New beginnings(2)

One night we were eating outside. I was doing that pretty often recently and although it was expensive I had money to spare since I had a lot of savings left. I dropped on my friends a bombshell.

"Guys I've been thinking for a while..."

"Well, that's not good."

"Your right Kai, the way he says it it's bad news."

"Shut up, Zane!"

I look at Nya, smile at her, and put my hand over her waist hugging her.

"I've been thinking about holding a funeral for grandma and I wanted to ask you guys if you can help me."

They all said that they will help me and I told them that tomorrow we are going to start the preparations.

We started by making a list of guests. I looked at Naomi's letters to see if there are any people out of town that should be invited. I didn't find anybody important, but I decided to check with Pema and see if she knew anything.

After I made the first draft of the list we decided to hold it at the shop since they weren't too many people.

That afternoon I went to Air Temple Island to tell lady Pema the news. When I got there the air acolytes guided to her. She was happy to see that I was fine.

She came to visit a few weeks after granny's death and saw how horrible I looked, she almost didn't recognize me and when she did she started to hug me and ask me if I need any help whatsoever. She even wanted to take me to the temple but I refused since I had my friends taking care of me and I didn't want to leave them. She told me that I'm always welcomed at Air Temple Island.

I only came to tell her about the invitation and ask if she knew about any people outside of Republic City but we ended up talking for hours. It was midnight when we finished talking and she invited me to stay till morning and eat with them. I accepted since I didn't have any food at home and I enjoyed the company.

At dinner, I talked with Tenzin and her about industrialization and how this affects the old traditions. Tenzin was very passionate about this since people started to lose their spiritual side because of this. We discussed hypothetical scenarios about how the world will look in the future and what would happen to bending. I had fun making up futures where bending becomes useless that the non-benders will persecute benders, the scenarios I made were so convincing that I scared him a little which made Pema laugh. All in all, I had a great time dining with them. That night I sleep in the guest room and the next morning I said my goodbyes and told them that I would see them at the funeral.

The days have quickly gone by and we finally held the funeral. There weren't many people there. There were my friends, mister Li, Tenzen's family, and two more persons that granny was close to.

We told stories about how much Naomi helped us and how much we cared about her when it finally came to my turn I stood up.

"I don't know my parents, grandma found me on the beach all alone and she took me in. She was old and had a lot on her plate to deal with but she still took me in and gave me all I could ever want, I loving family. She was perfect in every way a person should be loving, caring, forgiving, she had a heart made of gold. I could go on and on about how much I cared for her but there are no words that can describe how I love and care I had for her. The only way I can show it's through the way I live my life, like she did, helping others along the way, with the same love and care that she showed to them. So in her memory, I will try to do better, to be a better person and help the good people in need."

THE END OF VOLUME 1.