Oma and Shu were the first Earthbenders…but there was one thing that the legend left out. Wan/Oma/Shu

~hanasalang~

The day reflects her mood, she thinks.

The dark contours of rolling storm clouds line the horizon as the sky opens and pours down upon the fresh earth – no longer a valley separating two villages, but now a plateau. That valley always kept them apart. No…not the valley.

The people. Their war.

Sometimes, and she knew it was possibly wrong and damning to think this, but sometimes she really hated humans. Humans created war. Humans took what wasn't theirs, and destroyed it.

And more importantly, humans took away her Shu.

A tear slides down the expanse of her cheek, lands in the bouquet of white daisy-lillies in her hands.

How could she be expected to unite them? Her people have fought with his for decades before they existed, centuries even. Shu – her companion, her lover, her rock…was gone. And all that was left was-

The door creaks open, "Oma, it's time."

Wan stands reproachfully in the doorway, not in his traditional robes, but clad in black. Oma turns her head, and nods in understanding. It was time to lay Shu to peace. It was time to do the one thing he wished he could – unite their people once and for all.

"I, uh, I've got Mula waiting for us outside, and all of the villagers have gathered. I also invited the spirits to come and bless the ceremony," Wan rests one hand behinds his head and breathes out. Oma approaches him with lucid eyes and a watery smile. "Raava said she would protect us today, in case Vaatu was planning anything."

Oma lifts her chin, "Then let him come. Vaatu cannot do any more damage than he has already." Wan looks less than sure about that sentiment. His nose bunches up, and when his brow furrows in thought and for the first time in days, Oma chuckles. "I've never seen you this somber. It doesn't suit you."

"It doesn't suit you, either," Wan points out with a frown.

"It's quiet without him." Oma exhales, and looks up at him with a shrug and eyes with tears that refuse to fall. "I feel…lost. Like I'm missing my other half and I don't know what to do. I feel like I can now truly understand how Raava feels."

Wan looks downward, and sheepishly scratches the back of his head. "I don't know if that's exactly how Raava felt…"

"It is," Oma nods confidently. "I'm a woman, I know these things. Call it intuition."

Wan cracks a grin. "Yes, momma Oma."

"I have to rebuild these two villages, and unite the people, without Shu. How am I to do that?"

Wan puts his hand over the silken white cloth of her shoulder. "With friends." And with a nod, Oma smiles.

"With friends."

A little boy with a wide toothed smile clasps onto her hand. "Oma, I wanna go h-oma so I can sleep-a!"Saeng sings out with a spring in his step. Please, sister, pleeeeease?"

The young woman looks down at her sibling with nothing short of exasperation. "Saeng, we can't go home yet, you know the rules." She looks down at him, determined to be as firm and unmoving as a rock on the highest peak. But one look at those large and dark tired eyes have her sighing. They stop their trek up the hill and she sits him in front of her on a boulder. "You're going to be the ruin of me, kid."

"But Oma…if we go home now, we can eat."

"But what about the other villagers, Saeng? If we go home now, then the other villagers will have less rations tonight. Someone else may go without food, or warmth, and it'll be because we went home early." At his face, blank with a lack of understanding, Oma sighs again, and sets down her firewood. A figure scurries through the tall wild grasses and Oma points it out. "Do you see that badgermole? The little boy sitting in front of her nods diligently. "Well, if that badgermole doesn't help his friends and family dig, then they won't have a safe place to sleep at night. That's why I have to get firewood every day, and you have to gather berries. Everyone is counting on us and we can't let them down because if we stop, then someone goes hungry, and without warmth."

Saeng watches the badgermole rejoin his family at a hold well burrowed into the ground. "Okay," he nods. "I gotta get lots and lots of berries!"

"And I've got to find some firewood." Oma looks around at the landscape, quickly growing sparse due to the gatherings and the war. Wartime meant less rations to go around, which meant that everyone had to do their part. She looks down and Saeng looked more energized, thank the spirits for that. She grabbed the little boy from under his arms, and let him down on the ground beside her.

"But where Oma-ma? All the trees are gone," Saeng pointed out with a frown, and it was true. The shrubbery that still existed was scant and rooted with thorns. The forest was gone and all that was left were rolling plains. The only trees that were left were on top of the highest peak of the mountains, which were the outskirts of the village. Beyond that was the home of the enemy, the Liongs.

Oma ruffles Saeng's scruffy black hair with a smile. "Then I'll have to go find some, Sae-sae. Keep looking for berries down here, and when the sun reaches the lowest peak, go home. Even if I'm not here, I want you to go home, do you understand? Find Senga." The little boy nods, adorably in his seriousness, and Oma smiles widely. "Good."

Oma sets off on the trail up the mountain, a steady incline at first that grew steeper the higher up she went. Numerous times did her robes get caught, and no one ventured off this far from the village, in fact, it was forbidden.

There was a time in Oma's youth when she could come and go from these hills as she pleased, but now? The Liongs staked claim over that territory, for the great Lion Turtle presided over their land, which they mistook as somehow being more superior than the Dongkis. In Oma's eyes, it was ridiculous. No one, not even the Liongs, dare approach the Lion Turtle, but because they were closer, they had favor?

Oma crossed a small plateau and headed up another ledge, almost to the top. The sky seemed overcast from here, the higher she went. Along the way she gathered her kindling from twigs and roots in the earth and ascended higher onto the peak as she put her gatherings in her satchel.

She holds onto some longer branches of firecherry trees that line this part of the terrain. The branches are dark and oaklike, but the leaves stay vibrant and red all year long. Oma breathes a sigh of relief, knowing that this should be enough kindling to last the next couple of days if used strategically and she could get off this mountain and get back to Saeng.

Her eyes were to the ground, so she wasn't looking in front of her. And she heard rustling, but she attributed that to the wind.

"What are you doing?"

Startled, Oma looked up wide-eyed and unprepared because just as her people were supposed to stay off the mountains serving as the divide, so were his. It shocked her, mostly, to see someone else breaking the rules.

"I could ask you the same question, stranger." Oma murmurs, placing the last branch in her satchel and standing up straight.

"Well, considering you are now very close to Liong territory, and since I asked you first, I think I should get an answer first," the man says with a smirk, leaning on the lone tree on the mountaintop .

"And considering that you are now very close to Dongki territory, and the fact that you are as arrogant as you are rude, I should be answered," Oma states with a proud tilt of her chin.

The man's head slants. "Rude?"

"You were obviously watching me without announcing yourself and now I am expected to just answer your question without anything in return?"

The man in the blue robes stands away from the tree and nears Oma. She thinks that, if she has to, she could probably hit him with a branch, or something. Maybe even a rock.

His steps are slow and deliberate, but she stands her ground. And just when she believes that he will stop approaching, he gets even closer and soon she can count how many eyelashes he has. She straightens her stance and purses her lips with an exhale through her nose. It's certainly a defiant act, and between her village and his, he could strike her and the act wouldn't be seen as a wrongful one.

Her heart beats quickly in her chest because she has never been this close to a man, and suddenly he drops to his knees with his head drawn down. "I am sorry if I came off rude; that was not my intention. I was…struck."

"Struck?" Oma asks with a wrinkle in her brow. "Struck by what?"

The man takes one of his olive toned hands folded in his lap, and reaches out to hold Oma's pale hand. "Your beauty."

He looks up at her from his position on the ground. "Will you forgive me?"

"I…" Oma trails off, looking at the stark contrast between his regal blue robes, and her tattered white. Her cheeks were colored pink and she felt flushed. Foolish. "I was gathering firewood. For my village. I ventured out farther to gather more."

With a cheeky grin, the man adds, "You should venture out more often."

"And you probably say that to every girl who comes up here."Oma says wryly.

"Only you," The man says.

Oma bows her head so that her cheeks would be obscured, "And since I have answered your question, I'll ask one. Who are you?"

The man, with his dark hair tied neatly and tightly behind his head, smiles. Oma somehow feels shy looking at him too long. "I'm Shu. But I'm a lot more interested in you…"

TBC...

DAC