Eclipse (Avatar the Last Airbender)

Chapter 0: At the Precipice

There was always a certain smell to the salt and brine that sprayed from the ocean depending on the direction that they were traveling in. The scent of leaving home and going home were distinct from each other, but the crash of the waves and the gentle lulling of the boat as it rocked back and forth with the ocean was a constant. When the moon of the Polar Night hung big and proud over the eternal night sky, her family would pack their wares for the season and set a course for the distant Earth Kingdom. They always left on the night that the moon was biggest. As a child, she had asked why, and her father had told her, "So we have the great Spirit of the Moon watching over us on our journey as we venture from home."

Now, the moon of the Polar Night hung bright and large in the dark night sky as she stood at the edge of her world. If she took this step forward, if she crossed over this final gate, it would all officially come to an end. She would not return to her hometown of Agna Qel'a for a long time to come. Perhaps, she would never return. But where was it that she would go? What was it that she would do from here on? There were too many questions left unanswered as she stood on the literal and metaphorical precipice of her life. Too many unanswered questions, too many unknowns. Those unknowns always made her like this. Nervous, off her game, terrified. Cowardly.

She scowled at the thought. She hated to admit it, even to herself.

But she wasn't a child anymore. The flood of marriage proposals that her brother had been fending off for her was proof enough of that. Still, it had been a long while since she felt her heart leaping up into her throat like this. What was it that her brother always told her when she was a child? Ah— "Leisurely, deep breaths lead to clear, sharp minds."

The night air was crisp as she took in a slow breath despite the racing of her heart, which went quickly enough that she could hear the blood rushing through her ears and feel it pounding in her neck. 

One, two, three, four, five...
Five, four, three, two, one...
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

She continued the process until she felt her heart rate slow.

She felt her shoulders, which she hadn't realized were tense to begin with, relax as her arms fell back softly by her side and slowly, a plan began to form in her mind. She would go to a place that she was familiar with, traveling the route that she had traveled many times before. The route to the Earth Kingdom. She would begin with the towns and villages where the people that she had gotten along with the best resided. The ex-musician who taught her to play the guzheng, the old man who taught her to play pai sho... She had options. As for what she would do, she had worked alongside her parents since childhood. She had sold things. She had no wares to peddle now, but she would think of something on the way.

The uncertainty of it all sent her pulse racing once again and the idea that it would be better to turn back now before things got worse began to whisper in her mind anew, its voice growing louder and louder with each frantic thud of her heart and each second that she spent focused on it. She shook her head and gripped the handle of the knife that hung by her side. Leisurely, deep breaths. Leisurely, deep breaths.

She fixed on the feeling of her chest slowly rising and falling. Followed the flow of the air as it went up through her nose and then down into her lungs, which filled before the air flowed slowly back up and then out the way that it came. 

One, two, three, four, five...
Five, four, three, two, one...

Her racing heart slowed once again. She had time. It would take a considerable amount of time to get from here to the Earth Kingdom. On her way there, she would need to find places to stop to restock her food, and she would need to avoid the Fire Nation ships that occasionally dared to skirt the perimeter of the North Pole during the Polar Night, when waterbenders were at their strongest for the longest amount of time.

Waterbenders.

Her eyes flickered back up to the moon, which hung proudly in the dark night sky, casting its silver glow upon the world. The memory of her father's voice explaining why they always left when the moon was largest as they stood side-by-side on deck watching while their surroundings drifted by flickered through her mind.

"O, Great Spirit of the Moon, please watch over me on this journey as I venture far from home." She murmured the familiar words without much thought, leaving her to focus on not getting embarrassed with herself for really thinking that a superstition might help her now. But still, given the chance that it might help, a part of her didn't want to disbelieve it and offend the Spirit of the Moon.

She shifted her stance, weight flowing from one foot to the next as she formed a path of ice down to the water. She slid with the ice ramp before leaping off of it. The moment her foot grazed the ocean was the moment that a large block of ice formed under her feet to keep her afloat. She spun once, twice- three full rotations before tucking her feet under her gracefully at the end of the third rotation and lowering her hands, her mind clear and her determination set.

Perhaps superstitions did have their use.

With a flick of her wrist, she began to drift upon the water, the smell of salt and brine in the air as the waves crashed gently on her makeshift vessel, which lulled back and forth with the ocean.