12. Portal
The transition to the average level of strength of spirit took place even without my feasible participation, doing training under water, which makes it more effective, at one moment a visible wave of power hit me, which quickly froze the already cold water.
It happened about half a month after I turned seven. The characteristics of the body at that time had already reached the peak level for my body, already now I can safely fight in hand-to-hand combat against hardened hunters who extract meat for the whole tribe in the tundra. I'm afraid to imagine what will happen when I'm under twenty.
The sources that were previously more ephemeral in appearance, as if they began to solidify, and the energy that flows throughout my body has moved to a qualitatively new level. The range of my water sensitivity has increased from ten meters to as much as fifty. I even began to feel some underground water sources under the city.
When I moved to a new rank, for just a few seconds I felt the water at a completely different level. At some distance I felt the blood that flows in living people, their hearts beating, in the air I found water particles that seemed to be just about to form into clouds. It is very similar to enlightenment, as if the element itself has shared its secrets. After that, I spent half an hour trying to re-enter this enlightening state, but everything was unsuccessful. It felt like they played with me, showed me some kind of thing that you really need and said, well, try harder, maybe someday you will come to this.
- Super, - it burst out of me by itself, while I was playing with a whole cubic meter of water that took any aggregate state, at my slightest desire, I would even call it that, the water became a part of me.
It seems that Wang Shi Tong was right, when we move to a new rank, we have the opportunity to acquire another element. It was easy to understand when the feeling of fullness that had haunted you all your adult life disappeared, instead a new feeling came that carried some emptiness that you wanted to fill. I need to find a way to the Spirit Realm as soon as possible in order to find out exactly what other advantages I received from the transition to a new level.
Already in the following battles with the masters of water, my score did not drop once, even against the grandfathers-monsters I managed to fight in a draw, here it is worth taking into account the increased sensorics of water, which allows me to determine its component already at the stage of formation of the reception, as if the water itself within a certain range whispers to me what will be applied.
Another thing I found while practicing is the ability to compress water. Yes, it could have been done before, but not on the scale that I can now. Several tens of tons of water, which is my limit at the moment, I managed to compress to a few cubic centimeters, which was even more difficult to hold. For the first time, having lost control over her, he launched her high into the air, two seconds later an explosion occurred in the sky, the shock wave from which even shook the city a little. I raised a notable panic, I had to confess to what I had done, otherwise they were already thinking about an attack and wanted to mobilize everyone in a row. Of course, I was reprimanded, I am now allowed to practice bending only at a distance from the city.
I finalized this ability only towards the end of the week. It turned out, the reception that in the 21st century will give a light to modern bombs. Depending on the compression of the water, the bomb turned out to be of different power. For simplicity of their designation, I called them bomb 1, bomb 2, and bomb 3. If the bomb of the first level has a radius of destruction of about 100 meters, then the bomb of the third is already a whole kilometer. It's good that I saw an approximate ability only in the Avatar in his final battle with Ozai.
In my arsenal there was another defensive technique that arose from a new ability. Compressing water to a thin and transparent film, I cover my entire body with it, as if putting on a second skin, but I would call this skill a second life. This film has a strength that exceeds that of the spirit armor by a hundredfold. To test this technique, we had to involve all the masters. In order to really convince them of their safety, I decided to make adjustments, first one master attacks, and then if the defense calmly withstands damage from one master, we will add one more. The result was stunning. The attacks of all the masters just depleted my reserve, I didn't get any damage. Now I'm learning to constantly maintain a minimum of film on myself, you see, and it will really save my life someday.
After the skill level I showed, the very attitude of people towards me has undergone some changes. People who met me around the city came up to greet me, the kids looked at me as their idol. Even at the meetings, some personalities have gone over to my side, and there are still others who will decide to follow me in the near future. I even began to forget that the power here decides a lot. Kyoshi Island, which does not have a large army and resources, is independent only because of the strongest bender at that time – the Avatar of Kyoshi. Bumi, that in fact he can do whatever he wants in his city and no Dai Li will even climb to him, because he is one of the strongest if not the strongest bender of the earth. And there are many more such examples.
***
As I got closer and closer to the Oasis of Spirits, I began to feel as if the world of spirits was superimposed on the world of people. After all, there is one of the portals that connects both worlds, now even though it is closed, you can feel an echo of the Spirit Realm.
I'm going to the Oasis not only to chat with a couple of spirits, but also to try to get into the spirit world, yes, the portals are closed, but it's worth trying.
After walking along the path, I came to the oasis itself, in which white and black koi carp swam. Coming closer and closer and continuing to look at how they swim, I did not notice how I fell into a kind of trance, in which the movements of the spirits acquired some kind of harmony.
Having fallen out of this state, I immediately sat down on the grass and began to analyze all the information that the spirits gave me in such an unusual way.
As it turned out, Tui and La themselves understand everything perfectly, both human speech and the thoughts of spirits, but they do not see the need to communicate this way, no, they do not, they communicate at a higher level, even this dance was done in order to facilitate the flow of information coming into me.
Tui and La no longer even remember exactly when they appeared, in fact, as soon as this world appeared at all, they appeared, and as long as there are Oceans and the Moon, they will live forever. They live here, because of greater comfort, in the world of people, the Moon and the Oceans are even closer to them than in the world of spirits.
They asked me for a few favors – to bother less and, as far as possible, not to let these incarnations die, they are completely defenseless in the world of people, as it turned out, if they were here with all their strength, then there would be natural disasters like flooding and in general everything bad that can be associated with the ocean, and even the waters would be so restless that it would not be possible to swim on them. Of course, this will not happen right away, but the longer they stay here, the more the world will be distorted.
Having sorted out all the information, I allowed myself to breathe a sigh of relief. Nevertheless, the spirits turned out to be quite peaceful, only they would not forcibly transfer knowledge, there would be no price for them.
For possible help in their further carefree life, I was given an advance understanding of the element of water, and just the same it was difficult not with the transmitted information, but with their memories of how they feel water, and despite the fact that their mind is far from human, it was unclear everything, but I was still able to understand some part.
Having put my mind in order, I was about to try to get from here to the spirit world, when I almost made a terrible mistake.
If I disappear for a long time in the Realm of Spirits or even get stuck there, then the family will not find a place for itself, especially baby Yui, or else they will consider me dead at all, you should not forget that you are no longer a lonely spirit, you have people close to you who sincerely worry about you.
But they won't want to let you go anywhere. After struggling with my conscience, I decided to leave a note in my room, in which I pushed everything to the good spirits that would teach me to conquer the water even better. Yes, the excuse is so-so, but nothing came into my head at all. In the end, I decided to add that these are good friends of Tui and La, so there is no need to worry. Excuse me, the spirits of the Moon and Oceans, but be my shield for a while, they won't interrogate you anyway, you've never talked to them anyway.
Only the family of the Leader has access here, I hope they won't get the fish too much, otherwise, on the contrary, I promised to bother less. "Okay, this is for our common safe future, the stronger I am, the better for all of us"" I soothed myself as I walked from the Palace towards the Oasis.
Not knowing exactly what to do, I decided to try to tune in to the energy of the spirit world. Probably, my carelessness will kill me someday. Well, who expected that it would work right from the first time.
As I expected, I found myself between worlds being completely in my body, so my abilities are all with me, and that's good.
I found myself at the pillar of light that separates the world of spirits and people, it's worth starting to strengthen your body with neutral energy, yet it won't be easy to break into a closed portal, if at all possible.
Coming closer to the wall of light, I tried to feel the places where it was weaker. The wall feels monolithic, there is nowhere to go around even.
Taking a deep breath, I ran up and jumped into a pillar of light.
As soon as my body came into contact with the border, I felt deja vu. How long has it been since my body lost consciousness from pain? I think the last time was when I was still a spirit, you lose the form of Yuki.
The last thing I felt was the meeting of my carcass with a snowdrift.
***
89 years after the genocide of the air nomads.
Southern Water Tribe
Near a small and dilapidated village that stood alone among the endless white fields, a brother and sister were playing, which, despite the hardships that fell on their tribe, did not lose their positive attitude.
- Katara is so unfair! Your snowballs should not change direction in flight - five-year-old Sokka shouted indignantly to his younger sister, while pulling out the snow that got into his ear.
- But I didn't do anything, it turns out that way by itself – four-year-old Katara replied with no less indignation that she didn't understand why her snowballs live their own lives.
At that moment, an incomprehensible flash of light occurred near them, which briefly blinded them.
- Sokka, did you see it too? - rubbing her eyes, the girl asked her brother, - let's go take a look, it was very close, it seems behind that hill, well, let's go check it out, - already walking in that direction, she called Sokka.
- Katara wait, what if these are people of fire?! First you need to call your mother - seeing that his attempts had no effect, he also followed her, yet there is a childish curiosity in him.
- Are you stupid? Grandma said that they always sailed from the ocean - Katara said with confidence, while even looking at her brother with superiority, supposedly I remembered it, but you didn't.
Sokka could only raise his eyes to the sky at her behavior.
As they got closer, they saw a man sticking out of a snowdrift upside down, looking at each other, each of them took hold of his leg in order to pull out the body.
As soon as the whole body was removed from the snowdrift, it seemed to them that the boy had long white hair and wore the traditional clothes of the water tribes in blue shades.
- See, he's also from the tribe! Katara said with pride.
- Argh, you've never even seen him in our tribe! Maybe it's a spy who changed his clothes for the introduction - Sokka was already muttering with a thoughtful look, - but why send such a distinguished spy? Hmm, I've never seen white hair, and it's definitely a boy?
While Sokka was playing detective, Katara checked his breathing, yet in some things, she was more attentive than the older Sokka, not seeing any damage, she paid attention to his face. A blush touched her cheeks, the first time she had seen such a beautiful boy. Running her hand through his hair, she was amazed at their softness, abruptly removing her hand, she blushed even more than before.
"Let's take him to our house, let Mom examine him," she said anyway.
"You've already made up your mind, haven't you?" - Sokka said fatefully, already grabbing the legs of the white-haired boy.
"Don't be a boogeyman, he might catch a cold," said a breathless girl who undertook to help her brother drag a stranger to her tribe.