The Inheritance

"RANGI! THEY'RE DEAD! I HAVE TO GO NOW!"

— Kyoshi screams at Rangi, pleading for her to process the deaths of Yun and Kelsang.

"The Inheritance"
Information
Novel	The Rise of Kyoshi
Authors	F. C. Yee Michael Dante DiMartino
Chapter	11/32
Word count	2,659
From page	143
To page	153
Chapter guide
Previous	"The Spirit"
Next	"The Decision"

"The Inheritance" is the eleventh chapter of The Rise of Kyoshi.

Overview

After Yun and Kelsang's death, Kyoshi returns to Yokoya to pack up her belongings. Rangi decides to run away with her.

Synopsis

Kyoshi has a vision from when she was about ten years old. A traveling fireworks vendor came and put on a show for the residents of Yokoya to celebrate the end of the first harvest. Kyoshi, who missed the show due to a fever, woke up the next morning and unknowingly stumbled onto the site where the vendor had launched the fireworks. Surrounded by a pit of scorched ground, young Kyoshi was terrified that she would be blamed for the destruction.

Kyoshi, who is in the Avatar State, feels similar to how she did in her vision as she witnesses the destruction that she has created. She soars into the sky and lets out an animal-like howl. When Kyoshi leaves the Avatar State, she drops to the ground and cries for the loss of Kelsang. She begins to blame herself for the airbender's death since she pushed him away instead of listening to him. Kyoshi struggles to breathe as she sobs, while Jianzhu, who had tunneled into the ground to escape, digs his way back up to the surface. She jumps to her feet in a panic and runs.

As she is about to wear herself out, she finds Pengpeng waiting where they had left her. Pengpeng smells Kyoshi and bellows mournfully, having felt her spiritual connection with Kelsang dissipate. She tells the flying bison that he is gone and climbs on her back. Pengpeng begins to take Kyoshi back to Yokoya without being guided to do so. As they travel, Kyoshi notices storm clouds moving in and asks Pengpeng to hurry up.

Kyoshi has another vision from the same year she had caught sick and suffered through the fireworks. Kelsang had returned to the village and was upset at the farmer he had paid, who had failed to take care of Kyoshi. Kyoshi looked weak and hungry, causing Kelsang to promise that he would never leave her for so long again. However, Kyoshi was "more concerned by the new kite-flying craze that had taken hold of the village children". Kelsang noticed young Kyoshi staring wishfully at the kites in the sky and came up with an idea: He took of soaring on his glider as Kyoshi held on with a rope tied around his waist.

Raindrops wake Kyoshi from her vision as she flies on Pengpeng's back. The two manage to arrive at the mansion just as the storm begins, and Kyoshi decides that she is going to devote herself to getting revenge on Jianzhu. Rangi, who has been pacing in the servant's entrance, asks Kyoshi where she has been and what has happened; however, when the Avatar tells her everything, Rangi stumbles backward with disbelief. Kyoshi tells her that she cannot live in Yokoya anymore, and Rangi begins to ask questions about Kyoshi's story, trying to wrap her head around it all, and says that, once Jianzhu gets there, she will make him explain what really happened to Yun and Kelsang. Kyoshi shouts that they are dead and that she needs to go. She pushes past Rangi without saying anything else and heads to her room to pack.

Kyoshi packs up the few clothes she owns, the clay turtle that she had received from Kelsang, the "beautiful green battle armor outfit that she had worn on the iceberg" that Yun had let her keep, and her mother's leather journal, into a sack. Kyoshi storms down the hallway with her belongings, scaring the household staff from approaching her. She grieves as the familiar house reminds her of Yun and Kelsang, walks past the wood-chopping station, and takes a maul with her.

She walks in the rain and then drops her bag in front of a chest that once belonged to her mother. Kyoshi forces open the locked trunk with the ax; inside, there are two war fans, a matching headdress, and a leather pouch with makeup. She snatches each item from the trunk and leaves the trunk in the mud. Now finished with her packing, Kyoshi heads to the stables, slipping and falling in the rain at least twice on her way there. Rangi is there waiting for her with some packed food that she assumes Kyoshi would have forgotten to take. She grabs Kyoshi's hand and pulls her up onto Pengpeng's back. Rangi takes the reins and says that they will have to fly southwest in order to avoid the storm. Kyoshi asks why Rangi is coming along with her, to which the firebender says that even though she is confused by what is going on, she will not let Kyoshi ride into the storm without her help. Kyoshi nods her head and fills with gratitude toward Rangi, who snaps the reins and tells Pengpeng to fly.

Production notes

Series continuity

• Kyoshi compares her sodden appearance passing through the hallways of the Avatar mansion to a "swamp ghost", an accurate description for the visions of deceased loved ones Sokka and Katara witness in the Foggy Swamp in "The Swamp".
• The items Kyoshi retrieves from her trunk, two metal war fans, a matching headdress, and a leather pouch containing makeup, become part of her signature look, as first seen in her adult depiction during "Avatar Day".
• Kyoshi's decision to desert her home on a flying bison in the middle of a thunderstorm shortly after discovering she is the Avatar, intending to begin her Avatar journey alone, parallels the way Aang starts his Avatar journey after learning his identity during his flashback appearance in "The Storm", abandoning the Southern Air Temple on Appa without anyone else in similarly inclement weather.

Character revelations

• Kyoshi vows to never call Yokoya her home again.

Trivia

• This chapter marks the only appearance in either of the Kyoshi novels of the command that prompts flying bison to take flight, "Yip yip!", uttered by Rangi to Pengpeng.