Violent Delights, ATLA

chapter one, tai yang's heart

01
TAI YANG'S HEART

MUCH LIKE TUI AND LA, the sun spirit gave up their immortality for a mortal body because they loved humans and they loved how they were like coalescing constellations, each fraction of their soul tied to another's like jigsaw puzzles with strings attached. Love is stitched into their red blood cells, gushing through their arteries. Their souls little mosaic pieces yearning for other little mosaic pieces to make each other feel whole again. When their cheeks blush it's the most adorable thing the sun's ever seen as their light spills over them to embrace them in a warm hug with spilt sunlight.

The sun and the earth went hand in hand together much like the moon and the ocean. As the moon bends the ocean and creates waves, the sun provides life on earth, allowing all living beings to drink in its nectarine-gold sunlight rays upon every crack of dawn. It's a mother providing for all her children and the sun loves all such living beings calling earth their home.

The sun spirit took the mortal form of a glorious golden dragon named Tai Yang. He loved humans so much he decided to take a closer look at them and maintain the world's balance. He loved hearing their laughter sounding like a million little bells and the way they smiled so wide sometimes he wondered if their cheeks hurt. But one thing he found most convoluting about the species was how easily vulnerable they were to emotions. All sorts of them.

He recalled some spirits finding humans amusing. If they're scared, they'd jump out of their skin but not quite. If they're angry, their brows would furrow and a dangerous sort of fire would ignite in their eyes (not literally, he was reassured, for he worried that humans could really set their eyes on fire when provoked). If they're jealous, it'll feel as if something would squeeze their heart until it pops.

Humans were also decidedly scary, Tai Yang concluded.

As the years passed and a being meant to be the bridge between the Spirit Realm and the mortal one known as the Avatar was born, Tai Yang spent his days becoming close to a group called the Sun Warriors. They were excellent firebenders in his humble opinion. Breaking down the concept of the element they wield and understanding that fire was not only destruction leading to death, but life capable of helping one survive (how else would people tolerate the cold?). They sung and danced everyday in jolly moods as the crackling fires would follow in their joyous obedience. They praised Tai Yang like he was their god but the dragon insisted they treated him like any ordinary dragon. Obeyed they did but it was a difficult request to fulfil for it was hard to not worship a ginormous dragon with scales the shining colour of unalloyed gold from deep within the earth.

Suddenly, tragedy struck like a meteorite.

It all started in the mid 50s BG. Fire Lord Sozin begun the tradition of hunting down dragons for glory. Men with egos filled to the very brim of their souls, wearing their narcissism proudly on their chest as if it were a badge of honour, given perfect sight yet blinded by what firebending was meant to be, following in the lead of their Fire Lord. Burgundy, maroon, scarlet flames unfurled across the lands and devoured everything in its paths. Demonic flames impure only screaming destruction everywhere, extinguishing the vitality flames were once meant to be. It was a tragedy even the Avatar was unable to prevent. Only the Sun Warriors refused to fall for such ludicrous tellings.

Afraid Tai Yang would accidentally be caught in the crossfire, the Sun Warriors listed a group known as the Dragon Defenders to protect him if ever there came harm. Both them and Tai Yang knew the firebenders would never rid of the sun on purpose but the dragon hunts punctured a hole into most of the Fire Nation's citizens spirituality: meaning most of them didn't believe the sun spirit had traded immortality for mortality eons ago, firmly believing that the source of all their abilities would not have made a foolish decision like such. A pity not even they knew the sun all that well.