10 Through heaven and earth, only I am honored.

[4 years later]

"Is this all you can do?" Kael shouted towards his son.

Once again, they were away from the tribe, facing the same snow-covered landscape. Everything seemed monotonous to Gale. Day after day, on every full moon, Kael took Gale to train in the art of waterbending and, more crucially, bloodbending. However, in the past four years, he had barely progressed.

"I can't, Dad. I can't," Gale said, attempting to control the blood of one of the white wolves they had captured.

"You're useless," Kael, exhausted from witnessing his son's lack of skill, began his punishment once again.

Faced with imminent torture, Gale cried pitifully. "Dad, no."

But the pleas fell on deaf ears.

Using bloodbending, Kael controlled Gale's limbs, lifting him from the ground and twisting them, causing sharp pain.

"No," Gale cried pitifully, as the torment seemed to stretch for hours in his mind, despite lasting only two minutes.

"Ugh," Kael, unable to continue using bloodbending, let his son fall to the ground. While sweating and crouching, Gale remained fallen, watching his father.

"You're weaker. The torture isn't as painful as before," Gale spoke with a sarcastic smile and a bitter laugh.

Seeing the irony of his son, Kael tried again to teach a lesson but gave up when he realized he had no strength left. He was too sick for anything.

"Get ready; we're going home. I have nothing more to teach you today. You've mastered waterbending, but in blood, you remain as weak as ever," Kael said as he got up and headed back to the camp.

Gale, in agony on the ground, got up, ignoring all the pains that afflicted him.

For the first time in four years of suffering, he recalled all the tortures inflicted by his father for not mastering bloodbending, even after so much time. At first, it was just verbal abuse, but over time, physical assaults became a sad reality.

Pushing these thoughts aside, he stood up and packed his things to return home. At least, he still had his family to welcome him with kisses and smiles.

 *

Upon arriving home in the morning, they were greeted by Amara and Liora.

"You're coming back earlier and earlier," commented Amara, leaning down to hug Gale, who was now tall enough that she no longer needed to bend down.

"You look terrible, brother, ugly as always," joked Liora as she ran around the house.

Gale smiled warmly witnessing everything; at least, his mother and sister remained unchanged.

His father, on the other hand, simply ignored his wife and daughter, quietly heading to the basement.

Gale, in turn, talked to his mother and sister before heading to the room to rest after a long night.

As he lay down on the bed, he finally relaxed his body, sinking into a deep sleep. At least there, his father couldn't confront him. Or so he believed.

However, images of his father torturing him returned in his dreams, but this time, in a different way.

"Father, please, I swear I'll get better," Gale pleaded pitifully, looking at his father.

Kael was surrounded by an aura of blood, as terrifying as his appearance in reality but even more frightening in Gale's imagination.

"You haven't met expectations; you're good for nothing, Gale," Kael said decisively.

Hearing those words from his father, which he had heard so many times before, hurt deeply, but this time was different. In the core of his pain, a desire for revenge was revealed, an eagerness to retaliate against his father in the same way he had been a victim of his attacks.

Unlike Gale's usual pleading words, a smile appeared this time.

"I'm going to kill you, you useless old man," Gale said with a macabre smile.

"Just words," Kael retorted, ending what he had started.

After hearing his father's words, Gale finally woke up. His heart was beating so fast that he would swear he was having a heart attack. His hands trembled, and his vision was blurry.

"It was just a dream," Gale said to himself as he sat on the bed.

Looking through his room's window, he noticed it was night, and the moon was full.

"I must have missed Mom's dinner. She must be angry with me," Gale thought as he got up and opened the bedroom door. Suddenly, he smelled a peculiar scent in the air.

'Blood?' Gale thought to himself.

His heart began to beat unevenly, his hands trembled uncontrollably. Each step toward the corridor felt like an eternity.

Suddenly, a scene unfolded before him, an image he knew he would never forget: his mother and sister lay lifeless on the ground, while his father stood over them. The sight was a storm of horror unfolding, leaving Gale paralyzed.

"So, you woke up," Kael's emotionless voice echoed throughout the house.

"What have you done?" Gale said, trying not to choke on the words.

Kael turned his gaze towards Gale, remaining still in front of his lifeless wife and daughter.

"It's over, Gale. My dreams, you were my last hope. That day, when you talked to me about bloodbending, it reignited my flame," Kael said, turning to face his paralyzed son.

"You, that day, brought me hope, and four years later, you destroyed it," Kael stated, rushing towards Gale.

Seeing his father approaching, Gale had no reaction.

"You will die along with my dreams," Kael said, lifting Gale from the ground by the neck.

"Father..."

When words of mercy came to Gale's mind, he denied them deeply, everything.

Everything was his father's fault, all his expectations. On that day, he just wanted to talk to his father about something that intrigued him. When he opened the basement and explained about the Red Lotus and how the Avatar had been harmful to the world, it was his father who forced him to accept that as absolute truth. Everything was his father's fault; a child's innocence should not be destroyed as it happened that day.

His eyes turned red, the veins in his arm dilated as if he were possessed by a disease. Kael's fingers strangling him were removed one by one, like threads of a puppet controlling him.

"You," Kael said,

Watching his son's strange appearance as his fingers loosened. Kael had a bad feeling, something he could never imagine was happening. his body began to levitate.

"You useless old man, I'm going to teach you a lesson," Gale said, manipulating his father's body like a puppet, breaking his bones.

"How are you..." Kael tried to say but was interrupted when his heart was bombarded by immense amounts of blood, causing his death.

Gale simply looked at his father's now motionless body.

"You raised me as a tool, a tool for your desires, a tool for the Red Lotus. But I know what I am," Gale said, spreading his arms.

"Through heaven and earth, only I am honored."