5 Chapter 5

"What's challenging about using imagination? The fact that you can't force it to work according to your will. You can try for hours and days to come up with something, but nothing will come to mind, and then, during rest, sleep, attending to needs, breakfast, lunch, or dinner, just during a walk, or when you're in bed with a girl... imagination can just suddenly come up with something. Something that ignites inspiration with a new force, like it never did before. That's how it was for me. I struggled for a long time with the problem of further development, because water, ice, and even steam were already relatively easy for me by that time. Of course, I could try to further complicate tasks and increase mastery in these three aspects, which I did for lack of a better choice, but... that would mean I gave up, that I limited myself to these aspects and stopped looking for new ones. I didn't want that. Bending, the few things that were always with me, and I wanted to make it as versatile, useful, and all-encompassing as possible."

But until I discovered something new, I continued to perfect what I already had. My progress practically stopped altogether. And after a week, I stopped altogether and settled in a clearing in the middle of the forest. Using waterbending, it was quite easy to make myself a good shelter, almost a full-fledged house.

"Yes, they found it, but you were long gone by then."

"Well, I couldn't live in the forests forever. I stopped there just to train and not be distracted by the road. And I trained. I made myself a big pool, filled it with water and ice. There, I recovered after training and just relaxed. It was there that I tried mud baths once. It was alright, the sensations were quite unusual, but I just prefer hot water. And it's not difficult for me to make water hot. Finding food in the forest is not difficult; I found some animals, often large ones. Once, I remember, I stumbled upon a duck-billed bear. He saw me, ran, growled through his beak, and I waited. He opens it, and with a wave of my hand, I send him some water into his mouth, and then BANG! And his head explodes due to the rapid expansion of the steam that the water turned into. I then got his heart, liver, a lot of meat, bones with bone marrow. There are many herbs in the forest, and our mother was just an herbalist, so she and my brother also taught me how to handle herbs. So with herbs and sliced meat, I cooked myself rich meat soups with the wonderful taste of the juices of various herbs. I never ate fried meat and never made a fire. Why would I, when I can use steam to warm myself? I ate meat soups, steamed meat... in short, I ate wonderfully, despite living in the forest! And it was so great to eat a stew made from sliced heart and liver, cooked in their own juices, with mushrooms, berries, and spices added... you can't even imagine how delicious it was!"

"Hey, cut it out, we already have an appetite, and your stories are making us drool!" Second exclaimed indignantly.

"Do you think I don't want to eat? Do I need to remind you that I haven't eaten anything for two weeks here and I'm only occasionally drinking? And as for drooling... remember how I chopped up the merchant and his child while they were still alive, and now imagine that the dish you crave is made from their flesh."

"Yuck, that's disgusting! What are you talking about! Now I won't be able to look at meat dishes at all!" Second spat out, disgusted, while the First just chuckled.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha!!! But it worked, didn't it? It usually instantly kills the appetite for unprepared or unaccustomed people. Overall, I lived quite well in the forest, ate abundantly and very tasty food, trained a lot, and then rested."

"But how did you then... " Second was about to ask, but I interrupted him.

"Don't rush. Where are you hurrying? I'm not in a hurry, I have nowhere to rush to. And we'll get there. There's just a little bit left. Actually, we can start now. It all started with a squirrel. Just an ordinary squirrel. It annoyed me with its noises, but it was hiding in the foliage, and I didn't know where it was to kill it. But I didn't want to chop down the whole tree—it was right next to my shelter. And one day, when I was particularly irritated, a thought flashed through my mind: it would be interesting to take that squirrel and make it kill itself... and then it suddenly struck me! Blood is also a liquid. Humans and most other living creatures are mostly made of water. So why not try? And I did. Failure. Tried again. Another failure. And so it went on and on. However, just under a month later, I unexpectedly succeeded. It was a full moon. I had long noticed that under the moon, my waterbending abilities became slightly stronger, as if someone was taking some of the work off my hands without asking for anything in return. This effect was most pronounced during a full moon. And it was during a full moon that I was able to feel and take control of the blood in a small rodent I found in a cave not far from the clearing. Controlling living creatures like this was extremely difficult; it drained me of my strength, but it was progress. I discovered a new aspect of waterbending. The next day after the full moon, I couldn't repeat it. It was too difficult or too draining. So I left. There was no point in staying there anymore; I had achieved what I came for, I found another path of development. I found where to take the next step. Now I just needed to prepare for that step. It was too difficult, and my skills were insufficient at the time. There was a time when even controlling five threads of water was barely manageable; now, I could barely manage one. But skills grow, mastery grows, and I grow too. I just need to grow. Get better. And it made no sense to do it there. In further paths, I logically continued to develop the idea of bloodbending and eventually came to the simple realization that plants and trees also contain water! Along the way, I began to attempt to control this water within them. I must say, it was much easier than controlling blood. And when I succeeded, extracting this water was not difficult at all. It was incredible to watch as the trees shrank and shriveled before my eyes, and the grass immediately dried up, completely devoid of moisture. Yes, the spectacle was simply mesmerizing... for the first couple of dozen times. I played with this new skill for a long time, and then I went further and began to try to control plants through the water inside them, just as I controlled the rodent through its blood. My successes were talked about for a long time!"

"Yes. And sometimes they still talk about it to this day. It's not easy to forget something like that, especially if you've witnessed it personally." First said grimly.

"Yes, exactly. It was just recently."

"Two months ago, to be precise. But you were finally caught!" First exclaimed with satisfaction.

"Oh yes, you did a great job! Managed to catch me, a sixteen-year-old self-taught bender, ha-ha! You know, despite how they call me—a master of bloodbending(!), I'm actually not very good at it. Yes, I can take control of three or four people, but that's not what made the other soldiers fear this bending. No, you, people of fire, fear this bending because it makes its wielder extremely difficult to kill! Maybe I'm weak in bloodbending externally, but internally... you know, being here, I hardly lose weight at all, and I get rid of body heat, which accumulates on its own, with my bending, returning all the moisture back. This allows me to manage quite well even with the little water you give me to drink. Not perfect, but I control many processes happening inside me. But with all this, you were horrified by how during the attack on me, I drained the bodies of your soldiers dry and sometimes even benders! How I used their blood... I wonder if those who survived will dream about it for a long time? You captured me, congratulations, but I wouldn't say I lost. Remind me, please, how many soldiers and benders died in the process?"

No one answered me.

"Hey, isn't it difficult for you?" I asked my overseers.

"Two hundred thirty-four people. Out of two hundred fifty."

"Oh wow! I almost managed to kill them all; I would have made a huge tower of human flesh there. But someone managed to sneak up on me, alas! I'm too used to using waterbending with all limbs, so it was very unusual when my right hand was unexpectedly chopped off. And I'm right-handed, just so you know. How am I supposed to live without a girlfriend now!? Then, from the shock that hit me after losing a limb, I didn't notice one of the soldiers behind me. And after a blow to the back of my head... I found myself here."