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Title: Silence
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Longshot
Summary: How a boy lost his story and his voice.
Fire Nation soldiers are approaching from the distance.
-x-
“Where’s your mama, little boy?” The soldier’s voice is sickly sweet.
“Inside,” he giggles, looking at the man’s helmet. “She’s mending my father’s shirt…he had to go and fight the bad guys in his old shirt and hat.”
“So she’s alone?”
“Yup, except for me. But let me tell you, my dad can shoot an arrow from a mile away and get a bull’s eye, so you better not annoy my mom!”
-x-
“Please…” his mother begs. “Please…I’ve done nothing to you…my son is only a child...please...”
The soldier’s voice comes out muffled from behind his helmet. “I’m feeling merciful. His life will be spared...but he has to watch me end yours.”
He grabs her arms and swings her around, cracking the bones in her fingers as his other hand lights with fire. Her son whimpers, his knees close to his chest.
The fire creeps up her arms, her clothing catching and charring. Pain rips throughout her body, and she hears her son crying, held close to her by the heavy boot of the soldier.
“Hush,” she whispers, voice harsh with smoke. “Everything...will be fine. Here...I’ll...I’ll tell you a story. Once...upon...a time, there was the bravest soldier in the...E-Earth Kingdom...an archer, whose shot was longest by far...even though...he was a farm boy...and didn’t...didn’t train much...He was a...hero to the villagers...and when he...c-came back...from the war...they sang...him...praises...and he was...happy...for years...But t-then...he had to...to fight...again...to protect...his...village...and his...f-family...”
Her breath comes out ragged, and her son watches as she dies.
-x-
As he curls up in a ball on the floor, unable to look at his mother-what remains of his mother-he wonders how the story ended.
-x-
Hours later, he wanders the charred streets of his village, looking for anything alive. His mother is gone, but his father may still be fighting.
He finds his hat in a tree and stops looking.
-x-
There is a hand on his shoulder, a calm, cool hand, which is connected to a calm, cool figure that can’t be much older than he is. He has understanding in his eyes.
“I’m Jet. I’m a Freedom Fighter. My village was burned, just like yours.”
That’s all it takes for him to join the rag-tag group of abandoned children.
-x-
Jet tells him about the tree houses and the group as they walk into the forest.
He remains silent the whole time.
“What’s your name, by the way?”
He almost chokes on the word. “Longshot.”
-x-
Longshot knows that the other Freedom Fighters snicker at him behind his back. He knows that his silence is strange in a band of rowdy boys, that he’s the thing that doesn’t belong. But he doesn’t talk.
It’s better not to talk when you’re afraid of saying too much.
-x-
Sometimes, he dreams about them. He remembers them vividly; his father’s hat, his mother’s stories. He knows that they had a loyal badger-dog. But there’s so much that he doesn’t know, things that he doesn’t remember. After all these years, he still doesn’t know the ending of the story.
Even if it's sitting on his head.
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Longshot
Summary: How a boy lost his story and his voice.
Fire Nation soldiers are approaching from the distance.
-x-
“Where’s your mama, little boy?” The soldier’s voice is sickly sweet.
“Inside,” he giggles, looking at the man’s helmet. “She’s mending my father’s shirt…he had to go and fight the bad guys in his old shirt and hat.”
“So she’s alone?”
“Yup, except for me. But let me tell you, my dad can shoot an arrow from a mile away and get a bull’s eye, so you better not annoy my mom!”
-x-
“Please…” his mother begs. “Please…I’ve done nothing to you…my son is only a child...please...”
The soldier’s voice comes out muffled from behind his helmet. “I’m feeling merciful. His life will be spared...but he has to watch me end yours.”
He grabs her arms and swings her around, cracking the bones in her fingers as his other hand lights with fire. Her son whimpers, his knees close to his chest.
The fire creeps up her arms, her clothing catching and charring. Pain rips throughout her body, and she hears her son crying, held close to her by the heavy boot of the soldier.
“Hush,” she whispers, voice harsh with smoke. “Everything...will be fine. Here...I’ll...I’ll tell you a story. Once...upon...a time, there was the bravest soldier in the...E-Earth Kingdom...an archer, whose shot was longest by far...even though...he was a farm boy...and didn’t...didn’t train much...He was a...hero to the villagers...and when he...c-came back...from the war...they sang...him...praises...and he was...happy...for years...But t-then...he had to...to fight...again...to protect...his...village...and his...f-family...”
Her breath comes out ragged, and her son watches as she dies.
-x-
As he curls up in a ball on the floor, unable to look at his mother-what remains of his mother-he wonders how the story ended.
-x-
Hours later, he wanders the charred streets of his village, looking for anything alive. His mother is gone, but his father may still be fighting.
He finds his hat in a tree and stops looking.
-x-
There is a hand on his shoulder, a calm, cool hand, which is connected to a calm, cool figure that can’t be much older than he is. He has understanding in his eyes.
“I’m Jet. I’m a Freedom Fighter. My village was burned, just like yours.”
That’s all it takes for him to join the rag-tag group of abandoned children.
-x-
Jet tells him about the tree houses and the group as they walk into the forest.
He remains silent the whole time.
“What’s your name, by the way?”
He almost chokes on the word. “Longshot.”
-x-
Longshot knows that the other Freedom Fighters snicker at him behind his back. He knows that his silence is strange in a band of rowdy boys, that he’s the thing that doesn’t belong. But he doesn’t talk.
It’s better not to talk when you’re afraid of saying too much.
-x-
Sometimes, he dreams about them. He remembers them vividly; his father’s hat, his mother’s stories. He knows that they had a loyal badger-dog. But there’s so much that he doesn’t know, things that he doesn’t remember. After all these years, he still doesn’t know the ending of the story.
Even if it's sitting on his head.