Six years had passed since Fire Lord Ozai's fall. The world had been promised peace, healing,and armony. But Fang Yuan—who awoke with no memory in a cave of stone and
smoke—had not come to bring peace.
He was not the storm after the silence
He was the silence before the next storm.
A faint breeze stirred the trees as Fang Yuan knelt by the edge of a wide, slow-moving river.
The village of Shuijing lay behind him—sleepy, quiet, and suspicious. The Earth kingdom had been rebuilding since the end of the war, but it had not mended fully.
Distrust still ran deep. Outsiders, especially those with no history or roots, were viewed with caution
Fang Yuan dipped his fingers into the water. The cold rippled up his wrist. He closed his eyes,trying to feel something. Anything that
might explain the power he'd unlocked days ago, when the earth itself had
responded to his panic—when the stone had listened
He couldn't explain it
Couldn't control it
The villagers saw him as odd, foreign. He kept to himself. But there were whispers now—rumors of strange lights at night, the earth shivering under moonlight, a presence that
stirred the trees without wind.
"Fang Yuan."
The voice made him glance back.
It was Lian, the daughter of Shuijing's apothecary. Sharp-eyed, cautious. She had been the only one to speak to him more than a sentence at a time
"Thought you'd be gone by now," she said, walking up with a basket of foraged herbs
He didn't answer.
She tilted her head
"Ba-Shan's been speaking of you again. Dreamed of something rising from the
river. Something that doesn't belong.
He smirked faintly.
"I'm honored."
Lian didn't smile.
"He says the spirits are… watching. Not just watching. Worried."
And what with him and spirits anywa
"Well he was always like that for as long as u know him
Fang Yuan stood slowly owly. "Good. Let them watch."
Lian stared at him.
"You really don't care, do you?"
"I don't know what I am," he replied. "But I know this—whatever 'balance' this world thinks it has,it's fragile. Maybe it needs to break before it can rebuild."
Before Lian could answer, a tremor rolled through the earth. Subtle—but unnatural.
Fang Yuan turned
toward the river. The water was rippling unnaturally now. No wind. No fish.
Then it began to rise.
Not splash. Rise. A column of water lifted into the air, spiraling into a shape—a vaguely human figure, featureless, with glowing white
eyes and an aura of stillness that crushed sound.
Lian stumbled back,clutching her herbs.
The spirit hovered over the river like a sentinel.
Fang Yuan narrowed his eyes. "Another one…
The spirit didn't speak with words. It spoke within—a pressure behind the eyes, a presence in the lungs.
"Outsider… you are a shadow in sunlight. A wound upon still water. You do not belong."
Fang Yuan clenched his fists. "I didn't ask to be here."
"You unearth the buried. You bend what should not yield. You fracture balance."
Lian gasped. "Fang, you need to back away. This… this is a guardian spirit. It watches this
valley."
But Fang Yuan stepped forward.
"You attacked first last time," he said. "I won't run again."
The spirit surged—water lashing forward like a whip. Fang Yuan raised his arms and pulled
instinctively. The mud beneath his feet rippled, and a wall of damp earth rose
to intercept the strike.
Water met earth with a crash. Fang Yuan was shoved back,overwhelmed.
He breathed hard. "I didn't even try to fight you. But if you keep coming—"
"You bring imbalance," the spirit thundered
again. "You bend without the Avatar's light. You
awaken before your time."
That stopped Fang Yuan cold.
Lian stared. "The Avatar?"
"They fear him,"Fang Yuan said softly. "They think I'm a threat… to balance."
The spirit said nothing. The river beneath it surged again. It began to draw moisture from the ground, swelling.
Fang Yuan reached again—not with strength, but with flow.
He focused, remembering the river's rhythm, the cold clarity, the movement
without force.
The spirit struck—and this time, Fang Yuan moved his arms and redirected it. The water curved around him and smashed
harmlessly into the trees.
He twisted again—and
the river split, just slightly. Two
streams now danced at his fingertips.
Lian stared in disbelief. "You're… you're not an Avatar, but…"
Fang Yuan exhaled. "No. I'm something else."
The spirit stopped.It hovered for a moment, then its form began to unravel. Mist. Droplets. It dispersed into the wind.
Before it vanished completely, it spoke once more:
"The Avatar will find you. He will come. And when he does… you will be judged
Silence followed.
Lian approached him slowly. "They'll send word to the capital. To the Earth King. To the White Lotus. If what that spirit said is true…"
"They already see me as the enemy," Fang Yuan said. "I might as well give them a reason."
She looked afraid now—not of the spirit, but of him
"Fang… what are you?"
He turned his gaze back to the river.
"I don't know," he murmured. "But I think the world is about to remember what it forgot."