2 - Dealing with spirits! (EDITED)

Youkai port was an easy town to overlook.

Because of its location, it could have been a major restocking point for ships leaving one of the main harbors that supplied Omashu. But the strong reliable and prevailing winds made it too easy and cost-effective for southbound merchants to cruise right past it and reach Shimsom Big Island in a straight shoot.

The residents of the port were somehow similar to those who lived in the secluded village at the Southern Air Temple territory, however, because of the few times when a ship would stop there, and its connection with the Earth Kingdom, the whole place was a little bit better and wasn't as poor as the village.

But unlike the village, this place was surrounded by rocky and withered soil and the only places where it was possible to grow something, was small and lacked nutrients. It was like a rock desert in a way or another.

The villagers that were near the port, opened their eyes wide when they saw the big and powerful bison flying towards them, the bravest even peed themselves. They never saw such a creature, so it was more or less acceptable.

Kaze stopped in a spacious area where there were only rocks near the forest that led to the town, Shozin patted him a little and after asking him to wait, he went to the little town.

The people would look at him and murmur some things, some of the villagers that were together with their kids, even gave him a contemptuous look, he didn't really care about it but it did make him feel weird.

He looked around for some time and finally managed to find the boat of the village, there were a few men repairing it. The one overlooking the whole process was a big and sturdy man.

"Hey, Palden!" Shozin shouted from distance.

The man looked around surprised, he searched for a moment and finally found the boy who called out to him.

"Oh! Shozin, so it's you! Hahaha, you scared me just now. Are you looking for me?"

"Um!" He nodded. "I came to warn you of the tempest, the other boast has already gone back to the village, as soon as you finish here, you should go back too."

"Alright kiddo! Thanks for letting me know!"

Shozin nodded and left the port, he wanted to look around, this was his first time in a town of the Earth Kingdom, even if it was a poor one, it was still way different from the Air temples.

And since he had some money on him, he decided to buy one of their common fruits to taste.

So, after searching for some time, he managed to buy something similar to a Strawberry, the main difference was the size which was half of a watermelon, and the juice inside which was really similar to blood both in looks and density. He ate one of the two fruits he bought as he walked around.

He smiled after trying it, this thing was very good! He was about to eat the next one when someone hit him causing them to fall to the floor.

Shozin fell right on top of his delicious and juicy fruit, seeing his snack wasted on the floor, he almost wept with sadness, seeing that it was a girl who bumped into him, he decided he would take revenge.

"Ugh!" He howled in pain and took the opportunity to dip his hand in the fruit juice, which was now spread on the floor, making it look like he had bled a liter of blood.

"Uh?" The girl stood up and looked at the red liquid on the floor and the boy with his mouth open lying on the ground.

She touched the liquid and shivered, 'Oh, no... Please say that this is not happening.'

"No, no, no. Please, be alive!" Her face was pale as she tried to turn him over.

However, the moment she managed to turn him over, the boy raised his hand and shouted. "Boo!"

"Ah!?" She cried out and closed her eyes in fear, thinking that he came back from the dead. However, after a few seconds, she heard someone laughing and opened her eyes only to see the boy laughing so hard that it looked like he was about to die.

"Hahaha! You should have seen your face, oh God, it was priceless!" He couldn't stop giggling.

"Tsk. That was not fun! I thought you died."

"What? Do you really think you could kill a person by bumping at them? Well, then try to not to pat anyone, they might explode, hahaha!"

She shook her head and stood up, but then she noticed something, "Oh no! Where is it?" She looked around and couldn't find the clay turtle she was carrying.

"You mean this." Shozin was playing around, throwing her toy in the air, and catching it again.

"You... Give it back!" She shouted.

"Oh c'mon, don't be like that." He started spinning the turtle above his hand using a miniature tornado.

The girl opened her eyes wide when she saw him using the wind to play around with the toy. Bending was a powerful ability that not many had, you could use it to control one of the main elements, air, water, earth, or fire.

Usually, those who live in the earth kingdom were earth benders, the same logic goes for the water tribes and the fire nation, and it was because of this that she finally noticed his clothes.

"Are you... an air monk?"

"What!? No! What makes you think that!?"

"Well, your clothes..."

"Oh!" He grinned. "I forgot about that hehe!"

He stopped playing with the turtle and gave it back to her.

"Sigh... Well, try not to bump into others again, if I were someone from the fire nation, I might have ended up toasting you." He waved his hand and left.

Seeing the boy going somewhere out of the village, she got curious and followed him.

They walked for a minute into the forest until they reached a quarry right next to the sea where Kaze was resting. Seeing Shozin approaching, Kaze yawned but didn't move.

Seeing him doing that, for some reason, Shozin felt like yawning as well and felt a little tired.

The girl arrived soon after he yawned and was shocked by the vision of the monster in front of the boy.

Hearing someone behind him, Shozin turned around and was surprised after seeing her.

"Oh, it's you again! Since you are here, let me show you my best friend, Kaze, go greet her." He pointed at the flying bison.

But Kaze's answer was something like an "Ooohn", and then he lay on his side, pretending to be sleeping.

Shozin facepalmed after seeing him acting like that, he could only smile at her after that.

"What is him?"

"Never saw one before?" Seeing how the girl shook her head, he replied. "He is a flying bison. Everyone who lives at the Southern Air Temple has one, it is said that they are the first air benders, and all bison are highly respected by air monks."

"Is it dangerous?"

"Well, only if he mistakes you for food, but don't worry, they do not eat humans!" He smiled. "At least I've never seen one eating a human. Do you wanna try to pet him? I assure you he is docile."

She nodded and approached, seeing the bison's chest rising and falling as he breathed made her gulp, she had never approached an animal as big as Kaze before.

Then, she touched Kaze's soft fur and marveled at the sensation, she couldn't believe there could be an animal comparable to a walking blanket.

Kaze even licked her to show how much he liked her. Seeing the way she behaved after Kaze's free bath, Shozin laughed again.

"My name is Shozin, and as I said before, he is Kaze. What is your name?"

"My name is Kyoshi, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you as well."

They shook each other's hand with a smile on their faces.

"Well, Kyoshi, unfortunately, I'll have to leave now, it's getting really late and I have to go. I'll come to visit you from time to time."

He jumped on top of Kaze and sat down at the saddle, "Yip-Yip" he shouted, and Kaze answered by standing up, he waved his tail and shot up towards the sky. Kyoshi only watched as he disappeared amidst the clouds.

At that moment a man's voice surged from behind.

"So that's where you were... Thanks to the spirits for guiding me!" the man was wearing air monk's clothing, he had shaved hair and arrowhead tattoos. From behind him came a shout.

"Kelsang! Did you found her?"

"Yes! Follow my voice Jianzhu!"

'OH CRAP!' She thought. 'I guess this is a goodbye little friend...' She looked at the clay turtle and tears poured down her face, the toy she was given would be taken back, and she didn't even get to play with it, although she made a new interesting friend today.

The monk looked at the sky and smiled at the boy with Fire-red hair and its Bison, and exactly as he predicted, the toy would always go back to where it belongs in a way or another, however, he still had his doubts at whether or not this girl was the Avatar, after all... Of all the kids they tested, she was the only one that ended up choosing this one, although they had yet to see if she would pick the other toys correctly, but... 'Maybe he is right, and she is too old to be the Avatar, after all, her height is about the same as a teenager... sigh.'

...

Southern Air Temple, Shozin's dwelling.

Shozin was stretching a little, it has been a few months since he met Kyoshi, the two quickly become friends and would play together whenever he had time to visit her, when they weren't playing some game they would always play pranks on some people, mainly the girls that like to pick on her.

As his master liked to say. "That brat is merely a twat."

Today however he wouldn't be visiting her, without the Avatar to look over the people and act as the bridge to the spiritual and mortal world, someone had to take its place to protect those in need.

After he got ready, he left his home and went towards his master's dwelling, he would be going together with him in a mission as a way of practicing and learning as well.

Gyatsaa, his master, was a bald old man on the verge of death, but he still had a few years of life in front of him. His master was really respected because of his wisdom, in his prime, he even worked together with Avatar Yangchen before she died, only a few masters had this privilege.

He was also friends with Kelsang, another Southern Air Monk who was once highly respected and even the designated heir to the Abbot[1] Dorje, however, his actions of stealing the Avatar toys a few months ago, incurred the dissatisfaction of many Air monks.

He stopped in front of his master house and sat beside the little garden in front. After some time his master appeared.

"Good morning, master, where will we be going today?" He asked with shining eyes.

"Hohoho! Patience youngling. Before anything take this and wear it." His master threw at him a few blue winter clothes.

Shozin nodded and did as his master asked.

"Today we will be visiting the southern water tribe, to be more precise a branch of the tribe on the east, we received a message saying that they are having a problem with some spirit, we will deal with the spirit and then go back."

"Understood master!"

Shozin went together with his master on his bison, the whole trip took almost a day, by the time they arrived it was so dark they almost couldn't see a palm in front of them, so they had to take shelter in a cave near a mountain. Fortunately, his master was always prepared and brought food with him.

The next day they walked through the snow desert until they arrived at the branch of the water tribe, the whole place was much smaller than the true southern water tribe, those living here were mostly common men and woman, only a few know how to water bend and none were masters.

When they arrived they were surprised with the depressed looks on the face of the locals, and the amount of man tied in bandages, whoever was the spirit, they at least were reassured of how aggressive it was.

Some people noticed them approaching, and called the village chief, it was a man on his mid-thirties, with short brown hair and big muscles called Mikaq.

"You two must be air benders from the southern air temple, right?" Seeing how Gyatsaa nodded, he continued. "I'm really thankful you could make it here, I hope you can help us to deal with the spirit."

"We will try our best, but please do know that we are not the Avatar, so things might not go as planned," Gyatsaa remembered the man.

"Well, we will accept any help we can get, follow me to my igloo, I'll explain everything there."

On the way, Shozin looked around, it was amazing how the people from the southern water tribe managed to live in such a place, the aggressive weather was something they had to deal with every day, and there was still the problem of food and other things.

The weirdest thing for him was how most of their weapons and tools seemed to be made out of bones, there were only a few metal tools, like a pan and a few boomerangs.

It didn't take long for them to arrive at the chief's igloo, the place was bigger than Shozin expected, it even had four rooms and a spacious living room. He and his master sat down in the mat and the chief sat on the other one right in front of them.

In the middle of the igloo, there was a bonfire with a tool used to hold pans and boil water, it seems that he was already preparing tea when they arrived, so he offered some for them, Gyatsaa was the only one that accepted, he really liked tea.

"So, let's start from the beginning, everything started a few weeks ago, some of our men were exploring the lands to the east when a giant wolf with shining green eyes appeared out of nowhere and started attacking them, as far as I know, all that they found was a withered tree and some sort of pendant, we tried putting it back to where it belongs, but the wolf didn't stop coming, so we had no choice other than asking for help."

"I see..." Gyatsaa stroked his chin and seemed to be deep in thoughts.

"Can you describe the pendant?"

"Mm, it seemed to be a bronze pendant with a silk rope in it, it had the pattern of a weird star in it as well, as for the inside I don't know."

"I understand. Alright, point us at the direction of the tree, we will see what we can do."

The chief nodded and got someone to guide them there.

Since they had to walk, the whole trip took almost half an hour, it wasn't that far away from the tribe, but still, this place was too cold, nobody would like to take a walk while freezing.

Surprisingly enough, his master and the other guy didn't seem to have any problem with the weather, maybe their chi was bigger than his, and it helped them to endure the cold air.

In front of them there was only a single dead tree, and right next to it was the pendant.

Gyatsaa walked towards it and took it on his hand, he probed the object for some time and managed to understand it.

"Shozin, come see this."

Shozin nodded and stood next to him, looking at the pendant.

"Transfer some of your chi into this thing." His master said.

The moment he tried to do it, he felt it forcefully sucked some of the chi and something happened with it, it actually opened revealing a weird inside that was inscribed with words of the ancient times.

"This was made by an Avatar, its purpose is to seal a spirit, remember this kind of thing as they might prove useful in a similar situation later."

Shozin nodded and asked. "And how do we seal the spirit?"

"We defeat it and pour our chi inside the pendant when it's weakened."

The moment he said that the howl of the spirit wolf reached their ears, the thing was a dark spirit that only wanted to hurt anyone it saw.

The wolf ran at such a high speed that it crossed dozens of meters in a few seconds, Shozin couldn't even react to it, thankfully his master was there and created a wind barrier around them without moving.

The spirit kept trying to break it with its strength, but it didn't work.

When the creature backed away, Gyatsaa started throwing massive bullets of compressed air using his bending at the spirit, each attack was loud and created ripples on the ground whenever they missed its target.

The fight kept going for some time, but since it couldn't hurt Gyatsaa, it eventually was defeated and sealed away.

They went back to the tribe and the chief thanked them for their work, Shozin even managed to eat a nice piece of fish.

Having finished their jobs there, they bid their farewell and left with the respect of the locals.

NINE YEARS LATER

A few months ago Shozin had his seventeenth birthday, inside the Southern Air Temple he was regarded as one of the most powerful air benders, although his style wasn't really accepted considering he didn't really follow the ways of the monks, nevertheless, they still had some respect for him since he was the descendent of Avatar Yangchen, but his time with the monks is approaching its end. When he turned 18, this would no longer be his home.

To be more exact, he descended from the same lineage although not directly, if Yangchen was still alive she would be his great-aunt. This was the main reason why he had been living in this place for so long. Before his mother died, she had come here and tried her best to get some elder to recognize her and her lineage, she had nowhere else to go, sooner or later they would find and kill her.

The monks only told him about her and her story a year ago, however, even they didn't know much, his mother didn't want him to look for vengeance, so she purposely hid as much information as she could, but it wasn't enough, she also told about his father and that was all that he needed to make a bloodbath on the fire nation, although it didn't solve anything since all that he managed to do was to cleanse the underground of a little city, the real ones behind the death of his parents remained unknown and hidden.

This made the monks lose most of their respect for him, and made it even certain that he would have to leave when he turned 18, they didn't want Shozin to corrupt the new generations of monks or their way of bending air.

Shozin was seating at one of the rocky peaks with his eyes closed, feeling the flow of the air currents. The wind started rotating around him, forming some sort of air barrier, currently, he was capable of using his bending without any specific actions, it took him years of practice to do so, but it paid off, after all, most would never be capable of doing something like this.

In all this time he never cultivated consciously until a year ago, the instructions on his technique were clear if the one practicing it was younger than 16 he should never use it consciously unless he wished a premature death.

And the results of the technique were amazing, in nine years he managed to achieve the first rank of his new bodily cultivation stage called "Eight Gates of Hidden Celestial Stems", the moment he managed to cross this realm he gained a powerful regenerative ability, and could even use his blood to heal other people's wounds, however, after years trying he still didn't manage to make a breakthrough.

Fortunately for him, his cultivation technique was composed of 3 main parts, essence gathering, bodily cultivation, and soul refining. Each one acted as a system of its own, with different ranks and stages. For essence gathering, he was currently at the peak of the Houtian stage and for his soul refining aspects, he was at the very first rank called bronze rank, and thanks to this he had something called battle spirit that he could attach to his katana, and make it even stronger, however, it seemed to change the color of the whole weapon to a shiny green color.

Once his master caught him using this technique, and he had to lie his way out of that situation, eventually, he said that a spirit appeared to him and somehow knew of his connection to the old avatar and that because of this it taught him how to reinforce his weapon using his chi. His master accepted his answer and started calling his ability as the way of the weapons.

As Shozin practiced his bending, someone appeared at the bottom of the peak shouted out to him.

"Shozin! Master Gyatsaa is calling you!"

He opened his eyes and look at the bottom of the peak, "Thanks, pal!"

He jumped from the peak and flew towards the temple. The temple was large and peaceful, it had simple and open spaced gardens and an airball arena. Long paths that twisted and turned like meditation mazes lead up the slopes of the mountain to the temple's earthbound entrances.

On his way, he saw many bison, students, and winged lemurs, many thought that the life of a monk as a boring one, but the truth was far away from that, in fact, the life of a monk is pretty good and filled with many fun and amazing things to do. They had the best sports activity, could interact much more with spirits than the other nations and they had the incredible bison and lemurs as pets or companions depending on how you saw them.

He dropped at his master dwelling and knocked at his door.

"Come in."

Shozin opened the door and saw his master sitting on his chair while drinking a cup of tea.

Shozin bowed to his master and didn't say anything.

"How are you Shozin, you have been training for a few weeks now, why do you work so hard?"

Shozin could only smile wryly at his question. Could he tell that it was because of his many visions, because of the things he saw and feared? Unlike many from this world, he who had the visions, knew of the powerful and dangerous existences that lurked within the universe, what would he do if one day one of those dangers approached his world? Could he protect himself? What about his world? He had to train to prevent something like from happening, he doubted the Avatar would be capable of dealing with such thing, without the things he had, no matter how many avatars teamed up together, they would amount to nothing in front of real power.

"Master... I just want to make sure I have the power to protect my friends and my... family."

Gyatsaa didn't say anything after hearing Shozin's answer, in the end, his biological family was destroyed because they lacked the power to protect themselves and attracted the attention of a power much greater than theirs, he could understand the boy's reason, however, he shook his head at his inability to put the boy in a more peaceful path, it could be said that in all of the years of the history of the Air Nation, Shozin had the most lethal techniques, this was the sign that he wouldn't stop at just protecting himself, one day he would bring harm and death to those who threaten him. Sooner or later, it would happen again, like the time they told him about his mother...

It was acceptable, but it wasn't the way of the air monks. Gyatsaa might not be an Avatar, but even he knew that darkness was growing within Shozin's heart, he was worried about how this would develop in the future.

"Will you visit Yokoya port today?" Asked Gyatsaa with a thoughtful look on his face, this boy was friends with a girl that lived there and would visit her from time to time, even more so after he discovered they were both in the same orphan situation.

"Yes, would you like me to send a message to the old man?"

"Mmm, tell Kelsang to take care of his health and be careful with the Avatar, we can't have a second Kuruk... That would be a tragedy."

Shozin nodded and stood up.

"See you later, master!" He smiled and left the Southern Air Temple, flying only with his bending. Although he could use the traditional staff of the air monks, he didn't like to, as he already carried a sword with him, it would be too much weight to carry at the same time.

As for Kaze, the fella was a traitor that preferred girls over bros! He would spend most of his time together with Kyoshi instead of following him... Ah... one day he would have a girlfriend and would start to ignore Kaze! "Yeah, that would be perfect revenge!"

He clenched his fist and controlled himself to not sob because of his broken heart. He had the looks and the power, but Rangi the only girl he asked out didn't want to have anything with him. He could only accept his fate, maybe the girls thought that he was boring because of him being half air monk.

When he arrived, this time he didn't attract as much attention as before, people were already used with his presence and some even knew him, like the uncle who sells fruits and the guard responsible for the protection of the little town from bandits and pirates.

He went directly to the Avatar mansion, the place was built a few years after he came here for the first time by Jianzhu. It seems that they discovered the Avatar 7 years after he befriended Kyoshi. It was a boy called Yun, Shozin tried to befriend him as well, but for some reason, the boy seemed to be enraged whenever he saw him together with Rangi or Kyoshi, it was a mystery he didn't know how to solve.

And maybe he didn't like that Shozin played some pranks on him as well from time to time... Shozin would always say to him something like, "C'mon bro! Don't be like that, there is nothing that says that being an Avatar exempts you from pranks!"

As he approached the mansion, he found Kyoshi being bullied by some girls, Aoma, Suzu, and Jae. Those were the same girls that liked to bully her since they were children.

Above them, floating high out of reach, was the last, precious jar of pickled spicy kelp that the entire village would see this year. The one that Kyoshi had been charged with delivering to Jianzhu's mansion.

Kyoshi would be tasked with delivering those things from time to time, but today it seems to be her unlucky day, usually, she would be wearing a mask when going outside, but the rope she used to lock it on her face was ripped apart, maybe the thing fell when those bad girls were next to her.

When he arrived, Rangi and Kyoshi seemed to have just finished talking with them, he didn't truly know what happened but considering that the girls appeared to have followed Kyoshi up until here, it could be understood since no civilian was allowed there, only Shozin was an exception since he was friends with master Kelsang and no one would be able to stop him anyway.

Aoma flung her hand and the jar shot towards the sky like a rocket, it almost hit Shozin, but thankfully he managed to avoid the projectile just in time.

"You little..." Rangi, a girl more or less at the same age as him and Kyoshi, daughter of the last fire bender trainer of Avatar Kuruk, shouted with rage in her voice.

"You'd better find someone who is authorized to catch that." She bolted down the path with Suzu and Jae close behind.

Rangi clenched her fist and controlled herself to not turn the girls in ashes, her vengeance would have to wait.

"You! Catch it!" She said to Kyoshi.

"I-I can't!"

"What do you mean you can't? The staff ledger have you listed as an earth bender!"

"It is not that simple!" Yes, Kyoshi was technically a bender, but Rangi didn't know about her little problem.

"Just do the same thing the other girl did with your hands!" Rangi copied Aoma movements but it lacked the characteristic earth bending at the end.

"Look out!" Kyoshi screamed. Since the jar blocked her vision of Shozin, she didn't know he was there to save the day! She threw herself over Rangi, shielding the smaller girl with her body from the plummeting missile. They fell on the ground, entwined.

But no impact came. No deadly shards of ceramic, or explosion of the pickling liquid.

"Get off me, you oaf," Rangi muttered. She hammed her fist against Kyoshi's protective embrace, a bird beating its wings against a cage. Kyoshi got to her knees and saw that her face and ears were nearly as red as her armor.

She helped Rangi to her feet, the jar floated a few meters above them, trapped in a tornado, spinning together with Shozin who protected the thing and now had a diabolical grin on his face.

Kyoshi started laughing after seeing him spinning around with her jar, while Rangi seemed to mutter something under her breath that only she could hear.

"Yo, Kyoshi! I've come to visit you and old man Kelsang, thank the spirits that I was nearby and managed to help you!" He laughed mischievously. "But seriously, I can't believe that you took the first place! After trying so many times you were actually the one who hooked her, I'm so ashamed."

His dramatic face looked like he was about to cry, the two girls blushed when they heard his words, Rangi almost blurted out 'That damn idiot!', But she managed not to, she didn't want to become the target of his pranks.

As he said that, the pebbles on the dusty path trembled and formed the word, 'You are just showing off!'

Seeing this, Shozin laughed, so he finally appeared, Avatar Yun!

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[1]: UK /ˈæb.ət/ | US /ˈæb.ət/ | a man who is in charge of a monastery

This chapter is 5050 words more or less.

What do you think about this chapter? Did you like it? Have any suggestions? Don't worry, about the story being too fast or something similar, this is literally the true beginning, there are a lot of things to happen, and don't worry, I assure you, the main character is sturdy and dangerous, but he isn't the strongest in any way, even his master can beat him with ease right now, just wait until he discovers his capability of bending other elements.

And yup, in case you didn't know, Kyoshi has a thing for girls, I don't judge, hope you guys don't judge as well.