Chapter 27: Cultures - 97 AG

As the afternoon unfolded along the beach near the abbey, Sozim found himself encircled by members of the water tribe, their leader Hakoda positioned squarely in front of him. The crowd exuberantly cheered, their shouts and screams directed at the two combatants poised in the center of the gathering. Both combatants assumed stances, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice.

Their smirks mirrored one another, each sizing up the other for weaknesses in their forms. Hakoda, evidently the older of the pair, resembled a wolf stalking its prey, while Sozim stood like a snapping turtle, vigilant for the opportune moment.

Without question, Hakoda made the first move, his fist rising to Sozim's eye level as he aimed a strike at the boy's face. However, Sozim adeptly stepped backward, redirecting the blow with ease.

Without giving Hakoda a chance to recover, Sozim unleashed a flurry of punches towards the man's arm, effectively disabling it by targeting the pressure points. Hakoda's left arm went limp, much to his chagrin.

"You've acquired quite an unusual skill," Hakoda chuckled, attempting to conceal his embarrassment amid the laughter of his comrades. "I've seen you use it against my men about ten times now, but still..."

"It's a stroke of luck, I suppose," Sozim smirked. "Do you want to continue?"

"You're stating the obvious, young man," Hakoda laughed. "As the leader of this fleet, I can't back down now!"

With his only functional arm, Hakoda threw a telegraphed jab at Sozim, which the boy easily evaded by ducking and sidestepping to strike Hakoda's remaining arm. However, Hakoda pivoted, extending his leg toward Sozim's legs.

Sozim was knocked to the ground by the sweep, watching as Hakoda poised for a finishing blow, a grin on his face. In a graceful slide, Sozim evaded the punch, causing Hakoda to strike the ground and hurt his own fist. Hakoda groaned, and seizing the opportunity, Sozim sprang back up with a fluid jump, delivering an uppercut to Hakoda's face that sent him tumbling.

Hakoda collapsed to the ground, clutching his chin, and chuckled at his own expense as the jubilant crowd roared around them. In the crowd's corner, Sozim spotted Bato sitting, amused. In response, Sozim merely shrugged before extending his hand to help Hakoda up.

"That makes it ten of my men and me," Hakoda sighed, still massaging his chin. "I don't know if we're out of shape or if you're just a prodigy."

"You were fighting a kid; there might have been some bias there," Sozim remarked nonchalantly, as Hakoda took his hand and rose to his feet.

"Don't sell yourself short, Sozim," Hakoda said, patting Sozim's back. "You're a skilled fighter. It must have been tough years for you to learn all that."

"Well... you could say that," Sozim murmured.

Hakoda hummed. "But still... no waterbending, huh..."

"At best, it's a spiritual block," Sozim nodded. "At worst, it's gone forever."

"Most of us aren't waterbenders anyway, just my..." Hakoda stopped himself from saying more, then raised Sozim's hand, eliciting another cheer from the crowd. "Anyway... Today, we welcome a new young warrior into our tribe! Today, we welcome Sozim into our family!"

"A water tribe member?" Sozim questioned, almost drowned out by the cheers. "I don't—"

"Like it or not, kid, you're one of us," Hakoda whispered to Sozim with a smile. "We're already a small group, and even if you don't have Kavir's memories, your blood binds you to us."

Sozim sighed. "Alright."

The man chuckled with satisfaction as he patted Sozim's back, then made his way through the crowd to reach Bato. As both men stood in front of him, Bato nodded at Sozim. "Today is a good day to welcome a new member. We've already lost a lot in this war." He smiled. "If I recall correctly, you're thirteen this year, right?"

"I think so. I don't really remember my age," Sozim mused.

Bato closed his eyes. "Of course. Your birthday is in the first month of the year. In a couple of days, when this year ends, you'll turn fourteen and undergo your rite of passage."

Sozim raised an eyebrow. "Rite of passage?"

"Ice dodging," Hakoda smirked. "How about it, Bato? Will it be you, or me?"

"I can barely walk, let alone sail a boat," Bato scoffed. "You're just rubbing it in."

Hakoda laughed. "Don't worry. I'll let you guide Sokka and Katara when we're back."

Bato sighed. "Alright..."

---

Under the cover of night, a somber-looking girl sat on her opulent bed. In her hands were knives, pilfered from the kitchen and the market, serving as her chosen pastime. She repeatedly hurled the knives at a target she'd set up across the room, her accuracy unwavering.

Despite the late hour, sleep eluded her, and boredom gnawed at her. She had been an only child since birth, and her parents had always insisted on proper behavior, a price she paid with her "fun" and freedom. It was this constant restriction that had led her to develop her unique hobby – knife throwing – a way to stave off the tedium that came with spending most of her time indoors.

Yet even this pastime had grown stale, as she found herself repeatedly aiming at a stationary target.

With a sigh, the girl leaned back, her head against the wall, and gazed at the ceiling. Suddenly, a noise from her window caught her attention, prompting her to instinctively launch a knife in that direction.

Turning her attention to her target, she was startled by what she saw. A girl perched on her window, a childhood friend she hadn't seen in years. The girl narrowly dodged the knife but remained composed, even wearing a faint smirk.

"Azula?" the girl on the bed exclaimed, mildly surprised.

"Hello, Mai," Azula grinned. "Long time no see."

Both girls rose from their positions and embraced. Inquisitively, Mai studied Azula from head to toe. "I haven't seen you since your vacation to Ember Island. After that, I heard you were exiled. Then you came back, and a few months ago, you disappeared. What's been happening in your life?"

"It's a long story. Technically, I'm still in exile," Azula muttered, her fist clenching. "And I need your help to change that."

"What?" Mai raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"My former mentors told me to seek allies to defeat my enemy, one I haven't vanquished yet," she said bitterly. "Now, I'm here. So, are

  you in? You'll be declared missing if you follow me, and trust me, boredom will be the least of your worries."

At this, Mai wore a rare smirk. "Why not? I was bored here anyway."

---

Author's note:

Alright, I just want to know your guys' thoughts about this. If there's no more plot that I want to add, the MAIN story will finish in chapter 80 - 90, and maybe I'll add short arcs in Korra's time focusing on Sozim's family(grandson), that'll add 10-30 chapters, but that's about it. and after that, I have some ideas about new fanfics, don't worry, I won't write anything else until I finish this thing, I already semi-abandon my two other fanfics and doesn't want to do it again, I just want to know your opinion about the next theme of my fanfic. I have some ideas:

- Marvel: A Vampire's journey

It's a story about MC being either the first vampire or the second generation vampire, where the rules of the vampires are like the Vampire: the Masquerade franchise. he'll travel through human history much like the Eternals did, and it'll be a focused story and we could explore how he would take care of his childe(or abandon them). if you want a similar read, try "Marvel: Breezing Through History as an Eternal". tbh it's too ambitious, it's hard to finish a long story like this one, even the author of that eternal fanfic reached two hundred fifty-ish chapters and still didn't finish it.

- MCU: Eternal Hunter

MC will reincarnate after Thanos's snap and his mission is to hunt the eternals and deal with the concequences after that. it'll explore the world the time after the snap and before End Game, and tackles some ideas about whether or not the Eternals did the right thing or not.

- HP: The Story of An Auror

Basically, MC is an Auror, same graduating class as Bill Weasley. haven't thought much more about it.

- A Stranger Things fanfic

I don't know the story will be yet, I just like the idea of writing it. from what I see though, writing a ST fanfic is really hard, as the lore and original story is not that flexible.

- This Book's sequel

The short arcs that I talked about on this story will just be turned to a sequel. where the focus isn't Sozim anymore(he's old at that time), and instead, his grandson will take the lead, either a non-bender, airbender, a water bender, or a firebender depending on who Sozim's partner is (I still don't know yet, though the choice is obvious due to the prophecy).

alright, let me know what you like. again, it'll be a long time before this actually realizes to a proper story, as I still need to finish this one. but... if one of you who's reading this is a writer yourself, you're welcome if you want to take it and try to write one by yourself.