Being home was wonderful — for several days straight, all I did was rest and spend time with Yue. As my pardon, she asked me to start teaching her waterbending. I didn't tell her that I was already planning to begin her training soon anyway...
Yue's talent in waterbending was colossal — it didn't match mine, but it was definitely several times better than ordinary benders. Essentially, she could have started training on her own, but to increase the efficiency of our time spent, we decided to practice together. Plus, it was an excellent opportunity for her to spend more time with me.
After that conversation about our spiritual connection, Yue — with my permission and under my supervision — began experimenting with this bond. During her research, she discovered that when lacking her own energy, she could borrow mine. Of course, this was only possible when I wasn't too far from her. This meant she could train until she dropped, but practicing bending more than necessary was still harmful.
My higher-quality energy, when used for extended periods, destabilizes her energy system. But in small doses, such practice would only benefit her — her own energy would gradually try to catch up to the characteristics of mine. A kind of dual cultivation...
Another feature of our connection was its gradual development, transitioning to another, higher level. Last week, when she couldn't find me, Yue tried to reach me through her emotions. She attempted to at least locate my position, which naturally failed due to the distance, but this gave an unexpected result. With my return, when we both simultaneously concentrated on the connection, full telepathic communication became possible — where every sentence and word could be emphasized with some feeling. This type of communication was no worse than simple conversation.
A thought came to mind that simply wouldn't leave. What if I gave a piece of myself to someone else? Would this turn an ordinary person into a bender? Would it awaken the gift?
In Yue's situation, many different factors played a role. First, we're close relatives, so our energies don't differ greatly. Second, at that time she was an infant, meaning her energy should have been malleable. And most importantly — all her ancestors were from the Water Tribe. My energy consists of neutral and water energy, so my element must be considered too.
I think if I had given part of myself to a native Fire Nation citizen, they probably wouldn't have awakened waterbending. This deserves serious thought — I'm ready to go without waterbending for the sake of strengthening my circle. Hmm, I could give my particle to Kaya. After all, she gave birth to Katara, who will be a future bender, meaning she herself is close to awakening the gift.
No irreversible consequences were observed after Yue's birth. So it seems I definitely didn't give away a piece of my soul — if I had done something like that, the situation would have been much, much worse. If I recall, at that time my sources were stabilizing, but due to my actions, this process was delayed by another year.
Most likely, I shared a particle of my bending gift... About a year went into its complete restoration, but I must consider that then the sources weren't even activated. Now, having a medium spirit rank and fully activated sources, this procedure should take much less time. For me, this is a profitable exchange — I just need to open the first chakra so I won't be completely defenseless if I decide to do such a thing.
One day, we discussed with my parents the approximate schedule of my trips to the Southern Water Tribe. They asked me to stay home this month, and starting next month, it was decided to visit the other pole at least several times a month. Most likely, I'll go there for a day or two each week. I could go more often, but it's better to limit myself in advance so there's time left for mastering the element and my bloodbending experiments, which I want to start conducting within the next month.
Today I need to finish all my business — tomorrow I'm already heading to the South Pole. I should also remember to take some small creatures with me. I think over time I'll manage to reduce energy consumption to protect not only myself during the transition.
***
This month was very productive in terms of improving my healing skills. Back in the Southern Water Tribe, when I examined each resident, I managed to notice ailments that, if not healed in time, could develop into more serious forms of disease in the future. In the Northern Pole, they're used to going to healers only when it's absolutely unbearable. I think the northern pole residents will have no fewer ailments than I found among our southern brothers...
Coming to the Healing Huts, under the observation of more senior and experienced colleagues, I was able to prove my belonging to those healing masters who can treat the most severe and difficult injuries. This was another fat plus to my reputation.
The thought of insufficient practice in healing led me to mass preventive treatment of the population. In these few days since I became, one could say, a senior healer, only three people with serious injuries visited us — this was very little for my development.
I had to get creative and call a meeting where I raised this issue so it could be resolved quickly. For this, I decided to conduct a small demonstration — I know how this power apparatus works. Until it gets going, until they chew over everything, months might pass.
Choosing people by sight who were likely suffering from some injuries or illnesses, I asked their permission to diagnose their health condition. As I expected, they all had injuries that caused them various levels of discomfort. Nothing urgent or fatal was there, so I managed to handle the treatment quite quickly, but what an effect it had!
Each of them felt much better. I even had to ask the meeting participants to go to the Healing Huts and sign up there, because seeing the results with their own eyes, they wanted to undergo healing procedures right here and now. Who doesn't accumulate some ailments with age?
Everyone has them, but they wouldn't have thought of such prevention themselves — there's some narrowness of thinking here. People go to healers only when injuries like burns, broken bones, or sharp weapon wounds appear — essentially, everything you can get during sparring, war, or unsuccessful hunting.
Healers had never experienced such a workload before. Even during wartime, there weren't so many visitors. But each newly healed person was living advertisement and proof that healers shouldn't be underestimated. Residents, seeing even greater benefit in healers, began enrolling en masse in healing courses. Even ordinary people wanted to know how to provide first aid — after all, knowledge here wasn't limited to healing alone. We had to urgently rebuild the old building, making it several times larger. No one expected such an influx of new students. Even some male waterbenders came — there were only a few, but this was already an indicator.
The first days, I had to deal with many different diseases and injuries, but they were mostly mild or moderate severity, which wouldn't help me advance further. After thinking over this situation, I decided to ask all other healers to send me only patients with severe forms or those they couldn't heal themselves.
I'll repeat again — this month was super fruitful. Such a leap in understanding healing would probably be difficult to achieve again. Most serious diseases were no longer obstacles for me. Only really incomprehensible and strange cases remained serious challenges. I began to better understand life energy itself — "adding" it to water no longer required any mental effort. Even the energy itself became more malleable for me. Pluses everywhere.
I managed to find out that the main organ of life energy is the heart. No, every part of the body interacts with this energy, but the heart acts as first among them. By affecting blood with my life energy, there are already considerable chances of somehow influencing it to achieve the longevity I so desire. Essentially, the body begins to age when life energy, having reached its peak, starts declining. But if I can increase its quality or quantity even a little each time, one could live much longer.
Interacting with bending and chi, I understood that life energy is more material — essentially, people on lion-turtles used it more. Only later did they receive their bending gift and somewhat forgot their "roots." Bending is more immaterial, but for a bender to use it, they must conduct it through their body via certain energy centers, as shown when Aang took bending from Ozai. Another example is Korra, who was also stripped of bending — essentially, she still had the bending, she just couldn't use it at all. You could say you have a router (bending) that stably distributes Wi-Fi, but your laptop (your body) doesn't have the necessary driver to use the internet. I agree, it's a so-so example, but I think I described everything closely... [ image ]

Having advanced significantly in healing, I wanted to try bloodbending. It seems Hama started practicing it during the full moon on rodents, but this is possible not only during it — waterbending is just much stronger during the full moon.
Finding rodents wasn't difficult — it seems small pests adapt and survive in any environment. I don't know exactly how many years or months Hama studied this, but in the whole month I could only sense the blood itself, and even those echoes were very weak. There was no question of any influence. Patience is needed here. Well, there's still time — I can advance step by step in this direction. [ image ]

Acting on my own blood is much easier. I even managed to start developing a new technique that I called "blood puppet" — I think it'll come in handy. This technique is for cases when someone like Ty Lee manages to block the sensitivity of my limbs. In this technique, saturating my blood with energy, I take it under my control. Now the movements are too jerky and ragged, but with practice, I think I'll be able to use it in some semblance of battle, or at least use it to escape.
I'd like to try learning to collect moisture by drying plants and trees, but here in the North Pole, the flora situation is terrible. I'll either have to start learning this when I'm no longer here, or immediately proceed to experiments on collecting water from air, which seems much harder to me.
I found out when the next solstice will be — as it turns out, it's only in four months. I'd like the date to be closer. I'm very eager to know if I can gain an element by absorbing a spirit of another element. This would open up a whole scope for various actions.
***
[ Southern Water Tribe ]
— POV Kaya —
Almost a whole month has passed since Yuki left us. In just one week, bursting into our tribe's life, he became that guiding star that all residents of our small tribe began striving toward. Everyone seemed to start living anew — seeing his efforts, it's hard not to start doing something yourself. Now the older generation actively teaches wisdom to teenagers and children. Not a single day in the tribe passes without some pleasant bustle.
Only now do I understand how calm my soul became in his presence. It's shameful to admit, but I didn't feel such support even from Hakoda.
I hope he returns soon. Katara comes to his appearance spot every day hoping to see him again. Sokka goes there with her each time, always making some excuse — he's still such a boy. He's still ashamed to admit to himself that Yuki became a close person to him too.
Here's Katara running here again — most likely asking permission to "walk" outside the village again, but as always, she'll run to that place.
"Mom, Sokka and I wanted to go walk outside the wall, can we?" — just as I expected. Someone has gotten good at making pleading faces - this worked unfailingly on Yuki.
"Alright, but be home by sunset," — why forbid her? She'll run there anyway even without permission. Sigh, who does she get this restless character from? Probably from Kanna, who by stories was quite the rebel in her youth.
I didn't notice how the sun had almost disappeared behind the horizon, meaning it was time for the children to return. Though I could walk there myself — I haven't been outside all day. Just as I was about to put on my coat, I heard joyful commotion outside. Looking out from behind the door, I could see a crowd gathering in the center of our new settlement. What joyful thing could have happened?
While I approached the main mass of people, they managed to part, giving passage to a smiling Yuki, who carried happy Katara on one arm — she held onto his neck with both hands. With his other hand, he ruffled Sokka's hair. Sokka tried to show himself calmer about their meeting, but the corners of his mouth kept lifting in a smile.
I didn't notice how I smiled at him myself — my soul immediately became much calmer. He returned, as he promised. [ image ]

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