The New Avatar - Eight Elements

Chapter One: The Test

Friday, September 2nd, 2022

"Well," I thought to myself, looking at the clock, that read eleven thirty, "I guess I should go to bed now." I put the book I had been reading away, turn my reading light off and curl up in my bed. The rain outside soothed me to sleep, like it normally did. Just before I drifted off, I got a weird feeling like someone was watching me, but I shrugged the idea away, and fell into a soundless sleep.

Suddenly, something fell and I woke up with a start. I looked around and turned my reading light on to see what had happened. My clock glowed 1:47 am. Standing by my open window was a short, russet brown skinned girl, with grey-blue eyes and shoulder length, dark brown, curly hair. She was wearing a blue shirt that crisscrossed in front and had white trim around the neckline and sleeves. A pair of black tights, tall brown boots and a blue rain poncho. She stood up, holding my window screen that had fallen, and looked at me.

"Tami?!" I cried, jumping out of my bed, "You scared me to death! What are you doing here?"

"Shh! Don't wake anybody up. We've gotta go, now." She said, looking over her shoulder, out my window, "Come on, get dressed. And you're gonna wanna look nice."

"Uh, ok." I shrugged, "But why are you kidnapping me at 2 am?"

"The Test. Now hurry!" she replied flatly.

I stared at her for a split second, shrugged it off, and did as she said, grabbing some of my clothes that were laying on the floor. I got dressed as fast as I could, I pulled my hair brush and elastics off my dresser and shoved them in my satchel. I quickly put on my favourite necklace, and she handed me a rain poncho.

As she climbed out the window and down a ladder, I questioned everything for a second,

"What the hell am I doing?" I thought, "This is so weird, and she's never done anything like this before. Sure, she has kidnapped me during the night, but what's the rush this time? And why didn't she give me a heads up like she normally does?"

I shook the thought away and followed her anyway, pushing my window shut on the way out.

As we ran through the rain, I saw a black truck sitting in the street in front of my house. She jumped into the front seat and I slid in the back. I couldn't see who was driving, but I knew it wasn't her mom. As we drove off and I started to brush and braid my hair, Tami started explaining.

"Ok, you're probably wondering why all of this is happening." She started, "Well, it's all because we're Element benders. The Academy of The Five Elements is taking new students and you and I are gonna be two of them."

"Ok, I've heard of Elements before, but five of them? I know there's Water, Earth, Fire and Air, but what else could there be?" I asked, very confused, as I started to braid my hair.

"Spirit." Tami says, "Water, Earth, Fire, Air and Spirit. Spirit bending and Spirit seeing are complicated to explain -and understand- so I'll just keep it simple for now. Spirit seers can see spirits that have hidden themselves to the normal human eye, and Spirit benders can bend restless spirits to be calm again, and return them to The New Spirit World. The stereotype goes that if you're a Water or Air bender, you're more likely to be a Spirit seer or Spirit bender." She explained,

"Now, I'm a Water bender and Spirit seer, so I can see the hidden Spirits that live both here and on Atheara." She added, holding up her hand, where a tiny droplet of Water floated just above the palm of her hand.

"Wait, hold on a second, you're telling me that people can do things with those Elements?!" I asked, feeling really confused.

"Ok, this is really not normal. Seriously, what the hell is going on?!" I asked myself, but let her continue so that she could explain everything.