gunil reached his physical limit. lying on the floor. he was on the verge of hyperventilating, his whole body shaking as his muscles started giving up.
"stand up" his father announced strictly, watching his son struggle to even sit up. gunil was crying, sobbing loudly as he just wasn't able to stand up.
it was physically impossible. his father roughly grabbed his arm and yanked him up, forcing him to stand.
"an enemy won't take a break when you need one." gunil cried out. "but we've been doing this since morning!"
the sun was setting, the boy spent his whole day with practising, just taking one brief break. he just couldn't.
"you'll thank me for that later" his father just replied, taking a few steps back, before rolling his eyes.
he stepped closer, helping gunil to breathe by letting the air flow easier into his body. it took a few minutes until he stopped hyperventilating, yet his whole body still hurt.
then he rolled his eyes. "you look like i'm holding you hostage" he shouted at the eleven year old, aggressively wiping away his tears.
"i'm tired!" gunil just shouted, to which his father smacked him. hard. "don't you fucking shout at me!" he growled angrily. "you'll have to protect our island one day. you should be ready as soon as possible!"
gunil's body just gave up, his knees slumping in as he fell down on the floor with a quiet thud. "what did i just tell-" "i can't anymore!"
the child's rebellion made the father even more angry. "you seem to have enough energy to scream. you had enough for the spirit trial, so don't act that way now!"
his mother entered the training hall upon all the screaming, sighing as she saw the two. walking towards her husband, she put her hand on his shoulder.
"maybe you guys should stop for today" she offered with a small smile as she looked to her son, who was lying on the floor again, close to hyperventilating.
his father shook his head. "what if the prophecies are true? he should be able to defend himself and our island."
the woman didn't answer to that, just kneeling down to help the eleven year old boy sit up, resting his head against her chest as she felt his panicked breathing.
"do you need a break?" she asked him with a small encouraging smile, to which her son just frantically nodded.
the woman looked up to her husband. "but you shouldn't go as far as causing discomfort."
she helped gunil stand up, instantly feeling the boy's whole body shake tremendously. walking out of the hall, she had to hold gunil tightly to her body so he wouldn't just collapse.
"oh, my baby, what did he do to you...?"
[...]
the prophecy turned true on gunil's 18th birthday - the earth kingdom attacked. being forcefully awakened by a sudden explosion, his eyes opened wildly.
it took him a few moments to realise what happened, immediately standing up and rushing to his parent's room.
they were already awake, as well, hurrying to get dressed. he thought of his brother and froze.
running to his room, gunil quickly shook him awake. "jiseok, we're under attack" he hissed, shaking the younger's body in panic.
the sixteen year old sat up, confused. "huh?" he was still half-asleep, but gunil couldn't stay home anymore.
he heard the desperate screams of many airbenders before another explosion followed.
then he made a decision. "stay with mom!" he ordered as he didn't hesitate to run out of their house, not even caring to put on any armor.
his father was right - he was thankful for being forced to practice. it was tiring back then, but it had a positive outcome.
gunil was fighting along many air soldiers, he couldn't even count how many earthbenders he killed that night. but did he really want to know?
the next thing he knows is he's watching his father get crushed to death. his whole world crushed that moment, and he felt his vision whiten.
just when his younger brother let out a yelp, he snapped back into consciousness, leaving everything behind to help him.
killing the two soldiers that put him in danger wasn't the hardest thing to do. comparing this to the brutality gunil partially used to wipe out dozens of the intruders, this was pretty harmless.
telling jiseok to retreat after sharing a hurried hug, gunil ran off again, as he found someone who needs help.
it was a small girl, who held off the earth soldiers with her under developed bending - she was protecting her younger sister.
gunil quickly saw himself in her. but her powers wouldn't be enough to keep them away from the kids, knowing that the earthbenders would go as far as killing children.
the airbenders defended themselves for an hour, yet the earth soldiers outnumbered them by far.
he was seen as basically dead. just lying on the floor, he was bound to bleed out. his body has given up, too exhausted.
gunil was surrounded by many corpses, either of his own people or the earthbenders. he himself just stared up in the sky, silent tears of pain rolling down his cheeks.
he twitched multiple times, as he kept aggressively fighting until every single muscle in his body gave up.
his father was dead, every building was destroyed. jiseok and his mother must be dead, as well.
he disappointed everyone. trying to stand up, he remembered his father's words.
"you'll have to protect our island one day."
and gunil failed. seeing someone approach him, he just closed his eyes, giving up. he was ready to die. but that's not what the earth soldier wanted.
he looked different, no armor, no weapons. then gunil saw the fierce gaze of the boy, resembling no one other than king oh himself.
it must be his son. but why was he helping him? "come on" the prince hissed as he tried to help gunil up.
"i'll help you. but you have to play along."
YOU ARE READING
𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐑𝐒
Fanfiction- ,, it's time we rejoin the war again! ·˚ ༘ ╰┈➤ in which six boys from four different nations unite to stop the earth king from destroying everything. ⚠️ WARNING ╭━━━━━∙⋆⋅⋆∙━━━━━╮ - graphic content ╰━━━━━∙⋆⋅⋆∙━━━━━╯ ↳-"𝗬𝗼...
