I Am Not the Last Airbender {ON HOLD}

Chapter One

I’m not what they wanted.

The ocean winds whipped at my dark brown hair.

I’m not what they needed.

My brown eyes, so like Mum’s, filled with tears that threatened to spill over. I blamed the arctic wind.

Why was I this way?

The snow-covered landscape spread before me had never before seemed so desolate, so cut off from the rest of the world.

Why couldn’t I be like Dad? That’s what I’m supposed to be. But I’m not.

The waves lapped at the shoreline as if hungry for its iciness.

And today, today I was being replaced.

My parka flapped in the winds, reminding me only more of my troubles. My mind raced, more than a normal six-year-old’s should.

I should leave. They don’t want me.

The gray clouds above thundered, threatening to spill its contents onto me.

But I could not. Where would I go? This was my home.

Turning around, the small village, smoke plumes rising, and people milling around looked so welcoming, yet I felt forlorn at the same time. I began to walk back, my petit footprints sticking in the wet snow, my mitten-clad hands swinging at my sides. Then the screams of childbirth echoed through the air and shuddered through me.

Mum.

I was running now, needing to be with her. Racing up to our tent of animal skins and found Dad waiting outside, his bald head covered in a fuzzy cap, his blue arrow tattoos just visible on the back of his neck. He was shivering, from cold or nerves I wasn’t sure.

“Jalia,” he said softly, putting out his arm and stopping me from entering the tent. “Let’s wait out here.”

Nodding solemnly, I obliged and sat in the cold snow next to Dad whose teeth were now chattering and his foot was tapping insistently, denting the snow in a troubled pattern. Soon the yelps of pain had subsided and were replaced by the cries of a child. Dad was instantly on his feet and through the flap of the door.

I followed more slowly, taking my time as I entered. Mum was lying down on a heap of furs in her nightclothes. Her dark hair was askew and her face pink with effort. Dad was kneeled down next to her, and the healer who had helped Mum stood to the side smiling. In Mum’s arms was a tightly wrapped bundle, a small face peeking out from the folds. It was so perfect, so tiny, so innocent. How could I be upset at something as beautiful as this?

“Boy or girl?” Dad whispered, gripping Mum’s limp hand tightly.

“Boy,” Mum breathed, soft as a flower.

“And?” Dad could barely contain his excitement. I knew what he was hoping for, but I didn’t want to face it.

The baby sneezed, and his breath blew everyone up against the sides of the tent. Everyone else laughed. I stood there watching the horrors unfld.

He was an airbender.