Mei's POV
I'm terrible at writing but here..
The shimmering sun and chirping birds woke me up. I opened my eyes and stretched my body. What day is it today? Wednesday, right. Once in two weeks, on Wednesday, I have a duty with Banyu and Alas to fly to Mount Portia to get Pori fruits for Zeus and Noodles. Zeus is me and Alas' mystical pet, nah he's more like our family. He's a white lightning. He has thick white fur and is the fastest air and land animal. He can bolt lightning out of his mouth, which is of course, super cool. His native habitat is in ice but since he has a good adaptation ability, he can live anywhere. Noodle, on the other hand, is a sea dragon serpent, a mixture of serpent and dragon, fastest water animal and breathable fire. Noodle's Banyu's mystical pet.
I stood up and showered. Mount Portia is always covered in ice so I decided to wear something warm. I took my book, well it's actually not mine tho, and Alas discovered the book in Zeus' secret pocket a few years ago. I ran to our usual meeting point and met Banyu on the way.
"Hey mei, ai cyrus,"
"Hey ban, ai cyrus,"
"Where's noodle?"
"He's already with Alas,"
"Oh alright,"
"Hey ban," Alas waved, he had arrived first.
"Hey, ai cyrus,"
"What took u so long u sloth," Alas soft punch me.
"Cmon," I ignored him and climbed up Zeus.
"Everyone ready?" Alas was confirming.
"Yep," Banyu confirmed.
"Cmon bud, Mount Portia," Alas tapped Zeus. He growled and off we flew to Mount Portia with Noodles.
I sat straight and there we were in the clouds, it's the best feeling ever, when the clouds separated as it crashed into our face, sending chills and goosebumps from the cold air flowing. Oh right! So let me introduce myself, I'm Valentine and I apparently have a 2 year older brother named Alastare whom u can call Alas. Alas and Banyu called me Mei cuz Alas thought Val sounds weird. I have no idea either. People in our village, also Estella Linda said that we're sent directly from the elder spirits to look after the village since the masters have been constantly moving. But, although we don't have any parents, since we found out 10 books with different titles in Zeus' secret pocket, we have these books that seems to be a representation of what a parent should taught their children about. So I guess its fine.
About our village, its called Aisling Village. We grew up there. It's the only village in this kingdom where benders and mystical creatures live. All people can enter Aisling Village, but only those who have bending or mystical abilities can enter the entrance portal and see all the magic happening. Oh and we just found out that I'm a water bender and Alas's a fire bender through the book that we read. What's unique about the book is that the author told us not to read other chapters until we fully understood what the chapter is talking about and implement the lesson in our life, and that explains why after 2 years, I've only finished 'Girls' Manners for Valentine' and Alas has only finished 'Guys' Manners for Alastare'. We're now in the 'Fire and Water Bending' book chapter two. So I took out the book and started reading.
"U done?"
"Nope,"
"Cmon..its all waterbending here,"
"Yea hold up…okay there," I lend Alas the book.
Alright, so I need to make sharp spear end—like water…its okay, still manageable…i guess…no. Collecting and controlling a blob of water took me 3 months to learn, now this?! Oh spirits, how am I supposed to do this. From what I read, I need to control the water like its a part of my body, "like you can control your foot and hands however you like, you should think of water as a part of your body through the charges in your hand." Huft alright. I took a deep breath and close my eyes. I feel the water around me and start taking them inside me to be 'a part of my body'. I opened back my eyes and collect the water like its 'a part of me' but it didn't seem to work so I read back the book and oh spirits, i forgot. It said that
"Thinking of it like its a part of your body doesn't mean that you should own it. Water has a soul, remember that. It should have freedom and it doesn't serve any master. Visualize the positive and negative charges you have on the tips of your finger and attract and control the water with those charges that they also have. Last, believe in yourself, you are a waterbender, they know you, so never, ever, feel like you don't belong or it doesn't work alright? Good, now try it out."
Okay.. I took a deep breath and feel the charges on the tips of my fingers. In this height, I can easily collect water from the clouds. I felt the charges on the tips of my fingers grew stronger as I collected more and more water, forming a blob of water. Then I started shaping it to form a sharp end. Not that hard actually. I collected more water and started to form 2 of those from one blob of water at the same time. This needed more concentration than making one. After completing making 2, I kept on increasing the number until we arrived at Mount Portia.
I jumped off Zeus and put the book inside Zeus' pocket. Besides the book, we had a bow and arrows, water bottle and some aid stuff. Alas had a sword chained onto his waist. Banyu forthwith built a stair out of ice using her water bending. As u can see, she's a much experienced water bender. Thousands of yellow pori fruit hanged over the tall branches of tree. The ice covered the canopy of this forest, hiding some of the brightly colored fruit.
We do have bending masters, Master Run (fire bending), Master Erua (earth bending master), Hu Master Li (air bending master that can also bend someone's energy), Master Fai (water bending master). Fire, earth, air, and water bending can only be owned by those who are 'borned' with it. But to be able to bend someone's energy, that took a long practice and high concentration, up until now, only one people can do that, and that is Hu Master Li. All of the masters constantly travel around and only visited our village twice a year for 2 weeks before travelling again.
"Why can't u do that mei?"
"Not yet,"
"Yet like 20 years from now?"
"Alass.." I slow punched him. What's wrong with him, spirits.
This Pori fruit is so nutritious that one/two of them could fill a mystical animal's belly for 2 til 3 days depending on their workloads. It isn't commonly eaten by humans but some healers found this fruit curing some dangerous illness through the special substance it contains. The Portia tree only grew here and few, almost no people would come here due to the neglected location of this mountain. That is why, we often collected more Pori fruits to sell it.
"Hey guys! I found the twin pori fruit!"
"Woa that's awesome, legend said that if u found one of those, something big will happen!"
"But its not sure if it'll be a good one or not," Alas added. oh yea.
"Its a legend anyways.."
"We should prolly just bring this to El Eliodora,"
El Eliodora is one of the village's healers. Besides healing, she has the ability to kinda read the future. But of course, it doesn't work at anytime so let's just hope her sight is open today. Just when I was heading to see the fruit, I heard rumbling sounds. I looked back and saw an avalanche building up. oh spirits.
"Cmon cmon! We gotta hurry!"
"I'll bring this two," Banyu hooked up two sacks of Pori fruit to Noodles.
"Okay," me and Alas hooked up the rest two of the sacks to Zeus.
"Cmon Noodles, back home," we flew back home.
On the way, I practiced back making speartip-like-shaped water. Well guess what? I managed to make hundreds of small speartip-like-shaped water. Once ur used to it, it actually isn't that hard. While I got benefit in waterbending from this height, Alas seemed to be irritated by the wind that kept on blowing his fire off. But well, he'll need to get used to it too one day eh? Once we arrived, we fed Noodles and Zeus and headed to El Eliodora's house. Alas knocked on the door. An old woman with white hair and perfectly dressed with red and purple cloth opened the door and smiled at us.
"Oh! Teens! Come in come in,"
"Thank you, ai cyrus El Eliodora," three of us bowed before taking off our shoes and walk inside.
"Ai cyrus kids," she replied.
Like most of the house in this village, El Eliodora's house is made out of wood, trapping in the coolness inside the house. El Eliodora led us to the living room table where we three sat across her.
"So…what is it that brings u here?"
"Oh yeah, I found a Pori twin fruit in Mount Portia when we were collecting some Pori fruits.. mei said that legend says that if someone found this fruit, a great event is awaiting for us, we would like to confirm that with u," Banyu explained and showed El Eliodora the fruit.
"My sight seems to be on today so maybe I could help u three.. it might take a few minutes," she closed her eyes and soon enough, her eyebrows furrowed. uh oh. After around a minute of 'sighting' she finally opened her eyes and gave us the most horrfying expression ever.
"An..evil spirit.. I can sense an evil spirit, its after one of u, u should train and get prepared for whatever happens,"
"What do u mean its after one of us El Eliodora?" I asked.
"I'm afraid I don't have an answer to that right now, all I can see is that an evil spirit will be after one of u, I don't know who for sure…as I grew older, my sightings get shorter,"
"Alright El Eliodora, thank you, we'll practice harder," oh if only the masters could stay in our village a little longer and a little more often..
"Yes, may the spirits blessed u three," we all stood up.
"Thank you El Eliodora," we bowed and walked out the house, all thinking the same thing, what if the evil spirit is chasing me?
"We'll work it out..its just prolly another fairytale like evil spirit seeking for some power,"
"But why would it come searching for us then? We don't hold any powers,"
"Forgot that we're benders miss?"
"Oh right,"
"It kinda actually sounded fun somehow tho, like we'll have a mission something u know.."
"Fun enough to give me goosebumps.."
"Cmon we gotta sell these to the market," Alas tried calming us down.
"Yeah," we walked outside the portal.
We finally have arrived at the market. It's a busy morning, people are scattering around, sellers are calling out their products and promoting it with various discounts. Besides for healing, Pori fruit symbolizes someone's wealth, the more Pori fruit someone owns, the richer they are. This is why, we could earn up to 10 000 ux with 2 sacks of Pori fruit. Actually…we're the only suppliers of this Pori fruit and so we could change the price however we liked it. And…we might've been the one who started the rumors that Pori fruits symbolizes someone's wealth..yea? I mean its not wrong cuz Pori fruit is expensive. Then suddenly a man rushed and hit me. He stopped and looked at me.
"I'm really sorry miss, are you okay?"
"Uh yeah I'm fine," I nodded. He stared at me once again before running. What's happening?
"U okay mei?" Alas asked.
"Yeah,"
"Did he steal something from ur pocket?"
"Uh nope," I checked my pocket.
We headed back to the village and kept our money safe before practicing our bending til night.
"Its late already let's eat dinner," Banyu invited.
"Nah I'm good, still need to master this thing,"
"Aw cmon mei,"
"Breakfast?"
"Ugh fine eat at breakfast…cmon alas,"
"Thanks ban but there's really so much to catch on,"
"U two are really too diligent, aight then-"
"HELP HELP HELP!" we heard a women screaming for help.
We rushed to where the sound came from and saw a man layed down with an arrow struck to his stomach on the ground. uh oh. Is the prophecy starting already? But none of us was ready for this, we haven't even mastered our bending and learn how to fight. Oh spirits, help us.