Chapter 22

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After leaving the Northern water on a trading boat, I became aware that I felt better the more I separated from the tribe, it was weird to be honest, my normally aggressive state of mind was gone, and I couldn't help but shook my head in amusement at myself.

But I couldn't hide the fact I felt better, enormously so, but why.... I suppose I will find that out later.

The ride in the boat was bumpy and the hay on my seat was itchy against my skin, but the night wind was pleasantly cool. The sea was calm and the sights of icebergs soothed my mind.

Since the sun had set, the sea was completely dark most of the time, with the reflection of the moon shining on the water like a mirror. It was relaxing.

Everynow and then, I would catch strange movements in the sea. Wild beast roaming wild in it. But nothing to worry about.

Trader Hirsch was talking about the earth kingdom capital, Ba Sing Se, with a sense of pride, boasting about his prosperous cabbage market and stalls. "It's a dangerous world out there, I just hope to go back home already," said Hirsch, after having finished telling me about his cabbage business. "Why are you coming to Ba Sing Se?"

"I want to see the world," I answered with a smile.

"Well, you choose correctly!" Hirsch said with a wide smile.

"What do you think, I should do first?" I asked.

"Well, first you need to exchange the money you have to local currency, and then… well, I would recommend the springs of Ba Sing Se," Hirsch answered.

"Thanks," I smiled, as I decided to take a walk around the cargo ship.

"Always happy to help!" Hirsch smield, waving me goodbye, what a great man.

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After walking for a while in the ship, I found a perfect place to meditate, that was the only way to enter the spirit realm. And that wasn't a guarantee. Aang was the only one with a free ticket to that place. For me it was more a matter of it I was in tune just enough to pass.

Closing my eyes, I let my breathing dictate my speed, and little by little I felt something pulling me. In reaction to that I opened my eyes.

And well, I was no longer on the ship…. I was in a green plain, with a bunch of colored bunnies jumping around me.

"This wasn't supposed to be this easy… I tried for years to come… I meditated with the spirits of the moon… why now?" I asked myself, trying to understand what was happening.

"Is the why or the how really important?" A Cheshire Cat, said appearing in front of me.

"That's it… I went mad, maybe it was all the killings," I muttered.

"We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad," The unknown spirit smiled, and boy did it look weird seeing his smile almost make a full circle.

"Do you know why am I here? I mean why now?" I asked the spirit.

"Hmm, well… does it really matter," The cat said in a low voice, "You are here, because you wanted to be here, or did you not want to come?"

"I did," I nodded.

"Then why ask questions?" The cat purred his laugh with amusement, teleporting behind me, "Life doesn't always have the answer, sometimes… you just have to go with the flow,"

Great, the cat was a hippy, "I suppose,"

"Want a tour?" The cat inquired, as he stretched, against a tree.

"Yes," I nodded.

"Purrfect," He purred, cutting his own head off with a swift motion, and throwing it at me like a basketball, as his decapitated body kept on walking like nothing, his head spoke, "Follow my body,"

"Jesus fuck, you're crazy," I didn't know if I wanted to laugh or run… maybe both, for now... let's see how things go.

The cat's head hummed before saying anything, "I am not crazy; my reality is just different from yours,"

A very… very, good point, "You are absolutely right,"

"I tend to be… until I'm not," The cat's head purred in answer, before it teleported to my shoulder, floating slightly above it, while he looked at me, with a long scrutinizing look. "No wonder you are so in tune with the spirits… why didn't you say so before,"

"Say what?" I inquired, having absolutely no idea what the cat was on about.

"That you're an empath," I'm a what now?

"I'll be honest with you… I have no idea what you're talking about," I knew I wasn't an empath, I was very bad at reading people… at least in the emotion department.

"Not many do…" The cat smiled, reattaching his head, "You are very similar to us spirits…. negative emotions will scar you deeper than you think… you will change around people that hate you… until you learn how to control this… unlikely gift,"

"Again… I don't feel or haven't feel anything," I shook my head, "Not like that,"

"Oh really?" The cat's smile disappeared, as his body grew in size emanating a dark mist around him. Anger, hate… agony.

I instinctively jumped backwards… I was an easy prey here, I had no bending abilities in this realm. But if that fucker thought I would go down easy he would find that he was wrong.

"See?" The cat smiled, immediately returning to his original creepy but small state, "You felt it didn't you? The anger… the hate, the agony, all singing in your mind…" he then popped behind me, "And now… what do you feel?"

I blinked… he was right… I had been ready to kill him, or die trying a few seconds later, but now…. all of that was gone, though I was still ready to at least defend myself, "I mean isn't that a normal human reaction," I mean… he did try to kill me.

The cat purred in laughter, turning into smoke, as he appeared on a nearby tree, "To some extent yes… but you react to any emotion strongly… if you have many people around you that hate you… you will get more aggressive than usual," he paused to lick his hind leg clean, "Though for you to replicate the same result we just saw… you would need a lot of people close to you hating you… or fearing you, don't take the spirit world as an example… all feelings are massively boosted here, it's an awful place to have a breakup I tell you,"

"Any way to stop it?" I asked.

"W-well," As he was about to answer… I felt a pull, "It seems you are waking up, until next time… this has been very entertaining," he purred as the darkness started to embrace me.

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"Sir—- are you okay?! sir!"

"I'm up!" I blinked in shock.

"Finally… you were meditating for two weeks," Hirsch sighed, "I thought you were dead... and no matter how many cabbages I threw at you... you still didn't flinch... and that usually works... mother used to do it with me all the time,"

Two weeks?! How is that shit even possible, I was there for like ten minutes…

"Thanks…" No wonder I'm starving… though not as much as I expected for two weeks.