Silver not-horse thing - E

Spirits are quite interesting creatures. Since the beginning of time, Spirits have walked the earth, sharing space with humans. They have their habitats, abilities, desires, and thoughts. Some spirits may appear in the human world, but such cases are quite rare, not everyone can overcome the barrier set thousands of years ago.

As far as Michael understood, the Spirits had truly supernatural powers. Merging with people, changing from a light nature to a dark one, just to name a few. They had no restrictions or limits, their only purpose is existence, like programs on a PC.

That is why spirits are very dangerous. Over the years, people have seen raging Spirits destroying the land and killing intruders, good Spirits that give life and protection, even neutral Spirits that just watch. But each of them was quite strong, even if they couldn't use their full strength in the human world.

And now Michael was not in the human world.

'First, that bastard who's 'watching' me, then the Goddess, and now this shit. Amazing. The world definitely tries to kill me.'

He wasn't sure what had happened, but what he was sure of, was that this is not a world where a human should be. His Bending just wasn't working so it was a huge clue that he wasn't in the regular world.

Michael looked around at the silver forest and frowned. He's been craving to kill something lately, so if this Mercury monster decides to be his volunteer, he won't protest.

But one does not fuck with Spirits if he does not want to die a terrible death. All the characters that tried to kill the Spirits and break the balance found their death quickly enough. General Zhao for example will die as soon as Michael gets to his sorry ass.

'What? What's happening? Why do I want to kill? I am not a killer. Thief, torturer, sick bastard - yes, but not a murderer.'

His thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the need to dodge three of Mercury's silver tendrils at once. Michael jumped to the side only now noticing the pain in the left side of his chest. The tendrils dug into the ground, covering the grass with silver. The grass began to melt under the silver, but reduced the amount of liquid on the ground to the slightest drop.

'Ribs cracked, but the lung isn't punctured. I can't get hit anymore.'

His staff struck one of the silver tendrils, testing their durability, and to Michael's great surprise the staff simply went through the tendril, like a knife through butter. But this did not break the flow of mercury, only scattered large silver drops on the ground.

Not waiting for the next attack, Michael leaned on his staff and kicked off the ground into the air. His ribs grinded against each other in protest, but he felt worse, he knew how to endure pain.

"Yes! YES!!! SUCH COLD FURY, FEAR, PAIN! EVEN BLOODLUST! YOU WILL CLENCH THE THRUST OF THE LAKE!"

The tendrils followed him like wild snakes, trying to strike his body and tear him apart. Michael tried to remember what he knew about Spirits, and after the fifth close call, it dawned on the teenager.

'They have rules! Push can't function without Pull, Koh can't steal a face if someone doesn't show emotion, but what rules does this bastard have? Might as well...'

He rolled on the wet ground, barely dodging a silver spear in the eye. Never in his life did Michael thank Loki for his strange luck like right now.

"What do you want from me?!" Michael yelled, punching aside a surprisingly solid tendril with his right hand.

The silver headless horse laughed and threw its arms into the air.

"Your emotions! Your pain! The Lake asks, I give! Yes, yes! Now don't move! The Lake is losing patience!"

A dozen more spikes and tendrils appeared behind the horse's back. Michael didn't like it. The Mercury spikes began to rise into the air and fly at him like rockets. He spun to the right and stabbed one of the spikes with his staff, using the force from the impact to turn around completely and run towards the Lake.

'Well, that was fucking educational. It doesn't look like it's in the mood to talk. Let's try something else.'

Since his left hand was useless, Michael threw the staff into the air and raised his right hand to his mouth. In one fluid motion, he tore off the glove with his teeth, jumped into the air, and bit through the skin of the glove on the staff so as not to damage his teeth - take care of your teeth kids. Now that his hand was free, he pulled a flask of water from his belt.

He had to dodge several spikes that hit the ground. They quickly melted along with the grass, and Michael became a little more confident in his assumption. If a few blades of grass could do this to the not-Mercury, then what could regualr water do?

The lid of the flask flew out with one very flexible kick from Michael. Knowing that his theory might be complete crap and that he would lose the flask anyway, he dodged another blow from the tendrils and threw the open flask at the silver horse.

The flask cut through the air like a spear with incredible speed, without even spilling a drop of water on the floor. But the horse knew that something was flying into it and caught the flask with its hand. Unfortunately for the Spirit, the flask was opened towards the horse's face.

The water splashed directly into the eyes of the Spirit and he screamed with his thin voice full of pain. The bastard's body began to melt and sink into the lake, giving Michael the relief he needed.

"No, no, no! The Lake is not satisfied! The Lake needs life! The Lake needs me! It needs meee-!"

Seeing the hand with his flask disappear under the surface of the non-Mercury, Michael sighed heavily. If someone was around, he would've made a reference to the Terminator, but what was the point now?

Frowning, the teen approached his bag, which had fallen from his shoulders at the beginning of the battle. He took it and fled from the silver lake as quickly as possible. He didn't want to know what would happen if he touched that liquid. He can check the state of his things later.

He failed to realize that he had already touched the silver. That the silver was harmless to him. He just wanted to get away from the place that terrified him to the point of trembling.

So, he ran.

---

Iroh considered himself just an old man with many friends. It did not matter to him that these friends of his were Masters of Bending arts or other disciplines, or members of the White Lotus - sometimes even both at once. He believed that his kind understanding nature attracted people, sometimes even saved lives. So, when Zuko was exiled from his home, Iroh decided to go with him.

But the young prince was not a calm soul, everyone with royal blood had something sinister inside them. Iroh couldn't help his nephew for a long time. And now that the Avatar has reappeared in this world, he can finally show him the right path.

Unfortunately, the day he can do it won't be today. His nephew was in one of "those" moods when he snapped at everything and everyone around him. So, Iroh decided to spend some time alone.

Iroh took a deep breath and poured himself another cup of tea. The Spirit World was truly beautiful at this time of the day. Around him was a jungle with very friendly Spirits hiding behind the trees. Creepers hung from high branches, and the roots of trees stuck out of the ground and were as tall as a grown man. It was an untouched place. Even sacred.

So why did he suddenly smell wet metal?

As if answering his question, something crunched behind him. Knowing that he was in no man's land, Iroh turned around without any concern for his life. Here he was safe. Oh, how right and wrong he was.

Before him, stood the same young man whom he had seen a couple of days ago. His hair was greasy and matted, his clothes were torn, and his body was wounded in several places. His left arm was wrapped in a splint and held on by a belt to restrict the unnecessary movements. But the most noticeable were the bandages on his chest. His metal staff served as a walking stick with his bag tied to the high end.

In short: he looked bad.

"Oh, Iroh. Nice to see a familiar face in this place."

The young man sat down next to him as if they were old friends and let out a pained groan. Now that the old man could take a closer look, there were bruises and cuts on the teenager's face. Iroh frowned and set his cup down on the ground.

"You shouldn't travel to the Spirit World with such wounds, young man."

He just huffed and winced from a sudden movement in his chest.

"Michael. My name is Michael."

Iroh smiled. His guest had manners, even if he preferred to forget them.

"Well, Michael, you shouldn't travel to the Spirit World with such wounds."

Michael snorted and Iroh smiled even more. Meeting someone with a good sense of humor was more difficult than one might think.

"It was not my choice. Some silver cunt with six arms and eyes in the neck decided to feed the Lake with me. You know something about it?"

Iroh froze like a statue and could just stare at the young... man? in front of him. If what he said is true, then he should be careful in his choice of words.

"Hmm... That was Gotl. The Spirit guarding the bottomless lake of emotions. Some say that all the emotions of living beings on our earth begin and end in this lake. Others say that Gotl fills this lake with stolen ones. I prefer to believe that there is some truth in both versions."

The self-named Michael placed a hand on his bandaged chest and frowned.

"That bastard stole me from my friends and wanted the Lake to feed on me. I don't know if the Lake succeeded, but I hope not. Anyway, I have a question. How do I get out of here?"

Iroh looked at the teenager for a couple of minutes, not quite sure what to say to him. Finally, he was able to muster enough courage to speak.

"Michael, there will be no easy way out for you here. Not only your Spirit is in this world, but also your body."

Silence fell between them again. Michael just looked up at the sky through the trees and mumbled something under his breath. His voice got quieter and quieter until he was completely silent.

"... Iroh, pour me some tea, please. I'm gonna tell you a story. Have you heard of the multiverse theory?"