The power of the Avatar, if such an individual was real and not actually some advanced anti-Fire Nation propaganda, had sent the Fire Nation packing, but not before they had done lasting damage to Agna Qel'a.
The food reserves that would easily carry them through several winters, let alone a siege, had taken catastrophic damage. A tragedy for most, but a great opportunity for the poor but opportunistic fishermen who lived in the North.
"Ban." His friend and fellow fisherman, Kato, whispered. "Somethin' don't feel right about this."
"You're a worrywart, Kato!" Ban laughed. "The city-folk want fish after the siege. They need it! This is the chance of a lifetime, and I am not about to squander it because of some spirit bull-carp!"
"You always were nuts, Ban!" Kato scoffed. "You don't even believe in spirits! Didn't ya hear what the Avatar did! Becomin' one with the ocean and all that!"
"Heard." Ban pointed out. "Not saw! Those Northern city-folk are a superstitious lot. Probably just imagined the whole lot of it, or the Avatar is playin' them for fools. If he's even real! I keep tellin' ya, no one can bend all the elements. It just ain't right!"
"They imagined the blood moon and the giant fish monster?" Kato asked, mockingly. "The blood moon that everyone this side of the Serpent's Pass saw?"
"I'm not sayin' that the blood moon wasn't real," Ban admitted. He could not deny what he saw after all, it had to be the truth if ya saw it. Common sense, that was. "Just sayin' it could be any other sort of phenomenon."
"Phenomen?"
"Yeah, some bookish sort from the Earth Kingdom talking all fancy like told me it meant a special event or somethin' like that."
"You damn liar!" Kato scoffed. "I bet you haven't even seen someone from the Earth Kingdom, ya hick!"
"We live in a port!" Ban groaned. "I don't want to argue, Kato, let's just focus on gettin' the fish and gettin' out of here as early as we can."
"I don't want the Bone Napper to get me." Kato shivered.
"You and your spirits!"
"What was all that you said about how you didn't want to fight anymore!"
"Yeah, until you brought it all back up again!"
Just as their argument began to start back up again, with no signs of stopping this around, Kato stopped and stared.
"Ya realize just how wrong you were!" Ban did not preen; he was not a bird. But if he were, he definitely would be preening right then. "Hahaha!"
Still, Kato stared, his face growing from shock into a more unsteady look. Ban was curious and turned around to view the thing that had caught Kato's attention, and stopped at the sight.
A dead fish was bobbing at the top of the ocean, just near the boat. Ban frowned. While he was hardly superstitious like Kato, it was common knowledge not to just pick up dead fish from the water. Usually, there was a reason why they were dead and not eaten by other beasts of the sea.
"Guess we ought to head for some less-" Ban paused as he and Kato stared in shock and a growing sense of unease. More dead fish, bobbing in the water.
Not just a few, but enough to almost fill the water's surface. Pristine, untouched, healthy-looking, and yet dead, nonetheless.
It was at this time, as more dead fish appeared and floated eerily in the water, that Ban noticed the large dark shape that seemed to move underneath the seas.
"Ban," Kato spoke softly, his accent growing stronger with his unease. "We turn back, now."
"I a-agree." Ban coughed; he did not stutter. Kato stuttered, and even he wasn't doing so now.
The shadow had gotten deeper and its motions swifter.
Perhaps. The whispers in his mind cackled. The Spirit has come up for air!
Nonsense. Spirits weren't real.
Kato was the water-bender, and it was with his swift movements that their boat began to move. Away from whatever Moon-damned nonsense was going on.
"We're honest men!" Kato whispered to himself, eyes searching the still seas around them nervously. "We ain't do anythin' to any spirits. Please let us go."
"Stop beggin' to nothin', you wimp!" Ban had to be strong for both of them. Kato's own parents had once mused that Tui and La must be having a joke, giving the weak-willed Kato the ability to bend yet not to Ban. "We'll be fine! I'm tellin' ya, so it must be true."
Kato was kind enough to destroy the delusion that Ban had made for himself, and he wasn't sure if he hated his friend for that or appreciated it.
It all came to an end, though, as whatever thing was toying with them grew bored and, with a crash, they found the ship flipping and throwing them into the water.
Kato would be fine, but Ban had never felt safe in the water. A pathetic trait for a 'fearless fisherman,' but it was the truth. He had always pretended to be more comfortable in the seas than he ever was, and the only person who seemed to call him out on the falsehood had been his grandmother, may she rest well.
Ban sank into the water. The sea rushed into his lungs and expelled the air. It was salty, dirty, and awful. Not to mention cold, a factor that made his slow demise all the more miserable.
Biyako.
As he coughed only to intake more and more water, the distance reached by Ban's mind could almost hear a voice, asking for something. No, someone.
Biyako? Is that you? Have I finally found you?
The noise grew louder, the thing that had attacked. Had it found him? Unsurprisingly, with all the rampant kicking and flailing he had done as he sank. As the last bits of air left him and the madness overtook his mind, he couldn't help but find it amusing.
As the sea claimed Ban for its own, he had a glimpse at the architect of his demise.
It, loath as he was to admit it, was a Spirit.
I was right! A voice, Kato's this time, though younger and more amused than he had ever sounded to Ban. He hoped that his Kato had managed to get away; he should die for Ban's foolishness.
This Spirit was no grand thing. It was not beautiful or tear-inducing. It did not let the pains of his heart rest or soothe his soul. It was the picture of horror.
It took Ban a minute to realize what it was made of, his vision blurring as his lungs heaved and croaked.
It was made of bone. A long, spindly spinal cord surrounded by large rib-like protrusions, only made more monstrous by the almost hand-like projections at the end. But the unnatural sight was truly the 'head' of the creature. A shriveled-up thing with an almost dried wrapping that Ban realized, to his horror, was once a human face.
The flesh had greyed and lost the vigor of life, the brine of the seawater not being kind to its condition, but the eyes were empty, as evidenced by the way the particles in the water flowed in and out of the empty sockets. Yet it almost seemed like the thing could see through the empty sockets anyway.
Biyako?
No! Ban wanted to scream. Not Biyako!
But the creature moved closer, almost sniffing the water before reaching out with those horrid hand-like protrusions and pawing at Ban's body. Despite drowning, there was a brief sense of relief as the attention of the spirit did something, and for a moment, Ban was saved from his saline fate at the bottom of this sea.
Its hands were cold, clammy, and made him wish that he had simply been allowed to drown.
Not Biyako. It sounded disappointed; its movements became more erratic. Another stuck one.
It sounded pitiful now.
Stuck?
Poor thing. Trapped in flesh, allow me to lend assistance.
Its claws gripped tighter into his flesh. Trapped in flesh? Ban wanted to scream for it to stop, that he was fine as is, to just let fucking go.
But he could not. The Spirit began to rip into his flesh as Ban screamed silently under the sea, unable to drown and unable to die.
And the water turned red with blood.
Bones rejoiced, freed from a prison of flesh and blood. Scattered amid the crushing waves.