Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ The Mother Who Couldn't Be ❯ From Fiyo to Alone ( Chapter 1 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: crescentmoon 
Here is chapter one, please review.
Non Anime: Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama | Type: One Shot | Uploaded On: 05.23.2009 | Updated On: 05.31.2009 | Pages: 3 | Words: 7.0K | Visits: 263 | Status: Work In Progress
Here is chapter one, please review.
Non Anime: Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama | Type: One Shot | Uploaded On: 05.23.2009 | Updated On: 05.31.2009 | Pages: 3 | Words: 7.0K | Visits: 263 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimer: I don’t own Avatar: The Last Air-bender, the very talented team of Mike and Brain own the show and characters. Umaio, her parents, Fiyo, Fana, Hitsi and Elnan are my characters please respect that. If you wish to use them please talk to me about it and give me credit for them. The rating maybe wrong but I did try to get it right.
By: year of the snake (at fanfiction) aka. crescentmoon (at mediaminer). And now Opal-Dreams on DeviantArt.
The Mother Who Couldn’t Be
Chapter One
We start with fourteen year old Umaio. She is a beautiful young girl who lived with air-benders. She carried a head of thick brown hair waving down her back; she had a high forehead and no bangs. At the end of her hair there was a ribbon that kept most of it from falling in her face. Umaio was unsuccessful at keeping all her hair from falling out no matter where she tied it. Most of the hair stayed in the tie but some did fall out. She was largely quiet and shy. Her eyes were a grey-green that many confused with the green that populated the Earth Kingdom.
Umaio lived near the Western Air-Temple she loved being there. There was a stream nearby that she spent a lot of her time by. She got to spend so much of her time there because she wasn’t an air-bender. She always wished she was, she longed to fly with her family and friends but that gift was not hers.
Her parents were more disappointed with her inability then she was. They were both air-benders, they had both came from long lines of air-benders. After she turned four with no air-bending coming and the evidence there they settled near the Western Temple. Sometimes it seemed they resented that she couldn’t fly on a glider like the rest of her family. They longed for more travel, they wanted no home but for her sake they only traveled during the spring. During this time of moving they visited all the air-temples to show their daughter how many others were like her, air-nomads with no air-bending.
Don’t be confused they loved each other. But they were a family of three. Umaio wished she had siblings maybe if she had siblings and they had bending her parents wouldn’t feel so bad about her not.
Her mother had the same hair style but her hair behaved and always stayed in its bonds. Her mother had straight hair. Her father was bald and had the air-benders tattoos as did her mother. But she had no tattoos it was a way of distinguishing the air-benders from the normal people.
And so now you know much about Umaio at age fourteen. So we will introduce the beginning of the story.
Umaio and her parents had just gotten home from their vacation and they were settling down into their normal life. It was then in one of her many walks by the water that Umaio was surprised by a boy of sixteen when he landed just two feet away.
The teenaged boy was holding a colorful bird in his arms the bird looked injured. He didn’t even notice the other occupant of the small space. So the girl stared at him. He looked wild and free, like he was a human reflection of the bird. He was every bit as handsome as the bird. He had air-bender tattoos racing from his short sleeves and on his bare feet. There was more of the blue tattoo on his forehead, if the wind hadn‘t shifted she never would have seen it. His hair the same unique shade as a platypus-bear’s fur nearly covered his head tattoo.
“Ow! Please bird hold still! I didn’t mean to hit you! Let me bandage you then I’ll let you go.” complained the male. His voice was soft even if he was exasperated already. And his hands they were so tender. The bird was a bird of prey and had the talons and the curved beak to prove it. The bird was tearing at the boy’s shirt trying to escape his grasp. “This would be easier…”
“Would you like some help?” the girl offered gently.
He was surprised and nearly dropped the bird. He raised his eyes and the sheer grayness of them rivaled a mid-autumn overcast sky. Umaio had to blink twice because of them. “Y-Yeah…” he blushed, “That would be nice.”
She inched closer whispering to the frightened creature, “Hush now sweetheart, we will help you.” She softly lifted the bird up still whispering the sweet nothings to it. The air-bender got the hint while she distracted the bird he bandaged it.
When he had completed the task the girl lifted her face to smile at him. She stopped half-smile and the smile slowly faded. A boy had never been so close to her before. ‘His eyes,’ she decided, ‘are like the light-grey clouds you can see the future in.’ If you believed that nonsense. She never had… until that moment.
He was just as spellbound by her eyes. He had never felt poetic before but those eyes could inspire hardened criminals to abandon their ways and adopt the ways of philosophy and tea. ‘They’re like mossy water on a partially cloudy day.’
The bird jumped out of the spell the soothing voice had on it and leaped out of her arms. One of its talons put a long gash from one end and side of her wrist to the other.
Umaio gasped lurched forward and bonked her head on his chin. Blood quickly overflowed the gulf their little friend had left and dripped between her other hand that grabbed it instinctively. The blood oozed droplets onto her dress. It stained the light yellow she wore.
“Here,” he tugged to her arm carefully, “let me wrap that.”
And she did.
“Will you need help flying back up there?” He pointed towards the temple.
“No. I can’t fly, and there’s underground stairs just pass that bush.”
It was then he noticed her lack of tattoos. “You’re not an air-bender?” It wasn’t said cruelly, more curiously.
Umaio asked sadly, “Is there a problem with that?”
“No! No, no! It’s just all the pretty girls I’ve ever met have been. But you’re prettier then them all.” When the teen realized what he said he blushed and turned away. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”
She smiled shyly at his back. “It’s okay…” She wanted to ask if he really thought she was that pretty but she was too scared of his reaction. “I’d better go now…”
She went to the hidden entrance. This entrance was triggered to cave in should they need it to. Most of the air-nomads didn’t even know it was there.
The boy picked up his glider. “I’ll walk you home. I wouldn’t want you to lose too much blood or something.” He went into the tunnel. “So…” he didn’t know what to say.
“What’s your name?” Umaio asked.
“Fiyo. What’s your name?”
“Umaio.”
“My dad would probably spout some made up meaning to that name. But I don’t have the knack for that.” he spouted out of nervousness. He had never talked to a non-bender before; did you talk to them differently then benders?
Umaio giggled. “It means Sky-Bison Cow. It was taken from the ancient numeric sounds. My parents assigned each syllable a number and then found what the numbers used to sound like and made that my name, after dropping a couple syllables they thought made it sound like a boy’s name.”
“When you phrase it ‘Sky-Bison Cow’ it sounds mean. Its sounds better as Female Sky-Bison. Umaio is the nicest out of all three.” He smiled at her.
“Thank you.” She looked at the stairs just before her feet. After a brief pause she said, “What brings you here Fiyo?”
“My group and I travel to a temple every few years. I came with them. And I’m glad I did.” he was getting less shy with his words. It appeared that the people without bending were the same as people who did, or they talked that way.
“Oh you’re part of the sparikeet group that’s staying in the main barracks of the temple.”
“Yeah.”
“You must meet all sorts of interesting people in the other nations.”
“Yeah… Wait a second don’t you?”
“No. Whenever my parents and I travel it’s by sky-bison. We only land when we have to and I have to stay in camp. We go to visit the other temples in the spring and that’s it.”
Fiyo exclaimed, “That’s terrible! Even non-bending nomads need to travel it’s in their blood!”
“You don’t need to get worked up about it. It’s always been that way.”
“Have you ever even been on a glider?’ he sounded worried.
“I can’t, I can’t air-bend remember.”
“No! No! No! You haven’t lived if you haven’t been on a glider. I’ll take you on mine someday I promise.”
“That’s nice of you but my parents wouldn’t like it.”
“So don’t tell them ‘til after. Or not at all.”
“I don’t know… Let me think about it.”
“Okay.”
They finally reached the top and he wasn’t even winded because he was too distracted by his new friend to notice the length of the stairway.
She said goodbye at the top of the stairs and headed towards the small town there. “Wait up! I said I’d walk you home!”
“I’d better made a stop at the midwife’s first and get this sown up. Are you sure you want to tag along?”
Fiyo grinned at her. “Yes. I’ll even let you hold my hand while she sows you up.”
Umaio smiled back at him. “Thank you.”
Three days past and every one of those days Fiyo and Umaio would meet. They talked a lot and walked everywhere as Fiyo had yet to convince her to let him take her flying. Then on the fourth day she let him. They went up on his glider with her holding on to him.
It was overwhelming to be so far off the ground with nothing pushing you up. Everything was so new and exciting. The wind brushed franticly at her hair and for the first time ever she lost her ribbon. But even that couldn’t make her care. Her free hair only added to the wonder of it all.
‘This must be what freedom feels like.’ she thought. ‘Nothing holding you down…’ She looked up at Fiyo, ‘And an angel holding you up.’ She blushed and looked at the ground racing away past their feet.
Before long she had to be put down she couldn’t hold on much longer. She hugged Fiyo joyfully. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! That was amazing!”
He hugged her back lightly. “You’re welcome.”
That night my parents had somehow found out a wanderer had taken me flying on his glider. They were very upset.
“Umaio, what if you had fallen?” her mother asked.
“I didn’t.”
“Umaio this boy is part of a drifter group. We don’t want you hanging around him. You’re on separate paths. You will marry someone you won’t tie to the earth.”
“Who said anything about marrying? We’re friends. I know better than to get attached to an air-bender. After all air-benders and us ground people belong in two different worlds. But those worlds have to meet somewhere. Just as the earth and sky meet.” she answered.
Her father replied, “Yes but the sky doesn’t take the earth up in it.”
“What are sandstorms then?”
Her father was speechless.
So Umaio said, “If it makes you feel better I will not go gliding with him again. But please don’t make me lose my friend too.”
Her father nodded. He was content that she would remain in the mind frame they had pressed on her from birth. “Just remember dear, you won’t fit in with his kind. Someday soon he will fly away and you will be stuck on the feet you were born with.”
“Always father. Goodnight Mother, Goodnight Father.” She walked away to her small room. Tears filled her eyes. ‘Why can’t they let me enjoy the time that he is here. I know he will move on but can’t I be happy with him while he is around. And that talk of marriage is ridiculous. I’m not that attached to him.’ Her tears were few. Crying was useless but she would miss him.
The next day he asked if she wanted to go gliding again. She told him her parents had found out about yesterday’s ride and that she was now forbidden to do that again. He understood.
So they walked together, and talked and laughed and became close friends.
At the end of the week there was a festival to celebrate the change of seasons from spring to summer.
It was at this festival Umaio had her first dance, the first dance which she was allowed a male partner. Fiyo was her first dance partner.
Looking into those familiar eyes she read the movements of the dance as naturally as if she had danced with him all her life. He’d draw her close and spin her away. Every step seemed to take them higher off the floor.
She had danced before with the other young girls that lived in or around the temple but it had always been hard for her. She had never been graceful and all the girls didn’t want to be around her when she danced as she was dangerous on the dance floor.
But tonight was different. She could feel the rhythm and she knew it was because of her dance partner. It was like his touch woke a rhythm that had always been sleeping in her, like his eyes pulled a plug and the clumsy girl rushed out of her feet. It was like they had choreographed the dance yet it was more natural than that.
Turning fourteen also gave her another perk; she got to stay for the whole party this year if she wanted to. The moon was the indicator at the party, once it got to a certain area of the sky the party would shut down. The air-nomads valued the importance of sleep.
Her parents went home early. They were tired and had a long day planned the next day. They left Umaio under the eye of the mid-wife. Her parents didn’t know that the mid-wife thought that the brewing romance was just an innocent flirtation and saw no harm in letting Umaio experience the thrill of first love. She knew she wouldn’t let it go to far.
It was when the moon was dead above that the mood changed toward the innocent flirtation. Umaio and Fiyo were on the edge of the dance floor when he drew her close again and the moonlight shot from her eyes to his. Fiyo kissed her. Suddenly their whole friendship was spinning on its ear, which was a surprisingly pleasant sensation. They pulled away. They stared at each other wide eyed and the mid-wife stared at them. The mid-wife had a smile that wanted to break onto her enthralled face. She loved to watch young love unfold.
Then he kissed her again. This time when they pulled apart Umaio put her head on his chest. His heart was beating faster than hers was. It felt like a miracle that she could cause anyone’s heart to beat faster than hers did at that moment. He whispered to her, “U-Umaio, I-I think I m-may l-love you.”
And the world stopped that quickly.
Umaio looked back up at him with those wide eyes of hers and had to agree, this feeling couldn’t be anything but love.
At the end of the party Fiyo and Umaio went to the mid-wife and told her that Fiyo would walk her home. The mid-wife saw no harm. So she allowed them to go alone. A decision she came to regret.
Walking her back to her house they stole kisses back and forth. They looked for all the world like a happy in love couple. Because they were. But Umaio didn’t get home until the sun rose.
It took an unbelievably short amount of time for Umaio to be certain. Just half a month and she knew she was pregnant. She was fourteen and carrying Fiyo’s, a sixteen year old’s, child.
Only two day could pass with her wondering if it was true and what to do if it was before her parents found out. And she was in big trouble.
They yelled at her for hours and then they tracked Fiyo down and yelled at him for hours too. They didn’t even have to ask they knew he was the father. Fiyo found out about his baby from my angry parents.
In the end they came to the conclusion that the only solution was a shotgun wedding. No grandchild of theirs would be born out of wedlock. And no daughter of theirs would give birth unwed.
The wedding was set for two days away. Fiyo was un-accepting and refused any contact with his soon to be bride. Well except one time when he did nothing but yell at her.
“Umaio who’s child is it you’re blaming me for!”
“It’s your baby!”
“Right!” he scoffed. “I’m too young to have a baby! So who’s is it?!?”
That fight continued to escalate until she cried out in fear because he raised his hand to hit her in his anger. He stopped himself just in time. And her father rushed in and threw him out. He told him he could come back when he calmed his temper.
He never did come back.
Umaio did see Fiyo in the market when she had to go with her mother to pick up some things for the wedding the next day. And he shunned her just like everyone else around did. And that hurt more than you could guess. She couldn’t even stay in the market the glaring faces were too much alone but adding Fiyo’s to that was just a knife in a man who was already down. She ran all the way home and sobbed with no tears. For some reason the tears wouldn’t come even though she felt more betrayed and hurt and exhausted by the hate and scorn around her then had ever penetrated her mind as possible.
That night after the sun had gone down she wanted to go talk to Fiyo. But she was stopped at the door. She had to go to him try to get him to not hate her even if he could never love her as he claimed even if he could never even like her. And she was halted at the windows. She had to try and she was locked in her room with no way out.
The next day people came to help bride and groom get ready as the sun rose. And as the sun rose the cry went up, the groom was gone.
This time when the scorn filled looks returned the tears did fall. They didn’t even wait for the people to leave. They pooled and fell with the people looking at her like she was scum. This day would haunt her forever. It felt like the shame and humiliation would never end. She was unwed and pregnant and jilted two things that in that time period were unacceptable. Literally. A person found in either state was treated like trash, or should I say a woman found in either state was treated like trash.
Later that very day her father said, “We will not bare your shame with you. Pack what you can and leave.”
It was simple to tell her mother had mixed feelings about sending her daughter away and was therefore leaving it up to her husband. But that didn’t stop her from crying as she left or packing her some food.
There was another two people who gave her help. A monk at the temple gave her some more provisions and the mid-wife gave her a good sturdy blanket. Both gave to her without letting anyone else see. After all they still had reputations to protect.
She was allowed to take a lantern with her so she could see. Umaio in that fashion escaped into the night.
She followed the stream not knowing where she was going or what would happen to her. Right now she wasn’t even starting to show yet, but that wouldn’t last long.
For the first month or two she walked until she felt like stopping and people were usually friendly. They couldn’t tell she was pregnant yet.
Then things got a lot harder. She began to show and when someone picked her up they asked about the baby, her husband and where she was headed. When she told people she didn’t have a husband they clammed up and looked upset like she was using them. The first ride she had where she got that question she answered truthfully and the man driving the cart pulled over after a few feet and told her to get out. He had a son about her age in the back and his wife with him. His wife complained and he said, “We don’t need her casting no harlot spell on our son and getting him to run off and marry her.”
The wife whispered to her. Head toward the Southern Air-Temple the nuns there will help you.” as Umaio got off.
Umaio muttered at the man as he drove off, “I wish I knew a harlot curse like that and I’d use it on your son just because of you uncompassionate heart.” At least now she had a destination.
Three days later she got another ride. She told the truth when asked again and this time the woman, she was driving the cart alone, took her to the nearest town and dropped her off instead of taking her all the way to a town farther south like she had said she would.
After those two experiences she wised up and lied when she was asked. She said she was headed to a town close to the Southern Air-Temple because her husband was away with work. That they were too poor to afford a decent mid-wife and so she was going there to birth the baby around someone she knew and could help.
She knew at the rate she was walking as she got really big that she would be lucky to get there in time. At the moment she is traveling with an Earth Kingdom circus and they could travel the sandy, baron place together for a few days before the circus would be turning east.
There was a woman in this circus who was greasy looking, very greasy looking, she was married to and equally greasy husband and had seven dirty kids running around her. She was pregnant again and they thought it might be twins. Umaio wondered if she looked as greasy and dirty as this woman did. It was highly likely.
Neither woman could afford soaps and the only place to bathe in this stinking place is a bathhouse in one of the cities. So neither woman could bathe. They’d have to wait until they got somewhere it was free to wash like a river. And so both women and the circus woman’s family all remained dirt, grease and grime ridden bunch.
When they finally parted ways the woman, whom Umaio figured out to be very kind, said, “Don’t you worry none Umaio, I’ve had a kid every year since I was seventeen. Not all of them survived but I didn’t let none die before birth and I recon you’re just as strong.” She meant well in her odd way. And in that odd way what the woman said was comforting.
They parted as friends.
By the time Umaio made it to the temple she was fairly sure she didn’t know how to stop walking anymore. She was also sure that the baby must weigh more than she did. Most assuredly neither absurdity was correct. Umaio was exhausted, large with child and dirty. She knew the baby could be born any minute. And she wanted to know was the little one a girl or a boy. She was tired of carrying a ball of weight on her stomach.
The nuns were so kind and genuinely cared. These traits and the supreme tiredness that filled all corners of her being prompted Umaio to tell them her story, to tell them her true story. And it didn’t change the way they treated her. They still helped her as they could and provided her with a place to stay and food to eat. They helped calm her fears about giving birth. These nuns were exceptional ladies.
When Umaio asked them how they could care for a woman that had done such a thing they told her the tales of two of the nuns there, the first one they told her of was none other than the Mother Superior.
“Our Mother Superior… she was married twice. The first one was a drunk and beat her when he was unable to think clearly for it. The man left her and she married again at her parent’s request. This man was not a drinker but he to beat her, he beat her so badly that she couldn’t breathe or walk. He broke her bones many times. You’d never think it to look at her, she is so happy. But she wasn’t happy when she arrived here. She was bruised and walking on a broken foot. She gained refuge here and hasn’t left again.” an old nun confided.
“Yes, but that wasn’t really her fault. But this is my fault.”
The young nun sitting next to an embroidery stand said, “I have a past as well. And my past mistakes caused some serious trouble for me as well. When I was younger I became a thief. I had nothing and it seemed everyone else had so much. My mother left when I was a baby and all I had was my father and a dank hole in the wall to shield from the cold. I decided that I had just as much right to the things the people in town enjoyed and went into their houses to take the things I wanted.” She paused to look at Umaio. “I got caught after three years of breaking into people’s homes and stealing their things and their security. The man who caught me wanted to take my head clean off my shoulders but a nearby person said that that punishment was to short. So he took me to this temple when monks from another temple were visiting. He brought me here to gain wisdom from the monks on what he should do to the little thief.” She paused again, this time to edit something out. “The monks eventually told him that the law said my life was in his hands as the law of the Earth Kingdom town we were from stated this. But they said that that would not satisfy him, and that if I were killed for my crimes he would never regain his stuff because only I knew where it was. In the end I told where I hide the things I took and was banished from all Earth Kingdom territory. I wrote my father but he died before the letter got to him. While I was thinking about what I could do the kindness and love of these nuns filled me with the need to be more like them. I have dedicated the rest of my life to it.” That was the story of how she came here.
“So you’re an Earth Kingdom girl?” asked Umaio.
“No and yes. No I’m not Earth-kingdom because my parents were Air-Nomads but yes I am Earth Kingdom because I was born in the Earth Kingdom.” the just older woman said.
The next morning Umaio went into labor. Just past 9 am. She began labor half a week after arriving at the temple. Mere minutes before 1:30 pm. she was handed a little boy. He was born with brown hair. His eyes were so dark, darker than any eyes she’d ever seen. If the baby hadn’t been in the room the entire time she would have thought that maybe they’d switched babies on her. The little pink mush ball lying in her arms was so different than what she thought he’d look like.
Umaio had to ask, “Why are his eyes so dark? Is there something wrong with him?”
“Huh?” The nun who delivered him turned and took a close look at his eyes. “He’s fine dear. Babies are usually born with dark eyes. They’ll lighten soon enough. Although… the actual color will be hard to tell for a few months. Around six months to be more specific.”
“Oh.” Umaio smiled a tired and proud smile. ‘My baby… he is prefect. Even those dark eyes are so gorgeous.’ thought the new mother.
In Air-Nomadic society it was a custom that babies weren’t named until their second birthday to give their parents time to pick a name the suited the child or one they hoped the child would grow to suit. So as of yet Umaio got to love her child as he was with no pretenses that a name would give him.
Every night he woke up but Umaio couldn’t bring herself to be angry at the baby. He was truly a joy for her. It was like the love she lost when she had to leave her home was reborn in this one tiny person. After feeding him when he woke her up, she would hug him until he slept then she’d carefully rest her son back in his cradle. When she was sure that setting him down hadn’t wakened him she would crawl back into bed. In the brief moments she was awake between crawling into bed and sleeping she would curl around the love held in her heart.
She wondered what name his actions would inspire her to give him. Everyday she thought of one or so names and wondered if they would fit her sweet baby.
She didn’t like changing his diapers but she suffered through that and in the end it was worth it to hold a happy baby.
After just a few days with her newborn the Mother Superior came to her with the most serious face Umaio had ever seen her wear.
“Is something wrong?”
“Fana please take the baby into the other room, I need to talk to Umaio alone.” The Mother Superior refused to answer.
The young ex-thief nodded and picked up the baby. The baby blew bubbles at her.
Umaio asked afraid of the answer, “What do you want to talk about?”
“Umaio I know you’ve been through a lot and I know you love your baby…” the nun trailed off.
“Where are you going with this?”
“Umaio I think it would be best for your baby if you gave him to monks to raise.”
“What!?! How can you ask me to do that!?! There is no way I’d let my son go!”
“Please just listen…”
Cutting her off Umaio thundered, “No! I will not even consider letting my baby go!” The teenaged girl stormed out of the room. She would hear no more about it.
Knock, Knock, Knock.
“Go away.” said the brooding fourteen year old.
The door opened anyway. It was Fana. “Hey I brought your dinner. You still have to eat if you’re going to feed your baby.” Fana cut off the protest of not being hungry. Umaio couldn’t deny the food when her baby wouldn’t eat if she didn’t. “You know she’s just trying to help you and your baby. And she never said you had to give him away. Mother Superior sometimes messes up words.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Umaio pushed her food around.
“I know. We just want you to consider all the options before making a decision that will affect both of you so much.”
“You’re saying you’re not going to make me give up my son?”
“No. We don’t do stuff like that… But you should at least hear everything the good and bad before you decide.” She breathed a deep breath. “It’s a hard decision. But you have support no matter what you choose.” Fana left Umaio alone with her baby.
Umaio looked at the boy; he instantly held his hands to her. She smiled at him. “I’ll do it. Don’t look at me like that, I’m going to keep you but this will keep them from getting on my case about hearing it.”
He just stretched a little towards her. And said, “Ah, ah.”
She giggled. “Alright little one.” Umaio picked her baby up and holding him with her right hand she ate with her left. “I wonder what hand you will favor…” she murmured after she swallowed. “I can’t wait to know all there is to know about you.” She cuddled against his face.
After dinner Umaio went and told Mother Superior that she would listen to what she had to say. They were very informative. But the only part that Umaio heard was when they told her, “… say that when he turns two he can no longer stay here. As boys aren’t allowed to live here.” She was tuned out of the part that didn’t make that sound so harsh. Umaio bit her inner mouth to keep from yelling at the great injustice that she felt that was. ‘Sure they won’t force me to give up my baby, basically they’re telling me give my son to someone else or live on the streets.’ Umaio thought bitterly. She also missed when they told the little they could do for a single mother. She missed it because she was too busy being bitter and objective to truly listen. If she had of listened she would have heard the love they were speaking with and the concern they felt for her and her child. They would love for her to keep her baby but they wanted to be sure it was the best thing for them. And the only one who could decide that was Umaio. She would have to know with her heart what was best for them both. The nuns knew that the knowledge of the head often triggered the superior knowledge of the heart. And so they told all they knew on the subject, but in the end it was Umaio who would decide.
But being a stubborn teenaged girl she felt they were just trying to control her, force her to do something she didn’t want to do. So she didn’t really listen.
And the nuns realized it. They let her go before they could tell her the half of what life would be like, good and bad but they did touch on both arguments, briefly.
Some of the things she heard but paid no heed to were, “The monks will be very kind to him. They will let him make mistakes and take the responsibility for them so he may grow. The monks have a lot of experience in raising little boys to be great men. You’ll probably never see him again… but they’ll give him a mentor. This man will be his main teacher and father figure. Something a little boy needs. He’ll have many friends close to his age and older boys to learn from and emulate.” This was said before the only part Umaio really heard, before they told her she’d have to leave if she kept him with her.
The nuns then went on to tell of the responsibilities Umaio alone would bear when she had to leave if she kept her boy. But Umaio was too busy tuning them out to listen. “You’ll have to get some land or a job where they will let you keep a child with you. Then you will have to work hard for scraps. You’ll likely live on Earth Kingdom ground and thus you’ll probably not get paid even half as much as a man who does the same job. You’ll have to keep him out of trouble somehow. You will have to find someone to take him in in the daytime when you’re working. So you’ll have more than food home and taxes to pay for. This will be hard. You may end up homeless and you and your baby could become street urchins. The streets can be dangerous, cold on unhealthy. You’ll be lucky if a man takes you both in, even luckier if he’s a good man. Heck,” The younger nuns gasped at Mother Superior’s language. “It’ll be a miracle if you don’t starve.” She paused to let that sink in. Then sighed realizing that her rant of these things went unheard. “Of course you’ll get to see your boy every day, but you’ll still miss a lot of his life working. You’ll get to hug him everyday and as he gets older you’ll get to laugh as he insists that he’s too old. You’ll kiss him anyway. And you will love each other. No matter where you end up living that is one thing that doesn’t change. And we will help you as we can. But there is little we can do, most of the food grown, things made and donated are needed by the little girls here.” Umaio still wasn’t listening so she let her leave. It was no good to talk to someone when they were dwelling in their head.
Umaio went back to her room smiling. The depictions of the flying bison where vibrant, the colors surrounded you with near realistic truth. There was a soft breeze wandering the halls looking for someone to play with and the little girls were in the school room getting wiggles out before bed. All and all a peaceful walk to where the only joy in her life waited.
A Flying-Lemur flew out of her room when she opened the door.
“Oh good you’re back your baby’s getting fussy. I think he’s hungry.” the little twelve year old girl said. She was a sweet girl but she was always going missing, she loved to fly and couldn’t wait until she was old enough to travel alone. The twelve year old handed Umaio her baby and went after her lemur.
“Thank you Elnan.”
“Sure.” The child turned a corner and was gone.
She fed her baby for the last time before bed as she said, “Don’t worry sweetheart they didn’t get to me. I’m not going to let anyone threaten me into giving you to some old geezer. You and me are going to make a life on our own. We’ll show these old ladies that I’m strong enough to raise you and make a living. It will be easy.”
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Hi Everyone. I wasn’t going to make this into a chapter story but thanks to rushie who happens to also be my first reviewer on this story, (she/he reviewed on mediaminer.) I decided to write it as a chapter story. He/She inspired me to turn my note to Aang from his mother into a story so people could see a little bit more of the background that she was going through. So this is chapter one.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed and I hope you will continue to do so. And as for mistakes if you see them let me know what and where they are so I can fix them, thanks.
Write again soon, Bye.
By: year of the snake (at fanfiction) aka. crescentmoon (at mediaminer). And now Opal-Dreams on DeviantArt.
The Mother Who Couldn’t Be
Chapter One
We start with fourteen year old Umaio. She is a beautiful young girl who lived with air-benders. She carried a head of thick brown hair waving down her back; she had a high forehead and no bangs. At the end of her hair there was a ribbon that kept most of it from falling in her face. Umaio was unsuccessful at keeping all her hair from falling out no matter where she tied it. Most of the hair stayed in the tie but some did fall out. She was largely quiet and shy. Her eyes were a grey-green that many confused with the green that populated the Earth Kingdom.
Umaio lived near the Western Air-Temple she loved being there. There was a stream nearby that she spent a lot of her time by. She got to spend so much of her time there because she wasn’t an air-bender. She always wished she was, she longed to fly with her family and friends but that gift was not hers.
Her parents were more disappointed with her inability then she was. They were both air-benders, they had both came from long lines of air-benders. After she turned four with no air-bending coming and the evidence there they settled near the Western Temple. Sometimes it seemed they resented that she couldn’t fly on a glider like the rest of her family. They longed for more travel, they wanted no home but for her sake they only traveled during the spring. During this time of moving they visited all the air-temples to show their daughter how many others were like her, air-nomads with no air-bending.
Don’t be confused they loved each other. But they were a family of three. Umaio wished she had siblings maybe if she had siblings and they had bending her parents wouldn’t feel so bad about her not.
Her mother had the same hair style but her hair behaved and always stayed in its bonds. Her mother had straight hair. Her father was bald and had the air-benders tattoos as did her mother. But she had no tattoos it was a way of distinguishing the air-benders from the normal people.
And so now you know much about Umaio at age fourteen. So we will introduce the beginning of the story.
Umaio and her parents had just gotten home from their vacation and they were settling down into their normal life. It was then in one of her many walks by the water that Umaio was surprised by a boy of sixteen when he landed just two feet away.
The teenaged boy was holding a colorful bird in his arms the bird looked injured. He didn’t even notice the other occupant of the small space. So the girl stared at him. He looked wild and free, like he was a human reflection of the bird. He was every bit as handsome as the bird. He had air-bender tattoos racing from his short sleeves and on his bare feet. There was more of the blue tattoo on his forehead, if the wind hadn‘t shifted she never would have seen it. His hair the same unique shade as a platypus-bear’s fur nearly covered his head tattoo.
“Ow! Please bird hold still! I didn’t mean to hit you! Let me bandage you then I’ll let you go.” complained the male. His voice was soft even if he was exasperated already. And his hands they were so tender. The bird was a bird of prey and had the talons and the curved beak to prove it. The bird was tearing at the boy’s shirt trying to escape his grasp. “This would be easier…”
“Would you like some help?” the girl offered gently.
He was surprised and nearly dropped the bird. He raised his eyes and the sheer grayness of them rivaled a mid-autumn overcast sky. Umaio had to blink twice because of them. “Y-Yeah…” he blushed, “That would be nice.”
She inched closer whispering to the frightened creature, “Hush now sweetheart, we will help you.” She softly lifted the bird up still whispering the sweet nothings to it. The air-bender got the hint while she distracted the bird he bandaged it.
When he had completed the task the girl lifted her face to smile at him. She stopped half-smile and the smile slowly faded. A boy had never been so close to her before. ‘His eyes,’ she decided, ‘are like the light-grey clouds you can see the future in.’ If you believed that nonsense. She never had… until that moment.
He was just as spellbound by her eyes. He had never felt poetic before but those eyes could inspire hardened criminals to abandon their ways and adopt the ways of philosophy and tea. ‘They’re like mossy water on a partially cloudy day.’
The bird jumped out of the spell the soothing voice had on it and leaped out of her arms. One of its talons put a long gash from one end and side of her wrist to the other.
Umaio gasped lurched forward and bonked her head on his chin. Blood quickly overflowed the gulf their little friend had left and dripped between her other hand that grabbed it instinctively. The blood oozed droplets onto her dress. It stained the light yellow she wore.
“Here,” he tugged to her arm carefully, “let me wrap that.”
And she did.
“Will you need help flying back up there?” He pointed towards the temple.
“No. I can’t fly, and there’s underground stairs just pass that bush.”
It was then he noticed her lack of tattoos. “You’re not an air-bender?” It wasn’t said cruelly, more curiously.
Umaio asked sadly, “Is there a problem with that?”
“No! No, no! It’s just all the pretty girls I’ve ever met have been. But you’re prettier then them all.” When the teen realized what he said he blushed and turned away. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”
She smiled shyly at his back. “It’s okay…” She wanted to ask if he really thought she was that pretty but she was too scared of his reaction. “I’d better go now…”
She went to the hidden entrance. This entrance was triggered to cave in should they need it to. Most of the air-nomads didn’t even know it was there.
The boy picked up his glider. “I’ll walk you home. I wouldn’t want you to lose too much blood or something.” He went into the tunnel. “So…” he didn’t know what to say.
“What’s your name?” Umaio asked.
“Fiyo. What’s your name?”
“Umaio.”
“My dad would probably spout some made up meaning to that name. But I don’t have the knack for that.” he spouted out of nervousness. He had never talked to a non-bender before; did you talk to them differently then benders?
Umaio giggled. “It means Sky-Bison Cow. It was taken from the ancient numeric sounds. My parents assigned each syllable a number and then found what the numbers used to sound like and made that my name, after dropping a couple syllables they thought made it sound like a boy’s name.”
“When you phrase it ‘Sky-Bison Cow’ it sounds mean. Its sounds better as Female Sky-Bison. Umaio is the nicest out of all three.” He smiled at her.
“Thank you.” She looked at the stairs just before her feet. After a brief pause she said, “What brings you here Fiyo?”
“My group and I travel to a temple every few years. I came with them. And I’m glad I did.” he was getting less shy with his words. It appeared that the people without bending were the same as people who did, or they talked that way.
“Oh you’re part of the sparikeet group that’s staying in the main barracks of the temple.”
“Yeah.”
“You must meet all sorts of interesting people in the other nations.”
“Yeah… Wait a second don’t you?”
“No. Whenever my parents and I travel it’s by sky-bison. We only land when we have to and I have to stay in camp. We go to visit the other temples in the spring and that’s it.”
Fiyo exclaimed, “That’s terrible! Even non-bending nomads need to travel it’s in their blood!”
“You don’t need to get worked up about it. It’s always been that way.”
“Have you ever even been on a glider?’ he sounded worried.
“I can’t, I can’t air-bend remember.”
“No! No! No! You haven’t lived if you haven’t been on a glider. I’ll take you on mine someday I promise.”
“That’s nice of you but my parents wouldn’t like it.”
“So don’t tell them ‘til after. Or not at all.”
“I don’t know… Let me think about it.”
“Okay.”
They finally reached the top and he wasn’t even winded because he was too distracted by his new friend to notice the length of the stairway.
She said goodbye at the top of the stairs and headed towards the small town there. “Wait up! I said I’d walk you home!”
“I’d better made a stop at the midwife’s first and get this sown up. Are you sure you want to tag along?”
Fiyo grinned at her. “Yes. I’ll even let you hold my hand while she sows you up.”
Umaio smiled back at him. “Thank you.”
Three days past and every one of those days Fiyo and Umaio would meet. They talked a lot and walked everywhere as Fiyo had yet to convince her to let him take her flying. Then on the fourth day she let him. They went up on his glider with her holding on to him.
It was overwhelming to be so far off the ground with nothing pushing you up. Everything was so new and exciting. The wind brushed franticly at her hair and for the first time ever she lost her ribbon. But even that couldn’t make her care. Her free hair only added to the wonder of it all.
‘This must be what freedom feels like.’ she thought. ‘Nothing holding you down…’ She looked up at Fiyo, ‘And an angel holding you up.’ She blushed and looked at the ground racing away past their feet.
Before long she had to be put down she couldn’t hold on much longer. She hugged Fiyo joyfully. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! That was amazing!”
He hugged her back lightly. “You’re welcome.”
That night my parents had somehow found out a wanderer had taken me flying on his glider. They were very upset.
“Umaio, what if you had fallen?” her mother asked.
“I didn’t.”
“Umaio this boy is part of a drifter group. We don’t want you hanging around him. You’re on separate paths. You will marry someone you won’t tie to the earth.”
“Who said anything about marrying? We’re friends. I know better than to get attached to an air-bender. After all air-benders and us ground people belong in two different worlds. But those worlds have to meet somewhere. Just as the earth and sky meet.” she answered.
Her father replied, “Yes but the sky doesn’t take the earth up in it.”
“What are sandstorms then?”
Her father was speechless.
So Umaio said, “If it makes you feel better I will not go gliding with him again. But please don’t make me lose my friend too.”
Her father nodded. He was content that she would remain in the mind frame they had pressed on her from birth. “Just remember dear, you won’t fit in with his kind. Someday soon he will fly away and you will be stuck on the feet you were born with.”
“Always father. Goodnight Mother, Goodnight Father.” She walked away to her small room. Tears filled her eyes. ‘Why can’t they let me enjoy the time that he is here. I know he will move on but can’t I be happy with him while he is around. And that talk of marriage is ridiculous. I’m not that attached to him.’ Her tears were few. Crying was useless but she would miss him.
The next day he asked if she wanted to go gliding again. She told him her parents had found out about yesterday’s ride and that she was now forbidden to do that again. He understood.
So they walked together, and talked and laughed and became close friends.
At the end of the week there was a festival to celebrate the change of seasons from spring to summer.
It was at this festival Umaio had her first dance, the first dance which she was allowed a male partner. Fiyo was her first dance partner.
Looking into those familiar eyes she read the movements of the dance as naturally as if she had danced with him all her life. He’d draw her close and spin her away. Every step seemed to take them higher off the floor.
She had danced before with the other young girls that lived in or around the temple but it had always been hard for her. She had never been graceful and all the girls didn’t want to be around her when she danced as she was dangerous on the dance floor.
But tonight was different. She could feel the rhythm and she knew it was because of her dance partner. It was like his touch woke a rhythm that had always been sleeping in her, like his eyes pulled a plug and the clumsy girl rushed out of her feet. It was like they had choreographed the dance yet it was more natural than that.
Turning fourteen also gave her another perk; she got to stay for the whole party this year if she wanted to. The moon was the indicator at the party, once it got to a certain area of the sky the party would shut down. The air-nomads valued the importance of sleep.
Her parents went home early. They were tired and had a long day planned the next day. They left Umaio under the eye of the mid-wife. Her parents didn’t know that the mid-wife thought that the brewing romance was just an innocent flirtation and saw no harm in letting Umaio experience the thrill of first love. She knew she wouldn’t let it go to far.
It was when the moon was dead above that the mood changed toward the innocent flirtation. Umaio and Fiyo were on the edge of the dance floor when he drew her close again and the moonlight shot from her eyes to his. Fiyo kissed her. Suddenly their whole friendship was spinning on its ear, which was a surprisingly pleasant sensation. They pulled away. They stared at each other wide eyed and the mid-wife stared at them. The mid-wife had a smile that wanted to break onto her enthralled face. She loved to watch young love unfold.
Then he kissed her again. This time when they pulled apart Umaio put her head on his chest. His heart was beating faster than hers was. It felt like a miracle that she could cause anyone’s heart to beat faster than hers did at that moment. He whispered to her, “U-Umaio, I-I think I m-may l-love you.”
And the world stopped that quickly.
Umaio looked back up at him with those wide eyes of hers and had to agree, this feeling couldn’t be anything but love.
At the end of the party Fiyo and Umaio went to the mid-wife and told her that Fiyo would walk her home. The mid-wife saw no harm. So she allowed them to go alone. A decision she came to regret.
Walking her back to her house they stole kisses back and forth. They looked for all the world like a happy in love couple. Because they were. But Umaio didn’t get home until the sun rose.
It took an unbelievably short amount of time for Umaio to be certain. Just half a month and she knew she was pregnant. She was fourteen and carrying Fiyo’s, a sixteen year old’s, child.
Only two day could pass with her wondering if it was true and what to do if it was before her parents found out. And she was in big trouble.
They yelled at her for hours and then they tracked Fiyo down and yelled at him for hours too. They didn’t even have to ask they knew he was the father. Fiyo found out about his baby from my angry parents.
In the end they came to the conclusion that the only solution was a shotgun wedding. No grandchild of theirs would be born out of wedlock. And no daughter of theirs would give birth unwed.
The wedding was set for two days away. Fiyo was un-accepting and refused any contact with his soon to be bride. Well except one time when he did nothing but yell at her.
“Umaio who’s child is it you’re blaming me for!”
“It’s your baby!”
“Right!” he scoffed. “I’m too young to have a baby! So who’s is it?!?”
That fight continued to escalate until she cried out in fear because he raised his hand to hit her in his anger. He stopped himself just in time. And her father rushed in and threw him out. He told him he could come back when he calmed his temper.
He never did come back.
Umaio did see Fiyo in the market when she had to go with her mother to pick up some things for the wedding the next day. And he shunned her just like everyone else around did. And that hurt more than you could guess. She couldn’t even stay in the market the glaring faces were too much alone but adding Fiyo’s to that was just a knife in a man who was already down. She ran all the way home and sobbed with no tears. For some reason the tears wouldn’t come even though she felt more betrayed and hurt and exhausted by the hate and scorn around her then had ever penetrated her mind as possible.
That night after the sun had gone down she wanted to go talk to Fiyo. But she was stopped at the door. She had to go to him try to get him to not hate her even if he could never love her as he claimed even if he could never even like her. And she was halted at the windows. She had to try and she was locked in her room with no way out.
The next day people came to help bride and groom get ready as the sun rose. And as the sun rose the cry went up, the groom was gone.
This time when the scorn filled looks returned the tears did fall. They didn’t even wait for the people to leave. They pooled and fell with the people looking at her like she was scum. This day would haunt her forever. It felt like the shame and humiliation would never end. She was unwed and pregnant and jilted two things that in that time period were unacceptable. Literally. A person found in either state was treated like trash, or should I say a woman found in either state was treated like trash.
Later that very day her father said, “We will not bare your shame with you. Pack what you can and leave.”
It was simple to tell her mother had mixed feelings about sending her daughter away and was therefore leaving it up to her husband. But that didn’t stop her from crying as she left or packing her some food.
There was another two people who gave her help. A monk at the temple gave her some more provisions and the mid-wife gave her a good sturdy blanket. Both gave to her without letting anyone else see. After all they still had reputations to protect.
She was allowed to take a lantern with her so she could see. Umaio in that fashion escaped into the night.
She followed the stream not knowing where she was going or what would happen to her. Right now she wasn’t even starting to show yet, but that wouldn’t last long.
For the first month or two she walked until she felt like stopping and people were usually friendly. They couldn’t tell she was pregnant yet.
Then things got a lot harder. She began to show and when someone picked her up they asked about the baby, her husband and where she was headed. When she told people she didn’t have a husband they clammed up and looked upset like she was using them. The first ride she had where she got that question she answered truthfully and the man driving the cart pulled over after a few feet and told her to get out. He had a son about her age in the back and his wife with him. His wife complained and he said, “We don’t need her casting no harlot spell on our son and getting him to run off and marry her.”
The wife whispered to her. Head toward the Southern Air-Temple the nuns there will help you.” as Umaio got off.
Umaio muttered at the man as he drove off, “I wish I knew a harlot curse like that and I’d use it on your son just because of you uncompassionate heart.” At least now she had a destination.
Three days later she got another ride. She told the truth when asked again and this time the woman, she was driving the cart alone, took her to the nearest town and dropped her off instead of taking her all the way to a town farther south like she had said she would.
After those two experiences she wised up and lied when she was asked. She said she was headed to a town close to the Southern Air-Temple because her husband was away with work. That they were too poor to afford a decent mid-wife and so she was going there to birth the baby around someone she knew and could help.
She knew at the rate she was walking as she got really big that she would be lucky to get there in time. At the moment she is traveling with an Earth Kingdom circus and they could travel the sandy, baron place together for a few days before the circus would be turning east.
There was a woman in this circus who was greasy looking, very greasy looking, she was married to and equally greasy husband and had seven dirty kids running around her. She was pregnant again and they thought it might be twins. Umaio wondered if she looked as greasy and dirty as this woman did. It was highly likely.
Neither woman could afford soaps and the only place to bathe in this stinking place is a bathhouse in one of the cities. So neither woman could bathe. They’d have to wait until they got somewhere it was free to wash like a river. And so both women and the circus woman’s family all remained dirt, grease and grime ridden bunch.
When they finally parted ways the woman, whom Umaio figured out to be very kind, said, “Don’t you worry none Umaio, I’ve had a kid every year since I was seventeen. Not all of them survived but I didn’t let none die before birth and I recon you’re just as strong.” She meant well in her odd way. And in that odd way what the woman said was comforting.
They parted as friends.
By the time Umaio made it to the temple she was fairly sure she didn’t know how to stop walking anymore. She was also sure that the baby must weigh more than she did. Most assuredly neither absurdity was correct. Umaio was exhausted, large with child and dirty. She knew the baby could be born any minute. And she wanted to know was the little one a girl or a boy. She was tired of carrying a ball of weight on her stomach.
The nuns were so kind and genuinely cared. These traits and the supreme tiredness that filled all corners of her being prompted Umaio to tell them her story, to tell them her true story. And it didn’t change the way they treated her. They still helped her as they could and provided her with a place to stay and food to eat. They helped calm her fears about giving birth. These nuns were exceptional ladies.
When Umaio asked them how they could care for a woman that had done such a thing they told her the tales of two of the nuns there, the first one they told her of was none other than the Mother Superior.
“Our Mother Superior… she was married twice. The first one was a drunk and beat her when he was unable to think clearly for it. The man left her and she married again at her parent’s request. This man was not a drinker but he to beat her, he beat her so badly that she couldn’t breathe or walk. He broke her bones many times. You’d never think it to look at her, she is so happy. But she wasn’t happy when she arrived here. She was bruised and walking on a broken foot. She gained refuge here and hasn’t left again.” an old nun confided.
“Yes, but that wasn’t really her fault. But this is my fault.”
The young nun sitting next to an embroidery stand said, “I have a past as well. And my past mistakes caused some serious trouble for me as well. When I was younger I became a thief. I had nothing and it seemed everyone else had so much. My mother left when I was a baby and all I had was my father and a dank hole in the wall to shield from the cold. I decided that I had just as much right to the things the people in town enjoyed and went into their houses to take the things I wanted.” She paused to look at Umaio. “I got caught after three years of breaking into people’s homes and stealing their things and their security. The man who caught me wanted to take my head clean off my shoulders but a nearby person said that that punishment was to short. So he took me to this temple when monks from another temple were visiting. He brought me here to gain wisdom from the monks on what he should do to the little thief.” She paused again, this time to edit something out. “The monks eventually told him that the law said my life was in his hands as the law of the Earth Kingdom town we were from stated this. But they said that that would not satisfy him, and that if I were killed for my crimes he would never regain his stuff because only I knew where it was. In the end I told where I hide the things I took and was banished from all Earth Kingdom territory. I wrote my father but he died before the letter got to him. While I was thinking about what I could do the kindness and love of these nuns filled me with the need to be more like them. I have dedicated the rest of my life to it.” That was the story of how she came here.
“So you’re an Earth Kingdom girl?” asked Umaio.
“No and yes. No I’m not Earth-kingdom because my parents were Air-Nomads but yes I am Earth Kingdom because I was born in the Earth Kingdom.” the just older woman said.
The next morning Umaio went into labor. Just past 9 am. She began labor half a week after arriving at the temple. Mere minutes before 1:30 pm. she was handed a little boy. He was born with brown hair. His eyes were so dark, darker than any eyes she’d ever seen. If the baby hadn’t been in the room the entire time she would have thought that maybe they’d switched babies on her. The little pink mush ball lying in her arms was so different than what she thought he’d look like.
Umaio had to ask, “Why are his eyes so dark? Is there something wrong with him?”
“Huh?” The nun who delivered him turned and took a close look at his eyes. “He’s fine dear. Babies are usually born with dark eyes. They’ll lighten soon enough. Although… the actual color will be hard to tell for a few months. Around six months to be more specific.”
“Oh.” Umaio smiled a tired and proud smile. ‘My baby… he is prefect. Even those dark eyes are so gorgeous.’ thought the new mother.
In Air-Nomadic society it was a custom that babies weren’t named until their second birthday to give their parents time to pick a name the suited the child or one they hoped the child would grow to suit. So as of yet Umaio got to love her child as he was with no pretenses that a name would give him.
Every night he woke up but Umaio couldn’t bring herself to be angry at the baby. He was truly a joy for her. It was like the love she lost when she had to leave her home was reborn in this one tiny person. After feeding him when he woke her up, she would hug him until he slept then she’d carefully rest her son back in his cradle. When she was sure that setting him down hadn’t wakened him she would crawl back into bed. In the brief moments she was awake between crawling into bed and sleeping she would curl around the love held in her heart.
She wondered what name his actions would inspire her to give him. Everyday she thought of one or so names and wondered if they would fit her sweet baby.
She didn’t like changing his diapers but she suffered through that and in the end it was worth it to hold a happy baby.
After just a few days with her newborn the Mother Superior came to her with the most serious face Umaio had ever seen her wear.
“Is something wrong?”
“Fana please take the baby into the other room, I need to talk to Umaio alone.” The Mother Superior refused to answer.
The young ex-thief nodded and picked up the baby. The baby blew bubbles at her.
Umaio asked afraid of the answer, “What do you want to talk about?”
“Umaio I know you’ve been through a lot and I know you love your baby…” the nun trailed off.
“Where are you going with this?”
“Umaio I think it would be best for your baby if you gave him to monks to raise.”
“What!?! How can you ask me to do that!?! There is no way I’d let my son go!”
“Please just listen…”
Cutting her off Umaio thundered, “No! I will not even consider letting my baby go!” The teenaged girl stormed out of the room. She would hear no more about it.
Knock, Knock, Knock.
“Go away.” said the brooding fourteen year old.
The door opened anyway. It was Fana. “Hey I brought your dinner. You still have to eat if you’re going to feed your baby.” Fana cut off the protest of not being hungry. Umaio couldn’t deny the food when her baby wouldn’t eat if she didn’t. “You know she’s just trying to help you and your baby. And she never said you had to give him away. Mother Superior sometimes messes up words.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Umaio pushed her food around.
“I know. We just want you to consider all the options before making a decision that will affect both of you so much.”
“You’re saying you’re not going to make me give up my son?”
“No. We don’t do stuff like that… But you should at least hear everything the good and bad before you decide.” She breathed a deep breath. “It’s a hard decision. But you have support no matter what you choose.” Fana left Umaio alone with her baby.
Umaio looked at the boy; he instantly held his hands to her. She smiled at him. “I’ll do it. Don’t look at me like that, I’m going to keep you but this will keep them from getting on my case about hearing it.”
He just stretched a little towards her. And said, “Ah, ah.”
She giggled. “Alright little one.” Umaio picked her baby up and holding him with her right hand she ate with her left. “I wonder what hand you will favor…” she murmured after she swallowed. “I can’t wait to know all there is to know about you.” She cuddled against his face.
After dinner Umaio went and told Mother Superior that she would listen to what she had to say. They were very informative. But the only part that Umaio heard was when they told her, “… say that when he turns two he can no longer stay here. As boys aren’t allowed to live here.” She was tuned out of the part that didn’t make that sound so harsh. Umaio bit her inner mouth to keep from yelling at the great injustice that she felt that was. ‘Sure they won’t force me to give up my baby, basically they’re telling me give my son to someone else or live on the streets.’ Umaio thought bitterly. She also missed when they told the little they could do for a single mother. She missed it because she was too busy being bitter and objective to truly listen. If she had of listened she would have heard the love they were speaking with and the concern they felt for her and her child. They would love for her to keep her baby but they wanted to be sure it was the best thing for them. And the only one who could decide that was Umaio. She would have to know with her heart what was best for them both. The nuns knew that the knowledge of the head often triggered the superior knowledge of the heart. And so they told all they knew on the subject, but in the end it was Umaio who would decide.
But being a stubborn teenaged girl she felt they were just trying to control her, force her to do something she didn’t want to do. So she didn’t really listen.
And the nuns realized it. They let her go before they could tell her the half of what life would be like, good and bad but they did touch on both arguments, briefly.
Some of the things she heard but paid no heed to were, “The monks will be very kind to him. They will let him make mistakes and take the responsibility for them so he may grow. The monks have a lot of experience in raising little boys to be great men. You’ll probably never see him again… but they’ll give him a mentor. This man will be his main teacher and father figure. Something a little boy needs. He’ll have many friends close to his age and older boys to learn from and emulate.” This was said before the only part Umaio really heard, before they told her she’d have to leave if she kept him with her.
The nuns then went on to tell of the responsibilities Umaio alone would bear when she had to leave if she kept her boy. But Umaio was too busy tuning them out to listen. “You’ll have to get some land or a job where they will let you keep a child with you. Then you will have to work hard for scraps. You’ll likely live on Earth Kingdom ground and thus you’ll probably not get paid even half as much as a man who does the same job. You’ll have to keep him out of trouble somehow. You will have to find someone to take him in in the daytime when you’re working. So you’ll have more than food home and taxes to pay for. This will be hard. You may end up homeless and you and your baby could become street urchins. The streets can be dangerous, cold on unhealthy. You’ll be lucky if a man takes you both in, even luckier if he’s a good man. Heck,” The younger nuns gasped at Mother Superior’s language. “It’ll be a miracle if you don’t starve.” She paused to let that sink in. Then sighed realizing that her rant of these things went unheard. “Of course you’ll get to see your boy every day, but you’ll still miss a lot of his life working. You’ll get to hug him everyday and as he gets older you’ll get to laugh as he insists that he’s too old. You’ll kiss him anyway. And you will love each other. No matter where you end up living that is one thing that doesn’t change. And we will help you as we can. But there is little we can do, most of the food grown, things made and donated are needed by the little girls here.” Umaio still wasn’t listening so she let her leave. It was no good to talk to someone when they were dwelling in their head.
Umaio went back to her room smiling. The depictions of the flying bison where vibrant, the colors surrounded you with near realistic truth. There was a soft breeze wandering the halls looking for someone to play with and the little girls were in the school room getting wiggles out before bed. All and all a peaceful walk to where the only joy in her life waited.
A Flying-Lemur flew out of her room when she opened the door.
“Oh good you’re back your baby’s getting fussy. I think he’s hungry.” the little twelve year old girl said. She was a sweet girl but she was always going missing, she loved to fly and couldn’t wait until she was old enough to travel alone. The twelve year old handed Umaio her baby and went after her lemur.
“Thank you Elnan.”
“Sure.” The child turned a corner and was gone.
She fed her baby for the last time before bed as she said, “Don’t worry sweetheart they didn’t get to me. I’m not going to let anyone threaten me into giving you to some old geezer. You and me are going to make a life on our own. We’ll show these old ladies that I’m strong enough to raise you and make a living. It will be easy.”
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Hi Everyone. I wasn’t going to make this into a chapter story but thanks to rushie who happens to also be my first reviewer on this story, (she/he reviewed on mediaminer.) I decided to write it as a chapter story. He/She inspired me to turn my note to Aang from his mother into a story so people could see a little bit more of the background that she was going through. So this is chapter one.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed and I hope you will continue to do so. And as for mistakes if you see them let me know what and where they are so I can fix them, thanks.
Write again soon, Bye.