The next day
I was practicing my new style of waterbending and working out the kinks when I felt the chief walking towards me. I could sense the water in the air get pushed and the air blowing around him. I stopped my practicing almost immediately as I turned around to face the chief.
"Good morning Chief. How can I help you today?"
"Good morning to you as well Avatar Aang. I was hoping that you would want to participate in the ranking tournament."
"Oh of course, I don't mind. It would act as a good way to measuring my proficiency and technique. If you don't mind me asking, why did you deliver this personally."
"It is tradition for the avatar to be invited to the ranking tournament personally by the chief. They usually come first though avatar kurk forfeited in the finals because he believed that his opponent was more worthy of the title of the strongest."
Yeah no pressure.
"Oh Ok but why are you holding the tournament a week before an invasion?"
"It is to determine who shall lead the charge and it is tradition for all participants of any war to compete in the tournament at least once. It also gives a rough estimate of strength and allows for better planning."
"When is it? I heard it was today from a few of the soldiers and I don't know where?"
"It is actually today in the military camp. It is in 3 hours.Sorry for the late notice, I was notified that as an Avatar you should also participate."
"What about katara?"
"Sadly she can't participate. It is tradition that only men participate."
"Sigh. Sure. I will be there."
He then proceeded to walk away as if he hadn't just ruined my entire days plan but I guess that he was busy informing me about my participation a few hours before a competition. Sigh, my chi should be full by the time of the competition if I meditate for long enough.
Sadly kat won't be able to participate, Traditions are such a pain in the ass. I should use this tournament to polish my waterbending style cause it may have flaws that can only be uncovered in a battle or a fight.
I got back on my feet and started walking towards my 'Igloo' but I was stopped by a little girl with blonde hair and cute blue eyes came running towards me. She looked extremely weird in a tribe full of black haired, Tanned skin and black eyed people she was really cute and was approx around 7 years old.
"Are you the Avatar? I heard so many stories about you. Can you really bend air? Can I see?"
"Calm down. I am the avatar, yes I can and maybe later. What's your name little one?"
"Ooh my name is Ashley. I don't have a surname."
She is really weird. I haven't a single name like Ashley in this world ever! Normal names here include Kuruk, Katara,Sokka and a bunch of other weird ones. Ashley is definitely different for some reason. I wanna get to the bottom of this later. Form now the tournament is more important.
"What are you doing here? Where are you guardians?"
"I live in the orphanage and the matron lets me roam around for some reason. She doesn't really like me for some reason. Can you tell me stories about your previous lives? Pretty please."
She made the cutest little puppy dog eyes. She looked like a little chihuahua with blonde hair.
I sat down near a fire with little Ashley sitting opposite to me.
"Well these are not stories about my previous incarnations but they are a few legends I learned in my travels. I even knew a few of them.
Once upon a time, there was a young boy named Bruce Wayne. He was a so...."
Nearly 2 hours later, a hour before the tournament, I had the entire population of children sitting around a fire with me in the middle telling stories about how the great justice league made from an rich fire nation orphan with no bending, a avatar, a kyoshi warrior/amazon, air tender who runs really fast and a few others took down an evil spirit called dark side.
The funny thing was that some of the kids were older than I was and they were the most excited bunch. A few of the adults had also sat down along with their children to either listen to my stories or to make sure I didn't say anything inappropriate to them. By now even a large chunk of the free adults had sat down and were listening to the story with great attention.
"Well that is the end of the story. Now tell me who is your favorite character and why?"
"Superman is so strong. He is even avatar like you. He bends ice from his mouth, fire from his eyes and he has so many nice abilities."
"Wonder Woman is so nice. Even though nobody thought a kyoshi without bending is useless, she didn't give up and she saved the mans world with the help of the others."
"The flash is so cool. He uses his airbending to remove any drag and increase his speed so much. He is so strong but he doesn't commit an violence and his jokes are really funny."
"Avatar!! Who is your favorite? Is it Superman because he is an avatar like you?"
This time it was little Ashley who spoke out.
"It is Batman. He was an rich orphan. He could have easily lived his entire life in complete luxury doing whatever he wanted. Instead he threw it all away, to help the people who had suffered under the fire nation. Even though he had no bending, he was still the most crucial person in the league of justice. He was nowhere as good as any of the others but with pure dedication, will power and determination. He became the most important person on the team. Without him, the team wouldn't be a team and the fire nation would have taken over."
the adults were very thoughtful about what I said and Ashley seemed satisfied so I got up and said a final thing before walking towards the military base.
"Some People will tell you there are no heroes, they will be right. But. You can always be the first hero, if you have the courage to do that, than everyone else will follow your example. If you want heroes to exist. Be the first one."
