Embers (a Legend of Korrah spin off)

Chapter 3: Adesine

The temple is huge. It sits on the lake across from the arena with its fancy meditation pavilions, dormitories and training arenas. Kai had told me that this is where Avatar Korrah trained to become well, the Avatar. Man, she was incredible. I follow Kai past the dorms and into a fairly large house, though I don’t know who lives here. He leads me through a kitchen and then into a small hallway. It is so dark I can hardly see down to my feet. Something grabs my hand, oh, Kai is grabbing my hand. He drags me down the hallway and stops at a door. He simply nods and opens the door, but something is odd about his expression, he seems almost… sad. I enter the dimly lit room; a single bed sits in the center of the farthest wall where an old man lies. His eyes creak open,

“I have been waiting for you.” An old voice says.

“Yeah, Kai told me you need to say something to me.” I say hoping to cut to the chase so I can get out of here.

“Come closer, Adesine.” The old man coughs furiously, my eyes widen. I look around the room and grab a glass of water I find on a shelf. The man drinks it and takes a few shaky breaths.

He holds onto my hands, I kneel next to the bed, suddenly aware of the situation. “You’re dying.” I mumble.

He nods “I must tell you, I must tell you…” he repeats.

“Your name is Tenzin; you were Avatar Korrah’s teacher, right?”

Tenzin nods “Yes, but that is not what I must tell you, you have to know, you…”

His breathing slows, he grips my hands tightly. “You are the…” His grip loosens and his eyes close.

He is dead.

My eyes widen, I am the what? I shake the old man’s shoulders but I know he is gone. I stand slowly, unable to speak or hardly even think. I step out of the door, Kai stands there with his back against the wall. He looks at me with tearful eyes, who was Tenzin to Kai? I now realize that Kai most likely just lost a family member. I don’t ask him though. I just pull him down to me into a hug, I know I hardly know him but I know when I lost her, all I really wanted was someone to be there. I never heard what the old man said to me, I guess I never will now though. I finally release him but am oddly uneager to do so.

“What… what did he say to you?” Kai asks quietly.

“I don’t know, he never got to… complete his sentence.”

Kai’s breath catches, I can tell he is trying as hard as humanly possible not to cry.

“I should find my mom.” And with that he steps down the hallway, I stay behind him so I don’t see his face.

Moments later we find a woman meditating at one of the pavilions. I keep a respectful distance from Kai as he approaches the woman who I assume is his mother. He taps her shoulder and tells her, she simply nods and takes a deep breath before rising and approaching me. I see the silhouette of Kai’s long, lean figure cup a hand over his mouth, his body jerks slightly; his other hand finds itself over the other. He sits on the pavilion and I force myself to look away. The woman stands before me, her hair is light brown like Kai’s, so are her eyes. She smiles at me slightly. “I’m Eirna, would you mind talking to me for a moment?”

Did this woman just lose her father or something? Why is she not sad, she hardly even blinked an eye at the news. I follow her anyway, she leads me to another pavilion and I sit across from her.

“Was he able to tell you?” she asks.

I shake my head and Eirna grimaces “I was worried that may be the case, I had hoped he would live just long enough to tell you and to tell you the ways of training and—

“I’m sorry but what are you talking about?” I interrupt. That guy obviously had something important to tell me and he never got to, this secrecy is starting to annoy me.

“You know Tenzin was Avatar Korrah’s teacher and trainer, yes?”

I nod.

“You know he was the son of Avatar Aang, yes?”

I nod again, what is she getting at?

“After the death of Avatar Korrah, there has not been an Avatar for 63 years, did you know that?”

I nod and shrug slightly, “cut to the chase please, what are you getting at?”

“You’re the Avatar!” Eirna blurts out.

I choke, my eyes widening to the size of golf balls “I’m the… no, no I am not, I can’t be after all this time— I stop myself. This would make sense, all these men that have been after me since I was 11, this could be the only reason. But why would someone want to kill the Avatar, they are just what this world needs. I take a step back,

“Why has it taken so long for an Avatar to resurface? Why me, I can’t do this, I am not powerful enough!”

Eirna grabs my wrist gently, “Yes you can, My grandfather, Tenzin, he prepared me to train you!”

“I’m just some homeless girl with a polar bear-dog I pretend I can understand… I can’t—

“You are also a girl who single handedly made it to the championship and rescued you and my son from deadly attackers, you can…”

I now desperately search for reasons why not, “Where will I stay? What about Kanala?”

“You and Kanala will live here, everything can easily be arranged.” 

I stutter but I have no reasons, I’m the Avatar. I am the frigging Avatar and there is nothing I can do about it.

Hi there! Thank you for reading this far if you have. Just thought I would say hi and inform you that I am still in the process of editting but I was to excited to not post it so I did! Thank you! :)