Snippet #2578470

She had put out the fire shortly after Yuzaku left. Its crackling and spitting would have distracted her, and turned her to darker thoughts. She had only ever known Fire as a life-giving element. Hearthfires boiled rice and filled the stomachs of the hungry, released aromatic vapours from healing herbs. Forges gave the people of the Earth Kingdom tools to till their land and build shining cities for their children. Air Nomads had had little need for such things, but they'd understood the nurturing power of Fire. Before it had killed them.

It was strange, the things people could get used to. So much had changed in the past few months. There was an Air Nomad-shaped hole in the world. Everything should have been thrown out of balance. The sky should have fallen and cracked, the Sun and Moon should have put out their lights in sorrow, people should have wept and torn their clothes in the streets, ashamed to call themselves human. But the world was carrying on as if nothing had happened. She was carrying on as if nothing had happened.

Had she been born of Earth, she might have endured it and grown strong. Of Water, she might have adapted and changed to fit the situation. Of Fire... well. She would have melted the world down into a form she desired instead of letting it change her (hadn't Sozin already showed how capable they were of changing the world?). But Air Nomads accepted that change and impermanence were built into the nature of the universe. They coped with loss pre-emptively, by detaching themselves from anything transient. And everything was transient.

She settled on the grass in Padmasana posture, her fists pressed against each other in the cloudburst mudra, and shut her eyes. As each breath came and went, she focused on it, letting other sensations fade to the back of her mind. The air entered her lungs, penetrating deeper and deeper, bringing invigorating, tingling new chi to every corner of her body. With each exhalation she released some of the tension and anxiety that had built up since she'd last meditated. Soon she had slipped into a pleasant state, drifting on the waves of her own inward rhythms. She could stay like this forever, in this dream-like state with no thoughts or fears piercing the tranquility of her mind. She began to go through the visualisation sequences, picturing the chakras turning and the chi flowing through them, becoming one with the stream of energy. She felt her own spirit settle ever so slightly, the angry patterns roiling beneath the surface being calmed and soothed as she let the gently flowing chi trickle and spread.

Half an hour passed as she sat absorbed in her meditations. No images of war, blood or death. No grief. No despair. Calm and empty as the open skies above turbulent clouds.