Chapter 3

Author note: Chaps 5-10 coming up today for patreon, so if you want to read ahead go to

https://www.patreón.com/cornbringer

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After a week of recovering, that included a lot of rest and water healing, the day of my training to learn how to use the only tool that would help me survive on this world finally came, Makoto himself had offered to teach me.

I walked up to Makoto w, the old smiled as he stood up. "Follow me outside."

I did as I was told, walking close behind the old man to outside his house, besides snow and some tents, there wasn't much to see.

The old couple's tent/house was in the middle of the modest village, I was currently stuck in.

As I walked behind him, I decided to take a quick glimpse around the village, trying to get a feeling of what my new world was, and it was both beautiful and terrifying.

"This is Hopo Village, we are mostly hunters," said Makoto with a smile, before guiding me to what he called the training ground of the house, which was only a very patch of open land.

"Is beautiful," I didn't lie, this place was beautiful; I always loved rural areas, they had a charm cities would never have.

"It is. Unfortunately we are in times of war and to survive such dangerous times like this, you need to learn how to control the gift that has been given to you," said Makoto with a sorrowful expression.

The old man placed one foot forward, bending his knees, holding his left hand out in front of him, palm forward, while his right stood behind his back loose but ready to move, his stance remarkably similar to many tai-chi stances I had seen before, "Take my stance."

Drawing from the little experience I had with Tai-chi, I copied the old man the best I could.

"Now focus your energy and thoughts into the tides, feel the water carrying you, feel the water guiding you, and once you feel that… redirect that feeling into yourself and push it forward. Like this," said Makoto, doing a swift motion where his left hand shot forward, and the water on the pond front of him seemed to react to his action creating a tide, "Now it's your turn, don't feel sad if you can't draw it, right now your bending is tied to your emotions, so without a trigger you might find yourself in troubles,"

He was right, both times I felt said connection I had been on a fight or flight situation, and even now I was a bit skeptical of all of this, a part of me wanted to believe this was a dream, as there was no way such a thing could happen in the real world, getting transported into another world was ludicrous. But another part of me knew… this was too real to be fake, to be a simple fantasy.

"Alright," I nodded, concentrating on repeating the motions Makoto had shown me, taking a deep breath, I repeated every motion I had seen, and for a brief moment I felt the energy, my connection with the water as Makoto had said, I could feel as the energy, the water itself flowing through me, from deep within my stomach. It traveled up and down every part of my body, it was intoxicating.

At the same time, during the last motion I felt a large portion of this intoxicating connection draining from my body into the water, creating a big tide on the pond that scared the crap out of some kids close to the pond.

"Impressive… " Makoto muttered, "To think you would do it at you first try,"

"I had a good teacher," I was, beyond happy, I can probably speak for any man in the world when I said we all wanted a super power at some point, and now I had it! I was like an idiot looking at my hands in disbelief, did I really do that?! Of course I did, and I couldn't help but feel a sense of giddy delight building up inside of me, fuck anyone who blames me.

Makoto patiently waited, with a smile quietly for me to collect my dignity, I was after all having a fanboy moment.

When I finally turned to look at him, the old man smiled at my enthusiasm. "This is nothing but the basics, we don't really have any masters here, for you to get a real master you would need to go to the northern water tribe, but I suppose I could teach you all I know so you can the very least know the basics."

"What about Yuu?" I inquired, he seemed like a competent water bender.

"My son is no master, all he knows only works with beasts, all the skills he exhibits are for hunting," Makoto explained.

"I see," I nodded in acknowledgment.

"Now, practice that motion until lunch is ready," Makoto chuckled, going back to his humble home, and being honest I didn't need to be told twice, I wanted to practice this.

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I practiced for hours on the same movement, noticing that nothing came absolutely free, I didn't control water just because, no. I had to give something in return, energy. It took a few hours to tire the heck out of me, and I knew tai-chi motions would not tire me, it was the bending part that added that problem to the equation.

"I have never been so tired in my life," I panted, maybe it was also the fact that I was probably a preteen or teen right now, my body was bound to be weaker to some extent.

"Lunch is ready," Maru called out, and it was music to my ears, I was starving.

"Coming!" I answered her with a starving smile, as I trotted to the kitchen, things weren't so bad for me, I had food and shelter, at least for now.

"We made some polar dog bear soup," Maru announced.

Not exactly what I would eat, but… like my father used to say, if you don't have options you take what is given to you. Survival above anything else.

"How was the training?" Makoto inquired, already sitting on the table.

"Exhausting," I replied with a smile.