ShopDreamUp AI ArtDreamUp
literature
Silent Conversations
Deviation Actions
Literature Text
Silent Conversations
The Hall of the Fire Lord had been rebuilt several decades ago, after an accident of mysterious nature. Those few palace servants who couldn't keep their mouths shut about the circumstances were generously given free assistance with their commanded silence. Once stately in decor and brightly lit in the manner of a warm summer day, such an atmosphere was left in the dead past. Now, the Throne Room was built from glistening sealed wood, as dark in color as polished obsidian. The dimensions were massive enough to foster echoes of the slightest sound, but the pillars that towered over any visitors broken the rebounding sound into pathetic whispers. The Fire Lord's throne, covered in a gold canopy, was itself quite large, but the laughing flames separating it from the rest of the room dominated the scene. The Fire Lord appeared as a sinister shadow in the midst of blood-rust light.
Fire Lord Sozin had an audience.
"I commanded the three of you to find and destroy the greatest threat to the Fire Nation," he declared softly but harshly to the bowing figures. His aged, gravely voice was harshly discernable from the crackling fire around him. "I would hear of your failure. Li. Lo. You may rise."
The twin teenagers gracefully lifted their heads from the floor, settling into respectful crouches. Their eyes briefly met, and glanced down at the figure between them, still in a full bow. They spoke in their usual, eerie manner.
"Per the instructions of our Lord..."
"We set out from the Temple in the South."
"We consulted the captured lore of the Nomads..."
"And followed the winds in search of our target."
The twins delivered their closing report simultaneously, slowly, and with great fear. "Yet we could not find the last Airbender."
They could not see the details of the Fire Lord's expression, but the flaring fires were clue enough. His voice remained frighteningly even. "You two have served loyally, and I am pleased with your work. No one else in the whole of the Fire Nation could have read the Wind Lore of the Airbenders, but your wisdom and skills are just as great as I have heard. You will have further opportunity to serve me."
The young twins straightened their backs even further, prevented by protocol from expressing their pride and elation in any other way. Their eyes once again met, and reluctantly sunk to the woman still bowing between them. Her arms had to be tired, still positioned formally in a fan-like shape, but both remained strong and still.
Even the one missing its hand.
The Fire Lord spoke again. "No, my displeasure is for your companion. Tell me, Li, of the aid Mikkoku provided to you during the hunt."
"She... She was assigned as our warrior. My Lord... she was said to be a specialist in dealing with the Avatar."
"You remember well. I did indeed inform of you her special capacity. Lo, how did she make use of those skills, the skills that won her haven in my growing Empire, during your mission?"
"The Lady Mikkoku had no opportunity to use them. We did not find the Avatar. She had no knowledge of the winds, and so Li and I led."
"Well said. This is not the first time her supposed special knowledge has failed to be of use to me. I am as displeased as her former master must have been."
It was hard to tell, as Li and Lo could only see Mikkoku in their peripheral vision, but she seemed to twitch slightly at the pronouncement.
The Fire Lord's shadow leaned forward. "One last question for my loyal servants. Li, Lo... if you were to find the Avatar, how would you kill him?"
The twins spoke without hesitation, their voices trading off in easy cadence.
"The Avatar may be a great power with the ability to fly..."
"Yet he reports say he would be a child to the experienced eye..."
Their final pronouncement was confident. "And with proper planning, even a Spirit can be made to die."
Sozin gave one, echoing laugh. "Were but my advisors as wise as you two young ladies. You have summarized the situation perfectly. I think you would agree that we no longer have any need of our vaunted 'Avatar Slayer', eh?"
Mikkoku tensed, even as she remained bowing to the Fire Lord, ready for a fight. Li and Lo did likewise, in case the order came.
Apparantly, the Fire Lord was feeling generous. "The failure Mikkoku is hereby banished from the Fire Nation. The maimed and broken wretch is no longer welcome in my lands. Let her go to the Earth Kingdom, or back to her hidden home."
The woman rose silently. Li and Lo had to stifle smirks at how she couldn't even straighten in defiance with her twisted back, and her slight limp ruined any attempt at a proud retreat. How the failure could claim to kill an Avatar, neither could fathom. Members of the Crimson Guard fell into step behind the assassin, to ensure she left the capital without incident.
The Fire Lord's attention had already fallen from the silent outcast. "And now, my loyal subjects, let us discuss how you may avoid the same fate, in the future..."
The eyes of Li and Lo met once again, and many unspoken words passed between them.
END
The Hall of the Fire Lord had been rebuilt several decades ago, after an accident of mysterious nature. Those few palace servants who couldn't keep their mouths shut about the circumstances were generously given free assistance with their commanded silence. Once stately in decor and brightly lit in the manner of a warm summer day, such an atmosphere was left in the dead past. Now, the Throne Room was built from glistening sealed wood, as dark in color as polished obsidian. The dimensions were massive enough to foster echoes of the slightest sound, but the pillars that towered over any visitors broken the rebounding sound into pathetic whispers. The Fire Lord's throne, covered in a gold canopy, was itself quite large, but the laughing flames separating it from the rest of the room dominated the scene. The Fire Lord appeared as a sinister shadow in the midst of blood-rust light.
Fire Lord Sozin had an audience.
"I commanded the three of you to find and destroy the greatest threat to the Fire Nation," he declared softly but harshly to the bowing figures. His aged, gravely voice was harshly discernable from the crackling fire around him. "I would hear of your failure. Li. Lo. You may rise."
The twin teenagers gracefully lifted their heads from the floor, settling into respectful crouches. Their eyes briefly met, and glanced down at the figure between them, still in a full bow. They spoke in their usual, eerie manner.
"Per the instructions of our Lord..."
"We set out from the Temple in the South."
"We consulted the captured lore of the Nomads..."
"And followed the winds in search of our target."
The twins delivered their closing report simultaneously, slowly, and with great fear. "Yet we could not find the last Airbender."
They could not see the details of the Fire Lord's expression, but the flaring fires were clue enough. His voice remained frighteningly even. "You two have served loyally, and I am pleased with your work. No one else in the whole of the Fire Nation could have read the Wind Lore of the Airbenders, but your wisdom and skills are just as great as I have heard. You will have further opportunity to serve me."
The young twins straightened their backs even further, prevented by protocol from expressing their pride and elation in any other way. Their eyes once again met, and reluctantly sunk to the woman still bowing between them. Her arms had to be tired, still positioned formally in a fan-like shape, but both remained strong and still.
Even the one missing its hand.
The Fire Lord spoke again. "No, my displeasure is for your companion. Tell me, Li, of the aid Mikkoku provided to you during the hunt."
"She... She was assigned as our warrior. My Lord... she was said to be a specialist in dealing with the Avatar."
"You remember well. I did indeed inform of you her special capacity. Lo, how did she make use of those skills, the skills that won her haven in my growing Empire, during your mission?"
"The Lady Mikkoku had no opportunity to use them. We did not find the Avatar. She had no knowledge of the winds, and so Li and I led."
"Well said. This is not the first time her supposed special knowledge has failed to be of use to me. I am as displeased as her former master must have been."
It was hard to tell, as Li and Lo could only see Mikkoku in their peripheral vision, but she seemed to twitch slightly at the pronouncement.
The Fire Lord's shadow leaned forward. "One last question for my loyal servants. Li, Lo... if you were to find the Avatar, how would you kill him?"
The twins spoke without hesitation, their voices trading off in easy cadence.
"The Avatar may be a great power with the ability to fly..."
"Yet he reports say he would be a child to the experienced eye..."
Their final pronouncement was confident. "And with proper planning, even a Spirit can be made to die."
Sozin gave one, echoing laugh. "Were but my advisors as wise as you two young ladies. You have summarized the situation perfectly. I think you would agree that we no longer have any need of our vaunted 'Avatar Slayer', eh?"
Mikkoku tensed, even as she remained bowing to the Fire Lord, ready for a fight. Li and Lo did likewise, in case the order came.
Apparantly, the Fire Lord was feeling generous. "The failure Mikkoku is hereby banished from the Fire Nation. The maimed and broken wretch is no longer welcome in my lands. Let her go to the Earth Kingdom, or back to her hidden home."
The woman rose silently. Li and Lo had to stifle smirks at how she couldn't even straighten in defiance with her twisted back, and her slight limp ruined any attempt at a proud retreat. How the failure could claim to kill an Avatar, neither could fathom. Members of the Crimson Guard fell into step behind the assassin, to ensure she left the capital without incident.
The Fire Lord's attention had already fallen from the silent outcast. "And now, my loyal subjects, let us discuss how you may avoid the same fate, in the future..."
The eyes of Li and Lo met once again, and many unspoken words passed between them.
END
Suggested Collections
Featured in Groups
This was the 2nd place entry for the latest round of the Avatar Drabble contest. The prompt was as follows...
Silent Partner: OC + Canon Character Challenge
The exercise is called "Silent Partner", from The 3 AM Epiphany, modified to meet your Avatar fan fiction needs:
Contemplate for a while, and then slowly write down, a conversation between several people in which one person says very little - or nothing at all. Make this silent partner a crucial part of the situation, and don't ignore the character just because s/he's not speaking.
My twist on this challenge is that the conversation should include at least one original character that you invent, and at least one character from canon, preferably, but not necessarily, one of the bigger characters (Aang, Zuko, etc.). All other characters participating in the conversation are Author's choice. They can be OC characters, cannon characters, mystical magical talking air bison...
Judging Criteria:
1) Well Developed OC - whether your OC is doing the talking or playing the silent partner, I want to have a basic sense of who this character is. It doesn't take long to make an impression. Think, for example, of Katara and Sokka finding Aang in the iceberg. That scene tells us just about everything we need to know about Sokka and Katara in 30 seconds. Or Toph's introduction... all she has to do it call the Boulder "The Pebble" and we know what she's about - and we haven't even seen her fight yet! I don't need to know your OC's lifestory by the end of the drabble, but I should have a good impression of their personality and what they're all about.
2) Show, don't Tell - what makes for better writing, "Katara felt afraid" or "Katara could feel her heart beating wildly inside her chest as she struggled to keep from jerking back like a spooked wolf-horse..." Describing what a character does to show us how they feel is always more effective than telling us that they feel.
3) Pacing - it can be hard to weave dialogue and description. Try to make sure you have a good balance of both, without having a section become bogged down by description piled on top of description covered in more description, or another section that breezes by because its all dialogue with barely any room for, "said Sokka." Which isn't to say that there won't be some sections that have more dialogue than other. Balance is the key.
The OC I used is one I made up a while ago. If you're interested in the full backstory, I recommend you read this piece first, and then the Bio: [link] .
OC name: Mikkoku
Gender: Female
Nation: Fire
Bending: Yes
Age: 38
Appearance: Due to her old back injury, she cannot stand up straight and is severely hunched. Her left hand was amputated. Her right leg appears normal, but in damp weather a limp becomes evident. She keeps her dark hair tied back and out of the way, which only accentuates her big, lumpy nose (broken more times than she can count).
Bio
What if an Avatar ever goes bad? The Sages of the 4 nations have considered this, and created the secret position of Avatar Slayer. There is only one at a time, and this person devotes his or her life to being ready to kill an Avatar. The Slayer is an expert in personal combat, and usually a weapon master. Although each Slayer would be one of the foremost warriors of his or her generation, in truth the Slayer compares negatively to fighters of similar years of experiences, due to the specialized nature of the training.
Each Slayer is responsible for training an apprentice, and any failures must be killed to prevent the secret weaknesses of the Avatar from becoming known. These secrets include special knowledge of the Avatar State (specifically not to kill an Avatar while channeling the state), and a series Chakra blocking blows that can close off the target Avatar from the State temporarily.
Mikkoku was one of those failed apprentices. She was corrupt and self-serving, and her replacement apprentice was assigned to kill her. They fought with swords, and in the process Mikkoku received a deep cut on her left wrist that later led to the hand being removed, and at the end of the duel she seemingly fell to her death. She survived, her back forever ruined, but she was eventually able to recover her body's functions and gave her service to Fire Lord Sozin. Mikkoku was one of the leaders of the forces that attacked the four Air Temples, with the idea that she would be able to kill the Avatar. Unfortunately, the Avatar was never found, and Mikkoku wound up retiring in disgrace to one of the new Earth Kingdom colonies.
Woo, that's a lot of Artist's Comments.
Silent Partner: OC + Canon Character Challenge
The exercise is called "Silent Partner", from The 3 AM Epiphany, modified to meet your Avatar fan fiction needs:
Contemplate for a while, and then slowly write down, a conversation between several people in which one person says very little - or nothing at all. Make this silent partner a crucial part of the situation, and don't ignore the character just because s/he's not speaking.
My twist on this challenge is that the conversation should include at least one original character that you invent, and at least one character from canon, preferably, but not necessarily, one of the bigger characters (Aang, Zuko, etc.). All other characters participating in the conversation are Author's choice. They can be OC characters, cannon characters, mystical magical talking air bison...
Judging Criteria:
1) Well Developed OC - whether your OC is doing the talking or playing the silent partner, I want to have a basic sense of who this character is. It doesn't take long to make an impression. Think, for example, of Katara and Sokka finding Aang in the iceberg. That scene tells us just about everything we need to know about Sokka and Katara in 30 seconds. Or Toph's introduction... all she has to do it call the Boulder "The Pebble" and we know what she's about - and we haven't even seen her fight yet! I don't need to know your OC's lifestory by the end of the drabble, but I should have a good impression of their personality and what they're all about.
2) Show, don't Tell - what makes for better writing, "Katara felt afraid" or "Katara could feel her heart beating wildly inside her chest as she struggled to keep from jerking back like a spooked wolf-horse..." Describing what a character does to show us how they feel is always more effective than telling us that they feel.
3) Pacing - it can be hard to weave dialogue and description. Try to make sure you have a good balance of both, without having a section become bogged down by description piled on top of description covered in more description, or another section that breezes by because its all dialogue with barely any room for, "said Sokka." Which isn't to say that there won't be some sections that have more dialogue than other. Balance is the key.
The OC I used is one I made up a while ago. If you're interested in the full backstory, I recommend you read this piece first, and then the Bio: [link] .
OC name: Mikkoku
Gender: Female
Nation: Fire
Bending: Yes
Age: 38
Appearance: Due to her old back injury, she cannot stand up straight and is severely hunched. Her left hand was amputated. Her right leg appears normal, but in damp weather a limp becomes evident. She keeps her dark hair tied back and out of the way, which only accentuates her big, lumpy nose (broken more times than she can count).
Bio
What if an Avatar ever goes bad? The Sages of the 4 nations have considered this, and created the secret position of Avatar Slayer. There is only one at a time, and this person devotes his or her life to being ready to kill an Avatar. The Slayer is an expert in personal combat, and usually a weapon master. Although each Slayer would be one of the foremost warriors of his or her generation, in truth the Slayer compares negatively to fighters of similar years of experiences, due to the specialized nature of the training.
Each Slayer is responsible for training an apprentice, and any failures must be killed to prevent the secret weaknesses of the Avatar from becoming known. These secrets include special knowledge of the Avatar State (specifically not to kill an Avatar while channeling the state), and a series Chakra blocking blows that can close off the target Avatar from the State temporarily.
Mikkoku was one of those failed apprentices. She was corrupt and self-serving, and her replacement apprentice was assigned to kill her. They fought with swords, and in the process Mikkoku received a deep cut on her left wrist that later led to the hand being removed, and at the end of the duel she seemingly fell to her death. She survived, her back forever ruined, but she was eventually able to recover her body's functions and gave her service to Fire Lord Sozin. Mikkoku was one of the leaders of the forces that attacked the four Air Temples, with the idea that she would be able to kill the Avatar. Unfortunately, the Avatar was never found, and Mikkoku wound up retiring in disgrace to one of the new Earth Kingdom colonies.
Woo, that's a lot of Artist's Comments.
© 2009 - 2024 Loopy777
Comments15
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Wow Sozin is a jerkass. 
This is good...I've considered the idea of an evil Avatar before, and your solution is interesting, as was including Li and Lo here. Nice work.
This is good...I've considered the idea of an evil Avatar before, and your solution is interesting, as was including Li and Lo here. Nice work.