15 Chapter 15

"So, what does it mean, not only the Avatar can master all the elements?" Sokka asked me, out of the blue starting the conversation. "But why doesn't everyone do this? Why do people only master one element?"

"Sokka, I have no idea. Maybe it's because of laziness, or perhaps some other reason. Ask your sister why she doesn't try to master air or fire bending?"

"I haven't even mastered water yet, and it's always been said that only the Avatar can..." Katara began.

"Yes, yes, only the Avatar can master all the elements. Rigidity of thought is one of the reasons. I don't know everything, but it seems to me that the Avatar's equal predisposition to all elements is provided by his Avatarhood, and according to the legends, he has the knowledge and experience of all his past incarnations. By the way, Aang, I've always wondered - what or whom are you the Avatar of?" I turned to Aang, who had been listening to our conversation and after my question turned around and hopped over to our seating-nest.

"What do you mean?" Aang asked me, clasping his legs with his hands and smiling broadly.

"Well, 'Avatar' means descent, incarnation into something or someone. Since you're the Avatar, it means you are some incarnation of someone who makes you the Avatar and allows you to easily learn all elements, or his embodiment. I'm curious - of whom? Being the embodiment of whom, do you receive such starting bonuses as the knowledge and wisdom of all past lives and a simultaneous inclination to all elements? After all, it must be someone very unusual and probably very powerful, because the Avatar is the one who alone maintains and protects the world with balance."

"Um... you know, my mentors never told me about this, and I never really thought about it, so I don't know."

The answer was clear. A child of his age would hardly be interested in such information.

"So, what about mastering different elements? How did you manage that? And how did you even become a bender?" Sokka asked again.

"There's a saying, 'Curiosity killed the cat.' Be careful, or in my sleep, I might think your name is Cat and accidentally rip something off you definitely don't need," I looked seriously at Sokka, and he instinctively grabbed his nose, then, as I shifted my gaze lower, he, wide-eyed, started to protect something more important. "As for your question - I simply had no choice. Since childhood, I mastered water, not to brag, just for the record, so to speak, my mother called me a genius in waterbending. Though neither she nor her ancestors demonstrated any bending ability in water for several generations, so it's unclear by what standards she measured, but she never doubted her words. I mastered water and ice long ago, when my brother was still alive, later gained notoriety as a maniac butcher, which wasn't far from the truth, spent some time living as a pickpocket in one of the Earth Kingdom cities, mastering water to a high level, I believe. Traveling and hiding, I also successfully mastered steam. It's much harder, but the power is greater! Especially the destructive power. Living in the woods for a while, I tried to find new aspects of waterbending and one day discovered the ability to... control blood. This, by the way, was a main argument for sparing my life when I was captured by the Fire Nation people. I don't know what they wanted to do with me next, but bloodbending was clearly needed for something. After bloodbending, I learned to extract water from plants and living beings' blood, control plants. I actively used all this in confrontation with the Fire Nation.

To be honest, I couldn't care less about them, but... still, even though I didn't care about the war, I feel a dislike towards the Fire Nation people. Yes, I killed the murderers of my family, but the dislike for the Fire Nation remained. So, whenever possible, I built up my reputation. A reputation as a monster to be feared. However, all this reputation was destroyed when I was captured.

"When those captured Fire Nation warriors were interrogated, it didn't seem like they weren't afraid of you. It looked like they were ready to faint right there at the sight of you."

Sokka's words were true. I was present during the interrogations of the firebenders, and in my presence, they answered as quickly as possible, begging the warriors not to hand them over to me. It seems they were so scared that even the local residents started to treat me warily. And everyone remembers how I dealt with the soldiers. Even some of the Kyoshi Warriors began to look at me more often with a hint of doubt in their eyes and on their faces.

"For my capture, for the ambush specifically for me, they sent two hundred and fifty people, among whom were very good benders and warriors. However, only sixteen people returned alive then, and it's not certain that they were healthy and without injuries. All the others... they will never return anywhere. So, although I was defeated, it was a Pyrrhic victory that came at too high a price for them. Yes, I was captured, but in the process, they only reinforced my reputation as a bloodthirsty monster. And what a stir in the Fire Nation society the news of my escape from prison caused, which was almost individually designed and built for me! And I destroyed the entire guard garrison there, which seemed like they were protecting the Fire Lord's family, not an enemy benders. After that, my reputation not just grew, according to rumors that reached me, it skyrocketed. In the Fire Nation, I'm practically used to scare children, hehe!" I laughed and looked at the serious Sokka, Katara, and Aang.

"That's not funny. You killed so many?" Sokka asked.

"And haven't you killed, Sokka? You're a hunter, meaning a gatherer and killer of your prey."

"It's not the same..."

"To me, it's very similar. No, maybe I'm wrong, all that's happened has clearly affected my brain and changed something in me, making my view of the surroundings different from the standard, but sorry. In my view, the people and the animals you killed are the same.

"But people are..." Katara began.

"What? What about people? Are they rational? Have personality? Self-aware? What is so fundamentally different about them from animals? Some animals can use bending just like us, albeit differently, but they can, and there are animals that make you think you're the brainless beast when communicating with them. We, humans, are just selfish creatures, every action or inaction of ours carries the goal of gaining benefit. Even if it seems to you that it's from the heart and you're doing it just because, it's just self-deception. You do it to satisfy your self-esteem and then think, ah, how good I am, I did it just because. I'm not blaming you, Katara, I'm the same, as are Sokka and Aang. We all are humans, we have our instincts, desires, and whims. And all this matters. So, killing a human is no different from killing an animal. The process and the outcome are the same. And killing ahuman is considered bad only because of the opinion imposed by upbringing and societal norms. So yes, Sokka, I have killed, and I've killed very many. The number of people I've killed has already exceeded many hundreds. I didn't keep count, so I can't say for sure.

"And yet, it's not right to kill people. In the temple, they told me that every killing of a person slightly kills the person inside. It only makes things worse."

"In that case, I'm already doomed, Aang. I've personally and brutally killed so many that I should have rotted from the inside out. And if so, it can hardly get worse. However, if it's so important to you, when given the choice to leave a person who can't do anything to me or to kill him, I will try to choose the former. Alright, we've strayed from the topic of our conversation. Sokka, where was I?" I asked the guy.

"You said you escaped from a prison that was specially prepared for you. But how?" he asked again.

"That prison was indeed perfect. I had not a single chance to escape from it, no matter how many plans I came up with, all of them shattered against the harsh reality - I was helpless. As one of my overseers said, no water bending would help me get out of that prison. That became the final straw, and I gave up. I stopped even thinking about finding a way to escape using water bending. Hehehe. However, it became clear to me - if not by water, then try by earth. I had only a hypothesis, which suggested that perhaps originally benders didn't master elements, or mastered all of them, but, depending on various circumstances, they had to choose one element for themselves and focus on it. Through many generations, this resulted in a huge potential in that element for their descendants, but almost complete inability in other elements. I don't know if I was right about the history, maybe the legendary lion turtles were involved, or perhaps all the inhabitants of the world are aliens from another world, who knows. However, I followed the essence of the hypothesis - a bender can master another element. The question is how much time it will take. And I had plenty of time. Day and night, almost without interruption, I tried to start controlling earth. Later, as I promised, I'll try to teach you, Katara and Aang, the same. If Sokka wants, I'll teach him too. Maybe he's also a bender, just it hasn't manifested yet. Nine to ten months later, the first successes appeared.

"And then?" Aang asked.

"That prison was created with the assumption that you're a waterbender, no matter how good, but a waterbender. However, it completely did not anticipate that you could also control earth. Previously you had not demonstrated such ability, so no one could have imagined it. That's how you escaped, right?" Sokka finished the story of the escape for me.

"Correct, Sokka, well done. You do have brains after all! You're not hopeless. Maybe you'll even find a girl for yourself in the future, hehe."

No longer looking at Katara quietly laughing, the smiling Aang, and the blushing Sokka, I looked towards the vast expanses of the Earth Kingdom below us. It's very convenient to have a flying bison. Very convenient indeed. I must admit.

As promised, here's a new chapter to thank you for your review. Enjoy reading, and don't forget: for every 200 Power Stones you donate, I'll post an additional chapter.