It has been three days since we have dwelt with the villagers of Kyoshi Island. Many of the inhabitants are pleasant to speak with especially when it comes to their historical origins. They take extra pride in being founded by Avatar Kyoshi. In fact they have a wooden totem statue built in her honor. There are small details showing how long it has been subject to the elements but not to the point of being not cared for.
"Goes to show for how long the people have revered her I suppose" I mumbled "But I believe she could have done more if she truly wanted to," At this point under the cover of night I was in the midst of the woods. Shifu was currently still resting. He had spoken at length with the chief to transfer a few documents and a few letters that needed to be mailed a few places the night before. A few times I came across blue feathered squirrel peckers or a snow long-eared racoon-lizard with its coat in the beginning stages of turning grey.
The wildlife was truly fascinating as many creatures showed keen interest of me as I trekked through their habitat. This is the first time I have seen some of these creatures in the wild. Back home I had mostly been kept inside the manor or in our family garden. At times like these I find my mind drifting to the past memories of my family. Every time I am surrounded by an environment that is lacking in distraction I am reminded of them. Every time I am flooded by so much sadness, grief, pain. They wash over me to the point I begin to feel an even more dormant emotion bubbling to the surface. In order to occupy my thoughts I reminded myself of what I was doing and why.
"For if one does nothing to prepare during a time of peace for times of war that person truly is a fool. You were once a victim of being helpless and paid dearly for it. We will make sure the next time when you are faced with adversity you don't go down without a fight," Going by Shifus instructions for the past few days I have been truly busy with self defense training so to keep up with the degree of intensity I've been conditioning my body's reflexes and stamina.
So with a dedicated heart upon reaching the base of the mountain I took in a deliberate deep breath before focusing my mind on close to a dozen large stones off to the side. 'This must be the rock pile Shifu told me would be here for me. Let's do this.' Bending them into the air above my head I made my way up the mountain with eight boulders continuously orbiting me. A pack of water was on my back to keep me hydrated on my hike with the target time to reach the halfway point slightly before the sun fully rose. If I can push myself I'll be able to reach the peak a little after noontime.
'I will no longer settle for being at the bottom any more. I need power to fight for what I want from now on or my life will be forfeit, this life that my parents sacrificed so much for. I refuse to let their memory be in vain or deemed worthless by an empire that is third rate' I grit my teeth as my feet sunk into a thin layer of ice.
'A society that has failed to even be a carbon copy of what we have perfected for generations. The royal family of the Fire nation is truly a sham, a stale joke of what was already established in Ba Sing Se for millennia' my fists clenched tightly, the nails digging into my palm to the point blood dripped from my knuckles.
'They will rue the day they set foot on our lands. I will bring them down from the steps they had the audacity to climb that day. I will show the world how a son of the Earth rose his kingdom to the Heavens above.'
Before I knew it I saw rays of light bleeding from above my shoulder. As I turned looking down from where I had hiked I could see I was far past the halfway mark as the sun was partially over the horizon. Taking a few more gulps of water from my pack I kept pushing up the trail making sure not to lose track of the boulders which to my surprise were slightly smaller than when I started. Then I realized taking a glance at my bloody hands, "I must have condensed them while I was distracting myself."
Making sure to keep focus this time I started walking up the sometimes smooth and sometimes rough terrain once more.
~Later that night
"It is time I have told you who and what I am." Shifu had told me as I sat down fresh out the cold bath wrapped in silk pajamas. Before continuing he checked the windows making sure they were shut tight. With the confirmation that we were alone he sat across from me. We were by the upstairs fireplace with our futons spread out evenly.
'What he is, from how he conducts himself I thought he was a noble but I suppose it isn't so simple?'
"I am not from this world." He stated blankly. A strange sense of De Ja Vu hit me as I took his bluntness back to when we first met.
With him being this serious I doubt he is joking but, "....I--," Being at a lost for words I decided to keep quiet and let him continue. When in doubt listen to attempt to understand.
"Your attentive skills are getting better. There is hope for you yet kiddo." He nodded before sighing his eyes shut tight. "Haaaaaaah. I have never told this to anyone in all my years of living since I found myself in this world." Opening his lids his eyes bore holes into mine with the amount of conviction they held as he continued. "I am not from here nor am I from the spirit world if that is what you are trying to understand. I am from a plane of existence known as Reality on a planet called Earth...."
He explained how he had lived a life before living the current one here. How he found himself initially a man in his late twenties, watching this world from the comfort of his chair sipping herbal tea, forcefully put in the body of a preteen commoner boy back when Avatar Roku cut off his relations to his nation and Fire lord Sozin was starting his campaign covertly. He told of his efforts to grow into a formidable earth bending master to hopefully one day change the course of the war. Aiming for a seat at the Council of Five as a General knowing the future events he did his best to steer the end result off course however because of uncontrollable variables he was met with much pushback. Political battles with opponents that had stacked the odds against him prevented his interference on the current climate of the war. So in a last ditch effort to set the world aright he resorted to working in the shadows of society as well as earning favors of the more influential people of each Nation.
However reality set in when he realized even with preventing the genocide the Fire Nation would cause, it would not halt the steps of the next kingdom from rising. This world was meant for one world superpower to transfer from one monarch to the next until the time of what he called the "Current pitiful excuse of an Avatar" was ushered in. This is where he began to explain how in his reality they had adapted to where they no longer lived in a monarchy or dictatorship, aside from small impoverished nations that forced their citizens to live off of grass for food. How his country thrived for over hundreds of years without a king by focusing on capitalism to build their economies and led by politicians and corrupted officials to pass laws.
He thought if he could kickstart his society here it would be best but in a world that never knew the term dictator or fascist or communist would it really be in our best interest to bring all of that here for the sake of spreading "Democracy"? Perhaps the noble societies we have now would be best and those who would prove to be problematic should only be dealt with.
"....There is so much to unpack here that I do not know if I can wrap my head around half of this." I sat in silence for a long time before admitting to him.
"Well I did ramble on for a little over two and a half hours. It would probably help for you to ask questions how you used to when we had a lesson." He suggested as he ran his fingers through his beard.
"Why did the Avatar run away from his obligation to bring stability to the world in the first place?" I wanted to know just why we were left to deal with this war all on our own.
"If he didn't leave when he did, the Fire Nation would have killed him during their battle enacting the genocide of all air benders making them extinct from the face of this planet."
"The death squads being sent to the Air Temples." Thinking back to what Sazo had me fight Fama for (his stupid bet) I recalled what the actual terms consisted of.
"Precisely. He had no choice but to disappear until he was ready."
"But if he is the Avatar, shouldn't he have the power to defend himself already? He's a powerful airbender isn't he? If he was able to flee for so long, he must have the power to fight."
"Not during the invasion. That day will be beyond what you will ever be able to imagine. Try to imagine everywhere you look is being lit on fire and you will have a glimpse at what is coming. If or when you see it happening you will understand why what happened, had to in order for the balance to be reset." Shifu shifted his arms into his pajama shirt. "The only plausible way we could have avoided this was for Avatar Roku to take Fire lord Sozin's life decades ago. Unfortunately for me by the time I was able to travel outside of Ba Sing Se I would have been far too late as Roku had spared his life at that time."
"So aside from this air bending avatar all the others are at fault for not being responsible or just incompetent?"
"Oh no, in my personal own opinion, all of them are beyond retarded including him."
"Eh?"
"He makes plenty of stupid decisions based on his warped sense of justice and ideals that go against common sense." His face scrunched up as he went on a tangent of how idiotic the Avatars were.
If before I was holding onto a thread I thought I could understand now I was completely lost.
"But enough about my thoughts I want to know what did you originally think about the Avatar as well as our journey?" He laid down on his side propping his head with one hand getting comfortable in the fur blanket.
"Well, I never really understood what they did in detail. I know the stories I was told...but as far as bringing balance to the nations I honestly never knew what any of that meant. Keeping everyone separate from one another doesn't sound like its a solution at all. I believe they could have done more, stood for a far more impactful legacy than just preventing certain powers from rising. From what I know there isn't a single one that built a kingdom or empire to leave a lasting effect. If I was given the chance I wouldn't squander my power by not taking action. The responsibility on my shoulders would be too great for me to not do anything."
"What would you do exactly that you'd feel responsible to do?"
"..." Thinking on what I could accomplish I thought on the options I was presented with. I could take vengeance on the Fire Nation and have them subservient to the Earth Kingdom along with the other nations. 'But that wouldn't make me any different than them.' I could fight each and every national leader to bring down the corrupt governments that Shifu told me about. 'But I would open up the world to be taken over by a tyrant like he said happens in the future.'
"Not so simple now is it? There is no correcting the world in absolutes as an end all be all solution. If you try to go against fate, existence itself either mocks you or straight up takes you out of the way. Which is why I have been playing damage control all these years, if I can't get rid of certain occurrences I can make sure not as many people die or get seriously injured."
I thought back to what Shifu first told me about how he knew everything that was going to happen anyway. "Does life matter?" I asked aloud out of reflex.
Shifu looked at me with an indescribable facial expression. Shock? Appalment? Or simply caught unawares? I admit I sort of like this type of feeling to finally get him for a change instead of being hit with crazy statements.
"Philosophy with a shot of pessimism. I have had many of those thoughts before." He sat up crossing his legs once more. "Never thought I'd cause a child to have a existential crisis before he hit puberty though."
Tilting my head I began to question my life. Was this all by the whim of a person who made an overall story to give entertainment to others and the small details like me living was never thought of or cared for? My life's pain, my struggles, "Did my family matter?"
"Hey," He chopped his hand down hitting me. "Slow down in there would you? At least give me the opportunity to give an actual logical answer before you break your mind and go on a killing spree."
Rubbing the top of my head I did my best to listen to him.
"Good. Okay, now as far as Reality is concerned I may have told you I am not from here but that doesn't mean this isn't also REAL. It simply means that I transferred over. Speaking of which I still don't have a clue as to how it happened. Logic would dictate that anything real and anything fake can't combine and both be fake and both real. For example this would be close to if not on the line of arguing of cold being mixed with hot which is impossible because heat exists while cold doesn't."
"Cold...doesn't....exist?"
"Precisely. What you perceive as the feeling of cold is just the lack of heat. When you take heat away from something the temperature drops and that is the "feeling" of cold....."
"And because lack of heat can logically mix with heat it just becomes less heat?" I deduced.
"Exactly. And because I am from Reality and somehow was put here the only logical conclusion means that..."
"That I am therefore real as well as the plane of existence I dwell in is "Real"? That's...So what if I wanted make the argument but with you?" I began to massage my temple with both hands.
"You would still reach the same conclusion."
"Okay, but what if both of us are not real?"
A/N: *I refuse to let either of you become self aware and that is FINAL! Now stop asking existential philosophical questions! It took a lot out of me to even think of Shifu response in less than thirty seconds! I don't even know why I had him tell this boy the truth.*
"Do you want to be not Real?"
"No...but what if-"
"You are real and alive kiddo! Deal with it. Even if you wish you weren't it won't change the fact that we are all held accountable for all our actions. I think, therefore I exist. If we didn't we wouldn't be doubting our own existence in the first place. I also refuse for you to lose all rationality and becoming a misguided antagonist than Zuko or Zaheer."
"I would not be like- wait who?"
"Don't worry about it! Haaaah. That took so much effort and brain activity I am absolutely tired." Shifu plopped on his back arms stretched out as if he was ready to make a snow angel.
"Why did you want to talk about this anyway? As a matter of fact why let me out of the prison rig in the first place? Not that I'm not grateful, I'm simply curious."
"I WAS going to tell you about how I was thinking of having you catch a ride with the Avatar in order to catch up to the show's timeline. Plus I couldn't leave a child stuck all alone in that hellhole, I still have a conscious you know. I thought if I perhaps instilled enough knowledge of future events this world could avoid some unnecessary problems. Your welcome by the way."
"Why not just go yourself? You had first hand experience of everything where I wouldn't nearly grasp everything as a whole."
"I have lived a fulfilling life full of adventures that I could share them with my grandchildren. Who's to say I won't reincarnate in this same world after I die? Better yet there might be a chance I'll be sent to another universe I am familiar with. Plus who in their right mind would want to see a story of an old grandpa traveling with a bunch of children across the world on a flying bison?"
"You have grandchildren already?" That's something I had yet thought on.
"I've been around quite a bit boyo. There is more to the world than meets the eye when it comes to me. Women, now that is a complicated stage in any mans life," While listening to him I wrapped my arms around my legs and rested my chin on top of my knees. "They can bore a hole in your heart, betray your trust, break you into a million tiny pieces to where you can't put yourself back together. Or they can help build you up to greatness, a pillar of rest from the world and their vices. But..... If you are a man who herds danger around yourself on a constant basis knowing you don't have the power to protect her, you will need to make the greatest sacrifice of all. If you truly love her you will let her go keeping the memory of how the feel of her skin felt against yours. How her lips tasted every time you both kissed deep enough to forget to come up for a breath of fresh air....." I leaned my face to the side watching Shifu get lost as he recalled the lovely times he had. It was different than all the other times we spoke, it felt like a conversation you would have with a friend as you both spoke of the past.
"You must have loved her very much."
"I still do, even if she doesn't believe me." A bitter smile crept on his face. "I do hope that one day you never need to go through that hardship."
"I was hoping to raise the earth kingdom to the heavens before that happened, now I'm not so sure." I admitted to him.
"There's no reason for you not to honestly."
"But wouldn't that put me on the same path of becoming a tyrant?"
"Not necessarily. As far as I know the only reason why those who became tyrants looking to gain power in this world was because they were blinded by the goal of obtaining it, not caring about the route in which they took to reach it."
"How does one not get blinded by power?"
".....With a immobile sense of modesty paired with a character of self control." He sat up and began to bend a few pebbles around his hand making them flow between each finger, around his wrist, his arm, till it wrapped around his torso to his other arm. "For instance if you had the chance to kill all firebenders from the planet any point in time you wanted or to enslave them what would you do with that power?"
"I wouldn't do it."
"Even after everything they've done? If they continued to do so? What if they never changed and tried to chase after conquest of the rest of the world."
"...." Once again I was left unable to answer.
"If you saw a fellow earth kingdom boy who is about to be put in the same situation you once experienced. To what extent would you go to prevent him or another from knowing the same pain you went through?"
'I knew I would do whatever it took to save him. But there has to be a limit on which I would go or else I'd be no better than the soldiers doing the same to us, at least I feel I would?'
"I guess I wouldn't be the best person to be given such power. Shifu would be better suited to have it."
"That isn't necessarily correct either."
"Huh?"
"Despite my warnings of becoming a Tyrant, an Anarchist striving to put the world in Disorder, or a Dictator that calls themselves Emperor, it doesn't mean I'm telling you it would be best to forget your resolution. Nor am I telling you that you should not strive for such things. I am simply telling you the road you are heading towards without sweetening the delivery. I'd much rather deal with a tyrant who has aspirations that discard morals to the wind rather than a hypocritical religious zealot with theirs skewed in the first place."
"Is it even possible to live a life devoid of wrongdoings?"
"There are many absolutes in this world however there are even more that are not. All I can do is urge you to think ahead before you act. As I said earlier, we are all held accountable for all of our actions."
"....I don't wish to go with the Avatar. You said you strove to become an earth bending master, I wish to do the same." I stated with a firmness in my voice.
"Are you certain? This choice I assure you will determine the path you won't be able to deviate from. To be frank and upfront with you, certain death could be waiting for you. I ask again, is this what you want?" Shifus bending of the pebbles froze from their orbit.
"There is unfinished business that needs to be tended to, I need to see the state that concubine has left my home. If what she has done in fact....I refuse her to be left in control of what is clearly not hers."
"Very well. We shall depart for Yue Island after we return from the Southern Air Temple."
"We're still going?"
"I told you we might get lucky and run across some info regarding Guru Shokens work didn't I?"
"Wait a minute! His ancient writings are there?!" My face practically was beaming with excitement at the mention of my favorite poet.
"One of the likeliest of places to find anything related to him would be an air temple. He was an Air Nomad after all."
Countless theories of what he could have written of popped in my brain. At the time I didn't even notice Shifus sad gaze as I mumbled about getting to possibly read an authentic scroll.