Chapter 92: Flashes of Past
Shout-out to Emanuel Lucas Duarte de Farias Fárias!
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"Did... something happen?" Nik inquired. The trio would usually get their dinner and retreat inside to eat in the more comfortable mess. It was filled with other benders, too. But the large section was sparsely filled with the original occupants now resting in the wooden prison ships or the prisons within the cruiser.
His question elicited the two girls to glance at each other then quickly look away. Embarrassment was clear on their faces but much more prominent over Katara's expression.
"Nothing," Katara was the first to deny the obvious oddity.
"Really?" Nik broke a piece of fish and ate, "Then why am I having trouble believing you?" He questioned.
"It... really isn't anything," Suki coughed. She again glanced at Katara only for the other waterbender to look back at her as they both blushed deeper.
Even if Nik didn't question anymore, his intent gaze continued to make the other two feel more and more suppressed. Unable to bear the weight of his gaze anymore and the oppressive silence on their table, Katara finally crumbled, "She saw me naked. That's all."
Suki face-palmed while Nik rolled his eyes, "Do you think Suki doesn't share anything with me and only tell you the stuff? I know both of you freaking get ready together every morning. Liar..." he scoffed the last part as Katara looked at Suki for confirmation only to see a wry expression on the Kyoshi Warrior's painted face.
"So?" Nik questioned with an eager expression. With the free time in his hands now that he was free from training and duties for the day, he was willing to dip into whatever mess Katara and Suki felt awkward about. He may have something interesting to do is all he felt at the moment.
"I won't tell you." Katara scoffed. Now that she had broken the silence, she felt relieved enough to regain her composure.
"Is it that embarrassing?" Nik inquired with a surprised glance.
"None of your business," Katara drank her soup.
"Well, given that seeing each other naked was never the problem... did you maybe... wet your bed?" Nik questioned.
*Pufff*
*Cough*
*Cough*
Katara spurted her mouthful of soup while Suki began thumping her chest as she choked on her bite of fish, coughing relentlessly.
Nik's lips parted.
Bullseye?
"Wetting the bed? Really?" Nik chuckled, "Shouldn't waterbenders like us have more control?"
Katara's and Suki's expressions worsened.
Technically, she did wet her mattress.
And technically, Katara really didn't have control of a few things during that time.
"Stop... hah, hah, speaking!" Suki panted, chucking water from her canteen while Katara glared at him as she wiped the soup dripping from her chin, "Nothing like it happened!"
Nik's gaze said it all—
Like he would believe it now.
---
"You're not going to tell him, right?" Katara inquired softly. She lay on her mattress, which was dried, of course. The lamp was no longer alight and the water from her pouch wasn't wriggling around menacingly to find some holes to fill up.
Suki lay on her side of the mattress. Even though the two couldn't see each other due to the darkness, they could sense each other's emotions. Sighing softly, Suki shook her head, "Of course, not. Why else do you think I didn't stay with him... he would have made me talk eventually."
"Sorry..." Katara mumbled.
"It's alright," Suki suddenly chuckled.
"What's going on?" Katara inquired.
"I just remembered Rena calling you uptight this morning... Of course, I know that's not true at all. We've traveled for weeks, after all... but still, that sight would have eased all of Rena's complaints against you."
Katara clicked her tongue, "I don't normally do it..."
"With the lamp fueled? Or with the waterbending?" Suki sat up and lay on her sides to face Katara. Pursing her lips, Katara wondered if she should even reply to this question.
"Um..."
"Oh, come on! You owe me these kinds of talks!"
"Both," Katara groaned, "That was the first time I did it... that way."
Suki's eyes brightened a bit. She quickly held more of her blanket under her left armpit and leaned on her arm as she waited to hear more. Katara reluctantly shifted to face Suki, too. Now the opposite was happening with Suki being the recipient of the saucy details so she couldn't wait to find what other things Katara may have done in her free time.
"Actually," Katara began, "I wanted to see... what is so exciting about being intimate in public and that's when to burst in."
"In public?" Suki inquired.
"Like you and Nik behind the thicket," Katara admitted as Suki gulped.
"Again, you should have locked," She coughed.
"There are no locks in the wild," Katara muttered and frowned, "Wait... don't tell me. You weren't possibly excited by the thought of being found out, right?"
Suki blinked and silently shifted back in her position to sleep. Katara gasped and sat up, "You were?!"
"Nope. You're talking crazy. Goodnight."
"No, you don't!" Katara climbed on Suki and huffed, "Just how perverted are the two of you?"
Suki rolled around and pinned Katara down, scoffing, "Less than you who didn't lock her doors. You were totally flooding!"
The two continued to tussle before lying on their sides with obvious tiredness.
"Just don't tell him," Katara spoke again.
"Of course," Suki agreed, "If I did, he wouldn't let it live down. Didn't you see how much he laughed at the thought of you wetting the bed... but I don't blame him. The thought of a waterbender wetting her bed is ironic."
Katara punched Suki's shoulder.
"Ow..."
---
Nik silently sat with his legs crossed. His eyes tightly shut and his brows locked in a frown. His breathing pace was quite calm and at some point, soft whistles would naturally blow from his nostrils before the sound would get too annoying and he'd have to sniff loudly to clear or disrupt whatever caused the whistling.
When Suki isn't with him for the night, Nik tried to get more into meditation. He felt challenged for the first time in a long while. Not physically and this wasn't even a mental situation.
But discipline.
Suki repeatedly stated that discipline is necessary to make progress with training and Nik proved with his actions how serious he is about training and learning. Yet, even if he was serious about meditating, the act of staying still and in a single position for hours to come was harder than expected to achieve.
There was nothing else to do but sit in this very position and just think back on his day, evaluate his mistakes, and try not to do commit them again. Yet, he could barely last for half an hour. His legs and arms would fall numb which actually helped him stay in that position but in the end, he would somehow end up breaking the posture and open his eyes again.
"Huff..."
Nik heaved a deep sigh as he opened his eyes.
'Three times now,' Nik sighed again.
He stood up and walked out of his chambers. Before long, he had already walked onto the deck as the chilly breeze caused him to hiss softly while his shoulders trembled at the chill traveling down his back. Yet, aside from the initial assault of the cold, Nik only felt comfortable afterward as he practiced something else.
Breathing.
The booklet regarding firebending emphasized breathing greatly in the first half of the booklet. Heck, the basics did not involve any techniques but actual basics since, according to the booklet, fire is the hardest to control of the four elements and Nik could somehow understand why.
His stomach felt warm again. But it was nowhere similar to the strong connection he felt right before he claimed Suki's first night. That... heat was something else. The subsequent nights were hot and wild, yes. But it lacked the same... drive, for the lack of a better word.
Still, the warmth spread throughout his body with his stomach as the source. The chilly breeze soon felt comfortable instead as he silently gazed at the sea. There were two more waterbenders keeping a lookout but Nik didn't bother them. After all, he was merely out for fresh air.
'The tides grow higher due to the moon's gravitational pull, but here, waterbenders believe that the moon spirit actually is the first waterbender and it is because of moon spirit that they can bend water... maybe it's true. This is a different world, after all,' Nik now kept an open mind regarding these things. With everything he's been through, he wouldn't be able to act like an ignorant individual even if he wanted to. Thinking about the moon caused him to look up. The bright crescent had its lower tip hidden by clouds.
*Zzzt*
Nik frowned and looked around. The buzzing noise faded as quickly as it struck his senses.
Yet he had faced this situation enough time to understand that if what he expected was going to happen then he might as well just quickly enter his room. Stepping up his pace, Nik rushed back to his chambers, and just when he sighed, feeling relieved that nothing happened, his vision turned dark and he fell on his mattress.
It wasn't the expected darkness or the epic battle of two colors that greeted him this time. He was 'awake' and silently observing Wu. Nik knew of this location. This was none other than the spot outside the Makapu Village where he was suddenly blitzed into the Fog of Lost Souls by Wu for some cryptic message by the thing he contacted that gave him the Freedom Paradox Source.
In fact, it felt like he was disconnected from his body and viewed things from his eyes as an outsider. And behind Wu, Nik saw a terrifying figure.
It looked Humanoid but was made of branches and leaves. Its head and face covered by a horned, skull mask with horns none other than longer branches. Its eyes were hollow with two phantom blue flames blazing within.
'Who the hell is behind Wu?' Nik grew curious. The next second, he saw the Fog of Lost Souls covering his body and his vision shifted once again.
His body was in the world of mists but this time he could see what actually happened. While his mind was looped back into the darkness in that instance, Nik could now view things from someone else's point of view.
'Someone else's point of view... huh,' Nik's eyes widened at the realization but then the mist in front of him began forming letters.
Nik felt even more startled as he watched the words form and once they stopped, he read it attentively, unwilling to let go of the chance to understand what was going on with him.
— I can't tell you what's going on in front of Keeper of the Past. This is the message for you if you're lucky enough to make it till the next round of stabilization.
Almost all the Primordial Spirits wish to devour me. This mist is my only ally... you can leave this world, can't you? Do it. They are after me... and you. The quicker we leave the better!—
Nik gazed at the message and things began to click.
He was affected by something living that lay dormant within him. In fact, this contact was the only reason why he can suddenly start bending the elements and probably all four of them. The flashes of the blue/white and red colors were his point of view but that didn't mean that this individual was unaware. In fact, when Wu tried to 'help' him, it was a part of an act by this being to probably fool the other party. Although Nik had trouble believing Wu would want to harm him, now, he wouldn't put it out his list of being cautious from, at least.
While Nik revealed a confused exterior to... what he should call a spirit behind Wu, this being used the Fog of Lost Souls to craft a message and finally do something Nik had been wanting for quite a while.
It cleared things up... at least, regarding what's going on.
"Who are you?" Nik tried to speak up but his body remained silent.
He frowned again. Nik realized something.
Whatever or whoever the Primordial Spirits are, they were after this... being. By suddenly and unexpectedly getting his body invaded(?), Nik became a target, too.
Just as he was about to push for more answers, his eyes snapped open and he gasped, clutching his chest as a sharp pain shot up his torso, causing his body to spasm over his bed.
*Cough*
*Cough*
Nik coughed violently, still clutching his chest.
Thinking for a moment, he pulled out his status panel.
[Name: Nik Faran
Age: 20 (80)
Code: GC—EHG—98034
Authority Rank: 1 (5.96/100)
Paradise: Transmigration
Title: Transmigration Intern
Bloodline: Adonis' Ember (Common)
Physique: 2.3
Mental: 1.8→ 1.9
Energy: 21.6→ 23]
Nik's breathing slowly eased as he watched the change in his energy stat. The mental stat had increased within meditation sessions.
'Return? In this condition?' Nik almost shouted in frustration. He'd rather try and find a solution for what's going on instead of taking a piece of luggage in another world without understanding the actual situation. Sure, he was being chased because of whatever got within him, that he understood. But how did this entity enter him and how can it be removed?
'When the message was written, even it wasn't sure that I'd ever reach this point. Is it because of rise in the mental stat due to meditation?' Nik tried to find a reasonable explanation but he couldn't conclude anything. After all, there were too many variables.
What he now understood, however, was that should he come across any spirit... he simply shouldn't trust these supernatural existences. After all, it was highly likely that what entered him was another spirit.
"Should I ask Hama?" Nik considered as he lay down on his bed and frowned in consideration. Still, as he wondered his options, Nik fell asleep soon enough.
---
*Blub*
*Blub*
Dark purplish marsh continued to bubble ever so slightly in a world layered with the greyish sky. A thin trail led towards a giant tree with its base opened to form a deep, unending cave within the tree itself.
*Chk*
*Chk*
*Chk*
A strange figure made of branches and leaves walked up the soft trail. His foot extending to three wooden flaws made of branches left a trail of thin footsteps. Its skull face observed a giant wolf resting behind the tree on the widespread marsh as if its strange nature failed to affect the wolf at all. Its greyish fur looked strangely untouched by the mud despite being within the marsh and a strange, face-like totem could be seen on its wide back.
The figure retracted his ghastly gaze formed from a pair of two blazing blue pupils in the hollow of the eyes.
*Chrt*
A baboon sat on the nearby rock with its back against the spirit made of leaves and branches. Walking past this creature, the spirit entered the cave without any problem and an eerie cackle rang out.
"Keeper of Past, already tired of your duties that you came to visit me?"
The leaves on its body rustled and a thin arm made of branch sneaked out of the coat of leaves. The Keeper of Past silently extended his index finger and a wisp of soft white light formed a floating ball with strange scriptures running on its surface.
A pitch-black lance-like limb suddenly stabbed into this ball of light and it dissipated with even tinier particles entering the body that was attached to this limb.
"Ah... suddenly appeared within the Southern Tribe. You fear he will change the outcome... oh... Heh. It's already changed, you say? The past... hmm, by six years. I see... I see. Why not go to some primordial spirit?"
The Keeper of Past stayed silent as its leaves rustled in a strange rhythm.
"So... Tui and La's past has changed, too and they feel that it's work of this outsider and may ally themselves? The assistance of the primordial spirits would have been effective if they weren't in mortal bodies. Still, it was another outsider who came here six years ago and delayed the Avatar's return before disappearing in a week.
What makes you think this one won't leave with... that thing?"
*Rustle*
"So... you came here because I'm the only one you know of with a path to mortal world that ends up in the Northern Water Tribe, huh. I see. Very well... let's finally meet their offspring, too.
And how would you keep the Fog of Lost Souls stalled?"
*Rustle*
"Hah! Some ally it was then."
---
Days passed with the situation dubbed as 'stabilization' by the unknown spirit not occurring again. Even with constant meditation, he failed to make any contact which caused Nik to realize that meditation alone wasn't the only factor. His training, however, came to an end soon as the ship reached closer and closer to the northern tribe with the patrols of the fire nation cruisers going intense by the day.
The destination was at sight and it was time to make use of the resources at hand.
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