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There was Kyoshi. Now, there is Aang.
Suki never met Kyoshi, since she lived many years before Suki was born, but still there are many stories about her work, about what she did to protect the world.
Suki paints her face in her honour every time she puts on her dress and armour. Even if she was never able to meet Avatar Kyoshi, still, she feels connected to her in a way that she cannot explain.
It's a ritual for her and the girls. They sit in silence when they dress and paint their faces. There is the soft light from the windows, the cold paint on her face as one of the other girls carefully applies it. Suki is not Kyoshi and neither are any of the girls, but in that moment, as they paint themselves in her image, dress as she dressed and fight like she fought, Suki feels that Kyoshi has touched her soul.
It's not something that she has ever said out loud, but it is not something that needs to be said, for she knows it to be true - like the water is blue, and the sand is yellow, Kyoshi is with them every time that the paint touches their skin.
Aang is not Kyoshi, even if he is her.
It's an odd thought to wrap her head around, even odder as she watches him, a child, bounce around with the other children and tumble his way through conversations with the elders and adults of the village with the childlike innocence and unintentional bravado that he doesn't mean.
It's difficult to reconcile Kyoshi with Aang, that Kyoshi lives within him, that they exist together and intertwined as they do. It's not fair on Aang for Suki to want him to be her, because even if Kyoshi lives within him, he is not her, and he cannot be her.
But his bright eyes and genuine urge to have fun is nothing that Suki has ever seen before, nothing that she can understand. Suki is a soldier, the Avatar is a child. And that is a difference she has to reconcile.
She has been a warrior for as long as it matters, and she can't imagine holding onto that wonder for that long. It sits in her stomach like a stone; the knowledge that a battle awaits this child, and for an obscene moment, all Suki wants is to protect him.
She sees Kyoshi in his soul, even if she can't explain it, right alongside him. There's a strength that lies within him behind the childhood wonder still captured in his eyes even on the eve of his adolescence.
She can only hope that the child that plays with the giant koi in the bay, plays with the other children and laughs so freely can embrace the strength of the Avatars that came before him and step up when his training is complete.
Still, it feels foolish to put so much faith in one person, no matter how divine or otherworldly they may be, no matter how young they may be, and yet she must.
The war has raged for longer than she has lived. There are very few people left who remember what life was like before the war. If not for the return of the Avatar, if not for Kyoshi, in what ever form she has this life cycle, puts an end to it, it will kill them all.
She knows that.
Still.
For a moment, she watches Aang play with the other children, and if Suki closes her eyes and lets the sounds wash over her, carefree laughter and joy, she can imagine what could be.
For a moment, she can be selfish and hope.