"Your Elent is not sothing independent of you, it is like your arm or another limb, and as another limb, we must train it. Also, the elents are part of your chi, and since Chi is very susceptible to the imagination, your limit in Waterbending is your imagination.
I know of an Earthbender who was able to emulate the other three elents using Earthbending alone. He was even mistaken for the Avatar at the ti. His na was Yun, and he was a friend of the Avatar Kyoshi." Shisui's words fell not only on Katara but also on the few Waterbenders at the South Pole and those who cared to listen.
It wasn't a huge crowd, like a certain man who could walk on the sea and even calm storms, but those who were interested listened carefully to his words.
Even if it didn't have much to do with them, the words of a Sage, and one who had also reached enlightennt, were sothing that couldn't be missed, because the way Shisui taught allowed everyone to learn or understand sothing.
Shisui did not care if his listeners might be future enemies or sothing like that, he advocated sharing knowledge, because not only could he produce more knowledge in the future, but he could revise his statents.
Like water, the thoughts that Shisui had as a young man had flowed and changed into different forms over the years, all valid, all useful.
Like water, he never stagnated, constantly advancing his exploration of the various uses of water and its related concepts, slowly integrating them into his being.
Just as water could seep through rocks, Shisui passed on his knowledge not only to himself but to others, sharing what he knew and discovered, perating those around him, just as water seeps through.
Not only that, but he wanted those who heard him to begin their exploration of knowledge, for the things he shared, were like seeds, and like water, he gave them just enough to nurture their 'growth,' to nourish them.
So Shisui was glad to see Katara succeed in waterbending with a bit of liquid ink; even though the substance was shaky and threatened to spill out of control, the fact that his teachings could cause others to learn made the Sage very happy.
"Do not force yourself to control it, the worst thing waterbending is given to is forcing things. You must let it flow, whatever you write or draw with the ink must be fluid, you must ntally have the path you want the ink to follow and what you want to represent," Shisui advised, making Katara's eyes sparkle a little with excitent.
With that, the girl managed to calm down, her movents becoming less tense and the ball of ink she was bending softening without trembling. In front of everyone, Katara directed the ink to a scroll on a table made of ice.
Soon, an image appeared on the scroll, though sowhat strange to Katara's inexperience, it was obvious what she had captured, the Peach Tree Shisui had grown, as well as small figures depicting children playing under the tree.
"Daughter, you did well," Kya approached Katara, putting her hand on Katara's shoulder as she looked at the ink painting with fascination.
"But it's ugly, it doesn't look like this..." Katara complained, but when she saw how many curious children were watching what she had just done, a feeling of warmth and pride grew in her heart.
"The important thing is that you went a step further to understand your gift, that's what's important," Kya comforted Katara, causing her to nod.
"Do you think that fire can do art like this? Not just dance with fire, but represent and embody things like that?" Zuko asked his younger sister, who turned to look at him.
"Has any firebender in the last 100 years ever tried to do anything but fight? Even the art of healing with fire was ignored by us until Shisui told us it might be possible.
Although the mbers of the Fire Temple had data on this ability, the tis of war have caused the collective mind of our nation to focus only on the war sections.
But... we can try. A certain Sage told us that the elents share many concepts," Azula looked at Shisui, who was using waterbending to draw portraits of the curious children crowded around him.
Azula looked down at her palms, which were emitting rather intense blue flas, but lacking in brightness, such was the blue fire. Still, the color was quite striking, so perhaps she could do sothing with it.
Then the princess started to firebend, which caught the attention of a few people, so of whom were even alert, thinking that so kind of fight might happen, but seeing that the fire just piled up strangely, they just stood and watched.
"I've never tried to do anything but weapons with the fire of solid consistency, that's my mistake," Zuko admitted, raising his index finger and producing a small orange fla.
"I think I understand Shisui better, the feeling that you've left sothing so obvious undone is uncomfortable," Zuko smiled as he watched the fla on his finger grow into a thin line.
A square of flas appeared in front of him. It was not the first ti he had created this geotric figure with his flas, but he did not stop there. Inside the square of fire, other orange threads began to slowly outline a figure, as if he were painting a picture.
Perhaps for the first ti in a long ti, Zuko was accomplishing sothing with firebending much faster than his younger sister, and as he created, the strange patterns on Agni's scales ca to his mind.
He didn't know the aning or purpose of those patterns, but unbeknownst to him, the orange color of so of his flas gradually beca darker, while that of others beca brighter. Soon, the image of fire floating in front of him now showed the vivid image of Mai, his girlfriend.
But it was not a static image, the Mai in the picture of flas flickered before smiling. Mai, seeing what her boyfriend had done, turned red, but moved closer to the painting to pay attention to it.
The different shades of orange made the painting quite detailed and not just a monochromatic image. Under Zuko's deliberate control, the flas greeted Mai, causing her to laugh audibly, sothing very rare for her.
"Mai.... did you just laugh!" Ty Lee hugged Mai from behind, resting her head on her friend's shoulder with quite a bit of emotion on her face.
"I can laugh, you know?" complained Mai, but her eyes never left the painting of Zuko made with fire.
"I don't understand art," Toph, who couldn't appreciate Zuko's art because of her disability, just clicked her tongue.
"Toph, you can make art too," Shisui said, causing Toph to tilt her head and focus her ear on him.
"Just embody on land what you can feel, art is based on feeling, you don't need to be able to see, just to experience the world in so way, sothing you already do.
You shouldn't limit yourself to the usual concept of art either, music is art, and vibrations can be interpreted as sounds...you can be a living music box.
You can also use Earthbending to embody what the vibrations allow you to perceive," Shisui's words caused a small smile to appear on Toph's flushed face.
"If you didn't have a fiancée, I would marry you, Shisui," she said without any modesty or manners, causing Shisui to nearly choke on his saliva and Azula, who was trying to control her fire to create shapes other than the hawk that always produced her flas, to look at Toph with annoyance.
"But I can try," Toph stepped on the icy ground, causing vibrations that she could feel despite the underfoot.
Earthbending was not only about manipulating the earth, it also had much to do with the concept of vibration, and as a prodigy taught not only by Badgermoles but also by a 4000-year-old immortal, Toph managed to fulfill Shisui's expectations.
Rocks began to erge from the ground, quickly becoming stone pillars that began to shake constantly, and gradually as if tuning an instrunt, the shaking produced humming sounds.
These hums beca tones, and the tones beca lodies. Soon, as if Toph were conducting an orchestra, the rock pillars began to play what seed to be a popular song from a year ago.
Although the sound was sowhat discordant and strange, perhaps because the earth was not the best musical 'instrunt', it opened a new and different path for Toph, one he had not perceived before.
"It sounds terrible, but it's beautiful," Sokka said, getting a slap on the back of the head from Aang, who was disguised as Kuzon at the ti.
"Don't ruin the mont, the lody's pretty good," Aang began to move his body to the beat, while Sokka watched as many Benders began to create artwork.
Azula was finally able to make a figure other than a falcon, but she only made a giant smiley face made of blue fire, but at least it was another step along the way.
Sokka watched as Katara made a Polar bear dog out of ink that seed to co to life on the scroll, all without any guidance from Shisui other than what he had already given her in the beginning.
Not only that, but Sokka watched as Hakoda watched his own hands with interest, the man's chi surging from his body like a tidal wave. Although chi was a power based on imagination, it had clear limits.
It was not an energy that could do everything or fulfill every wish, but it had a high limit, while the lower limit depended on one's perception.
What was happening in front of Hakoda was a breaking of his cognitive limits, he never thought to see so many Benders creating 'art', from paintings, sculptures, and music, and even Azula had begun to try to create lodies by manipulating the lightning between her hands.
Then, from Hakoda's hands, ca his chi, which gradually ford until it created sothing he never thought he would be able to create, a little Sealdog.
"It seems that Sage Shisui can always make people open their minds to new things that no one has ever thought of," Hakoda said excitedly.
As a tribal leader, a pirate captain, and a warrior, he had fought all his life and had never stopped appreciating art beyond enjoying good music at parties or stealing valuable things from rchant ships.
But here he was, trying to create sothing for himself, sothing with artistic connotations, sothing he never thought he would get his hands on because of the lifestyle he led.
"No doubt... apparently Sage Shisui likes to share a lot of things," Zhao said with a smile on his face, although this one seed rather forced, but no one, except for a few people, had the desire to pay attention to him.
Do you know the worst thing that can happen to soone who desperately wants sothing? Those who have it don't 'appreciate' it and 'share' it with everyone without a problem. That was what Zhao felt at that mont.
All of Shisui's knowledge, as well as his unique way of looking at things, was a huge, almost endless reservoir that could make anyone reach the top of the world easily, yet Shisui shared all of this with everyone without caring that maybe an enemy of his would learn it and use it against him.
No, Shisui didn't care if a Waterbender like Katara learned from him and beca much stronger. Zhao saw that Shisui didn't care how much martial, political, or military power he had, he just shared his knowledge and gave his teachings even to the brats of the South Pole.
'If it were ...' Zhao thought, flas of jealousy burning in his eyes but suppressed by his willpower.
If I were him! He would never share what he was capable of, not his techniques, not his knowledge, nothing, nothing! He would use that power to steal the knowledge or ideas of others to make them his own, just as he stole the data from that library.
All to feed his fa, to feed his way, to feed his desires. For if Zhao appreciated anything about fire, it was how voracious it was, its ability to consu matter to grow, how beautiful it could be, the size it could reach, the heat it could radiate... when everything else was reduced to ashes.
Only fire should be left in this world! A dark spirit in the form of a lion was drawn to these thoughts, and looking in the direction of the Southern Water Tribe, a human expression appeared on its feline face.
A smile.
-----------
AN: Lol, yesterday I slept xD But this is the chapter that I didn't upload yesterday, and the next chapter is the normal chapter.
User Comments
0 comments from readers