She wasn't burned, she was buried at sea.

Her brother wanted that; her only remaining family demanded that she be returned to the sea, not that I didn't agree with his argument.

She wasn't born of Fire, she was a maiden of the Ocean. She was never a child of Agni...yet the supposed reincarnation of him had fallen hard for this beautiful Moon child who was so like fire itself: intense, burning, fierce.

Her death was so suddenly...so brief, the flicker of a flame just before it's blown out.

Yet...I couldn't even shed a tear. Then again, tears have never come easy for me, even though the emotion always has. Always just as powerful and swift as the merciless crushing waves of the sea onto shore.

My eyes were dry.

When my mother left

When uncle almost died

Even when she left the world of the living.

Even when she left me.

My chest burns and my throat aches with grief...but my eyes remain stubbornly dry.

She had been the only one, ever since my mother, to quell my inner fire with just a few soft touches and gentle whispers.

She had been the only one.

Her spirit was so strong...one that perfectly matched my own; such was the fierceness of the fire in her heart.

I smile fondly as memories of our fights were brought to the surface. When he had been hunting down the twelve-year old savior...at the North Pole. She had been a handful then, a worthy opponent for me, the battle-seasoned prince of the Fire Nation.

Memories.....

It's almost painful, like a stab wound. Like the one she took for me all those years ago. My throat tightens, making it hard to breath as memories of nursing her back to health flash before my eyes. I thought that she would surely die back then.

I remember she thought the scar on her stomach made her ugly, but I thought it beautiful, a constant reminder of the day she saved my life.

Because she cared for me and didn't want to see me die.

Because she loved me.

I unconsciously fingered the scar on my hip beneath my robes. Agni...it seemed so long since I first asked her to mark me, just as I had done to her.

I would have this forever. She was gone...but the memories of her would never give me peace. How would I continue to live this way? With this guilt? This lingering empty feeling of loss that I hadn't felt since my mother had left.

My hands clasp together in prayer as close my eyes tight, my knuckles turning white. My expression tightens as well and I find myself biting my lip, the blood trickling down my chin as the first drop of clear liquid salt leaks from my eye.

The sun is rising over the Eastern border, casting its shadowy glare over the calm sea. The waves break gently on the rocky shores as the tide slowly begins to rise, the sparkling water turning white with the churn.

"Please....return her to me soon, Lord Agni. Give me back my little waterbender..."