The Legend of Arin

CHAPTER SIX: THE WINTER SOLSTICE

"THOSE CLOUDS LOOK SO SOFT, don't they?" Katara was lying on her stomach staring off the saddle of the flying bison. "Like you could just jump down and you'd land in a big, soft, cottony heap."

"Maybe you should give it a try," Sokka said, attempting to be funny. Aang took this literally as he jumped off the bison's head saying he'd try it.

"Aang-" Arin called out to her little brother who had made a hole through the cloud a little lower than them before jumping back onto the saddle coated in water.

"Turns out, clouds are made of water." Aang made an air dome around him as he dried himself off. Arin rolled her eyes amusedly at his childishness before her face hardened.

"What's that?" She looked over the saddle onto the ground, Sokka and Katara following her gaze.

"It's like a scar," Sokka said sadly as he looked at it closer.

UPON LANDING, they looked around the tarred and ashy ground. Trees burnt to a crisp and only remained as short stubs in the ground. Arin looked around in fury. It had to have been the Fire Nation who did this.

"Fire Nation! Those evil savages make me sick. They have no respect for-" Arin, who was right next to Sokka, shoved him lightly and nodded her head toward Aang who collapsed on the ground in defeat.

"Why would anyone do this? How could I let this happen?"

"Aang, you didn't let this happen. It has nothing to do with you." Katara tried to make him feel better to no avail.

"Yes, it does. It's the Avatar's job to protect nature, but I don't know how to do my job." He leaned his head into his palms as he crossed his legs.

"That's why we're going to the North Pole- to find you a teacher." The Water Tribe girl stepped forward.

"Yeah, a water-bending teacher. But there's no one who can teach me how to be the Avatar. Monk Gyatso said that Avatar Roku would help me."

"The Avatar before you? He died over a hundred years ago, how are you supposed to talk to him?" Sokka asked and Arin began thinking as Aang replied that he didn't know.

She had, of course, done her research on the Avatar and whatever she could find about the Avatar spirit. Her little brother was the Avatar, she had to know the basics at least. There was a way for him to contact the ones before him, but she didn't know how. Apparently, Aang didn't either.

Arin was looking at the ground as her mind raced before she noticed an acorn on the ground by her foot. She gasped and picked it up before looking at her brother.

"Aang? Ready to be cheered up?" Aang said "No" and Arin smirked before throwing an acorn at his head.

"Ow! Hey, how is that cheering me up?" He held the back of his head as he turned around to look her the older girl.

"Cheered me up." Sokka laughed from his spot before Katara, who had also found an acorn, threw one at his head. "Yeah, I probably deserve that."

"Acorns are all around this field, Aang. They have oak seeds that are gonna grow tall trees one day. Every bird and animal will be able to return home." Arin walked over to her brother and handed him the acorn that he stared at in the center of his palm. The bald boy smiled and thanked his older sister.

The two engulfed in a hug before Arin noticed someone walking in front of her. She quickly pulled Aang behind her and jumped to the defense before seeing it was just an old man.

"Hey, who are you?" Sokka stood up next to Arin.

"When I saw the flying bison, I thought it was impossible, but those markings... are either of you the Avatar?" The man looked from Aang and Arin, the latter stepping aside to silently say that Aang was the Avatar. He nodded to the man. "My village desperately needs your help."