WHALE BONE KNIFE ── sokka

v. ────── faces, young and old

Katara and Azari walked into the sanctuary side by side, each step falling into a comfortable rhythm. Azari's eyes widened as light from the hall illuminated what was being hidden behind the shadows of the many walls-rows and rows of statues lined the place. Staring into her eyes, like they know who-what-she is.

"Statues?" Sokka groaned, causing Azari to roll her eyes at his comment. "That's it? Where's the meat?"

Azari bit her tongue, holding back a sarcastic comment.

"Who are all these people?" Katara asked no one in particular, but Aang spoke up. "I'm not sure, but it feels like I know them somehow. Look! That one's an airbender," Aang pointed out as Azari weaved in and out of the statues, looking at them close up.

"And this one's a waterbender. They're lined up in a pattern: air, water, earth, fire," Katara said.

"That's the Avatar Cycle!" Aang gasped as she moved to walk down the line.

"Of course. They're Avatars. All of these people are your past lives, Aang," Katara continued. Azari walked up to the last statue in the line, the last in the cycle. A man in Fire Nation attire stared back at her. She blinked, feeling dizzy. She felt as though she was staring at herself. It was scary. Azari scanned the figure, from top to bottom, until her eyes focused on the pin that was in his har: the symbol of the Fire Nation royal family. A symbol that she knew all too well.

"Past lives? Katara, you really believe in that stuff?" Sokka scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"It's true. When the Avatar dies, they get reincarnated into the next nations in the cycle," Katara explained, having learnt this from Gran-Gran. She watched as Aang walked over to stand next to Azari, who was in a trance-like state.

Katara did the same, standing next to the pair, placing a gentle hand on Aang's shoulder, shaking him out of his momentary daze. "Who's that?"

"That's Roku, the Avatar before me," Aang explained.

"Yeah..." Azari's voice trailed off as she continued to stare at the statue. "The Fire Nation lost all stability when he died," she continued to mumble under her breath, watching Sokka out of the corner of her eyes, waiting to see if he would do anything.

"You were a firebender? No wonder I didn't trust you when we first met," Sokka commented, which caused Azari to roll her eyes at him.

Katara looked down at the statue's feet. "There's no writing. How do you know his name?"

"I'm not sure. I just know it somehow," Aang shrugged as Azari turned to face him.

"Aang, Ruko is your most recent past life. If you have a strong connection to any Avatar, it would be him," she spoke just as a mysterious noise sounded through the room, echoing off the walls. Scrambling, the group hid behind two statues. Katara and Aang on the left, while Sokka and Azari on the right.

Peeking around the statue, Azari noticed a shadow of a figure. "Firebender. One the count of three, we attack," the boy next to her practically whisper-shouted. Azari grabbed his shoulder and forced him to look at her.

"That's not a firebender," she told him. Sokka didn't listen. He shook her hand off him, wiping where she had touched him as if the fact that she was Fire Nation disgusted him-which she knew it did. He placed a finger to his lips, signalling for her to silent. She rolled her eyes at the boy next to her, crossing her arms over her chest as she watched Sokka raise his club.

"The firebender won't know what hit 'em." Sokka nodded as he jumped out from behind the statue, but he lowered his weapon as he spotted the lemur. The other three stepped out, not expecting there to be an animal-well, Azari did, but nobody listens to her.