The flight is long enough to sleep, but the thoughts flooding my mind never slow down enough to fall asleep. The ride is so long, I'm surprised Fang can fly over night.
"Alright, one more stop before we land at the Northern water tribe." He says drowsily. "We had planned to fly the rest of the way now, but Fang is more tired than expected."
"Sounds good." I say as we land.
This time, our landing spot is atop a snowy mountain. Too steep to get off and do much, so I just decided to spend the night on Fang. Although it's a bit uncomfortable to sleep on Fang, the view of the mountain range is breathtaking. This must be one of the mountains I saw in the distance at our last stop.
"It's beautiful." Says Ursu.
"I couldn't agree more." Heido notes.
In all honesty, I have never seen snow. I live near the equator, so it's always really hot. It feels really nice to be cold for a change. I earthbend a small boulder covered in snow into my hands and feel the beautiful, cold, white powdery snow. If the North pole is covered in this stuff, I wouldn't mind spending a few months there.
"Never seen snow?" Heido asks, slightly confused at the prospect.
"Not once." I reply in awe.
"Then you're in for a treat at the North pole, or so I've heard." He says.
I find a somewhat flat area of the mountain and decide to sleep there. A pillowy blanket of snow covers me chest to toe.
Tonight, I have a dream. It's the same vision I had when meditating on Fang. Katakan's lifeless face gives me a pang in the chest and gives me all the more reason to pursue my duties as the dark avatar.
I wake up in a haze. Not terrified, but not necessarily relaxed. Maybe the snow blanket, which grew through the night, helped ease my fear.
"You up?" Heido yells from Fang.
"Yeah, I'll be up there in a minute." I reply.
"Someone likes the snow." He says jokingly as I climb up Fang, absolutely covered in snow.
"Sorry." I reply as we take off.
"No problem, we'll be at the North pole by noon!" He exclaims.
The feeling of flight never fails to amaze me, soaring through the sky all day just couldn't feel more amazing. Snow, flight, all of these new experiences are beyond what I'd ever hoped for, however I can't help but feel a little homesick. I lived on that hill for years and now I may never see it again.
The rest of the day is spent reading through some history books, trying to find some explanation to my visions. Yes, it could just be dreams but a dream should feel less real than the visions. Nonetheless, once we see an ocean with glaciers everywhere, Heido decides it's a good time to land.
"We're gonna swim the rest of the way." He tells us.
Ursu wakes up from the impact on the water. "What's happening?" She asks drowsily. "Are we at the North pole?"
"Not quite." Heido and I say in unison, both extremely tired from the day and functioning on autopilot.
"I can take the reins." She says, crawling to Heido and grabbing the reins from his hand. "You both should get some sleep. You can't be tired when you learn a new bending."
Heido doesn't protest and lays down on the saddle, taking Ursu's spot.
I'm not really that tired, I got plenty of sleep last night. I just have a splitting headache from reading for three hours with few breaks. I just end up laying down, watching the glaciers go by when I occasionally open my eyes.
YOU ARE READING
Shadow Of The Avatar
AdventureA man named Hiragan wakes up to find his dear wife arriving home from medical school. A set of events leads him to finding out that he's the dark avatar, and it's his mission to help save the world.
