12.Portal
It happened about half a month after I turned fourteen. The physical characteristics of the body at that time had already reached the peak level for my body, and now I can safely fight in hand-to-hand combat against the hardened hunters of our tribe, who extract meat from the tundra throughout the city. I'm afraid to imagine what will happen when I'm in my late twenties...
The sources that had previously been more ephemeral in appearance, as if they began to solidify, and the energy that flowed throughout my body moved to a qualitatively new level. My water sensitivity range has increased from ten meters to as much as fifty. I even started 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 on a completely different level, a higher level. At some distance, I felt the blood that flows in the veins of living people... Their heartbeats… As corny as it may sound, I felt my omnipotence.
There were water particles in the air that seemed to be just about to form into clouds. It is very similar to the notorious enlightenment, as if the element itself has shared some of its secrets. After that, I spent half an hour trying to re-enter this enlightening state, but everything was unsuccessful. It felt like they were playing with me, showed me some kind of thing that you really need and said, well, try even harder, maybe someday you will come to this...
- Super, - I blurted out by myself, while I was playing with a whole cubic meter of water, which assumed any aggregate state at my slightest desire. I would even call it that, the water has become a part of me.
It seems that Wang Shi Tong was right with his hypothesis, which says that 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 me for almost my entire adult life disappeared somewhere. Instead, a new feeling came, which carried some emptiness that I wanted to fill as soon as possible.
I need to find a way to the Spirit Realm as soon as possible in order to find out exactly what other advantages I got from moving to a new level.
Already in the following battles with the water masters, my score did not drop even once, even against the monster grandfathers I managed to fight in a draw. Here it is worth taking into account the increased sensorics of water, which allows me, already at the stage of formation of any reception, to determine its component, as if the water itself within a certain range "whispers" to me what will be applied.
Another thing I've found while practicing is the ability to control the smallest streams of water. Yes, it could have been done before, but not on the scale that I can now. Several hundred small streams of water, which are my limit at the moment. Already, I managed to form a sphere from them, inside which they moved under great pressure. It was very difficult to keep them in this form. For the first time, having lost control over it, he launched it high into the air, two seconds later a monstrous explosion occurred in the sky, the shock wave of which even "shook" the city a little.
As I understood it, the sphere that rose into the air, no longer under my control, exploded, spewing out cutting water lines. I raised a great panic then, I had to confess to what I had done, otherwise they were already thinking about an attack and wanted to mobilize all the magicians and warriors.
Of course, I was reprimanded, and now I am allowed to practice magic only at a respectful distance from the city.
I improved this ability only towards the end of the second week. It turned out to be a trick that will give modern bombs a light in the twenty-first century. Depending on the number of water flows, the "bomb" turned out to be of different power. For simplicity of their designation, I named them: bomb one, bomb two, and bomb three. If the bomb of the first level has a radius of destruction of about one hundred meters, then the bomb of the third is almost a whole half kilometer.
Another defensive technique appeared in my arsenal, which arose after the creation of those bombs. Taking some water and putting it under great pressure, I cover my entire body with a thin and transparent film. You could say I'm putting on a second skin, but it would be more correct to 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 drained my reserve, but I didn't get any damage. Now I'm learning to keep a minimum of film on myself all the time. I think, 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, while 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 started to forget that the force decides a lot here.
Kyoshi Island, which does not have a large army and resources, is independent only because of the strongest magician at that time – the Avatar of Kyoshi. Bumi, who, in fact, can do whatever he wants in his city and no Dai Li will even get to him, because he is one of the strongest, if not the most powerful magician 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 some echoes of the Spirit Realm.
I'm going to the Oasis not only to chat with a couple of ancient spirits, but also to try to get on their plane. Yes, the portals are closed, but it's worth a try.
After walking along the path, I came to the oasis itself, in which white and black koi carp swam. As I got closer and continued to watch them swim, I didn't even notice... how he fell into a kind of trance. In which the movements of the spirits acquired a mysterious harmony.
Having fallen out of this state, I immediately sat down on the grass and began to analyze all the information that the spirits had given 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 in this way. No, not like that, they communicate on 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, because in the human world the Moon and the Oceans are even closer to them than in the Spirit world.
They asked me for a few favors–to bother them less, and to keep these incarnations alive as much as possible. In the world of people, they are completely defenseless, as it turned out, if they are here with all their strength, then there will be natural disasters like floods and in general everything bad that can be associated with the ocean. Yes, even the waters would be so choppy that there would be no way to swim on them. Of course, this will not happen immediately, but the longer they stay here, the more they will "distort" the human world.
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 it was just the same difficult not with the transmitted information, but with their memories of how they feel the water. Attached here is the fact that their minds are far from human, and ... it was unclear everything, but somehow I was able to understand - decipher some part.
Having put my mind in order, I was about to try to get into the spirit world from here, when I almost made a terrible mistake.
If I disappear for a long time in the Spirit Realm or even get stuck there, then the family will not find a place for itself. Especially little Yui, they might even consider that I am dead. It's worth remembering that I'm no longer a lonely spirit – I have close people who genuinely care about me. But they definitely won't want to let me go anywhere. After struggling with conscience, Idecided to leave a note in a prominent place in his room. In it, I pushed everything onto the good spirits who were going to teach me how to conquer the water even better.
Yes, it was such an excuse, but nothing came to mind at all. In the end, I decided to add that they are good friends of Tui and La, so there is no need to worry. Excuse me, the spirits of the Moon and Ocean, 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 too many fish, otherwise, on the contrary, they promised to bother less...
"Okay, this is for our common safe future, the stronger I am, the better for all of us" - at least, that's how I tried to reassure myself.
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 everything would work out right from the first time.
As I expected, I found myself between worlds being completely in my body, which means that my abilities are all with me... And that's good, no, even great!
I found myself at a strange pillar of light that separates the world of spirits and people. So, it's worth starting to strengthen your body with neutral energy – still, it won't be easy to break into a closed portal, if at all possible.
As I got 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. There was no choice left...
Taking a deep breath, I ran away and jumped into a pillar of light.
As soon as my body came into contact with a certain boundary, I felt deja vu. How long has it been since my body lost consciousness from pain? It seems like the last time this happened was when I was still a spirit.
The last thing I felt was the encounter of my carcass with a snowdrift.
***
90 years after the genocide of the air nomads.
The Southern Tribe of Water.
A brother and sister were playing near a small and dilapidated village that stood alone among the endless white fields. Looking at their faces, one could see that despite the hardships that befell their tribe, they had not lost their positive attitude.
- Katara is so unfair! Your snowballs should not change direction in flight! – six–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 just happens that way! – little Katara replied with no less indignation that she herself did not understand why her snowballs were living their own lives.
At that moment, an incomprehensible flash of light occurred near them, which briefly blinded their eyes.
- Sokka, did you see this too? – rubbing her eyes, the girl asked her brother. - Let's go take a look! It was not far away, it seems, over that hill. Come on, let's go check it out! - already walking in that direction, she hurried Sokka.
- Katara, wait, what if these are people of fire?! First you need to call our mother! – seeing that his attempts had no effect, he also followed her – after all, childish curiosity is inherent 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 a bit of 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. After looking at each other, each of them took hold of a leg in order to pull out the body.
As soon as the whole body was pulled out of the snowdrift, a teenager appeared to them, who had long white hair and wore traditional blue-hued water tribes clothes.
- See, he's from the tribe too! – Katara said excitedly.
- Argh, you've never even seen him in our tribe! Maybe it's a spy who disguised himself specifically to infiltrate us... – Sokka muttered with a thoughtful look. - But why send such a distinguished spy? Hmm, have you ever seen white hair, and is it definitely a boy?
While Sokka was playing detective, Katara checked his breathing, yet in some things, she was more attentive than the older Sokka. Seeing no visible injuries, she turned her attention to his face. A blush touched her swarthy cheeks, it was the first time she had seen such a handsome boy. Running her hand through his hair, she was amazed at its softness. Abruptly withdrawing 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 decided, haven't you? – Sokka said resignedly, already grabbing the legs of the white–haired boy.
– Don't be so brutal, he might catch a cold, – said a breathless girl who took it upon herself to help her brother drag a stranger to her tribe.