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A sandskiff sails across the Si Wong Desert in the dead of night. A desperate father to be, and struggling hopeful mother cut through the darkness and cold as they try to get to the nearest of the Nomad communes. They couldn’t risk it, not this time, they couldn’t risk their fourth. A scream of pain forced the man to give it his all, despite the pain in his arms and the shortness in his breath, he pushed the sands against the sails and kept going. He knows his love is even more tired, in even more pain, so he forgets his own as he continues on.
In a land across the earth kingdoms, the howl of angered spirits assault the valley. An ancient sanctuary of trees and mountain springs, the steel and machines of man hanging above it and threatening to destroy the home of spirits that had lived there before man could bend the elements. An aged woman surges through the valley, bending all the elements to protect the lives of those here just to work, just to provide for their families, just to bring the pure water here to the thirsty against spirits who wish to not have their home stolen and corrupted by man. Fire, earth, water, and air all used to protect mortal life, to redirect the spiritual, all as she cries out for spirits to become calm again, to let her help find a compromise. The spirits do not want compromise, the men do not want failure. The tension is too great.
She is struck, both bodily and spirtually, by a being of ancient anger and protective instinct in the shape of a monkey. The woman hits the ground, and crumples, pulling into herself as her body screams in pain. She is old, she has been in many battles…she coughs up blood into the ground, and darkness eats away at her vision.
She hears a scream of pain, and surges back into the fight.
The man in the far away desert hears the same scream, and pushes beyond his limits.
The master of all elements fights once more, urging the spirits to calm, urging the humans to run, calling for peace, calling for understanding. She then finally demands it.
The man finally stops at the commune, and even as he falls to the ground exhausted he screams what strength he has left for help. Before darkness engulfs his vision he sees his love carried from the Skiff to the commune’s medicine woman.
The old woman, the avatar, sends her power back to sleep, and holds herself up as the two sides make peace. The sun sets on the valley, and when she sees that the tension is gone, and a resolution found, she falls with the sun.
As the sun rises above a commune, a village of tents and a few sandstone buildings, the cry of a single infant is heard, and two parents welcome their precious child to the world.
The world mourns the loss of the Avatar, a single village celebrates the birth of a child.
(Cont)
