[2.0]
Masters and Spirits
The tingling sensation never left the tanned skin of her arms. The flecks of water were moving around, getting on her clothes and in her eyes as she gracefully moved her arms.
Droplets of water were falling off her skin, now tanned from the countless hours she stayed under the sun. With a flick of her fingers, a giant wave rose from the sea.
Katara watched silently behind her. It was amazing how well she controlled the element now, knowing that six months ago, the young woman could barely move a wave.
The young boy next to the master watched in awe as water sprayed on the woman's white hair. She moved her legs with an incredible fluidity even though her eyes were closed.
When she stopped moving, the circle of water around her fell, splashing everything around in the process. She opened her green eyes slowly and looked away from the sea.
Taiyo smiled and started clapping. He ran towards the young lady and embraced her in a warm hug. Katara smiled too. She walked towards Taiyo and the woman, taking the twelve-year-old off the white-haired girl.
"It was very impressive Rae," she said smiling, "Now, you need to get ready for your last night of training."
Katara took the boy's hand and walked away, leaving Rae all alone. She turned to look at the ocean again. The sun was setting rapidly, and the woman could already feel the moon's hold on her.
With a sigh, she took off the wraps around her wrists and elbows and walked back to her hut, where she waited for her master to show up. She waited for a few hours. Her nerves grew with every minute that passed.
When Katara entered the hut, Rae looked up to see the woman with a big cage in her hands. Inside, a wounded arctic fox whined in pain. The young woman saw the red stain on the animal and her eyes softened.
"Now," started Katara. The small tremble in her voice didn't go unnoticed by the Guardian. "I need you to heal this poor soul."
Rae nodded and opened the cage. She used the metal bracelet around her wrist to make a small muzzle and placed in carefully on fox's snout so it would bite her. She then took the animal in her arms and placed in on the table.
"Take a big breath," said Katara, "And try not to enter the Guardian state this time."
Rae nodded and raised her arms. She breathed in and out and closed her eyes. Katara moved to one of the windows and took off the cloth that covered it. The pale moonbeams flooded the room and gracefully kissed Rae's skin, making her gasp. The full moon was shining brightly that night. Opening her eyes, she looked at the wide slash on the fox's stomach. Moving her hands away from her body, she felt the warm oozing blood follow her gestures. She curled her fingers and the blood stopped oozing out of the wound. Instead, the wide gash seemed to shrink in size before the only sight of blood was the one that stained the perfect white fur of the animal.
The young woman smiled when she stopped hearing the pained whines of the fox. She slowly too the muzzle off the animal and moulded it back in the shape of her beloved bracelet. It wasn't actually metal, as a lot of people suspected, but the bracelet was made out of a meteor. Her grandmother gifted it to her when she completed her training in Earthbending.
Katara walked away from the window and put a hand on Rae's shoulder. The Guardian was petting the animal. The fox didn't try to bite or hurt Rae in anyway. His wide eyes stared at her as she caressed his fur. When her hand approached the place where the wound was, the fox snarled. But the woman didn't take her hand off. Instead, she waved her hand and a bubble of water floated to the animal. Placing it on the blood covered fur, Rae cleaned it slowly, making the fox relax.
When she was done, Rae walked to the door of the hut and opened it. The fox leaped off the table and walked in the cold night, but not before it stopped in front of Rae. It was almost unnoticeable. With a small bow of the head, the fox disappeared in the darkness.
"That was beautiful," whispered Katara as she placed a hand on Rae's shoulder. The older woman had tears in her eyes as she spoke, "When I learned this form of bending, I was so horrified of it. Until now I only saw people use it to do bad... but now I have hope that it can save people."
Rae gave the woman a small smile. Katara wiped the few stray tears before bowing her head to the young woman, "Rae Akemi, you have officially finished your training."
The young Guardian bowed her head and smiled as Katara made her way out of the hut. When she was all alone, she sat on the small sofa and closed her eyes, exhaustion taking over her body.
The spirits haven't visited her since the day she decided to remain in the Southern Water Tribes. At first it was the tall man that paid her a visit, but then small spirit animals would show up in her hut almost every day. But for almost three weeks, no small spirit seemed to want to be in Rae's presence.
Right when she was about to fall asleep on the uncomfortable sofa, the door of her hut opened. She groaned when the cold air met her skin and opened her eyes.
A man stood in front of her, his eyes were wide and his blue traditional water tribe clothes were thorn. "A spirit just attacked the festival site!" he exclaimed, trying to catch his breath.
Rae's eyes widened. She took her heavy fur coat and wrapped it around her shoulders. Following the man to the site of the festival, her eyes widened when she saw the gigantic spirit. It was destroying all the small tents and huts the people finished preparing for the festival that same day.
The woman ran towards the spirit and raised her arms. A wave of water came crashing into it, making it fall on its back. The spirit turned at glared at her. Its tail swung underneath Rae's feet. Before she could jump, she felt herself being lifted off the ground and slammed in the closest rock.
Groaning in pain, she opened her eyes to see the spirit walk away. She got up from the cold ground and limped to the group of people that stood where the spirit was before.
"What just happened here?" she asked, looking at the shadow of the dark spirit.
"I don't know," said the man that fetched her out of her hut, "after it slammed you in the rocks, it just left..."
"We should do something about it," said Rae, looking at the destruction the spirit caused, "The avatar is supposed to arrive in three days, the Northern Water Tribe in four... And I don't think the people that are coming for the festival would be glad to be attacked by dark spirits."
The people around her nodded. In the distance, she saw Katara and the Chief, Tonraq, who was also Korra's father, running towards them.
"What happened?" asked the Chief, "Why didn't anyone notify me?"
Rae walked up to them. "A dark spirit attacked," she said, crossing her arms, "something isn't right... it just left. Has this ever happened here before?"
The chief looked at the destroyed tents. "There have been some attacks during the last weeks," said Tonraq looking back at Rae, "But none of them have been lethal, at least until now..."
Rae remained silent. She looked up at the star filled sky and sighed. If this wasn't the first spirit attack, then something had to be wrong. During her company with the small and wise spirits that visited her, she learned much more than anyone could think of.
"I want to see what's the problem," Said Rae, turning to Katara and Tonraq, "I'll leave tomorrow morning for the south pole... I feel like something is troubling the spirits..."
Katara's eyes widened, but Rae didn't give her the opportunity to talk. "I'll be going alone. Something is wrong with the spirits, and I want to find out," she continued before walking away from the other two.
-
The next morning approached rapidly. No one was able to convince Rae to remain in the tribe, as much as they tried. Tonraq was the first one to approach her about the subject, but he received the same words as the others that tried, something is wrong, and I need to know.
Even Katara and Senna, Tonraq's wife, tried to talk some sense in her, but she wasn't listening to any of them. Rae was waiting next to a polar bear dog for Katara. She wanted to leave as soon as possible so she would be able to get back before the Avatar would arrive in the southern tribes.
When the Waterbending master stepped towards her, Rae looked away from the ocean.
"Are you sure about this?"
Rae nodded. She mounted the polar bear dog and took a deep breath. The animal walked away from Katara. Rae didn't look back, scared that if she did, Katara would convince her to remain.
After hours of traveling in the cold, the weather seemed to get worse and worse. The sky turned from a light blue colour to a dark grey, almost black. And then she saw the dark clouds and the lightning of the Everstorm.
She looked at the storm intensely. The sun had already set, and the night was getting colder, but she couldn't stop now, not even for a few hours of sleep. Rae wanted to get back in time to the Southern Tribe to greet not only Korra, Asami and the brothers, but also a certain General.
With a sigh, she walked in the storm, her polar bear dog trailing behind her. Ignoring the whistling sound of the wind, Rae's surroundings were drowned in silence. There was no sign of life, not even spiritual life.
Unbeknown to Rae, the shadows of the dark spirits were watching her closely. She intrigued them. Not because she was the Guardian, but her strong spiritual connection radiated off her aura. The spirits wanted to see what she had in mind, they wanted to see what she was doing in one of the most remote places on earth.
She walked in the blizzard, blinded by the wind and by the never-ending rain, until she arrived exactly where she wanted. The forest was completely frozen in ice, the trees dead with no sign of leaves. But the place was special, and Rae could feel it.
She took the small duffel bag from the polar bear dog's saddle and patted the animal on the head. "Stay here," she whispered, "and if something happens to me, go back to the tribe and call for help."
The animal sat down, and Rae looked at the frozen forest. She took a few shuriken stars and stilettos from her bag and placed them on her waist. She slipped her fans in the sleeves of her fur coat and walked to the entrance of the forest.
She walked through the trapped trees. Every small sound made her jump in fright and every shadow made her heart stop for a second.
A loud crack echoed to her right and Rae turned to look as quick as she could. A small bird stood on one of the dead branched of the trees. It chirped when Rae looked at it and flew away. The woman followed the small bird until she arrived in a small glade. Everything around was covered in ice, even the ground, from where a strange glow was emitted by the frozen water.
Rae frowned. Looking around, she saw nothing strange apart from the glow underneath her feet.
"This is where the spirits should be coming from," she muttered, sitting down on the ice, "So where are the spirits?"
She sat on the cold floor for some time. She tried to break the ice at her feet, then she tried to melt it, but nothing seemed to work. So, in the last couple of hours, how many Rae did not know, she just sat there, trying to call out the spirits.
Right when she was about to fall asleep on the ice, a loud bonk echoed to her right. She got to her feet quickly at lit a flam in her palm. A purplish snake-like figure flew in the air. Its eyes were fixated on Rae. But it didn't attack her. Instead, it eyed her for a few minutes before it turned around and left through one of fissures in the ice.
Rae glared at the ice before the flame on her palm died down. She sighed and sat back on the floor. "Might as well mediate," she whispered. Deep down, she knew she should leave, but she felt like she missed something. Rae wanted to know what slipped through her fingers.
Sitting down in a lotus position, Rae brought her hands under her chest. She glued her palms together, with the fingers from her right hand facing up while the ones from her left hand were facing down.
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and waited. After what seemed like ten minutes, she sighed, her hands falling in her lap. "This is useless," she muttered, opening her eyes. She expected to see the glacial forest when her eyelids fluttered open, to see the frozen tree and the ice surrounding her.
However, she was met with a small dragon-like glowing creature breathing on her face. She shrieked, closing her eyes again, and tried to punch the creature, but her fists only met air.
This time, when she opened her eyes, her jaw fell as she looked at her surroundings. Millions of birds were flying, a gentle breeze ruffled her white locks and a river flowed to her left. She was sitting on a bed of red poppies and other colourful flowers surrounded her.
When she got up from the ground, she looked to her right, only so see the dragon-like spirit perched on someone's shoulder.
~