For My Spirit is Pure and My Heart is True--minibang fic!!
Title: For My Spirit is Pure and My Heart is True
Author: alpha_hydra
Beta: the amazing lavanyasix ; thank you so much! You really kicked this fic into shape!
Rating: G/Gen
Word count: 5371
Warnings: Vaguely x-over-y with James Cameron’s Avatar, but only in the vaguest sense of the term. Like I mostly butcher Avatar mysticism to suite my own A:tLA related needs; this probably requires a warning. Also it helps if you've seen “The Swamp”
disclaimer: Avatar: the Last Airbender and all it's related people, places, events and ideas are property of Nickelodeon, Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko and probably tons of other wonderfully talented people who are Most Decidedly Not Me. Likewise, Avatar is James Cameron's creation and very much Not Mine. I am making no money off of this fan-work and no copyright infringement is intended.
summary: Go to the place where the Banyan-Grove Tree is one with the swamp, and there you may find the answers you seek. But beware, for the Spirit of the Tree is fierce, and if you are not pure of heart, you will be lost.
A/N: This was written for the avatarbigbang minibang! It was a reverse sort of minibang where the arts came first and authors wrote short fic inspired by the art. If you guys haven't already, I would definitely recommend heading over to avatarbigbang and browsing through all the recently posted big bangs! They're all pretty awesome :D Anyway, I got to base this not-quite-short fic on teamabodo 's awesome artwork Dreams of Flying. There was originally a word limit of 5k, but the kindly mod decided not to frown at my inability to follow simple directions D:
A sunny shaft I did behold,
from sky to earth it slanted:
And poised therein a bird so bold
Sweet bird, thou wert enchanted!
--Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Song” from Zapolya
He stops at the top of a hillside early one afternoon, smiling as The Duke tumbles to the bottom in a rush of laughter and high spirits. Pipsqueak is already waiting at the foot of the hill, his whole body shaking with the force of his laughter. Haru is a little way behind them. Teo can hear his soft, assured voice as he speaks with Toph and the Avatar. Teo likes that they still do this, that all of them can go out every once and a while and still have fun, that the war didn’t manage to suck the life out of everyone Teo had learned to love. He takes a deep breath and smiles to himself a little, feeling the wind shift through his bangs and rustle the sleeves of his shirt.
There’s a flurry of movement beside him as Aang hops up into the air. He glides down the hill in lazy half-circles. Teo traces the movement with his eyes, his ever-present smile slipping for just a moment.
“You waiting on us?” Haru asks quietly, his hand coming to rest on Teo’s shoulder.
Teo looks up at him eyes before laughing a little and running a hand over his goggles, a nervous habit he’s picked up over the years that he hasn’t quite been able to shake.
“Maybe,” he says, watching the way Toph rolls down the hillside in much the same way The Duke did earlier. “I was just feeling the wind,” he finishes.
Haru nods sagely at that, a little quirk on his lips that tells Teo he doesn’t know exactly what Teo means.
“Well, come on.” Haru squeezes his shoulder slightly before letting go. “If we don’t hurry we’ll get left behind.”
Teo laughs and rushes off after their group, the wind sharp and bright against his skin.
“Who’s getting left behind?” Teo calls over his shoulder, laughs louder when Haru says something lost to the wind.
He gets a weird feeling of vertigo at the base of the hill, a strange emptiness that slams into him like a punch to the gut. It leaves him breathless for a second, unsure of himself as he looks around wildly for something to stabilize him. But then, just as quickly, the feeling vanishes. All that’s left is a nagging feeling that he’s supposed to go somewhere.
He shakes his head roughly and rushes after Haru, who’s overtaken him, which simply won’t do at all.
***
Teo is flying.
His hands grip tightly on the wood of a beautiful blue glider, his feet curled up securely along the tail, and when he glides through the sky, it’s easy with the confidence of years of practice, finding a current of warm air and letting it pull him up hundreds of feet into the sky.
Something is calling him.
Not that he can literally hear a voice calling out to him, but there’s a weird tugging in his heart, a feeling that he should go somewhere, that he needs to be there-wherever “there” is-right now. Instinctively, he follows it. He drops out of the air current, uses a quick flick of his tail (his tail?) to abruptly change course as he glides over miles of untamed wildlife.
Eventually, he reaches an isolated, imposing-looking swamp. He lands lightly on the top of a tree, gazing out over the canopy into the heart of the swamp. A single, enormous tree looms in the distance, waiting for him. He closes the glider with a flick of his wrist, casts one last look at the tree, and jumps.
It’s a long way down, but he makes a bubble of air to cushion his fall, and when he lands, it’s in a deep crouch, the tips of his fingers lightly grazing the bark of an enormous tree root. And then, in a very unremarkable way, he starts to run. His feet barely seem to touch the ground as he races into the heart of the swamp, doesn’t even upset puddles of water as he goes.
He thinks suddenly that something is not quite right, and he quickens his pace in response, wanting to reach the mother-tree before-
Before what?
His footing slips on a slick rock. When he splashes into the river, he knows.
I can’t walk, he thinks to himself, and that’s when he wakes up.
Teo’s eyes flicker open, and when he looks up at the ceiling, lit pale gray by the waxing moon outside his window, he can’t stem the overwhelming crush of disappointment that grips him.
He dreams often enough, sure. Teo didn't used to mind so much, back when the dreams were the only way he could keep his hope alive, when he lived in the isolated, sometimes oppressive island of an ancient air temple, but now he can't stand them. They're always the same, too. Even before his Dad had modified a glider for Teo's wheelchair, he'd been dreaming of soaring through the sky, like the etchings that adorned his home.
Mostly, he's afraid that one night, he'll realize that he's dreaming, and won't want to wake up. But he's not had one of those amazing dreams for about a year now-that he can remember-and so Teo doesn't worry much about them.
Well, except for tonight. But tonight’s dream was different. He was flying yes, but this time, he was unequivocally an airbender. This time, he had a purpose. He still feels an echo of that incessant tugging, like a rope is wrapped around his navel and is pulling him to some nameless swamp. Which is silly. A swamp can’t call out to people. He turns to his side, traces the cracks in the temple wall with his eyes and tries to go back to sleep.
***
He finds Aang a month later in the Northern Air Temple, sitting cross-legged in the middle of one of the courtyards. His eyes are closed and his fists pressing against each other in his lap, but when Teo tries to roll by, Aang’s eyes snap open.
“Hey.” Aang smiles brightly. “You ready to go?”
Zuko’s invited Aang and all of their friends to spend the solstice as guests of the Fire Nation, both to instill trust among the people of the world and to provide a much needed distraction to the Fire Lord. Teo’s heard that it’s supposed to be quite an affair. He’d be lying if he said he hasn’t been looking forward to this since he’d first caught sight of that messenger hawk and its gold-ribboned message.
“You know it,” Teo answers. “Is it just you today?”
“Yup, just me and Appa.” Aang looks up into the sky as if expecting the sky-bison to appear at the mere mention of his name. “And Haru too.”
“Cool. Let me just get my stuff, and we can get going.”
“We’re in no hurry.” Aang sits down again and closes his eyes. “I always like coming back here.”
Teo laughs and rushes back to the main temple, explains to his dad not to worry, that they’d already talked about this and he’d given Teo permission, remember? As always, Dad’s half hesitant about letting him go off unsupervised, but eventually he relents. Teo grabs the bag lying under his bed that he’s had packed for a week now. In no time at all, he's back where he belongs, with the air whipping through his hair as Appa flies them out of the Northern Air Temple.
Before Sozin's Comet, a flight from the Northern Air Temple to the Fire Nation would have been almost impossible to make without being attacked. Now, however, Aang flies them at a sedate, meandering pace; frequently laying back on Appa's head as the sky-bison gently floats through the air. They stop whenever Aang feels like buying useless things or when Haru starts getting motion sick from being off of the earth for too long.
They decide to break for the night when the sun starts to sink below the horizon, turning the denser clouds a pale gold. Aang finds a room for them-“finds" because the owner refuses to accept money for harboring the Avatar.
"It is an honor to provide shelter for the Avatar and his friends," the man says. "It is the least we can offer him, for saving the world."
Aang mumbles a sheepish thank-you and goes to find barrels of hay they can feed to Appa. Haru follows Teo into their room, and when Haru moves to help him get out of his chair, Teo holds up his hand and shakes his head, smiling slightly.
"I'm fine, Haru," he says. "I've been learning how to do it on my own."
"Okay," Haru answers, much in the same way Dad did when Teo first refused help. "But if you need me, I'll be over here."
Teo doesn't answer; instead, he focuses on untying the small, precise knot he tied that morning.
The next morning (mid-morning, since none of them wanted to wake up before ten) they spend almost an hour at breakfast speaking with the locals, and so it's nearly noon when they set off again. Teo guesses that peace has a tendency to make people more patient. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Teo himself has always been of the patient, easy-going sort, and so for long stretches of flight that afternoon he contents himself with lying stretched out in Appa's saddle, head cradled in his arms, as he watches the clouds fly them by.
His wheelchair is tucked away unobtrusively to his side, easily within reach. Haru is sitting cross-legged right by Teo's hip, grabbing hold of the edge of the saddle, not looking up from where the dull, brown saddle has apparently become very interesting.
"Does it really bother you that much?"
Haru looks up at that, his cheeks flushed ever so slightly.
"What? Flying?"
Teo nods. Haru shrugs in response.
"It's just…I can't bend up here," he says. "It's a weird feeling." Teo makes a non-committal noise in the back of his throat, not really sure how to respond. “I'm completely out of my element up here,” Haru continues sheepishly. “Literally."
And Teo laughs at that, feeling the noise float through the space between them before it’s swallowed up by the wind. He's about to make a joke about Haru taking everything so seriously when his laughter dies in his throat. He sits up, so abruptly that he sees Haru start slightly at the sudden movement. After an awkward minute where he's too preoccupied to ask for help, he crawls over to the side of the saddle and peers over the edge, where miles of dark swampland surround them.
It's calling to him again.
“Aang,” he calls out sharply, in a voice that doesn't sound like him at all. When Aang turns to look at him, Teo motions impatiently to the swampland beneath them. “We have to stop here.”
Aang watches the swamp for a long minute in silence before Appa changes course and starts to descend. Haru raises his eyebrows at him in a silent question, but Teo just shakes his head, unsure if he could explain himself if he tried.
They don’t really land, since Appa seems hesitant to descend past the uppermost canopy of trees, and anyway there doesn’t look like there is a place to land. They hover over the canopy for over a minute, staring out into the dark trees with a mounting feeling of dread.
“Are you sure you want to stop here?” Haru asks nervously. “It doesn’t look very wheelchair-accessible.”
“It’s not as creepy as it looks,” Aang says. He tries to sound reassuring, but his grin falters a little when two raven-bats swoop screeching by.
“For how long did you want us to stay here?” Haru asks.
Teo watches the way the topmost branches of trees sway in the breeze.
“Not us,” he finally says. “This is something I need to do on my own. I-I feel like I need to do something here. But I don’t know what. Kind of like the swamp is…calling to me. Does that make sense?”
Haru frowns at him, but Aang nods wisely like he’s had first hand experience with weird, unexplainable events. It’s not that far-fetched to assume he has, from all the stories Teo’s heard.
After about half an hour, where Teo feels useless for the first time in years, Aang and Haru manage to get him off of Appa’s saddle and onto a relatively large tree root. When they find a couple of swamp people just heading back to their village after a fishing trip, they agree to take Teo with them to speak with Hugh. From what Teo can gather he’s their quasi-chieftain, the only man to have ever achieved enlightenment in the swamp.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Haru asks once Teo’s secure in the boat.
Teo smiles. He hopes it looks more reassuring than it feels.
“I’m sure. I promise, Haru. I’ll stay safe.”
“We’ll come back for you in a few days,” Aang says reluctantly.
Teo nods, and Aang bows slightly before hopping forty feet straight into the air. He lands on a branch high up in the trees. Haru frowns tightly for a moment, but eventually he mumbles a terse “Be careful, okay?” before creating a muddy, makeshift platform that he rides up out of sight.
“You ready, boy?” one of the swamp people, Du, asks.
Teo looks around at his surroundings; the whole swamp is dark and dank. It’s so humid that even when there’s a slight breeze, it feels like a damp washcloth is pushing up against his face. He hears a faint yip yip somewhere above and immediately feels like he’s made a huge mistake.
“Yeah,” he says. “I’m ready.”
***
"So what brings you to the swamp?" Hugh asks later that night, as the whole tribe gathers around the fireplace.
Teo's handed a huge, mostly-cooked bug-thing. He tries not to look it in the eyes while he takes a bite.
"I can't really say," he answers honestly. He speaks slowly, weighing every word. "I think it has something to do with the solstice."
Hugh nods wisely at that. He takes a drink from the small wooden bowl steaming at his side.
"The spirit of the Banyan-Grove tree's mysterious," he says. "She called me once, and I attained enlightenment. She called to Aang, and she granted him a vision of his future Earthbending teacher. Do you think she's called you too?"
"I don't know. All I know is that something's been calling me, and when we flew over the swamp, I knew I had to come down here."
"It’s two nights ’til the summer solstice," Du says from Hugh's right. "The spirits’re at their strongest then. D’ya reckon she'll grant him a vision, Hugh?"
Hugh blinks before speaking in that slow, thoughtful manner that he has.
"S’not for us to say," is the answer. "If she’s callin’, then you must answer. What you need to do is go to the place where the Banyan-Grove Tree is one with the swamp, and there you may find the answers you seek. But beware. The Spirit of the Tree is fierce, and if you’re not pure of heart, you’ll be lost."
A ringing silence follows that proclamation, and after a moment, one of the swamp benders nudges Hugh and motions to the meat cooking merrily on the fire.
"You want some possum-chicken to go with that soup, Hugh?"
"I would."
Teo laughs, decides that the cooked bug isn't nearly as bad as it looks, and takes another bite.
Later that night he's awoken by a girl's loud laughter. He sits up and runs a hand through his hair, shaking his head to clear it of any lingering sleep. From the embers of the dying fire, Teo can only just make out a tall figure standing on the outskirts of the village, half obscured by the swamp.
"Hello?"
The swamp-benders sleep like a pack of deaf ox-bison, so none of them so much as move when the girl makes a startled half-gasp and disappears into the swamp. Teo pulls himself into his wheelchair uneasily, and carefully follows her into the darkness.
“Hello?” he calls out into the night once he's arranged himself into a boat, uncomfortably aware that he’s alone and virtually helpless should any animals decide to make him a late night snack. Chirping cricket-beetles are his only answer. He takes comfort in the fact that at least the Swampbenders lended him a boat he can actually maneuver, slightly modified so he doesn’t have to use any lower body strength to row.
Teo sighs, wondering how long it’ll take the river to open up wide enough to turn his boat around. He doesn’t relish having to row upstream, but most of the river water here moves so slow it’s nearly stagnant. He doesn’t think it’ll cause too much of a problem.
As if sensing his optimism, the current chooses that precise moment to start speeding up, into a wild torrent around him. The river narrows down until it’s nearly impossible for Teo to use his oars at all. He abandons the oars in favor of gripping the edges of the boat tightly, keeping one eye on his wheelchair while he tries to keep the boat from capsizing. The river veers sharply to the right, and while he manages to keep his boat from crashing into the shore, he doesn’t even see the menacing looking vines until it’s too late. He's got no time to duck properly before they catch his boat and bring it to a violent stop, sending him flying headlong into a wispy-looking tree.
Azula? Is that you? Azula! he hears from somewhere above him, but he can't wonder at the mysterious voice. There’s just a roaring as he hurls through the air, blinding flash of Technicolor pain, and when he lands with a dull thud, he’s swallowed up by darkness.
Hours later, he blearily opens his eyes, a ray of sunlight streaming across his face. Teo groans and rolls onto his side, thankful that he doesn’t have a headache. His boat and wheelchair are both in shambles, lying in a wreck of splintered wood by the innocently flowing river.
“Oh no,” he breathes, sitting up.
That’s when he sees an eerily familiar figure lying sprawled out in the dirt.
There are several things that he notices in very quick succession then. First, he’s not in his body. That itself is enough to freak him out, but when he really looks at his own motionless form, he sees an oozing gash that drips across his forehead and down the side of his face. That wound has started attracting flies, ants and all sort of other tiny, crawling animals (he thinks of the monstrous bug-thing he ate last night for dinner and can’t suppress a disgusted shudder). Easily, it’s one of the grosses things he’s ever seen.
When Teo tries to swipe some of the animals away, his pale translucent arm just slides through the physical body.
But what really freaks him out, more than anything, is that he can move his legs. More than that, he can bend his knees
Miraculously, he hauls himself up-legs supporting him fully and painlessly. Teo laughs out loud, bright and happy, before properly inspecting his physical body to make sure he hasn’t died or something. His hand drifts through the corporeal body again, but his chest rises and falls gently, like he’s in a deep sleep. At least he knows he’s not dead. Teo is still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that he’s not in his body when he hears a strangely familiar voice somewhere in the trees.
“Hello?” a girl’s voice calls out. “Can anyone hear me?”
A girl swings down from one of the topmost trees; Teo’s surprised to see that she’s a weird bluish color too. She catches a vine and slides down until she’s level with Teo, a huge smile on her face.
“Um, hi,” Teo says, unsure what protocol there is for meeting what could possibly be a spirit.
“I’m so glad you can see me!” the girl says happily. “I’ve been trying to get the attention of those strange waterbenders for forever now.”
“Why did you call me here?” Teo asks hesitantly.
The girl’s smile fades, quick as lightning.
“I didn’t call you. Someone called me here.”
“Huh,” Teo says, running a hand over the top of his braid-which would in itself open up all sorts of questions; he can feel a long braid of hair falling neatly to the small of his back. He purses his lips slightly and thinks. “Hugh says that the spirit of the Banyan-Grove tree called me here. Maybe it called you too.”
“Maybe,” the girl says, looking up into the trees and frowning. “But why?”
“I don’t know,” Teo answers. He wonders just how often he’ll have to say that over the course of these next few days.
***
The girl’s name is Ty Lee.
She takes Teo to where her own body lies, not very far from where Teo is; she’s lying in a tangled heap at the base of the same thick tree, vines tangled around her legs.
“I was chasing something that I thought looked like someone I knew,” she says softly, “And I got tangled in some vines and fell from pretty high up. When I woke up, I was like this.”
“Are you hurt?” Teo asks. “I mean. Is your body hurt?”
“I don’t think so,” Ty Lee answers. “I have a huge lump on my forehead from the fall, but that’s it.”
“I don’t get it,” Teo says, grabbing at his head where his goggles normally sit. “When Aang was in the Spirit World, he looked like himself. Why do we look like this?”
He motions to his tail, which flicks up anxiously as if in response.
“Is that where you think we are then?” she asks. “The Spirit World?”
“How else would you explain it?” Teo shrugs. “I mean, it’s not so impossible to believe, right?”
Ty Lee looks dubious about that assertion, but before she can answer, a shadow swoops over them, with a loud, echoing shriek following it. An enormous creature flies down to them and lands heavily about two meters away. It blinks its four eyes serenely and watches them.
“What is that?” Ty Lee asks, taking a hesitant step forward.
When the animal doesn’t look like it’s going to attack her in a mad rampage, she comes up to it and extends her hand, palm up, for it to inspect.
“It looks like some kind of lizard-eagle.” Teo approaches it warily. “But it’s huge! I’ve never seen any lizard this big.”
“Look at its markings.” Ty Lee motions to where the bright orange and yellow contrast sharply against the black half-stripes along its wings and back. It shakes its head, much in the way an ostrich-horse would to get someone’s attention. The bright blue crests on its beak flash in the light. It brings its thick neck into contact with Ty Lee’s hand, and she gasps. “It wants us to get on its back,” she whispers.
“Are you sure about that?” Teo asks, watching the way its back wings flare open in seeming agitation.
“Yeah. I think it wants to take us somewhere.”
Ty Lee’s already jumped onto its back, so Teo sighs and climbs up behind her, still slightly awkward about being able to use his legs. The creature spreads both sets of wings and shoots straight up into the sky.
They break the canopy of trees in seconds, and still they continue upwards. From up here, Teo can see that they’re in the heart of the swamp, and the huge tree-the Banyan-Grove tree-looms around them as they ascend. Pretty soon, they’re miles above the swamp, and eventually they reach a huge construction of boulders hovering in the sky, each with a tiny patch of spirit-forest growing at the top. On the largest one is a shadow of the Banyan-Grove tree, but it’s…brighter somehow. The leaves and vines that swing down from it are bright, almost as if they shine with an inner light, and the trunk of the tree is so bright it's nearly white.
The animal lands in the shade of this spirit-tree. Waiting for them there is a woman. Her skin is dark blue, and around her face and down her arms she has distinct stripe-like markings in a paler, almost white, shade of blue. Her eyes are wide and golden. Her dark hair lies in tiny braids that hang down to nearly her hips. Along her nose she has a light smattering of pale freckles.
When they both jump off the animal’s back, it moves to stand beside the woman, who pats it absently along the neck. She watches them unblinkingly for a moment before speaking.
“My name is Eywa,” she says. “I am the Spirit of the swamp. Toruk has brought you here because he thinks you are worthy. What have you to say to this?”
“So you’re the one who’s been calling us,” Teo says. His fingers itch to grab hold of his brake; he didn’t know that had become a nervous habit until now. “What do you want with us?”
“Are you pure of spirit?” she asks, completely ignoring Teo’s question. Her eyes flicker from Ty Lee to Teo and back. Eywa raises her arm and beckons Ty Lee forward. “Speak.”
“Um, okay.” Ty Lee’s smile wavers under the intense scrutiny of Eywa. “I’m Ty Lee.”
“Do you believe yourself to be true of heart?”
“I don’t know,” Ty Lee says, looking down at the floor. “I guess I’ve never thought about it.”
“You do not know,” Eywa repeats, and Ty Lee flinches back like she’s been burned. “Let us find out together, then.”
With one hand she grabs Ty Lee by the wrist, and the other hand she places on the tree directly behind her. Eywa’s eyes flash for a second, but other than that, Teo can’t see any change in them. The lizard-bird-dragon-thing, Toruk, growls deep in its throat, and Teo takes a few steps back just in case.
“So silent, this one,” Eywa says, and suddenly, Ty Lee disappears in a flash, without so much as making a sound.
“Ty Lee!” Teo rushes to Eywa when she opens her eyes. “What did you do with her?”
“She has been judged worthy and has been given the Gift,” she says. “We must hurry. The solstice is waning.”
“Wait, I don’t understand,” Teo says, but by then she’s already grabbed his wrist and placed her palm against the Banyan-Grove tree.
He hears all these voices in his mind then; they tell him that they are the Tree of Souls and that they will search his soul and see if he is worthy.
“Worthy of what?” Teo asks aloud.
“The ways of the earth, of water, of air and fire do not belong to any one person,” Eywa says beside him, her voice sounding like she is many people all at once. “We are all of us connected. Can you feel it?”
He does. He feels the way the swamp is one giant living organism, the way his cousins from the Water Tribes walk about their mother earth, the way their brother wind sifts through trees from the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation alike. How air blows over the vast oceans, gives life to forests, brings death to fire.
The Tree of Souls tells him that their voices make the wind blow, that their laughter makes drafts across the sea, that their screams cause storms and tornadoes. They ask him if he is pure of spirit, if his heart is ready for this knowledge. Teo doesn’t know; how can he know if this amazing gift is right for him?
That is the correct answer, our son, the Tree of Souls whispers into his mind. Let your spirit become unbound from the ties that bind you to the earth, but remember that we are all of us connected.
“It is done,” Eywa says. “Use the Gift wisely, Son of Wind.”
When she lets go of his wrist, Teo feels like he’s flying. The wind rushes through his hair, and he knows that he’s falling, falling all the way back down to the swamp. He closes his eyes and waits for the inevitable splat, but it never comes.
***
“Teo? Teo, can you hear me?”
“How long do you think he’s been lying here?”
“Look at what happened to his chair! He’s lucky he didn’t die.”
Teo groans and rolls onto his back, squinting against the bright afternoon sunlight. Katara, Aang and Sokka all hover anxiously over him, Katara with her hands covered in glowing water.
“What happened?” he asks. Katara offers him a soothing drink of water at the sound of his voice. When he rubs at his face he notes with a small bite of disappointment that he’s back in his human body again. Could it all just have been a dream? He can't move his legs again. “Why are you guys back so soon?”
“Teo, it’s been days since Haru and I dropped you off out here,” Aang answers nervously. “Just when did you hit your head?”
“I don’t know.” When he tries to sit up, Katara holds him down gently. “Yesterday? It was two nights before the solstice, I think.”
“The solstice was yesterday, Teo,” Sokka says.
“What? No way,” Teo says. “I guess I must have dreamt the whole thing.”
“What ‘whole thing’?” Katara asks, but at that moment someone else calls out from the other side of the Banyan-Grove tree.
“Teo? Where are you?”
Sokka, Katara and Aang all tense up suddenly, but Teo laughs, so relieved that it wasn’t just some concussion-induced dream.
“I’m over here, Ty Lee!”
“How do you know Ty Lee?” Sokka asks incredulously.
“We kinda went on this spirit journey or something? I don’t know. It’s kind of complicated.”
Teo pushes away Katara’s stilling hand and sits up, searching the higher tree branches for a glimpse of Ty Lee. She pops up on a branch about twenty feet off of the ground. When Teo waves both his arms to gain her attention, he feels a weird tingly sensation around his palm and fingers. He rubs his thumbs against the pads of his fingertips, wondering.
Use the gift wisely, Son of Wind, Eywa had said. Did that really mean-?
Teo watches as Ty Lee jumps from her spot on the tree branch, and just before she hits the ground, a small whorl of air softens her landing. Aang, Katara, and Sokka look amazed. Teo's grin feels like it might jump off his face.
“Oh no way,” he says.
He pulls off his half-gloves and, in a great burst of excitement, feels a stream of cool air form between his palms and shoot out in a concentric wave around him. The three of them turn almost in unison back to gape at Teo. Behind them, Ty Lee is running towards them with all the excitement of a hurricane.
“What happened out here?” Aang finally asks.
“I don’t know,” Teo answers happily. “But I think it was the start of the rest of my life.”
Author: alpha_hydra
Beta: the amazing lavanyasix ; thank you so much! You really kicked this fic into shape!
Rating: G/Gen
Word count: 5371
Warnings: Vaguely x-over-y with James Cameron’s Avatar, but only in the vaguest sense of the term. Like I mostly butcher Avatar mysticism to suite my own A:tLA related needs; this probably requires a warning. Also it helps if you've seen “The Swamp”
disclaimer: Avatar: the Last Airbender and all it's related people, places, events and ideas are property of Nickelodeon, Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko and probably tons of other wonderfully talented people who are Most Decidedly Not Me. Likewise, Avatar is James Cameron's creation and very much Not Mine. I am making no money off of this fan-work and no copyright infringement is intended.
summary: Go to the place where the Banyan-Grove Tree is one with the swamp, and there you may find the answers you seek. But beware, for the Spirit of the Tree is fierce, and if you are not pure of heart, you will be lost.
A/N: This was written for the avatarbigbang minibang! It was a reverse sort of minibang where the arts came first and authors wrote short fic inspired by the art. If you guys haven't already, I would definitely recommend heading over to avatarbigbang and browsing through all the recently posted big bangs! They're all pretty awesome :D Anyway, I got to base this not-quite-short fic on teamabodo 's awesome artwork Dreams of Flying. There was originally a word limit of 5k, but the kindly mod decided not to frown at my inability to follow simple directions D:
A sunny shaft I did behold,
from sky to earth it slanted:
And poised therein a bird so bold
Sweet bird, thou wert enchanted!
--Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Song” from Zapolya
He stops at the top of a hillside early one afternoon, smiling as The Duke tumbles to the bottom in a rush of laughter and high spirits. Pipsqueak is already waiting at the foot of the hill, his whole body shaking with the force of his laughter. Haru is a little way behind them. Teo can hear his soft, assured voice as he speaks with Toph and the Avatar. Teo likes that they still do this, that all of them can go out every once and a while and still have fun, that the war didn’t manage to suck the life out of everyone Teo had learned to love. He takes a deep breath and smiles to himself a little, feeling the wind shift through his bangs and rustle the sleeves of his shirt.
There’s a flurry of movement beside him as Aang hops up into the air. He glides down the hill in lazy half-circles. Teo traces the movement with his eyes, his ever-present smile slipping for just a moment.
“You waiting on us?” Haru asks quietly, his hand coming to rest on Teo’s shoulder.
Teo looks up at him eyes before laughing a little and running a hand over his goggles, a nervous habit he’s picked up over the years that he hasn’t quite been able to shake.
“Maybe,” he says, watching the way Toph rolls down the hillside in much the same way The Duke did earlier. “I was just feeling the wind,” he finishes.
Haru nods sagely at that, a little quirk on his lips that tells Teo he doesn’t know exactly what Teo means.
“Well, come on.” Haru squeezes his shoulder slightly before letting go. “If we don’t hurry we’ll get left behind.”
Teo laughs and rushes off after their group, the wind sharp and bright against his skin.
“Who’s getting left behind?” Teo calls over his shoulder, laughs louder when Haru says something lost to the wind.
He gets a weird feeling of vertigo at the base of the hill, a strange emptiness that slams into him like a punch to the gut. It leaves him breathless for a second, unsure of himself as he looks around wildly for something to stabilize him. But then, just as quickly, the feeling vanishes. All that’s left is a nagging feeling that he’s supposed to go somewhere.
He shakes his head roughly and rushes after Haru, who’s overtaken him, which simply won’t do at all.
***
Teo is flying.
His hands grip tightly on the wood of a beautiful blue glider, his feet curled up securely along the tail, and when he glides through the sky, it’s easy with the confidence of years of practice, finding a current of warm air and letting it pull him up hundreds of feet into the sky.
Something is calling him.
Not that he can literally hear a voice calling out to him, but there’s a weird tugging in his heart, a feeling that he should go somewhere, that he needs to be there-wherever “there” is-right now. Instinctively, he follows it. He drops out of the air current, uses a quick flick of his tail (his tail?) to abruptly change course as he glides over miles of untamed wildlife.
Eventually, he reaches an isolated, imposing-looking swamp. He lands lightly on the top of a tree, gazing out over the canopy into the heart of the swamp. A single, enormous tree looms in the distance, waiting for him. He closes the glider with a flick of his wrist, casts one last look at the tree, and jumps.
It’s a long way down, but he makes a bubble of air to cushion his fall, and when he lands, it’s in a deep crouch, the tips of his fingers lightly grazing the bark of an enormous tree root. And then, in a very unremarkable way, he starts to run. His feet barely seem to touch the ground as he races into the heart of the swamp, doesn’t even upset puddles of water as he goes.
He thinks suddenly that something is not quite right, and he quickens his pace in response, wanting to reach the mother-tree before-
Before what?
His footing slips on a slick rock. When he splashes into the river, he knows.
I can’t walk, he thinks to himself, and that’s when he wakes up.
Teo’s eyes flicker open, and when he looks up at the ceiling, lit pale gray by the waxing moon outside his window, he can’t stem the overwhelming crush of disappointment that grips him.
He dreams often enough, sure. Teo didn't used to mind so much, back when the dreams were the only way he could keep his hope alive, when he lived in the isolated, sometimes oppressive island of an ancient air temple, but now he can't stand them. They're always the same, too. Even before his Dad had modified a glider for Teo's wheelchair, he'd been dreaming of soaring through the sky, like the etchings that adorned his home.
Mostly, he's afraid that one night, he'll realize that he's dreaming, and won't want to wake up. But he's not had one of those amazing dreams for about a year now-that he can remember-and so Teo doesn't worry much about them.
Well, except for tonight. But tonight’s dream was different. He was flying yes, but this time, he was unequivocally an airbender. This time, he had a purpose. He still feels an echo of that incessant tugging, like a rope is wrapped around his navel and is pulling him to some nameless swamp. Which is silly. A swamp can’t call out to people. He turns to his side, traces the cracks in the temple wall with his eyes and tries to go back to sleep.
***
He finds Aang a month later in the Northern Air Temple, sitting cross-legged in the middle of one of the courtyards. His eyes are closed and his fists pressing against each other in his lap, but when Teo tries to roll by, Aang’s eyes snap open.
“Hey.” Aang smiles brightly. “You ready to go?”
Zuko’s invited Aang and all of their friends to spend the solstice as guests of the Fire Nation, both to instill trust among the people of the world and to provide a much needed distraction to the Fire Lord. Teo’s heard that it’s supposed to be quite an affair. He’d be lying if he said he hasn’t been looking forward to this since he’d first caught sight of that messenger hawk and its gold-ribboned message.
“You know it,” Teo answers. “Is it just you today?”
“Yup, just me and Appa.” Aang looks up into the sky as if expecting the sky-bison to appear at the mere mention of his name. “And Haru too.”
“Cool. Let me just get my stuff, and we can get going.”
“We’re in no hurry.” Aang sits down again and closes his eyes. “I always like coming back here.”
Teo laughs and rushes back to the main temple, explains to his dad not to worry, that they’d already talked about this and he’d given Teo permission, remember? As always, Dad’s half hesitant about letting him go off unsupervised, but eventually he relents. Teo grabs the bag lying under his bed that he’s had packed for a week now. In no time at all, he's back where he belongs, with the air whipping through his hair as Appa flies them out of the Northern Air Temple.
Before Sozin's Comet, a flight from the Northern Air Temple to the Fire Nation would have been almost impossible to make without being attacked. Now, however, Aang flies them at a sedate, meandering pace; frequently laying back on Appa's head as the sky-bison gently floats through the air. They stop whenever Aang feels like buying useless things or when Haru starts getting motion sick from being off of the earth for too long.
They decide to break for the night when the sun starts to sink below the horizon, turning the denser clouds a pale gold. Aang finds a room for them-“finds" because the owner refuses to accept money for harboring the Avatar.
"It is an honor to provide shelter for the Avatar and his friends," the man says. "It is the least we can offer him, for saving the world."
Aang mumbles a sheepish thank-you and goes to find barrels of hay they can feed to Appa. Haru follows Teo into their room, and when Haru moves to help him get out of his chair, Teo holds up his hand and shakes his head, smiling slightly.
"I'm fine, Haru," he says. "I've been learning how to do it on my own."
"Okay," Haru answers, much in the same way Dad did when Teo first refused help. "But if you need me, I'll be over here."
Teo doesn't answer; instead, he focuses on untying the small, precise knot he tied that morning.
The next morning (mid-morning, since none of them wanted to wake up before ten) they spend almost an hour at breakfast speaking with the locals, and so it's nearly noon when they set off again. Teo guesses that peace has a tendency to make people more patient. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Teo himself has always been of the patient, easy-going sort, and so for long stretches of flight that afternoon he contents himself with lying stretched out in Appa's saddle, head cradled in his arms, as he watches the clouds fly them by.
His wheelchair is tucked away unobtrusively to his side, easily within reach. Haru is sitting cross-legged right by Teo's hip, grabbing hold of the edge of the saddle, not looking up from where the dull, brown saddle has apparently become very interesting.
"Does it really bother you that much?"
Haru looks up at that, his cheeks flushed ever so slightly.
"What? Flying?"
Teo nods. Haru shrugs in response.
"It's just…I can't bend up here," he says. "It's a weird feeling." Teo makes a non-committal noise in the back of his throat, not really sure how to respond. “I'm completely out of my element up here,” Haru continues sheepishly. “Literally."
And Teo laughs at that, feeling the noise float through the space between them before it’s swallowed up by the wind. He's about to make a joke about Haru taking everything so seriously when his laughter dies in his throat. He sits up, so abruptly that he sees Haru start slightly at the sudden movement. After an awkward minute where he's too preoccupied to ask for help, he crawls over to the side of the saddle and peers over the edge, where miles of dark swampland surround them.
It's calling to him again.
“Aang,” he calls out sharply, in a voice that doesn't sound like him at all. When Aang turns to look at him, Teo motions impatiently to the swampland beneath them. “We have to stop here.”
Aang watches the swamp for a long minute in silence before Appa changes course and starts to descend. Haru raises his eyebrows at him in a silent question, but Teo just shakes his head, unsure if he could explain himself if he tried.
They don’t really land, since Appa seems hesitant to descend past the uppermost canopy of trees, and anyway there doesn’t look like there is a place to land. They hover over the canopy for over a minute, staring out into the dark trees with a mounting feeling of dread.
“Are you sure you want to stop here?” Haru asks nervously. “It doesn’t look very wheelchair-accessible.”
“It’s not as creepy as it looks,” Aang says. He tries to sound reassuring, but his grin falters a little when two raven-bats swoop screeching by.
“For how long did you want us to stay here?” Haru asks.
Teo watches the way the topmost branches of trees sway in the breeze.
“Not us,” he finally says. “This is something I need to do on my own. I-I feel like I need to do something here. But I don’t know what. Kind of like the swamp is…calling to me. Does that make sense?”
Haru frowns at him, but Aang nods wisely like he’s had first hand experience with weird, unexplainable events. It’s not that far-fetched to assume he has, from all the stories Teo’s heard.
After about half an hour, where Teo feels useless for the first time in years, Aang and Haru manage to get him off of Appa’s saddle and onto a relatively large tree root. When they find a couple of swamp people just heading back to their village after a fishing trip, they agree to take Teo with them to speak with Hugh. From what Teo can gather he’s their quasi-chieftain, the only man to have ever achieved enlightenment in the swamp.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Haru asks once Teo’s secure in the boat.
Teo smiles. He hopes it looks more reassuring than it feels.
“I’m sure. I promise, Haru. I’ll stay safe.”
“We’ll come back for you in a few days,” Aang says reluctantly.
Teo nods, and Aang bows slightly before hopping forty feet straight into the air. He lands on a branch high up in the trees. Haru frowns tightly for a moment, but eventually he mumbles a terse “Be careful, okay?” before creating a muddy, makeshift platform that he rides up out of sight.
“You ready, boy?” one of the swamp people, Du, asks.
Teo looks around at his surroundings; the whole swamp is dark and dank. It’s so humid that even when there’s a slight breeze, it feels like a damp washcloth is pushing up against his face. He hears a faint yip yip somewhere above and immediately feels like he’s made a huge mistake.
“Yeah,” he says. “I’m ready.”
***
"So what brings you to the swamp?" Hugh asks later that night, as the whole tribe gathers around the fireplace.
Teo's handed a huge, mostly-cooked bug-thing. He tries not to look it in the eyes while he takes a bite.
"I can't really say," he answers honestly. He speaks slowly, weighing every word. "I think it has something to do with the solstice."
Hugh nods wisely at that. He takes a drink from the small wooden bowl steaming at his side.
"The spirit of the Banyan-Grove tree's mysterious," he says. "She called me once, and I attained enlightenment. She called to Aang, and she granted him a vision of his future Earthbending teacher. Do you think she's called you too?"
"I don't know. All I know is that something's been calling me, and when we flew over the swamp, I knew I had to come down here."
"It’s two nights ’til the summer solstice," Du says from Hugh's right. "The spirits’re at their strongest then. D’ya reckon she'll grant him a vision, Hugh?"
Hugh blinks before speaking in that slow, thoughtful manner that he has.
"S’not for us to say," is the answer. "If she’s callin’, then you must answer. What you need to do is go to the place where the Banyan-Grove Tree is one with the swamp, and there you may find the answers you seek. But beware. The Spirit of the Tree is fierce, and if you’re not pure of heart, you’ll be lost."
A ringing silence follows that proclamation, and after a moment, one of the swamp benders nudges Hugh and motions to the meat cooking merrily on the fire.
"You want some possum-chicken to go with that soup, Hugh?"
"I would."
Teo laughs, decides that the cooked bug isn't nearly as bad as it looks, and takes another bite.
Later that night he's awoken by a girl's loud laughter. He sits up and runs a hand through his hair, shaking his head to clear it of any lingering sleep. From the embers of the dying fire, Teo can only just make out a tall figure standing on the outskirts of the village, half obscured by the swamp.
"Hello?"
The swamp-benders sleep like a pack of deaf ox-bison, so none of them so much as move when the girl makes a startled half-gasp and disappears into the swamp. Teo pulls himself into his wheelchair uneasily, and carefully follows her into the darkness.
“Hello?” he calls out into the night once he's arranged himself into a boat, uncomfortably aware that he’s alone and virtually helpless should any animals decide to make him a late night snack. Chirping cricket-beetles are his only answer. He takes comfort in the fact that at least the Swampbenders lended him a boat he can actually maneuver, slightly modified so he doesn’t have to use any lower body strength to row.
Teo sighs, wondering how long it’ll take the river to open up wide enough to turn his boat around. He doesn’t relish having to row upstream, but most of the river water here moves so slow it’s nearly stagnant. He doesn’t think it’ll cause too much of a problem.
As if sensing his optimism, the current chooses that precise moment to start speeding up, into a wild torrent around him. The river narrows down until it’s nearly impossible for Teo to use his oars at all. He abandons the oars in favor of gripping the edges of the boat tightly, keeping one eye on his wheelchair while he tries to keep the boat from capsizing. The river veers sharply to the right, and while he manages to keep his boat from crashing into the shore, he doesn’t even see the menacing looking vines until it’s too late. He's got no time to duck properly before they catch his boat and bring it to a violent stop, sending him flying headlong into a wispy-looking tree.
Azula? Is that you? Azula! he hears from somewhere above him, but he can't wonder at the mysterious voice. There’s just a roaring as he hurls through the air, blinding flash of Technicolor pain, and when he lands with a dull thud, he’s swallowed up by darkness.
Hours later, he blearily opens his eyes, a ray of sunlight streaming across his face. Teo groans and rolls onto his side, thankful that he doesn’t have a headache. His boat and wheelchair are both in shambles, lying in a wreck of splintered wood by the innocently flowing river.
“Oh no,” he breathes, sitting up.
That’s when he sees an eerily familiar figure lying sprawled out in the dirt.
There are several things that he notices in very quick succession then. First, he’s not in his body. That itself is enough to freak him out, but when he really looks at his own motionless form, he sees an oozing gash that drips across his forehead and down the side of his face. That wound has started attracting flies, ants and all sort of other tiny, crawling animals (he thinks of the monstrous bug-thing he ate last night for dinner and can’t suppress a disgusted shudder). Easily, it’s one of the grosses things he’s ever seen.
When Teo tries to swipe some of the animals away, his pale translucent arm just slides through the physical body.
But what really freaks him out, more than anything, is that he can move his legs. More than that, he can bend his knees
Miraculously, he hauls himself up-legs supporting him fully and painlessly. Teo laughs out loud, bright and happy, before properly inspecting his physical body to make sure he hasn’t died or something. His hand drifts through the corporeal body again, but his chest rises and falls gently, like he’s in a deep sleep. At least he knows he’s not dead. Teo is still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that he’s not in his body when he hears a strangely familiar voice somewhere in the trees.
“Hello?” a girl’s voice calls out. “Can anyone hear me?”
A girl swings down from one of the topmost trees; Teo’s surprised to see that she’s a weird bluish color too. She catches a vine and slides down until she’s level with Teo, a huge smile on her face.
“Um, hi,” Teo says, unsure what protocol there is for meeting what could possibly be a spirit.
“I’m so glad you can see me!” the girl says happily. “I’ve been trying to get the attention of those strange waterbenders for forever now.”
“Why did you call me here?” Teo asks hesitantly.
The girl’s smile fades, quick as lightning.
“I didn’t call you. Someone called me here.”
“Huh,” Teo says, running a hand over the top of his braid-which would in itself open up all sorts of questions; he can feel a long braid of hair falling neatly to the small of his back. He purses his lips slightly and thinks. “Hugh says that the spirit of the Banyan-Grove tree called me here. Maybe it called you too.”
“Maybe,” the girl says, looking up into the trees and frowning. “But why?”
“I don’t know,” Teo answers. He wonders just how often he’ll have to say that over the course of these next few days.
***
The girl’s name is Ty Lee.
She takes Teo to where her own body lies, not very far from where Teo is; she’s lying in a tangled heap at the base of the same thick tree, vines tangled around her legs.
“I was chasing something that I thought looked like someone I knew,” she says softly, “And I got tangled in some vines and fell from pretty high up. When I woke up, I was like this.”
“Are you hurt?” Teo asks. “I mean. Is your body hurt?”
“I don’t think so,” Ty Lee answers. “I have a huge lump on my forehead from the fall, but that’s it.”
“I don’t get it,” Teo says, grabbing at his head where his goggles normally sit. “When Aang was in the Spirit World, he looked like himself. Why do we look like this?”
He motions to his tail, which flicks up anxiously as if in response.
“Is that where you think we are then?” she asks. “The Spirit World?”
“How else would you explain it?” Teo shrugs. “I mean, it’s not so impossible to believe, right?”
Ty Lee looks dubious about that assertion, but before she can answer, a shadow swoops over them, with a loud, echoing shriek following it. An enormous creature flies down to them and lands heavily about two meters away. It blinks its four eyes serenely and watches them.
“What is that?” Ty Lee asks, taking a hesitant step forward.
When the animal doesn’t look like it’s going to attack her in a mad rampage, she comes up to it and extends her hand, palm up, for it to inspect.
“It looks like some kind of lizard-eagle.” Teo approaches it warily. “But it’s huge! I’ve never seen any lizard this big.”
“Look at its markings.” Ty Lee motions to where the bright orange and yellow contrast sharply against the black half-stripes along its wings and back. It shakes its head, much in the way an ostrich-horse would to get someone’s attention. The bright blue crests on its beak flash in the light. It brings its thick neck into contact with Ty Lee’s hand, and she gasps. “It wants us to get on its back,” she whispers.
“Are you sure about that?” Teo asks, watching the way its back wings flare open in seeming agitation.
“Yeah. I think it wants to take us somewhere.”
Ty Lee’s already jumped onto its back, so Teo sighs and climbs up behind her, still slightly awkward about being able to use his legs. The creature spreads both sets of wings and shoots straight up into the sky.
They break the canopy of trees in seconds, and still they continue upwards. From up here, Teo can see that they’re in the heart of the swamp, and the huge tree-the Banyan-Grove tree-looms around them as they ascend. Pretty soon, they’re miles above the swamp, and eventually they reach a huge construction of boulders hovering in the sky, each with a tiny patch of spirit-forest growing at the top. On the largest one is a shadow of the Banyan-Grove tree, but it’s…brighter somehow. The leaves and vines that swing down from it are bright, almost as if they shine with an inner light, and the trunk of the tree is so bright it's nearly white.
The animal lands in the shade of this spirit-tree. Waiting for them there is a woman. Her skin is dark blue, and around her face and down her arms she has distinct stripe-like markings in a paler, almost white, shade of blue. Her eyes are wide and golden. Her dark hair lies in tiny braids that hang down to nearly her hips. Along her nose she has a light smattering of pale freckles.
When they both jump off the animal’s back, it moves to stand beside the woman, who pats it absently along the neck. She watches them unblinkingly for a moment before speaking.
“My name is Eywa,” she says. “I am the Spirit of the swamp. Toruk has brought you here because he thinks you are worthy. What have you to say to this?”
“So you’re the one who’s been calling us,” Teo says. His fingers itch to grab hold of his brake; he didn’t know that had become a nervous habit until now. “What do you want with us?”
“Are you pure of spirit?” she asks, completely ignoring Teo’s question. Her eyes flicker from Ty Lee to Teo and back. Eywa raises her arm and beckons Ty Lee forward. “Speak.”
“Um, okay.” Ty Lee’s smile wavers under the intense scrutiny of Eywa. “I’m Ty Lee.”
“Do you believe yourself to be true of heart?”
“I don’t know,” Ty Lee says, looking down at the floor. “I guess I’ve never thought about it.”
“You do not know,” Eywa repeats, and Ty Lee flinches back like she’s been burned. “Let us find out together, then.”
With one hand she grabs Ty Lee by the wrist, and the other hand she places on the tree directly behind her. Eywa’s eyes flash for a second, but other than that, Teo can’t see any change in them. The lizard-bird-dragon-thing, Toruk, growls deep in its throat, and Teo takes a few steps back just in case.
“So silent, this one,” Eywa says, and suddenly, Ty Lee disappears in a flash, without so much as making a sound.
“Ty Lee!” Teo rushes to Eywa when she opens her eyes. “What did you do with her?”
“She has been judged worthy and has been given the Gift,” she says. “We must hurry. The solstice is waning.”
“Wait, I don’t understand,” Teo says, but by then she’s already grabbed his wrist and placed her palm against the Banyan-Grove tree.
He hears all these voices in his mind then; they tell him that they are the Tree of Souls and that they will search his soul and see if he is worthy.
“Worthy of what?” Teo asks aloud.
“The ways of the earth, of water, of air and fire do not belong to any one person,” Eywa says beside him, her voice sounding like she is many people all at once. “We are all of us connected. Can you feel it?”
He does. He feels the way the swamp is one giant living organism, the way his cousins from the Water Tribes walk about their mother earth, the way their brother wind sifts through trees from the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation alike. How air blows over the vast oceans, gives life to forests, brings death to fire.
The Tree of Souls tells him that their voices make the wind blow, that their laughter makes drafts across the sea, that their screams cause storms and tornadoes. They ask him if he is pure of spirit, if his heart is ready for this knowledge. Teo doesn’t know; how can he know if this amazing gift is right for him?
That is the correct answer, our son, the Tree of Souls whispers into his mind. Let your spirit become unbound from the ties that bind you to the earth, but remember that we are all of us connected.
“It is done,” Eywa says. “Use the Gift wisely, Son of Wind.”
When she lets go of his wrist, Teo feels like he’s flying. The wind rushes through his hair, and he knows that he’s falling, falling all the way back down to the swamp. He closes his eyes and waits for the inevitable splat, but it never comes.
***
“Teo? Teo, can you hear me?”
“How long do you think he’s been lying here?”
“Look at what happened to his chair! He’s lucky he didn’t die.”
Teo groans and rolls onto his back, squinting against the bright afternoon sunlight. Katara, Aang and Sokka all hover anxiously over him, Katara with her hands covered in glowing water.
“What happened?” he asks. Katara offers him a soothing drink of water at the sound of his voice. When he rubs at his face he notes with a small bite of disappointment that he’s back in his human body again. Could it all just have been a dream? He can't move his legs again. “Why are you guys back so soon?”
“Teo, it’s been days since Haru and I dropped you off out here,” Aang answers nervously. “Just when did you hit your head?”
“I don’t know.” When he tries to sit up, Katara holds him down gently. “Yesterday? It was two nights before the solstice, I think.”
“The solstice was yesterday, Teo,” Sokka says.
“What? No way,” Teo says. “I guess I must have dreamt the whole thing.”
“What ‘whole thing’?” Katara asks, but at that moment someone else calls out from the other side of the Banyan-Grove tree.
“Teo? Where are you?”
Sokka, Katara and Aang all tense up suddenly, but Teo laughs, so relieved that it wasn’t just some concussion-induced dream.
“I’m over here, Ty Lee!”
“How do you know Ty Lee?” Sokka asks incredulously.
“We kinda went on this spirit journey or something? I don’t know. It’s kind of complicated.”
Teo pushes away Katara’s stilling hand and sits up, searching the higher tree branches for a glimpse of Ty Lee. She pops up on a branch about twenty feet off of the ground. When Teo waves both his arms to gain her attention, he feels a weird tingly sensation around his palm and fingers. He rubs his thumbs against the pads of his fingertips, wondering.
Use the gift wisely, Son of Wind, Eywa had said. Did that really mean-?
Teo watches as Ty Lee jumps from her spot on the tree branch, and just before she hits the ground, a small whorl of air softens her landing. Aang, Katara, and Sokka look amazed. Teo's grin feels like it might jump off his face.
“Oh no way,” he says.
He pulls off his half-gloves and, in a great burst of excitement, feels a stream of cool air form between his palms and shoot out in a concentric wave around him. The three of them turn almost in unison back to gape at Teo. Behind them, Ty Lee is running towards them with all the excitement of a hurricane.
“What happened out here?” Aang finally asks.
“I don’t know,” Teo answers happily. “But I think it was the start of the rest of my life.”