The Blind Waterbender

The Story of The Great Spirit

Secret for the Mad- By Dodie, (Nightcore, lyrics). As usual not my song or video just another song I was listening to while writing this chapter. I hope you guys enjoy!
-Rose
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Lyra's POV

Aunt Wu began the retelling of the legend "The story of the great spirit, and the first ocean, and moon spirits" she'd dubbed it.

She began to speak and the fire cracked while the water brushed rythmically against the raised stone path. The wind seemed to pause and the wind chimes hanging from the roof stopped chiming, almost as if the word story had caught its attention. Aunt Wu's voice broke through the silent room, and the stilling fire. The only thing that remained moving was our breathing and the popping of wet wood.

"Before the beginning of the five original spirits" she began, sounding like an alluring story teller rather than of fortunes, "there was a spirit known as the great spirit. It was the first living thing in the entire universe, it was formed entirely by the energy of collapsed stars, and stardust. The spirit was neither black nor white. Not male nor female. Eons passed and it created it's own world by sculpting each individual tiny atom in its delicate palms. It built massive mountains from its tiny hands. The spirit grew lonely, and sad when it's work was complete. The ground was a dead brown and the sky was empty and gray, huge canyons remained from where the spirit had collected it's clay to shape the mountains, which left deep trenches. The earth was dark, and cold. It only made the spirit sadder. Time moved and the spirit found itself to be with a child (how? No one knew). The Great Spirits gave birth to the neutral spirit, then once again became pregnant from the stubbornness within itself, which took the form of the first elemental spirit, Terra. It's first daughter. The second, and third elemental spirit followed from the immense need for foliage, warmth, and light. The twin spirits the ocean, and the great fire spirit Phoenix, Agni Kai.

With a new warmth across the earth, and the deep canyons filled with water, the foliage had yet to grow. The sun blistered the earth never falling from the gray sky. The sea began to evaporate and fight to stay alive. Agni Kai remained oblivious within its fiery bed.

Another spirit watched, still newly formed but was taken by the parental instincts of The Great Spirit. It watched it's youngest son with sadness and love, (the ocean spirit) and begged the great spirit if she could marry him.
The two married under the consent of the great spirit, and the moon informed an oblivious Agni Kai to offer it a deal. It offered to watch the earth so Kai could rest rather than collapsing from exhaustion, and drying out the ocean while it slept nestled in the clouds during the night. The two agreed, and the moon spirit watched over the ocean for ten long hours each day. The moon kept the ocean content by pushing and pulling its waves across the shore so it could dance with its lover all through the night. The moon would fall, leaving her lover with a painted mural across the sky.

Despite having so many children and now having a daughter in law the great spirit still felt lonely. So with the last of its life energy it created the sky. The air spirit, it was completely innocent and felt no attachments to the earth. Rather it was drawn towards the sky where it visited Agni Kai and the moon. It didn't grow out of its innocent, mischievous ways and spread its joy across the sky in a beautiful sky blue.

With the last of The Great Spirits life force it fell to the earth to spread life force across the lands.

Overtaken with grief, the spirits created animals, and plants in its memory. The sadness of it all, caused the elemental spirits to lay down their lives to join their maternal figure. All except the neutral spirit. Half of it wished to join it's motherly figure, and younger siblings, while the other half wished to overtake the earth, and rewarp it completely, into a land of great destruction. The spirit split in two, to battle for dominance over the world. The ocean and moon. Although dead, (but not in their spiritual forms) took the shape of koi fish to maintain the balance between the once singular spirits. It had worked, until one had become too tired to continue. The ocean and moon continued to struggle to hold the thin balance, they marked peaceful spirits with the responsibility of keeping balance, and upon their deaths the two loving peaceful spirits took over in keeping the balance, until finally giving the first humans the responsibility of balance. The two people that became spirits didn't have to be lovers but it was required they both held similar philophies, but were opposites in their birthplaces.

The two spiritually blessed humans were destined to hold the world's balance. The spirits leapt from body to body until the end of the mortal body they shared with the bearers. The bearers spirits split into different parts. They had their concious minds expanded, and they were given two choices. One, was to have their soul moved forward, towards reincarnation. The second, offered for them to take on the role of the ocean, or moon and take the place of the place of the spirit before them so it could reincarnate like its predecessor.

Either way the balance was maintained." She finally finished. I hadn't realize how much of a daze I'd just gone into.

"That hair on the back of your neck--" she motioned.

"Wait- what? What does that have to do with anything?" I questioned defensively. Dad said that it wasn't normal to have an oddly colored strand of stark white hair, so I tried to hide it by covering it with my dark hair.

My fingertips brushed the oddly textured hair, much more silkier than my actual almost black hair.

"It has to do with you, because you are the balance on the scale of the world, your twin has the same" she said as she exhaled.

My eyebrows raised,

"You mean Katara? She doesn't have any white- hair?"

Aunt Wu quieted me,

"No, not your sister, your twin." She delved forward with the claim.

"Wait a second, my tw-"

My eyes went wide, images, and sounds of the worried moon spirit, and an unfamiliar name on her lips flashed in my mind.

"Do mean, like the opposite side of the balance for me?" I asked leaning forward eagerly, to hear her answer, only to see her nod her confirmation. Less dramatic than I expected... The story was.. oddly relieving. If I was to die young, than I was going to live my life. It was as I was walking out that my fear truly showed itself. The fear wasn't the same as any fear I'd ever felt before. It threatened to stop my heart at the speed it pumped. My hearing echoed with words and I didn't even glance at the others as I walked through the door, losing myself to my burning lungs. I didn't wait for the door to be pulled open by the gentleman, instead I opened it with a quick movement.

I heard my name called and noticed as I ran that no one had followed. The painful realization made my heart cramp. I ran up the mountain until I reached a smoky smelling area covered in old volcanic ash and hundreds of varying wildflowers, including one that I found comfort in.

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Soooo I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. It took ages, but I think it was worth it. Anyways stay safe and healthy my Bookworms, and I hope you have a great day! Until next time, I'll see y'all in the next one! I love y'all! Ciao!
-Rose