Eclipse (Avatar the Last Airbender)

Chapter 7: Cold-Hearted Homecoming

She was practically choking on air. How many years had it been since she left Agna Qel'a? Leaving was a mistake. She'd never left before without her parents, not that she would ever have the chance to do that again. She had chosen this for herself though. She had foolishly chosen this for herself. What would everyone else think?

She'd left without saying goodbye to her friend. He would probably go looking for her regardless of the brief note she had left behind for him that told him not to. But no matter what the outcome here was, it would be too late.

Her heart was beating hard enough that it felt as though it had somehow wormed its way up into her throat as she stared at the vast expanse of ocean ahead of her. Her mind was racing. Every possibility flickered through her mind until it became a blur of chaos and terrible things that could happen. She felt frozen in place and struggled to both slow her breathing and get enough air.

It was a mistake to leave Agna Qel'a. A mistake to think that she could leave. A mistake to think that she would live past this incredibly stupid decision. She would likely die in the ocean somewhere on this stupid piece of ice-

Miyuki woke with a gasp so sharp, she nearly choked on it as she bolted up. Her eyes darted around to survey her surroundings, only then noticing that she had readied a water whip. She took in a slow, deep breath and let it go.

That was right.

She had traveled on a block of ice when she left the Tribe too. It hadn't crossed her mind when she set off for her hometown like this again. It was almost undoubtedly this setting that caused her to have such a terrible dream.

Miyuki took another deep breath in as she closed her eyes. She wasn't that scared little girl that ran from the Tribe anymore. She didn't like the way that this place was making her revert back to old habits that she thought she had shed long ago. To a mindset that she thought she had long since freed herself of.

Things were different this time. She was different. That alone was more than enough. Right. That was more than enough. Miyuki folded her legs under her and allowed her eyes to fall shut once again when she was settled. She drifted back to sleep.

Three hours until she hit the gates of Agna Qel'a.

·:*¨༺ ★ ༻¨*:·.

The gates loomed over her as she stood on her block of ice. Miyuki was contemplating how she wanted to make her literal entrance back into the Tribe, and she had to admit— Brute force was looking like a pretty appealing option at the moment. It would be easy though to simply blast a hole right through the gates and stroll in from there.

The only thing stopping her was the impact that it would have on her brother. She didn't have to live here, but this was his home, and he would have to hear people whispering about her every time he passed by or walked into a room for the next span of time no matter what she did today. She couldn't add to his burden intentionally like that. Even if there were going to be rumors anyway, she would try to keep things as tepid as possible. Her stomach managed to do a couple flips before she forcibly quelled them. Oh, what she wouldn't do to get rid of her emotions entirely.

She heard them before she actually saw them. The sound of ice freezing over the water pricked at her ears and she shifted her stance immediately to destroy the incoming attacks from three sides before she shifted again and froze their boats in place in turn. It lasted for only a moment, given that their boats were filled with waterbenders, but it made her intentions clear, at the very least. She could already hear the commotion she had caused with her little show of retaliation.

She walked over to the boat that seemed to contain the squad leader, freezing the water under her feet with each step. His face looked vaguely familiar, but his name was nowhere in her mind to even recall. The man's eyes widened in shock as though he never expected to see her alive again after she left the Tribe. "You're Miyuki? Yukio's daughter? The girl who left?" Obviously, he remembered her though.