sports / reach a distant place / minor differences build friction / one of you has been dead the whole time
“Master Kui, HELP ME!”
Guo ducked under a burst of flame, flicking his leg out quickly to send a burst in the direction of his attackers.
Master Kui took a sip of tea, eyes shut peacefully.
“You’re done for this time, you freak!” spat one of the attackers, making a swift pulling motion with his hands. Rocks tumbled from further up the cliff towards Guo, but he neatly flipped himself backwards, air spiralling from his palms and propelling him away from danger. He landed not completely neatly, hopping backwards a couple of steps before balancing.
“Your form, Guo,” commented the older woman, cracking one eye open.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Guo flung his arm out towards the attackers indignantly, a burst of flame spitting from his fingertips that knocked the three soldiers down, ducking automatically into a defensive stance even as he glared incredulously at his teacher, “I was a little busy getting my BUTT KICKED because you refuse to help me!”
Kui raised an eyebrow towards the soldiers.
Guo turned and sighed in relief. They were out cold, knocked down. He pattered closer and lent down.
“They’ll be fine,” Kui said, somehow behind him even though he hadn’t heard her get up. “Come on,” she continued, beckoning him with her head, “We should get moving. It’s not safe here.”
Guo felt the hot flame of indignation rising under his skin, but he let out a slow breath, closing his eyes. He knew there was absolutely no point arguing with his teacher. She was impossibly calm- like a rock that waves broke on.
“Come on Guo, we don’t have all day!”
“Right,” he responded, following her further into the mountains.
***
Kui had appeared in his life not long after he had somehow manifested the ability to bend air- despite being a fire bender already. No-one had heard of anything like it, but it certainly attracted attention. At first, he’d enjoyed showing off his abilities, but soon it had become clear there was a reason that no-one had heard of anything like it before.
Kui had saved his life, and probably the lives of everyone in his village, leading him away and setting the ominous soldiers who had arrived on quite the chase through the countryside. They had had plenty of wacky adventures, with Kui inevitably leaving Guo in endless amounts of hot water, but always seeming sure of where they were headed.
It was lucky one of them did.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”
Guo had asked a million different times. He hated being on the run- he missed his home, his friends, his family. But Kui was insistent, and the only other person he knew with the ability to bend all four elements, so he had to follow her.
Kui was sat cross legged on a rock, gazing at something he couldn’t see. Finally, she refocused her eyes on him and relaxed her posture, her hand resting on her prosthetic knee. It was animated out of stone, and moved more smoothly than Guo’s own flesh and blood limbs did.
“We’re going to the South Pole,” she said evenly, “The water tribe won’t attack you. They’re strongly spiritual, and they’ll recognise you for what you are, even if the language has been lost.”
“And what AM I?”
Kui was somehow not lit with the flames of Guo’s fire, her lightly lined face mysterious under the moonlight.
“Something forgotten. But don’t worry,” she smiled, “you’re doing a great job.”
“Fantastic,” Guo muttered.
***
“Guo!”
Kui’s voice sounded worried, and that was frightening. He could feel the dull ache in his arm- that earthbender had got him good, his shoulder felt broken, or worse. He lashed out with his good arm, sending a ripple of rock back in response, but it felt hopeless. They were outnumbered and outmatched. And surrounded by water- his weakest element, despite Kui’s training- he felt he was about to be extinguished for good.
“I need your help, I’m sorry,” he gasped, grunting with the effort as he rose once again into a fighting stance. He span his arms, flexing his muscles and drawing air around him as he spiralled into the sky, “Please,” he gasped, as the tornado span oncoming soldiers into trees, “I need your help!”
He landed ungracefully, just preventing himself from slamming into the ground, and his vision flickered.
“Hold on.”
Kui’s voice was impossibly close- it sounded like it was coming from inside his head.
He blinked. Reinforcements were approaching through the trees.
At least the snow and ice were numbing the pain.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t find what was lost,” he mumbled into the ground.
“You are what was lost,” Kui’s voice whisperer again in his head- but it wasn’t just her. A chorus of voices muttered along with her, “You are the Avatar. You will bring balance to the world. Just let us in.”
Guo screwed up his eyes and opened his mind.
Images flooded his brain, thousands of lifetimes, thousands of experiences, and one unifying spirit tying them all together.
He opened his eyes, light spilling from them and saw the soldiers, blasted away from him by rippling rings of fire that melted the polar ice. Kui was gone- gone from the world around him but present inside him, radiating pride and warmth.
“I am the avatar,” they spoke in one voice, that washed over the trembling soldiers, as the melted ice revealed a glowing, pulsing portal. Still surging with power, Guo sank down and pressed his palm onto it.
“I will bring balance to the world.”
The northern skies lit with a brilliant pillar of light. The avatar cycle had resumed.