AVATAR TARIN

BOOK 1: THE BEGINNING

My name is Tarin Akamu meaning "rocky hill of the red earth" and I am one hundred and twenty years young. My family is from the Earth Kingdom, which means I am an earthbender by blood. I currently reside in the northern region of the Earth Kingdom between the mountains and the plains. I live with my granddaughter Brynn as well as my animal guide Trillby, a jackalope.

People who know me say that I can be a bit complacent, but I make up for that because I am wise. When faced with a problem I do what has best served me in the past and move on. If I see someone in distress I immediately assist the person in trouble. Love is a very sensitive subject for me because my wife passed away long ago. I dream to some day be reunited with my beloved wife and be succeeded by a wonderful new Avatar. This dream will be fulfilled when I have completed all that I am here on this earth to do.

My story is just beginning . . . .

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BOOK 2: THE HISTORY

My character is played by Naoto Inaba from Eden* They Were Only Two on the Planet when young, Albrecht from Atilier Annie: Alchemist of Sera Island when middle-aged, and Aaeru's father from Simoun when old. This character uses bending to punish enemies. Besides having the ability to earthbend, my character can also sandbend, metalbend, waterbend, firebend, and airbend.

Here is my story so far . . . .

Immediately following Avatar Korra’s death, I was born near the Great Divide to souvenir shop owners Macon, an earthbender, and Ilori a non-bender. They made a living by carving animals, furniture, and odds and ends out of certain rocks found only in the Great Divide. Most of their expenses went to paying the people who gathered the rocks for them as the dangers, including falling and Canyon Crawlers, were too great for them to handle. So they scraped by on what profits could be made on selling their souvenirs. After my little sister Makana was born, times were tougher than they’d ever been.

I was a timid boy who never did anything to start trouble, a trait I carried for the rest of my life. The only time I showed how brave I could be was when someone I cared about was in danger. I discovered this, as well as my ability to earthbend, on the same day.

With my family’s financial situation reaching a critical low, Makana, who was a rather adventurous soul and often wandered off, had journeyed into the Great Divide to gather rocks and was determined to prove herself useful. Even at four years of age, she had the gusto of a teenage boy. Friends and family would often jest how our personalities were put into the wrong bodies. Worried about my sister, I followed after Makana and found her being attacked by a Canyon Crawler. Desperate to save her, I discovered a power within that awoke to my instinctual desire to protect others. Without thinking, I was able to fend off the beast by earthbending. When my sister inquired as to how I was able to do it, I figured I must have seen my father use such techniques. Yet even as I said it I knew that wasn’t true. The only earthbending my father ever did was to manipulate the wares. Nothing nearly as massive as the attacks I was able to perform. Even more puzzling was that when I tried to repeat the moves, I failed miserably.

The fact that I was able to do the things I did, however, proved I was an earthbender. My father, thrilled to have a son to walk in his footsteps, started from the beginning and taught me the basics just as he had been as a child. In time, I was able to surpass my father and took to training on my own in the Great Divide. I was able to hold my own against Canyon Crawlers and bring rocks for my family’s business so they no longer had to pay for someone else to do it. So in a way, Makana’s little life-threatening trip did exactly what she set out to do and then some.

Four years after I discovered my ability to earthbend, I set out to master my talent. Before I left, I gathered enough stone for my family to make a profit on for a year and my absence would allow extra money to once again pay for the work to be done if I took longer. This journey led me across the Earth Kingdom. While living in the Si Wong Desert, I put my salesman skills to use and worked for the beetle-headed merchants. At this time I met sandbenders and after a while of good trades and sound advice from me, they agreed to accept wares in exchange for lessons. This special kind of earthbending proved very difficult for me to learn. Later in life I would realize this was because of its similarity to airbending, my natural opposite. Used to growing up on almost nothing until I learned to earthbend, scraping by just enough to survive reminded me of my childhood and how with hard work and patience, things get better.

One day while organizing my merchandise outside the Misty Palms Oasis, I spied an albino jackalope feeding on one of the cantina’s fruit bushes. It was difficult and costly to grow such fruits in this landscape, and jackalopes had wild plants they could feed on, so pests like that were shooed away. In the following weeks the jackalope continued to come by and sneak food, so I would threaten to turn it into a hat if it didn’t stop. The creature never stopped and somehow, over the months that passed, it became less serious and more like a friendly routine. I even began leaving cactus plants, the jackalope’s natural food, out for it to eat instead. The darn animal just ate both. Nevertheless, we took a liking to each other and in time the jackalope came to trust me, even going so far as to sit nearby and watch me as I worked. It was then that I named the jackalope Trillby, meaning “a soft hat” as a joke. The day Trillby jumped on top of my wagon as I left to sell my wares, I knew I’d gained a friend and companion. Many a customer tried to bargain for the oddity, but I sternly refused. And the several times someone tried to steal him, either the fast and fierce jackalope would injure the attacker with his antlers or I would send them flying with my earthbending, never to trade with them again. With Trillby’s speed and my power, we made a good team.

After I mastered sandbending, Trillby and I moved on and eventually settled in Ba Sing Se where I met metalbenders who, impressed with my strong work ethic, hired me as an apprentice. Eventually I learned the difficult skill and made a decent living. After nearly two years of traveling I finally returned home, in time to celebrate my sixteenth birthday with my family. Like most Avatars, I had no idea of my true destiny until that fateful day. But my identity explained how I was able to earthbend without prior training that day in the Divide. A test was administered and I was declared a master earthbender.

With my family’s support and insistence that they were fine without me, I left home to begin my Avatar training. I learned firebending next. The element came naturally to me because as an earthbender I was already grounded and patient, skills needed to control breathing and the live element of power.

Following my mastery of fire, I was taken to begin waterbending training at the South Pole. It was there that I met my future wife, Kamea. She was the daughter of my instructor, and for that reason I tried my best to be respectful and not make any advances. But the connection we shared was so powerful that even while keeping away, my tutor could tell that we both shared a spiritual bond. We were given the blessing to be together and were soon betrothed. I even followed Water Tribe customs and made a betrothal necklace for her. I designed it with the insignia of all four elements to represent our partnership in keeping the world a place of unity and peace. I was a devoted man and ensured that Kamea was by my side every step along my journey. I loved her more than anything.

In our mid-twenties when my Avatar training was complete, we settled down on a plain in the southeastern Earth Kingdom. Eventually we started a family, beginning with a little boy named Brynn meaning "small hill" who, miraculously even in infancy showed signs of earthbending. Tragically, baby Brynn died, a loss that neither of us ever completely healed from... Years later, however, Kamea gave birth again. This time, to a little girl we named Gehlilah or "rolling hills". She was healthy and happy from day one and the little helper every parent always dreams of. Close to Gehlilah’s second birthday, she was given a baby brother named Kipp which means "high hill".

Unlike his non-bending sister, Kipp was a born waterbender and always took great pride in that. So much so that his mother and I had to often reprimand him for misusing his abilities and having such an entitled disposition. It broke our hearts that he acted this way not only to his sister, but to everyone. For some reason he thought himself superior not only as a waterbender, but as a human being.

By the time I was well over middle-aged, I had yet to be called upon for any major Avatar duties. There were no wars, no disasters, nothing. Both people and nature had found complete balance once again. Part of it had to do with the rise of technology, but I believe most of it came from the incredible work of the Avatars before me. There was one time, however, that put my bending skills to the test. A village not far from my family’s humble dwelling was threatened by a tornado. It took all my strength and I had to remember airbending experience I hadn’t had since my youth, but I managed to subdue the storm before it reached the village. The headman, a kind young widower named Ingo, wished to thank me by having my family join the village in a celebration honoring the Avatar. During this event, Ingo met Gehlilah, by then a grown woman. After a brief courtship, the two were married and Gehlilah went to live in the village with her husband.

My wife and I did our best to raise Gehlilah and Kipp in our image, but Kipp would have nothing to do with it. As soon as Gehlilah had become engaged to a fellow non-bender, Kipp ran away from home, not to be heard of again for years.

Eventually Gehlilah’s time to be a mother arrived and we all welcomed a baby girl into the world. She was an earthbender they named Brynn in honor of the brother Gehlilah never knew. I was the proudest grandfather in the world and doted incessantly on Brynn. Even more than her grandmother, who sadly passed away shortly after Brynn’s twenty-first birthday. The girl was headstrong, confident, and smart. She also had a soft spot for animals, especially cute ones. One of her favorite activities was playing with the singing groundhogs in the plains between her village and my home home. Her favorite, whom she named Jam, came to be a lifelong pet almost in the same way that Trillby and I became partners.

As she got older, she asked more about her uncle who ran away before she was born. Determined to find him, despite the warnings about his personality that the family gave her, Brynn recruited me to go with her in search of Kipp. Willing to do anything for my granddaughter and hoping that time to find himself in the real world had somehow healed Kipp of his irrational opinions of himself, I accompanied her on a journey to the place where we both thought he might end up, Republic City. The theory was that this was the only place where so many different cultures were found together. And if I knew my son, he would want to be there for no other reason than to make it his mission to show them all up on a daily basis.

Weeks of asking questions throughout the city gave us nothing and we were about to move on to search the Water Tribes when we got a lead that sounded too good to be true. It led us to a home in the wealthiest borough of Republic City. There we found Kipp and his wife Tuyet, a cold woman who was even more haughty and entitled than her husband, if that was even possible. Grudgingly, and at Brynn’s insistence, the couple allowed their long-lost family inside for a civil cup of tea.

I found out Kipp had indeed fled here and eventually made a life for himself as a lawyer. Actually, he was the most successful lawyer in the city. And the reason he’d been so hard to find was because he changed his name upon arriving there. Apparently Akamu, meaning “of the red earth” was not a name worthy of his waterbending stature. Instead he changed his surname to Varun, meaning “lord of the sea” but his first name he did keep; a fact that I did not miss. To me, it meant that somewhere deep down my son did care about us.

While the four of us were talking, a young woman came downstairs and was immediately chastised by Kipp and Tuyet for doing so. Upon question the couple admitted that the woman was their daughter and due to medical complications during Tuyet’s pregnancy, their only child. Her name was Pembroke and she was a non-bender and apparently mentally disturbed. Thus she was forbidden to come down when they had company. This greatly upset Brynn who thought keeping their daughter locked up was not the right way to handle her special needs. The Varuns thought she should keep her nose in her own business and subsequently showed us the door.

The mission she came to Republic City to fulfill was complete, but now she had a new one. Brynn wanted to save her cousin from her oppressive and clearly unloving parents. I honestly didn’t know what to make of the situation. On one hand I felt sorrow for my other granddaughter. But on the other hand, I knew nothing of her situation and for all I knew, keeping her secluded was best for her condition. Then again, my son was not known for his kindness and understanding. For mainly that reason, I gave Brynn my full support on the issue.

Having no one else in particular to turn to yet, we went back to the person who told us where to find the family to begin with, an Air Acolyte named Satu. He gave us what little information he knew about the couple but had heard nothing about the daughter. Satu was able to point us in the direction of who to go to with our concerns, however. A week later after meetings with various medical and legal officials, we had an appointment with the Chief of Police. Legally, we could not make a claim to remove Pembroke from her home because she was being cared for and not a danger to herself or others. Not satisfied with the decision, Brynn vented her frustration to Satu, whom she later revealed she had kept in touch with for the simple reason that he was understanding, gave insight and guidance, and was possibly the best listener ever.

Satu said nothing until Brynn was finished ranting and then asked her simply if she’d even discussed with the Varuns her desire to take Pembroke. If they really did not care for her as much as she made it sound, then logically they would not mind. This sounded like a revelation to Brynn. It was so easy, too easy, but it was sure to work. She was so happy; she kissed Satu and ran all the way to the Varun home. Soon after, I came looking for her and a still blushing and suddenly fumbling Satu explained what happened, leaving out the kissing part which my granddaughter had to explain to me years later. I sat with the Air Acolyte while I waited for her to return and discussed in length my life story, though focused primarily on my life with Brynn. It was increasingly evident to me as the conversation went on that Satu had taken a liking to her. This caused me to feel very mixed yet again. If, by chance, Brynn were to return Satu’s feelings, she would be involved with an Air Acolyte and have to live with the strings that came with that choice. Not to mention one of those strings included leaving her home, leaving me, to live here. I loved Brynn so much, it was impossible to imagine losing her, even if it was to something as natural as finding love and starting her own life and her own family just as I had done. But I was getting ahead of myself. This could simply be a passing attraction that would be forgotten as soon as they parted.

A joyous Brynn returned along with her cousin Pembroke. Satu had been right and as long as we swore to never mention the woman to anyone in Republic City, the Varuns were all too happy to be rid of her. It was a callous truth, but one that Brynn was actually thankful for. The three of us returned home to the Earth Kingdom and started our new lives. Pembroke met her aunt and uncle and finally had the loving family she’d always deserved. And as the months and later years passed, she became more and more normal. Although she was never completely healed, it became obvious that her “mental disturbance” was nothing more than the result of the abusive parentage of a mother and father who despised their non-bending daughter.

When the time came that I could no longer live alone, Brynn immediately volunteered to live with and take care of me. As I write this, I can feel that my season will soon come to an end and a new season will begin, a season of summer...


After my grandfather passed away and the season of summer began, Satu, who I had kept in contact with over the years, came to pay his respects to not only the Avatar, but his old friend and the father of the woman he’d admired from afar for too long. As he was about to return to Republic City, Satu returned the kiss I’d given him years ago. After that, I wouldn’t let him leave. My Air Acolyte and I eventually married and we have a handsome young earthbending son named Arlo. -- Added by Brynn Akili

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