Chapter Five The Waterbending master

"Aaahhhhhh!" she screamed. She was giving birth. And it hurt. A lot. Her husband sat in the nearby room not ready to watch the ordeal. Her house maid was helping her as she was prepared in handling these scenarios.

"Push!" she said, "Push!"

"It's coming!" she said getting excited. Slowly a head began to peak out. She continued pushing until the entire baby was out.

"It's a girl," the maid said quietly. The mother smiled and then something startled her.

"There is another," she said straining.

"When the second baby came out the maid took her and then set her next to the girl.

"It's a boy, twins."

They were both born silent, as if they were asleep. The maid looked at the two silent children wondering what was wrong with them. Then the boy opened his eyes and the world changed forever.

The maid was running. She had to escape she had to make sure that this child grew up in the southern water tribe. Not here where he would become the prince. No that was not his destiny, his destiny required freedom, no responsibilities, just a life to lead.

She knew all this because the ocean told her. When she was younger she had journeyed to the sacred place in the northern water tribe. The ocean told her that when the twin born with glowing eyes was born she would have to save it by taking it to the ocean. She would then be a fugitive she was told and she would have to travel to the southern water tribe and raise the child there. She was told that the moon would protect the other twin and that it was her job to protect this one for if this child died the fate of the world would be lost forever.

She was heading to her boat. Her husband had prepared a small canoe for when this situation arrived. She had already told her husband what she was going to do and he got everything ready and on the boat. He didn't really know why these things were happening but he loved his wife enough to do almost anything for her. She was being chased by expert water benders. She was a water bender but she had never learned any fighting styles for it was forbidden in the North Pole. However though she lacked proper water bending power, she made up for it with the power of the ocean. The ocean spirit was water bending through her hands. As her pursuers launched various attacks at her she easily countered them. She smiled to herself, not even master Cachren could stop her while she wielded the power of the ocean. When she reached her boat she turned around and looked at the swarm of people following her, all trying to recapture this child. Why couldn't they understand that she was helping the world by doing this, she was ending the war. She used the oceans power to create a huge wall of ice blocking the hoard following her. She then turned to her husband and said, "I've got the child now let's go."

Her husband eagerly untied them and they began to set sail for the southern water tribe.

The maid smiled at the young baby boy.

"I'm sorry you will never know your true mother," she whispered, "but I will be your new mother and my husband your father." She then placed the name the ocean had chosen for him saying, "You are humanity's last hope at freedom. You are our only hope, make us proud Nazca."

Nazca was sailing through the cold waters surrounding the northern water tribe. He had never been here and he didn't know where the village was. He had been in the waters surrounding where the northern water tribe should have been for over two days and was beginning to believe that the place didn't exist. He wondered what he would say and how he would even be able to get this water bending master to actually teach him. What would he do if the man refused to teach him? He would just find one of his students and then after he mastered what the student could do he would ask him again.

Nazca was starting to wonder if he missed the village when he felt it. An entire city. A city running off water bending. As he approached it he began to wonder how he would even get in. He could knock but he doubted anyone would answer. Well it was worth the shot. When he finally reached the gate he yelled for someone to hear him but as he expected no one did. He sighed to himself. He would have to get in the hard way. He had been practicing his water bending on the trip here and he now wanted to put his skills to the test. Time to make a wave.

He slowly pushed and pulled the water building a wave which his boat sat on top of. As he neared the top of the wall some of the guards saw the giant wave forming and stared at it amazed at the power of this child. Nazca continued building it up until he had more than cleared the walls. Now came the hard part. Now he had to get over the wall and not crash into the ice buildings surrounding him. He released the wave and began to steer himself towards the canal. He narrowly missed a couple buildings but he eventually made it to the river. He sighed relieved that he had done it but then he felt another ship heading towards him at a gentle pace. He however was being carried forward by his momentum and a collision was imminent. He quickly stood up ready to water bend the water so that the situation ended happily. The driver of the other boat, a water bender had noticed Nazca at the last second and had tried to turn so that he would dodge him. He didn't. Nazca's boat glance the other boat and sent it tipping spilling both the passengers. The water bender easily brought himself above the surface but the girl inside the boat had been thrown with such force that she hit her head on the walls of the canal knocking her out. Sensing this Nazca quickly jumped off his boat and used water bending to propel himself towards her. He quickly reached her and tried to pull her up but they where to far under and he was carrying too much weight. He struggled with her trying to save her but he was quickly losing oxygen a time. He slowly became too weak and slowly sank to the bottom. Right as he hit the bottom and he was about to pass out he felt something. Something he had once knew but had long forgotten. An ancient power resided inside him, never touched, but now he found it. A sudden burst of energy flew through him and he opened his eyes ready to fight. He used all of his strength to propel him. He flew straight up faster than he had ever even moved. He burst out of the water and went flying ten feet in the air. He used the water that he had brought up with him to guide himself and the girl to the shore. When he reached the shore he laid the girl down and then passed out lying next to her.

Nazca awoke in a very soft bed. He had no idea where he was. He reached his mind out in search of anyone else nearby. He found someone. The girl he had saved earlier that day was lying in the bed next to him. He studied her closely and noticed that she was awake and staring at him.

"Why are you staring at me?" He felt her jump at the sudden outburst of noise from the figure next to her.

"I wasn't staring," she said stumbling. Nazca smiled.

"So what where you looking at that made it appear as if you were staring at me."

She sighed confused, "how can you see me, your eyes are closed."

"Come over here and I'll show you."

She shifted her weight and stood up walking over to him. She gasped when she saw his eyes.

"You're blind."

"It happened not too long ago. An archer grazed me while I was walking away after I infiltrated a fire nation camp. Now my corneas are completely severed and I can't see with my eyes so I instead see with water bending."

"How?"

"I sense the water particles in the air moving around different objects. I also feel the blood moving through people and that helps me determine what's dead or alive."

"That is so weird," she said surprised.

Nazca shrugged, "It works and I can actually see more than the average person."

The girl sat down at the edge of her bed. "Thanks for saving my life."

"Well it's my fault that you needed life saving in the first place." He paused for a moment then said, "My name is Nazca, I'm from the southern water tribe."

"I am Yue, the northern water tribe princess," she said smiling. "Why did you come here?"

"I came looking for a water bending teacher, I'm a good fighter but I would like to excel in water bending."

"From what I heard you had an impressive display of water bending, but if you want a teacher I'm sure my parents could set you up with master Pakku after all you saved my life and they would be more than willing to repay you."

He smiled at her, "That would be helpful." Nazca then felt some one approaching, a man who appeared to be in his forties.

"Someone's coming," he told Yue.

She quickly got back into her bed and pretended to be asleep. Then the man walked in. Yue peeked through her eyelids to see the newcomer.

"Dad!" she exclaimed.

"Hello Yue, how do you feel?"

"Good," she said, then she introduced them saying, "Nazca this is my dad, dad this is Nazca, the boy who saved my life."

"It's an honor to meet you."

"The pleasure is mine. I am very thankful for what you did back there. She would have surely drowned."

Nazca sighed, how come these people didn't get it, "I should be apologizing, and I shouldn't be praised. The only reason that your daughter needed help in the first place was because my boat crashed into hers."

"I know that but you acted quicker than anyone else nearby at the time. You could have stared like the man I hired to cart her around or you could have easily ran away and hid. No one would be able to find you, no one saw your face and you certainly don't live here."

"I was just doing the most honorable thing, righting my wrong."

"And your wrong has been righted and you saved my daughter's life which is why I owe you my thanks."

Nazca smiled, "Who knows how we can get into such disputes over simple things like that."

Yue's dad laughed with him for a moment then asked him, "Surely you did not just come here to visit or just save my daughter's life. So I would like to help you with the reason you came here in any way as repayment."

"Well, I did come here with a reason but I know it will not be easy to accomplish," he cleared his throat and then said, "I came here to learn how to water bend."

"Well master Pakku is probably the best waterbender here."

"Really, it's that easy, just walk on down to master Pakku and start learning."

"Well you never really know with him."

"I'm sure that he would be more than willing after that impressive display of how you broke through our defenses," Yue interrupted.

"Well why don't we go ask him?" Yue's dad said.

They walked down to the training grounds where they would supposedly find him. Yue was supported by her dad because she wasn't completely recovered. As the approached Nazca felt the master meditating, performing some complex bending move. Nazca put out a hand for them to stop; he did not want to interrupt the man. In fact he could learn a lot right here.

"Why are we stopping," Yue asked.

"He's concentrating and I can learn by just watching for now, besides I don't want to interrupt."

Nazca felt the man's balance shift and he released the water. "Now we go."

He approached the man cautiously, unsure what he would be like.

"What do you want?"

Grouchy, Nazca thought, "I want to learn to water bend and I figured the best place for that would be from a master."

"So that's what you thought huh. Well unfortunately for you I'm not going to teach you."

"Pakku," Yue's dad began, "he saved my daughter's life using water bending surly there is something you can teach him."

"I would teach him but he has never had a previous teacher, I would have to start from square one."

"C'mon Pakku. He saved my kid's life."

Pakku sighed, "Fine. What do you want to know."

"To fight."

He sighed angrily then said, "Of course you want to know how to fight, no technique no practice just want to fight. Well kid today is your lucky day if you want to learn to fight so badly than watch closely." He turned to Yue's dad, "You might want to back up."

Yue's dad sighed but then backed up. Pakku then turned to Nazca and smiled. He then got into a fighting stance.

The first move was a direct blast of water. Wanting to get wet so he could sense himself better he let it hit him but froze his feet to the ground and slowed the force of the water. It was refreshing but very cold. The next move was a whip of water. Nazca waited for it to near him and then dispersed it into the air. Pakku who was frustrated at this kid let out a storm of different attacks all which Nazca would stop before they could do any damage. As Pakku sent another wave at him Nazca braced himself and got ready to attack. As the water was about to hit him he diverged it into two different streams but instead of releasing it he grabbed and began to build. He used the whip technique that Pakku had used earlier except this time instead of one whip he made eight. He used two of his whips to counter, four of them to attack and the last two as a last defense. He released a flurry attacks at Pakku and they continued exchanging blows while they both slowly tired. The continued fighting, neither of them to be at an advantage, for over two hours and by that time a large crowd had gathered and they were both very tired. Nazca had tried every single move that Pakku used on him until he perfected them all and there were only old moves being used. Suddenly Pakku used all of his strength to release a continuously flowing blast of water, sensing this Nazca reacted with the same move until they were both standing there with blasts of water contacting at the point directly between them. Nazca began to slip and froze himself in keeping a solid base. They continued this attack for over three hours. By the time the three hours had passed Nazca was extremely weak. He slowly slipped his grip on the ground faltering and then finally completely collapsed. He landed on the ground and the water between them collapsed for Pakku had collapsed, exhausted at the same time as Nazca. They lay there panting staring at each other until Master Pakku said, "I think your training is complete."