The Return of the Avatar - Book one: Body

Chapter Three - The Vision

After dinner Chou and Ling headed to their rooms. It was about the same time that the movers session had ended and many students were also roaming the hallways. The boys were heading to the other side of the canyon towards the bus stop and the girls were walking to their rooms. The evening had been a very pleasant one so far and Chou was very happy to have Ling as her roommate.

Arriving at the room, they found Daisuke sleeping on Chou's bed. Both girls sat on their respective beds and continued talking. They talked about how Chou grew in the Fire Nation, in Iroh Town, how she sometimes visited the Capital City and how this stimulated her to work with international relations and diplomacy. "Ambassadors and the diplomatic corps seemed all so regal, and the fact that they traveled all over the world was always very appealing to me," Chou said.

And Ling told her story, of how she grew in the capital city of Omashu, on the Republic of Omashu. Ling told of the legend of the two lovers, Oma and Shu, and how Earthbending was formed and because of that, Omashu was always great with earthbending. But since the Harmonic Convergence, new airbenders appeared around the world and her grandparents were two of them. They were already married, both nonbenders, living in the outskirts of Omashu, working as farmers. But after they discovered their airbending, they were invited to live within the city, where they had their family. Ling's mother was the youngest of the couple and she married a local earthbender - Ling's father. Ling's older brother is an earthbender, like his father, and she was born an airbender, like her mother.

But when she was only one year old, she had a brain infection that caused her to became deaf. Her vocal cords also were affected, not allowing her to speak - even if she could listen. But, when she was six, she started to develop some airbending skills and, helped by her mother and airbending friends, she learned how to use airbending to perceive and produce sounds, known as soundbending. That's why she uses short hair: in order to perceive sound and air better. Her hair colors are dyed to emulate not only a stylized version of the blue airbending tattoos, but also the color green of the earth nations. She developed her own voice, but if she wanted, she could produce different voices and make it sound like they're coming from different places. They played with that a lot during the night and it sounded that they were having a party filled with different people. And it sounded like they were having a lot of fun.

So much fun that they went to sleep very late, when all the other rooms were silent and with their lights out. They finally slept due to exhaustion, but they couldn't be happier. When Chou was finally on her bed, under the sheets, Daisuke moved to sleep by her feet.

Chou was feeling her spirit very light, free from problems, since she had the most fun in a very long time. She felt like she could float outside the room, soar through the sky. In fact, she started to dream about that. She could look down and see the Western Air Temple canyon, even the two towns on the same island, Violet Grove and Sokka's Bay. She flew towards the other islands and managed to see different smaller villages, mostly fishing villages and some smaller temples scattered through the archipelago. She flew even higher towards the Earth Nations and saw, from above different points of light from the different cities, towns and villages and some lines connecting them, from the streets and highways. Soaring from above, she saw all those lights forming a huge world web that grew stronger and stronger as she flew towards it. So strong that those threads appeared to be all around her and she got caught when trying to fly away, as if falling on a spider web. She felt trapped and couldn't move anymore. Chou tried to scream for help, but no one was there to save her. On a distance she could see a figure approach, emerging from the shadows around her. She grew more afraid. When that figure got close enough, she woke up.

But the dread wasn't gone. She could see she wasn't trapped on that web and that she was inside her room in the Air Temple, sweating on her bed, as if waking up from a horrible nightmare. Still, that figure was there, inside the room with her.

"Who are you?!" Chou asked the figure. It remained silent. The girl climbed up her bed, away from the figure. But, looking more attentively, she managed to see and realize what she was trying to avoid: that was not the first time she's seen that person.

That figure had haunted her dreams and visions ever since she was a child, around the age of six. He looked like a faceless man, dressed in traditional Earth Kingdom attire, dating at least 150 years or so. He also bald, except from a ponytail formed into a very long braid forming from the top of his head. He simply stood still, "looking" towards Chou, with his eyeless head. His entire face was gone and no significant features like a nose or an eye socket could be seen. Who was he? What did he want? How did he find her? This terrified the girl who started to cry.

Ling, being deaf, couldn't hear her scream, but Daisuke could and ran to hide under Ling's sheats. This woke up the girl who looked around and saw her roommate's terrified face. She soundbended a breeze to try to listen what was scaring Chou but found nothing in the room with them.

"He's there! He's there!" Chou screamed, pointing towards a dark corner of the room where she saw the faceless man. "He won't go away!"

"But there's no one there, Chou," repled Ling, while trying to comfort her friend. "It's only us in here."

"But I can see him! He's back! He's here!" Chou's eyes was fix at that corner. Ling could see that Chou was seeing something that wasn't there.

"Who are you talking about?"

"Him, the faceless man! Can't you see him?" Chou's horror was very real.

"No, I'm afraid not."

"Oh, dear... My medication. I forgot to take it. Where is it?! Help me find them!"

The two girls started looking for the boxes and Chou found one. She grabbed a handful of different pills and took them at once.

"Be careful!" warned Ling. "Are you sure that's safe?"

"Yes. He's only a hallucination caused by my firemadness. He'll soon be gone."

Ling held her friend as she calmed down. In about half an hour Chou couldn't see the faceless man again inside the room and she felt better with that. On the other hand, the medications left her tired and sleepless at the same time. Her mind got all confused and she couldn't think straight.

"I think we need to go see someone," said Ling. "Maybe we can talk to my Bending Health teacher."

"If you say so," replied Chou. "He's gone now. As long as I take my pills, he won't come back."

"But what if you forget them again?"

"It won't happen."

"I still think we should talk to Professor Kaito. She lives here in the temple with her daughter Buniq."