Happy New Year!

I remember one time I got up and comforted Himitsu, she'd had a nightmare and came out of her room in tears. I picked up my girl, already six years old and carried her back to her bed. All the while thinking that someday soon she'd be a teenager and I'd have to let her go her own her own way, but right then she was crying and the truth was that I didn't mind. I soothed her fears and kissed her good night, laying down beside her until her eyes closed and she drifted back to sleep. I just stayed there and watched her and it broke my heart because I already knew it wouldn't be like that for long. I knew that one day soon she'd be all grown up and ready to face the frightening things in the dark without me holding her hand.

And I was right. All children must someday grow up and Himitsu was no different.

The ostrich horse, Aichi, was loaded down with saddle bags, packed full with clothes and other things. I double checked all the straps and patted Aichi's beak.

I nodded. You're good to go.

"Thanks Daddy," she said as she finished tieing back her waist length black hair.

"We have some last minute things to give you," Hachi told her. She slipped her tigerswan pendant off over her head and then put in on Himitsu. "So you'll always have us close to your heart." Himitsu touched the pendant, at a loss for words.

For you. I presented to her my father's bow and quiver, kept well maintained all these years. I gave her a tight hug, still surprised at how tall she had grown. My little girl could almost look me in the eye.

"I won't let you down Dad," she whispered. "I'll make you both proud."

"You already have," I told her before pulling away and letting her mother give her an equally fierce hug.

"I love you, Baby," Hachi told her. "Goodbye."

With a smile our baby girl mounted Aichi and headed off to where the ferry would take her to Pohai, where she was going to train to become a Yu Yan.

And I cried.

I found myself remembering thoughts I had so very long ago, the words filled my mind again but with a whole new meaning.

"There goes our life."

I had stopped being Longshot to people a long time ago, only my Bee would call me that every once in a while, just like how I only called her 'Bee' when it was just the two of us. To the rest of the world we were Hachi and Zhuang Yami Ya, beekeepers. But to one we were known by an entirely different identity. Mom and Dad. And I will always smile when I hear my girl say those words.

Himitsu turns the last page of the journal her father had given her before he died.

Himitsu sets the journal down and makes her way down the hall, quietly going into her grandsons' room. It's so quiet in the world tonight and the small firebender is peacefully sleeping wearing his father's scarf; the same one that had once been her father's and she had given to her son in law on his wedding day. His baby brother on the other hand squirms in his crib nearby and blinks his large, green eyes at her and smiles when she tucks him in and hands him his stuffed fire ferret.

She'd give all she had if they could just stay like that and even though she knows it won't be like this for long she wishes that they'll never grow up. The baby finally drifts off to her soft humming and she heads back to her room to close the book and put it away when for the first time she notices small writing in the corner.

We aren't famous. Our lives won't be remembered. We're just a story that you now know from start to finish. But that's alright.

We're all just stories in The End.

Thank you all for going on this incredible journey with me. I feel like I've grown so much as an author since this story began and my life has changed in so many meaningful ways. Thank you my friends for your continued support in favouriting, following and reviewing this story. One last time :

Reviews = Karma