A Sun's Song ⋆ Avatar: The Last Airbender.

𝟬𝟬𝟯. The Ice Does Not Forgive..

CHAPTER THREE:
THE ICE DOES NOT FORGIVE
SET IT:
EPISODE TWO: THE AVATAR RETURNS

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THE FEELING OF SHOCK WORE OFF QUICK. Eyes still glued to her hands, Avina's head began to throb as it racked the pure intensity of what had just occurred. Of what she had just done.

  I am a firebender.

  The thought felt so strangely satisfying that Avi nearly threw up in shame. She shouldn't feel like this. She had just done the unthinkable—the unbearable. So why did it feel so good?

  Because it's the truth. The thought echoed as if she was in a large, empty room. A truth that, deep down, you always knew.

  Avina did not want to admit it, but her thoughts were true. She'd always known there was something wrong with her. Something that separated her from her family—from her people.

  However, she'd never thought about it too closely, in fear that she would have to acknowledge the painful truth: That she didn't belong here. That the fire that scorched through her was never meant to live among the ice of the Southern Water Tribe. That she was not just Water Tribe, but Fire Nation.

  Her stomach lurched at the notion.

  I am a firebender.

  I am not just Water Tribe.

  I am Fire Nation.

  She was the very thing she had always been taught to hate. She was the same kind that killed her aunt—the same kind that forced her father and uncle to have to go to war—the same kind that caused so much unnecessary pain and suffering in their stupid war.

  Avina was one of them.

She found herself unable to remove her eyes from her hands. Fear wound within her, twisting into an inferno of anxiety. Her family would never trust her again. She'd already seen it in Katara. The way she'd looked at her was horrifying. The pain and confusion and betrayal in her baby cousin's blue eyes was like a stab right through the heart. Avi began to breathe frantically, breaths feeling as though they were caught within her chest.

"You're the airbender? You're the Avatar?"

After what seemed like hours of dead silence ringing in her ears, the only sound being what she could make out of the searing thoughts roaring in her own head, a voice had broken through. Head snapping up, Avina momentarily made eye contact with the Fire Nation soldier from earlier, still utterly confused by the look glaring in his eyes when they met hers. Forcing her gaze away, finally, her mind was able to refocus onto her surroundings.

Aang had taken to a defensive stance with his staff pointed forwards, standing bravely in front of the tribe to protect them from the soldiers. As her eyes trailed on the determined airbender boy, the soldier's words began to seep into her mind. He was talking to Aang. She realized with a small gasp. Aang is the Avatar.

If the circumstances were not what they were, Avi might have turned to Sokka and bragged in his face about the fact she was right about Aang being special. However, she could not take the additional pain that looking back at him would cause. Thinking about that made her realize just how separated she was from the rest of the tribe. There was nearly three inches of space between her and her tribe, but that was enough space for Avi to get the message.