RotG, AtLA - Given Life
Jun. 30th, 2013 12:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
squeaklingsTitle: Given Life
Wordcount: 1, 698
Fandom: Rise of the Guardians, Avatar: the Last Airbender
Rating: PG
Warnings: character death
Summary: Jokul retells his final moments as a human.
Notes: Companion piece to The Avatar and the Winter Spirit. Just meant to give backstory to how Jokul became a spirit.
They sit around the hearth, looking at the pale boy in their midst as he idly taps the ground with his staff and draws pictures of frost along the ground. They melt within moments.
I was born a long, long time ago, in a village far in the Northern Water Tribe’s territory. This was before the city was built, before the different villages came together to form one strong nation.
I had a mother, and a father, and a younger sister. Her name was Eska and we were the best of friends. She was seven years younger than me, small and easily scared, and I took it upon myself to protect her. I couldn’t stand to see her sad, or to see her cry, and the same was true of all the children in our village. It was my goal to put a smile on all their faces. I was known as the village trickster, and I’m not sad to say I’ve pulled off quite a few stunts in my lifetime.
The Avatar nods, and the Water Tribe boy raises an eyebrow in curiosity, but he continues with a slight smile to acknowledge their reactions.
During the spring thaws when I was seventeen, my father returned from a trip to the northern Earth Kingdom, and he brought me a gnarled stick of wood with a crook at the end. He joked and said I could use it to herd koala otters.
He taps the staff against the ground again, and the frost forms a young boy and girl holding hands.
Surprisingly, it was Eska who took him up on that offer.
“Jokul,” she told me a few days later, nearly swimming in her oversized coat as we finished up the morning chores. She stood behind me outside our home, tracing a path through the snow with her booted foot. “Do you think… Can we herd the koala otters today?”
I grabbed the staff and we were off with a quick “We’ll be careful!” before the sun even reached its peak.
The koala otters all nested about an hour or so from our village, but the trek was well-known and the animals were used to seeing humans around. We arrived a little after noon, and Eska spent quite a few hours running around with a group of pups, playing tag and rolling around in the snow with them. I went around pretending to be a shepherd like the ones dad told us about in the Earth Kingdom, directing otters here and there, prodding some with the staff and letting some pups tackle me.
And Eska was smiling the entire time.
By late afternoon, we were all tired, and I knew it was time to go back.
“One of them is missing,” my sister told me when I found her among a group of snoozing pups. She was double-checking all of them, frantic to find the missing koala otter. We searched all through the nest and the surrounding area, and eventually we roamed out towards the edge of the nesting site, always careful not to get too close to where I thought the sea was.
But I’d forgotten how thin the ice could get in spring, and when I heard the crack and Eska’s cry, my heart nearly stopped.
The fire crackles and he looks up from the girl he’s drawn in the frost, his eyes glazed and distant. The Water Tribe girl puts a comforting hand over his, and he gives her a lopsided, sad grin before taking a deep breath.
She was no more than twenty feet away, but getting farther as the piece of ice she’d become trapped on floated out towards the sea. Eska crouched down, her gloved hands trying desperately to hold on as she cried out my name over and over again.
I was lucky I had the staff. By the time I reached the edge of the ice I could still reach her little perch with the staff, and I wedged the crook into a crack in the ice.
And that was when the ice broke around me, too.
I wasn’t quite so lucky. My piece was small and breaking fast under my weight, and I’d set off a chain reaction so there were other chunks of ice floating around as well. They stopped us floating out to sea, if only slightly, and I hauled Eska as close as I could without bouncing her off another piece of drift ice.
“You have to jump to me,” I told her, kneeling on the ice and holding my arms open. “You can do it!”
“I’m scared!”
“I know, I know,” I told her. I pulled her a little closer. “But we do this all the time, right, in those games we play every day. We’re just playing a game.”
She sniffed and stared at the ice and water around us. We were beginning to drift again. “A game?”
“Yeah,” I said, holding my arms out again. “You just gotta trust me, ok?”
After what felt like an eternity she nodded, and I knelt on the staff to keep her piece of ice steady as she stood on shaky legs. I heard another crack, and a chunk of my ice fell into the sea.
“Ready?” I held out my arms as though I hadn’t heard a thing. “One, two…three!”
She jumped and I caught her, and the ice under us rocked as I lunged to my feet. It cracked in half as I jumped to another drifting piece of ice barely big enough to hold us both. I don’t know how I didn’t fall over, but somehow I made it to another piece of ice, this one big enough for both of us to stand on.
And it was only a couple feet from the shore.
“See? That wasn’t so bad,” I said, breathing heavily. I heard a splash behind us and looked back. My staff had fallen into the sea, and a young koala otter held it between her jaws as she paddled towards the shore.
“Jokul…” Eska said as I set her down, her hand clasped tightly in mine.
“One more jump, that’s all,” I said, forcing the fear out of my voice. I hadn’t even realized I was afraid until we were so close to safety. “Ready? We’ll go together.”
“Y-yes…”
“Ok. One,” I said, and I heard a loud crack beneath us. “Two,” I continued, releasing her hand to wrap my fingers around her arm as tightly as I could. “Three!”
The ice gave out the moment I threw her, and I had enough time to see her land safely on the shore before I plunged into the icy waters.
They all stare at him, their eyes wide and not a breath to be heard in the room. The young Earth Kindgom girl reaches over, searching for his hand, and he takes it and squeezes it gently.
I don’t know how to describe what it felt like. The water was cold, so cold, and it froze enough to burn. In my surprise I’d swallowed huge gulps, and my lungs ached. And my coat, which had always protected me from the harsh Polar weather only helped to drag me under.
But that was when I saw the staff breach the water, and the hook caught me under the arm and I was hauled up to the surface.
Eska stood at the shore, her tiny body heaving with all its might as she tried to drag me out of the water. The little koala otter swam beside me, nudging my body with her nose as she did her best to help, too. And between the three of us they hauled me to the shore and up onto the snow and ice.
Everything hurt, even breathing. I couldn’t get enough air, and I couldn’t feel half my body. But Eska was there, crying, and I couldn’t…
He pauses, shudders.
I couldn’t let her see me die.
“Eska,” I said, although my lips felt heavy and my teeth couldn’t stop chattering. “Go…get help…”
“I can’t leave you!”
I was so proud of her; she was being so brave. But I shook my head and tried to sit up, except my body wouldn’t listen. “You…have to. P-please…”
She held my hands in her gloved ones, her eyes wide and terrified. “But I’m scared.”
I stared up past her, up at the moon shining above us. “The moon will gu-uide you,” I said, and though my vision was blurry I was sure the sky lit up as the moon shone down around us. It had always been a sacred thing to my people, the sea as well, and I believed then, more than I ever had, that it would protect her.
The Water Tribe boy nods, tears in his eyes.
“Jokul…” my sister pleaded.
“Go-o… Please.”
She hesitated a few moments longer, and I’m not sure what finally compelled her but I then I heard her dash away. The koala otter pup curled up at my side, doing its best to keep me warm, but by then all I could feel was a burning cold throughout my body.
But despite the pain I prayed to the moon, and I wished to the sea, ‘Let her get home, let her get home.’ I prayed until the world turned dark around me, I wished until my body couldn’t feel the pain anymore. ‘Let her get home safely.’
The next thing I was aware of was…emptiness. I floated in nothing, surrounded by black that was darker than night. I didn’t hurt, but my body felt like ice, heavy and cold. I couldn’t move, couldn’t run, couldn’t speak. All I knew was darkness, and cold, and I was scared.
And then I saw the moon, so big, so bright. And I could hear the sea, soft and calming as a lullaby. And together they chased the darkness and the cold away, and I saw the world again, covered in snow and ice and it was so, so beautiful.
He looks up, past the children and out the window at the moon hanging low in the night sky.
And I wasn’t scared anymore.
Wordcount: 1, 698
Fandom: Rise of the Guardians, Avatar: the Last Airbender
Rating: PG
Warnings: character death
Summary: Jokul retells his final moments as a human.
Notes: Companion piece to The Avatar and the Winter Spirit. Just meant to give backstory to how Jokul became a spirit.
They sit around the hearth, looking at the pale boy in their midst as he idly taps the ground with his staff and draws pictures of frost along the ground. They melt within moments.
I was born a long, long time ago, in a village far in the Northern Water Tribe’s territory. This was before the city was built, before the different villages came together to form one strong nation.
I had a mother, and a father, and a younger sister. Her name was Eska and we were the best of friends. She was seven years younger than me, small and easily scared, and I took it upon myself to protect her. I couldn’t stand to see her sad, or to see her cry, and the same was true of all the children in our village. It was my goal to put a smile on all their faces. I was known as the village trickster, and I’m not sad to say I’ve pulled off quite a few stunts in my lifetime.
The Avatar nods, and the Water Tribe boy raises an eyebrow in curiosity, but he continues with a slight smile to acknowledge their reactions.
During the spring thaws when I was seventeen, my father returned from a trip to the northern Earth Kingdom, and he brought me a gnarled stick of wood with a crook at the end. He joked and said I could use it to herd koala otters.
He taps the staff against the ground again, and the frost forms a young boy and girl holding hands.
Surprisingly, it was Eska who took him up on that offer.
“Jokul,” she told me a few days later, nearly swimming in her oversized coat as we finished up the morning chores. She stood behind me outside our home, tracing a path through the snow with her booted foot. “Do you think… Can we herd the koala otters today?”
I grabbed the staff and we were off with a quick “We’ll be careful!” before the sun even reached its peak.
The koala otters all nested about an hour or so from our village, but the trek was well-known and the animals were used to seeing humans around. We arrived a little after noon, and Eska spent quite a few hours running around with a group of pups, playing tag and rolling around in the snow with them. I went around pretending to be a shepherd like the ones dad told us about in the Earth Kingdom, directing otters here and there, prodding some with the staff and letting some pups tackle me.
And Eska was smiling the entire time.
By late afternoon, we were all tired, and I knew it was time to go back.
“One of them is missing,” my sister told me when I found her among a group of snoozing pups. She was double-checking all of them, frantic to find the missing koala otter. We searched all through the nest and the surrounding area, and eventually we roamed out towards the edge of the nesting site, always careful not to get too close to where I thought the sea was.
But I’d forgotten how thin the ice could get in spring, and when I heard the crack and Eska’s cry, my heart nearly stopped.
The fire crackles and he looks up from the girl he’s drawn in the frost, his eyes glazed and distant. The Water Tribe girl puts a comforting hand over his, and he gives her a lopsided, sad grin before taking a deep breath.
She was no more than twenty feet away, but getting farther as the piece of ice she’d become trapped on floated out towards the sea. Eska crouched down, her gloved hands trying desperately to hold on as she cried out my name over and over again.
I was lucky I had the staff. By the time I reached the edge of the ice I could still reach her little perch with the staff, and I wedged the crook into a crack in the ice.
And that was when the ice broke around me, too.
I wasn’t quite so lucky. My piece was small and breaking fast under my weight, and I’d set off a chain reaction so there were other chunks of ice floating around as well. They stopped us floating out to sea, if only slightly, and I hauled Eska as close as I could without bouncing her off another piece of drift ice.
“You have to jump to me,” I told her, kneeling on the ice and holding my arms open. “You can do it!”
“I’m scared!”
“I know, I know,” I told her. I pulled her a little closer. “But we do this all the time, right, in those games we play every day. We’re just playing a game.”
She sniffed and stared at the ice and water around us. We were beginning to drift again. “A game?”
“Yeah,” I said, holding my arms out again. “You just gotta trust me, ok?”
After what felt like an eternity she nodded, and I knelt on the staff to keep her piece of ice steady as she stood on shaky legs. I heard another crack, and a chunk of my ice fell into the sea.
“Ready?” I held out my arms as though I hadn’t heard a thing. “One, two…three!”
She jumped and I caught her, and the ice under us rocked as I lunged to my feet. It cracked in half as I jumped to another drifting piece of ice barely big enough to hold us both. I don’t know how I didn’t fall over, but somehow I made it to another piece of ice, this one big enough for both of us to stand on.
And it was only a couple feet from the shore.
“See? That wasn’t so bad,” I said, breathing heavily. I heard a splash behind us and looked back. My staff had fallen into the sea, and a young koala otter held it between her jaws as she paddled towards the shore.
“Jokul…” Eska said as I set her down, her hand clasped tightly in mine.
“One more jump, that’s all,” I said, forcing the fear out of my voice. I hadn’t even realized I was afraid until we were so close to safety. “Ready? We’ll go together.”
“Y-yes…”
“Ok. One,” I said, and I heard a loud crack beneath us. “Two,” I continued, releasing her hand to wrap my fingers around her arm as tightly as I could. “Three!”
The ice gave out the moment I threw her, and I had enough time to see her land safely on the shore before I plunged into the icy waters.
They all stare at him, their eyes wide and not a breath to be heard in the room. The young Earth Kindgom girl reaches over, searching for his hand, and he takes it and squeezes it gently.
I don’t know how to describe what it felt like. The water was cold, so cold, and it froze enough to burn. In my surprise I’d swallowed huge gulps, and my lungs ached. And my coat, which had always protected me from the harsh Polar weather only helped to drag me under.
But that was when I saw the staff breach the water, and the hook caught me under the arm and I was hauled up to the surface.
Eska stood at the shore, her tiny body heaving with all its might as she tried to drag me out of the water. The little koala otter swam beside me, nudging my body with her nose as she did her best to help, too. And between the three of us they hauled me to the shore and up onto the snow and ice.
Everything hurt, even breathing. I couldn’t get enough air, and I couldn’t feel half my body. But Eska was there, crying, and I couldn’t…
He pauses, shudders.
I couldn’t let her see me die.
“Eska,” I said, although my lips felt heavy and my teeth couldn’t stop chattering. “Go…get help…”
“I can’t leave you!”
I was so proud of her; she was being so brave. But I shook my head and tried to sit up, except my body wouldn’t listen. “You…have to. P-please…”
She held my hands in her gloved ones, her eyes wide and terrified. “But I’m scared.”
I stared up past her, up at the moon shining above us. “The moon will gu-uide you,” I said, and though my vision was blurry I was sure the sky lit up as the moon shone down around us. It had always been a sacred thing to my people, the sea as well, and I believed then, more than I ever had, that it would protect her.
The Water Tribe boy nods, tears in his eyes.
“Jokul…” my sister pleaded.
“Go-o… Please.”
She hesitated a few moments longer, and I’m not sure what finally compelled her but I then I heard her dash away. The koala otter pup curled up at my side, doing its best to keep me warm, but by then all I could feel was a burning cold throughout my body.
But despite the pain I prayed to the moon, and I wished to the sea, ‘Let her get home, let her get home.’ I prayed until the world turned dark around me, I wished until my body couldn’t feel the pain anymore. ‘Let her get home safely.’
The next thing I was aware of was…emptiness. I floated in nothing, surrounded by black that was darker than night. I didn’t hurt, but my body felt like ice, heavy and cold. I couldn’t move, couldn’t run, couldn’t speak. All I knew was darkness, and cold, and I was scared.
And then I saw the moon, so big, so bright. And I could hear the sea, soft and calming as a lullaby. And together they chased the darkness and the cold away, and I saw the world again, covered in snow and ice and it was so, so beautiful.
He looks up, past the children and out the window at the moon hanging low in the night sky.
And I wasn’t scared anymore.
