Chapter 1: Kyoshi Island

In the middle of the night, a small kid, no older than 12, woke up sweating and breathing heavily. He cleaned the sweat on his face and stood on the small boat he obtained in the last port he visited.

He had black hair tied in a small ponytail and pale skin. His eyes showed lack of sleep and complete sadness, some dried tears on his cheek.

He looked to the water around him, nothing else in the distance.

He thought about the nightmare he just had, every night, since that day, he has been dreaming the same.

He dreamed about burning his loves one, the people he considered friends, everyone burn to nothing thanks to his power. His cursed power.

One Year Ago

"Qíshí, wake up, you are gonna be late for your practice!" A voice called from a kitchen downstairs.

On the second floor of the house, a small kid woke up, his face had an annoyed expression.

"Coming!" Qíshí quickly stood and used the stairs to get to the dinner room, he wore his black and green pajamas with naked feet feeling the cold ground.

"Eat quickly or you are gonna be late" His mother told him.

"Yes mom" He happily replied.

It has been 2 years since Qíshí discovered he was an earthbender. In his town, there was a small school with kids that had similar abilities to him. He has been going there by petition of the earthbender master, who saw potential on the kid. His parents happily obliged and enrolled their son to the school.

"Done" Qíshí ate his breakfast and walked towards to his room to change to his uniform.

Black and Green robes, easy to take out with dark green bandages on his wrist and legs. The symbol of Earth sewed in the heart and back of the robes. White big pants not so long that reached his knee.

He happily jumped to the front door and moved towards the streets.

"I am going mom, see you later"

"Bye sweetie" His mom cheered from the living room where she was reading her book. "Don't forget to say goodbye to your father"

"Sure" He quickly went to a small altar with the portrait of a man with big beard and a wide smile "Goodbye dad" He joined his hands on a praying motion. Before smiling "I will see you later"

His father died from a disease a year ago, he was a retired warrior of the earth kingdom who went to this town to live the rest of his live. Here he met his mother, Lin. The two fell in love and that love brought Qíshí, their son, to live.

Qíshí went out of the house and walked towards his school with a smile on his face.

Little did he know, that this day will change everything on his life.

"Now students, practice the earth fracturing attack" Their teacher spoke

After a long day of physical exercises and basic earthbending techniques, the teacher decided to change the exercise to one more advanced.

Each student smiled with glee at the new exercise they could practice. It consisted in launching tectonic energy inside the earth towards a target, in the process, the earth that transmits the tectonic wave breaks showing small crack in the direction of the attack. It may sound complicated, but for earthbenders, it was an intermedium attack.

Everyone started practicing the attack at their own pace. Qíshí followed the instructions and executed the attack towards the practice targets.

As he did the exercise, he felt something different on the earth, something calling for him. He tried to ignore the feeling, but it bothered him, he has been feeling something like this before, but he never felt it so big, and tempting.

Deciding to satisfy his curiosity, he started moving his senses to the strange feeling, his feet touching the earth and his eyes closed. The more he moved to the feeling, the more he felt closer to that something. He didn't know what he was feeling, but he felt attracted to it.

"Student Qíshí" The teacher called for him, only to be ignored "Why did you stopped your exercises?"

Qíshí didn't reply, as his mind was elsewhere.

Suddenly, Qíshí placed his hands in the ground. The earth in front of him started turning red. A hot sensation came from the earth in front of him.

It was lava.

The earth in front of Qíshí turned into smoldering embers. Everyone watched fearful of this. Nobody has seen anything like this before, the amount of heat generated made everyone walk away from Qíshí, watching him with fear and surprisingly, hate.

Qíshí opened his eyes, a shocked expression appeared on his face as he stared to the lava in from of him.

"I…. did that?!" Qíshí shouted

"Yes, you did" The teacher spoke "You heretic"

"I did-what?" Qíshí's cheerful expression changed to one of confusion as he turned to his teacher "Heretic? Me?"

"Who else but a heretic could bend such abominable thing like that?!" He pointed to the lava still burning in the ground "What kid of evil spirit could do anything like that?"

"Evil spirit?! What are you talking about?!" Qíshí shouted back "I was just feeling something, and it turned like that, it was an accident"

"Yeah sure, an accident" The teacher said with sarcasm "And burning all of us with your demonic powers is also an accident, correct?"

"Burning all of you? What are you talking about?!" Qíshí shouted back

"Of course, you would act innocent" The teacher stood in an earthbending stance "Get out of here, you are banned from this school of earthbending, if you ever come close to this sacred place again, I will make sure to end your life"

"Why?! I just bended some-" "Silence" The teacher stomped the ground and a pillar of earth appeared, throwing Qíshí to the ground.

Qíshí stared to the teacher and his fellow students, who showed the same expression of fearfulness and aggressiveness.

Qíshí with no other option, ran to his home while crying.

Present

From that day on, Qíshí's problem just grew, the rumor of what Qíshí did extended to everyone on the town, his compassionate mother tried to protect him, to no avail.

Everyone turned worse when their started calling his mother the progenitor of the heretic and started attacking her too. Qíshí ran from home to protect her, the only one that truly cared for him when everyone else didn't.

He in his travels made money by working to merchants and store owner, all done to the purpose of finding answers.

He wants to find the reason of his bending, the answers to why he can bend lava and others don't.

During his travels, he found about the avatars, more specially, the avatar Kyoshi, who is known for bending lava to separate and create an entire island by herself.

That information quickly directed Qíshí towards the Kyoshi Island.

And now, he is on his way to that island.

He took a deep breath and released it, trying to calm his emotions.

Suddenly, his boat was shake by something, it wasn't the waves as the sea was calm, it was something else.

He looked to the sea and he couldn't see anything thanks to the darkness below him.

But suddenly, a dark spot appeared not so far from him. From the spot emerged a large sea serpent with dark gray skin and no scales.

Qíshí stood motionless, afraid of the creature that appeared in from of him.

As the creature lunged to bite the boat. Qíshí jumped towards the sea. From a simple bite, half the boat was eaten by the creature. That roared and turned back to the sea.

Qíshí on the other hand, arrived at the beach unconscious.

6 figures appeared around him in the middle of the night.

"HUH!" Qíshí woke up screaming at the top of his lungs. He winced as he felt a pain on his side, finding a bandage on his torso. "Wha-" "Finally" A voice stopped him from speaking his thoughts.

"We have been waiting patiently for you to wake up" A woman's voice spoke beside him, turning, he saw a girl dressed in dark green armor and face covered in heavy makeup.

"Who are you?" Qíshí asked

"That's the questions I should be asking" She snapped her fingers and a couple of women instantly surrounded the boy. "Are you a spy? What are is purpose here?"

"Spy?" Qíshí showed a confused expression "What are you talking about? Where am I?"

"You are in Kyoshi Island, but I think you already knew that, what other reason do you have to come here"

"Kyoshi Island?" Qíshí repeated the word on his head. Suddenly, he stood and his full height pumping his fist on the air "I made it, I am finally here! Ouch!" He rubbed his injured side before turning to the girl beside him "You must be a Kyoshi warrior, right?"

"Yes" She spoke in an emotionless tone

"Look, I am not a spy, I came here looking for answers"

"Answers? Of what?"

"It is better if I show you, you would believe it if I told you"

She narrowed her eyes to the boy and then she spoke "Try anything funny and you will pay the consequences"

"Sure"

After walking for a short time to an empty space beside the town, the Kyoshi warriors stood alert to any sudden movements of the stranger.

"You see" Qíshí spoke "I am an earthbender" He stomped the ground and a pillar appeared. The Kyoshi warriors quickly moved to attack but where stopped by their leader.

"So, you are an earthbender" The leader of the Kyoshi warriors spoke "That doesn't explain what your purpose here is"

"I was getting to that" He replied, "One day, I discovered I could do this" He moved his hand downwards making the pillar of earth disappear. Then, he stomped the ground, this time a circular portion of the ground started changing to red and released a warm sensation. The circular area he was bending turned into magma that he moved with his hand in a linear attack.

All of the Kyoshi warrior watched with a surprised expression.

Qíshí stopped bending and changing his hands to fist, the lava turned back to rock.

"You can…" The leader of the Kyoshi warrior trailed off.

"Lavabend" He finished "That is one of the reasons why I am here. After discovering about this power, I decided to travel and find answers. In my travels in found that the avatar that founded this island, the avatar Kyoshi, could bend lava like I did"

"Avatar Kyoshi is known for bending lava yes" The leader of the Kyoshi warriors stated.

Qíshí suddenly kneeled in front of the Kyoshi warriors with his head down. "Please, I have been looking for a long time for answers. Let me stay here, I beg you"

The leader of the Kyoshi warrior looked to the boy, her stern glare turned sympathetic hearing to the almost cracking and desperate in which he spoke. She walked towards the boy and kneeled to his height in front of him, her hand touching his shoulder.

"I understand you have been through a lot to come here" She nodded "You can stay here with us"

Qíshí's eyes released tears by the happiness he felt. "Thank you so much!" He hugged the girl with all his strength, to the girl's disdain. Qíshí's eyes widened as he noticed something and released the girl on his arms "I haven't presented myself; my name is Qíshí, nice to meet you" He extended his arm to her

"Suki, nice to meet you too" Suki shook his hand with a smile on her face.