Fanfiction: Lioness
Title: Lioness
Author: Loopy777
Summary: There were many battles and tragedies, when the Air Nomads died. This is one of them.
Word Count: 1,481
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Genocide and Violence
Characters/Animals: Original Characters, Sky Bison & Dragons
Written For: Avatar Spirit Forum's Drabble Contest- "Motherhood" Prompt
LIONESS
"That's what moms are like. If you mess with their babies, they'll bite you back. "
- Lady Ursa, shortly before her exile from the Fire Nation for the crimes of Murder, Treason, Conspiracy, and Loving Her Son
The annihilation of the Air Nomads, their culture, and their every resource was proceeding apace. There was a good reason for this. The attack had been in the making for over a decade, with the Fire Nation's greatest military minds poring over all available intelligence about the Nomads, and deploying the full strength of the military against them. Plus, the influence of The Comet couldn't be ignored. The attack force consisted primarily of Firebenders, and each and every one of them was currently capable of unleashing as much power as a fully realized Avatar. The Comet would be in the sky for another few hours.
In that time, an entire Nation would die.
There were many tragedies that day. One of note occurred at the Eastern Air Temple, at the Sunrise Launch. That was the doorway and balcony nearest to the Bison Stables, where Airbenders would ride their mounts into the newborn day.
No more.
The portal had been collapsed, stone chunks of the ancient temple now sealing another possible escape for burning Nomads of all ages. Some of the temple's residents were still making their way out of that side of the temple, though. Young Sky Bison calves, as long as a grown human but only as tall as a child, were the perfect size to slip through the window gaps spread across the stables. While a Nomad would likely find the holes too small to fly through with an extended glider, a speeding calf could slip right out and into the free air without even a running takeoff.
That's why the Dragonmount was there.
He was but a common Firebender in skill and rank, but this one had proven adept enough at handling the military's dragons to be trained to ride them in battle. His job was simple, to kill everything that tried to escape from this side of the temple. Everything, human or otherwise.
It paid to be thorough.
Empowered by the comet, all he needed was a single jet of flame to blast each calf out of the sky. They died instantly, their bodies half ash when the fire stream ceased. Each fist launched a blast large enough to completely encapsulate a young bison. One tried to dodge, but the air was super-heated and the calf's fur burst into flame. It fell from the sky screeching.
That's what did it.
The rubble blocking the Sunrise Launch weighed several tons, and the stone was made from the bones of the mountains, far harder than flesh. It could not be broken. Yet a massive thud reverberated through the rocks, shaking free dust, echoing through the air.
The Dragonmount circled around for a look.
Another thud sounded.
Some of the rocks moved.
Somewhere in the distance, the screech of a jet of flame cut through the air.
A roar, a horrible and primal expression of fury, burst out from the stable windows. The flying serpent beneath the Firebender shuddered.
The Sunrise Launch was consumed in an explosion. Dust and rocks were flung outward, propelled not by fire, but by the transferred force of a fifteen-ton flying bison that was suffering horribly and couldn't take it anymore. Sengemo, the Sky Mother, 200 years old, had answered the cry of her dying offspring. And she wasn't slowing down as she sailed straight over the Launch's balcony and towards the Dragonmount.
The serpent roared a warning. The Firebender tried to blink his way back to coherent thought.
Sengemo, with her recognizable broken right horn, was the progenitor of all the tame Bison given to the Air Nomad children to be their animal guides. Other temples maintained their own herds, but the Eastern Air Temple was where every Airbending child journeyed to bond with one of Sengemo's babies. She watched as they established a loving trust with their new human brothers and sisters, and flew off to a happy and fulfilling life. She led as satisfied an existence as a Sky Bison could.
Now, her latest babies were being lit on fire and horribly killed by invaders.
To say she was mad would be a vast understatement. Language has no words to describe the furious urgency of Sengemo's despair, fueled by eons of instinct and natural conditioning that could be best summarized as, "Protect! Your! Young!" Sengemo had been forced to witness the deaths of many of her children in the last hour, and her intelligent Sky Bison mind could deduce that more such slaughter was going on everywhere around her. Worst of all, she couldn't do anything about it.
But she could sure try.
Faster than the Firebender could even think of attacking, Sengemo had closed the distance. Faster than the dragon could realize that evasive maneuvers were appropriate, Sengemo was upon it. She slammed into the serpent with every bit as much force as she had brought to bear against the stone on the Sunrise Launch. That was both a good and bad thing, as it rocked the Dragonmount back into the sky in an uncontrolled tumble, but it also meant that Sengemo's skull came into contact with the serpent's armor-like skin at dangerous a speed. Dragon skin was as rocklike as organic matter could be. Skull damage was likely.
Sengemo hardly felt it.
The Dragonmount regained control before it could completely plummet. The Firebender was not feeling altogether healthy, as his stomach had taken the brunt of the vertigo, but he hung on tight and trusted his mount to require the winds. When it came down to it, soldiers were very good at recovering their wits in the heat of battle. Spotting the enemy Sky Bison still in the sky, both rider and serpent unleashed Comet-enhanced infernos straight at her. There could be no escape from a blaze this large, and this hot.
Sengemo did not even attempt it. She swung her tail around, and bent a gust of wind which was not at all unfairly enhanced, but owing that it was being generated by a fifteen-ton natural Airbender, would still have greatly impressed a catastrophic hurricane. The bulk of the blaze was extinguished, denied oxygen by the very speed at which oxygen was passing by. Its momentum was halted, and so the only thing that struck the Sky Bison was a lot of heat and a shower of flame tongues. Parts of her fur ignited, and Sengemo felt the pain of it. She deemed that irrelevant.
Normally, the Dragonmount was an excellent fighting unit, able to react at least as fast as an average fighter. However, both the Firebender and the serpent were feeling a bit overconfident with The Comet overhead, and neither was psychologically prepared to handle a completely implacable foe. Moreover, their combined attack simply shouldn't have failed. So, it was understandable that they were both slow to realize that the fireball had in fact failed quite spectacularly, and the Sky Bison was now counterattacking.
Sengemo flew up to the Dragonmount, bore down on the Firebender, and bit him.
Despite her size and strength, Sengemo had carried her offspring around in her mouth without injuring them. She could do the same for more delicate humans, although firming her grip up a little could result in some bruising. When she really, really wanted, though, she could put a lot of power into a single bite. Blunt teeth came down on the Firebender, and suddenly he was less a man and more a pair of legs with a gory mess on top. The wet sound was more than enough clue to the dragon that the situation was lost. It sunk its claws into Sengemo's fur, whipped its neck around so that it could face the Sky Bison, and belched all the flame it could at the enemy.
Sengemo knew the same pain that had been killing her children, and her friends amongst the Nomads. She also knew what she had to do. The Sky Bison clamped all six of its fingered paws onto the dragon, and finally stopped fighting gravity's intensifying call. The dragon died when it impacted against the ground, miles and miles below the temple. There was one instant of the most excruciating pain before reality blinked away.
Sengemo, though, lost consciousness while still in the air. Her last animal thought was not of the Temple, nor the Airbenders who lived there. It was of her children, or rather, one particular calf. She knew of no name for him, but like all of her offspring, he was distinct in her mind.
Her last thought settled on the one who had been called Appa, friend to Aang. This was not a coincidence, nor supernatural in any way.
Mothers know.
END
Author: Loopy777
Summary: There were many battles and tragedies, when the Air Nomads died. This is one of them.
Word Count: 1,481
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Genocide and Violence
Characters/Animals: Original Characters, Sky Bison & Dragons
Written For: Avatar Spirit Forum's Drabble Contest- "Motherhood" Prompt
LIONESS
"That's what moms are like. If you mess with their babies, they'll bite you back. "
- Lady Ursa, shortly before her exile from the Fire Nation for the crimes of Murder, Treason, Conspiracy, and Loving Her Son
The annihilation of the Air Nomads, their culture, and their every resource was proceeding apace. There was a good reason for this. The attack had been in the making for over a decade, with the Fire Nation's greatest military minds poring over all available intelligence about the Nomads, and deploying the full strength of the military against them. Plus, the influence of The Comet couldn't be ignored. The attack force consisted primarily of Firebenders, and each and every one of them was currently capable of unleashing as much power as a fully realized Avatar. The Comet would be in the sky for another few hours.
In that time, an entire Nation would die.
There were many tragedies that day. One of note occurred at the Eastern Air Temple, at the Sunrise Launch. That was the doorway and balcony nearest to the Bison Stables, where Airbenders would ride their mounts into the newborn day.
No more.
The portal had been collapsed, stone chunks of the ancient temple now sealing another possible escape for burning Nomads of all ages. Some of the temple's residents were still making their way out of that side of the temple, though. Young Sky Bison calves, as long as a grown human but only as tall as a child, were the perfect size to slip through the window gaps spread across the stables. While a Nomad would likely find the holes too small to fly through with an extended glider, a speeding calf could slip right out and into the free air without even a running takeoff.
That's why the Dragonmount was there.
He was but a common Firebender in skill and rank, but this one had proven adept enough at handling the military's dragons to be trained to ride them in battle. His job was simple, to kill everything that tried to escape from this side of the temple. Everything, human or otherwise.
It paid to be thorough.
Empowered by the comet, all he needed was a single jet of flame to blast each calf out of the sky. They died instantly, their bodies half ash when the fire stream ceased. Each fist launched a blast large enough to completely encapsulate a young bison. One tried to dodge, but the air was super-heated and the calf's fur burst into flame. It fell from the sky screeching.
That's what did it.
The rubble blocking the Sunrise Launch weighed several tons, and the stone was made from the bones of the mountains, far harder than flesh. It could not be broken. Yet a massive thud reverberated through the rocks, shaking free dust, echoing through the air.
The Dragonmount circled around for a look.
Another thud sounded.
Some of the rocks moved.
Somewhere in the distance, the screech of a jet of flame cut through the air.
A roar, a horrible and primal expression of fury, burst out from the stable windows. The flying serpent beneath the Firebender shuddered.
The Sunrise Launch was consumed in an explosion. Dust and rocks were flung outward, propelled not by fire, but by the transferred force of a fifteen-ton flying bison that was suffering horribly and couldn't take it anymore. Sengemo, the Sky Mother, 200 years old, had answered the cry of her dying offspring. And she wasn't slowing down as she sailed straight over the Launch's balcony and towards the Dragonmount.
The serpent roared a warning. The Firebender tried to blink his way back to coherent thought.
Sengemo, with her recognizable broken right horn, was the progenitor of all the tame Bison given to the Air Nomad children to be their animal guides. Other temples maintained their own herds, but the Eastern Air Temple was where every Airbending child journeyed to bond with one of Sengemo's babies. She watched as they established a loving trust with their new human brothers and sisters, and flew off to a happy and fulfilling life. She led as satisfied an existence as a Sky Bison could.
Now, her latest babies were being lit on fire and horribly killed by invaders.
To say she was mad would be a vast understatement. Language has no words to describe the furious urgency of Sengemo's despair, fueled by eons of instinct and natural conditioning that could be best summarized as, "Protect! Your! Young!" Sengemo had been forced to witness the deaths of many of her children in the last hour, and her intelligent Sky Bison mind could deduce that more such slaughter was going on everywhere around her. Worst of all, she couldn't do anything about it.
But she could sure try.
Faster than the Firebender could even think of attacking, Sengemo had closed the distance. Faster than the dragon could realize that evasive maneuvers were appropriate, Sengemo was upon it. She slammed into the serpent with every bit as much force as she had brought to bear against the stone on the Sunrise Launch. That was both a good and bad thing, as it rocked the Dragonmount back into the sky in an uncontrolled tumble, but it also meant that Sengemo's skull came into contact with the serpent's armor-like skin at dangerous a speed. Dragon skin was as rocklike as organic matter could be. Skull damage was likely.
Sengemo hardly felt it.
The Dragonmount regained control before it could completely plummet. The Firebender was not feeling altogether healthy, as his stomach had taken the brunt of the vertigo, but he hung on tight and trusted his mount to require the winds. When it came down to it, soldiers were very good at recovering their wits in the heat of battle. Spotting the enemy Sky Bison still in the sky, both rider and serpent unleashed Comet-enhanced infernos straight at her. There could be no escape from a blaze this large, and this hot.
Sengemo did not even attempt it. She swung her tail around, and bent a gust of wind which was not at all unfairly enhanced, but owing that it was being generated by a fifteen-ton natural Airbender, would still have greatly impressed a catastrophic hurricane. The bulk of the blaze was extinguished, denied oxygen by the very speed at which oxygen was passing by. Its momentum was halted, and so the only thing that struck the Sky Bison was a lot of heat and a shower of flame tongues. Parts of her fur ignited, and Sengemo felt the pain of it. She deemed that irrelevant.
Normally, the Dragonmount was an excellent fighting unit, able to react at least as fast as an average fighter. However, both the Firebender and the serpent were feeling a bit overconfident with The Comet overhead, and neither was psychologically prepared to handle a completely implacable foe. Moreover, their combined attack simply shouldn't have failed. So, it was understandable that they were both slow to realize that the fireball had in fact failed quite spectacularly, and the Sky Bison was now counterattacking.
Sengemo flew up to the Dragonmount, bore down on the Firebender, and bit him.
Despite her size and strength, Sengemo had carried her offspring around in her mouth without injuring them. She could do the same for more delicate humans, although firming her grip up a little could result in some bruising. When she really, really wanted, though, she could put a lot of power into a single bite. Blunt teeth came down on the Firebender, and suddenly he was less a man and more a pair of legs with a gory mess on top. The wet sound was more than enough clue to the dragon that the situation was lost. It sunk its claws into Sengemo's fur, whipped its neck around so that it could face the Sky Bison, and belched all the flame it could at the enemy.
Sengemo knew the same pain that had been killing her children, and her friends amongst the Nomads. She also knew what she had to do. The Sky Bison clamped all six of its fingered paws onto the dragon, and finally stopped fighting gravity's intensifying call. The dragon died when it impacted against the ground, miles and miles below the temple. There was one instant of the most excruciating pain before reality blinked away.
Sengemo, though, lost consciousness while still in the air. Her last animal thought was not of the Temple, nor the Airbenders who lived there. It was of her children, or rather, one particular calf. She knew of no name for him, but like all of her offspring, he was distinct in her mind.
Her last thought settled on the one who had been called Appa, friend to Aang. This was not a coincidence, nor supernatural in any way.
Mothers know.
END