Washed Up and Spirit Attack

Xiao woke up with a gasp, coughing and sputtering as water flooded it's way out of his lungs, coming from his mouth and nose as he threw up later after liter of water.

After a while, he started to circulate his energy as he realized he was in fact freezing, also stripping his now wet clothes and set them on the ground, as they would just make him colder.

Xiao squeezed as much water as he could from the thick fur clothing, taking the time to look around.

He seemed to be on an island of ice. Nothing surrounded him except other islands, varying in size and spanning for miles.

Xiao eventually channeled energy through the fur, removing the last of the moisture and warming them some wheat, before putting them back on and basking in the sweet, sweet warmth.

The theory that Fire blenders needed heat to bend was a lie, as they technically could just use their energy as a substitute. It just took a lot of effort to do so.

Xiao, deciding that the best course of action was to keep moving, started hopping from ice chunk to ice chunk, heading north.

Sometimes he had to use his fire bending to make a few of the larger jumps, but other than that he conserved as much energy as possible.

It was morning when he woke, and by the time he finally saw a large wall of ice, on top of which was a large icy plateau, it was midday.

Using the last drops of his energy reserves, Xiao boosted himself onto the ice and collapsed. He felt as he slowly got colder. He had no more energy to circulate through himself so he was left defenseless against the cold.

After about ten hours of just laying there, Xiao got up and circulated energy through himself again, focusing on place like his fingers and toes which had started developing frostbite.

The boy stretched and looked around. Sighing, he started heading in a random direction. 'I'll keep walking until I find a wandering tribe or something' he thought to himself.

'I don't know the stars around this area, so this is the best course of action.' He added.

Xiao kept walking for a while, passing otter penguins and polar bear dogs on the way.

The animals generally ignored him, and the few that didn't were scared off quickly enough.

As the sky started to turn dark, Xiao found a lone dead tree in the middle of the icy tundra, interrupting the constant white that was the north with a bit of brown.

Xiao walked to it, and as he got closer Xiao started to realize that the tree was quite large, standing a good two hundred feet tall, with a trunk thicker than his whole body, even if he spread his arms he wouldn't be able to span it.

Looking up, Xiao saw a hole in the trunk. "That'll be a good place to sleep…" he muttered to himself, before starting to climb.

He condensed some violet flames around his fingers. The acted like claws as he climbed his way up the tree, leaving snoozing holes in the aged wood.

Finally, he entered the tree to find a large space. He smiled to himself and sat down underneath the hole leading to the outside. This would shield him from the icy winds, keeping him slightly warmer. As he was in a tree, Xiao decided against starting a fire, not wanting to burn his own shelter.

As the sun finally dipped below the horizon, an odd wind started blowing across the tundra, sweeping the powdery snow up off of the ground, slowly becoming a large white wave of snow and ice.

Glowing eyes, similar to those of the wave sunk the merchant's ship, appeared in the center of the blizzard as it rapidly approached the trunk.

Meanwhile, Xiao was sleeping.

Xiao woke up once again in the warm fields of the Spirit World. "Oh! Xiao's back!" Shouted Floof as the bunny appeared out of nowhere. Xiao smiled and hugged the spirit. "Hey Floof! How are you?" He asked with a smile.

"I'm well." Floof replied, struggling from the teenager's arms as the other spirits should up. Fu Tang ran up to Xiao and tackled him to the ground, licking him in the face and smearing his drool all over him.

"Ew! Fu Tang! Stop it!" Xiao yelled, laughing. Tom appeared and chuckled as he saw Xiao playing around with the spirits.

Suddenly, Tom's face grew serious. "XIAO!" He screamed as Xiao looked over. Noticing the apirit's distress, he got up and asked seriously, "what's going on?" He asked.

"You need to run. Right now." Tom said gravely, snapping his fingers and forcing Xiao out of the spirit world.

Xiao woke up with a start, sitting up and looking around frantically.

Tom popped out of the air beside him. "You can do that?" Xiao asked curiously.

"Only powerful spirits can, and even then we are stuck in an illusionary form. I cannot interact physically with anything in this plain." Tom replied, before looking out of the trunk.

"Has anything happened recently? Anything strange?" Tom asked as he stared out of the tree.

"Well there was a large storm…" Xiao said, trailing off as he too looked out of the trunk.

He saw a large blizzard heading towards the tree, and in the center were two glowing eyes.

"What did you do? Did you offend any spirits? Destroy any shrines? Burn down any forests?" Tom asked seriously. Xiao shook his head.

"Well this is a powerful spirit. I don't know which one, but it rules this whole tundra. You need to run. It seems angry." Tom said seriously. Xiao nodded and jumped from the tree, running in the opposite direction of the spirit blizzard.

It was gaining on him though. Tom followed him, floating in the air beside him. "Can't you go any faster?!" Tom exclaimed.

"Yes, but I'm low on energy so I can't keep it up for long." Xiao replied.

"Let me in for a few seconds." Tom said as he flew towards Xiao. "What do you me-" Xiao was cut off aa Tom entered his body. Immediately Xiao felt energy like never before flow through him.

After a few seconds, Tom popped out of him. "I lent you some energy. It will have some side effects later, but it shouldn't kill you. Use it to escape. By the way that tree felt, that should be the center of the spirit's territory, so keep on running until you see some sort of marker. That will be where the territory ends, and the spirit will be unable to follow you from there." Tom said as he faded away.

'Shouldn't kill me? What if it does!' Xiao thought internally, ripping off all his footwear and rolling up his pants.

The blizzard was almost upon him. At the last second, Violet flames shot from Xiao's feet and he blurted, going ten times as fast as before as he practically flew across the icy plain.

The blizzard quickly receded behind him. Xiao kept going for another hour, passing an iced-over stone wall halfway through, which was probably the end of the spirit's territory.

Despite that, he kept going just in case it wasn't. Finally, the borrowed energy ran out and Xiao fell into the snow once more and slid on his shoes and pants.

He kept just enough energy to keep himself warm, but the rest was used.

"What now?" He wondered aloud as he looked around, the moonlight reflecting off the snow's surface and causing it to sparkle.

{A/N}

What do you think?

Next chapter will be the start of the Water Tribe section. After that, cannon will start.

GET READY TO RUMBLE!

Bye bye.