The flight is long enough to sleep, but the thoughts flooding my mind never slow down enough to fall asleep. The ride is so long, I'm surprised Fang can fly over night.
"Alright, one more stop before we land at the Northern water tribe." He says drowsily. "We had planned to fly the rest of the way now, but Fang is more tired than expected."
"Sounds good." I say as we land.
This time, our landing spot is atop a snowy mountain. Too steep to get off and do much, so I just decided to spend the night on Fang. Although it's a bit uncomfortable to sleep on Fang, the view of the mountain range is breathtaking. This must be one of the mountains I saw in the distance at our last stop.
"It's beautiful." Says Ursu.
"I couldn't agree more." Heido notes.
In all honesty, I have never seen snow. I live near the equator, so it's always really hot. It feels really nice to be cold for a change. I earthbend a small boulder covered in snow into my hands and feel the beautiful, cold, white powdery snow. If the North pole is covered in this stuff, I wouldn't mind spending a few months there.
"Never seen snow?" Heido asks, slightly confused at the prospect.
"Not once." I reply in awe.
"Then you're in for a treat at the North pole, or so I've heard." He says.
I find a somewhat flat area of the mountain and decide to sleep there. A pillowy blanket of snow covers me chest to toe.
Tonight, I have a dream. It's the same vision I had when meditating on Fang. Katakan's lifeless face gives me a pang in the chest and gives me all the more reason to pursue my duties as the dark avatar.
I wake up in a haze. Not terrified, but not necessarily relaxed. Maybe the snow blanket, which grew through the night, helped ease my fear.
"You up?" Heido yells from Fang.
"Yeah, I'll be up there in a minute." I reply.
"Someone likes the snow." He says jokingly as I climb up Fang, absolutely covered in snow.
"Sorry." I reply as we take off.
"No problem, we'll be at the North pole by noon!" He exclaims.
The feeling of flight never fails to amaze me, soaring through the sky all day just couldn't feel more amazing. Snow, flight, all of these new experiences are beyond what I'd ever hoped for, however I can't help but feel a little homesick. I lived on that hill for years and now I may never see it again.
The rest of the day is spent reading through some history books, trying to find some explanation to my visions. Yes, it could just be dreams but a dream should feel less real than the visions. Nonetheless, once we see an ocean with glaciers everywhere, Heido decides it's a good time to land.
"We're gonna swim the rest of the way." He tells us.
Ursu wakes up from the impact on the water. "What's happening?" She asks drowsily. "Are we at the North pole?"
"Not quite." Heido and I say in unison, both extremely tired from the day and functioning on autopilot.
"I can take the reins." She says, crawling to Heido and grabbing the reins from his hand. "You both should get some sleep. You can't be tired when you learn a new bending."
Heido doesn't protest and lays down on the saddle, taking Ursu's spot.
I'm not really that tired, I got plenty of sleep last night. I just have a splitting headache from reading for three hours with few breaks. I just end up laying down, watching the glaciers go by when I occasionally open my eyes.
"I can see it!" Ursu exclaims.
"Good, I want to get off this dragon for once." I reply, sitting up. "Could you wake Heido?"
"Way ahead of you." Says Ursu, crawling to Heido and shaking him awake.
"What's happening?" Heido says, reaching for his knife just in case.
"We're arriving at the Northern water tribe." She explains.
"Wow. It's beautiful." He says in awe, a massive city made mostly of ice and snow.
As Fang walks onto the glacier and sits down, a native water bender comes up to us with a spear. "Who are you? What business do you have in our kingdom?"
"Relax, I'm the avatar, Heido, and simply came here to learn water bending." Heido explains, but it doesn't fully convince him.
"Prove it."
Heido grabs some rocks and sets them ablaze while spinning them above his hand. "That enough?"
"Oh, my apologies sir. Welcome to our tribe. Who's the lady and the earthbender?" He asks.
"I'm his friend, I came here because I wanted to see the world." Ursu notes.
"Yeah, and I'm the dark avatar." I add, knowing this might cause some trouble, and of course, it does.
Raising his spear, the water bender asks "What makes you think we're going to let you here?"
"Nothing, honestly. I was expecting some force. I just want to learn water bending and leave." I say, trying to convince them of my innocence.
Heido walks in between me and the water bender. "He's fine, I've known him and the struggles he's gone through. He wouldn't hurt anyone unless provoked." He says calmly.
I knew he'd have my back. The light avatar has always had a reputation for being kind and understanding.
"Alright, but if I see you doing anything out of the ordinary, you're a dead man." The water bender says.
We all introduce ourselves by name and he agrees to teach us. Apparently, his name is Pavrun and he's a great waterbender.
I understand how they may be skeptical of the fact that I'm the dark avatar, but I can't help picking up a good chunk of snow and holding it close. It helps comfort me beyond belief, having such a foreign yet amazing substance in my hands. This place is really amazing, being covered in snow.
"Water bending is an art of elegance." Pavrun starts. "A dance, if you will. It requires a unique kind of chi that only those with the capability to waterbend can use."
Of course, so much chi. I'm sure Heido will love this. Surprisingly, it requires precise movement as well as precise chi flow. Why did we have to learn this third? Airbending has to be easier than this.
In order to harness the water-chi, I have to be utterly relaxed, no meditation required but it's still very hard to do because of the sheer amount of stress on my shoulders recently.
After a few tries, I'm able to make a small patch of snow flutter. Not perfect but definitely something
"Good job!" Pavrun exclaims.
Heido is able to make some small waves, a little more advanced than me, but I'm fine with it. Although I haven't yet mastered even fire yet, I'm glad to start water bending. Maybe I'll get to a point of mastery after some time at home to practice more.
After a while of training more, I'm able to bend water straight from a puddle into my mouth, which is good enough for now.
Pavrun hands me and Heido some water scrolls. "Take this with you, it'll be good to learn more water bending since there's no native water bender on your team."
Heido and I nod, each taking two scrolls from his hand.
On the way back to Fang, I feel a tap on my shoulder. "Yes?" I turn around to see a young man dressed in earthbender-style clothing.
He immediately punches me straight in the face, almost knocking me out.
"I'll kill you!" He screams while continuing to punch me in my face while I'm on the ground.
Heido pushes him off. "What in the world are you doing?" He asks in a shout.
"Getting my revenge." The earthbender hisses.
Just then, I remember. The thought that's been plaguing me for a decade. My murder sprees from when I was an earth kingdom soldier.
The thought of my past hits me like a brick. The killings, the orders from the king of ba sing se. "Ok fine!" I shout over Heido and the earthbender guy fighting. "Fight me, fight us. See what happens." I say with a grin, knowing full well that two avatars could easily defeat an earthbender with no earth for miles.
"Gladly." He says before shooting a massive swell of water down on me and Heido, and then a massive fireball to our faces while we're still stunned.
What is he doing? How can he bend multiple elements with such grace? Nothing's making a bit of sense. Only the avatar and dark avatar, both masters of all four elements can stop high tyranny, typically done by the fire nation. How can there be another person bending multiple? There's gotta be some of his friends standing behind him, bending the water onto us. Maybe he's just a firebender wearing earth kingdom clothing to further the illusion.
His eyes dilate when he sees Ursu. A pure evil look in his eyes as he runs straight for her, grabbing her by the throat and immediately beating her skull in.
Thankfully, Heido notices and runs toward him. "Get off Ursu you bastard!" He shouts before tackling the earthbender and bashing his skull in.
Although I hardly notice it because when the Earthbender ran towards Ursu, it revealed no benders to back him up. The waterbending must have come from him. But how?
I can't dwell on the thought all too long because the earthbender looks like he's about to die.
The cold air hits me in the face as I run to Heido and tackle him, getting him off of the earthbender.
"What are you doing?" I ask.
"Get off me!" He yells, but I don't even consider his words.
"What about that oath?" I ask. "The oath to peace, your whole reason for being a pacifist."
His muscles loosen a bit before Ursu comes to help him up.
"You're right... I apologize. My defense instincts kicked in without me even realizing." He admits.
By now, the earthbender is long gone. Good.
"Thank you. That was brave of you, you just went a bit too far." Ursu says.
"I know, I know." Heido says while we walk him to Fang.