"Again!" he yelled from where he stood at my shoulder, watching over me."
His voice went along with the motions he demanded I make.
"Punch, punch, punch, kick!" I unison with his voice, I attacked the armored straw dummy he had waiting in front of me. The goal would be to burn it, but the armor pretty much covered the entire damn thing save a few spots under the shoulder, by the neck, and the face. I punched 3 times in a row, watching as the flame didn't so much emit from my body, but formed directly in front of where my fist struck, generating in thin air. If you were to watch in slow-motion, you would see the first spark formed become a ball of fire right before it was sent off towards the target.
I dreaded what came next. Punching was one thing, you knew what you were aiming for and you could see your arm right in front of your target. You had to try to miss to miss. The fire bursts struck, but the 3 of them broke on the armor. Only a few sparks managed to catch the straw, but none of them managed to set the straw man aflame. Then came the kick. I was able to generate something of a flame but doing so required putting all of your built-up energy into your foot. Than meant focusing on the energy, or chi as some called it, and forcing it through your leg to your foot where you generated the flame and send it off to your target.
I had gotten a grasp on sending the energy at least mid-way through my leg. You could more or less feel where it was as you would feel something akin to adrenaline flowing through you. It was past my knee that I would break. I either wasn't keeping my leg up long enough or not sending the chi to my foot quickly enough. There was always something wrong. This time, it was the former. My leg fell to the ground and right then, the fire got to foot, creating a burst of heat between the floor and my foot, sending me falling backwards, landing on my ass, humiliated.
"Pathetic." He said.
"I know." I said as I attempted to get back on my foot.
"I would be lying if I said you weren't improving, but you aren't given so much of a choice considering you've insisted on being with me every hour of the day." It wasn't my choice. I was too dangerous to be around the other students apparently, so I was given to him, whatever his name was, and he was the one teaching everything I was missing as well as how to firebend. I didn't have much of a say in the matter. On the other hand, I couldn't be happier. I was a bender. There was no complaining there. Would I have chosen a different element had I been given the choice? Sure. Water and earth were far more practical, hell, air was the most practical of them all, it was everywhere.
Fire, though, sure, it had its uses, especially in combat, but with it came an attached negative connotation with everyone who wasn't in the Fire Nation. We were known for one thing, burning down other peoples' things. Not the best reputation to have.
"How do you expect to survive on a battlefield if you can't even bend your own element?"
"I survived long enough in the slums." I said, without knowing why. I realized how stupid I was to talk back the second the words had already come out.
"You survived because there was nobody gunning for you specifically. Now, though, now that people know what you are capable of-" he said, closing the distance between us, "You'll be target number one. A little firebender bringing 'pain and suffering' to those around him. They'll kill you before you get a chance unless you know how to kill them first. Got it?"
I nodded my head. "Yes, sir."
He sighed. "Then, go. It's the solstice today. Sage will be performing mast if you're into that bullshit." He left the dojo before I could, leaving me alone in the room.
It was the solstice today. And I was going to have a conversation with someone, or better yet, something today.
I looked back at that straw man one last time and for some reason, the open space in his neck appeared far larger than it ever had before. I shifted my weight to my left side, raising my right leg, letting the energy flow through it at an unprecedented speed and set off a blast of fire directly to its neck where it promptly burned right through its neck, sending the head tumbling down off of the shoulders onto the ground with a loud clang as the Earth Kingdom helm struck the ground.
I was getting answers tonight.
I chose to head to my room immediately afterwards. The sun was already beginning to set, and I didn't have much time until the day was done, and the solstice was over. I planned to get every answer I could today.
The second I close the door to mine own room, 222, I could feel the change in the atmosphere. I didn't need the light hovering in front of me, guiding me, to tell me they were ready to speak to me.
I walked over to the door that led into room 221, the one my room connected to, opened it, and found myself walking not into a steel room, or a stone one for that matter, but an open forest. The trees were of black bark and white leaves, the sky was a dark purple tint and I knew, from the stories I had heard in the slums over the last 11 years of my life, I was in the spirit world. And it was big.
I looked around me to see that this forest extended in every cardinal direction with no end in sight. "What?" I asked nobody in particular. "Should I just choose a direction in walk?"
A small orb of light holding no definite dimensions appeared in front of me, providing me with an incentive to follow it for a reason I couldn't put a finger on. I followed it. I followed it and saw the world change around me a pace unbefitting the pace I was walking. One moment I was in that forest, the next I was on a cliffside with a sea of fog to both my sides, the next I was in a desert with a structure in the center of it larger than any city I had before witnessed. I then walked in a gray waste of a clearing with red gray hills and mountains surrounding me on every side. Two craters stood on each side and a single, red, tree resided in the center.
The orb of white light that I had been following up to now stopped in its tracks and changed color. It was no longer the same white orb but had become a dark red color. It changed directions, leading me directly toward the tree. I made a judgement call. I wasn't following the same thing that had led me here, but, wherever it had led me up to this point had been more or less on tract with its original destination. What harm was there in going slightly further.
I followed it, its colors becoming darker as we approached the tree, growths protruding from its figure. It was enough to stop me in my tracks. Whatever was controlling this orb had noticed. I got the feeling it had turned back to check on me. It made some sort of motion, pleading me to advance slightly more, but I was starting to have doubts, and for good reason.
I heard that same voice come to my mind. "A little closer now." The first voice I heard. Vaatu. I remembered the note I read back in Citadel.
I stopped in my tracks, facing the side of the tree. This clearly was not the angle he had hoped to encounter me at. The world around me rotated and before I knew it, I was facing the hollow in the tree head on, a Black and Red figure with a single central orange eye trapped within.
"So. you're Vaatu."
His figure, slightly smaller than I had imagined him, moved to the front of his cell. "Then you've heard of me. I do hope you haven't been lies."
"Have I? From what I've heard, you're quite the psychopath."
He chuckled. "Do tell. Who was it that told you these, rumors? Was it Raava or Wan?"
I had spoken with Raava since we last met. She told me about Wan, the original Avatar and how he had saved the world from Vaatu's influence and trapped him here. It did strike me as rather romantic, but those were some welcome answers to a few of the millions of questions I had, so I took them.
"Yes. It was Raava." He said. "I figured as much. She always was envious of my ability to alter the world as I saw fit, make it how it was meant to be. She was desperate enough to enlist the aid of a human."
"You're speaking to one right now, asshole. If you're trying to make a point to me, I suggest you try being nicer."
"I meant no offense. Wan proved my opinion of humanity to be, well, incorrect. You are more capable than we imagined, progressing in technology and culture at an unprecedented rate. Wan was unfortunate enough to become influenced by Raava. He could have been so much more had he listened to me."
"Sounds to me like you wanted to use him as a tool."
"No. Not a tool. An ally. He made a mistake, but you. No, you wouldn't make the mistake he did. You are aware that the Avatar is the fusion of man and Raava. I must, hand it to her, she's impressed me with what's she accomplished with the Avatar, but you, you could be so much more. What if I told you I could make you the Avatar."
I wanted to laugh. A few chuckles even made their way out. "I'm sorry, but-". I took another break to laugh. "Sorry, but you are just so full of shit. You just want me to free you from your little tree right there. As uncomfortable as it seems, you're gonna be there a while longer. I'm not interested."
The colors in his figure became more alive as he rushed to the forefront of his cell exclaiming "You cocky filth!" The orb of light grew darker as it grew limb shaped like claws and grew in size, approaching me. I was thinking of places to run when a light shone in the sky. The purple tint in the sky vanished, replaced by a light blue. A figure the exact same shape as Vaatu, but instead of red and black, white and blue descended. The orb of light returned to its original white state and Vaatu, within the confines of his cell, seemed to shrink in size.
"What have you told him!?" Raava asked Vaatu, approaching his cell.
"Only the truth! How there is not one avatar and how you have broken the balance."
"There was balance, once, but you overstepped and brought chaos to the world. This is your punishment!"
"Please, child!" he spoke, facing me once more. "Free me!"
He was cut off by Raava, who shrouded the entrance to his tree with a blinding white light.
She turned her attention to me. For the first time, I saw the figure that had been speaking to me every light over the last few weeks. "So." She spoke. "You arrived."
"As summoned." I said, adding my own trade mark sarcasm to it.
"I do hope my messenger did not face much interference."
"Only a little. What was that, him corrupting your orb?"
"Vaatu is skilled in, altering, the world to how believes it is meant to be. He believes in nothing but chaos and creates it wherever he treads. As long as he romans free, dark prevails and there is no balance. Only so long as I keep him restrained can there be balance."
"But now you reign and he's a prisoner."
"Perhaps in this world, there will never be balance, but Avatar Wan brought balance to the physical world when he closed the bridge between our worlds. He did what he had to in order to save his people."
"I see. So, tell me. I'm here now. Does this mean we can finally start answering my questions?"
"I will answer what I can and tell you what I must. I will allow you to begin."
Finally.
"First off, why did you talk to me? Why did you start communicating with me?"
"The Winter solstice was approaching. Time was limited and Vaatu had his own interest in you. It was vital I reach you first."
"I'm older than a year old. Why now?"
"Because the state your life is in?"
"Oh. So now that I'm not at a constant risk of being killed in my sleep, you're ready to invest in me?"
Her voice rose. "It's now that your life is more at risk than ever that I contact you!"
I felt a tense feeling in my chest grow. "What do you mean?"
"You think that just because you have a soft bed and a roof over your head you are safer than you were in those streets?!"
"Well. Yeah. Kind of."
She scoffed. "Then you do not know what you are up against."
"The Earth Kingdom?"
"The Fire Nation!"
"I'm on their side, lady!"
"Are you. You think yourself safe because you are on their side of the battlefield?! With what you are, a bender, they will put you in the most dangerous positions you will imagine. You will be faced with death day after day. You must leave."
"Leave? You mean the Fire Nation?"
"If you hope to live."
"I'm going to need more than that. Right now, they're providing me with food, shelter, and training. I'm aware what I'm going to face once I'm put on a battlefield, but that's a ways away." I'll be 18 by then.
"It's sooner than you believe."
Fine. 16. Hell, maybe 14. "Whatever. Point is, I'm not just going to leave because you told me this."
"I don't count on it. You will leave when you see fit. I know that much, but you will wish you left sooner."
"What do you care about me anyway? Who am I to you?"
"This. This is what I came to tell you about in the first place."
"Which is…"
"The world needs you."
"I find that doubtful."
"Joke as you like, it's true. The world is in peril and requires your aid."
"That's what we have an Avatar for, isn't it? Shouldn't you be with him or her right now and be guiding them on whatever life journey they're on. They'll probably be in the Water Tribe or Earth Kingdom right now assuming the other one died young. Hell, if the Earth Kingdom one died too, they'll probably be in the Fire Nation by now. Sad to say it, but they're probably safest there. They sure as hell won't be an airbender."
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"You're right. I don't. Which is precisely why you're coming to the wrong person."
I was tired of this. I turned around to leave back in the direction I came, but she flew directly in front of me.
"You are the closest we have to the Avatar now."
"And why's that?"
"I cannot tell you right now."
"Then we have nothing more to talk about then."
"There are some things you must learn on your own!"
"Tell me this." I demanded. "Why do you give a damn about what happens in the physical world?"
"Because your world is at stake."
"By whom, the Fire Nation? So, what if they take over? That's how the world works. Empires rise. Empires fall."
"There is more at stake than the cycle of human warfare. If the war path of the Fire Nation continues as it is, there will cease to be a world."
"So, what would you have me do? Take up arms with the Earth Kingdom? Fight for a free Earth Kingdom? Are you just some kind of high tech propaganda poster because if so, well done, I'm impressed."
"I would ask you not to fight for any nation, but to defend your world from a force that would sooner see it destroyed than conquered."
"You clearly haven't been on Earth in a while, but I'll say this: as appropriate as it sounds, I don't think the Fire Nation intends on ruling over the ashes of the world."
"The will of a Nation may be different than that of its ruler. A single man in power can have all the influence in the world."
"As somebody who's been declaring my allegiance to him every morning and reading about everything he's done for the last few months, Azulon isn't the kind of person to light the world aflame."
"It will not be him who sets the world aflame. It will be a new ruler. One who will use the power of the stars to create a new world in his image out of the ashes. It is him you must defeat."
"And why me? There's millions of people in this world, all of whom more qualified. So why me?"
"It is as I have said. You are the closest we have to the Avatar."
"And I guess handing me over to Vaatu and making a real Avatar out of me is out of the picture, is it not?"
"It is, but you are one of our last hopes for the world. Many have seen you through your journey up to this point. And many have died for you. Two of them you have met. One of whom you've witnessed the death of."
Two of them I've met? One of whom I've witnessed the death of?"
"Who?"
"One of them still has use. One of them will continue to guide you. There will be more on you journey. The day in your world ends. It's important you leave now. If you live to see the solstice next year, we will talk."
With that, she disappeared, and I was in the stone room, roots growing from the cracks, vines entering through the windows. This was the same room that had had the light coming from between the cracks. That same light was there, but stronger this time around. And something was telling me to reach what was on the other side.
I pried my fingers between the cracks and pried the center stone out. It finally budged, and I was able to pull it out. Behind it, was a book. A journal by the looks of it. I pulled it out and the wall was replaced by the same metallic doorway I recognized. I looked behind me at the Spirit World for one last time before I entered my own. I intended on living long enough to come back. I opened the doorway and walked back into my world.
I woke in my bed the following morning, light shining through the window. I could tell the door to my neighboring room was locked just by looking at it. And on my desk sat that same book I had dreamt of. SO maybe I wasn't completely insane.