--The Meeting--
Steve walked slowly into the room, glancing at each face looking up at him from the benches. The room had an official ambience, like he was stepping in front of a school board of directors. Though Director Strongman, Segun and a few others were smiling amicably, he felt slightly nervous –these were actual bending masters. He suddenly began to feel woefully unprepared as he moved straight forward, towards the center of the arc where the Director sat. One of the ninjas from the edge of the room came forward briskly and bent a simple armless chair of earth into being. Steve sat uncertainly, facing the council. Chris strode to the council and stood behind the curved benches, grinning. From the corner of his eye, Steve saw that Jean was still scowling where she stood. Fiery torches blazed in two rows along the walls, but at the center of the dome that made up the ceiling, there was a circular opening, admitting diffuse sunlight into the room.
“Be at ease, Steve,” Director Strongman said, smiling broadly. “It is we who are highly privileged to have you in our midst, and not the other way around.”
Steve took a deep breath and tried to feel more steady and confident. It didn’t work.
“This is the council,” the director continued, gesturing to those sitting by his sides. “Every colony of benders in the alliance has one –each member is well versed in a bending discipline and guides us in its ways, along with governing and leading the colony.”
He began introducing each one by name, bending ability and country of origin. Steve was too nervous to keep the names straight, but he was quite surprised at the diversity in their countries. Of the eight, only two were from the United States –an airbender and a firebender. Segun, the only black man in their midst, was actually an African from Nigeria, and not an African-American as Steve had first assumed. There was a female Russian waterbender and a female Indian earthbender, one Canadian waterbender, a Mexican airbender, and an Italian firebender.
“We have all been working on finding and keeping you safe all these months,” he went on. “And are overjoyed that we have succeeded.” Several members of the council nodded in agreement. One of them, the American airbender called loudly, “Hear, hear!”
“In fact,” Director Strongman continued, “each member of this council, and those of other colonies too have dedicated over a decade of their lives to finding you. While it has been our honour to be the ones to bring you in, the entirety of the Bending Alliance is currently celebrating. For the first time since we lost our founder, we can hope again.”
Chris broke into applause, crooning, “Oh, yeah!” The members of the council joined in, some more fervently than others, one or two quite reluctantly, as though the solemnity of the moment was being undermined.
As the clapping reverberated through the chamber, Steve suddenly felt worried. He looked at each face surrounding him –none showed the slightest hint of doubt at the director’s words. They all believed wholly that he was the Incarnate, but Steve had never done anything slightly special in his entire life. As far as he was concerned, he was the definition of average, and he had never wanted to be anything more. All he’d ever wanted was a simple life. And now these people, powerful masters in their own right, were looking to him to save the world?
“I’m sorry,” he said in a low voice. “I think you’ve made a mistake.”
The clapping died down.
“What’s that, Steve?” The director asked benignly.
“You’ve made a mistake,” Steve repeated, louder this time. “I’m not the Avatar – the Incarnate. I can’t be. I might be Thaddeus Wellington’s son, but I’m really no one special otherwise. I’m just a regular kid from Manhattan.” He looked from the director to the others, pleadingly. However, they were all smiling indulgently at him. Jean looked like she was keeping from rolling her eyes with difficulty. She still looked quite angry. Chris’ grin had turned into a smirk.
“Not the Incarnate, really?” The director said, still smiling. “And you’re sure of this? You really feel in your heart that that’s true?”
“I…” Steve started. But then he trailed off. When the director asked him like that –not what he thought, but what he felt –he couldn’t deny it. Immediately Chris had revealed that bending was real and told him he was the Incarnate, something had clicked into place in him, a missing piece of his life’s puzzle. The director’s smile widened knowingly.
Segun leaned forward and spoke in his deep voice. “Tell us, Steve, have you never felt anything strange?”
Steve opened his mouth to respond, but before he could let out a sound, the Russian added, “Or heard voices no one else did?” Her voice was surprisingly tough, despite her soft looks. Her eyes, however, were fierce and piercing.
“Or known things without possibly knowing how? Had strange dreams?” The Indian piqued in.
“You have felt from your childhood a connection to nature, haven’t you?” The Mexican said affably. “Isn’t that why you come to the woods often? The closest thing you could find to a purely natural habitat in a city such as this? Right, Steve?”
Steve stared at them. Everything they’d said was perfectly correct.
The director chuckled. “We have been watching you for a while, Steve. We only delayed for so long to be perfectly sure. In fact, we would have waited a couple of weeks more had the Solution not sent their benders after you.” He leaned forward. “We know it’s a lot to take in all at once, but give yourself time. You will discover all you need to know about being the Incarnate.”
“But I can’t even bend,” Steve said in a small voice. “Shouldn’t the Incarnate be master of four elements?”
“Even after all these years, we’re still learning a lot about the legends of bending,” the Mexican replied. “But that is one of the aspects we might have gotten wrong initially.”
“And as we discussed yesterday, we believe the Incarnate himself does not have to be a bender of any kind,” the Director said.
Steve spread his palms. “But then, how am I supposed to help? What makes me the Incarnate?”
The director took a quick sideways glance at the other members of the council. “What we need the most,” he said carefully, “is knowledge and experience from past Incarnates. One or more of them may have already experienced what’s coming and know exactly how to avert it.”
“Oh,” Steve muttered, remembering. “My father’s vision. The terrible event.”
Director Strongman nodded.
Steve felt a chill crawl up his spine. “What’s it?” He asked. “What did he see? What’s coming?”
The director shook his head. “That’s the thing. We don’t exactly know,” he said gravely. “But it is terrible. An event that will wipe out almost all of humanity, or change it forever. Something very ancient and mysterious, locked away for eons is being reborn. A force man can never hope to defeat. And its time is very near.”
Steve realized he had stopped breathing. His heart was beating crazily fast.
“We believe it will come during a rare astrological event this year,” the director continued. “The harmonic convergence. Two months from now, the planets are going to come as close as they get at the exact same time as the Perseid meteor shower.”
The Italian spoke for the first time. “We think this is why bending and the Incarnate returned, to give us a fighting chance.”
As he said this, Steve had a sudden epiphany. “That’s why I’ve been having the dreams,” he said. “And why they’ve become so vivid. My Avatar spirit has been trying to tell me something.”
“What was that, Steve?”
“My dreams used to be very distinct and blurry,” he told them. “But just yesterday it changed. I remember every detail now, and the totem has been in both of them. It must be a memory from…”
“Hold on, Steve,” the Mexican interrupted. “Did you say a totem was in them?”
Steve paused and glanced from one end of the bench to the other. “Yes,” he said. “The totem of the Elements. In the dream, I and some others were taking it to some mystic location, but we got… side-tracked along the way.” The dream companions had betrayed him, but he had a sudden feeling it would be wrong to tell these companions that. “I thought I was crazy but…” he continued, then trailed off in surprise at the sudden reaction in the room.
Watch Here for the Next Chapter: 'The Mission Should You Choose To Accept It'!
The Lost Legend series is fan fiction based off Nickelodeon's Avatar franchise.
Find more of my original works as Peter M. Ogwara on Amazon!
