Avatar: The Twin Saga

Chapter Seven: Nilak

A long, arduous week passes by. I haven't made up mind about Moa yet. I would definitely be willing to sacrifice myself and suffer for the rest of my life if it meant the Northern Water Tribe would be saved. The problem is Malila. I love her, and no one else. I haven't even told her about Moa's offer yet. To be honest, I'm afraid to. Who knows how she'll react? I told Avani to keep quiet about what she said and gave Malila some lame excuse. I don't know how long I can keep this up, people are continuing to die. Just seven people were killed yesterday.

"I'm done," Kanan informs me. He's lying on the wooden floor with his shirt off. Beads of sweat run down his spine.

"Good, now do 100 more."

He groans in exasperation. "Nilak, that'll be 300 push ups. My arms are killing me."

"How do you ever expect to get those arms stronger if you don't go through a little pain? Just 100 more and we'll be done for the day." I didn't forget to keep my promise about training him.

"Why aren't you doing this?" he asks in a strained voice as he pushes himself back up.

"I told you. I'm thinking about what to do."

"Why don't you just tell Malila?" I figured I could trust Kanan with telling him about what happened. Avani thinks he's reliable, so I guess I should too.

"She'll lose her shit. You saw how angry she was when she flirted with me the first day."

"Malila's an airbender, it's not really in her nature to 'lose her shit'."

I sigh heavily and shrug my shoulders. "I don't know, man."

He finishes his push ups and lands face down on the floor. "Honesty is the best policy."

"Yeah, I guess."

He takes a towel off of the couch and wipes the sweat from his forehead and torso. "Where are you going?"

"To see my grandma, she'll know what to do."

I met my grandmother the day after Avani did. It's amazing getting able to see my extended family. I thought Dad was all I had. You can tell she raised him. Her connection to waterbending is spectacular; I practiced with her the other day. She may be small and feeble, but she's as powerful as a whole army. It's a shame grandpa was killed so effortlessly, it's like Eska saw her people as animals. You can definitely see a lot of Eska in Moa, she's just the younger version of what she was.

"Nilak! You're here!" Grandma says as I step inside of her tiny igloo. "Come, child. How are you?" I bend down so that she can press a kiss to my cheek.

"I'm okay," I tell her half heartedly.

She frowns at me and puts her hands on her hips. "Now you know I can sense your energy. Tell me what's wrong."

I sit on her blue rug that has elaborate wave designs stitched into them. "So you know how we're trying to overthrow the chief?"

"Yes, I'm listening."

"Well, she told me she would only step down if I married her. And I kind of have a girlfriend, who I kind of haven't told."

She presses her fingertips to her lips. "You have now met the first challenge of being the Avatar. Sacrifice. This is indeed a tough decision, my child. But the answer is inside of you. You must first seek within yourself."

I nod, although I'm not quite sure how to do that.

"Do you intend to marry this girl? Your true lover?"

Wow, I've never thought about that. Malila and I have been together for four years and I've never once looked that far into the future. I do know that it's common in water tribe culture to marry young.