- And who are you? — I asked a question, putting forward my rapier.
"Ha, call me Al," the man chuckled, "you came here for knowledge?" Consider yourself lucky, I'm ready to provide them for you.
"And I have to believe you," I raised one eyebrow, to which the man rolled his eyes.
"Why are you all like this... Okay, look," he said and, wagging his finger, created a small tornado, literally miniature, literally waist-deep on the ground.
-Are you an airbender?
"Yes," the red-haired man nodded, "in a way." But don't get your hopes up, no hidden community of airbenders or anything like that. I am the only one and I am ready to teach you. So, are you ready?
"Somehow everything... quickly," I frowned, but quickly changed my mind about breaking down like a virgin on the altar, "but I agree, though."
- Great, then let's start with sparring, right? — Al's eyes flashed slyly, "only with air bending, of course." Otherwise it will be boring.
"Why not? I need the experience of fighting an airbender like I need air, even if they try to kill me now." It might even be better.
"Well, then attack," the man chuckled.
There is no need to ask me for this twice, and I, sparing no effort, simply sent a huge wave of air, which was simply intercepted, and literally the air flew to Al, slightly blowing him.
As did my subsequent attacks, which had absolutely the same success.
This fight was reminiscent of Toph fighting any other earthbender where she's just on a different level. It is impossible to defeat a bender who knows your actions in advance, even before the actions themselves have reached their conclusion.
And, apparently, there is a similar situation here.
"Well... that's an interesting approach," said Al, after I told him my perception of air bending. "No, it's understandable, considering your strength, you felt it with your hands, one might say." But such a perception is, of course, something.
"I think it's fine," I shrugged.
"Yeah," the man answered sarcastically, "but because of this, you're now a pure mechanism."
"It's not true, I had emotions," I challenged him.
"Yes, but these are just stable reactions," Al rolled his eyes, "you understand when you should yell at someone, and when you should be afraid, you are afraid, but these are your intellectual reactions." But hormonal ones are simply absent. And all because of your incorrect development as an airbender. Well, more precisely, incorrect understanding, because you apply it correctly, but the consequences...
I got the feeling that this guy was trying to explain things, avoiding some concepts that he thought would be incomprehensible to me. There is no other way to explain these semi-philosophical messages. No, the point is clear, I messed up due to inexperience and received consequences.
We're sitting right there, he's in his rocking chair, where did he get it from? I just sat down on the grass. Why not, I'm a simple person.
In general, this guy just caused some strange sensation in the bottom. He's just kind of creepy, he just evokes some kind of unusual feeling that I don't like. Absolutely. But I don't need much from him, let him teach, and then I'll leave.
Although, maybe he can pick up speed no less than mine? Hm. Not very good thoughts. Either way, I have an ace up my sleeve: Vaatu.
"So we'll start training with the simplest thing," Al continued, "we'll teach you how to perceive the air correctly." I don't think it will take much time.
- And yet, who are you? — I asked him, "I'm not used to strangers who decide to make me stronger just like that."
"I don't have an answer for you," he shrugged, "consider it my mission to train an airbender." So that he can train another airbender. Sounds good?
"It sounds," I nodded, "but you just came up with it."
"Who knows," the man mysteriously flashed his old blue eyes.
This is another feature of him that causes a slight chill on his back. His eyes are old. They are so wise, who have seen a lot, and as if my every next step is obvious to him. Like my thoughts, probably.
"In any case, let's get back to your training," the man continued, "can you already feel the air around you?"
"Yes," I nodded.
- Can you... remove all the air from yourself?
"Well..." I thought and then tried to completely calm any wind in my head, and it worked as expected, "yes."
"You don't understand," he shook his head negatively, "given your analogies, you simply reduced the flow of air in your head." But you have to remove it. Fully.
"Eh..." I blinked, "no, I can't do that."
"Ugh... bad," he said, "but expected." So let's take the difficult path. There, go to the cliff and release as much bending as you can. Come on, come on.
Of course, my paranoia ran ahead of me and already predicted what a cunning way to kill me, but... it sounds stupid. Honestly, if he had to, given his strength, he would have swatted me already. This guy really needs to train me, but for what? Good question.
In principle, he has already given a strong kick as to where to fly, I need to somehow remove all the wind from my head.
But I had no idea how to do this, so I walked up to the cliff, as I was told, and began to create a tornado. Without even thinking, he poured everything that was there into it, not immediately, although he conjured about ten minutes to finally see how a huge tornado, reaching to the foot of this rock and towering higher than the castle, began to grow more and more.
True, I still had strength.
"Not bad," Al said, coming up to me, "we'll fix it now, and you'll release the rest in sparring."
Two minutes, and the tornado was gone. Who, Agni, have I stumbled upon? Two minutes and there is no tornado. And Al didn't even sweat, he just shook his hands off the non-existent dust.
- Well, can we fight now? "I won't intercept your attacks, I'll just dodge," he said, "but I'll attack myself, so get ready, if you don't dodge, you'll blame yourself."
Ugh, I feel like an earthbending newbie who fought Toph. I was treated so easily, it's impossible to describe. And he only hit with "dull" bending, that is, no sharp parts, only painful blows.
But after a dozen or two or three minutes I was lying on the ground with absolutely no wind left.
- Well, how? - he asked, - released all the remains?
"Yeah," I answered on an exhale.
- Well, then let's look inside yourself, is there a feeling of wind in your head?
And to my deep surprise... although to whom am I lying, this is what I expected. If you can't pull the wind out of your head, then let's pull the wind out of your whole body, and it will come out of your head on its own.
- There is nothing. There is no feeling of wind at all," I said.
- Great! Don't take air from the environment! - he warned, - now you must always keep in mind that there is no empty space in your skull. Everything is occupied by the brain. Just get it in your head.
"If this works, then I'm the Avatar," I chuckled absolutely exhausted and did as he said. I began to carefully imagine how my brain in my head occupied all the free space, and there was nowhere for air to come from.
"That's right," nodded the satisfied AL, although I can't put my finger on why he decided it was right, "now you have to walk like this all the time until you recover." How long will it take?
"If on its own... then, I think, somewhere between five and twelve hours," I said, "but I don't have much time." Literally a few days, and they are waiting for me.
"Hmm, that's understandable, it's a young thing," the man chuckled, "well, that's okay, you'll be able to get around where you need to go." In the meantime, don't forget, your skull is full of your brain. I understand that maybe this is a mythical picture for you, but at least in your imagination, let it be so.
- But…
"That's it, go, don't bother me with my meditation," Al waved me off and, falling into his rocking chair, lit a pipe.
It was just amazing, but this method worked. I felt my strength filling up, but at the same time my head was still... well, just a brain.
"For some reason, many benders underestimate the power of their thoughts," AL chuckled at my words, "they think that bending works like a tool." You moved, then directed, and bam - the result. A fundamentally wrong idea. And you are a vivid example of this, all your life you have been letting the "breeze" into your head, and what this led to.
"Yes, yes," I rolled my eyes, realizing that Al also got his tediousness from the old man, "but how can I use bending now?"
"The main thing is, don't lose the thought that your head is not empty," the man chuckled, "you can't use bending without wind in your head?"
"Well, no," I shrugged.
"Oh," Al sighed, "how complicated everything is with you." What you said is a farce. Can you feel the air around you?
"Well," I repeated, "yes."
"Try to control it," Al said, as if it were a matter of course, "don't let the wind pass through you, but just use what's around you."
Logical. I really feel the wind around me, but I'm used to raising a storm in my head and using it, passing it first into the body and then out.
Okay, all I need to present is the same thing, only without intermediaries. I'll start with something simple: I tried to swirl the air around me a little. Honestly, it felt like my hand was numb and I was trying to control it. I'm so numb that I can barely feel it. When my usual method is the surgeon's hand. How lazy I am to relearn, honestly. But it's somehow already difficult to live without emotions... and obviously I have to become stronger this way. Because with my method I'm at a dead end.
"You're doing pretty well," Al nodded, "now try to form a wave of air."
After a couple of attempts I was able to make an acceptable wave.
- Well done, now be careful and careful. Look: imagine that your skull is larger than the brain and how air appears there," Al said, which I immediately did, and the air immediately filled the empty space, "now even more," after a certain moment of filling the head with air, a sensation suddenly came detachment.
The kind I've lived with most of my life. And only now, having literally been without it for several hours, I immediately realized that this was just tough.
It seems like nothing has changed, but it just feels like I just can't feel anything.
— Did you feel it? - Al chuckled, - your brain quickly got used to the good and tasty hormones that you had just started working, and against this background, your past state immediately felt alien. Now push the air out, I think you understand how?
"Yes," I nodded, slowly imagining how the skull was shrinking and the amount of air was decreasing. It worked perfectly, and again I seemed to take a deep breath, for some reason I wanted to laugh, which I did.
"I see the body's reaction has begun," Al chuckled, "and now the other side of the coin." Stand on your hands.
- What?
"Well, come on, stand on your hands," the man suggested a second time, smiling slightly.
Well, without understanding, I stood up on my hands. To realize how heavy I am. This has never happened before. Getting back to my feet, I extended my rapier to arm's length and realized that it seemed to be several kilograms heavier.
"This is a consequence of the fact that the air does not pass through your body and it does not strengthen," Al chuckled, "now you need to do the opposite, suck the surrounding air into yourself on a constant basis."
And it turned out to be easy. Strengthening your body with an external factor turned out to be really not difficult. Therefore, literally the entire next day we trained in what we already had. I realized that so far we were redoing my basics and we hadn't even gotten to the real techniques.
But how much I really enjoyed feeling emotions. I didn't realize this before, but getting a laugh when the air accidentally came out with the sound of a fart is just priceless.
Just like I feel the fact that I miss the team. I want to hear Azula's comments or watch Ty Lee once again blurt out some awkward phrase while standing upside down. At the same time, look at it in every sense.
My comrade in arms, feeling only the smell of hormones, remembered that the last time we had sex was a very long time ago, and my girlfriends suddenly came to mind in different poses, so I had to abruptly give up such happiness as emotions and fill myself with air.
"Let's move on," Al said somehow reluctantly, "I'm sorry, Aki, but this is necessary for further work," and before I had time to fully comprehend the phrase, a small sharp wave of air simply tore my entire arm open.
- What the fuck! — I was indignant, already ready to repel the next attack.
"I'll teach you how to use bending inside yourself," Al justified himself, "and it's difficult to do this without tangible trauma." Look: sit down, close your eyes and relax. There is a lot of wind in your body now, am I right?
"Yes," I said with my eyes closed.
"Open the entrance for the air from outside, I know there's nowhere to go now, but open it," he said further, "and now focus on the pain in your hand." Do you feel the wound?
"Well, yes," I frowned slightly.
- No, you don't understand. Not directly, you must feel this trauma with the air inside you. Try it, it's not difficult. You already feel it, you just need to catch this feeling.
- But how? Wind is wind, how can it feel a cut on your hand?
"Hm," Al was apparently a little stunned by my words, "okay, let's do it differently." Maybe the wind in the hand does not pass as easily as in the rest of the body? A little bit, but worse. No?
"Now," I said, again listening to myself, and feeling that yes, bleating, the wind in my hand really seemed to be stumbling over something.
- E-there is, yes? - Al smiled, - now direct as much air there as possible. Come on, come on.
Without losing this feeling, I begin to pump my hand in the place where I felt the obstacle with air, intuitively trying to push through this obstacle, and literally ten seconds after I started, the obstacle disappeared. And when I opened my eyes, I saw that my hand had healed. What?
"Ha," Al rejoiced, "well done." "Now let's review the material we covered," he said with a slight sadistic grin.
- Oh, fuck, it hurts!
***
"That's better," Al nodded. "Basically, you're ready for the next step." But first… there is a squirrel in the forest here. I want a squirrel kebab, catch it for me.
- What? - At first it seemed to me that I had misheard.
"Catch a squirrel," Al smiled slyly, flashing his blue eyes, how the fuck can he do it, "and let's continue our training." Look, do you see a small forest on the mountain? Catch it there. Let's.
I ended up in a Chinese novel... oh yeah. Well, okay, given what he taught me, I want to learn everything I can from him. I'll catch this squirrel for him, Lord. He doesn't seem to be forty, but he behaves like some kind of grandfather. Well, just like that, with eyebrows and a mustache bigger than the dick of the best porn actor.
"Well, nothing, nothing," I muttered, "although, according to the law of the genre, the squirrel should be somehow unusual." Some kind of mutant man-eating squirrel who is stronger than me?
The forest was very close to the lake, and I walked there, one might say, at a walking pace. I just wanted a little break too much. The truth is, some kind of meaningfulness did not emerge from this, to be honest. It was strange to feel a little... as if drunk, when the reality around was difficult to perceive, but I think it was just extreme fatigue superimposed on the methods that were new to me.
The reality turned out to be... strange. The squirrel was a flying squirrel and was the most... ordinary. No poisonous fangs or murderous flocks that tore apart the unlucky traveler. No, just a flying squirrel.
The truth is, when I jumped towards her, accelerated by the wind, she unexpectedly quickly flew away from me. And crashed into a tree to death.
It seems to me that they didn't want to convey something to me about competent driving at high speed. Well, it doesn't matter, but we'll eat barbecue, and finally he'll teach me something new.
"Oh, apparently you learned your lesson quickly," Al said.
"Uh-uh, yes," I said, "let's move on to the next lesson?"
- And what lesson did you learn? - the man asked, still not looking at me, but staggering in his chair and smoking.
— Shouldn't you develop too much speed? I tried, and to my surprise, it worked.
"Well... apparently, in some ways you're right," Al chuckled, "in any case, now you should actually be this squirrel, do you understand me?" This is the only way you can move forward as an airbender.
Yeah. Okay, it's clear, here, as in an educational institution, you skip a step, and the next one is built on the previous one. Let's not be a stupid schoolboy and talk about the problem right away.
"Okay, I understood that you wanted to teach me some kind of cool lesson, in the style of I don't know what, but when I ran at the squirrel, it crashed into a tree at great speed and crashed," I admitted.
"..." Al only remained silent, puffing three times on his pipe, "fuck." You've come across a very stupid squirrel. In fact, the whole lesson is that this animal uses air currents, and does not act with brute force.
"Oh," was all I answered, "why couldn't you just say it?"
"So now you will learn, without "touching" the wind at all, as you did before, to use air currents," Al continued, blatantly ignoring my question.
- Am I a fucking sailboat?
"You have to understand this," Al answered without a hint of humor. "You won't be able to defeat the Avatar if you don't master banal things." The Airbender doesn't rush ahead. Your life among the Fire Mages has imposed its limitations, so now you have some problems. And you need to solve them.
- So how is it? - I blinked, - how to control the air without controlling it?
"Hmmm," Al thought, "come on, go to the cliff, release all the bending." We will work on the principle that if we can't walk, we will run.
His words scared me a little, but there was nothing I could do, I had to create a storm again and blow out the wind, which I still held in my head a little, sometimes suppressing my hormones. Everything would be fine, I was almost finished, this time I didn't imagine myself as a balloon, why do I need a supply of air inside myself when there is only air around.
"You're a flying squirrel now, Aki," Al said in my ear, and I felt a strong kick right on my butt, which made me fly several meters forward and fly down.
For the first time in a very long time, I experienced sticky fear, such an irrational, unpleasant horror, which, however, quickly passed, because I, as an airbender, cannot a priori crash. But what does it mean, I'm a flying squirrel?
I'll be by plane. Closing my eyes and trying to feel something, I spread my arms to the sides like an airplane and adjusted my flight with my head down, trying to catch the air.
To my surprise... nothing happened and I fell, eventually slowing my fall. And having rested a little, he jumped to climb back.
"Well, of course," Al rolled his eyes, "why did I expect that the same method would work twice on such a unique student?" Okay, then let's try it your way. You will fight me, using absolutely nothing and trying to dodge. Sweep all the air out of your head and out of your body, don't use external air, or inside either. Go.
"Wha..." I didn't have time to ask when a fist flew into my stomach.
And a battle ensued, only now... it turned out that without at least minimal filling of air, dodging, well, is not so easy. More precisely, the purely mechanical habits still remain, but it's as if I don't have enough strength to keep up, I see a fist, understand where it will hit, I start to move, but I just don't have time. And obviously not physically, it's just that my habits have led me to the point that I, willy-nilly, expect that less effort needs to be applied to a certain action.
In general, it was a problem that I couldn't do anything about throughout the entire beating.
"Hmm," Al summed up, "things, of course, are not very good." You screwed up in your development wherever you could, to be honest. Okay with the perverted use of air, but becoming a swordsman...
- What's wrong with that?
"You can't be a good swordsman." You can be a good bender or a good swordsman, but they just don't work together.
"Oh, I've heard that many times," I rolled my eyes, "but I'm not a shitty swordsman." I use the rapier as a conduit for bending and can easily cut through anything I want with it...
- Yes? - asked Al, - and I can cut anything you want with my finger at any distance.
"And I also need to hide my bending," I continued, not paying attention to the words of my temporary teacher, "for this I already disguised air bending as fire bending, and the rapier is just a perfectly combined weapon for my dexterity and ability to cut through everything." anything. After all, all airbenders use a pole.
"They use it," Al agreed with me, "and they also use kata." Like many mid-level benders, they attach a certain reaction of bending to certain of their actions. This makes it much easier both in combat and in study. It's like the legendary story with a peasant with a spear and a knight...
- Here you go! - I exclaimed, - that is...
- That is, for the amount and speed of learning, this is a good option, weapons, kato or limbs at best. But for quality and for becoming a good bender, these are just crutches that get in the way," Al concluded.
"I will not give up the rapier," I made a point.
- Yes, it doesn't matter, considering that you're here for three days, I won't wean you off this. I am only showing you the path you will follow yourself. And in the end you realize that the rapier becomes your anchor," Al simply shrugged, "okay, have you rested?" Well, never mind, let's continue.
And they started hitting me with renewed vigor. But finally, with all my efforts, it paid off. I began to feel some conditioned air currents throughout my body, and when I relaxed and surrendered to the flow for the first time, I was able to dodge Al's blow. The same one nodded and continued beating me, but I already understood the mechanics. I didn't always succeed, but time after time I got better and better, until I had absolutely no control over the air, picked up the flow of air and began to literally fly across the field, barely touching the ground with my feet.
"Finally," Al exhaled and even wiped away the sweat, "you did it." Which is quite commendable. Usually, it takes weeks of meditation and other such slag to master such a skill, because children cannot be beaten and blah blah blah. In general, well done.
"Yeah," I muttered, trying to catch my breath.
- But, keep in mind that this is how it is at the top; below, using such a trick is less... effective, let's say. But you can fly like this, even if you hold a sheet behind your back, the main thing is to catch the currents.
"Phew," I caught my breath towards the end of his leisurely speech, "so, good." And then what? I know a bunch of methods, but in general they are all equal...
"Yes, you're right," Al nodded with a slightly proud smile, because he realized that I had guessed, "the three of them can be called different ways of developing an airbender, one way or another." For those who do not understand that they are a bender, the latter most often occurs, for those who are too strong - the first, the second - this exclusively requires training, albeit not strong, rather a push of the child in the right direction.
— Are there many such "intuitives"? - I asked.
"Actually, there are a couple of hundred," Al shrugged, "not a single nation tests for other elements, which is just stupid." Most often, those who love to conquer the sea with sails are airbenders. Well, they do it very well, accordingly. Among the firemen there are airbenders. Before the war, these two nations were the most friendly. Vodniki and Zemlyaniki are still more... applied nations, at a time when in the mentality of the people of fire and air there is some...
"Fucking philosophy and thoughts about existence and the world as a whole," I finished for him, "I already understand, yes." Meditations, vague descriptions of bending, and so on and so forth.
"Yes," Al nodded, "if you listen to how earth mages teach or study, then everything is simple for them." If you have bending, then you repeat the technique as many times as possible until it works. And then they will beat you so many times until you master the technique, until it remains at the reaction level. But okay, let's get back to business, I think you already understood correctly, you studied all these methods in order to mix them. First, try it yourself.
This is the command I was waiting for.
With great pleasure, filling my body and head with air, the wounds began to heal, then I picked up the flow of air, feeling it, and then I took control of the air around me and the flow of air disappeared. What?
And then I realized that I was holding the air absolutely not as it should, but simply in the old way, slightly filling it with "my own."
Al just looked at me and smiled.
- Did not work out?
"Does it give you pleasure to watch me fail?" — I muttered, "of course it didn't work out." How to go with the flow and control the flow at the same time?
"No way," he shrugged, "did I say that you should literally always use all three of them at once?" No. I think you already understand that all three methods are the best in their own way. The first is with bending inside for attack and strengthening oneself, the second is with bending outside for perception and defense, the third is for evasion and movement. Now I will teach you only one basic technique, where two directions are mixed, and then you are on your own. There is simply no time to study so many techniques through experiments or scientific research, and a lot of time has already passed," he explained.
"I understand," I nodded. We can invent it, I figured it out with my own mind. And I even invented something new, like my "fire" bending.
"So this ability... to fly," he declared, pausing dramatically.
"Even the avatar can't fly, so you're going to teach me?" — I dripped a little sarcasm.
- You think? But, using his strength, he constantly flies. How old is the avatar? - he chuckled, - do you think, despite the fact that he was recognized as a master, he is one? Yes, he is good in his element, really good, but he was still simply too small to teach him some practices. Well, from what I've heard. Therefore, he is approximately in your same position, strong, but without normal training. So, let's start, which of the three methods do you think should be used?
— Are we going to call them one, two, three? - Well, I can't do it without being sarcastic, well, no way, in the end, whoever you mess with, that's how you'll gain.
"Ugh," Al rolled his eyes, "you're completely out of touch with terminology, will it be easier for you if I call it something more clever?" No, they will remain numbered. So, which of the three methods must be combined in order to fly?
- Mmm, second and third? - I suggested.
"That's right," Al nodded, "but in the ratio of ninety percent of the third and ten of the second." Because the flows only need to be slightly directed, one might say, gently stroked, so that it is stronger and acts in the right direction. If you overdo it a little and you'll fly down, and if you do it a little less, you'll immediately get a situation where you either have to put in a lot of personal effort and create a flow yourself, or you'll fall. In general, do you understand me?
"Yes," I nodded, "an ideal control task." And a very good incentive to master it.
"Yeah," Al chuckled, "you can start." Just use only the third method, diluting it a little with the second, literally a drop. Get started.
It was already quite easy to release the bending and feel the air currents, and I did it in a couple of seconds. And then I started trying to feel this air using the second method.
Well, class for a couple more hours. Class.
Al, of course, fell into his chair and continued smoking his pipe, does he ever stop smoking it?
Overall, just using two abilities at the same time turned out to be more difficult than I thought, but I managed to do it. And then began an attempt to correctly point a finger at the sky, because it's easy to say one to nine, but this is not a fucking cocktail, how to understand one to nine? Well, do I feel the air currents a little more specifically? Well, yes, okay, I just started diluting it at random, adding a little bit at a time and trying to take off.
No matter how surprising it was, after another hour I succeeded.
I flew. Myself. Without spending too much effort on it and without even getting burned. There are no effects of air bending around me.
- Well done! - said Al, - he didn't even need a motivating kick from me. And now it's time to say goodbye, I think, because you have very little time left.
Damn, but it's true! Time is short!
"Thank you for everything, Al," I said, "I ran, we'll see you again!" I will visit.
And he ran at full speed away from the castle. And only when I had already run a decent distance away from the mountains did it begin to dawn on me. Little time? How much time do I have left?
How long was I there?
It suddenly turned out to be night outside, although it seemed like ten minutes ago it had been day... just like my entire time there. And I haven't eaten all this time. And I didn't drink anything. Yes, I generally studied and studied stupidly.
"Aki!" - exclaimed a voice in my head, - "damn it, what was that? I couldn't reach you at all, it was as if I was running into some kind of wall!"
So I'm wondering what it was. So I turned exactly in the opposite direction and ran towards the air temple.
As I expected, there was no one there. No Al, no rocking chair, no beautiful shore near the lake. At least there was the lake itself. A less beautiful lake, without crystal clear water and the radiance of light reflection on the water, the bottom is all in stones and some kind of silt. There is no beautiful clearing around, only thickets of bushes, grass and trees.
What. This. Was?