• A very irritated Vala stood on a rock, overlooking the Great Divide. She was in a thin blue blouse and jeans; duffle bags lay at her feet in the dirt.

    “I can’t BELIEVE that I forgot about the Badgermole migration.” She moaned, knocking on her forehead with her right hand- which was also clasping a rolled note, “Well, going through the divide is better than Si Wong Desert! Ugh! I could just die! OH! Or Serpent’s Pass! OH no no-no-no, never.”

    “How-deee, mayum!” shouted a loud and dirty man, “Name’s Lee Mon! I’ll be your guide through that thar dee-vide! If you’d kindly come over yonder and join the group we can get-ta-going” His unpolished drawl sounded like an aneurism waiting to happen to her.

    [[Serpent’s pass doesn’t seem so bad anymore…]] She thought
    “Well, um, aren’t you…charming?” She feigned, “Let me just send this note off and I’ll be right…’Thar’ okay?” Vala pulled out a whistle on a necklace from beneath her blouse. She blew on the end of the small whistle, making next to no sound. A dot appeared high above her and spiraled down slowly.

    “Icarus! Hi baby, wanna take a message for mama?” Icarus, a brown and white messenger hawk landed softly on Vala’s extended forearm. He cooed and nuzzled her while she attached her note to the strap on his leg, “Okay, take this straight to the boys, and fly safe."
    She planted a small kiss on the bird and let him fly off.

    “Mayum! Didja say y’all were a healer! Oh please hurry, an ol’ lady got thrown from her lizard horse! She’s perty banged up!” shouted Lee.

    “Quickly, take me to her!” Vala jumped into action, [[Well this is a GREAT start to this trek]] Sarcasm echoed in her skull.


    Matteo was laying face up on a hammock, lazily watching clouds on his day off from school.

    “So what do you think this ‘Spiritual journey’ is going to be?” Enzo asked walking up with two glasses of lemonade in hand.

    “Why would I know?” Matteo snapped, snatching a glass from his brother. “Whatever it is, it better not mess with our upcoming vacation.”

    “How can you think of vacations right now? We are apparently Avatars now!!” Enzo exploded, throwing his hands in the air. This action resulted in an empty cup and airborne lemonade. We all know that lemonade does not naturally fly on its own, and was therefore DOOMED by the forces of gravitational pull; Enzo realized this and quickly redirected the liquid into his cup. “How do you think mom is going to react?!”
    At that moment a note fell onto Matteo’s chest, accompanied by a hawk’s cry.

    “Oh! That was Icarus! Let’s see what mom said…” Matteo began to read: “Hi boys, hope you are both behaving. I have some bad news, the earth trolleys are closed for the Badgermole migration, I’m going to take The Great Divide route to Ba Sing Se and then catch a Taxi home, I know that they're a bit pricey, but you know I can't resist. I should be out of the Divide in about five days, but it’s better than waiting two weeks for the badgermoles to move on. I love you both and take care.”

    “Five days?! Well, I guess it gives us time to figure out how were going to break this to mom.” Enzo said, biting his thumb

    “Oh, there’s more: P.S. Did you guys here? The new Avatar has been born! Aren’t you excited?!” Matteo’s face twisted sarcastically, “Yeah, we’re ecstatic.”
    The boys decided to relax and just go with the flow- being waterbenders and all. Matteo fell asleep in the sun, giving him a horribly painful sunburn; Enzo jumped at the chance to slap his brother’s red back as often as he could. Eventually, Enzo did get bored and healed his brother, who never bothered to learn how to heal himself. They goofed off, ate junk food, wathed the World Bending Tournament on their new picture radio, making sure to comment on how they could do a particular event better, or that a certain female bender was attractive.

    :::Meanwhile:::

    Vala sat on an uncomfortably lumpy saddle which was atop an uncomfortably stinky lizard horse while an uncomfortably chatty elderly woman rode next to her, yammering on about her childhood, and how she was so grateful to be healed by such a celebrity and how her son was an earthbending sensei in the south. Vala, of course, heard next to none of this, having begun to tune out the old woman ten hours ago. The heat was unbearable and she wished she had just taken the Serpent’s Pass, she was still weighing the pro’s and cons of swimming upstream past the natural habitat of man-eating sea serpents; She scoffed at the thought of the creatures simply letting her swim by, because she, a woman is not very appetizing to a man-eater.


    ::: :::

    Before they knew it the boys were back in school, both sitting in P.E. suffering their usual plights; Enzo was being picked on by Kim, a very large, very muscular, very stupid and very short-tempered bully. Matteo was being sent to the principal’s office for being in the girl’s locker room- again.

    “Your brother ain’t here to protect you today, punk.” Kim Snarled

    “Listen, why do you always pick on me? I’m not the one who gave you a girl’s name.” Enzo spat.

    He immediately realized how unfortunate a quick wit could be-- receiving a swift blow to the stomach. The air rushed from his lungs as his eyes began to tear up. His pain was slowly giving way to adrenaline, which he fought to suppress. His concentration was interrupted by a barrage of punches, followed by a whistle blowing and a loud man’s voice.

    “Enough of that! Get off him!” roared coach Ryker, “That’s no way to settle a fight and you know it! You are both benders, so act the part!”

    Yue of the Moon Private Institute, like most schools, does not allow fighting; that is of course, unless you issue an official challenge. YMPI, you see, is a private institute, for benders. Many schools opened during Aang’s lifetime, they were all a mix of bending and non-bending students, things got a bit complicated when the non-bending students were being picked on; this lead to an overall reform and segregation of the student populous. Benders had their own school, and Yue of the Moon was the best there was. Parents didn’t mind the challenge rule, as most of them were wealthy and important people; they simply assumed that their children would find themselves to good to fight, (That was usually the case).

    “The Challenge has been issued! Kim Dennuk against Enzo Shun!” Belted the coach, the entire Student body was gathered in the stadium to witness the event. The Stadium was an enormous rocky arena, with a large pool at the southern end that was fed by a faux waterfall; the pool had mini-rivers flowing across the arena. In the center stood twenty-foot wooden poles that looked like a leafless forest and the northern part of the arena housed a tiny volcano that spewed black smoke; it was like a miniature continent, holding all four elements. Kim stood by the Volcano at one end of the arena, Enzo stood sixty yards away, directly across from him and next to the pool.

    “BEGIN!” Ryker shouted, sending the crowd into frenzy.

    Enzo looked lost; he really did not want to fight. Kim assumed a powerful Hung Gar stance, planting himself firmly down into the rock. He kicked straight down with his left foot, causing a huge boulder to lift out of the ground, he followed with a high kick sending the boulder into the air. It soared overhead and Enzo panicked and dove into the pool. The boulder left a massive crater where Enzo once stood; He swam down one of the rivers, towards Kim.

    [[I have to keep moving, I can’t get sucked into actually fighting]]

    Enzo’s thoughts were cut-off by a stiff pain in his torso; he was thirty feet in the air, being lifted by a pillar of rock. Before Enzo could get his bearings he was pelted with jagged rocks. Kim Jumped up, drawing up a stepping stone every time he sank, he climbed his floating staircase up to the unprepared Enzo, jumping one more time and with a front-flip, brought a boulder smashing down onto Enzo. The crowed cheered at his pain and rooted for the bully to finish it. The Pillar beneath Enzo crumbled but instead of falling, Enzo was sent flying towards the wooden poles after being hit by another boulder. He crashed and landed in the naked forest, limp and nearly unconscious.

    [[I’m going to die here…]]

    The ground beneath him began to tremble violently. He could here the crowd going wild over something; He didn’t care, he was too weak to feel fear.

    [[I’m so…heavy…]]

    Kim flew out of the ground sending tuffs of dust everywhere. This was it, his finishing move.

    Matteo was alone in detention, even the principal left to see the fight. Something inside him snapped.

    “Enzo…” he whispered, eyes glowing bright blue.

    No one could see through the dust. Only a few poles poked out. The crowd was deathly silent and only the breeze could be heard. The momentary silence felt like an eternity, the suspense was broken by a low, steady rumble. It intensified and it soon felt like the entire world would shake apart. Through the dust, a pinpoint of blue light appeared; the dust swirled violently and became an orb of wind and dirt. The rumbling continued while the miniature volcano spouted a pillar of lava and a waterspout emerged from the pool simultaneously. The two elemental pillars snaked their way to the ominous ball of dust as an electric discharge filled the surrounding air. All elements converged on the blue light and let out a boom so immense that it halted all sound. A blinding white bubble of light formed and expanded silently. The light engulfed everything and in an instant was gone. The crowd was in shock; jaws hung open and everyone was too dumbfounded to even blink. The dust finally settled revealing a crater and the jagged, burnt remains of the wooden poles. In the center of the crater lied Kim and Enzo- both unconscious
    in their tattered rags that were once P.E. uniforms.