Chapter Eight
Chibi and Zhuge Liang entered the Wulong Forest. Zhuge Liang, once again, surveyed his surroundings. The forest was covered with trees and tall rock columns. The wulong forest was in the southwestern region of the earth kingdom and was near the coastline.
Chibi: Zhuge Liang, we will rest for a few days then started.
Zhuge Liang: In that case, I'm going to explore the forest.
Chibi: Very well. But be careful and alert.
Zhuge Liang: Okay.
Zhuge Liang spent the week exploring the forest. He had seen a lot of flora and fauna that he heard about from the members of the white lotus. During his exploring of the forest, Zhuge Liang practiced his arts. He also climbed the rock columns to watch the sun rise and set, to enjoy the ocean breeze, and to meditate.
The time finally came for Zhuge Liang to start his training in earth bending.
Chibi: Zhuge Liang, as you may or may not know, earth bending is the ability to control earth and all it's various form, including metal.
Zhuge Liang: Earth benders can't metal bend.
Chibi: Yes, but that is because no earth bender has ever tried it.
Zhuge Liang: Huh?
Chibi: I'll explain later. Now, earth is the element of substance. The benders and non-benders of the earth kingdom are proud, persistent, and can endure. The first earth benders were two humans named Oma and Shu. They learned from the badger moles.
Zhuge Liang eyes widen.
Zhuge Liang: So that's how the earth kingdom city of Omashu got it's named.
Chibi: Well….no.
Zhuge Liang: Hmm?
Chibi: The story of Omashu goes deeper than that and I'll explain later.
Zhuge Liang nodded his head, signaling that he understood what Chibi meant.
Chibi: The source of power for earth benders is the earth they stand on. The key to earth bending is neutral jing.
Zhuge Liang: Neutral jing? You mean as in waiting and listening?
Chibi: Yes. Can you tell me the other two jings?
Zhuge Liang: There's positive jing and negative jing.
Chibi: Yes. Positive jing corresponds to advancing and attacking. Negative jing corresponds to retreating and evading.
Zhuge Liang: I see. Positive jing compliments the aggressive nature of fire benders because fire benders prefer pre-emptive strikes and to come to their oppents with overwhelming force. Negative jing compliments the non-aggressive nature of the air benders. The air nomads considered all life to be sacred and fought as a last resort if conflict couldn't be avoided.
Chibi: You forgot about the water benders.
Zhuge Liang: What? Oh right. The will of the water benders will switch back and forth between positive jing and negative jing. This is due to a water bender's ability to use their defense as an offense and use their opponent's force against them while conserving their energy.
Chibi: I'm impressed with your knowledge. Very good.
Zhuge Liang: Thank good.
Chibi: Let me explain the concept of metal bending.
Zhuge Liang sat where was and began to listen careful
Chibi: Metal bending is a sub-skill of earth bending. The reason why earth benders can't bend processed metals is because trace amount of earth that is left in the metal is so small that even the best earth benders can't detect them.
Zhuge Liang: Is there a way around that?
Chibi: Yes. The earth benders uses a earth bending ability called seismic sense.
Zhuge Liang: Seismic sense.
Chibi: Seismic sense is a technique used originally by the badger moles due to fact that they're blind.
Zhuge Liang: Is this the reason why earth benders ware nothing on their feet?
Chibi: Yes. Skilled earth benders can use this technique to sense the vibrations in the ground through they're feet.
Zhuge Liang: You mean as "seeing" by sensing your surroundings and making a mental image.
Chibi: Exactly.
Zhuge Liang: Wouldn't an earth bender need to be blind to do this?
Chibi: No, an earth bender doesn't have to blind like the badger mole in order to utilize this skill. They can simply close their eyes or be in the dark.
Zhuge Liang: So can seismic sense only work on earth-based material?
Chibi: Yes.
Zhuge Liang: So all an earth bender has to do is hit a piecemetal and use seismic sense to"see" the earth fragments within it.
Chibi: Zhuge Liang, you're catching on quickly. Now I'm going explain the bending arts of fire and air.
Zhuge Liang: What? We're not going to a deserted area of the fire nation or one of the air nomad temples.
Chibi: No. Remember, the fire has been to the air temples and could always go back and occupy them. Also you can't go back the fire nation. Ozai still has soldiers looking for you.
Zhuge Liang: So I'll stay here until I have mastered the elements then?
Chibi: Exactly.
Zhuge Liang: Okay then. Lets get started.
Chibi: Very well. As you know, fire bending is the ability to created and control fire. The first fire benders were the sun warrior and they learned the skill from the dragons. The fire bender's source of power is the sun. Fire is the symbol of power and the will to accomplish tasks and desires. But ever since Sozin declared war on the other nations, that notion has been twisted. Fire bending represents harmony and life, not anger and rage. The purest form of fire bending is called the dancing dragon. The dancing dragon looks simple, but it is the most complex fire bending technique.
Zhuge Liang: It wasn't that complex when I did it.
Chibi: That's true, but remember only you, Iroh, your parents, as well as the sun warriors know this technique.
Zhuge Liang: Oh yeah
Chibi: I have a feeling that when you start fire bending, you fire bend the different colors within the light spectrum.
Zhuge Liang: I hope so. I was amazed by all the different colored flames Ran and Shao
created.
Chibi: Can you tell me why there's different colored flames?
Zhuge Liang: Fire has a variety of colors because of the materials or chemicals being consumed.
Chibi: Very good. Now lightening bending to the sub-skill of fire bending. It's also known as cold-blooded fire. Only highly powerful fire benders can do thisthis technique. The key to doing it is having a clear peace of mind and the absence of emotion.
Zhuge Liang: Yeah, that fits Azula perfectly.
Chibi: Something tells me you feel bad for Azula.
Zhuge Liang started laughing at what Chibi said.
Zhuge Liang: What?! Me feel back for daddy's little tool?! Ridiculous.
Chibi: It is?
Zhuge Liang: Look, I proved to everyone that Azula isn't the prodigy Ozai made her out to be. Now can we get to air bending?
Chibi: Very well. Air bending is the ability to control and manipulate the air currents. The air nomads learned this from the sky bison and they used it in everything they did. Air is the element of freedom. The air nomads sought enlightenment and as a result, all air nomads were air benders.
Zhuge Liang: I wish I could have learned from the air nomads. From whats I understand, they were very wise people.
Chibi: And they still are.
Zhuge Liang: What do you mean? Did some of the air nomads, sky bison, and flying lemurs survive the genocide?
Chibi: Yes.
Zhuge Liang: What?! How?!
Chibi: The Order of the White Lotus.
Zhuge Liang: Wait, wait, wait. Hold up. The white lotus helped the air nomads escape?
Chibi: Yes.
Zhuge Liang: No way!
Zhuge Liang was shocked but also was confused.
Zhuge Liang: If that's the case, how did the white lotus go about this?
Chibi: When news of Avatar Roku's death hit the fire nation, two fire nation nobles, who were white lotus members, immediately sent out secret messages across the world calling on members to warn the air nomads to be prepared for an upcoming attack. They knew Sozin was going to kill off the air nomads in order to kill the current avatar. The Four Council of Elders took heed of the white lotus's warning and prepared an prepared an escape route that lead to the high mountains of the earth kingdom far from the northern air temple.
Zhuge Liang: Were there air nomads who were members of the white lotus?
Chibi: Yes.
Zhuge Liang: Wouldn't the fire benders or earth benders would have spotted the air nomads?
Chibi: No. The altitudes at which the air nomads, sky bison, and flying lemur were flying at, were higher than what the dragons could climb. By the time the fire nation army came, half of the air nomads were already gone. With help from the white lotus, the surviving air nomads disappeared, unseen and unnoticed by the world.
Zhuge Liang: I get it now. When the genocide was over, Sozin thought he managed to kil loff the air nomads.
Chibi: Yes.
Zhuge Liang: I see where Ozai and Azula get their predictability from.
Zhuge Liang realized something.
Zhuge Liang: Chibi, does the current avatar knows that he's not the last air bender?
Chibi: No. He left the air nomads before everything I told you happened.
Zhuge Liang: Why did he leave his people?
Chibi: He was scared about being the avatar and was told that he would have to leave his best friend, Monk Gyatso. Also, he didn't want to be the avatar.
Zhuge Liang: I see. I would have done the same thing.
Chibi nodded at what Zhuge Liang said.
Zhuge Liang: Chibi, what about Ta Min?
Chibi: What about her?
Zhuge Liang: I mean did the white lotus help her?
Chibi: Yes, they did.
Zhuge Liang: Really? How?
Chibi: Like I said earlier, the white lotus immediately put measures in place in order to ensure the safety of Ta Min, her family, and the people who lived on Roku's island.
Zhuge Liang: So just like the air nomads, Ta Min and her family along with the others who lived on the island disappeared from the fire lord's radar.
Chibi: Exactly.
Zhuge Liang started thinking about Ozai's wife, Ursa.
Zhuge Liang: Chibi, before you go back to explaining air bending, let me ask you another question.
Chibi: Okay.
Zhuge Liang: How does Princess Ursa fit in all this? I mean, who is she really?
Chibi saw where this was going.
Chibi: You want to know if Ursa is the granddaughter of Avatar Roku and Ta Min, don't you?
Zhuge Liang: Well is she?
Chibi: Yes.
Zhuge Liang's suspicions were confirmed. But that left one question unanswered.
Zhuge Liang: Does Ozai know?
Chibi: No. When the white lotus helped Ta Min, they made sure that Sozin or his young son, Azulon, never knew about Roku's son.
Zhuge Liang: So let me get this straight. You're telling me, that Avatar Roku's son blended in with the fire nation commoners and worked his way up and gained the status of nobility.
Chibi: Now, do you see how everything fits together?
Zhuge Liang: Yes, but I wonder why I wasn't told about this. I'm a member of the white lotus.
Chibi: Yes you are. But the white lotus had no choice. If word of the air nomads surviving the genocide and Ursa being Roku's granddaughter ever gotten to the fire lord, the implications would have been bad.
Zhuge Liangknew Chibi was right. He decided he'll have to talk to Iroh when he see him again.
Chibi: Now back to air bending.
Zhuge Liang: Yes sir.
Chibi: The key to air bending is flexibility as well as finding the path of least resistance. Air bending is entirely defensive, but is the most dynamic of the four bending arts. An air bender can overpower many opponents at one time with large and powerful attacks that can be fatal. The source of power for the air nomads is the air itself.
Zhuge Liang: I guess rarely used attacks like that due to their pacifist nature.
Chibi: Zhuge Liang, now that I've explain the four bending arts to you, I want to practice the martial arts connected to them.
Zhuge Liang: So tai chi for water bending, hung gar for earth bending, northern shaolin for fire bending, and ba gua for air bending.
Chibi: Yes.
Zhuge Liang: Cool, but what about energy bending?
Chibi: That will come later. Now let us get started.
Zhuge Liang: Yes sir.
Zhuge Liang and Chibi stayed at the Wulong forest for three years. Zhuge Liang become a master bender. Chibi was extremely impressed. Zhuge Liang finally learned energy bending. He bending his energy to the point where he was able to use his energy externally, creating energy blasts, rays, etc. His fire bending evolved as well. He was able fire bend all of the different colored flames.
Chibi also copied his physical abilities into Zhuge Liang. Zhuge Liang now had a heighten level of strength, speed, agility, endurance, reflexes, and senses. Zhuge Liang, just like Chibi, also had night vision, invisibility, and the ability to crawl on surfaces.
Finally Zhuge Liang did something that made Chibi proud. He mastered the beast state. The beast state gave Zhuge Liang the ability to bend the elements on a higer level just like the avatar state. When Zhuge Liang is in the beast state, his body takes on a different appreance. His skin changes into gold scales, his teeth into fangs, and his fingernails into claws. Zhuge Liang's pupils becomes slit, he gains four more arms, gains large feathered wing, and a long tail with a sting.
The time came for Zhuge Liang and Chibi to part ways. The Jade Emperor came to the Wulong forest to warn Zhuge Liang and Chibi about the recent events that was happening.
Jade Emperor: Chibi. Zhuge Liang. Change of plans.
Chibi: What's the matter?
Jade Emperor: The Earth Kingdom has fallen.
Zhuge Liang: What?! How?!
Jade Emperor: Azula and her friends, Ty Lee and Mai, infiltrated the royal palace by disguising themselves as the kyoshi warriors. Azula used the Dai Li the stage a coup in order to overthrow the earth king.
Zhuge Liang: What happened to the avatar?
Jade Emeperor: He and Katara fought Azula and Zuko. When the avatar went into the avatar state, Azula hit him with lightening. Iroh distracted Azula and the Dai Li in order for the avatar, his friends, and the earth king to escape.
Zhuge Liang: Bastards!
Jade Emperor: I know your upset, Zhuge Liang. But right now you need to locate the avatar so Chibi can teach him fire bending.
Chibi: Very Well. Zhuge Liang lets go.
Zhuge Liang: Azula will pay.
Chibi and Zhuge Liang flew into the air and went to locate the avatar. The Jade Emperor knew this is a critical time. The people of the water tribes, and earth kingdom was going to think that the avatar has died or abandoned them. As it stood, Zhuge Liang and Chibi was the worlds only hope.
End of chapter eight