Legend: The Warrior

She rises for the waterbenders, but it is for him alone that she shines. 1 of 5.

-----

They'll say he was invincible, centuries later: that when night fell he was unstoppable and untouchable. They'll say that he was immortal. There will be stories of how he alone turned entire battles in his favor, of the enemies he had slain and the dear friends he had made and lost; tales of the family he had fought to protect, even at the cost of his own life – two sisters, a brother, a wife, innumerable children.

Mothers will tuck their children in to bed, and when the little voices chorus for a story – the boys for adventure and the girls for love – this is what mothers will say:

Long ago, there was a boy. He was like any other boy, except for this: he was a close Companion of the Last Airbender, the greatest of all Avatars.

At this point, the children will make appreciative noises. They have all heard tales of the Companions: the last waterbender of the southern tribe, the blind earthbender, and the Fire Nation prince – and the one who could not touch the elements: the warrior.

This boy, the mother will continue, traveled many miles with the Avatar, and faced many dangers. He saw many places, and he met many people who would become dear to him in time: but none were ever so dear as the Northern Princess.

He loved her, the voice will whisper. He loved her as freely and purely as only the young can love, and she, poor soul, returned his affections. She gave her heart willingly, but the life she had was not hers to keep or to do with what she desired. She owed the moon spirit a great debt, and when he called to her in his time of crisis she could do nothing but answer. She gave her mortal life that the moon would rise again, and left the world of the living to take to the skies.

But her heart stayed with the boy, and he never forgot the pain of her loss. She knew her passing would cause him grief, but she was impossibly selfless and would not forsake the world for her own desires – or for his; so because she could not be with him, she watched.

She watched him grow into a young man: handsome, and tall. She watched him weep over his first kill, and she watched him harden with every life he took. She watched over his wedding night, and lamented that it was not she that he had wed. She watched as his firstborn was brought into the world, and smiled that he could be happy. She watched as his children grew and he lost his friends – to war, and sickness, and time. She would be watching many years later when he passed into the next life. She watched every moment she could.

But never did she watch so closely as when he went into battle.

He had made many enemies in his fight against the Tyrant Ozai, and there were soldiers aplenty who dreamed of being the man that would finally strike him down – but not a one of them dared to face him in the darkness.

They tried to catch him in the sunlight: tried again and again, but it seemed the deed simply couldn't be done. He hid from the day, in deep forests and tall grasses, and small armies were able to hide with him. Night fell faster and stayed longer when he needed it to, and no enemy was brave enough to face him in the moonlight. They feared his indestructibility, his inhumanity: he took no prisoners and swept across entire battlefields with his men ever at his back. There was an eerie quality in the way he moved – too fast to be human – and something supernatural in the light that glittered off the steel and bone in his weapons. He was too lucky to be real, his plans too chaotic and unorganized to prevail. The moon's rays were never brighter than when they lit up the field on which he waged war. They showed him where to step and how to move, and blinded his foe like noonday sun.

And when he was done he would look up to the moon to see the face of his Princess, and he would know she had protected him and guided him, just as he had tried to do for her all those long years ago.

This is the story mothers will tell, when their children ask about the Warrior and the Moon. She rises for the waterbenders, they'll say in voices tight with emotion, but it is for him alone that she shines.

-----

AN: I was reading some myths (mostly Greek, and Celtic) and this is what happened. And I still can't get the break bar to work...