Rise of the Avatars

[Karo]

"Hiko, c'mon, wait up!" Akana called to her brother as she dashed down the little dirt road they had been following for a good portion of the day. They still had a long trek ahead of them, another few days, at least, until thye reached their destination.

They had a lot of work ahead of them, and she was none too thrilled about it. The news had been a surprise to the twins, and she couldn't say she didn't slightly resent their parents for keeping the secret from them. Apparently it was a tradition of sort, to allow the Avatar, or in this case, Avatars, to have their childhood without the burden their status would put on them.

She should have known something strange was going on. Twin benders, born to two non-bending parents. Not unheard of, but a rare case, especially since they had both taken immediately to different elements. She had brushed it off, it was just how things had always been.

"Hey, think maybe we should stop for now? Make something to eat, maybe?" She brushed a bit of dark hair that had fallen loose from her braid away from her bright green eyes as she caught up with Hiko. "We've been walking all day, and I'm exhausted."

They did have a lot of training ahead of them, and she was in no rush to get started. This was a unique situation, and she didn't much care for the idea of being a guinea pig. Twin avatars, each so far only able to control two elements. They had been given some basic training already, and neither really seemed capable of much in lines of controlling the others' preferred elements. While waterbending had come naturally to Akana, and with a bit of training, airbending soon behind, she had hardly been able to shift a few pebbles or even snuff out a lonely candle. A strange set of circumstances, indeed.

At the very least, she was close to her brother. It could have been an entirely different situation; how could the Avatar possibly stand for peace and harmony among elements when its two halves were constantly bickering? Mercifully, this wasn't the case. Of course they had their few squabbles here and there, but nothing that would make a serious wedge in their relationship.

 

[Wolf]

Hiko paused at the top of a knoll along the dirt path and turned to wait for her. "Well come on then!" he laughed. "Don't be so slow then sis!" he called back. He was a little impatient with all of this travel. Such a trek just to get from their small town to a big enough city that they could ride a train from it. They were en route to the mountain fortress of Matra-Naga, where they would begin their training. Deep in the hot south, the area was perfect for training all four elements. The mountain provided an abundance of different rocky terrains to bend, the heat was conducive to fire bending, the altitude was perfect for taking to the skies with air bending and the mountain's healthy supply of rivers and lakes ensured that there was always enough water close by. Hiko was actually pretty excited.

See, Hiko was the avatar. Well, he was one of the avatars. For the first time in recorded history there were two avatars alive at the same time. The only problem was, when they were born their control of the four elements had been split pretty clean in half. Although none but the avatar could control more than one element, this handicap certainly set them both apart. They were both pretty talented at the elements they could bend, but essentially completely incompetent when it came to the other two. As for Hiko, he'd been born an earth bender, and fire had come almost immediately afterwards. Having borne twins, their parents must have thought that they had given birth to two avatars. However, it became increasingly clear that they could both only bend two elements. They'd traveled a pretty decent amount, going through the surrounding areas to find teachers in their specific elements, but now that they had been told they were the Avatar, they would have to enter formal training from some of the best bending masters around. Hiko was eager to start, but he also was a little nervous. It didn't feel like he would ever be able to bend his sister's elements.

Akana and Hiko were like opposing forces of nature. They were friends, as well as siblings however in many of their personality traits as well as their elements, of course, they were opposites. They kept each other in good balance, the black and white halves of yin and yang. Unfortunately it seemed like the world needed grey, not black and white. Not up or down but infinitely tall. Not push or pull but a still storm. Not earth and fire or air and water but all four in one.

When Akana caught up to him he nodded. "Okay, we can stop if you want" he agreed. He pointed at her head. "Your hair is a mess too"

 

[Karo]

"Oh, quiet!" She stuck her tongue out at him as she adjusted the unruly strands of hair. Of course they would always be giving each other a hard time, it was one of those unwritten sibling rules. At least they were usually amiable about it.

Once everything was back in place, she took the time to look around. The road was lightly wooded, with plenty of clearings visible from the road for them to set up camp in. This road was considered to be generally safe, so they didn't have too much to worry about aside from the chance attack by a wild animal, but even that was next to unheard of.

"Here seems like as good a place as any." She said as she glanced around. "And this way we can get settled before it gets too dark to see anything."

 

[Wolf]

(Awkward. I'm so sorry. I forgot to subscribe to this thread so I didn't see when you replied.)

Hiko grumbled. "Alright, but we better make it to the city by tomorrow" he said, taking her pack for her as they headed deep into a clearing far enough removed from the road for him to be comfortable. He put their stuff in the middle of the clearing, then pressed his fists together and stomped. A large rock wall topped with jagged spikes rose in a perimeter around their camp. "I'll get some firewood sis, do you mind setting up camp a little?" he asked.

Hiko made a small door in the wall for himself and disappeared into the woods. It wasn't that difficult finding some fallen branches and whatnot, but they were all so wet from the rains their area had been experiencing lately. He wondered if Akana could pull the water out of them, or at least dry them out a little with an air blast or something. Wet wood always made way too much smoke. It wasn't like they were being tracked or anything but he didn't want to draw any unnecessary attention, nor did he want a smoky encampment. When he returned he set the wood in a big pile for her. "Sis do you think you can dry that out somehow?"

 

[Karo]

"Oh, we'll be fine." She replied as she stuck her tongue out at him. It must have been one of those unwritten rules of sorts, that siblings were required to give each other a hard time unless they were in some sort of dire situation that called for some other sort of behavior. "We're well on our way there, I bet we'll reach Matra-Naga and be settled in before dinner." She said with a confident nod.

She shooed him off to collect the needed firewood. Thanks to Hiko's earthbending, their campsites were always secure, if not a bit conspicuous. Oh, well. They hadn't had any troubles yet, so she wasn't about to make mention of it, and the extra security it provided made sleeping at night a much easier task.

While he was gone, she used a few well-controlled streams of air to clear the ground, all the little twigs and leaves soon neatly piled against one of the stone walls surrounding the campsite, leaving only the dry, refuse-free ground for them to deal with. Though she had half a mind to let Hiko deal with it when he returned, by the time he was back, she had gathered up enough sizable stones into a circle in the center of the campsite, a small pit dug out for them to make their fire in.

She examined the damp wood for a moment, then nodded, and dug a small cooking pot from her bag. She focused for a moment, then with a graceful wave of her arms, tiny droplets of water rose from the logs, and she guided the quickly forming sphere over to the kettle. "There. Should be dry now. And now we have some water to cook in." she said with a grin. "It'll probably taste a bit earthy if you try to drink it, but it shouldn't affect our meal too much."

 

[Wolf]

Hiko laughed as she wrangled the water into the pot. "See? I did that on purpose of course, getting the wet wood" he joked. Hiko struck a keen, wizened face up and squinted at his sister. He liked making her laugh.

He closed up their camp and built a log-cabin arrangement in the fire pit. He breathed in deeply, then loosed a fine stream of fire at the middle of the logs and branches where he'd stacked a little hemlock. Soon enough they had a good roaring fire going and the sun had begun its rapid descent below the horizon. Hiko rolled his hands in a modified kind of beckoning gesture and the wall of rock and earth surrounding them squeezed in tighter, making a smaller circle around them. With all of the twigs and underbrush cleared by his sister, the campsite looked too open and big for the two of them. It made him lonely, but only a little. If he had his sister he couldn't be lonely. She was like his other half, or more specifically, his conscience.

"What's for dinner then?" he asked, starting to set up their tent and bedrolls. "We still have food that we brought from home, don't we?" he asked. He didn't mind hunting, but he wasn't a big fan of killing animals, at least not his way. All he had to do was levitate a couple of pebbles. One rock sent straight through a bird's chest or a rabbit's skull and they would have a meal, but it seemed so unfair. They didn't have a fighting chance.

 

[Karo]

She nodded to him. "Yeah. The vegetables Mama sent with us are getting a little wilty, though, so I thought we'd throw them together and make a bit of a stew. Sound good to you?" She asked.

She didn't even bother to wait to respond before she started digging the remainder of their rations from the bag. Through the trip, they had managed to eat fairly well, partly in thanks to their slightly over-protective mother. Of everyone they had left behind to begin their training, she had probably taken it the hardest. Of course it was hard for any mother to watch their children leave home, but Akana and Hiko were hardly adults yet. She had probably never expected this, neither she nor their father had any bender lineage for generations, who would have thought their children would be the next split incarnation of the avatar?

They had made the typical promises, that they'd write when they arrived at their destination, that they'd try to keep contact with her and hopefully visit on occasion, but they had a lot of training to get done. Indeed, the situation was a delicate one, nothing that had ever happened in recorded history. This was bound to be a learning experience for everyone involved.

While Hiko set the camp, and she had dinner cooking, she glanced back over her shoulder at her brother. She bit her lip, and while he was distracted with pitching their tent, she took a deep breath, and took one of the earthbending stances she had practiced so hard to no avail. Silent, she went through the motions, sturdy and steady like the earth itself. She brought her fists together and...

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. She thought she might have seen a few pebbles move, but it was just as likely her imagination. Well, at least no one had been around to watch her embarrass herself like that.

 

[Wolf]

Hiko nodded. "Yay dirty watery vegetable stew" he said with mock enthusiasm. Still, at least it would probably be nutritious. Maybe some good minerals or something had been pulled from the wood when she extracted the water from it. Or, maybe a flesh eating parasite had. He was glad they were going to boil this water anyway. He got paranoid about these things. Mom said it was because of his overactive imagination, which he had always had. He kinda missed his mom already. They really hadn't been gone for that long, and he knew it would be even longer and nigh impossible to get back once they reached Matra Naga. It was just kinda lonely out on the road, but he was glad to have his sister for company. He loved her more than anything, so he was glad that he didn't have to get separated from her. Although, one of his biggest concerns about their training was that they would end up getting split up, at least for most of the day since they both knew totally different elements. He'd spend the day trying to soar off of cliffs but crashing into trees and she'd spend the day stomping around in the dirt to no avail. He hoped that wasn't what was in store. Nonetheless, he was curious to meet their teachers.

Hiko crawled into their tent, starting to set up the inner pole and then bustling around to get their sleeping bags set up. Back home they had been moved into different rooms a few years ago but they only had one tent. Honestly Hiko was comforted by a warm body next to him and the pole in the middle ensured that they didn't wake up in any compromising positions. He stuck his head out and caught the last of Akana's unsuccessful earth bending form. He turned his back quickly and pretended not to, of course. After that he just helped Akana with dinner.