Hukki Week

Day 2 - Dreams & Nightmares

Falling, falling, falling. I'm falling, Ikki thought as she found herself falling in space. She hurriedly looked around but couldn't see anything but pitch blackness. Just as she started to cry things began to appear, a sky, clouds, the sun, and before she knew it the ground was coming to her and fast. She helplessly tried to stop herself from hitting the ground, but she couldn't airbend. Wherever she was she couldn't bend, and that thought alone scared her. She hit the ground screaming for dear life and simultaneously blacked out when her face hit the grass. 

Hours later when she woke up she found herself inside a room where the walls were made of stone. She looked out the window and soon realized she was standing inside a tower thousands of feet up in the sky. If she wasn't so used to being in the air she would have been terrified. She rushed to the wooden door in the room and tried to open it but it wouldn't budge. She pushed and pulled, pushed and kicked, but it wouldn't open.

"Ugh! What am I supposed to do?" She yelled to no one in particular. That's when she realized she was wearing a long big puffy pink dress and a tiara on her head. "Where am I?"

"Why you're in the Land of the Enchanted," a sudden voice said calmly.

"Who said that?" She asked turning around to see where it came from but no one was there.

"Over here dummy," the voice said again. Ikki turned to see a mirror magically appear from thin air. In it appeared a young woman with white almost translucent skin with blue markings and a white gown. The girl appeared to be in some sort sort prairie. "I am Raava."

"Raava," Ikki repeated the weird name. "Can you tell me how to get out of here?"

"Nope, sorry," she said through the glass.

"That's very helpful," Ikki muttered sarcastically.

"Only He can save you."

"Who is He?" Ikki asked losing her patience with this woman. 

"Your true love," she answered.

"But I don't have one!"

"Nonsense, every girl has one. Besides, it says it on your curse," she said nonchalantly as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"What curse?" suddenly a book appeared out of thin air.

"Read it," Raava told her. Ikki tentatively took the book in her hands and opened it. "Page 437," Raava helped.

"Ikki's Curse," she read out loud. "When the young Air Nomad Princess was born, the evil faceless Amon cursed newborn child for her unfathomable beauty. In the safety of night he sneaked inside the Air Castle and stole the princess raising her until she was of age, hoping her beauty would cease. But it didn't and was forced to put her in a castle and only true love's bravery will save the young Princess and only then will she be reunited with her family."

"This makes no sense! None of this makes sense!" Ikki yelled at the mirror. "I'm not a princess, I can't be!"

"It does in this world," Raava replied calmly.

The days passed and Ikki had no other choice but to stay locked up on in the stone tower hoping, dreaming, wishing for a man with bravery and true love in his heart to save her. To pass the time she would paint the walls that confined her, read books of knights and kings, and of course talked to Raava. Two weeks passed by without anything new.

On the morning of the third week, Ikki woke with a raucous outside her window. She jumped from her bed and walked over to see what the commotion was. She was surprised to find a young man with black and green hair fighting a large masked robot humanoid figure. The man fought courageously and Ikki knew he was the one who would come and save her. Suddenly, the man struck the masked robot where it's heart should be and exploded. The green haired fighter came rushing towards the tower and with earthbending he elevated all the way up to where Ikki stood watching.

"I'm here to save you," he said with a dashing smile.

"Who are you?"

"Huan, Huan Beifong," he replied.

"Thank you for rescuing me," she said and leaned in for a kiss.

When Ikki woke up in the middle of the night she found herself sleeping in her room in Air Temple Island. She wasn't trapped in a stone tower. There was no Raava in a mirror. She still had her bending. But most importantly, Huan was nowhere in sight.

"Great," she said to herself. "I woke up from a dream and now I'm in a nightmare."