Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ Ritual ❯ Earth ( Chapter 1 )

Earth

 

It was hardly even a crowd.

 

Another two men had come to add to the hundreds. Once their city had been vibrant with life, men, women, children all living together as a community. Now the only women were elders and children just beginning to grow, and the only men were boys too young to even be called boys.

 

It was out of respect that they dressed like this, in their finest. They had no other event to wear these dresses to, no reason that they apply the makeup but for the face of death. The women indeed in the burial rite painted their faces white and dead. The dresses could rival royalty, if not for the coarse material. The boys did not paint their faces but wore the ceremonial garb.

 

The dead were also dressed. The two men's body had been scrubbed clean. Their robes were soft green embroidered with a darker color, symbols painted sewn in. There was no casket, but the ditches were dug. They were to be buried, taken back into the earth, purified by it. There was hope they would be born again, back into their arms, though there was doubt they would recognize their family members. It was no matter.

 

No one uttered a word as the men were lowered into the ground, the dirt brushed back over them. They closed their eyes and prayed, whether to the fates, to their gods, to the Avatar, it did not matter.

 

They awaited the next men coming home, and it would not be a happy reunion.