War of Change | Book 3

10: Don't Let Go

Art: Fire by Kevin Hou

I awoke before the sun had even begun to take shape over the horizon. No one else was up, but that wasn't anything new.

A sigh left my mouth as I rolled out of my bed, already knowing that there was no use in trying to go back to sleep. Today we would be invading the Fire Nation. It was honestly a miracle I could fall asleep in the first place. Maybe Aang running around exhausting all of us the past few days was actually a blessing.

I decided to start the morning by lighting a fire. It was a nostalgic action, bringing me back to the days when we still lived in the South when this was my daily responsibility. I had to keep everyone warm.

After one fleeting glance at the group still in slumber, I left the camp. I decided to go hunting. I had my makeshift bow and arrows with me. They weren't the most accurate, but it would be easier to kill something with them than attacking it with a dagger. However, every time I lined my sights up to hit a wild jackalope, I just couldn't bring myself to release. I couldn't even bring myself to kill one of the koala sheep, which trotted around completely unafraid of us. I wasn't sure why. I didn't know what I wanted to do.

I couldn't decide how I felt. Either my mind was running so fast I couldn't quite catch up, or it was running so slow that it was hard to comprehend what I was thinking. It all just felt like mush inside my head.

By dawn, I had found myself at one of the island's highest peaks, silently staring out at the horizon. Pinks and oranges reached out from the distant horizon, spilling into the water and making everything appear as if it was on fire.

Everything on fire, I thought bitterly to myself. How could I compare something so beautiful to something so horrible? That's what would happen if we didn't win today. Ba Sing Se had fallen; the world was nearly completely conquered by the Fire Nation. This was our last chance.

I knew I needed to remain calm. I should heed Yue's warnings, I should do everything I could not to prove Katara's fears, but I couldn't let the world be consumed with fire. If killing was our only option today, then I would kill anyone who stood in our way. I couldn't let all of our hard work go to waste or let all those deaths be in vain. I couldn't let my mother's death be in vain. It was finally time for some retribution.

Even though the eclipse was hours away, I could feel it in my bones, the sun was weaker than normal, and I was stronger.

"There you are," my sister sighed out as I neared the camp again.

"Sorry, I went for a morning walk," I told her as I took the bowl of porridge she was serving up. "No one was up yet."

I dropped my weapon on the ground before taking a seat beside it in front of the still crackling fire I had lit. I leaned back on a rock as I propped an arm on one of my knees and let the bowl sit on the thigh of the other leg.

"You had to bring your bow with you for a walk?" she noted, eyeing the loose bag of arrows beside me.