Of Thunder and Pearls
by Nevermore's Shadow
Author's Note: Written for Pro-Bending Tournament Round 3
Team: Laogai Lion Vultures
Color Prompts -
Orange: Adventurous
Pink: Love
Purple: Imagination
Prompts -
Easy: Colourful
Medium: Spirit World
Hard: No dialogue
Element: Water
Word Count: 1,240
Spirit World Journal, Week One
Our first week in the Spirit World has been an eventful one. It's kind of fun not really having any specific responsibilities to worry about besides "don't anger the spirits," and having Asami by my side has been amazing. It's great to finally just be able to focus on us, to enjoy the scenery and just breathe it all in. I'm not sure I remembered what life being pleasantly slow was like, to be honest. I have either been dealing with the latest threat to all life on the planet, or sitting and brooding as I healed. Not the most enjoyable things, either of them. The best part is, there's still adventure to be had here, even if the stakes aren't nearly as high. Well, if you don't count our lives as being particularly high stakes, at least.
Our first few days mainly consisted of walking over hills and valleys. We did plenty of talking during that time, and also enjoyed plenty of silence. I've really come to appreciate the comfortable silence between us. Right now, for example, Asami is laying next to me, completely peaceful as she dreams away. She has the prettiest smile on her face, and I can't help but wonder what exactly she's dreaming about. I'll get back to that later, though. More about the Spirit World!
I say hiking over hills and valleys as though it was entirely uneventful, but that certainly was not the case. For one thing, the wide open sky is something to behold here. It's almost as though the air has moods, cycling through different colors without an apparent reason, from lush greens to vivid pinks to the deepest of blues. On the second day of our trek, we crested a hill just in time to have a flying whale spirit buzz right by our heads. If I had simply reached my hand up just a few inches, I would have been able to stroke his massive, shining grey belly. On the third day, we sat in a valley and watched thunderclouds roll across the horizon, vibrant white and green lightning darting from cloud to cloud, occasionally bursting downward to strike at the ground. The sounds of distant spirit animals crying out in fear of the storm were pushed along toward us by the rolling thunder. Thankfully, the cloud never reached us, and we pitched our tent on the spot we'd been sitting and curled up inside to dream.
Our most recent day of travel brought us somewhere entirely new – the banks of a sea that stretched all the way to the horizon. The waves crashed against the pink sand of the shore, leaving behind foam and deposits of seaweed on the beach. Asami suggested that we take a swim, indicating that we should try to take in every sight that we could, in the air, on the ground, and underwater. I, of course, agreed, and we both stripped down to our underwear and dove in. The water was surprisingly warm and you could feel the spirit energy pulsing through it, like a steady heartbeat, never faltering, never rushing, simply being. As we dove beneath the surface, I wondered if Asami felt it as strongly as I did, or if it was just one of those "Avatar things" that I have the privilege of being aware of. The masses of waving kelp under the gently churning sea were reminiscent of a giant rain forest, stretching on for miles. Creatures both large and small darted between the fronds, from giant iridescent fish with scales that glittered like a rainbow to tiny orange and blue spotted crabs scurrying on the sea floor, barely visible through the undulating foliage.
After a deep breath on the surface, we dove once again, pushing our way through the kelp, trying our best not to get entangled, when we happened upon the most beautiful pearls I had ever seen. Giant orbs the size of our heads, which shone subtle shades of purple and blue. We swam to get a closer look, and I plucked one off of the seabed to get a closer look. I could feel that thrum of energy once again, this time emanating from the pearl in my hands. I stared at the sphere, puzzled, until a realization dawned on me. I looked up to see Asami's startled face as she gestured behind me. I spun around to see the massive fangs of some monstrous spirit creature of the sea, gleaming the same colors as the "pearl," which I had just realized contained a very small fledgling life inside. I gently placed the egg on the sandy floor and began to swim slowly towards Asami, placing my arm around her waist delicately as the creature, which I could now see was a giant eel-squid, continued to glare at me with four angry eyes, each slightly larger than the egg I had been holding. I brought my arm around, bending the water around Asami and I to propel us away from the spirit with great force, just as its jaws snapped at the space we had vacated, entirely empty except for a stream of bubbles. It pursued us for a few moments as we raced back to shore, disturbing many of the kelp-dwelling creatures in our bubbly wake, but decided that it would be better to remain near its eggs, lest another creature decide to investigate with malicious intent rather than mere curiosity.
Back on the beach, Asami and I caught our breath, occasionally glancing back at the sea just to make sure we weren't still being pursued by the tentacled, snakelike behemoth. After all, we were in the Spirit World, and the rules that dictated what was a sea creature and what was not didn't apply the same as in the natural world, as was evidenced by the giant flying whales we'd encountered just a few days before. We set up camp on the beach that night, deciding that we should eat some of the rations we'd brought along rather than trying to fish for our dinner. After all, it would be best not to tempt fate by taking life from the sea when we had only just a few hours before managed to not become a meal ourselves. Needless to say, I forgot in all of this excitement to ask Asami if she could feel the beating heart of the Spirit World. I'll just have to ask her tomorrow when she wakes up. She's smiling again, and I can feel my heart start to race just looking at that peaceful expression on her face. My imagination is darting this way and that, wondering if she's dreaming of a childhood trip to the beach with her mother and father or perhaps laughing at that joke I told earlier about the two fish walking into a bar that she pretended wasn't funny at the time. It was, I'd just like to make sure I put that down on paper. It was a hilarious joke.
As for me, I know what I am going to dream of as soon as I put this pen and book down. I am going to curl up beside Asami, and simply dream of exactly where I am right now. Nothing that I could possibly imagine can come close to the beauty and warmth that I have in my life at this very moment. Nothing at all.
-Fin-