Hiding From the Truth
Emiko's Story
Sorry that its so short! I’ll try to make it longer next time!
“My name is Emiko. I lived in a small, Earth Kingdom village. It was very unimportant to large cities, but very important to me. I had both an younger and older brother. My older brother, Maro, went off to fight in the war when he turned 16. My father already had left.” I looked away, “He died.”
“My younger brother, Jiro, wanted to fight in the war too. Jiro couldn’t wait until he turned 16. He was 10, two years younger then me. He was so sure that it was his destiny to overrule the Fire Nation. He would follow me around all day, telling me all about the earthbending teacher that he planned to find when he was older and how he would defeat the Fire Lord. But all of that disappeared the day that the Fire Nation came.
My mom had asked me to run to the market at a larger town near ours. It would be an all day trip. When I got back everything had been burned to the ground. No one was alive. It was just me, all alone. Then they came back. I tried to hold them off, but there were just so many of them. I couldn’t do it. They took me captive. I don’t know how long I was there. I just know it was a long time. But once when I in that prison, an old man visited me and gave me this.”
I pulled out the notebook that I had been concealing. It had a plain brown cover. I flipped through it, revealing thousands of drawings and journal entries.
“Wow,” Katara said as she leaned closer to inspect one of my drawings. “Is this your family?”
“Yeah,” I said. Then I closed my journal and turned away.
Katara came up beside me. “I’m so sorry,” she said, pulling me into a hug. “Sokka and I lost our mother to the Fire Nation too. We’ll be your family.”
I nodded and tried to smile.
“So where are we going?” I asked
“To the Southern Air Temple!” Aang exclaimed, “I’m going to look for the Air Nomads!”
“Aang, the Air Nomads died out a long time ago,” I told him, trying to be as gentle as possible.
“Just because no one has seen them doesn’t mean that they aren’t there. Besides, you can only get there by sky bison. I doubt that the Fire Nation has one of those!” Aang said cheerfully.
I didn’t want to crush his hopes.
“LOOK!” Aang cried, “There’s the Southern Air Temple!”
“My name is Emiko. I lived in a small, Earth Kingdom village. It was very unimportant to large cities, but very important to me. I had both an younger and older brother. My older brother, Maro, went off to fight in the war when he turned 16. My father already had left.” I looked away, “He died.”
“My younger brother, Jiro, wanted to fight in the war too. Jiro couldn’t wait until he turned 16. He was 10, two years younger then me. He was so sure that it was his destiny to overrule the Fire Nation. He would follow me around all day, telling me all about the earthbending teacher that he planned to find when he was older and how he would defeat the Fire Lord. But all of that disappeared the day that the Fire Nation came.
My mom had asked me to run to the market at a larger town near ours. It would be an all day trip. When I got back everything had been burned to the ground. No one was alive. It was just me, all alone. Then they came back. I tried to hold them off, but there were just so many of them. I couldn’t do it. They took me captive. I don’t know how long I was there. I just know it was a long time. But once when I in that prison, an old man visited me and gave me this.”
I pulled out the notebook that I had been concealing. It had a plain brown cover. I flipped through it, revealing thousands of drawings and journal entries.
“Wow,” Katara said as she leaned closer to inspect one of my drawings. “Is this your family?”
“Yeah,” I said. Then I closed my journal and turned away.
Katara came up beside me. “I’m so sorry,” she said, pulling me into a hug. “Sokka and I lost our mother to the Fire Nation too. We’ll be your family.”
I nodded and tried to smile.
“So where are we going?” I asked
“To the Southern Air Temple!” Aang exclaimed, “I’m going to look for the Air Nomads!”
“Aang, the Air Nomads died out a long time ago,” I told him, trying to be as gentle as possible.
“Just because no one has seen them doesn’t mean that they aren’t there. Besides, you can only get there by sky bison. I doubt that the Fire Nation has one of those!” Aang said cheerfully.
I didn’t want to crush his hopes.
“LOOK!” Aang cried, “There’s the Southern Air Temple!”