The Origin of Roh-Shan

Island

Her restless sleep was fraught with flashes of all the nightmares she'd ever had. Fresh new mini-terrors every few seconds. Nothing necessarily frightening to anyone else watching, but for Roh, each image dragged up long-forgotten scenes of make-believe wars, chase, entrapment, apocalypse, blood and gore, abandonment, and losing loved ones.

Straining. Pain. Darkness.

So when she finally opened her eyes into bright sunlight and a clear blue sky, it wasn't a question of if she was still dreaming, but if she was alive or dead.

She started to move and registered that she was laying in warm sand. She identified the rhythmic background noise as ocean waves, and was pretty sure this was death.

A flash of last night interrupted the tropical view. Her house on fire. Is that how she'd died?

"Oh, look who decided to join us."

The voice sounded distant but way too close at the same time. She lifted her head and took in the world around her. It looked too beautiful to exist in the same universe as the scenes from her nightmares. Palm trees and tropical foliage cast short shadows across the sand in the midday sun. A rocky hill made up the highest point in sight, relatively close by. Blue water for miles in every other direction. And, of course, a one-armed boy and a ten-foot-tall wolf.

She pressed her hand to her head even though she didn't have a headache. She felt like she should have one. "What?" She glanced up at him.

"I see you changed your mind about coming with." Haider said smugly. He was leaning against the relaxed wolf, fidgeting with some string in his hand, as if deciding what to do with it.

Roh didn't have an answer. The memory of last night's events didn't exactly hit her. She was pretty sure they'd never really gone. It was just a matter of picking out that nightmare as real against all the fakes.

"We were gonna make it to Hiyori, but Ennis isn't quite built for three riders. Too many feet dragging in the water. So, we had to make a pit stop."

"Where's Kota?" Roh finally managed. Too many questions were circling her brain, and the spinning wheel landed on that one.

Haider jerked his thumb toward the treeline. Sure enough, curled up in the shade was a small figure, sleeping peacefully.

He looked like he got a sudden idea about the rope, and scooped over a small pile of rocks he'd clearly collected from somewhere else beforehand. "So what made you change your mind?"

"About what?" Roh's mind was still foggy.

"Coming with us?" He said slowly, as if spelling it out for a child.

"Oh. Um, I--I don't know. Just thought it's a good time to leave town for a while..." Roh trailed off as she watched Haider motion to the rocks with his hand, and before her very eyes, the rocks formed into the shape of a hand growing out of the sand. More loose sand lifted up to fill in the cracks between the rocks, making the fingers and wrist incredibly dexterous. The rock hand acted exactly as someone's right hand would, working in perfect sync with his left to tie the rope into some type of advanced knot.

"...You're an earthbender." She concluded in awe. There weren't any earthbenders in town, or at least she'd thought.

He eyed her, then looked back down at his project. "What about it?"

"Nothing, I... just didn't know. Your--" She caught herself before saying something about parents.

He smiled and huffed a small laugh to himself, as if he knew exactly what she'd been about to say.