The Legend of Lemur (Book 1) - Lemur's Origin

Chapter 23 : Waterbending

(Told by Lemur)

We woke up suddenly to the sounds of the bronze bells sounding the come of a new day. We all emerged from our separate houses. Waiting for our awakening was Yin and Yang.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"You'll find out soon enough," Yang said.

We followed Yin and Yang to a cleared area, with the four guard-like citizens from yesterday standing there as well.

"Master Yin, Master Yang," the four people said as they bowed.

"Pardon me for asking, but what is it that you request of us?" Grant said.

"No worries," Yin said, "We want you to teach these five individuals the ways of bending."

The four citizens seem completely oblivious and shocked.

"But masters! What if they truly have evil intent!?" Grant exclaimed.

"Enough!" Yang said, "These five are from the Lapis Kingdom, and they mean no harm."

Reluctantly, the four piped down.

"Now, please introduce yourselves," Yin said.

The four introduced themselves as Grant the Firebender, Johnson the Waterbender, Leo the Earthbender, and Biyu the Airbender. After we introduced ourselves, the mentoring began, and Johnson stepped forwards from the group.

"Today, I'll be teaching you how to waterbend," Johnson said.

The other three proceeded to their daily chores of cleaning and tending to the zen gardens that filled the village.

"Alright, before we start physically practicising the art, It's best to know what waterbending is." Johnson explained.

"Are you serious?" Thorn said, "We aren't going to do it first?"

Johnson then made a motion with his hand and suddenly water spurted out from the nearby pond and instantly froze to ice daggers, suspended in front of Thorn's face.

"Forget I said that," Thorn said.

"Good," Johnson said.

The ice daggers then suddenly melted and turned back into a puddle of water, getting soaked into the ground.

"Alright," Johnson continued, "Firstly, water is the element of change, and the moon is the source of power in waterbending. The first waterbenders learned by observing how the moon pushed and pulled the tides. Now. The fighting style of waterbending is quite fluid and graceful, and acts in unison with the environment. Waterbenders deal with the flow of energy and let their defense become their offense and turns their opponents own forces against them. Even when waterbenders take an attack stance, their moves flow from one to another. Now. We begin the practice of the stances."

We spent what felt like hours of doing stances and fluid-like motions in front of cauldrons of water to try and attempt to bend the water inside.

"This isn't working," Polar said impatiently, "Johnson-"

"It's sensei to you," Johnson interrupted.

"Sensei," Polar corrected, "Are you not teaching us proper motions?"

Johnson, who looked a bit annoyed, sighed and did the stances and motions he taught us, and suddenly, the water in all four cauldrons left them and circled Johnson, with pointed ends in all directions radiating from him.

"I am not," Johnson said, "Just keep trying."

Johnson returned the water to the cauldrons and we continued. In the corner of my eye, I couldn't help but to notice a girl reading a book underneath a cherry blossom tree. I approached her and she closed her book and looked at me.

She wore a white and black dress, and had brown hair, which was pulled back from her face with a white and black headband. She wore black rimmed glasses and had red coloured irises.

"Hello there," I said.

"Hi," she said with a slight tremble in her voice, "Who are you?"

"I'm Lemur Kolachnik," I said, "and you?"

"Sylvia."

"Well, Sylvia, How are you doing? I couldn't help but to notice you were here alone. Did you want to learn bending with us?"

"I'm good, thanks."

Suddenly, Sylvia began to cry out of nowhere.

"Why are you crying?" I asked.

"I'm fine, just leave me alone," Sylvia replied.

"I don't mean any harm."

"Leave me ALONE!"

Suddenly an explosion pulsed out of her body and smoke engulfed the area.

"Lemur!" Johnson yelled, "What have you done?!"

"Lemur are you alright!?" Thorn exclaimed.

I coughed here and there, and said, "I'm alright!"

I looked up and I was astonished by what I saw. Above me was a large, ghastly figure with red eyes and a fiery mouth. It's body was mostly skeletal without legs, and it had a ghostly white cloth draped over it's shoulders like a cape.

An unearthly screech emerged from it and a fireball shot down towards me. This is it, I thought, this is how I die.

"Lemur!" Polar yelled.

Suddenly a stream of water formed out of the four cauldrons and disintegrated the fireball on contact and a white bird suddenly took the figure out of the air, plummeting to the ground with it. I looked behind me and to my surprise, it wasn't Johnson who did that waterbending... It was Polar.

"LET ME GO!" the figure screeched at the bird.

Suddenly, the bird summoned an orb of pure white light over the figure's head, and the figure transformed back into the little girl I spoke with earlier. Sylvia. Except now she was sleeping. The bird also suddenly transformed into Yang and said, "Lemur, we need to talk."

I walked with Yang and asked him, "What was that exactly!? Who is that girl? Who is Sylvia?"

"Calm down Lemur, that's what this chat is about," Yang said, "Sylvia is a twelve year old girl we brought in from a burning house. We learned two things. One, she accidentally started the fire in that ghastly form and lost her mother in the fire."

"Oh," I said sadly.

Wow, I feel so bad for bothering her. Imagine losing your mother to something you accidentally caused. Suddenly, I realized something and asked, "What about her father? What happened to him?"

Yang sighed and said, "That would be the second thing. I don't know how to say this."

"Say what?" I asked, "What is it?"

"Sylvia... her father... is Herobrine," Yang said.

I was completely astonished, with my jaw dropped. "Herobrine!?"

"Indeed Lemur," Yang said, "Sylvia... is your half sister."