"Spirit what?"

"Spirit Oasis," Feferi repeated herself as she crawled through the entrance with Karkat following her.

On the other side the princess took off her jacket and gloves and placed it near the entrance before skipping forward to a bridge. It was strangely warm in there so Karkat took off his coat as well. With confusion he walked over to the princess when she waved him over.

"What is this place? Why is it so warm?" he looked around at the lush green grass and flowers. How a place like this could even exist in the North Pole was a great wonder. The area was enclosed by walls of ice and the sound of the water stream was calming.

"Are you seriously going to make me say it again? Here I'll say it slowly. It's the Spir-it O-ay-sis," she said each syllable separately as she poked Karkat's forehead.

The boy quickly backed up and placed his hands over the now reddening spot, "Fuck ow, I meant why haven't I heard of this place before and how long has it been here?"

Feferi walked over to the pond that was at the center of the area, "It's always been here. Ever since the capitol was made I guess. This is the most spiritual place in the North Pole. Also this place is restricted area."

"Then why the fuck are we here?"

"Restricted to everyone but the main family and the most spiritual person on the planet," Feferi giggled and sat down in front of the pond.

It took Karkat a moment to realise that the most spiritual person on the planet was the Avatar which was supposed to be him, "Oh."

Feferi rolled her eyes and patted the ground beside here, "Slow poke. Come over here."

Karkat sat down beside her cross legged and looked that the pond in front of him. Inside it was a single black koi fish swimming in circles, "So why'd you bring me here?"

"To talk a little about Avatar history."

"Oh come on Rose is already going to give me a shitload of that during my trip."

"At least let me tell you some North Water tribe history and then I'll tell her she won't have to go over it with you later."

"Fine but hurry it up, I have to meet my dad later," Karkat crossed his arms in annoyance.

"Oh you're seeing your mom right?"

"Yeah, so get on with it."

"See the fish there?" Feferi pointed to the black koi fish. It began to swim in the other direction but still in a circle.

"Yeah."

"It's apparently the Ocean Spirit, La. A long time ago it came to the mortal world to reside here with the Moon Spirit Tui."

"What the hell would spirits be doing here in the mortal world? They could die if they're here right?" Karkat narrowed his eyes at the pond, "Wait there's only one fish here."

"Because a long time ago Tui was killed . . ."

She was glad when Karkat decided to stay silent to listen, "There was a century where the Avatar had disappeared once. It was the air born avatar before the Dolorosa. He was found frozen in an ice burg during the time when the fire nation was trying to control all the nations."

Karkat recalled his history lessons about the Sozin and Ozai era when the Fire Nation was bent on ruling the world.

"He at the time was the last air nomad on earth. Through his travels to learn the elements he of course eventually came here and that was when the fire nation decided to attack. The general of the fleet knew about the spirits and came to kill he moon spirit, knowing it was a source of power for the water benders. La and the Avatar formed together to attack the fire nation fleet and they left."

"Wait if the moon spirit died then how we are all still able to water bend?" Feferi smiled at Karkat's curiosity.

"The princess at the time had been given life from the moon spirit when she was a baby and then she returned that life to the spirits. Now she and the moon spirit are one. Though the fish is gone, they still live on."

"Why didn't we ever learn this in class? Are you sure this isn't just some legend?" Karkat frowned at the outrageous tale.

"Because it's not just some legend. It actually happened! It's just a story passed down to the royal family though so that might be why. This place is the most connected to the spiritual world. Why don't you try to meditate and see if you can go through?"

"It's not going to work. I haven't had any sort of spiritual training or any of that shit."

"Just shut up and try. Geez you're so complicated."

"Fine," Karkat just rolled his eyes before closing his eyes. Thanks to the nice climate it was quite easy to get into a relaxed state. His breathing was calm and so was the world around him. He actually felt at peace, which was a rare thing for him.

Instead of going to the spirit world or whatever, he felt a presence suddenly appear. Like a third person just suddenly appeared beside them. He slowly peeked to the side to see Feferi meditating as well and looked around to see no one else. He had thought Eridan had come in or something but apparently not. The feeling of them not being alone never left him though.

His eyes widened once he looked at Feferi again. A pale see through hand was seen resting on her shoulder. Looking up he could see it belonged to a girl with large mass of hair just like Feferi's. He could see right through her. Her figure just kind of floated behind the princess as if she was always there. She seemed to realize that Karkat was looking at her so she turned her head eerily slow and he saw that she had no eyes. There was just white empty space. He jumped back with a freaked out cry.

"Wha what? What happened? Did you see something scary in the spirit world?" the startled princess asked.

Karkat furiously rubbed his eyes before looking at the princess again. She looked at him with worry. He whipped his head around and saw that the ghostly figure was gone. The third presence he had felt earlier disappeared.

"Karkat?"

"N-nothing, I didn't see anything. It didn't work. I'm going to see my dad now," Karkat said quickly as he got up and headed to the exit. If being the Avatar consisted of seeing dead people then he would avoid that section entirely.

"What did you see?" Feferi asked curiously as she followed.

"I said nothing alright just drop it!"

"Wait! At least take some flowers with you. For your mom," Karkat turned to get a bundle of freshly picked flowers shoved into his face. He pushed them away and spit out a petal before holding them. Feferi gave him a big smile.

" . . . Thanks."

"No problem, don't want to keep your dad and mom waiting now."

The two put their coats back on and left oasis. As soon as Karkat got out, Eridan grabbed his collar.

"Kar. If you ever meet Sol, punch him in the face for me," the nobleman's child ordered with fury. Karkat could even see his eye twitch with irritation.

"I make no promises," Karkat raised his arms in surrender and Eridan let him go.

"Cod that annoyin' little ugh I don't even know what nation he's from so I can't make fun of him that way!"

"Doesn't he live in the earth nation?" Karkat fixed his coat that Eridan scrunched up.

"But he wasn't born there and he won't tell us where he's actually from. When you find out tell me so I can properly insult him back. That annoyin' pompous little argh!" Eridan fumed to himself and glared at his phone which most likely meant that their long distance friend Sollux had just sent him an insulting text.

Feferi giggled, "Oh that's right, you'll get to meet everyone from your travels. Try to see if you can meet with everyone since you missed the last banquet and tell us how they're doing!"

"You can just text them or e-mail them. Why do I have to check up on them?"

"Well I would if I could but Aradia hasn't replied to any of my messages since the last banquet and didn't you suddenly lose touch with Gamzee too? You should try to find them since no one knows what happened to them. Oh and I heard Vriska lost contact with pretty much everybody too."

"Right, John was complaining about that to me a while back," the group usually kept in contact with a few of the kids they met up with from the banquet but some of them had stopped responding for no apparent reason, "Well I'll try and see, I'll be busy doing Avatar training probably every fucking day so I don't know."

"At least you'll say you'll try, that's good enough for me!"

"Right whatever I gotta go," Karkat waved and left with his bundle of flowers.

The new Avatar found his father already sitting in front of the stone slab. Karkat placed the flowers on the ground in front of the nicely decorated slab and then sat down beside him with his knees pulled up to his chest.

"Nice flowers. Where'd you get 'em."

"Feferi brought me to the Spirit Oasis."

"Ah . . .They suit your mother."

"Yeah they do."

The two water tribe citizens sat there in silence for a while just staring at the gravestone. Karkat's mother had been a hearty and healthy woman until a few years ago when they discovered she had cancer. She lived as long as she could and was always under the treatment of the healers like Rose. Sometimes Feferi came and tried to help as well but alas her time came. She passed away a two months before the Banquet of The Dolorosa and that was why Karkat didn't go that year.

"Your mother would have been so proud of you," Karkat felt a hand on his head.

"Really? It always seemed like . . . I was a burden to you guys . . ."

The man laughed and pulled Karkat into a headlock again but this time his hold was loose, "You're not a burden when you're growing up to be a fine man and bender that can get food to feed his family."

Karkat stayed silent. His father let go of him and sighed, "Your mother was so bright and optimistic. If she was still here she would go up to all those other councilmen that didn't believe you were the Avatar and shout to their faces 'I told ya so!' Woman had the best intuition."

Karkat chuckled, "Yeah she would have said that like she always said to you when you were wrong."

"I've lost count how many times she said that to me."

"Too many times. Same with me. Heh even during her last few moments . . . she lectured me . . ." his father let him go and Karkat buried his face into his knees.

"That's what a good mother does. Teaches them to grow up to be wonderful people. It's been hard without her."

". . . you . . ." Karkat's voice was muffled.

"Hm what's that boy? Speak up."

"And now . . . I have to leave you too," he repeated softly.

"Worried about your old man? Didn't I tell you this morning there's nothing to worry about? I'm not that old first of all and I'm strong so don't worry about it," his father ruffled his hair. They both knew that's not what he meant but they didn't dwell on it much farther.

The smell of food made Karkat look up to see a freshly cooked sea crab on a stick held in front of him. He quietly took it and stared at it before looking at his dad.

"I got a bonus for selling extra today. That grumpy head healer was helping out today and gave them to me and told me to make sure to give some to you and that it wasn't all for me."

"Really? Her? Rose's and Feferi's teacher?" Karkat narrowed his eyes at the food. He always thought that woman hated his guts since he always cause problems around her work area. Maybe she put something funny in it.

"Just eat up boy. It's a farewell gift. Even if you are a pain, not everyone is heartless."

Karkat glared at the food a little while longer before taking a tentative bite.

Then he finished it because it was so god damn good. His father just laughed at him as they sat there in peace.

"Karkat I believe I told you yesterday after you visited your mother that we had to leave early," Rose looked at the out of breath boy before her at the dock.

"Fuck . . . my dad just kept pestering me . . . . about tons of shit alright. I'm not even . . . that late," Karkat coughed a bit before straightening. He looked at the government looking people standing behind Rose, "Who the fuck are they?"

"White Lotus sentinels. They are to be our escorts during our journey. White Lotus is the organization that keeps the peace between the four nations and is tasked at taking care of the Avatar," Rose explained.

Karkat glared at the guard like people, "So they're watchdogs great."

Rose sighed as Feferi ran up to them with Eridan. She immediately hugged the water bending genius before hugging Karkat, "Bye guys! Keep in touch! We're going to miss you."

"Yeah I'm totally going to miss beatin' Kar in matches," Eridan nodded to himself.

"Like how you beat me the other day?" Karkat smirked and mocked, "Eep fire I can't counter cause it's so scary weh."

"That was fuckin' unfair and you know it. It surprised all of us, freakin' fire comin' out a nowhere."

"Weh I'm Eridan and I'm afraid of fire."

"Alright that's it," Eridan raised his arms as snow was raised around him and turned into water."

"Eridan now is not the time," Feferi scolded. Eridan roughly dropped the water and turned to the side with a pout.

Feferi sighed at him before turning to Karkat with a smile, "I hope you have fun on your trip."

"With Rose tagging along I think that will be impossible. Ack!" Karkat put his hand on his head where he felt a sudden hit and turned around to see a small ball of water floating in her hand that she had probably used to smack him in the back of the head.

Feferi giggled, "Be nice to each other you two. Try not to bite each other's heads off."

"Oh I will try my best my dear but I can't make any promises for the anger management need Avatar," Rose said wistfully making Feferi giggle some more. Karkat rolled his eyes at them.

"Whatever let's go, so good bye and stuff and yeah send a message if you ever want to talk and stuff," a large hand ruffled his head. When Karkat looked up he saw his father smiling at him.

"Stay safe Karkat. Listen well to miss Lalonde and your other teachers or else you'll never master the elements before you can return home."

"We will try to visit when we can," Rose smiled at his father.

"That'd be nice since it will probably take years for this little bugger to even master one element."

"Yes thank you for pointing out my learning disabilities," Karkat said flatly.

"It is time to go," one of the White Lotus sentinels declared before boarding the boat with the others.

"Well it is time we depart," Rose waved and was a bit startled when Feferi suddenly ran up to hug her again.

"I'm going to miss you guys. It's going to be weird without you two here."

"We'll miss you too," Rose hugged her back and boarded the ship.

Feferi hugged Karkat again and he awkwardly patted her on the back. He shook hands with Eridan despite the little spat earlier and then looked at his dad. He scratched the back of his head from being unsure of what to do. The man rolled his eyes and then just pulled Karkat into a big hug. The hug was short lived because it turned into a headlock and another noogie.

"Damnit you old man!" Karkat yelled as he jumped back, "Just you wait! I'm going to come back and show you that I can learn all the elements. I may not master all of them in a year but I will show you! In one year I will be a pretty decent bender in all the elements!"

"I look forward to it you brat," his father called after him as the boy boarded the ship.

The two water benders watched the waving citizens as the boat left the port towards the vast sea.

"That's quite the bet you made with your father. Are you sure that will be possible for you?"

"Watch me. Hey that air bender before the Dolorosa learned all the elements in like a year too right? So I can too."

"So you do pay attention in class."

"Whatever just you wait."

"Right, whatever you say oh great Avatar," Rose smiled, "In the meantime, when we're not practicing I'll be teaching you on the subjects that you will be missing while away from classes."

"Fuck why am I not surprised."

Day one on the ship was boring for the most part with Rose lecturing him and eating. The only interesting part was the water bending practice where he got his ass handed to him by Rose and had all the onlookers (ship crew and White Lotus sentinels) laughing at him. It was going to be a long and treacherous trip for him. Especially with the fact that the Fire Nation was quite far from the North Pole.

And this unfortunately continued for the rest of the week.

On the last day of the week, Karkat escaped his daily lecture with Rose and hid at the back of the ship. He hung his arms over the rail and looked out at the vast ocean.

"Fuck this is so dumb," the Avatar sighed and rolled over so that his head was hanging off the rail too and he was looking at the horizon upside down. He began to think if he really could learn all the elements in a year. Quite the bet indeed. If he went back after a year then he would probably return to everyone laughing at him knowing that he couldn't do it.

"Why'd I ever say that," he groaned to himself, "Just kill me now to save me the embarrassment!"

The sound of a firing canon rang through the air before the ship suddenly shook after a sound of impact was made.

"FUCK I WAS KIDDING!" he shouted instantly as he stood somewhat up right and clung onto the railing.

Everyone on the ship began to run about as an alarm rang through the air. On the first day of the trip he received a briefing with Rose in case of emergencies and that was the alarm of an attack. Karkat looked back at the ocean and saw nothing so he ran to the front. There he found Rose looking through a telescope pointed at the ship coming towards them at great speed. They were pretty far too so how they hit them was beyond him.

"Pirates," a White Lotus sentry hissed.

Rose handed the telescope to let Karkat see. He looked through and saw that it was a fire nation type boat made of metal. Perched at its highest point was a large blue flag with a picture of a black spider on it.

"I was afraid of this but we're not even in fire nation waters yet so what would she be doing here? I thought pirates stayed in the waters in which they proclaimed their own," Rose said to herself with crossed arms.

"Wait what?" Karkat put the telescope down and looked at Rose as the rest of the crew members prepared for the encounter.

"It's the Spider Lilies."