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This Kataang one-shot takes place in The Avatar Returns. |
Chapter Forty-Six: Family[]
The cloud passes, and a single beam of sun bathes him in glorious light.
"But Aang, the world's been waiting for the Avatar to return and finally put an end to this war." Her voice is like molten gold, and he welcomes it.
Still, his heartstrings are dusty and broken, never to sing again. "And how am I going to do that?"
"According to legend, you need to first master water, then earth, then fire, right?"
His heartstrings stir slightly, as he answers, just a hint of hope in his words, "That's what the monks told me."
"Well." She beams. "If we go to the North Pole, you can master Waterbending."
A melody. His heartstrings play a simple melody, one of friendship, one of love, one of family. A simple melody, yet the most important in the world, and he blinks back tears as a smile brightens his face.
"We can learn it together!" he announces, the melody underway, a battle that he has won.
"And Sokka, I'm sure you'll get to knock some Firebender heads on the way," she offers to her brother.
Sokka gives her a slight nod. "I'd like that." His gaze shifts to the club he constantly carries. "I'd really like that."
Her smile is a thousand golden suns beaming at him, a promise of friendship and family.
Family. "Then we're in this together," she affirms.
He never wanted to be the Avatar.
He was living an illusion, pretending he wasn't.
But he doesn't have to keep living it.
He is the Avatar.
And that doesn't mean he can't have a family.
He gazes at the siblings, knowing that he, too, is part of their family now. Family. It means no one gets left behind. Or forgotten, he muses, remembering Monk Gyatso. Remembering his old family.
Now he has another family, but isn't it all really the same?
Just family.
Not one family or another.
Just . . . family.
His family.
His heartstrings shift abruptly to cheerful tune, one he likes to whistle. A mischief tune.
He grins, rapidly producing a scroll and Airbending himself onto the bottom of the saddle to sit next to his family, unrolling the map. "All right, but before I learn Waterbending, we have some serious business to attend to here, here, and . . . here." He smiles knowingly.
"What's there?" she inquires.
He points to each place in turn, first to a marked location in the Eastern Earth Kingdom, then to Kyoshi Island, and back to the Earth Kingdom. "Here, we'll ride the hopping llamas; then, way over here we'll surf on the backs of giant koi fish. Then back over here we'll ride the hog monkeys. They don't like people riding them," he explains, grinning mischievously, "but that's what makes it fun!"
Yes.
His family.
He has one again.
He blinks back tears, though these are of joy, and his heartstrings slow accordingly, back to the melody of love, of friendship, of family.
Family.
Notes[]
Hey, wait a second . . . where's the image?! Well, I'm afraid that until the hotlinking/image uploading crisis is over, I can't post anymore. =[ No . . . !
Oh, the heartstrings. That is a common theme in my chapters, if you haven't noticed. I love the idea so much of heartstrings. Plus then I can make comments on the soundtrack. Ha, ha, I'm a genius!
"And that doesn't mean he can't have a family." -> Take that, The Last Airbender!
I really tried to make his emotional whiplash make more sense, and I hope I achieved my goal.
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