14. Help
This week I managed to visit, a builder, an architect, a hunter, a designer and even a theater in one person.
I had to learn all these professions on the go, and each time I thanked my craving for reading books, or my hunger for information, which made me read all the books in the library. All of a sudden, all the knowledge that you think won't be useful turns out to be very much in demand. Oh, how I want to get to the Wang Shi Tong Library as soon as possible.
On the path of becoming a professional handyman, I was pushed by the plight of the entire tribe.
On the third day, the sources finally started working, and they began to actively replenish the storage with energy, which did not take much time due to the proximity to the portal to the Realm of Spirits, after the activation of bending, physical weakness disappeared, we can say by lunch on the third day I was already at the peak of my strength.
Deciding to look at the whole village, I went out into the fresh air. My appearance immediately attracted everyone's attention. Stories that I appeared in their tribe it is unclear how they already walked around the settlement, it is still small enough that every rumor or news flew in the blink of an eye, and continued to figure for a long time, but to hear it is not to see with your own eyes.
After walking through the tribe, I got to know almost all of its inhabitants, and as I got to know them, my mood dropped lower and lower. The adults here had an extinct look, they looked very tired both mentally and physically. For most of them, some people close to them were killed or taken away, whether it was a family member or a relative, the loss of so many dear people could not but affect their well-being.
Especially when there is no part of the tribe that was responsible for most of the meat production, protection of the settlement and all activities that required certain physical condition and experience. The tribe has to eat basically only fish, sometimes it turns out to get meat, but this is necessary so that the herbivorous beast strays from the packs, or if predatory, it must be old, or already wounded. It is quite difficult to find harmless animals, since most of them have natural camouflage, especially since they will not live close to people, which means they need to move away from the tribe, which can lead to a meeting with predators, that is, the risk is not very justified. There were several teenagers who, without listening to the others, went hunting, and no one else saw them.
Only the children looked quite happy with life, but even they were affected by the behavior of older residents.
Looking at the composition of the tribe's inhabitants, a mixture of a nursing home, a hospital for former soldiers who were injured in the war and a kindergarten with tutors comes to mind. A horde of children, seeing a new person, surrounded me and did not allow me to pass until they quenched their interest, there were questions, requests to play, so many children's emotions piled on me that it seems even my head began to spin. Katara, who walked with me all the time, looked at other children with jealousy, was already used to receiving all my attention to herself alone, a little possessive.
The condition of the residents themselves seemed to be reflected in the village itself, one igloo that seems to have been built by hand had a slightly askew look, and this is the Leader's house where I have lived for the last two days, then only "better", the rest of the tribe lived in the likeness of tents made of everything that comes to hand, it seems I even saw the flags of the people of fire as a canopy.
That's when I realized that helping these people is not worth anything to me, because for them it will be a new incentive to move, you need to somehow stir them up.
With such thoughts, I went to the elder's house to ask her advice in my endeavors, she was the Kanna known to us, the oldest inhabitant of the Southern Water Tribe.
"Elder Kanna, are you unoccupied?" - I said at the entrance to the tent, - I need to talk to you.
- Come inside, I've just almost finished making a herbal decoction, - an old voice sounded from inside.
As soon as I entered the dwelling, my sense of smell was tickled by the smells of various herbs, a natural product is felt, this was very difficult to find in my century.
- Come in, come in, I specially prepared this decoction for you, even though I was deprived of the bending of water, but while still in the Northern Tribe of Water, I learned from healers to make such drinks that help to recover, - her speech was measured and calm, I want to listen and listen to such people who have already lived their century, - they say you are from the North Pole, how are things there?
- Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for all the help, Kaya said that you helped her nurse me while I was unconscious, - I bowed to her in gratitude, - Everything is fine at home, the people of Fire have not attacked us for many years, do you happen to know Yugoda? She is my mentor on the path of healing, once she told me about her old friend Kanna, who went to the South Pole.
- So she's still alive, it's good, she always wanted to help people with their injuries, so she achieved her goal – even her face brightened from this news. – so what is the reason for your coming? - already handing me a bowl with a decoction, she asked.
- I would like to help your tribe, being a water bender I can do a lot, I hope you will direct my activities in a more useful direction, after all, you better know what the tribe needs
"It's easier to list what we don't need, young man," she said, shaking her head, "I thank you in advance from the whole tribe, and I hope you won't overdo it, after all, you have only recently recovered.
After the conversation, where I was given the go-ahead for all my undertakings, I began to think about where to start at all. I think it's worth starting with the construction of new houses, as I noticed in these tents, even the heat does not last long.
Without thinking twice, I went to look at the territory suitable for the construction of new houses, still it is not necessary to evict people without being sure of the imminent completion of the construction, it is easier to make all the houses, and then help to drag all their belongings there.
Choosing a place, I began to collect water from the ocean, compressing it to the shape I needed, thanks to the increase in my skill from enlightenment that I received from Tui and La, I was able to operate with an even larger volume of water, so it was relatively easy to build houses, I spent more time remembering details from books that told me how to do everything right.
The population was not too large, twenty houses would be enough for them even for future families, when building houses with the help of bending, you can find many advantages – this is an increase in your control, and a flight of imagination on the theme of your dream house, each house turned out to be different from the other, each of them had its own highlight, the children will definitely like it. In case of different situations in each dwelling, I made a large basement where you can, as well as hide in case of anything, and store perishable food supplies.
I did not expect such a speed from myself, it turned out to finish all the houses right at sunset, tomorrow morning you can already notify residents about moving to new houses.
It is worth telling separately about the funny reaction of the kids to the bending of water. They have never seen her in their lives, only adults managed to see her manifestation firsthand. For fifteen minutes they did nothing but gasp for air in disbelief watching my manipulations with water during the construction of the house. But then I listened to their questions and exclamations throughout the construction, every child that day lit up with the idea of becoming a water bender, but it seems that only Katara had the gift, but not wanting to upset the kids, I began to tell them stories about brave fishermen, cooks and other professions that can be cooler than a water bender, while fabulously and vividly describing how they can catch a lot of fish and feed the whole tribe with food, how their mom will be proud of them, yes, you can call it manipulation, but it's better to direct their thoughts in the other direction, so that in the future they will not be disappointed being non-benders.
The next day, each resident of the tribe went through the ritual of accepting reality. When Kanna told them to pack things for relocation, people already thought that Kanna believed the stories of their children that they heard yesterday that the boy was a super cool water bender, but there were people who dared to walk to their new place of residence first, so they became the first pilgrims that performed a ritual in the form of hanging for a few minutes, rubbing their eyes and mandatory touching one of the houses. The people, still not believing in what was happening, were stupidly collecting their things, which I was already moving to a new village on ice platforms.
That day, after helping to carry things, I thought about protecting the village itself and its invisibility. From the ocean side, where you can easily see the village, I decided to make small hills thanks to which the settlement will not be viewed by the ships of the fire people. Then they had to do the same, from the other two sides, so that when they came to the old village they would not see the new settlement. It was difficult to make them look like what Mother Nature creates, for an hour I gave them a natural look. Strongly compressing the ice, I surrounded the entire village with two-meter walls, and supplemented them with observation posts from where the whole district was clearly visible.
On the same day, I managed to examine all the residents with healing bending. Everyone had some sores or injuries, only the children went almost completely healthy. There were a lot of old injuries and incorrectly fused bones, it was clear that the healing bender had not been here for a very long time. Here, for the first time, I moved on to serious injuries, some people had a situation that required immediate treatment, I was afraid to do something wrong, there was not even insurance in the form of other healers, but there was a strong motivation to do everything well – this motivation was a pair of naive children's eyes that looked at me in the firm belief that their mother would definitely be cured.
When you do something yourself and at the same time benefit others, there is a sense of satisfaction, especially when you see how people are enlivened by your actions in front of your eyes.
At the end of the day I was tired as a horse, those operations squeezed all the juices out of me. But it was worth it, the daughter of that cured woman later came to me and wanted to give me her only toy, allegedly I deserved it, you would have seen her changing face, I didn't want to give her so much, but it was ugly not to give, I had to restrain a creeping smile, yet here the child gives probably the most important thing, unable to look at her torment anymore, I said that I didn't need a toy, but I wanted to give her an important assignment. After telling her to watch her mother carefully and not let her strain for another 10 days, the girl nodded to me with an extremely serious pug.
On the fifth day, with renewed strength, I went deeper into the tundra, there was no stock of meat in the settlement, clothes were also in short supply, it was urgently necessary to solve this issue. For the master of water, it is very easy to fill up any representatives of these places, more time was spent searching for them. So during the day I was able to bring to the tribe a whole pack of wolves that brazenly lived right near the new settlement, one polar leopard and three yaks. This was enough to not worry about meat for another couple of weeks for sure. From the skins, it was possible to make new clothes for the whole tribe.
Over the next two days, I continued to look for dangerous animals near the settlement and modify the houses themselves. I did not forget to make a secret shelter in one of the hills, if the enemies find the settlement itself, then it will be possible to hide in these rooms.There was more free time left, which was immediately occupied with tinkering with children. I went too much into ennobling, forgetting to pay attention to my regular viewers. Being close to the tribe or on its territory, all these days the kids followed me around, that seeing me very busy, they didn't even bother, but just watched. Such childish endurance should have been rewarded, which I successfully did.
During these two days, I arranged whole performances with animated water for them for several hours, which took various forms as the story progressed, whether it was the characters of my fairy tales or whole three-dimensional places in order to show the place of action itself.
It seems that I have already got used to falling asleep to Katara's enthusiastic twitter, retelling to my mother all the events that she saw, to Sokka's consonant whooping that I played with the boomerang I made every day, and to Kai's grateful glances that she throws at me, seeing her children so happy.