2 - Avatar The Last Airbender

"I'm not looking to be found," Ryu replied.

He sat cross-legged in the hollow of a petrified tree deep in the Foggy Swamp, trying to ignore the buzzing of spirit flies and the louder, more persistent buzzing of his own doubts. At seventeen, he had mastered waterbending under Master Katara’s stern eye, earthbending in the gritty quarries of Ba Sing Se, and firebending on the caldera rim of a dormant volcano. But air—the element of freedom—remained a whisper he could not catch.

The Echo in the Stone

"I found this in the Si Wong Desert," Jaya said quietly. "Inside a ruin that isn't on any map. The ruin wasn't Fire Nation. It wasn't Earth Kingdom. It wasn't even Spirit Wilds." She paused. "It was older. Much older. Before the Lion Turtles. Before the first Avatar."

Li Na was already bending again—her flames were golden, shot through with streaks of cool blue. Kavi laughed as a spontaneous gust of wind lifted him three feet off the ground. He was an airbender now. The world was balancing itself. avatar the last airbender 2

The Echo was not his enemy. The Echo was his pain. His fear of failure. His anger at the world for needing him. His exhaustion. And you cannot destroy pain. You can only hold it.

One was a Fire Nation girl about his age, her hair shaved on one side and dyed crimson. She carried a pair of wind-fire fans and had the coiled-spring stance of a pro-bender. "I’m Li Na," she said, not bothering to hide her irritation. "My grandmother used to spar with the Fire Lord. I’m here because the volcano on Crescent Island started weeping black smoke shaped like a face. My face. So yeah. I’m invested." "I'm not looking to be found," Ryu replied

Ryu tried to waterbend. Nothing. Earthbend. Nothing. He was just a boy.