Sworn Vengeance

Epilogue

I jumped from the roof with one leg raised in front of me, ready to deliver a knock-out kick, but he turned around quickly and raised his arm to deflect it. The force of my attack made him slide back a few foot though, and I jumped from his arm and made a backflip before landing in a crouched position. I got up immediately, ready for the next attack. When the dust of my last move finally settled my opponent was nowhere to be seen. 'Where did he disappear to?' I wondered, but that question was quickly answered as I was sucked into the ground, only my head visible, and my opponent jumping out of a tree, landing in front of me.

"Dalin! I said no Bending! This isn't fair!" I yelled at my opponent, pouting. "I'm sorry Thorak, but I didn't want to lose to you again this time!" He yelled back, laughing wholeheartedly. Yeah, my attacker was none other than my goofy uncle Dalin, dad's bro... And this was all part of my training.

I trained with Dalin almost every day, trying to improve my fighting skills. Once I could fight well enough, I swore to mom and dad's grave, I would find the ones responsible and put them to justice.

It was 98 AG, on a sunny spring day. My mother was, like every full moon, on a trip to the river that runs on the other side of the 'Great Forest', as many in the small village I lived in called it. She went there to practice her Waterbending, seeing as there weren't many places with a lot of water near our village. And it was that particular trip that would change everything.

That spring evening my father got a message that my mother had been kidnapped and brought to their ship by Fire Nation troops that had witnessed her Waterbending. She had tried to defend herself but was greatly outnumbered. My father was devastated and a few days later he barged into my room. He had decided that he wanted to help the Earth Kingdom in the war against the Fire Nation and had received an answer on the letter he'd send to the Earth King saying that my father, as a good Earthbender, was very much appreciated in this war. He had to go to Ba Sing Se to prepare for the attack that was soon to come. So he told me to pack up my dearest belongings and left me in the care of my uncle Dalin. But hope of my father returning from war was quickly crushed into nothing when Dalin received a letter that my father had fallen during the attack on Ba Sing Se by 'The Dragon of the West'.

After my uncle had read the letter he sank to the ground crying over his younger brother's death, but I couldn't. I couldn't cry. Instead of tears, anger filled me and I vowed to avenge my parents' death caused by the Fire Nation.

Ever since that day I trained to develop my fighting abilities to their highest potential. At first I trained my waterbending with the water from the well in the village-centre. When my waterbending was good enough, I walked the same route as my mother did to the river where she practiced her Waterbending and each summer I went with Dalin to the Foggy Swamp Tribe. There I nearly to perfectly mastered my waterbending. But that wasn't my only skill... I am a bloodbender.

When mom was pregnant of me, she was asked for help by an old woman called Hana, who had difficulties carrying her groceries. Mom helped her, and she found out that this Hana-lady was a waterbender too, from the North Pole. Mom, who was only familiar with the simple waterbending-techniques from the South, where she came from, was ecstatic and Hana offered to teach mom a few tricks as return for the help. But in the end all Hana had wanted was to pass on her bloodbending abilities and succeeded by forcing my mother to stop Hana, by using bloodbending, from letting two innocent children kill each other. She never told anyone, and swore to never bloodbend again when I was born a week later. She kept it secret for 14 years.

But when mom got a letter stating that her parents, the chief and his wife, had been slain by firebenders to make sure they wouldn't start acting up, she lost it and in a fit of blind rage almost killed dad.

Luckily nothing majorly bad happened and after I kept nagging about wanting to learn to bloodbend too, mom agreed, saying it was probably best to be able to defend myself against her in case something like that happened again.

She taught me the skill of bloodbending at each full moon, when a waterbender's power is strongest. But seeing as she was killed not so long after that I stopped using it, up until the day my father was killed. Losing both parents was the drop that let the bucket overflow. I wanted revenge.

Dalin had volunteered as sparring partner and convinced me it was perfectly fine for him to be bloodbended. So training my bloodbending skills next to my waterbending skills I soon mastered both. But Dalin, decided it was better for me to know how to defend myself without bending. And seeing as dad's and his great grandmother was Avatar Kioshi, he knew a lot about non-bending fighting techniques so he thought me all he knew about both close- as far-range combat.

Now, 100 AG and 15 years old, I am ready to go and kick some ass.