Shadow Of The Avatar

Chapter 10: Loki

"Alright, I've already been out and sowed the tear in Fang's wing." Heido says.

Katakan silently walks upstairs and comes back with Loki.

"I admire your ability to give birth and simply walk it off in the morning." Ursu says to Katakan.

Katakan smiles. "Something about the pride and love I have for him cancels out a lot of the pain, or at least makes it manageable. Most of the pain is gone by now anyways."

Ursu smiles and we walk out to see Fang sitting near the hotel. Everyone climbs onto the saddle and we take off, with Loki still asleep.

The long ride to the air nomads is quite nice. The beautiful scenery of the ground below puts me at ease.

When Loki wakes up, he crawls to the small spot between me and Katakan.

I can't help but wonder what element he'll be able to bend. Most likely earth, but a child of an avatar can end up bending any of the four elements, and Katakan can't bend any.

Laying down next to Loki, I start to see the clouds come closer and closer until we're fully above most clouds and it becomes a little bit harder to breathe, but still manageable. I guess it's better to be as high as possible for a trip as long as this. For a second, I worry about Loki and if he'll be able to breathe, but he looks to be doing just fine. And I'm sure Katakan would know if there's an issue, and she doesn't say anything.

The days go by nicely, Fang seems to have found a way to keep us in the air whilst being half asleep, and Loki is growing at the rate he should be. He's spent more of his life in flight than on solid ground by now which is absolutely crazy.

After a while, I fall into a dreamless sleep.

                                                                                 *, *, *,

When I wake up, we're nearing the air nomads. I can see many young airbenders flying off in the distance using their gliders. It reminds me of the day after Katakan's supposed death, when I woke up and saw a similar sight.

Landing on the massive floating islands that the air benders reside on, a familiar looking airbender welcomes us. He seems to be around my age, maybe a few years younger than me.

"Hiragan!" He exclaims. My hand moves to my dagger, ready to draw it in case he attacks.

"How do you know my name?" I demand.

"You don't recognize me?" He asks, backing away a few steps. "I'm Kana."

The memories of my childhood come flooding back, memories from before I became a dog of Ba Sing Se's government. For a second, I'm transported to my childhood.

Back then, me, Katakan, and Kana were inseparable. Every day we would spend hours playing and talking about our possible futures. None of us had even thought about the possibility of what I would do or who I would become. At the time, I had wanted to join the army, not to fight though. Instead, I wanted to help develop new kinds of technology for weapons. I didn't realize the implications of designing war machines at the time. I didn't realize they would see my power and use it to their advantage.

"What brings you here?" Kana asks, it's enough to bring me back to the present.

"I want to learn air bending." I say, shaking his hand.

"You're an earthbender though, right?" He asks, very confused.

I explain the entire ordeal to him, with being the dark avatar and Heido being the light avatar.