Chapter 1:
I was dreaming. In my dream I stood in the middle of four expanses.
On the west was a raging landscape of fire and molten rocks. Heat so scorching that your skin would immediately melt off upon the slightest whiff.
Besides that flaming hell was the north. A serene picturesque of a calm and peaceful ocean stretching out for thousands of miles.
The South was inhabited by the wind. A torrent of wind so powerful that each of the strands it carried was sure to be razor sharp.
And on the east was a mountain range constantly quaking and shifting.
I was in the middle of those four landscapes. Standing proudly as I wore my fluttering robe.
A sword in my hand, accompanying me like a trusty companion.
My eyes were closed in that dream. As if I was feeling each of those elements singing to me, appreciating their beauty and chaos.
And when my eyes opened the world came to a halt.
I looked at my western side and pushed my palm. A golden light enveloping it as a giant manifestation of a golden palm sweeping through the land of fire simultaneously extinguishing it.
Ina swift manner I turned around and swiveled my sleeves, fluttering it like a gorgeous cape to look at my eastern side.
My breath draws deep, sucking in the tornado. And in an efficient manner I roared it up in the sky and converted the wind's energy into sound energy causing a huge dragon-like roar to leave my mouth.
The land of the tornado was dispersed leaving only a ravaged land.
I didn't stop, I turned around and looked at the mountain range. Annoyed by the constant quake and shifting mountains.
I raised my foot up in the air as brown energy enveloped it. Then in a retaliating manner I stomped my foot into the ground stopping whatever force it was that was constantly messing with the mountain range making all of it come to a halt altogether.
Then finally, the vast stretch of water. It was daunting to look at.
No man would dare to cross such water without any mechanical or vehicular assistant. Without any boats, nor any plane.
Anyone that would try to cross it through their own physical ability alone would die of exhaustion.
That is the limit of humans. The limit of man.
However he is different.
For he has the power of martial arts on his side.
There is no need for him to cross that ocean. For he can split it.
I draw my sword from my scabbard, what can be a simple metal stick on the right hand can be a divine weapon.
I raised it. And slashed it.
The air screamed, the world trembled, no amount of force, technology, or bending could split the ocean completely in half.
Yet my sword did.
In my dream, I was a man of greatness; of godly prowess.
I extinguished the flames of land.
I sucked in the winds of the tornado and made it my scream.
I stopped the perpetual earthquake of the mountain range.
And I split the ocean in half.
I was a god. And more importantly, I was a Martial Artist.
And then I woke up.
***********
Somewhere in Yokoya Port:
Seven years have passed since the death of Avatar Kuruk. After multiple failed attempts at finding the new Avatar using the Earth Kingdom's methods, former Avatar Kuruk Companions Kelsang and Jianzhu decide to try their luck using the Air Nomad's way of finding the Avatar.
The Air Nomad's way of finding the avatar is presenting thousands of toy from all over the four nations in front of a child.
A child will pick four toys among the assortment.
Any normal child will pick any random toy, not putting significance to each of them however the reincarnation of the avatar will pick the right four.
Four toys that were his favorite back in his previous life. Or as the Air Temple calls them "Avatar's Relic".
Sure it was a sloppy way of finding the next avatar, but if it has been working for thousands of years why change it?
"I had no idea there were so many toys, there must be hundreds here," Said Jianzhu helplessly as he gazed at the large assortment of toys laid in front of him.
"Thousands." Kelsang corrected. "I'd ask you to help, but you wouldn't do it right."
Jianzhu's head hurt at the statement. At this point they were well past doing it right. "How did you change Abbot Dorje's mind about giving you the relics?" he asked.
"The same way you convinced Lu Beifong to let us administer the Air Nomad test in the Earth Cycle," Kelsang said calmly as he re-centered a wooden top.
"I didn't."
Like a certain friend of theirs from the Water Tribe always said, it was better to ask for forgiveness than wait for permission.
And as far as Jianzhu was concerned, the time for waiting had long since passed.
When Avatar Kuruk, the keeper of balance and peace in the world, the bridge between spirits and humans, passed away at the ripe old age of thirty-three—thirty-three! the only time Kuruk had ever been early for anything!—it became the duty of his friends, his teachers, and other prominent benders to find the new Avatar, reincarnated into the next nation of the elemental cycle. Earth, Fire, Air, Water, and then Earth again, an order as unchanging as the seasons.
A process stretching back nearly a thousand generations before Kuruk, and one that would hopefully continue for a thousand more.
Except this time, it wasn't working.
It had been seven years since Kuruk's death. Seven years of fruitless searching. Jianzhu had pored over every available record from the Four Nations, going back hundreds of years, and the hunt for the Avatar had never faltered like this in documented history
However it was all futile.
They have tried the Earth Kingdom's Method of finding the avatar yet it didn't work, the Water Tribes Way also ended up in failure, as well the Fire Nations Ceremony that yielded no result and now the Air Nomad's Selection.
No one knew why, though revered elders traded guesses behind closed doors. The world was impure and had been abandoned by the spirits.
The Earth Kingdom lacked cohesion, or maybe it was the Water Tribes in the poles that needed to unify. The Airbenders had to come down from their mountains and get their hands dirty instead of preaching. The debate went on and on.
Jianzhu cared less about apportioning blame and more about the fact that he and Kelsang had let down their friend again. The only serious decree of Kuruk's before he'd departed from the living was that his closest companions find the next Avatar and do right by them.
And so far they've failed. Spectacularly.
Right now, there should have been a happy, burbling seven-year-old Earth Avatar in the care of their loving family, being watched over by a collection of the best, wisest benders of the world.
A child in the midst of being prepared for the assumption of their duties at the age of sixteen. Instead there was only a gaping void that grew more dangerous by the day.
Jianzhu and the other masters did their best to keep the missing Avatar a secret, but it was no use. The cruel, power-hungry, the lawless—people who normally had the most to fear from the Avatar—were starting to feel the scales shifting in their favor. Like sand sharks responding to the slightest vibrations on pure instinct, they tested their limits. Probed new grounds. Time was running out.
Kelsang finished setting up when the noon gongs struck. The sun was high enough to melt snow off the roof, and the dripping flow of water pattered on the ground like light rain.
The silhouettes of villagers and their children queuing up for the test could be seen outside through the paper- screen windows. The air was full of excited chatter.
No more waiting, Jianzhu thought. This happens now.