"To be truly alive is to be free." Linh said aloud while his arms rigidly changed place from one form to the next.
The spirit in front of him did not appear to accept these words. It had taken the form of a giant frog squirrel and it hawled and clawed at the water streams that had started to surround him. Its skin had gone grey and lifeless but his temper had grown agitated and had scared almost every living creature around.
Nonetheless the trees around him did seem to agree with this revelation and that comforted him. He had been worried that after his leave the swamp wouldn't take him back, but until this moment it appeared that nothing had changed much.
"To be free is to change." He continued his mantra. He liked talking it aloud, like it somehow projected it to the world.
At least he knew Zhu liked to hear him talk even if he couldn't answer. The fish-like spirit roamed the air around its head, always spinning and looking around. He had come as a witness Linh liked to think. And inside his mysterious mind he had a great deal of knowledge and had reached some conclusions that he would share when ready. He liked to think of him as a very philosophical entity just like himself. That was why they had chosen each other when he was a child.
"And to change is to accept the unknown."
Under the barrage of attacks coming from the spirit the water whips that had begun to glow dispersed and Linh himself had to jump to a side to avoid being pummeled to the dirt. Linh followed his technique once more just like the venerable Cyrus had taught him and the two hypnotising water whips began to revolve around the spirit once more. It looked in trance for a second or two before it trashed again, destroying them and coughed some sort of boiling mud breath at him.
Linh was not fast, no one in the foggy swamp tribe liked to be rushed to their activities, but this didn't matter. In a moment the vines and plants that covered his back and front grew to an all encompassing armor that received the full brunt of the attack and dissolved under the intense heat. But Lihn was intact and with a flick of his water bending the plants around his feet answered and began to cover him once more.
Even while Linh fought the spirit just to test its stamina his mind wandered around. This kind of transformation was not usual. It did not look like a corrupted spirit usually did but it was obviously under the influence of something or someone. He looked up to Zhu in a questioning manner but the dark blue fish didn't give him any clue. Another secret he would have to find by himself.
Either way it was an omen of what he feared. If life was changed, why had the swamp not done so? It was far more likely that it had but it was hiding it, or whatever had changed was hiding itself from the swamp. And that meant that he couldn't avoid his date with the sacred tree even though the thought shook his resolve.
"First you should take care of the problem right in front of your eyes." He imagined Zhu said with a scolding tone.
Linh came to a stop raising a water wall that interrupted the latest attack of the spirit and with a thrust he waterbended his vines around his arms directly to the animal. It tried to swat them away but Linh held his ground and turned the earth around his feet to mud sticking himself in place. Then he pushed the water in the plants with force.
The spirit attacked but as his arms contacted the vines they enwrapped themselves around them. It struggled to get free but that only gave Linh a chance to send more vines flying to tie him down even more. Once the spirit was virtually stuck Linh started performing the spiritual balancing once more and color returned to its body, but not all of it. Its hands and feet refused to change, sticking grey, but its mind became calm and it looked at him with thankful eyes before wandering off into the wild.
The foggy swamp came back to its calmness once again. The sound of flies and frogs intertwining themselves with a rushing river in the distance. Linh allowed himself to swallow it all even though he felt the presence of Zhu struggle against him asking him to move on.
Was he a coward? What made him so unwilling to go to where he must?
He sighed and made himself move. Deep in his mind he knew this could be serious. A new influence that could corrode in a new strange way spirits was not something that would solve itself or that could be left to someone else to handle.
Just a couple of hours later he arrived in his own wooden canoe to the centre of the swamp. The Banyan Grove tree beamed its welcome in all its magnificent glory.
Just its roots were as big as any house or some of the trees around it. Its top expanded hundreds of meters in all directions forming a patchy green roof that rained water and sap and was home to hundreds of birds and insects. And Linh felt more alive and powerful than he ever had in the last years.
His frame stuck out against the arid and dark wood. His blonde messy hair painted him as a sure target in all the greens and brown that surrounded him. At least he knew that's what Tash would have said. And he wished she would be here by his side, all the group. They would make him feel strong and truly free. Maybe he would have to reevaluate his values?
That thought annoyed him. He had worked to find these universal ideologies that could represent how he should live only to discover that they didn't apply to him?
He sighed again. He was afraid of discovering it was nothing, he realized. He didn't want to learn that there wasn't some great mission or adventure that he had to embark on now. Maybe the greyness was just some kind of spirit sickness or some other vane explanation. Maybe the swamp was as always because that was its nature. Maybe he had to learn to find meaning by himself like anyone else.
Zhu rumbled and boinked its head against his.
"Apologies, I've apparently forgotten how to be alone and not get lost in my mind."
He got near the grand tree. He felt the water rushing through its insides like veins that connected to the entire swamp. If he were stronger, if he had a deeper understanding of the connection, he felt he could have controlled the entire forest by his will. He felt that someday he would be able to.
But for now he just bowed at his feet and prayed like his parents had taught him and then he extended his hand and his awareness as he had learned avatar Aang had once done before.
A rush of power and spiritual energy jumped at him and he felt his mind lose grip of reality and start to fade as it tried to keep up with the expansion of his awareness. Suddenly he could feel and see an… be… all the trees around him and hundreds of kilometers away. But he was just a passenger. As soon as he recovered control of his mind the tree took over the ride and showed him what he feared and expected all along.
Hundreds if not thousands of greyed spirits roamed the foggy swamp aimlessly looking for each other, following a will that was and wasn't their own. He could feel the thread of spiritual influence that tied all and pushed and pulled ever so slightly at their minds and their emotions.
They weren't being manipulated, at least not completely. It wasn't mind control. But it was as dangerous in its overtness. They were themselves but they were also someone else. Like an idea they had heard but didn't understand and it was now beginning to fester in their minds and change what they believed.
It was awe inspiring and also terrifying. Whoever was capable of doing this could hold the faith of the world in their hand if they tried. And the worst part would be that no one would be able to notice. He had to do something. He had to tell Cyrus.
His vision was released as his mind came back to his body. Zhu circled his head faster showing worry but he smiled at him trying to maintain his composure. The trip had exhausted him. He was covered in sweat and he would have to lay here for a day before being able to move again. Even now he believed he could feel the tree in his mind as well as the other spirits.
He had his journey set before him and so his fears could wait a time more. Time to reunite the gang once again.
