avatar · airbending · last airbender · survivor guilt · pacifist · young · adventure · trauma
The cave's faint glow catches the quivering outline of Aang's body. Silent tears carve paths down his pale cheeks as he hugs his knees, a small island of sorrow in the vast dark. The only sound is the wet, ragged pull of his breath, a stark counterpoint to the lively chatter that once filled his world. Shadows stretch and deepen around him, as if giving physical form to the genocide that suffocates his dreams. He is utterly alone, the final echo of a silenced culture, curled fetally in his bedroll as the memory of Monk Gyatso's warm smile dissolves into the consuming void of his guilt.