Chapter 12: Ship on the sea.

Ty Lee came out of the alley just as face-bandaged as Michael – although her bandage was saggy and too tight in several places at the same time – which was probably a good idea, because she still has a life outside of communicating with a Russian alcoholic. Michael looked at her, wondered where she got the bandages and turned around to get away from this damned city. He didn't want to know what would happen when the soldiers realized that his threats to cripple them carried less weight than a feather. Oh, he knew exactly how to make cripple people, just for this they should preferably stand without movement and armor for a couple of minutes. One of the disadvantages of working as a torturer is that all your targets sit still and twitch only from pain.

Ty Lee tossed the bag into his hands and Michael gave her a barely perceptible nod; it wouldn't be nice to go out of character when they were still being watched. "Let's move to the forest, there will be more cover."

Together they ran into the woods and in just five minutes they were deep enough not to worry about the pursuers. Michael was sure that none of the soldiers could read footprints, only those who go to the front line are taught this. He sat down near one of the trees and noticed Ty Lee sat next to him, but the girl wasn't quite there.

Her eyes weren't focused, as if she was trying to look at something that was not in front of her, her hands were trembling a little, and a single drop of sweat was running down her forehead. Never in her life could she even imagine that her Nation would be willing to throw innocent people into a fire just to find one person. 'Thank God Azula isn't like that… right?'

"So, what are you going to do?" Michael asked gently and grimaced as Ty Lee's head snapped in his direction.

"Huh?" She tilted her head and began to unwind the bandages around her face. "I'll go back to the circus, of course, they're still waiting for me there. Why do you ask?"

Michael sighed heavily and began to unwind his face. He didn't know how a girl who grew up in a militaristic state could be so naive.

"If no one noticed you last night, it would be a miracle. You helped the enemy of the Fire Nation sabotage their soldiers. That's not to mention the rest of what we most likely did last night." He muttered.

Ty Lee turned pale and clenched her fists. She looked fearfully towards the city and swallowed hard. "...I'll go back to the circus and see if anyone saw me. They know me, nobody would think that I volunteered to help attack the Fire Nation." She nodded to herself, but Michael saw that she was saying it more to convince herself.

Ty Lee was a member of a Noble family – Ty family – one of the seven sisters of septuplets. How her mother survived that childbirth, Michael did not know, but his respect for this woman was incredible. 'If she survived, and that's a big if…'

It also helped Ty Lee that she was the best friend of Azula, the princess of the Fire Nation, since childhood. So, no one would be able to throw her in jail, and they won't even try to execute her for treason. Of course, Michael didn't say any of this out loud, he shouldn't know something so personal about the girl he met just last night.

'Now that I think about it, why would she even agree to go out and fuck around in the city with a complete stranger? Even I doubt she's naive enough to go to a bar with anyone the first time they meet. Something's wrong here…' He frowned and scratched his chin. Michael felt that he was missing something, but he knew that now he wouldn't understand what it was. 'Hopefully it's not the Spirits this time.'

"Well, then I'll say go for it. I'll wait for you here if you've been spotted. Worst case, I'll help you." He continued to remove the bandages from his body.

Ty Lee looked at him with an undecided look, not knowing exactly how she should answer. "... I don't know if I should thank you, because of you I'm in this position."

Michael just sighed heavily; he's been doing that a lot lately. "I suppose you're right. For all that's worth, I'm sorry." He spoke sincerely.

Ty Lee nodded and went to investigate the situation at the circus, leaving Michael alone with his thoughts – which was rarely a good idea.

Luckily, Michael had a book to keep him busy until his new friend returned, so he took it out of his bag and read the title on the spine.

{Warning for those who seek. By K.}

"Seek what?" He asked no one in particular.

{To whoever opens this book: I truly pity you.}

{If you are so desperate that you are ready to leave this world for the unknown, well, I am not the one who can say that this is a terrible idea, because I seek for the same thing as you. My reasons for searching will remain mine, as will yours, here I will write everything I have found up to this point about the path out of this world.}

Michael stared. He looked at the pages of the book and couldn't believe his eyes. The fox gave him the most necessary book in order to find a passage to the new world, but why? Michael strongly doubted that the huge fucking owl wanted to help him out of the kindness of his – its? – heart. He flipped through the entire book to check its condition and noticed that the last few pages had been torn out.

"Of course, nothing can be that simple." He muttered and felt his right eye twitch.

{I began my research in ancient records about Avatars and their deeds, for it is the Avatar that serves as a link between our world and the world of Spirits. Unfortunately, I found only vague information that once our world coexisted with the Spirit World and was separated by the first Avatar. Many assume that he connected the South and North Poles to achieve this, but I have little faith that the very first Avatar was capable of moving entire continent. Maybe the legends are talking about something else…}

{My research in the ancient libraries did not give the expected result. Every time I got close to even a drop of information, the recordings got too maddening, or just stopped. I believe that anyone who discovers a passage to other worlds loses their mind, and I pray to the Spirits that the same fate would not overtake me.}

{My search for a way out began years ago…}

"Fuck, he's stalling even in the book? If I find out who K is, I will resurrect him from the dead and kick him in the balls."

---

Michael booked the book cover to cover, but didn't find anything really helpful. Not knowing what to do, he read the book again and noticed several oddities. Some of the words in the book were written differently from others, it was not noticeable at first glance, but a trained eye will see it immediately. Somewhere sentences were written with too large empty spaces between them, and some words were simply spelled wrong.

It was not new for thieves to use a code to encrypt messages in text, but what Michael read was simply insulting. Giving such an obvious clue to anyone who might read this book was simply unforgivable in his eyes.

"That's fourth grader shit… A book on Energy Bending would have helped me more." He muttered and began to write down the words in his notebook.

What Michael didn't know was that the book was written in several old languages ​​that were only used by isolated tribes. An ordinary person, in order to solve the code on the book, would first need to translate it, which is a difficult task in itself, and only then look for the truth within the truth. Somewhere in the grave, the unnamed K wept tears of blood.

Sometimes the ability to speak and read all the languages ​​of the universe was much more useful than it seemed at first glance.

Michael didn't know how long it took him to decipher, but he didn't have time to finish. Ty Lee returned bouncing on the road with a huge smile on her face, her hands were behind her back and it was obvious that she was holding something.

"Hello there, my hiding-from-the-Fire-Nation friend! You'll never guess what happened!" She plopped down next to him, but put whatever was behind her out of sight of Michael. She looked much happier now, so he guessed that she had kept her place in the circus.

"I take it your job is safe?" He asked with a smile.

"Yep! Azu was worried when I didn't come back last night, but decided that I just forgot that I had to go back. I even met a strange lady who gave me a present for you!"

Michael blinked. He imagined many things that could happen after Ty Lee returned to the city, but not that she would become a courier for a strange lady. "I– what?"

"Yeah, she was a little vague about how you two know each other, and when I asked her name, she said that she wished to remained nameless. Weird, right?" Ty Lee pulled out a small box from behind her back and placed it in Michael's hands. He just looked at the box with confusion on his face.

The box in his hand couldn't be bigger than his fist, it was made of wood, if he had to guess, and lined with velvet. Michael suddenly felt like he was about to be proposed to, but quickly pushed the thought out of his head.

"Nameless?" He felt his head begin to hurt. "Please don't take more things from strangers when you don't know their intentions." His fingers had already begun to open the box.

"She seemed nice." Ty Lee muttered and rested her chin on his shoulder to see what was in the box. When Michael did open the box, they both came face to face with a maple leaf.

And suddenly, Michael could feel the wind in his hair again. All he had to do was think, and the howling winds would once again obey his wishes.

"Fuck me." Michael muttered.

And suddenly, Michael was hit by hundreds of sensations. The smell of the forest, the dry earth, the trees, even Ty Lee's soap mixed with her sweat from their impromptu run. He felt the air in his hair and suddenly realized that he could control it again.

The howling winds obeyed his will again and Michael felt raw fury in his veins.

"That doesn't make any fucking sense!" Michael screamed and jumped to his feet.  The box fell to the ground and slammed shut with a loud click. Ty Lee winced at his sudden outburst of emotion, but didn't move, only watching as Michael started pacing back and forth.

'First some strange spirit blocking my Bending and then all of a sudden I get it back even stronger? Who the hell would believe this nonsense?!' He punched a tree that was in the way and did not even flinch when his fist sank a few centimeters into the trunk.

'If I unlocked Waterbending first after that octopus' advice, then what happened now?!' Another punch. 'How could one leaf help?!' And another. 'That's why I hate gods, fucking arrogant bastards who don't even think to explain anything!' He hit the tree again, but this time his fist went right through the trunk. Michael sighed heavily and slowly pulled his hand out of the hole and looked at the splinters in his bloody fist with a twitching eye.

'The Nameless Goddess definitely helped me with this, but why? How? I thought gods couldn't interfere in the mortal world? How the Mother of Faces or someone else of her caliber didn't notice her interference?' He stopped at the thought and felt a cold, sticky terror crawls up his back. "They don't know about me." He muttered. "They don't, or I would be already dead. But how? The Elder Air Spirit knows, but not them."

He knew that the Spirits didn't need more trouble than they had now, and that even the most peaceful spirit would want to get rid of him once they knew he was responsible for the cracks in reality. He's been lucky up to this point, but what happens when he meets something much stronger than him? Now he only had a couple of aces up his sleeve and was confident in his ability to survive, but he forgot a very important thing. The world of Avatar was much larger than it was shown in the cartoon.

There could be a War Spirit here that would find him and crush his skull with one hook, and that was a very possible thing. Michael began to breathe heavily and the smells intensified, he could even smell the burnt wood that lay in the city. But things got much worse when he started to HEAR.

The rustling of leaves is too loud, the steps of animals in the depths of the forest. Something on four legs jumped over a hole to catch up with its prey– a bird landed on a branch to feed its chicks– worms under his feet dug a passage for themselves to find water – Michael could hear his heart pumping blood through his veins. And everything was so loud loud loud loud–

Why did he choose the world of Avatar? He knew that the Human World is in close contact with the Spirits. The same Spirits that have much more power than Benders, Spirits that can grow to the size of islands, Spirits that can take his soul and crush until there is not even a fragment left of it. Of course, if they manage to snatch his soul from the clutches of the Void take him.

Ty Lee watched Michael with growing concern. She'd never seen anyone go from rage to terror so quickly – not even Zuko when she and Azula played pranks on him. She approached him from the front so that he could see her every move. Michael's head immediately snapped in her direction and it seemed to Ty Lee that he had stopped breathing.

"Michael?" She asked gently, but he still grimaced. "Are you alight? Is there anything I can do to help?"

Michael focused all his attention on Ty Lee and felt the sounds and smells slowly fade into the background. He wasn't sure how to control his newly discovered hypersensitivity, but he remembered the method Superman used. He took a couple of hesitant steps towards Ty Lee and scooped her up in his arms. She squeaked as her feet lifted off the ground and she threw her arms around Michael's neck to keep herself from falling.

'Focus on her, imagine that she is an island in an endless ocean and there is nothing else around. Her breathing, her heartbeat, the smell of her hair…' Michael buried his face in her hair and closed his eyes to focus. 'Lilies? No, there are no lilies in this world, is there? Something else.'

Slowly but surely, Michael hammered his feelings back down to manageable levels. It wasn't as difficult as he imagined, but the very thought that something like this could happen again frightened him – who in their right mind would want to be hit by a wave of information?

"Thank you…" He said softly and lowered Ty Lee to the ground.

"What was that?"

Michael frowned and looked down at the innocent looking box on the ground. "This is a message from my… friend. She gave me back something that should never have been returned to me. At least not like that."

Ty Lee didn't exactly like his non-answer, but she just shrugged and patted his shoulder. "Maybe it's for the best? How would you get that – well, whatever she got back – without her help?"

This made Michael think. But no matter how long the gears in his head were spinning, he couldn't think of a way to get his Airbending back. "Some serious soul searching, I believe." He answered with a serious face.

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Bending arts were a strange thing, especially when someone's Bending was removed. The Avatar is technically immune to that technique, but normal people couldn't just go and get their powers back. At least not in the same way that the Avatar did. Michael believed that he regained his Waterbending due to a better understanding of the element, but he had no idea how to better understand the air.

Ty Lee sagely nodded and put her hands behind her back. "Sometimes that's exactly what you need. Through soul searching, I found out where I belong in the world, and from the day I came to the circus my aura has been pink!"

Knowing bits and pieces of Ty Lee's past from the show, Michael wasn't surprised at all. He didn't know and could never know exactly what it felt like to live in the shadow of six sisters, but he could understand where Ty Lee's desire to shine came from. She was happier here than with Azula and Mai, or with her family.

And the knowledge that she would have to travel with Azula again hurt Michael.

After talking for a couple more minutes, Michael said goodbye to Ty Lee and promised that they would meet again. The girl was a little upset by his departure, but she understood that he had unfinished business. Having collected his things – and putting the box deep into the bag – Michael went towards the North Pole once again. And it took him two weeks to get to the sea.

Strange as it was, he didn't even run into the passing Fire Nation patrols. If it were not for the rare villages in which he bought provisions, Michael would have thought that he had again fallen into the Spirit World. His nerves were taut as a string because of the sudden lull.

In his life, every time life gives him a break, it's abruptly interrupted by a sharp kick in the teeth. He liked his teeth and would have preferred to leave them intact.

But while all was quiet, he put his time to good use. He deciphered the message from "K" and didn't like what he read at all – but that's a story for another time.

When Michael wasn't reading, he tried to recreate different techniques from anime with Waterbending and Airbending. Zabuza was his main inspiration – he was never able to watch the anime beyond the Chunin exams arc, the fillers were too much for him – so he focused on his techniques. Of course, there were techniques that he saw in clips on the Internet, but without knowing exactly how they worked, they were more difficult to recreate.

"Why are they shouting the names of their techniques all the time?" Michael kicked a rock in the road and watched as it flew into the ditch. A gust of wind ruffled his hair and he had to wrap himself deeper in his cloak, the closer he came to the north, the colder it became. "Aren't ninja supposed to be stealthy? Although in Naruto they are more like elite mercenaries than ninja."

His cloak was invariably black, given to him personally by Death, but under it he wore stolen clothes of the Earth Kingdom. The combination of dark green and black was quite stylish in his multicolored eyes. His boots were already worn out enough that he planned to steal a new pair in the next city. Michael took a deep breath and smelled sea salt from the north, a wide smile appeared on his face and he quickened his pace.

"Haa~ I hope I can learn a couple of new songs." He took a couple more steps and stopped at the entrance to the port city.

The city breathed life. People walked between docks and ships, carrying boxes and supplies for sailing. Someone shouted orders to hurry up, and someone obeyed these orders. Of course, in this lively atmosphere, Michael didn't miss the chance to swipe a couple of wallets.

"Maybe I need larger targets…" He tapped his chin and shrugged. "Stealing later. War first."

Michael walked closer to the docks and looked at the ships preparing to sail. But one thing caught his attention… A very special ship with an interesting captain.

"Hurry up! One-two, one-two, one-two! We're leaving in an hour, or my name isn't Smollett!" A man with broad shoulders and a big nose shouted from the side of the ship. "I will tell you honestly, this voyage will be the last for our team, but we will leave with honor!"

The ship's crew responded with a confident "sir, yes sir!" and speed up their work.

Michael approached the ship and called the captain. "Captain Smollet, sir!" The Captan turned his head towards the newcomer and nodded, giving him permission to speak. 'Damn, apparently the old man's lessons in etiquette really came in handy.' "May I ask the purpose of your voyage?"

"Well, we are carrying provisions and weapons for the Northern Water Tribe. Unfortunately, the waters are too rough at this time and we have a high chance of dying at sea." His eyes narrowed and he looked Michael up and down. "To whom do I have the honor of speaking?"

Michael smiled. "Michael Cordato, sir. My path also leads me to the Northern Tribe, so I'm looking for someone who can take me on a ship. But as I see it, only your crew is ready to travel right now."

Smollett nodded and considered, he scratched his chin and looked at Michael again. "You look like a fighter, boy. Tell me, if I take you on board, will you be ready to work?"

"Yes sir. I'm used to hard work and I know what the sea can be like." Michael took out his new – stolen – flask of water and opened it. "And I can help your voyage much more than the average person." He raised his hand and the water from the flask followed his movements.

If Smollett was surprised, he didn't show it.  He just silently looked at Michael for a couple more seconds and nodded to himself. "Then welcome aboard, Mr. Cordato. I will introduce you to our Waterbenders in the crew. One can never be prepared enough for the dangers of the sea."

"Just Michael is enough." He said and went to the bar leading to the ship. But before he could step on with his left foot, he stopped and stepped on board with his right. Seeing that Smollett raised an eyebrow at his actions, he just shrugged. "It was considered bad luck in my family to step on board with your left foot."

Smollett frowned but accepted his explanation. "You can leave your things in the cabins for the crew. Then help load the supplies aboard, I suspect we'll want to leave as soon as possible."

Michael threw his things into the cabin below the deck and rolled up his sleeves. "Well, even a thief has to do honest work sometimes." He chuckled and began to help the crew.

In an hour, as Smollett had said, they were ready to sail. So, opening the sails, the ship went to the North. Michael stood on deck in front of Smollett and his men, to be more precise, in front of the two Waterbenders who were a part of the crew.

They were either close brothers or twins because they looked identical. Both were tanned by the sun and withered by the wind, but it was clear that they stood confidently on board the ship, as if they were born here. Even the vertical scars on their cheeks were the same.

"Michael, it is my honor to introduce you to Han and Kahn, brothers from the North. You will take turns pushing Wodaniel north, your task is not speed, but duration." Smollett turned to his brothers and put his hands on their shoulders. "I leave our newcomer in your capable hands."

Han and Kahn looked at Michael without blinking until the brother on the left began to speak. "Are you strong enough to move an entire ship?"

Michael looked around and felt the water that surrounded the ship. Previously, he would not have been able to do more than a small push, but now he could most likely lift the ship with the crew into the sky and tear it in half. "Yes. If the wind is on our side, we'll get to the North this week."

The brothers looked at each other, speaking with their eyes. "Well, if you're telling the truth, then we're grateful. Captain Smollett always worries that the North will starve at this time of year due to lack of supplies." Han sighed wearily and shook his head. "He is an honest and direct man, but he can never leave people in need. My brother and I joined in to help with this. Spirits know that without us this vessel would have sunk a dozen times already."

"He sounds like a good man." Michael said honestly.

"He is, but he has his flaws. Well, less talk, more work." The brothers went to the back of the ship and stood upright. "Brace yourselves!" They shouted together and the ship accelerated sharply.

Michael looked around in amazement as the crew continued to work as if it were the most common event in the world. 'To move a ship of that weight, with a crew and supplies… Damn, those two are strong.'

"Well, I'll go help the cook." Michael muttered and went below deck. But for some reason he couldn't stop thinking about Smollett's words. "Rough water, aye?"

Michael looked over the side of the ship at the troubled waters and frowned. The first two days on the ship went off without a hitch, but pretty soon the clouds on the horizon began to turn black. If earlier he had doubts about rough waters, now he was sure that Smollett was well aware of the approaching storm.

Before the start of winter, the North always had problems with provisions. They had plenty of fish and algae, but people need variety in their diet to survive. So, rice, meat, and many other products had to be delivered by sea. Food was sometimes so scarce that even the family of the Head of the Tribe had to eat only seaweed.

Michael didn't think that North had such problems, but when he thought about it, it seemed logical. Where can you grow enough grain in the glaciers to feed an entire city? Even with Waterbending, it was difficult, especially considering that in this world, crops growing techniques were… Well, not bad, just outdated from his point of view.

The Waterbenders brothers and Michael changed every three hours to give each other a rest. The night shifts were longer but much quieter because all they had to do was nudge the ship in the right direction and report changes in the sea that only the Waterbenders could feel. For example, the approach of underwater animals.

"Something big is moving under the ship." Michael said one night. "It… God, it's half the size of a ship and it's only a part of its body." Smollett just nodded and didn't even look in his direction. "She is the protector of the Northern Shores of the Earth Kingdom. We don't know who it is, but the sailors named her Donna, mother of the North."

"Donna?" Michael asked in shock.

"Don't ask me. I didn't give that name, though it's appropriate for a gentle mother who looks after her children." He chuckled. It was a strange sound, dry and dead, as if Smollett wasn't used to laughing. "And these same people calling the Father of all Seas – Kraken. What a joke."

Michael did not like the idea that there could be something more dangerous and aggressive in the sea than the Lion-turtle. God knows the Sea Serpents were bad enough. If there was also a Kraken here, then he would have to double his search for the World Gate, because what he didn't want to deal with was the deep-sea monsters.

"That's why the Fire Nation doesn't try to clamp down on the Kingdom, they don't have access to the sea from the North, among other things." Smollett ignored Michael's silent shock and continued speaking. "I don't know why Donna lets them get so close to the North anyway. I think it would be better if she kept them within their island. Anything is better than this war…"

After that, only groups of small fish swam under the ship.

The crew on the ship looked at the blackening sky with wariness, everyone knew perfectly well that now their chances of reaching the North were much greater than at the beginning of their departure. With three strong Waterbenders on board, they could protect themselves from the waves, but the wind was still a problem.

Luckily for oblivious sailors, Michael was discreetly pushing the wind into the ship's sails and was going to use his Airbending to help keep the ship from sinking. Discreetly, of course.

But right now, he was working on the Water Clone technique, knowing that it would be quite useful in the future. To begin with, he gathered enough water to create the Clone's body and gave it the shape of a human. The first step to create a new technique is understanding, so he tried to understand how his Chi could recreate the effects of Chakra. Sitting in the hold, he heard the rhythmic tapping of rain and frowned. He immediately evaporated the water for the Clone and went up on deck to watch the storm begin.

As soon as he stepped onto the deck, he immediately noticed that almost the entire crew was looking at the oncoming storm, although it could hardly be called a simple storm. The rain was so heavy that at first Michael thought he was looking at the wall, but then the sky was illuminated by flashes of lightning, and he suddenly felt dread pooling deep in his stomach.

"... Why did I think it was a good idea?"

Smollett, seeing the doubt in his team's eyes, cleared his throat and got people's attention.

"Prepare for the storm. Get planks for a quick fix, if there's not enough, then break the crates we carry provisions in. We'll leave water problems to our Waterbenders, so you don't have to worry about that." Michael, Han and Khan nodded.

The brothers turned to Michael and walked away from the main crew to discuss their strategy.

"Khan and I will watch the bow of the ship, and you will stand behind and monitor breakdowns and possible falls overboard." Khan couldn't get the frown off his face.

"Two pairs of eyes are better than one, so don't take it personally. If someone can't keep up with fixing the ship, then freeze the holes. No one knows how bad this storm can be." Khan looked towards the approaching storm. "I don't think I've ever seen the sea so angry… Like it wants anyone who dares to enter the storm to die."

Michael grimaced, but thankfully his companions didn't notice. There was always a chance this storm wasn't so terrible at first, and it wasn't until Michael stepped aboard the ship that some Spirit decided to make it a real horror.

"Gentlemen! If we don't survive this voyage, then let me tell you the truth! It was an honor to serve with you in this cursed sea, hahaha!" Smollett laughed in his dry voice and Michael saw Han and Khan twitch.

"Oh no… We'll definitely survive now." Khan muttered.

"What?" Michael looked at him like he was an idiot. "Why are you saying it like it's bad?"

This time Han answered him "Smollett… When he laughs like that, it means that he is praying to the Spirit of the sea. But that Spirit always asks for a fee after that. A blood fee that Smollett won't be able to pay in full this time."

Michael was silent for a long time, but one question was on the tip of his tongue. "What is the name of this Spirit?"

A gust of wind whipped across their faces, and Michael had to start using his Waterbending sooner than he thought. Suddenly it seemed that the ship was surrounded by an invisible sphere on which water flowed and fell into the ocean. The brothers looked at each other, but said nothing to his sudden actions.

"Egir. His name is Egir."

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