Chapter Text
“It hurts…”
Shouto crumpled to the ground, clutching the left side of his face which burned with betrayal.
Boiling water dripped down his cheek. He trembled, glancing up at his mother, still holding the empty kettle. The perpetual frown that marred her face these days twitched upward into a smirk.
She had called his left side unsightly. Tears blurred his vision of his one good eye. Shouto shut it, wanting to be anywhere other than here.
Poor child of Fire and Water, a feminine voice not belonging to his mother rang in his head. Shouto merely clenched his eyes tighter, a slight whimper escaping him. I have heard your desire. Please, be at ease.
The voice sounded… kind. Shouto opened an eye just in time to see a swirl of snow and whipping winds surround him in a vortex, then a blinding light forced his eye closed once more.
Spirits do not typically interfere in human matters unless given great reason. Sometimes it is prophecy or destiny, or due to self-preservation, and sometimes it is as simple as whimsy.
It was during the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, when the boundary between the material world and the spirit world becomes blurred. The sun’s influence was at its weakest. In contrast, the great spirit of Winter was at the peak of its strength. It was easily able to cross not just the boundary into the physical world, but between various other worlds as well.
As it leapt through the boundaries between worlds, enjoying its freedom and the sights across the universes, it came across a unique child, one of Fire and Water, held in constant turmoil within him. A larger human had injured the small one. The child’s inner flame was so weak as he gave in to despair, it nearly went out completely.
The great spirit of Winter felt a certain pull from the child, hearing his cries to please get me away from here. The power of ice was strong within him, and thus Winter was drawn to him so. It hurt Winter to see one of its human children suffer so profoundly.
So Winter could not just stand by and watch.
It manifested into this strange, foreign world, a vortex of frigid winds rising out of nowhere and surrounding its child. The poor thing cried out, afraid.
Poor child of Fire and Water, Winter crooned gently. I have heard your desire. Please, be at ease.
The child’s eye fell shut in exhaustion. Winter thought it convenient; humans were typically scared of its physical form. It emerged from the winds and stepped closer to the child, lowering its massive head, nosing at the tiny, unconscious body. The adult human gasped, reeling back in fright.
Good, Winter suddenly snarled, turning to her. You should be afraid. Its tails thrashed with barely suppressed rage.
Judging by scent, this woman was the child’s mother. Winter felt a similar pull from the woman, a strong well of icy power within her, but it was sullied by her sins. How dare she hurt her own?
Winter’s eyes glowed a ferocious blue. Its lips curled back as it growled, revealing sharp, pointed fangs. The human rightfully trembled before it.
You do not deserve what you have, Winter declared, launching forward and biting into the woman’s throat.
She cried out and flailed wildly, but it was no use. Winter’s bite had taken the power of ice straight from her body. No physical wounds would remain, save for faint, silvery scars. Still, the damage was done.
The woman collapsed to the ground, rendered unconscious as her ice power was ripped from her core.
Satisfied with its punishment, Winter turned back to the child, the one who had wished to leave this terrible place. Winter gently lowered its head and snatched the child’s clothes in its maw.
Winter then crouched and gave a mighty leap.
The house fell silent as the winds finally ceased. The woman was still unconscious on the floor, her injured child no longer there. Only a few stray snowflakes remained.
Winter carried the child in their icy embrace as it leapt back through the barriers between the worlds, heading straight to the world from which it originated: an elemental world where this child would surely be much more appreciated.
In a frozen, barren landscape of glaciers and snow glowing white under a full moon, a sudden vortex sprang into being. Powdered snow carried upward into the funnel, turning into a massive tornado of white as Winter manifested in the material world once more. Winter shook out their coat; snowflakes fluttered to the ground. There, among the snowdrifts, it gently lowered the child and settled him in the pillowy snow.
Winter contemplated leaving, but it had grown attached to the child in the short time it had known him. It hoped he would like this new world, but the child may have some difficulty adjusting; the dual power within him was strangely stagnant. Winter turned on its flank, deciding to gift the child one of its tails. Winter would immediately suffer the loss of its power, but it would grow back in another century or so. What was the point of having so many tails, if not to use them every once in a while?
A brilliant blue glow emanated from the child as he received Winter’s blessing. The power within its tail combined with that of the child’s soul. The battle of Fire and Water that raged within him finally settled; the conflicting energies now properly circulated, dancing around each other in perfect balance, like yin and yang. At least now Winter could rest easy, knowing the child would have the strength to protect itself.
With that thought in mind, Winter turned away from its chosen child, disappearing once more into buffeting winds just as the sun began to rise.
The winter solstice had finally ended. The celebrations for the great spirits of the Moon and Ocean had only just died down despite the rising sun, and Chief Arnook was looking forward to getting at least a few hours’ sleep before his next meeting when Koni ran into the room. Koni was a decent waterbending student under Master Pakku, well on his way to becoming a master himself, so seeing the young man so rattled made Arnook instinctively straighten.
“Chief!” Koni called out, panting heavily from his apparent run.
“What happened?”
“Master saw a light on the horizon, so we went out there, and well… you’ve got to see this! It’s a kid!” Koni said, arms flailing and blue eyes wide. “Master took him to Yagoda!”
“Walk with me,” Chief Arnook ordered, leading the way to healer Yagoda’s residence. “And explain, properly.”
Koni took a breath and quickly followed. “Master Pakku saw a flash of light on the horizon just before dawn. We went to check it out, and it was just a little boy, out there all alone in the snow. He was burned, so Master took him straight to Yagoda while I came to inform you.”
Arnook frowned at the words and immediately picked up his pace. “Burned?”
Koni grimaced at the implication. “Yes, Chief… and the burn was fresh. But the child had been abandoned.”
Arnook grimaced. “Any signs of the Fire Nation?”
“We didn’t see any ships on the waters, so we prioritized saving the child.”
“I see… go inform Sewa to take a group and scout the area, just in case.”
“Yes, sir!” Koni quickly saluted before rushing off again.
Arnook continued onward to Yagoda’s residence.
When he entered, he could only gasp at what he saw.
The boy was young, maybe four or five, but that wasn’t what drew Arnook’s attention. It was his hair, which had a perfect divide between a pure, icy white and a vibrant, fiery red.
“He is spirit-touched,” Arnook said aloud in amazement.
Like Yue, the white of his hair was extremely eye-catching for their young ages. But the red… Arnook had never heard of anyone in the world having such a distinct coloration. The perfect separation between white and red even carried down into his eyebrows and eyelashes. It made Arnook curious about his eyes, but they were currently shut as the child rested. And it was a good thing he was unconscious.
A horrible burn marred half the child’s face, centered over his left eye. Yagoda was currently hard at work, palms surrounded by water glowing a healing blue as she caressed the boy’s face, reducing the injury. Yagoda’s face was etched into a frown.
“There were multiple smaller burns on his arms, defensive ones. But the one on his face is the worst of them. For them to burn a child like this…” Her words cracked and she bit her lip.
Pakku stood against the wall by her side, scowling heavily with his arms crossed. Like Arnook, he had opted to stand by and let Yagoda work. Now, he scoffed. “The Fire Nation has no qualms about hurting children. You know this.”
“It’s not often we see it firsthand,” Arnook reminded pointedly.
Pakku huffed while Yagoda nodded sadly. The Northern Water tribe had built their massive wall of snow and ice to keep out the world for a reason, after all. It had worked as a deterrent to keep the Fire Nation out, but the consequence had left them in near total isolation. Occasionally, young waterbenders confident in their skill would venture out. They rarely returned, but when they did, it was with tales of cruelty beyond imagination.
“I’ve done what I can for now,” Yagoda announced with a sigh. The glow from her hand faded and she bended the water back into a large jar. The burn had been significantly reduced, but a large scar still remained. “I’ll need water from the spirit oasis to completely heal him.”
Pakku finally moved from his place at the wall, retrieving a small jar from a shelf made of ice. He handed it to Yagoda so she wouldn’t have to leave the child’s side. Yagoda smiled at him while Arnook snorted. Pakku was always quick to move with her prompting.
The small vial held blessed water from the spirit oasis, which was convenient to have on hand rather than taking a trip to the oasis for healing every time, especially for severe injuries where time was of the essence.
Yagoda immediately got to work again, the healing glow much brighter than before.
When she removed her hand, the burn had completely healed. The room heaved a collective sigh of relief. A child so young shouldn’t have to live with a constant reminder of the Fire Nation’s cruelty.
Still, now that Arnook wasn’t distracted by the burn, he noticed that unlike members of his tribe, the child’s skin was pale as the snow. Pale, like citizens of the Fire Nation. He stiffened.
The boy was currently bundled up in heavy swaths of furs and pelts, and underneath Arnook could tell he was dressed in thick, Northern Water tribe clothing. It made sense, given they found him in the snow and needed to warm him. Still…
“Where are his clothes?”
Clothing could denote his origin, even if his skin tone made it obvious.
Yagoda immediately frowned, catching onto his line of thinking. “They were soaked with snow. I put them over there,” she huffed in irritation, nodding her head toward an ice basket.
Given that she was a waterbender and could easily remove the water from them, Arnook shot her a questioning look. He headed toward the basket, blinking in surprise. Now he saw why Yagoda changed him into proper clothes.
“Not very helpful, is it?” Pakku said with a snort.
In the basket was a plain white cloth shirt, and two pairs of what appeared to be shorts; the outer shorts a plain black and the inner shorts a pale blue. All the cloth was fine to the touch but extremely thin, and the coloration was ambiguous.
“His shoes?” Arnook pressed.
“He had none,” Pakku announced with a sigh.
Arnook’s frown deepened. A child, one even younger than his daughter, had been abandoned in the arctic with flimsy clothing and no shoes during the longest night of the year.
“How cruel,” Yagoda choked out.
Arnook sighed heavily. “Indeed.”
Whoever left him out there clearly hadn’t expected him to survive. Arnook could only hope the boy wouldn’t be too afraid when he finally woke.