Feline, the New Avatar Book 1 Fight

Chapter 01 - I'm Feline, nice to meet you

I’m pretty normal.

Except for my family I guess. Being the only child is not easy, it’s even less the case when you’re the daughter of two great benders and heroes. Bolin and Opal, an Earth and Lava bender who married an Airbender. Loved each other from the first sight, or so they say. Even after all these years, they still care deeply for each other and live most of the time in Zaofu, but I spend all my summers in Republic City at my uncle’s place, Mako. He’s pretty much always dark and brooding, but a really nice guy and I’m always eager to spend some time with him and his two sons, Jairo who’s eighteen and Sen who’s going to be fourteen soon. They’re both adorable and we’ve pretty much grown up together. Sometimes it’s a bit weird to consider my cousin as my brothers.

On the other side of the family tree, there are the Beifongs and… it’s quite complicated. We haven’t heard from my uncle Baatar Jr. since the attack on Republic City that happened something like almost twenty years ago. After his trial, he spent a few years in prison but never showed up when he got out, too ashamed to show his face in Zaofu again, he said. But grandma Sue still gets his letters, so I guess it’s fine.

Then there’s Huan. After the Earth Empire was dismantled and King Wu decided to install a republic on Earth territory, my second uncle became a very famous artist in Ba Sing Se where he lives happily in the Upper Ring with his, I don’t know, third, maybe fourth wife? I don’t even remember. And who would have thought he’s a ladies’ man. Anyway, he’s so rich his house alone is like five times ours and the Beifong estate is kind of impressive. I go see him sometimes when grandma goes to the capital to represent Zaofu now that each area of the Earth Republic is independent.

Then come the twins Wei and Wing who became Probenders when the arena reopened. They each have two or three sons but I often mix up their names to annoy them since they all look the same and all want to be probenders. As I’m the only girl in the family, they’re all playing tough to impress me. I often tried to play with them but they always beat me with their excellent Earth and Metal bending. I always wanted to fight but nobody except them let me.

My parents were hoping I’d be a great Earthbender or maybe even a Lavabender. That would have been so cool. But I’m not. Not at all. I want to fight so badly it hurts sometimes. They often tell me my energy and good mood reminds them of Korra, the last Avatar who somehow disappeared into the wild like eighteen years ago or so. Nobody knows what happened to her and no one has seen her ever since her trip to the desert. The people from Misty Palms Oasis are the last who ever saw her. This story always made my father sad because I know he was one of the former Avatar’s best friends along with Mako and Asami. He always gets this sad look when he compares me to her, like if he does that enough times, she’ll mysteriously come back. Some people believe she’s dead, others still have faith and hope for her return like Tenzin, a great Airbender master. But I guess most people have accepted her disappearance. After all, there have been periods of time without the Avatar to keep balance in the world.

But I know something no one else does. I’ve always been afraid to talk about it, even more to show it. And the fact that I might do the things I do would make my father even sadder. Disappointing him is the last thing I want to do right now.

It happened when I was really little, maybe four or five. I was playing in the yard in Zaofu, waiting for my five Earthbender cousins to come back from training since they couldn’t compete yet at the time and I did something I would have never thought myself capable of: I airbended. Like real air. From the tip of my fingers. I was so stunned I had to do it again to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I was really doing it, I was just like mom, I was an Airbender! I was so happy that I fell into the pond, like literally bottom first. But instead of wetting my clothes, the water turned to ice, making the landing quite hard. I tried to waterbend and the ice melted right away! I really couldn’t believe it. I was so proud of being at the same time an Air and Waterbender that I came straight to see my parents to tell them the good news. I didn’t realize at the time that me being capable of bending two of the four basic elements meant that Korra had passed away. I just wanted to make my parents so proud, I still do.