mean?"
"The moment you got to the South Pole, you could have flown home again and got your tattoos. Instead you stayed, and even fought a battle on behalf of a nation that was not yours."
Rinzen shrugged.
"The Avatar needed me."
It was the same reason why he supported the air nomads getting involved in the war.
"She did," Wu said simply. "She still does. The war hangs in the balance. Even I cannot tell you its outcome. There will be a decisive battle and you will play a key role. I've told the Avatar and the Warrior this already, but it goes for all of you."
"This doesn't feel like you telling me what I will do any more," Rinzen narrowed his eyes. "It feels like you're telling me what I should do."
"I see what I see, but I can have opinions about it," Wu said, "And my opinion is that if there must be a great battle, I would very much prefer it if you win."
She sighed.
"I don't like telling you this. But you would be far from the first of your people forced into a difficult moral position by their association with the Avatar. There may come a time when you are forced to choose between your pacifism and your friends, your life, possibly even the world. I wish it were not so. But when that time comes, and your back is to the wall, what will you choose, I wonder?"