Who am I? - An Avater Story

Dreams and Visions

Fires raged around me, houses and shops crumbled, people screamed and ran in all directions as soldiers in strange armour rampaged down the street. In the middle of all this chaos, a family gripped their little girl in one last embrace before handing her off to a young man on their right.

"Quickly! Take her and go!"

"Mommy! Daddy! Don't leave me!"

The helplessness, the consuming loss and fear that the little girl expressed in that last, heart-wrenching cry tore through me. I had the sudden desire to chase down her parents and force them to take her with them.

"Hush, Little One. All will be well in due time." The mother caressed her daughter's face a final time, tears glistening in her eyes.

"Be strong, my Little Warrior. Remember, we will always love you." The father said before laying a hand on the mother's shoulder, conveying, with silent urgency, the need to leave.

The young man gathered up the weeping child, stole a final glance at the parents who were silhouetted against the fire raging around them, and disappeared around a bend in the road.

*****

I sprung up from my bed, my lungs gasping for air. My hands found my face and I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

"Spirits, do I hate that dream." I muttered into the dark room.

I crawled out from under my blankets and quickly dressed myself, the frigid air nipping at my bare arms as I changed out of my pajamas into thick, warm Water Tribe clothes. No matter how hard I would try, I could never manage to track down sleep after that dream; it always seemed to stir something deep inside me, something forgotten long ago, on the vestiges of my memory that I couldn't shake off.

Grabbing my sword from the corner of my room, I slipped out my door without a sound. With no destination in mind, I let my feet lead me as I drifted into a daydream (or was it a nightdream since it wasn't morning yet?). That dream always bothered me, for obvious reasons. One, no one likes it when a family is torn apart, even when in a dream world. Two, this one always seemed oddly personal, but what made it especially strange was the fact that my parents seemed...I don't know. I guess, on edge the last I brought it up. And three, I couldn't help wondering if the Spirits were trying to tell me something by sending me some sort of vision. Was this going to happen in the future? It certainly wasn't in the Water Tribe, what with the dirt roads and wooden houses. Or maybe it was the past? And if that's case, am I seeing my own past, or someone else's?

Shaking myself out of my stupor, I found myself in the training arena. Convenient, I thought, I always did like a good training session to distract me. I glanced down at my sword, it being the obvious choice for training, and I started to grab some practice dummies when I thought better of it. The metal clanging would probably wake up the entire village, and let me tell you. You NEVER want to wake up toddlers and old people in the middle of the night. That is a recipe for disaster.

Tossing my sword to the side, I opted for a much quieter option: running through some waterbending stances. Granted, it's pretty obvious at this point that I'm not a bender considering I'm sixteen and haven't so much as budged a water droplet, but parents are weird and mine made me learn every waterbending stance known, including the advanced ones.

Swish, scuff, scuff, swish. The sounds from my feet and the feel of my arms moving brought back some memories from when I was little. Me and my friends in snowball fights. The waterbenders always ganging up on us non-benders, which always made it fun when we beat them. The first time Dad took me out hunting, teaching me how to throw a spear and use the hunting clubs. The first time I took down a seal and brought it back to the tribe. That was one of my favourite memories. The look on Dad's face was enough to make me swell with pride.

"Hey, what are you doing up right now? Shouldn't you be, oh, I don't know, doing a wonderful thing called sleeping?"

I jumped and spun around. I hadn't been expecting anyone at this time of night, since the only people up should've been the guards.

"Seriously, Anika. Haven't I told you not to sneak up on me before?" I grumbled before turning back to my stances.

Anika is one of my best friends. Ever since we were little, we did everything together; from sword fighting to sewing to hunting, she was always by my side. She was also one of the only people who knew about my wonderful, recurring dream so I pretty much considered her to be my sister.

"I know, I know. 'I could hurt you if I'm sword training and you sneak up behind me.' But really, Nora, what are you doing up so late?" Anika paused as if weighing her words before she said them. "Is it that dream business again?"

"Pffft, what makes you say that? What if I just like training at night, away from nosy friends like you?" I replied with a smirk and casual shrug in her general direction.

"Hmmm, let's see." Anika put on her best thinking face, and, while ignoring my jab, started tapping her finger on her chin and scrunched up her face in mock concentration. "You're out here on your own, training when it's not even dawn, much less morning, and you only ever do that when you have that dream. Also, you didn't even invite me!"

At hearing the last part, I couldn't help but chuckle and pause for a moment.

"Well, consider yourself officially invited, my nosy apprentice." I answered, avoiding the dream topic.

Anika must've noticed, because with a "Hmph!" she made her way towards me and settled into rhythm beside me, flowing from one stance to another. When I was little, she had decided to train with me so I wouldn't feel so awkward among the other waterbenders as the only non-bender in the group.

A comfortable silence settled between us as the various swishes, scuffs, and crunches were the only noises to break the silence of the still night.