AVATAR: LIGHT THE WORLD (The Illevitus Chronicles)

BOOK 1

-Air-

Chapter 7

-Tale of the Obi' Che' Won-

Afternoon tea had led to what the hostess referred to as the best day ever working the job, Kyri footed the bill for lunch and the tea, but also ordered a few adult beverages which racked up a hefty tab. Needless to say the hostess was tipped well for her service; however, her best day ever didn't just involve that.

Several business men out to lunch were being extremely rude to her as they kept making obscene comments and lewd gestures towards her. It was sickening, so naturally Niko stepped in. He managed to cause one of the lousiest and one-sided public disturbances anyone had ever seen. Without even breaking a sweat or hitting any of the drunks, Niko, completely sober, ducked every punch, and with their moves not connecting the drunkards fell on their faces. Eventually the manager had heard the disturbance from the back office. His face was shocked as he asked what happened, clearly unaware of what had transpired in his absence, as he was on a conference call of some kind. Everyone else in the restaurant was completely siding with the group, Niko, and the hostess. "Hell, one of these guys even groped her without consent," Niko pointed out the shadiest looking one, he had a plum suit on with a long-pointed nose, and a ridiculous moustache that looked drawn on with marker.

The hostess turned back to Niko, "Thank you, I'm grateful you wanted to stand up for me, but next time I can handle myself."

Niko had nothing to say, he agreed completely that she was handling herself well, but then the words came out, "Fair enough! I would just like to say though, that if it wasn't you, and let's say it was my friend who's missing an arm," he shuddered flashing back to this morning, "or a stranger who's hulking large, I'd still have stepped in. Doesn't matter your race, gender, or however you identify. Even if you're a complete stranger to me, I still have your back. After all, isn't that how humanity should work? We help each other not tear each other down." Everyone was silent in the tea house, you could've heard a pin drop, but then the place exploded into applause.

The hostess felt a little more unnerved now, "Well, it's nice to know there are still good Samaritans out there." She looked at the drunken lot who were still trying to get back up, "Still, it seems the bad is outweighing the good, but to return your kindness my manager will wait until your party leaves to call the authorities, isn't that right Shezo?" She looked back at her manager who was agreeing with her every word, "Don't consider yourselves unwelcomed either, we would just prefer to thank you by not getting you all involved."

This time Scar spoke, "Thank you! That's very good faith of you, we truly appreciate it, and we'll pay our tab and leave immediately after." She began to pull Niko lightly on the arm gesturing him to leave as Kyri approached the waitress with a fistful of currency.

"This should cover the bill, your tip, and also here's an additional payment for the public disturbance!" She put the large wad of money into the hostess's hand who was just shocked at how generous the group was, "We appreciate your hospitality, and hope you'll have us again someday." She smiled at the hostess and her manager.

The manager, named Shezo, spoke in a gruff tone, "Of course! Once again, don't think for a second that I would even dream of banning you folks for being so wonderful towards my staff." He returned the smile to Kyri who shot them both a peace sign then joined the other in their leave.

"That was nice of them to let us off the hook before the police showed up," Scar blurted out once they'd at least walked about a mile from the teahouse. They were now walking outside of the former royal palace gates. Gilded with gold and rusted by time, the shiny locks that hid away most of Ba Sing Se's treasures and guilt, dully gleamed in the sunlight.

DeMungus was hobbling along out of earshot of the girls and Zillion. Niko was matching his speed out of necessity, not wanting to lose track of the slightly disabled man, "Oy Niko. Thank you for your kind words back there!" Niko was stunned, this was not something he'd ever expect DeMungus to say, and truly it was gratifying to hear that. Such a strange fellow DeMungus was.

Niko quickly snapped back to reality, "No worries," was all he could muster up. Niko felt like an ass, couldn't even say you're welcome like a normal person, but then again, he wasn't normal per say.

Then DeMungus kept going on, "Well that's very nice of you to say, especially when you and Zillion both caught me whacking about with that fun gizmo."

"Okay, you can stop right there, DeMungus," Niko was turning red.

"What's wrong Avatar?" DeMungus slyly looked at him up and down, "Can't get the image out of your head?"

Niko swatted the air in front of his stomach, completely subduing the perverted idiot as if Niko had simply punched him in the gut, "You're a sick little freak, DeMungus, but I guess right now you're our sick little freak." He helped DeMungus regain his footing.

As the four entered the building they realized it was definitely not your normal home. A small receptionist office with two large doorways on either side greeted them. Aside from that the whole house was practically one big room, and a ballroom at that. Beyond the open doorways on wither side of the desk was wall-to-wall mirrors that stretched from floor to ceiling lined every wall, with the exception of the wall where the front doorways were connected, that space had a few wall bars, presumably for stretching.

It had been years since Niko had seen his cousin Lygin who was gracefully gliding around the floor with a taller-than-average woman. Lygin himself was ridiculously tall, he at least had a good foot on Niko who was around five feet and ten inches, yet still here was his giant of a cousin graceful as a swanakeet. The music that had been playing came to a stop as Lygin delicately dipped the woman forward.

Scar, who always had a crush on Lygin since they were kids, was cheering wildly whilst clapping furiously, "Wooo! That was amazing! Me next!" She was joking about being next though as her feelings for Lygin would reduce her to a wobbly mess in his arms just being tossed about.

Lygin brought his partner back to standing and quickly dismissed her, "Excellent Marta, you really nailed the hand changes on the overhead loops today! Now I hope you'll excuse me, but my cousin and his friends have just arrived from out of town. Before you go, I just would like for you to practice your grapevine steps for your homework." And with that Lygin hugged his partner tight sending her off to the back end of the room where a single door was sandwiched between the mirrors right in the middle of the wall.

Niko, Scar, Kyri, Zillion and DeMungus started walking towards the statuesque Lygin who was waving them over. Scar's face was in a deep flush as she got closer. Niko approached first and shook his cousin's hand, Lygin in turn scooped up Niko in a bear hug, that wasn't terribly tight, but not all too comfortable, "Lygin, how are you!? I forgot how strong you were, cuz."

Lygin let Niko down gently, tousled his hair a bit then responded, "I'm well cousin! I was just finishing training with my dance partner Marta! We have a competition coming up soon, and I'm quite confident we'll be taking first place." He beamed broadly before addressing the other three, "Oh hey Scar! How you doing cupcake?"

Scar was so red now you could almost see steam pulsing out of her ears. Kyri jumped in with the snappy rebuttal, "Looks like she's cup-quaking in her boots." She smiled at Scar who simply shot her a dirty look. Kyri ignored the look and walked right up to Lygin who was about a foot and a half taller than her, and extended her hand to shake, "Hello, I'm Kyri, and you move quite nimbly for such a big guy, I must say. Your footwork is so clean too! Very impressed with your promenade."

Lygin laughed a little while also blushing, "Oh thank you! I'm guessing you are familiar with dancing yourself?" Scar looked as if she was about to die of shock, her face went from a full cherry red to a ghostly white in seconds.

Kyri smiled again, ignoring the displeased Scarletta behind her, "I dabble a bit in Latin, but I wouldn't say I'm all that good." She leaned back a bit with her arms going behind her head. Niko and DeMungus, both seemed quite aware of Scar's increasing anger, so they pulled her back a little. Not that either Lygin or Kyri had noticed.

Lygin held his hands out for Kyri, "Why don't you show me what you got?" With a quick flick of his thumb he metal bended the nearby sound system to start playing some fiery Latin music. Quickly jumping on the beat Kyri pulled the tall man closer and slid her right foot back slightly, followed by her left foot, "Samba, eh? You know it's very difficult to get the bounce, but you are quite natural."

Lygin was now mimicking the bouncy steps as the two went for a whisk, the two sending their bodies to the left opening their legs then snapping them back closed whilst maintaining that bouncy movement, "Dabble, might not have been the right word."

Kyri wasn't going to admit it, but she was definitely better than Lygin at samba. Lygin spun Kyri outwards and with a quick weight transfer she practically stopped on que, and began to shake and shimmy her upper body, with her hips in a perfect sync as Lygin continued to bounce around her. DeMungus was enamored by Kyri's movement with his tongue wagging. Lygin then took her into a basic once more. This time with Kyri pushing off his chest, turning outward as they travelled the length of the room.

"I can't stand her, why is she so perfect?" Scar muttered to herself, yet not wanting to admit that if she tried to do half these moves, she would definitely tangle her own feet. The dancing duo was now mid-voltas, which involved side crossing the legs, then uncrossing, then repeating.

Kyri was starting to get a little hot from the chemistry they seemed to have, "Woo… it's been a while since I danced -with- a partner." Lygin sent Kyri into an under-arm turn.

Scar was practically glaring now, which Niko was quite aware of, and just as Scar was about to get up Niko grabbed her arm, "Stand down, my acolyte, and watch," Scar was shooting fierce eyes at him now, "Seriously, just watch, you might learn something."

Lygin was having a lot of fun with Kyri, "Tell me, can you do a samba roll?" Kyri beamed again without an answer, turned to have her back to his front, he pulled her close, then brought both of their left arms out. The two rotated their upper bodies on a back lean pushing themselves into a shadow reverse roll. Kyri started the roll by tilting sideways into Lygin as the both rotated in unison with left arms practically leading the rotation. They did five consecutive rotations finishing with Lygin spinning Kyri out to the left not losing grip as she posed for the end.

Niko and DeMungus both stood up, Niko was clapping fervently, while DeMungus, the big ol' pervert, whistled inappropriately. Scarletta remained seated with a scowl emblazoned on her face. "That was freaking awesome, you two!" Niko was bursting with enthusiasm, secretly he wished he could be a great dancer like Lygin, but he was just as content watching the performance.

Kyri and Lygin took a bow thanking the guys as Lygin quickly turned off the sound system, "Oh it was… okay," Kyri began modestly, blushing as Lygin took her hand gently and kissed it causing Kyri to become completely pink in the face from embarrassment and excitement.

Lygin was practically offended by those words, "I was okay, but you… words cannot even describe!" Scar was practically in a rage still off in the corner sitting behind the standing ovation provided by Niko and DeMungus. "I must ask you, how long have you been dancing?" Niko was just thinking the same thing, and wondering how she could also be such a talented bender? Training your body to move like that is an art, much like bending, but most bending has a small element of stop-and-go motion. So, for Kyri to manage to train her body to move in basically polar opposite ways was quite incredible.

Kyri was still a bit flustered from the heat they just created on the floor, not to mention the gentle giant and his smooth ways. She managed to bring herself back down to Earth, metaphorically speaking, and simply replied, "Only for the last two years, well until I took the job at my uncle's inn. Which come to think of it, I might not have a job anymore…"

Everyone's jaws dropped, who was the multi-talented woman who just came waltzing into their lives? No pun intended. Lygin got down on one knee, the air became thick, and hard to breath for Kyri. Scar was now about to lose it, and it took all three men, holding her back at full force from preventing Kyri's murder. Lygin was wide-eyed and very emotional in his next statement, "Teach me, master!"

Kyri was starting to simmer down, the dance really evoked a lot of feelings she hadn't come to terms with. "I need a wage?" She stated plainly and awkwardly, Scar was in the background just chuffed by Kyri's fervent yet embarrassing moment of bizarre self-realization.

Lygin stood up and laughed heartily, "We can discuss semantics at a later time, but how about for now we retire to my home, all of us!" The jovial giant began to lock up the studio. Niko, Scar, Kyri, Zillion, and DeMungus waited outside in the reception area. The smell of the air was nostalgic for Niko, like a sweet tender kiss upon the head, and suddenly he got all tingly. These feelings… I can't place them to memories… however it all seems so familiar. Niko stopped.

Suddenly he was in a different place altogether, was he hallucinating, he couldn't tell, but something felt so inviting about the new place. It looked like a fairytale cottage nestled amongst roaming hillside that was cascaded in the back with fully ripened fruit-bearing trees. IT was only a fleeting moment, though. As quickly as he left the real world, he was suddenly back in the receptionist office, no one had moved, but everyone was looking at him. Even Lygin who was now only a foot away to his left was towering over him, but Lygin wasn't in the room when Niko "left".

No one discussed what had happened at the studio, in fact waiting for the chartered car that would take them all back to Lygin's was quiet, and the car ride was the same. Lygin's house was more of an estate in terms of size, so needless to say everyone was a bit taken aback by the glamorously expensive-looking plot of land. Topiary piece that lined the hedged outskirts, high cast-iron fence with a marble gate to keep his secrets his own.

"Cousin, tell me, how do you afford this on a dance instructors' salary?" Niko gulped as the car went through the marble gate as the iron doors opened up to the property. The car passed by a wide field with plots of farming land. Crops like corn, lychee, apples, carrots, berries, and potatoes could be seen growing in the various plots.

Lygin just smiled and casually explained, "Let's just say I have a green thumb."

In the backseat, Scar and Kyri were both smitten by the gentle giant, and with DeMungus seated between them luckily, they couldn't notice the other ogling Lygin. DeMungus glanced sideways at each of them, "Geez, I wish you'd get this starstruck over me."

"Shut up DeMungus," Scar casually said not losing the fantasies gracing her mind.

"Yeah, what she said…" Kyri was half paying attention.

The car had dropped them off at the front steps and was now making its way back out of the estate grounds, "This used to be Prince Wu's summer home, during the dismantling of the Earth kingdom it was inherited back into our family." His tone got softer, "Mother was related to the bloodline the crown had bought the land from, and in her separate will she left it to me." He froze in the wake of the grand wooden doors.

"Lygin, you okay bud?" Niko patted his cousin on the shoulder, which brought him back to reality, "Thinking about her," to Niko his cousin looked so much like his aunt, and he had so many of her qualities.

Lygin took a deep breath, smiled awkwardly, and apologized, "Sorry, thinking about her is really a hard subject for me, but I'll work through me issues. In the mean time you're all my guests, so please don't mind me." He opened the lock with metal bending, and the doors gradually creaked open to reveal a massive entrance foyer with your typical high cathedral ceilings one could shout and the whole house would echo, a grand staircase the lead to an upstairs open air hallway with many doors and add on hallways one could easily get lost.

Kyri looked into her pockets, fidgeting around, "Oh shoot, I think I left my wallet on the table back at the restaurant." Everyone just stood blankly staring at her.

"You just remembered this now?" Scar was livid, "We're miles away from the teahouse- and oh-"

Kyri had quickly ripped a hand sized whole into the universe and plucked her wallet out with no hassle, "Yeah, duh, universe-bender over here." She pocketed her wallet as the hole in the universe closed up, "I can focus my thoughts on personal items and sometimes people. If I can't find them, I can just open up a hole and go to whatever I'm looking for." Lygin appeared rattled, "What's wrong, you seem startled?"

Niko jumped on the lack of secrecy and wanted to scold Kyri, but she didn't know any better, "Well, aside from the fact that I'd though we'd agree to keep your powers on a need-to-know basis, Lygin and I where brought up to believe this wasn't real. We've known about this since we where kids, but we'd thought it was a made-up tale told by our ancestors."

Zillion shrugged his shoulders, "Well, why does he look so overwhelmed by this and you took it like it was no big deal?" DeMungus nodded in agreement. Scar however looked pensive.

"That's because as a kid he was one kidnapped by a universe-bender," a look of horror overcame Scar as she covered her mouth, "I-I didn't mean to- it slipped out." She looked at Lygin fearfully, "I'm sorry, I promised you I'd never tell."

Niko looked up at his tall cousin, his face was looking down to the floor, and tears were streaming down his face, "Wait- a universe-bender kidnapped you as a kid?" He was so confused his parents nor Thatcher had ever mentioned that fact to him, and how did Scar know about this.

Scar was welling up, "I still have nightmares…"

"Stop!" This was a low voice that resonated from within Lygin. He looked up at them all and smiled, "Please, stop…" He seemed very unhinged. It was quite paralyzing for Niko, he'd never seen anything, but happiness, joy, and positivity radiate from his cousin for the most part. This was a dark side, like an anti-version of his cousin, and he wasn't to fond to see him in this way. "All I will tell you is this, young lady. What you're practicing is a deadly force of nature, one that defies everything we hold to ourselves as near and dear, and it's unnatural- neither man nor woman should have the power to do some of the things I've witnessed. Free living people, just collapsing on the streets and in their homes. Why? Because some power-tripped maniac is ripping… organs out of the body without anyone noticing."

Kyri looked terribly disturbed by this news, "I've heard about a man who had his hands cut off for vicious acts he committed with universe-bending." Kyri stopped for a second, "I think they said his hands just disappeared after that."

Lygin looked down at the floor again, this time he walked over towards the stairs, sitting down dejectedly not letting the others see his face. "Then it's begun..." he quietly mumbled to himself.

Niko drew closer to his cousin, worried he placed a hand on his massive shoulder. Lygin looked up with his eyes bugged out in horror, his complexion paler than normal, and the very sight of this scared Niko enough to back away.

"I heard from that man, that his hands where possessed by an entity known as the Obi' Che' Won, and that he would bring the entity into our world… to destroy it." The room went deathly silent, "The universe shouldn't be manipulated… by anyone!" He bellowed out.