Avatar The Last Airbender: The Sins of the Past

Chapter 1-7: Winter Solstice (Part 1): The Spirit World

We soar above the clouds on Appa, and we're all lazing around in the saddle. We've been flying for a few hours already, and I got bored of the sight of clouds, so I started reading one of my books. This one is an autobiography of the last waterbender Avatar, Avatar Kuruk. The spirits feared him, and the author of the book writes a lot about everybody's hate for him and his amoral actions.

He destroyed an entire island to activate his Avatar state, got his own wife's face stolen by a spirit, nearly killed his friends, didn't help anybody as an Avatar, and he apparently spent most of his time challenging people in bending duels. Many considered him to be the worst Avatar, and he also died the youngest in his 30's.

I tear my attention away from my book when I hear Katara dreamily mutter, "Those clouds look so soft, don't they? Like you could just jump down and you'd land in a big, soft, cottony heap?"

Sokka mockingly says, "Maybe you should give it a try."

Katara looks at Sokka with a look of annoyance and sarcastically says, "You're hilarious."

Aang exclaims, "I'll try it!"

He grabs his staff and jumps off of Appa with a big smile on his face.

He falls down, laughing joyously, "Yeah!"

Sokka and Katara pop their heads over the rim of the saddle to try to find where Aang went, but he disappeared under the cloud layer. He soon reappears on the saddle from the other side on his glider, and the water tribe siblings look shocked.

Aang plops down next to me on the saddle, his clothes dripping with water as he says, "Turns out, clouds are made of water."

I ask, "You didn't know that?"

He shrugs before he takes a deep breath and slams his right fist into his left palm, creating an air ball around him to dry himself off and accidentally fluffed up Momo's fur in the process. Sokka looks unimpressed, and I just shrug. I knew Aang would be okay as long as he had his staff.

Sokka points over my shoulder, asking, "What's that?"

I close my book and turn my head to where he pointed, finding a large expansive area that's completely burned to ash. I direct Appa to land, and we all get out.

Sokka says, "It's like a scar. Listen."

We're all silent for a moment, and don't hear anything.

I mutter, "It's so quiet. There's no life anywhere."

Aang and I sit down on the ground next to each other, our backs to Sokka and Katara. Aang hugs my torso tightly, and I wrap my arm around his shoulder to comfort him. My nation did this. I'm not even surprised at this point, just angry at them.

Sokka exclaims, "Fire Nation! Those evil savages make me sick! They have no respect for -" Katara shushes him, and he angrily whispers, "What? I'm not allowed to be angry?"

Aang sadly asks, "Why would anyone do this? How could I let this happen?"

I say, "It's not your fault, it's the Fire Nation's. If anyone should feel guilty for this, it's those bastards."

Katara adds, "Yeah, Aang. You didn't let this happen. It has nothing to do with you."

Aang protests, "But it does. It's the Avatar's job to protect nature, but I don't know how to do my job."

Katara says, "That's why we're going to the North Pole. To find you a teacher."

Aang says, "Yeah. A wayerbending teacher. But there's no one who can teach me how to be the Avatar. Monk Gyatso said that Avatar Roku would help me."