She had given birth to him.

"What would you like to call him?" Monk Gyatso asked, leaning over to her. She smiled softly.

"Aang." She said warmly, and tussled the tuft of black hair on his little head. "Meaning, 'child'."

People said that babies couldn't smile, but Aang proved them wrong.

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"Are you sure you want to do this" Gyatso said, holding the bundle in his arms.

"It's for the better. He doesn't deserve to witness…"

Gyatso stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"We'll take good care of him. I promise. He will grow up and experience the life of a monk. And if he's a bender, all the better."

"Thank you." She bowed at him, tears dotting the corners of her eyes. She couldn't be happier for her only son.

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She missed him every day. She would look up into the clouds, hoping to see him and Gyatso on a sky bison. Maybe one day he would and wave at her. He wouldn't know who she was, but it didn't matter. As long as she knew he was doing well.

A flying lemur delivered her a message one solemn afternoon. Her son was the Avatar.

She clutched the message to her chest.

Gyatso was taking care of him as he had promised.

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Years passed, and she spent many days working peacefully in her garden. Often times, travelers too weary to walk to the village would take refuge in her home.

Some men asked why she was living alone, and she claimed that her husband and son were fighting in the war.

She never had a husband to begin with.

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The war was coming near her home.

She felt frightened and defenseless, and would watch in horror as the black smoke from beyond the mountains clouded the sky. The Nomads quickly blew all of the smoke away, knowing that it would poison the land below. She looked up at them from her garden, seeing their sunset-orange gliders fly around effortlessly.

Once or twice, she thought she saw the grinning face of a twelve year-old boy.

It warmed her heart to know who he was.

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One sweltering summer day, a flying lemur delivered her another message from the monks.

Her son, Aang, the Avatar, had run away.

And as she read the letter, the sky turned a dark, bloody red. Her eyes widened as the fiery comet soared through the crimson heavens, burning with an intensity greater than the sun. Following in tow was a creature that she had never seen. It was long and serpent-like, with leather wings that beat so powerfully she swore she could feel the wind. The creature was a dragon, and she thought she saw a man sitting on its neck, following the comet.

The sound of ten thousand marching soldiers tore her eyes away from the sky and to the scarlet horizon. They walked all in a line, and bore the crest of the Fire Nation.

She hung her head, knowing what was to become of her.

She prayed that her only child wouldn't meet the same fate.

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The Spirit World was a magical place.

Everything was exactly as it had been on earth. She was in her home, but it had not been reduced to ashes. She dug up vegetables in her garden, but they had not been scavenged by the cruel soldiers. She had even discovered that the scroll she had saved containing Aang's information on being the Avatar was still in tact.

She sensed a presence in the doorway. At first she turned around in alarm, but softened as she saw that it was simply an old man, tenderly offering his hand. When he smiled, it reminded her of Gyatso and the rest of the monks. His eyes twinkled a warm, liquid topaz. Honey.

"Don't be alarmed." He spoke as gently as he appeared. "I am Roku."

"R-Roku?" She stuttered. "A…Avatar Roku?"

"Precisely."

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Avatar Roku said that she needed to sleep one hundred years. Her soul needed rest, peace. She laid down on her bed.

"I will wake you when it's time."

"T…Time for what?"

"You will know when you wake up."

She placed her head on the pillow, and dreamt of a boy in an iceberg.