42.Fortune

A month later, I set off again to conquer the vast expanses of the Kingdom of Earth. This time the purpose of my trip is a Foggy Swamp. It was time to visit the fraternal tribe living there.

What do I already know about them? Just what we were shown in the animated series itself. The swamp, in fact, is one giant Banyan tree, the roots of which grow throughout the territories of the swamp, going even further. The place is unusual, to put it mildly, the visions sent to the Avatar team are worth something.

Some of the benders living there are able to control the water in plants, as their main spiritual leader is Huu. The comics I read made it clear that not only "boggies" can learn this. This is what Katara demonstrated to us in a more expanded version.

 – One less mystery, – I said, feeling a strong higher spirit with my senses, and the closer I flew to the swamp, the more confident I was that this spirit was the tree itself. But why did a certain duality appear? Maybe there are two spirits there?

Okay, I'll find out soon enough. It's time to go down. Soon, it was possible to sense two signatures of the average strength of the water magicians.

- Look at that one, there's a man flying, - no matter how strange it was, but this voice sounded with an extremely stupid intonation. – It seems to be flying here, what are we going to do?

- He hasn't been swaddled by vines yet, so there are no evil intentions, let's see what he tell us - and this man is probably Tho.

Using the "eagle vision" of the archers Yuyan, I was able to recognize in the people I saw, the famous pair of swamp benders - Tho and Due. It seems that Due is tall and thin, and Tho is plump and has stubble. Flying closer, I stopped manipulating the water, giving it the opportunity to merge with the swamp. It's great not to carry water supplies on me, now I can take it out of the air at any time.

- I think it was water, - Due scratched his head. - Are we related? He looks pretty on his face, why was he hiding in the tribe? I've never seen you, - oh, I already feel sorry for you in advance…

- I'm Tho, this is Due, and who you are? – Tho asked calmly, not even paying attention to Due's words, that's what he's used to.

- Yuki. From the Northern Water Tribe. I found out that there is another Water Tribe in the Kingdom of the Earth, I decided to check and chat, - yes, it's better to visit here under my real name, I will get more trust points.

- Even in the north there are water magicians? - drew out Due, - Huu only talked about the south. It turns out that we have so many relatives, it's worth visiting them, – he decided for himself.

 – It looks like we won't hunt today, – Tho muttered. – Jump into the boat, we'll take you to the tribe, – Tho called me over. – Are there many of us water benders in the outside world? – he asked curiously.

- There used to be more, the Hundred Years' War took away most of the people of the Southern Water Tribe. Now its remaining members live with us, in the north, – I told him the well-known facts.

- Uh? Was there a war? – Due asked already, even reducing the speed of the boat for this.

- Do you not get out of the swamp at all? Did you notice any movement? – Wow, the Foggy Swamp has not really been touched yet.

- It was about ten years ago, the vines swaddled some guys in black and red armor... Sometimes the same ones came across from different sides of the swamp, but we are already used to it, – Tho shrugged. – Our Sacred Tree feels the hostile intentions of all living beings, therefore it does not allow such to pass, - it is hard to believe that everyone did not have the strength to resist the vines, it is not with the highest spirit to fight It is more like an instinctive reaction of the body, how to get rid of irritants. Moreover, outsiders see illusions here for a reason, but are they really just visions? Maybe these are the probabilities of the future…

- And I thought that it had become fashionable all over the world to dress in such armor, I even tried to wear them myself, but it's too hot in them, and they take a long time to take off, - Duecontinued. I just want to say Due – you are such a Due…

- There are so many new acquaintances, only a week ago a beautiful girl appeared here, such as I have never seen before. Oh, I'd like to see her again soon, - boy, you seem to have a crush on your ears. Then Due continued even more passionately. – She's not even spoiled by the greenish shade of her skin, but how well she manages plants, – intrigued! There was no such thing in the stories I know here.

- Better watch the road, - Tho had to intervene, redirecting the boat to the left side in order to avoid a collision with a thick root. – And she won't even look at you, – he shot a contemptuous glance at his colleague.

 – You're just jealous of my beauty, look at my muscles, – he pointed to his bony hands…

The rest of our journey, I followed more closely how Due manipulates water. In principle, I did not see anything new, only their style looks rougher, their movements are sharp and sweeping, although this is what contributes to a better conquest of the local water, after all, the swamp - the water here is more stagnant and "heavy" to manage.

As I approached the settlement, I began to feel two higher spirits more fully, and one of them seems very, very familiar to me…

- Yuki-i! – I didn't have time to notice how I found myself in the strong arms of a beautiful nymph. – I have become a higher spirit for a long time, and you have not been and have not been, where have you been? You didn't want to see me? – immediately began to chatter... Driya, who else could it be.

- M-f, f-f, - I tried to answer, but it was not so easy to do because of my face, drowning in her voluminous breasts. As you can see, I wasn't in too much of a hurry to get out. A kind of bra, consisting of a thin layer of soft leaves, allowed me to feel her excited papillae... are they alsoglad to see me?

- Ha... Ha... – as much as I would like to interrupt this sweet torture, but I have not yet learned to breathe through my pores. - And hello to you, Driya, - or I should call her Poison Ivy? One-on-one looks like the famous criminal of Gotham City. Taking a full-fledged top rank had a positive effect on her appearance. If before I had only seen a growing teenager, now a girl in the prime of her beauty stood in front of me. A waterfall of hair flowing like fire, surprisingly pleasant greenish skin, and like the cherry on the cake, all this complements the girl's candid outfit, which covers only the most intimate, but leaves people enough space for wild fantasies.

At that time, she also had a semblance of clothing, but as she admitted, it appeared on its own. At that time, it would not have occurred to her to cover herself with something - it was just that such a thing as shame for nakedness was something unknown to her. Come on, admit it, are there moral police in this world? Or did the Higher Powers who created this world prescribe different patterns of clothing in advance in the chain of evolution of spirits? Something brought me too way out of line. After all this is a world based on a cartoon - where can we go without illogicalities?

- You must understand how the Spirit Realm works. All these two years I've been trying to find you, and I've been to some places after you left.

 – Hm-m, – Dria frowned. I was already thinking about something bad, as she continued. – Okay, but now we'll be together, where you go, there I go, – positive immediately took out of her. – Let's go to the tree, along the way I'll tell you how I got here, - I'll recognize the old Driya, who loves just to chat.

Grabbing my arm, she led me higher. Has she always had such a floral scent? Inhaling her scent, I began to feel an increasing heat in my body, and this was not an omen of illness, but something more pleasant. A passive aphrodisiac? Or is it a deliberate attempt at seduction?

Other people don't look affected by this, they just devour the figure of the spirit with their eyes – a normal reaction to her gorgeous body.

 – She already had a boyfriend, and I was wondering why my charms didn't work on her. Now everything fell into place, - that is what I heard from Due…

Listening with half an ear to her chirping, I began to notice how she snuggled closer to me. Suddenly she began to speak more intimately, almost touching my ear with her tongue. I have never experienced such pressure before, in the case of Kaya and Shizuka, more initiative came from me. And most importantly, where did Driya get such a thing? Who should I thank?

How did it all start? Her unexpected inheritance made itself felt a week ago. Wandering through the spirit world, she felt a kind of kindred call that came from the roots of the tree, to be more specific, the tree itself was not visible, only the roots stuck out on the surface near the shore of an unknown sea. By touching them, she was able to tune in to a dialogue with the local tree spirit. The spirit, who left her legacy, is a "relative" of the local Banyan Tree. They had the same roots, you could say they grew up together. Only one of them remained on the spirit plane, while the other went to the human world, where he still lives.

After learning that his brother had decided to leave this world, he decided to take care of his successor. Creating a little gap in the barrier for the two higher spirits was not a difficult task, especially since the tree spirit maintained a constant small channel between the worlds. For his growth, he has too little energy from this world, he receives most of it from the spirit world, so the Foggy Swamp with the millennia passed has not dried up, and the tree itself is only getting taller and bigger.

Driya was glad of this opportunity herself. In the human world, she had a better chance of finding me. Now she is undergoing training, practicing all the techniques that the good spirit left her. After entering the higher spirits, she realized what a dangerous world she was living in, but the desire to explore the world did not go away. Only with great strength, she can safely travel to previously unknown lands, so the help of the local spirit was really most welcome.

 – Sometimes I wonder how I managed to survive, – she said with a laugh. I completely agree, luck has obviously kissed you passionately. – Come on, I'll introduce you to Uncle Bunyan.

Touching the trunk of a tree, I received the reciprocal touch of someone else's structured mind. I hate it when spirits communicate with images, but I have to endure it. After a few minutes of headaches, I began to understand the local spirit much better, whose name was really just Banyan…

As it turned out, this place had its own flavor even before his arrival. The streams of time here have already been "twisted", that is why sometimes people can see: something from the past, once deceased loved ones, future events. That's what he likes here, having managed to tune into these very "streams", he has the opportunity to view various events and forks of the future on a daily basis. For a long–lived spirit, there is nothing worse than boredom - this swamp has been keeping him active for centuries.

The swamp tribe of people are like his own children to him, it was him who taught them to conquer the water in plants. As he admitted, it was his attempt to instill in them full–fledged plant magic, and of course, it did not work out immediately, but they are making noticeable progress - the energy of local benders no longer gives off pure water magic, there are small impurities of the energies of wood and earth. Maybe after a couple of millennia, the first benders of plants, trees, or nature in general will appear here.

- Isn't he funny talking? All the time, some pictures flash through my head, – maybe when I get used to it, it will become "funnier". – Oh no, Huu is coming, save me, otherwise he will be boring again: "we are all branches of the same tree, and death and time are just an illusion", –probably she parodied Huu's voice.

- Hello to my brother from the northern tribe, - Huu came up to us. He looked like a simple-minded man, but there is only underpants on his naked body…