Chapter 105: The Northern Water Tribe (1)

Chapter 105: The Northern Water Tribe (1)Chapter 105: The Northern Water Tribe (1)

Shoutout to Cesar A. Bailon Segura and Gabriel Bahia Machado Coelho~!

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***

Nik was left alone in the igloo as he pondered over everything Aang said. The two soon left to take a breath of fresh and chilled air outside while he recalled Aang's words and found it quite reasonable.

'Waterbending, aside from a simple manipulation of water or blood in veins, can be used to heal others... And now Aang has an intuition to suspect that such sub-bending techniques are also true to Firebending and Earthbending but they are much too rare, like Lava Bending. So, the two methods are to research Earthbending and Firebending.

At the moment only Aang, Sokka... and countless spirits after Mokshi know that I can bend multiple elements. But... there is something greater hidden within this fusion. Aang can connect with his past life... he was quite thorough in his explanation of how he understood about Mokshi and Raava...

Spirit of Order Raava and Spirit of Chaos Vaatu, huh...'

Nik had his hands under his head as he silently closed his eyes. He wanted to try meditating again and tap into Mokshi's memories or something like that. There was a selfish wish for his stats to grow once again as he was beginning to feel how great of a boost it was to his 'mental' stat by 0.5 points, bringing it to a total of 2.4 points.

However, it would seem that even with all the boost in the world, no matter how much he focused on Mokshi's words, there needed to be an initiation from his 'other half', too, to have some semblance of communication with it. The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))

Still, Nik didn't just give up. He didn't have anything else to do...

Except...

After some time passed, Nik finally recalled something he had stored temporarily for later inspection.

A dark, wooden mask appeared in Nik's hand as he brought it closer to his face for inspection.

The inner and the outer side was almost too smooth with only slight contours of the face visible and no specific indentions for the eyes, nose, and mouth. The tiny, adventurous side of his wanted to give in to the curiosity and try wearing the mask but as they say— Curiosity killed the cat. With not so great effort, reason managed to trump over the wonders of the unknown. Nik was now painfully made aware of how dangerous the spirits of this world can be.

Aside from the initial inspection, Nik found nothing noteworthy from this mask but Aang said that it was what Koh left before disappearing. Thinking about various things Koh was capable of achieving... Nik was now leaning towards just burying the mask somewhere or setting it on fire but even that didn't feel right in the end...

'My first... lucky victory,' Nik realized the importance that the mask held.

A trophy if nothing else.

Putting away the mask once again, Nik decided to try looking into it only after he had fully recovered and gotten stronger. More so than now. This world already gave him one such opportunity in the form of Mokshi and Nik simply didn't want to miss out on it because of accompanying troubles.

With nothing more to do, Nik closed his eyes and began to rest once again. His thoughts drifted into a welcomed nap as he skipped a better half of the day.

---

"Good to see you up and running, child," Hama was the first to chuckle at her own joke followed by a snicker from Nik as he walked using two ice poles under his pits.

"Your teachings tend to keep people alive," Nik replied as he leaned against the surface of the igloo instead of taking a seat. Seeing this, out of the three other individuals present, Pakku waterbent and formed an icy chair on which Yoki promptly placed a rug and helped Nik sit down as the youth grunted in obvious pain while trying to keep his left leg straight.

Only Hama, Pakku, Yoki, and Nik were present at the moment.

"Aang told us that he only has some idea on how to heal your leg but before that, many things indicate that he first master the other elements," Pakku began, "So, you must have patience, Nik. However, I feel that pinning all our hopes on Aang is just... not the honorable thing to do. We have discussed a few things that we would like you to know."

"First thing," Yoki began as he found Pakku giving him the signal with his eyes, "We would like to regroup with those who are still willing to overthrow Hahn because of his cowardice and traitorous actions during the war. But we can only send a few individuals at best who have varying levels of expertise that stand out compared to the rest.

And the second thing is that even if Aang said that he may be able to heal you, we believe that there may also be hope within the Northern Tribe. Our tribe is a pool of culture and legends. Rena being able to think of the menacing Face Stealer Koh because of her ancestry is one such example. It is only right to try and find a method in the tribe."

Nik nodded. They were right. In reality, Nik never pinned his hopes on Aang. He knew better than that through firsthand experience. And if there is a chance that the water tribe may hold some method to heal his knee, Nik wanted to give it a shot.

"So, am I being moved to the Tribe?" Nik inquired finally as Hama nodded.

"This..." Aang grew silent for a moment.

"Didn't you say firebending is one of the techniques that have crucial hints in getting myself healed? If I'm being selfish about it... I want to recover. While I'm going to try and find a method in the Northern Tribe, help me out by mastering the elements quicker. That way, I can learn things from you directly," Nik smiled.

"Well... I've never taught anyone..." Aang scratched his head with an embarrassed smile.

"Let this be the start then," Nik waved the papers Aang had prepared with Sokka as the boy nodded with a gleeful smile.

"And do keep this between us three... I don't want to get more hunted than I already am," Nik chuckled.

"You just jinxed yourself," Sokka pursed his lips as Nik rolled his eyes.

"And... our spar will be postponed until you heal, huh," Sokka glanced at Nik's bandaged leg with sadness flashing across his expression only for a second, "Of course, by that time, I would be an even better warrior."

"We'll see." Inspired by Bumi, Nik suddenly waterbent an ice crutch for his left leg. A little relieved, Nik looked at the duo, "Are you two coming out?"

"Yeah, we were just waiting for you to wake up so that Aang could hand you the training methods," Sokka stood up alongside Aang as they walked out.

"Although, I can't believe we will finally be rid of Mai... thank god," Sokka muttered.

"Thank the spirits indeed," Aang sucked in a breath of cold air, "Tom-Tom and I can finally play... all he did was get forced into training with her before."

"I think that's sweet," Nik replied, "At least, Tom will be able to keep up... it's simply better to be prepared than let the situation itself decide the consequences."

"You're only saying this because you don't know her," Sokka scoffed with a dark expression touching his face.

Nik still kept to his opinion. Even if he didn't have any siblings, he had known individuals his age that went through the same thing as him and understood that some people can be a bit odd or even rude while still possessing a rather soft side secretly.

---

"All of these?"

Tom-Tom gaped in shock as Mai continued to move around him. He could feel her hands expertly moving over his wrists as she buckled up the guard and stated, "The cold will cause the notches to jam up so be sure to not force the locks but rub them for a few seconds instead.

She then bent down and strapped all of her knives around Tom's hands and legs while adding, "I will be keeping a count of inventory. Next time we meet, if any needle or blade is lost, I will force you back to Mom."

Tom nodded in a hurry but couldn't help inquire, "What would you use?"

"Anything that I can find. Aren't I traveling with two waterbenders? They can fashion something for me."

"I thought there were three waterbenders. Old Man Pakku, Katara, and Nik." Tom-Tom tilted his head curiously.

"That cowar...— That cripple?" Mai scoffed, changing her opinion of Nik but he wouldn't be sure if it was better should he hear it.

"Well, he can still waterbend, right?" Tom-Tom shrugged.

"Whatever." Brushing past the topic, Mai looked at Tom-Tom intently. Her tawny eyes held indescribable emotions that even Tom-Tom couldn't understand. Seeing his clueless expression, her lips quirked up just by a tiny bit, "Stay safe... and train constantly until you can hit 50 bullseyes in a row."

Not waiting for a reply, Mai turned around but just before she could walk out, her body stiffened momentarily as Tom-Tom was quick to hug her from behind and bury his face in her back, "Mai... you, too."

"I can hit 100 bullseyes without even looking," Mai scoffed and shoved Tom-Tom away as he groaned, "No, that's not what I meant..." Blushing and feeling a little embarrassed, he finally blurted, "You, too... stay safe or I'm telling mom!"

Mai looked at her brother until he began to feel fear once again grip his heart. Expecting a sudden strike in the form of training, he prepared himself but nothing could have prepared him for the scare of his life.

"Go ahead, tell mom. To just let you know... your bottoms will be red when you return."

Tom-Tom: "?!"

Expertly hiding her joy under the mask of indifference as she saw the troubled expression of her brother's and feeling quite gratified by his concern even after what she put him through, Mai readied herself to settle a score she wanted to be done for quite some time now as it strangely made her feel troubled constantly.