The Avatar - Fate of Hikari ( Legend of Hikari part 1 ATLA / LOK )

The secret

Book 1 - Fate of Hikari
- Air -
Chapter 5: The secret

Chesa, your mother has got the air-bender skills. Echoed my grandfather's words in my head non-stop after I heard them. What did he just say? How is that even possible? I must have gone mad and hallucinate at this point, or due to my tiredness I am having a dream that feels like reality. I made some efforts to recall memories with my mother and find just one, only one sign, that would make master Yonten's statement true. It just did not work.
"No, that must not be true!" I looked at the monk in disbelief. "If what you say it's right, I should have seen her using air-bending at least once, but that never happened." I shook my head.
"Nafisa forbade her to practice air-bending for a few different reasons." I heard the reply from the old man.
"For what reasons?"
"First of all your grandmother's husband never knew that Chesa is not his child. Your mother was less than ten years old, when her air-bending abilities surfaced, and as soon as Nafisa realised it, she never let anybody know about. Chesa had to suppress her abilities in order to fit in the fire nation, and also to never be exposed to her stepfather. Nafisa never could forgive her parents for being forced to marry someone who she never loved, and someone who had a very bad personality. This man never respected her or Chesa. It was a relief when he died. However your grandmother told me a little bit about your father and if he is really like, as how your grandmother saw him, Chesa may have trusted him enough to tell Jirou the truth." The Daivika's priest gave me a longer explanation than I expected. I was sure after all that my papa knew my mother very well and if she was an air-bender he was aware of it. They just never shared it with us, which made me a little bit mad at them. Then suddenly, out of nowhere another thought woke up in my mind. Thinking of Master Nali's words and expressions about my brother, I felt like I could put some puzzle pieces together.
"Tell me Monk Yonten..." I still could not bring myself to call him my grandfather, although I was not that angry at him anymore. "Do you think there is a chance that Kyouya could possibly rather be also an air-bender than a fire-bender in the future?" I tried to catch his gaze and engage eye-contact with him. If our mother really is an air-bender, the odds were pretty high for that. The air-nomad master answered me with a nod, while he looked away and seemed to get lost in his thoughts.
"That old lady when she said that my brother has the energy as well, she gave me the impression that she could say more for us. Do you think she knows?"
"No...Nalijorma she is our spiritual leader, she is kind of like a bridge between the material and spirit realms, but there are things she can not see. However, knowing your circumstances, I guess she had the same thought like you now." told Master Yonten.
"Don't you think Kyou should have the right to know about it?" I questioned the monk, who shook his head immediately.
"He wouldn't benefit from it. I think only by realising the fact that he might be fire bender, he is limiting himself from learning the ability. If we tell him that he also can turn out an air-bender, he might just get more confused. He maybe wants to be so much a bender, that exactly because of that he will not be able to use his skills. Being an air-nomad as I said before is to let our attachments go. However, not only air-nomads can take advantage of this knowledge. He needs to learn letting go first, and if he knows more about his possibilities that wouldn't help him right now." My grandfather said this to me, and tried to reason logically, but I still did not feel much convinced.
"But..." I tried to contradict him without any success. In the end I had to admit that he could be right. I let out a sigh and just gave up this argument.
"Do you have any more questions?" stood up from his place Monk Yonten. "Soon we should head back from here." suggested to me. I also followed him and lifted myself from the cushion. I thought I did not have any more query, but then something else started to trigger my curiosity.
"Actually I do..."
"What would it be?"
"Have you ever met Avatar Inuksuk and Lihua?"
"I had the chance to meet with both of them, but I wasn't able to do anything in order to help them. Well...I was still a child when I saw for the first and last time Avatar Inuksuk. He was more or less the same age as me now. It was a celebration event at the Southern Air Temple and he visited there. Less than ten years later we heard about his death. " Recalled the memories, the priest. "Then I met Avatar Lihua more or less a year before she died. She was doing her round trip around the world to help where it was needed and decided to stop by the Western Air Temple. She spent almost two months here, and only returned to the Earth kingdom, because she heard about the death of the Earth king and the peace between the Earth and Fire nation started to weaken again."
"Tell me more about her. How was she?"
"Avatar Lihua had a strong charisma, she was brave, smart and I would say even too confident, with a good sense of humour. She made herself very popular all around the world, and everybody loved her. While she spent time here I often duelled with her as she requested to practice her air-bender skills. She already had the master level when she arrived at our temple, but liked to test herself and others. " I tried to imagine her by what I heard from Master Yonten. After all that I knew about Avatar Lihua, it was really hard to believe that she passed away so young in a stupid riot.
"I wish I could find out what happened to her...I don't think she has been killed in the way that people are saying in the fire nation." I stated it and the air-nomad could see on my face the determination, how much I wanted to know the truth about my previous life. He cleared his throat and by doing so, I looked at him.
"I also think that there is more behind what everybody knows about Avatar Lihua's death. Well, if you take it seriously and accept being the avatar, you might find it out soon enough. You are at the best place to meet and learn about your spiritual side. However, for that you must cooperate with me and with Master Sumati." tried to seem wise, the old man by reacting to my opinion.
"I will not defy you anymore, and I accept you as one of my masters..." started talking and showed some affiliation towards the monk, but then I made serious eye contact with him as I continued with my speech. " Only on two conditions...I want my head shaved completely first of all."
"What? Why do you want to look like a boy?" asked my grandfather surprisingly.
"There's nothing to do about that. I love to look like a girl."
"Then, why?"
"After mastering the air-bender skills and getting my tattoo, I want to grow back my hair properly. That wouldn't be possible if I shave like the nuns..."
"I don't think there is a problem with your request I guess..." looked away with an awkward expression on his face, my grandfather. I guess he had his own thoughts, but he tried to respect my views. He did not try to talk me against it. "What would be the other condition?"
"I just want to rest today. I don't want to start my training right now. I need a little bit of a break and peace of mind. When those nuns turned up in the room after sleeping, I felt like I am going to suffocate." I tried to manifest my needs. "From tomorrow I am ready to submit myself for whatever needs to be done."
"Tomorrow it's a ceremony day. At the field, you met Yara, that girl, who appeared with Kyouya. She is going to be an air-bender master. She finished her studies and her skills are really excellent. She and Mida are so talented that they could be one of the future members of Daivika. So tomorrow is a day of celebration, and you won't be starting any training. However, let it be like this...the day it's almost gone, and you need more rest. We can start after tomorrow." After the old man's reassurance I felt a little more relieved. However this information about Yara and the ceremony made me wonder again regarding our conversation here.
"Let's go back!" Asked me the air-nomad monk in the meantime and started his way towards one of the tunnels in the cliffs. I just had a short nod, and looked once more at my grandmother's grave. I will be back, and spend some more time with you! I promised it to granny Nafisa, then followed my grandfather.
"So you said Yara and Mida one day can be part of the Daivika. After your story I don't think it's a great thing. I feel sorry for them." Expressed my opinion honestly, when I got closer to Master Yonten on our walk.
"Why would you? It is a great honour to serve your people, help them in need, and maybe one day support the Avatar." Davika's member priest seemed to have just said what his duty required from him, not what he was really feeling about it.
"Hmmm...no matter what I am going to learn here, I am happy that I am not an air-nomad. You can't fall in love, you can't have family and you are limited in many other ways. It's just too boring." I rolled my eyes. I thought Master Yonten was going to say something in order to change my mind, but actually that never happened. He stayed silent. After that we did not have much to say to each other. The Daivika's priest helped me to find back to the quarter of the nuns, then before he left, once more turned to me.
"I almost forgot to mention. It was a very irresponsible act that you have done while you were trying to escape with the bison. Your fire ball missed Master Sumati, but almost burnt my sari down." I had a better look at his wear, when he said that and I could see the left end of the sleeve indeed indicated some signs of damage. I guess he also tried to chase after me when he saw me running to the field. "Although I am very happy that you survived all these events and you are in one, I still need to punish you. You need to understand the consequences of your actions. Starting tomorrow, through one month, you must get up by dawn and join Mida for feeding the horde of bison we have at the temple. This of course has nothing to do with what we agreed to in the garden. Also I am going to make sure that Priestess Sumati knows about this." I was so shocked from what I heard now, that I just stood there in front of the room I had to stay in, and I could not even stop Monk Yonten. He bowed to me, and continued with the task he was needed to do.
"Old man! You don't want me to like you, right?" I shouted after him, but it was too late, the air-nomad master was gone by then. A few young girls even appeared in the corridor to see what was this noise. I felt embarrassed as I guessed I should not have been loud. Avoiding their eye-contact, I started to walk and looked for the dining area. I was already very hungry and I wanted to eat something. Today I did not feel like socialising with any of the air-nomads, I really just wanted some peace and was still upset about my punishment. I am not the kind of person who used to wake up early. My life seemed pretty much like a princess' life while I lived at home, but this time everything took different turns. As I walked through the passageway, I left behind a few rooms like where I resided. Finally, around the corner of the left side, I found a spacious empty hall with a very long, but low table in the middle, and around that, many seats made from pillows on the floor. At the far end of the area I could see a giant statue of a buddha or famous monk. It was in a sitting position, it had a big belly and looked like he was praying with a peaceful smile on its face. Of course the arrow of his forehead was present. Numerous offerings have been placed in front of this sculpture. The ones who paid their respect to the monument, filled the tray up with different fruits, snacks, and candies. I observed my ambient around myself, and as I could not spot anybody, I walked to the petrified sacred man. I supposed at this hour the nuns and novices have been all too busy to watch over this place. My hunger by now took over my rational thinking and I had no patience to find somebody who could feed me properly. I only wanted to calm my tummy a little bit. This will do until dinner time. I stared at the content of the religious donation in front of me. The temptation became clear in my eyes.
"I hope you wouldn't mind sharing." I said it with lowering my voice, almost whispering at the statue. Then I grabbed an apple and I felt more than ready to have a bite, when I heard someone grasping in panic at the entrance. It was a nun, who immediately ran to me and twisted the fruit out of my hands, placing it back rapidly to the offering tray.
"No, Lady Hikari! Nobody can eat from Sangye's plate! This is for his Highness." Referred to the buddha statue. "You are not a flying lemur! We saved food for you, as you missed out on lunch. Please take a seat and I will bring some for you, you must be very hungry." This woman talked very kindly to me, but I could hear the worry and desperation in her voice. Maybe after my running off, they became a little bit afraid of me. She was scared that I would not listen to her. I followed her advice, and sat down by the table on one of these cushions. "Would you like any specific food made for you?" She asked before leaving the room.
"Some stew...maybe turtle-duck or rooster-pig." Answered to the air-nomad lad, after a bit of thinking. There have been many days that I barely have had any food. My body has been longing for something nutritious and feeding. The meat sounded perfect. However as I looked at the embarrassed face of the nun, I knew that I might have mentioned things that were not optional.
"Mmm...I am very sorry, but here we don't eat meat. All air-nomads are vegetarian, and there are very rare exceptions when meat is available. Example at the community area, where sometimes we have guests for a few days. We can not deny them. However here at the residence of nuns and priestess, only vegetarian food can be allowed to be eaten." I heard the long excuse from the lady, and at that moment I was done fighting. These days nothing wants to turn out in my favour, but that's all right. "I promise Avatar Hikari, that you won't be disappointed with the food." The nun added this to her speech, seeing me letting out a sigh of exhaustion. Then in a short time I was served food, and I had to admit in the end, that it was very delicious. Actually by the time I finished eating, I felt sorry for his Highness Statue Sangye. My plate was much better than what I could steal from him. Although everything was vegetarian, I enjoyed each meal and could not complain. I had spring rolls, tasty savory buns filled with different sauces and baked vegetables, some foods I could not recognize as I never tried them. Lastly I ate the dessert I had, mochi, and sweet rice buns again with various flavours. Sometimes I had the sensation I was being watched, but I did not care much about it. When I stood up from the table I said thank you to the nun, who came to clean my plate. It was really late, almost evening, but I wanted to use my freedom today. I decided to visit the common area of the air-nomads, where in theory both of the genders could meet. It seemed to be a perfect plan to avoid the girls and other residents who were soon gathering to get ready for dinner. I was fine for today, I had so much food that surely I could hold it until tomorrow. Surprisingly, finding the common place or community's building, did not turn out as difficult as I feared at first. I walked out from our quarter, then looked around, and tried to remember Priestess Sumati's explanations about the locations. Then at the end I just followed the stairs upwards that were carved out from the cliffs without going inside the tunnels, until I reached the level of one of the biggest upside down hanging buildings. Here I had to enter the cave corridor, in order to be able to approach this weird structure. I needed to go up on more stoops, then ended up on the middle level of the Community's Temple. The building had five floors, the widest one on the top, and the walls got tighter, the halls and rooms smaller as you walked down on each level. All the elevations had terrace like areas, but without any protection from falling out. I had a very quick look around everywhere and I could see bedrooms for guests, one floor was dedicated only for people who needed to recover, I found a huge dining room on the third level, with another buddha statue and looking exactly the same as in the nun's quarter. The only difference was that it was freshly decorated with some flowers and with typical air-nomad crafts. I supposed the people were already preparing for the ceremony tomorrow. This time everything was empty, it seemed there was nobody in the entire building. No stopping by travellers, no air-nomads or so. This atmosphere gave me an ancient sensation as the weakening sun shone through the windows and lightened these few thousands years old place. My curiosity did not let me stop here, I had to see the last two parts of the place. First I tried to rush to the smallest floor, which probably was the size of a tiny room on the bottom. However, the entrance was closed and I could not get through the stone door that blocked the way. Being left with no choice, I headed back to the fourth floor. This one looked interesting, because inside it was just an empty space. By the inner wall it was possible to enter one of the tunnels again, but also to leave the building through the right door. I went there and just exited the area following the stairs. I ended up again by the cliffs facing a very narrow passage ahead of me. On the other side of the path a spacious stone patio waited for its visitors. On my right it was the deepness threatening me to fall in the void and die, on my left side the uneven rocky wall made me doubt if I could pass by it. I had to maintain some balance as I could not see anything I could grab onto with my fingers and seek safety. My only options were to go back to the temple, or make this short walk to that balcony. I almost chose to not take any risk, but over there in that garden, I saw Kyouya stepping out from behind a column. He made it there, so I can too. I wanted to meet and talk with him. At first it seemed scary, but actually the road was wide enough and I reached the patio very fast. As I approached my brother closer, I started to observe him and find out what he was doing. He already had some local clothing on him from some light brown, blue and grey fabric which was a simple linen trouser and a couple layers of loosen wide tops. I had to admit it looked good on him. Kyouya still had not noticed me as he was around the end of the balcony-like installation, which also was the edge of the crag. This place had a big walking area and many columns around the sides. In the middle I could spot a beautiful round shaped fountain with running water. The water escaped from the basin and continued to flow off the rock. I recognised more pillars on my left enclosing a square shaped area. I wondered whether it was a meditating or training place.
"Hey Kyou!" I started my way to him. He was making some interesting movements, he tried to imitate some fire-bending techniques. When my brother heard me, he stopped what he was doing and turned towards me immediately with a bright face.
"Hikari!" He ran towards me with excitement to see me. In that sudden moment, I felt I needed to tell him the truth about him. We are siblings after all, right? We have to support each other and stand together. He has the right to know what our grandfather shared with me. Convinced myself.
"Kyou, I have to tell you something..." When my brother stopped at me, I  looked into his curious grey eyes what he inherited from our mother and said to him with a serious expression. Sometimes when the light reflected, his iris it had a brownish shade, but the colour definitely was resembling mom's eyes. This gave me more confidence about my decision. Kyouya might be an air bender and he needed to know that!

To be continued....

Next chapter: The ceremony

Teaser: After the next chapter, I am planning to jump two years in timeline, then after one or two chapters an other three years. ;) 

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I hope you liked this chapter, please let me know what you think, and leave me some feedback, thank you! 

PS: I started to make AI generated characters as I prefer to have my own than to use further other's fan art. I am not good at drawing, so this is the most I can do. (I also lack of describing well characters ^.^" ) 

This is how I imagine Kyouya as a child and before going to be an air-nomad novice ( then he is going be the same just with saved hair XD ) . On the cover photo of course there is Master Yonten.