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The Clearing is the first chapter of the fanon series The Legend of Koh, by AvatarRokusGhost.
Plot[]
The other kids go off and play, but I cannot.
This is the way it has always been, and according to Mother, always will be.
Every day, just after sunrise, my mother and I stand in the center of the clearing, surrounded by trees. We are alone at first, but not for long. Men, women and children pour in from many different places, some of whom has traveled great distances just to be here. And then Mom pulls out her bag. The bag may look ordinary, but it is in face a bottomless bag filled with every kind of mask that you can imagine: some funny, some scary, some realistic, some clearly imaginary, some cute, some quirky.
As always, I greet everyone enthusiastically, and my mother would give people the masks they desired for that day. Some of the regulars went with the same faces all the time, while others would change it up and never go with the exact same face mask twice. Not everyone was a regular, though. The world must be an enormous place, because we always get at least one first-timer, every single day.
"Hello," says a little girl about as tall as I am. "Can I have a mask?" Her voice is muted and she doesn't quite meet my eyes.
"Mom hands them out, so you'll have to talk to her," I explain as she bites her lip. "Is something wrong?"
She jumps, as though startled by my simple question. "No, well, sort of I guess. I'm not supposed to be here."
"Don't be silly," I tell her, beaming. "Everyone is welcome, always."
"Well, the thing is, my parents don't know I'm here," she says, still sounding guilty. "My dad used to tell me about this place, but I'm not supposed to be out in the Spirit Wilds by myself."
"Are you afraid of spirits?" I ask her.
She doesn't answer. "Aren't you?" she says, as though my question were no question at all.
"No, of course not," I say, giving her another encouraging smile. I've dealt with those like her before. "What kind of mask are you looking for?"
"To be honest I haven't thought of that yet," she says, scratching her head. "Probably some animal...maybe something like a weasel or a spider rat if your mother has one of those."
"We have everything," I say. "Today you can be whatever you imagine yourself as. You can be something sneaky like a weasel or a spider rat, or perhaps a creature that looks more harmless and innocent, like a rabbit or a fire ferret."
"But that's not how I feel," says the girl. "I feel sneaky."
"A mask is a face you show to others," I say. "It doesn't have to match how you feel. This is a chance to pretend to be someone you're not and make your true self invisible."
"You're right," says the girl, returning my smile. "I never thought of it like that." She turns to my mom. "Can I have a fire ferret mask, please?"
Mom reaches into her bag. "Here you go." She does not smile. As Mom tells everyone, she takes her work very seriously. On the other hand, I've never seen the harm in having fun, even while doing something that's supposed to be serious.
"Thank you," the girl says, showing all her teeth as she slips the mask over her head. "Please don't tell my dad you saw me."
"We will not interfere," Mom says simply. "It doesn't concern us."
The girl cannot believe her ears. "Wow, really? Thanks!" She scurries over to the edge of the clearing before turning back around. "My name's Ray," she says to me, lifting the mask above her eyes for a moment. "Ray Lee. What's yours?"
But with the expanding crowd in the clearing and all the yells coming from opposite directions, any further conversation we could have had gets drowned out.
Now that Ray was taken care of, Mom hands out a few masks to other patrons of our clearing. She answers any questions along the way, explaining the difference between this mask and that. Once someone has a mask, they leave us. Some of them hide from each other, some run around in circles and some mask-wearers organize large games together, with each person playing a different role based on the mask they are wearing. Although the rules in this clearing are simple, they are free to make their rules as simple or as complex as they would like while they're here.
The children are the funnest! Not only did they have the most energy out of anyone, but they yelled the loudest, always took joy in the simplest of things. For a mind like theirs, wearing a mask and playing around in the middle of the woods was pretty much the entire world, more full of life than anything gold could buy.
Of course, it's never been just children in the clearing. There are plenty of teenagers, and even some fully-grown adults in masks, too. Which is completely fine. I am not here to judge.
Ray Lee looks back to where Mom and I stand. "Come play," she calls. "Get a mask from the bag and come over!"
"I wish I could," I say softly. "But I can't."
My time with the other kids that came to the clearing was always limited. They would come approach us and we would help them pick out their mask. I could talk with them then, laugh with them and even get to know a boy or girl once in a while, when they opened up enough. However, that was it. I could never grab one of my mother's masks and go join them.
Those are the rules by which I am bound.
Mom gave everyone masks when they came, and I went around and collected them come nightfall. Everyone is only allowed one mask at a time, so if they wanted a new one they had to exchange the old one with me. That was the way it always was, never any different. Still, each day I could use what time I had to have as much fun as I could.
According to my mom, that's the way that it always was and always would be.
A man tall enough to see over the heads of everyone around him enters the clearing. "Ray," he calls out, looking in every direction. "Come over here! Your mother and I have been worried sick."
Ray Lee ducks behind another kid and presses her mask closer to her face, but it is no use. A few minutes of loud scolding follows, then her father approaches us with his daughter in tow to return the mask.
"My son collects the masks," says Mother. "Give it to him."
"Fine," he says. "Ray, give your mask to this young lad. Listen, I know it's none of my business, lady, but you should be careful about coming into the middle of the Wilds. It's dangerous to be out here and your own, let alone bringing your kid with you."
"You should come and visit us in the lion turtle city," Ray tells me as she gives back the mask. "There's loads of fun things we can do there."
My answer had to be the same as before. "Sorry, but I can't. You see, I cannot leave this clearing. Not ever."
"I used to come here a long time ago," says Ray's dad. "Before I knew better than to come into the Spirit Wilds like this. Back then there was another boy and his mother who would bring masks out here, just like this." He silently eyes me with suspicion. "You look really familiar, kid."
He now seems familiar as well. "Roi," I say. "Roi Lee. You were one of my best friends for a while. We couldn't play together, but we had some great conversations when you were getting or returning your mask for the day." I point to a mask in the bag shaped like a regular human face, except that it had a beak where the mouth and nose would normally be. "Are you getting the usual?"
Roi's face becomes as pale as the full moon. "No, I'm a little old for that now," Roi Lee says. "How-how have you.., How have you not-"
"Not aged?" I finished for him. "Well, I never do. My mother and I aren't actually humans. We're spirits."
"You don't look like spirits."
"Spirits can take many forms." Normally they appear in the form of some plant or animal, but others take on an appearance that's a little more unique. It's very rare for us spirits to appear as people do. Even I don't know of any others besides Mother and I. Then again I never leave this place so there's a lot out there that I don't know about.
Just like on any other day, the sun gradually sinks into the sky until finally it dips its tip onto the horizon. Mother clears her throat. "Night has fallen," she announces, without shouting, just loud enough for everyone to hear. "Turn in your masks. You can come back tomorrow." She looked at me and gestured for me to gather all the masks that had been taken from her bag. I did I was bid, and approached every customer one at a time. Many of them were sad, but they didn't blame me. It was just my job after all.
Once all the masks were back in Mother's sack, the pair of us stood silent and side-by-side. Although we now had all the masks, it took even longer for us to be alone in the clearing. We had to wait for complete solitude, when not only had all the humans left the clearing but not even a faint, distant whisper could be heard. Then, we descend beneath the Earth.
Our cave was small, warm and snug. Although it wasn't much for wiggle room, Mother and I each had our own corner, so it was all the space we needed.
"Why can't I ever play with the other children?" I ask as my eyelids start drooping.
"Because that is not your charge as a spirit," she explained. "Yours is to collect the faces, and mine is to hand them out. That's what all spirits do, what they're meant for."
"How about just once, so I know what it's like," I suggest, even if it will be as useless as the other times I've asked. "It's not like I'm really needed until the end of the day.
"No. Never confuse what you are and what you look like. You are a spirit, not a human."
At least I tried. "Well, I guess it's nice seeing all our guests so happy, even if I can never join in." I punch the air with both my fists and let out a yawn so deep it echoes through the cave. "My, what a long day."
"Good that you're used to your charge," says Mother. "But if you spend too much time acting like a human, you'll pick up some of their habits. Spirits never get tired, and that 'yawn' of yours was just for show. You're merely mimicking what a person does when they're tired because you have nothing else to do."
"Can every day be like this, Mom?"
"Yes," she said with a nod. "You ask me that all the time, and the answer is always the same. Tomorrow we will do the same thing, and the day after, and the day after."
"This sounds familiar," I groan.
"That's because you've asked me both of these questions many times before and I always give the same answer," Mom says directly, but calmly. "It's good that you're able to cover your charge so consistently. Trust me, if you were an actual human being you would have grown tired of this monotonous routine lifetimes ago."
"Well, I guess I am happy," I admit, my eyes almost fully closed now, whatever she said about me not getting tired. "I'm glad things will stay like this, even if I can't ever play."
"Good. You have to be used to it, because things will indeed remain as they are. Until Harmonic Convergence, at least."
With that, I was no longer even remotely tired. "Harmonic Convergence?! What is that?" Of course I have no idea, but whatever it is I do not like it. Anything which threatened the continuation of my peaceful and happy life here in the clearing is just unacceptable! Every time that I asked her this question throughout the ages, Mom never ever said anything could possibly end it.
"Relax, my son," Mom says without skipping a metaphorical spirit heartbeat at my outburst. "Son of Faces, what we do is not for our own pleasure or enjoyment. It is simply our charge, and we must accept it with dignity that some day our charge may change. That is the way it works, and how it happens at every Harmonic Convergence."
"What is Harmonic Convergence?" I repeat, as Mom did not answer my question the first time.
"Harmonic Convergence is the ending of a new spiritual era and the beginning of a new one," Mom explains, looking into my human-like eyes with her own. "Only once every ten thousand years, the planets in our section of the cosmos align and both the physical world and the spirit world are enhanced by a great surge of energy. During this phenomenon, Raava and Vaatu, the spirits of harmony and chaos, will reach a turning point in their endless struggle against one another and that will define the order of all that is natural and all that is metaphysical for the next ten thousand years, when another Harmonic Convergence will come and sort affairs out in a newer way."
"I don't like it," I pout, exhaling a blow which sent one of the strands of my human hair out from in front of my eyes. "Why don't these spirits of chaos and harmony just keep their fight between the two of them and leave the rest of us be? They have nothing to do with us."
For once, Mom doesn't answer me right away, but took a few seconds to allow the silence to reign between us. "They have everything to do with us and everything to do with everything. Some day you'll understand more for yourself."
"Why don't you just tell me now Mom?" She had never not told me anything before. I did not know how to react to her refusal. Sure, she treated me like a child at times. Who could blame her? I did look like one, after all.
"Because the time is not right, Son of Faces," she says, now much more impatient. "Just accept it. Even if you are older than any living human's grandparent, you're still young in a lot of ways." Truth be told, I don't know my exact age, either. "It is time for both of us to retire for the evening. There is a lot for us to do tomorrow, but you already know that." Mom darkened our cave without adjusting any lamps or even doing something just for show like snap her fingers, but by her will alone covered us in darkness.
What's that? You're asking what its like when a spirit like me is born? Sorry, but I think I'll pass. Why? Because half of you don't want to know and the other half wouldn't believe the answer even if I told you. Now, let's move on.
The next day, Mom and I once again stand ready to hand out face masks to all the travelers from lion turtle cities and wandering nomads from wherever who made their way to visit our dominion. Unfortunately, that number is fewer today than it was yesterday. That has to be due to the weather. Clouds blocked the sun from fully shining down and warming its subjects, and a faint drizzle left a moisture on everyone's skins. Not many people are keen to venture out so far just to wear some masks and role play for a few hours. Oh, Mom and I always have visitors, even on the most horrible of days. Such was our allure that people were drawn back, even if they would not be for an ordinary salesperson. Like everything else that was spiritual, we had a mysterious nature.
As was normally the case, the day lasts longer when it was like this. You know how things often seem to take longer when you're in a sad mood, but time flies right by when you're happy? Well, unlike with desires of the flesh, spirits are not immune to whatever it is that causes that to be the case, and so the day seemed longer to me as well. It's not helped by the fact that I can't shake my conversation with Mom from the previous evening. For once, I am relieved when the light in the sky was dimming and Mom asked me to go around and collect the masks.
But that fateful day was also the one when I, the Son of Faces, would encounter a problem I had never encountered before. "No."
"What?" I say, blinking. The word I am familiar with, but I have never heard it at a time like this and did not know what to make of it.
"No," says the boy again. "I'm not returning the mask."
"But you have to," I tell him, with a little more firmness in my being. "It's time."
"No thanks," he says, without so much as a blink. "I'd rather take your spirit mask home with me and play some more." Every time the boy speaks he carries no emotion at all, not the slightest expression.
"Enough!" I cry out. If Mom found out I lost a mask I would never be forgiven. With that, I reach my hand out and seized the mask by the edge, but as I did the mask grew hot as a furnace and I pull my arm away in agony. "Ahhh!" I scream so loud the birds in the trees cease their song.
"Son of Faces, get away from him," my mom, the Mother of Faces herself commands as she approaches us. Every mask in Mom's collection is precious. "My son told you to return the mask."
"And I declined," says the boy, unintimidated by my mother. I sure would have been in his shoes. "I am San Chou, and this mask belongs to me now."
Mom's eyes flare and she bears down on him but the boy did not move a muscle. After a few seconds of staring into his blank face, she relents. "I don't know how, but this boy has figured out our secret. You can only take the mask back from him now if he shows emotion, otherwise he is free to go and nothing we do can stop him."
"Alright," the plump, imposing boy gloats. "Wait until my older brothers see what I brought home with me!" I can tell that the boy was quite pleased with himself, even if he could not so much as smirk or Mom would tear him to pieces. When he was gone, Mom and I do not retreat below to our cave right away, but stare into the forest wilds, one mask short, as we have never been before.
"What does this mean?" I finally dare to ask.
"It means that Harmonic Convergence cannot be far off," Mom says. "The world is changing."
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