Sea and Sky

Chapter 32: The Ancestor

Sea and Sky
Chapter 32: The Ancestor

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There was nothing that could hold him back. She was close, so entirely too near him that it almost drove him to the point of madness. The faint pull of her energy was so enthralling for him that it pushed him to the brink of sanity.

Iris.

She was back... alive somehow. After all the years he'd spent searching for her, dying horrible deaths only to be reborn into the long line of male heirs within the bloodline. She was now manifesting in the human world. Iris was so close he could practically smell the faintness of the floral perfume she'd once worn.

With a violent shove, Kuyu pushed open the door of the woodcutter's hovel, the aged wood splintering. Inhaling deeply, the energy around him began to crackle and pop with hot sparks. Flecks of power bounced against the gold and faded green armor he wore, refracting and casting him in a golden glow.

"Father, where are you going?"

Raising his hand to silence his daughter, Kuyu spoke. "Iris is alive."

"Iris?"

"She has returned. I can smell her, the energy... she's near."

Approaching her father, Rana cast him a disapproving look, eyes dark. "Iris has been dead for over a century. What madness do you speak of"

Drawing his hands upwards, Kuyu pulled at the energy that roiled within him. As his eyes closed, energy bright and hot as the sun overtook him, blinding Rana. With a surge, the energy left his body, incinerating everything with a few measures of him. By some small chance of luck, Rana found over underneath a few overturned stones near the house, arms pulled over her head to protect herself.

As the arching wave of brilliance began to spark and fade around him, Kuyu was no longer there, instead replaced by who she figured had to be the fabled monk - the great ancestor.

Aki.

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Watching the small group of people interact around him left Sokka feeling slightly sad and a little wistful. Initially, the news of his sister's pregnancy had left Sokka reeling and a little angry. Quickly, he had realized his anger at the situation had been misplaced and uncalled for. They were all growing older, maturing, coming into adulthood, and starting families of their own.

His baby sister wasn't young anymore. While she was only twenty-one, Katara was engaged to be married. He could no longer hold on to the image of her he'd had for so long - as the younger sister who'd taken care of him during their time in the Southern Water Tribe. He knew she'd eventually move on to have a life of her own, but the time had come sooner than he'd ever thought possible.

The news of her pregnancy was so recent that they hadn't yet had time to tell their father - Hakoda. Their father had sent many gifts in celebration of her betrothal to Aang, many of which still sat within one of the rooms of the Ember Island palace. The fact that she was expecting a child of her own was no longer a shock to him.

Across the table, Katara and Aang sat close together, talking in low tones as they traded jokes and fed each other. During their early years traveling together as a group, this sort of behavior from them would have sickened him. At this moment, he only smiled, happiness and contentment settling over him as he looked over at Suki.

He too was moving on and progressing in his own life, with his betrothal to the warrior woman next to him. The thought of marriage had once sent waves of dread and panic over him, but seeing the happiness his sister shared with the Avatar only quelled those fears. He wished for even a fraction of the happiness that welled from across the table.