Chapter 11
"At least it's not a cage. The island's residents can live in peace for now..." I woke up and found myself tied to a pole. "At least for now."
"Oh, you're awake. Hello!" a voice came from beside me.
Turning my head, I saw a guy in a coat with a strange hairstyle.
"And may you not fall ill in vain. Did the local warriors catch you too?" I asked.
"Yes."
That was a new voice from the other side. Turning my head, I saw a girl slightly younger than me, also in some kind of jacket. And everything in shades of blue, just like the villagers I had seen.
"They just got lucky! No way some girls could tie up the best warrior of the tribe!" the guy said to his girl.
"Alright, guys, you can keep arguing if you want, but I have business with these warriors. Need to discuss a couple of questions."
From the air right in front of me, two water orbs formed, which quickly changed shape into flat water blades and flew downwards, neatly slicing through the ropes. As soon as they hit the ground, I took a step forward, but within a couple of seconds, the familiar Kyoshi warriors stood before me.
"Hello, girls, glad to see you again. I apologize for hitting one of you during our last encounter; I really wanted to test both your skills and mine. Remembering your words from our first meeting, I want to declare that I'm definitely not a spy for the Fire Nation. With my reputation, they'd either run away or try to capture me in much greater numbers, or just kill me on the spot.
Despite my words, the number of warriors around me and the other captives grew, and all of them prepared their weapons for battle. Some had metal fans, others swords.
"What are you talking about?" one of them asked me.
"Well... I have a bit of a complicated relationship with the Fire Nation. Usually, after our encounters, their numbers significantly decrease. That's how it goes. So don't worry, if I'm spying for anyone, it's only for myself. I came here primarily to familiarize myself with your martial arts. In return, I can offer my help to you and your village. Trust me, I'm very good with waterbending, and not just water, I can also handle steam, heal, and to some extent control plants. So, I hope we can find a mutually beneficial agreement between us."
Finishing my last words, I bowed to the warriors, not at all intimidated by the weapons pointed at me.
"And who are these?" one of the warriors pointed with her sword at the pole, where the others had been freed because of me.
I turned around and took another look at those who had been tied up with me to the pole.
It turned out there were three of them, two for some reason in blue coats, and one in a yellow-orange cape with a bald head and blue arrow tattoos on his head and arms.
"I don't know who they are. I saw them here for the first time. I guess you found and tied them up somewhere on the shore too?" I turned back to the still wary warriors.
"Oh, right!" came from behind, and turning around, I looked at the bald young man speaking. "This is Sokka," he pointed at the guy, "this is Katara," he pointed at the girl, "and I'm Aang!"
"So what?" I asked him, not understanding the point of the introductions at the moment.
"And he's also our Avatar, so you can't be pointing all those metal things at us, because he's the bridge between the worlds!..." Sokka began to eloquently explain.
"Really, an avatar? Doesn't look like the century-old sage who's been hiding and mastering the elements for ages. Maybe we should just check?" I said, and condensing water from the air, I sent an ice needle at the bald young man.
Unexpectedly, the boy jumped high, and a strong gust of wind, blowing out of nowhere, lifted him even higher, so the ice needle missed and embedded itself a third into the pole. The warriors' eyes widened, Sokka looked at the ice needle that flew just a couple of centimeters from his face, Katara's gaze shifted from me to the needle, and Aang landed on the pole.
"Wow, an airbender... and I thought you all were subjected to a great extermination. What a surprise. So it turns out you're an Air Nomad? Considering the avatar, after Avatar Roku's death, should be reborn into an Air Nomad according to the cycle, it allows for the thought that you really are the avatar. But it doesn't explain where you've been all these years?" I began to get carried away by the thought that if the avatar hadn't disappeared for a century, my family would still be alive, as the Fire Nation would never have reached our home.
But after a moment, I stopped and calmed down, coming to the realization that such grievances were pointless. My family was avenged, so it was time to accept it and stop ending up in such situations.
I looked around. The weapons were lowered. It seemed the warriors realized we were not spies, and now most of them had dispersed. The people, learning about the new incarnation of the avatar, started to surround us, simply radiating joy. I quickly made my way through them and headed to the warriors.
"Sorry, but how about answering my question?"
"We don't train anyone..." one of the warriors answered me, turning around, while the others didn't even try to say anything.
"Who's talking about training? I don't need training from you. Just a good, preferably the best warrior among you, who would agree to be my sparring partner, that's all."
"You want to have a few fights?" she asked, turning fully towards me and seeming interested in my words.
"No. A few won't interest me at all. I want to have many fights, from which I could gain a lot of benefits."
"Hmm... alright. Come by in the evening, show us how good a warrior you are."
"Glad you agreed. See you in the evening."
It was still broad daylight outside, so after talking to the warrior, I headed to the shore. For several weeks now, I've been focused on dedicating time and attention to meditations. I haven't stopped meditating since I got out of prison. The way I escaped, simply making the stone part and then close behind me to prevent the Fire Nation from getting any information about how I escaped, has at least confirmed part of my hypothesis about the potential to master other elements besides my own, without being the avatar. And since I managed to master earth magic, though it was harder than with water, it means I can master the remaining elements. Fire and air are left. And for quite some time now, I've been dedicating at least three hours a day to meditations with fire, focusing on the fire element as I previously did with earth or water. I haven't had any success yet, but it took a lot of time with Earth too.
On the beach, I gathered twigs, extracted moisture from them, which I immediately poured into the ocean water, and then lit the arranged twigs with a flint. The fire burned, and I sat next to it with closed eyes, detached from the world.
I don't know the mechanism behind these meditations, as I don't feel any new sensations related to the new element, just after some time the element starts to yield, and I manage to control it. And only later do I start to feel the element... or the magic of that element, when I've achieved significant success with it. That's how it was with water. I couldn't feel water, but when I achieved the ability to take life from others, to control people even without a full moon, I suddenly realized I could feel it. Not just feel it, I could sense its location in space. At first, not very clearly. I just knew there was liquid there, that's all. But as I developed, as I advanced my water magic, this awareness became clearer, understanding that it wasn't just water, but water in a barrel, and there was blood, not just water. Several containers of water no longer merged into one spot; now I could clearly distinguish several jugs or barrels, as well as several people, instead of perceiving them as one entity. I haven't achieved this with earth and think it will be a long time before I do, and with fire, it's even further away.
And there, as I focused on the fire, I realized there was someone nearby. And they were approaching. When they got close enough, I could clearly sense the blood, so I easily understood it was a girl.
Opening my eyes, I looked at the trees, and a few seconds later, Katara emerged from behind them.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
-- Power
stone