Not All Twins Bend the Same Element (Avatar the Last Airbender)

The Angry Spirits

Chapter 10

 We smoothly flew atop the clouds. Sokka and Katara were talking about how soft the clouds were as I relaxed against the saddle. I vaguely heard Aang say he would see if the clouds were soft and plushy. The next thing I knew was water being splattered against me, causing me to shoot up like a lightning bolt and glare at the perp.

It was Aang he test the clouds consistency and found out they're made of water.

"Of course they're made of water!" I yelled, frustrated from being splattered with water once again.

"Hey, what is that?" Katara asked, as she looked ahead of us. I followed her gaze and saw the green of nature slashed by a black scar where trees must have once stood. This destruction sat right next to a quaint river, and the two together didn't go well.

"It's like a scar." Sokka said, with sadness in his voice. Aang set us down in the scar and we all got off of Appa to examine the damage. All around us were burnt trucks where magnificent trees once stood. All the beauty was destroyed by fire and probably Fire Nation soldiers.

"It's so...quiet." I noted in a hush tone. "All the animals are just gone. Why would anyone do this?"

"Aang, are you okay?" My worried sister asked.

Aang didn't reply, but Sokka did. "Fire Nation!" He shouted, bent down over tracks. "Those evil savages make me sick! They have no respect for – "

"Shh!" Commanded Katara, cutting Sokka's rant short.

"What? I'm not allowed to be angry?" 

Katara pointed ahead to where Aang stood, transfixed by the destruction. He plopped down with a heavy sigh and caressed the dirt and ash that laid before him. "Why would anyone do this?" He asked with sorrow. "How could I let this happen?"

"This isn't your fault Aang." I said. "There is no way you could have known, or been able to stop it. Don't beat yourself up."

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

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

"Yeh, a waterbending teacher, but there's no one who can teach me how to be the Avatar. Monk Gyatso said that Avatar Roku would help me."

 "The Avatar before you?" Sokka asked, he seemed to be as confused as I was. "He died over a hundred years ago, how are you supposed to talk to him?"

"I don't know."

Momo chose then to jump onto Aang's lap to try and comfort him. I looked at Katara, I felt sad for the poor lonely monk. He had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and we can't do much to even help him.

I took that moment to go explore the wasted forest. There must be something that we could use, or that could help us. There was something...I'm not sure exactly what it was a large being of some sorts. I could feel anger radiating from it, but before I could get closer I heard Sokka yell my name, so I turned around to look at him.

When I turned back towards the creature it had vanished, I played the events off as me being crazy so I left the area and rejoined the group. Apparently an elderly man's village needed our help, so we went to the village.

 The village seemed to be in ruins. Broken buildings laid about, damage in most areas, but one large building stood tall. That's where the man brought us, and that's where the village stayed in fear. Though there were few people even there.

The man told us that every day at sunset a spirit, Hei-Bai, came and attacked them, kidnapped their people, and destroyed their village. The poor villagers didn't have a clue as to why this was happening though. All they knew was spirits are stronger nearer to the Solstice than any other time. Since Aang is the link to the spirit world he's needed to speak to the spirit and stop the destruction on the small village.