Chosen by the Spirits | A male reader x Avatar the Last Airbender story

Chapter 16- New Discoveries

By the time I woke up, it was already bright and sunny outside. For a moment, I simply appreciated the beautiful location we were in. It was very brown and rocky, but the sun that glistened down gave it an orange tint and, with a bright blue sky above it all, it looked stunning. Finally well-rested, I decided it was time to leave the comfort of my sleeping bag. I could already hear the rest of the gang chatting, and I also recognised the familiar sound of Sokka complaining. I rolled up my sleeping bag and approached the group, who were sat around an unlit campfire. They had arranged many twigs and sticks for fuel, but were evidently struggling to actually light the fire.

"What's going on, guys?" I asked with a smile, meanwhile Sokka let out a grunt of frustration as he tried, and failed, to light the fire with some blunt flint.

"Good morning, (Y/N)," Aang greeted me. "We're trying to light a fire to heat up some breakfast, but we're having no luck," he explained to me. Sokka continued to desperately scrape the flint into the twigs, to have no success.

"Sokka's annoyed because we only have food that needs to be heated up," Katara explained to me. "Well, that and Aang and Toph woke him up this morning,". I could sympathise slightly with Sokka for the second part; if I had been woken early after two days of no sleep, I would probably be annoyed, too. The water tribe boy turned to me after his many failed attempts of lighting the fire, with a sly expression on his face.

"Hey, you're fire nation!" he said to me, likely in an attempt to get on my nerves. "Why don't you light this fire?". Instantly I felt a twinge of anger go through me. I don't know why Sokka hates me so much, but I didn't like it one bit.

"Because I'm not a firebender," I told him sternly, stating the obvious.

"Yeah, but you should be one," Sokka responded casually. "If Zhao's your uncle, that means you have firebending genetics, or something like that," he continued to explain. I knew he was just trying to annoy me by bringing up Zhao, so I didn't let him get into my head. However what I didn't expect was for Aang to join his side.

"Technically, Sokka's right, (Y/N)," the Avatar said to me, and I gave him a stern look. "You're a waterbender because the spirits chose for you to be. Maybe you were supposed to be a firebender!" he excitedly exclaimed. I thought about it for a moment; my uncle was a firebending master, so it was definite that there was firebending genetics somewhere in my family's bloodline. But it still didn't make complete sense to me. Neither of my parents were firebenders, so I don't see why I would be one.

"I don't know, Aang..." I told the boy sceptically. Thankfully, Katara seemed to be on my side.

"I think (Y/N) would know if he was a firebender," she joined in. "I knew from a young age that I was a waterbender, so I feel like he would know by now," she wisely explained. I gave her a nod of thanks, though inside my brain was still silently whirring. There was surely no way that I was supposed to be a firebender, yet something inside of me was telling me that perhaps it was true.

"Whether I was supposed to be a firebender or not, I clearly am not one," I stated casually, though I still couldn't move past the idea that, in another reality, I perhaps could have been a firebender.

"Great, I guess no fire, then," Sokka complained. "And that means no breakfast," he whined, which annoyed me a bit.

"I still have some bread rations in my rucksack. We can just eat those this morning," I told the team, and I saw everyone's eyes light up. They all thanked me enthusiastically- even Sokka mumbled a thanks- when I handed out the bread that I had saved. It would only last us for today, so Sokka explained that he would go hunting while Aang learnt earthbending with Toph. While we all ate and talked around the unlit campfire, something still felt uneasy within me. I had felt a bit uneasy ever since I found out that Zhao was my uncle, but now the possibility that I was supposed to be a firebender was eating me up inside. I had to find out the truth, but how? Then, an idea popped into my head. It wasn't foolproof, but it was worth a go.