Chapter 60: Divergence (1)

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***

"Here you are young travelers," A middle-aged man smiled as the evening sunlight pierced through the creaks between numerous openings from the ceiling of the wooden barn. Blocks of hay stacked in the corner of it and the earthen scent still heavy within the barn.

The trio had arrived at their first temporary stop by evening and the village was quite accommodating to have them a temporary stay for some supplies. Of course, for that cheap of a price they could only afford the recently emptied farm readying to be restocked by more domestic animals that have been sold over the period.

"Thank you," Nik nodded. He was happy enough to pay that small a price. After all, his current reserves already had a few jewels and blocks of gold stolen from Ukano... technically, they should go to Michi and her family but Nik would rather not have himself outed as a thief to Michi... even if it was already an implicit and an open secret at this point between them. Not to mention the fact that Michi was quite averse to anything that has to do with her ex-husband.

The trio quickly settled in as Nik exhaled deeply, "So, it looks like what happened to us was definitely out of the ordinary and not the usual occurrence in this part of the region."

They had made some discreet inquiries once they entered the village but nothing had come to fruition.

What was strange, however, was the fact that the villagers, notably the rare few Earthbenders, actually lived alongside the foreigners— civilians of the fire nation, those who had arrived in the major continent quite a few years ago and had already settled for almost a dozen years now.

"This just sucks!" Katara grumbled. The results of their investigation were pretty simple. No one aside from them had encountered such a thing and there hadn't been any rumor or definite news of a traveler or merchant suddenly disappearing. It also had to be kept in mind that this village was within the path with greater traffic and attracted merchants almost every month.

The farming village depended on the usual staple bean rice and the rearing of the livestock.

"Well... do you feel any different?" Suki diverted the topic onto Nik while gesturing towards his eyes as Nik shrugged. Aside from the change in the pigments of his irises and the fact that he felt a tiny bit energetic compared to the self prior to the incident, there wasn't anything strange going on.

"Not really," Nik shrugged. He didn't even hear any voice after the initial few moments when on the road, making Nik chalk up the strangeness to slight hallucination, probably an after effect of the incident.

"It's still weird thinking my eyes would suddenly change," he hummed curiously and lay down a tarp before lying on it.

"Does it look good though?" He continued the question that continued to gnaw away at his thoughts.

"Really?" Suki scoffed.

Katara simply rolled her eyes. She could either get used to the increasingly shameless Nik or be on her own. The latter, at the moment, felt unsavory and nauseous for many reasons.

"We never did find anything concrete about the Makapu Village from the villagers... but the fact that there are already many Fire Nation civilians here makes it harder to believe that Makapu Village will be safe for us," Katara changed the topic.

"But you could find a teacher there so we should at least give it a try. Not to mention, we won't be alone by that time," Suki stated. It will take weeks to reach Makapu village on foot and by that point Aang and others should arrive on Appa, right?

"Hey, am I hearing things again?" Nik inquired as he sat up with a frustrated grunt.

"What are you—" Suki began with a frown but the increasingly high pitch noise made Nik unable to hear what the two were saying. His frown deepened and his expression further twisted in pain.

"Ugh--" Clutching his ears, Nik bit his lips. If that wasn't the cue of something being wrong then him suddenly falling back on the ground certainly roused Katara and Suki to quickly check on his condition.

---

Nik again fell into a familiar dream-like state. He once again saw two familiar and distinct forces struggling. One wanted to hold the other. The other one wanted to leave as quickly as possible. The struggle continued for years and the more Nik observed, the dazed he grew. His sense of self again felt protected but this time was different. He was present with a form. Looking 'down', Nik saw himself encapsulated in a violet glow and no matter how he observed the two forces, they seemed to be unable to find his presence, unlike last time.

Although he had a form, he couldn't state anything despite wanting to, and in a way, this was more painful. Thus, the lack of speech forced him to analyze the situation.

He was caught in some kind of illusion with Katara and Suki, however, his situation seems different. Not only was there an added skill, the effect of which is still vague to him, the color of his eyes has also changed which means that the mystery revolving around his situation had a physical effect. And now, he's going through bouts of dizziness and forced to watch familiar struggles...

'Familiar... but not the same... the last time something happened...'

Just when Nik recalled a blaze that seemed to have torn apart the two forces, the world around him crumbled once again and the violet glow around him seemed to have been a tiny bit reinforced.

---

"Ugh... worst dream ever... well, second worse nightmare," Nik mumbled as he got up with a grunt while rubbing his forehead as it throbbed in pain harder than his dick ever did.

It was already night and the interior of the barn was quiet aside from the soft exhalations of the duo sleeping just a bit away from him but Nik couldn't focus on any of it as he just didn't hear Suki and Katara.

*Chiiiiiiiiiiii*

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A sharp, painful whistle continued to shriek against Nik's senses as he groaned in discomfort but made sure to keep his actions short and soft, unwilling to wake the two girls from their sleep while he produced two rolls of towels and held them against his ears.

His breathing turned erratic as the sharp sound seemed to have only grown stronger and more piercing by the passage of time and it once again made him feel dizzy. But it was only at this point that the sound began to subside. It was as if...

'It stopped only when I almost lost consciousness again... is this action sentient? If yes, then who's behind all this?' Nik pursed his lips, gulping the saliva that threatened to leak to parch his dried throat as he felt distressed. From the possession of a body by a spirit of past to suddenly traveling into a world of fog... Nik expected to experience many things by sticking around, safely, if possible... but he did not expect this kind of result.

"Let's just try and sleep," Nik mumbled and lay back down as a soft exhale escaped his lips.

*Whoosh*

Nik found himself plastered against the ground as a firm but acceptable recoil pushed him back.

The recoil of what?

*Bang*

A sharp, whistling gust of wind suddenly tore through the ceiling of the barn with small pieces of rotten wood falling outwards. The loud sound instantly woke Katara and Suki as they jumped up into action.

"Who are you?!"

"Where are you?!"

Their gazes trailing towards the entrance but seeing nothing, the duo struggled against the head rush and shook their heads with a groan themselves.

"What... the hell? Wait, Nik—" Suki hurried to glance down, and matching his stunned gaze she looked confused, "Oh, you're awake... what was that?"

"You mean... what is up?" Suki heard Katara's mumble.

"This isn't time for jokes..." The auburn-headed warrior rolled her eyes and Katara shook her head in a daze.

"No, seriously, what is that up there?" Katara pointed at the hole on the ceiling, "Aside from the obvious... what I mean is... how did that happen?"

"I just woke up myself," Nik sat up, shaking his head in a mock distress while rubbing it, "What happened? Did I pass out?"

'Seriously... what the hell happened?' Nik questioned himself internally as he purposely exhaled a little louder but nothing happened, making him believe that something was seriously wrong with him.

Unable to find anything else, the duo eventually calmed down but it was already quite substantially past midnight, and after the strange incident of the ceiling blowing itself up, they did not have any mind to sleep.

"We should find a herbalist for you," Katara finally concludes after hearing Nik's side on details which he didn't go too deep about since he didn't know how to put things in words himself. On the other hand, Katara continued to explain, "Although our tribe doesn't boast great expertise in this regard, there have been rumors that herbalists can take care of many things that ordinary villagers couldn't understand.

"Hmmm... yeah..." Nik groaned with comfort, "Just don't stop doing that..."

"I understand why you want Katara to do that since your head might be in pain... but why do I have to do this?" Suki inquired with a sour expression as her hands ran up and down. Although slender, her tough callouses brought upon by training really made Nik sigh in relief.

"Of course, it helps..." Nik was insincere with words, the two could easily tell but he did pass out so they weren't too willing to not help support him.

Katara, at the moment, carefully pressed two spheres of water around Nik's temple as he rested his head on her lap while the spheres glowed softly, allowing a feeling of warmth to rush into Nik's head and surprisingly work against the aching sensation felt after the same visions of struggle. Suki, on the other hand, pressed her hands against Nik's thighs. He wasn't hurt particularly but figured that if he wants to feel perfectly rested then asking for the massage now would be the best opportunity for him.

"You know, we could train since we're already awake," Suki sighed. She had been wanting to exert herself since yesterday's events. Although they were more and more sure that what happened to them was merely an illusion, Nik's sudden bouts of dizziness didn't help the cause and made them feel worried.

Unlike Nik, the two are denizens of this world and have heard all sorts of rumors and legends and they have seen more supernatural things with a short trip with the Avatar than they had hoped to in a lifetime so this caused Katara to speak about a herbalist.

Nik didn't reply to Suki's suggestion. If he did, he would want to stop wasting time, too. But the feeling he was going through was the same as getting up from the bed after a good night's sleep—

You know you've had enough but it still won't stop you from wanting more.

"Alright, this should do it," Katara finally stopped as Nik looked at her, "Are you sure? I think I might need some more—"

"Oh, look at that, your legs feel ready for a workout, too," Suki was quick to grasp the opportunity and she gave Katara a thumbs-up. Clearly, while Nik rested with his eyes closed, the two girls were sure to collude and figure out the best time to finally put an end to his pitying disguise. After all, if he can act so brazenly then surely he wouldn't be feeling sick anymore and even Katara knew that while herbs could work wonders, physical exercise is also known to be a natural cure and prevention to many problems.

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