A Spirit And A Man

"Hello once again, son of fire." Tui said, the ancient voice reverberating in the depths of Xiao's soul.

"Uh… hi." Xiao's said nervously.

"Do you know why we brought you here?" La asked in a voice similar yet very different from Tui's.

"No." Xiao responded.

"It has something to do with your parents, and why you can bend the hottest and coldest flame." Tui said, surprising Xiao.

"But… my father was a crippled farmer and my mother was the butcher's daughter…" Xiao muttered, confused.

"It's better if we just show you." La said, and with that, Xiao's vision darkened once more.

——————

Lee was a talented and powerful fire bender born in a small village in the Fire Nation. When a draft for new soldiers came, Lee was sent to the Capital to train.

He quickly rose through the ranks, reaching the position of an Elite Captain at the young age of twenty three, which was unheard of in the entirety of the Fire Nation's history.

Lee had a unique take on fire bending, it was almost as if he himself was the flame, and he was capable of doing things others could only dream of.

He lead a squad of Elite Fire Nation soldiers, and only every had to bow to Generals. Not even Fleet Admirals could boss him around.

One day, Lee received a mission to investigate a rumor going around that a massive army of earth benders were taking up residence in a town near the border.

So, he along with his team went to check it out.

However, upon entering a canyon on the way to the village, he was ambushed by hundreds of earth benders.

Even though he was powerful, and took out half their number before falling, he was still overwhelmed by their ridiculous numbers.

However, before he was dealt a final blow, a shining light engulfed him and he vanished. All that remained was a single leg.

Upon hearing this news, the Fire Nations grieved at the loss of one of their most powerful benders, however it was not a complete loss as they had found out about the army of earth benders, and Lee had even managed to take out over two hundred of them before finally dying.

The Earth Kingdom troup's moral took a major blow from this event, but the war continued and Lee's. Sacrifice was soon forgotten.

But Lee wasn't dead.

"Where am I?" Lee asked, looking around. He seemed to be in a vast golden field.

"Hello there, human." A cold voice sounded behind him. Lee whipped around, only to find a gigantic, Snow White fox lounging in the grass behind him. The fox had nine tales and the tips of it's fur were a vibrant violet.

"A spirit…" Lee muttered, kneeling and saying a silent prayer. Depending on how he acted, he could either be cursed or he could benefit greatly from this.

"Yes, human. My name is Shin." The fox said, standing up and looking down at Lee.

"Uh… I'm Lee. May I ask what you desire from me, Shin the spirit?" Lee asked as he started sweating profusely. Being stared down by a gigantic fox spirit isn't exactly comforting.

"Yes, you may, but before that... Lee the human, you seem to be injured." Shin replied, glancing at Lee's leg, which was missing it's lower half.

'Huh, weird, I don't feel anything...' Lee thought.

"I cannot give you a new appendage, however, I can stop the bleeding." Shin said. She breathed out a puff of violet and black flames, and they floated down and touched Lee's leg which was continuously dripping blood. The wound closed rapidly and he was left with a stump.

"Huh, would you look at that?" Lee muttered, waving around his new stump. He was sad that he was now crippled, but at least he wasn't dead, and this spirit was in a good enough mood to heal him so that was good as well.

"I brought you here on a whim." Shin said after seeing that he was fine. Lee sweated slightly. 'You mean that if you didn't have this 'whim' I'd be dead?' He thought wryly.

"Exactly." Shin said.

Lee started 'It can read my mind?! Oh Shit!' He thought panickily.

"Yes, I can read your mind, and I am a 'she,' not an 'it.' Shin said, chuckling slightly, which looked weird since she was a fox.

"Ah, I see. Sorry." Lee said, nervously.

"So what now?" He asked the spirit.

"Now, you stay here until I say otherwise." Shin replied. One of her tails moved in front of Lee, and when he looked at it, he saw a steaming piece of meat sitting on top. He felt his stomach rumble in hunger.

Lee snatched the meat away and wolfed it down quickly. Shin chuckled in amusement.

After that, Lee spent many years in the spirit world, living with Shin and during that time they grew closer, until one day...

"Hey Lee." Shin said suddenly as Lee was eating a grape the size of his head.

"Hm?" He asked, his cheeks stuffed with food as he looked up at the nine tailed white fox spirit.

"Would you like to see my human form?" Shin asked, causing Lee to choke slightly. He coughed and spat out a piece of grape and looked up at her in suprise.

"You can do that?!" He exclaimed loudly.

"Yes, I can." Shin replied, before she was enveloped in a bright white light that slowly shrunk, before revealing a pale-skinned beautiful woman with violet hair and foxlike figured. Two white ears popped up from her hair and Lee could see her tails swishing behind her. She was also... naked.

"Oh!" Shin exclaimed, and another light shined. When it receded she was in a white robe. Lee had foamed at the mouth and fallen backwards, his nose bleeding slightly as his eyes rolled to the back of his head.

"Lee?" Shin asked, shaking his body slightly. He woke up, gasping for air. "Oh! Shin I just had this funny dream where you turned into a really hot woman and you... were... naked... oh." He trailed off at the end as he saw Shin's appearance.

"You are a very odd human." Shin said bluntly. Lee rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

After that, Lee stayed for another year, and during that time, their relationship became more... intimate. Finally, Shin let Lee go, and he left her, albeit sadly, but she thought that he should be with humans.

Years later, Lee had gone back to his childhood home and married the butcher's daughter, becoming a farmer and starting a family with her. They had a daughter and all was going well, until one night Lee heard a tap on the wooden door of his house. He answered, only to find a white fox whos fur was covered in blood. In it's mouth it held a baby with violet eyes. Strangely, it was silent and simply stared at Lee in wonder.

"Shin..." Lee muttered, a tear coming from his eye. He bent down and stroked the fox's fur gently. The fox's eyes glinted slightly, before it fell to the ground, dead. Lee cried and made a small wooden boat for the fox, setting it adrift in a pond before lighting it on fire with his fire bending.

Strangely, Lee's orange flames turned violet as the boat burned. After that, Lee took Xiao, his son, in, telling his wife he found him at their doorstep, which was technically true.

——————

The vision faded, and Xiao was back on the small island. He stared straight ahead. "...What?" He whispered. His mind was in turmoil.

"Xiao, you're mother was a very powerful spirit, your father a powerful human. You are unique, special even. You're flames are proof of that." Tui said, the spirit's voice was tinged with sadness.

"We knew you're mother. She was a spirit who contained both hot and cold, and, in a way, she could be seen as a distant relative to us." La added. This fact surprised Xiao, because that meant his mother was as powerful as the spirits before him.

"What does it mean?" Xiao asked after a while.

"It means many things, but you will have to figure them out for yourself." Tui responded.

"Now go, we have said what was needed and now it is time for you to return to the human realm." La said, and Xiao's vision, for the fifth time that day, darkened.

——————

OMG MC is half spirit?!

Cool, right? I've been thinking about how to write it and I think this way is best.

What will Xiao do with this newfound information?

Why did his mother show up to his father's door on the verge of death?

I don't know, think about it yourself man.

Anyways,

Author-out.