Shadow Of The Avatar

Chapter 6: The prince of the fire nation

My feet dangle from the arms of the king of the fire nation.

"NO STOP!" A woman yells as she grabs me from his clutches and brings me back to safety.

"Hey! What are you doing? He isn't a firebender. To keep him alive would be a disgrace to our nation, and an embarrassment to our family." The fire lord, Chanon snaps.

"What embarrassment?" She asks rhetorically. "He's our son, you can't put a price tag on that. Kill him and the entire nation learns about your horrible secrets!" She exclaims, walking away.

"Fine.. I won't kill him yet..." He says under his breath.

What is happening.. I can't control my body. Like I'm an onlooker from someone else's eyes.

But then, I black out for.. I don't know how long. The world seems different when I wake up though. A new body, different from my real body or the one I had just had. Still no control though.

The room looks like a typical fire nation bedroom, but then Chanon comes in, screaming at the top of his lungs and slaps me in the face.

"THEY SAY YOU'RE THE AVATAR." He yells in my face. "A NON BENDER LIKE YOU WILL NEVER BE THE AVATAR, NOT IN A MILLION CYCLES. I SHOULD'VE KILLED YOU ALL THOSE YEARS AGO!" He continues in his screaming fit. He punches me with a flaming fist, the pain immeasurable. I can't scream though, I can't move, I can only take it like a man and hope whoever's body I'm in does something smart soon.

"WHY DID YOU BURN HIM YOU PSYCHOPATH?" The woman that saved my life before exclaims as she runs into the room.

"HE'S THE AVATAR, I CAN'T LET THE PUNK RUIN MY PLANS"

"SO WHAT?" She asks. "MAYBE IF YOU DIDN'T PLAN TO KILL SO MANY PEOPLE, IT WOULDN'T MATTER TO YOU" She continues. "I'M LEAVING WITH MY SON AND NEVER COMING BACK"

His demeanor turns into a calm, almost sophisticated yet sadistic posture. He grabs a sword from the wall with a slight laugh in his voice.

"I beg to differ." He says, his eyes narrowing.

"Wait!" She says, letting go of me. I walk behind a pillar and watch what's about to happen. "What do you want me to do? We can talk about this!"

"Oh, it's too late now. There's nothing you can do anymore." He says with the most twisted, horrifying expression on his face.

I look away and start running out of the fire nation palace before I can see anything, but the horrifying screams manage to reach my ears.

The body I'm in seems so young, yet it has the stamina of a cheetah. Running for hours, seeing small parts of the city, leaving the city, before eventually reaching a small farm. I recognize this, it's Ursu's house. How did this all end up in my dream?

I knock on the door and a girl opens. Then, just after I see the young girl, the dream ends and I wake up in sweats.

Everyone else is still asleep, but I can't help thinking what has happened. It all made so much sense, but it had to have been a dream. It was a really weird dream though, it felt so real and scary.

Is it possible that my dream was a representation of Heido's childhood? It can't be, right? How would I know what his childhood was like? All this is too much to handle for now and I just end up sitting with fang, giving him some treats and watching the sunrise.

After a couple hours of thinking about my dream, Ursu wakes up.

"How'd you sleep?" I ask.

"Fine, certainly not as nice as home." She replies.

"Get used to it, we have a long journey ahead. You probably won't have a traditional bed for a few months." I say, earth bending some rocks around my hand.

"I know, but it'll be worth it for what we're going to see." She says, still clearly tired.

"Got that right."

She falls back to sleep and I'm left with my thoughts for another little while before Heido wakes up.

"Mornin'." He says, folding his sleeping bag.

"Hey Heido. When you're up for it, I have to ask you something." I ask, staring blankly into the distance.

"I'm all ears." He replies, coming to sit next to me.

"What was your childhood like? What brought your dad to disown you?" I ask a bit nervously.

"Well, he learned I was the avatar and thought it'd get in his way of ruling the world." He says. "Why do you ask?" he continues.

"Oh.. I had a dream last night.. It was almost like sleep paralysis. I took up a new body, but couldn't control it. It seemed exactly like your childhood." I say.

"Oh, wonder why that is." He responds. "Describe the entire dream to me, from beginning to end."

I explain the dream in as much detail as I can.

"Yeah.. That's about right. Not exactly something I like talking about." He says, looking straight down.

"Oh, I'm sorry." I say.

"It's fine. I just want to help people, I want my life's mission to be helping everyone I can. I've saved many wandering travelers in my days, but it doesn't feel like enough." Heido says, a mixture of pride and sadness fills his face.

"You're still young. Don't be so hard on yourself, you'll save plenty of people in this life. I'm sure of it."

"You're probably right. I'm glad to have you on this journey with me." He says just before Ursu wakes up for a second time.

"Morning Ursu." Heido says. "We should probably leave fairly soon, we don't have much to do here." He continues.

I wonder why he's in such a hurry. Whatever it may be, Ursu is too tired to leave right now.

"Alright, give me a minute to pack." Ursu says, very tired.

As she walks away to grab something, I look at Heido and smile. "Stop hiding it. We all know you like her." I say jokingly.

"You want the truth?" He whispers. I nod. "Of course I like her, she's drop dead gorgeous, it's impossible not to." He says shyly.

"Knew it, don't worry your secret is kept with me." I whisper just before she comes back.

"Alright I'm ready." She says, putting her belongings onto Fang.

And just as quickly as we landed, we're in the air. Heading to the Northern water tribe.

The ride is long and quiet, quiet enough to easily sleep. It's probably best to meditate right now so I can have as much chi built up as possible to prove my firebending capabilities to the Northern water tribe, and therefore prove that I'm the dark avatar.

Normally when I meditate, I don't see much. Just empty space, alone with my pure lack of thoughts. This time is different. This time, I see myself from the perspective of someone else, just like I did last night. Only, this time I'm at the top of the hill at home, right where Katakan passed away. All I can see before the vision ends is Katakan's lifeless face, but the spike isn't in her anymore. She's in the arms of whoever's eyes I'm peering into. Not quite dead.

Then I snap out of the meditation. What just happened? Is this linked to what I saw last night? I'm overwhelmed with questions, but no answers in sight.