The Avatar of Water

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. They were the avatars, champions of the gods, children of legend. This kind of violence was not supposed to happen once their powers graced the lands. The earth wasn’t supposed to be painted this shade of red and the rivers should never have filled with the life-giving substance. No, it wasn’t supposed to be this way and yet it was. Men waged war over powers that weren’t theirs to possess. Generals and kings challenged this ragged band of misfits for what they thought were theirs by divine right, but if it had truly been their god-given right then wouldn’t the powers had come to them in the first place? That was what the priestess believed as she surveyed the scene of the last bloody war. Her bright blue armor was unmarred, but it was covered in so much blood that it made her feel tainted. She wasn’t supposed to peddle death like this. She was supposed save the world rather than destroy it.

A hand set itself softly on her shoulder as if to calm her, but she could not look away from the death that she had helped to usher into these lands. Her eyes began to mist over with tears at the thought that she’d finally done what she’d said she wouldn’t. She had sworn to her goddess to protect life rather than destroy it and yet, when it came down to the very end, she had failed her oath. Failed her goddess. Failed herself. There was a weight in her hand that felt so foreign. In reality, it was. Never in her life had she held a weapon. As a priestess she was holy and honored. There was no need for her to learn to protect herself and thus no need for weapons. She couldn’t understand what had possessed her and drove her forward as if she were some hellish being, striking down soldiers with her sword and her power. She drowned them in torrential rains and hacked limbs away as if they were merely made of paper. She could even remember their screams and pleas for mercy, but what she could not remember was if she had offered them that mercy before they died.

"Eden?"

A voice finally reached her ears, the one attached to the hand, and she turned back to those who had joined her in this destruction. Each was an avatar for their own god and they defended themselves together though she did not remember their acts as clearly as her own. She became aware of the scent of charred flesh, of course the doing of the flame avatar, and that coupled with the scent of wet, muddy blood began to sour her stomach. “What did we do?” She wasn’t sure if her words came out or if she was just thinking the question, hoping for an answer.

"We did what we had to do."

The same voice answered and she began to remember just who this person was. He had been a soldier before his god had taken him and so, of course, bloodshed was his forte, but not hers. It horrified her and she dropped the bloodstained blade into the mud. The rain was starting again, but this wasn’t natural. The waters were meant to wash away her sin and remove this ghastly color from her sight. She wanted to return home and forget this place, but she never would. She could never forget that savage feeling that took over her body and mind. She could never forget the animal that lunged at those soldiers and slashed them apart with steel or the thundering sound of rain as it fell upon armor. She had visions of men locked in pillars of ice as she hacked them apart as if they were glass. It was a power so great that she now feared herself more than anyone else that might dare attack them.

Word Count: 658
Written: 10 June 2008