Chapter 5

Visions of a Shadow

I went to the Water Bending Training Field. It was rectangular with stands on one side and a large platform on the other. Lina, Fai, Koluk, and Hana all went into the stands to watch, I smiled. I was glad I had good friends to support me. 'Wait a second, when did I consider Hana a friend,' I thought. I looked at Fai and Koluk's faces and they seemed to be thinking the same thing. Lina and Hana on the other hand seemed to be getting along famously; they were talking and giggling with each other. Koluk was having a conversation with a guy next to him trying to ignore the giggling girls. Fai just sat there looking around awkwardly; I laughed.

Tekton and I were some of the only ones who took both warrior training and water bending training, we became friends over that. He was one of those popular guys that likes to show off but was actually pretty cool. Before water bending practice started he didn't even know me but just new I was an outcast so didn't talk to me, but when practice started he noticed I faked at being bad at water bending and confronted me about it. I played and still play dumb whenever he mentions it. But now we talk a lot and are good friends.

"Hey Hyriu, that was some pretty good teaching with the 'Swing Kick' back there," he said to me he was almost sixteen years old so he was taller than me, and he was more muscular and could look very intimidating when he wanted to. He had short brown hair and blue eyes like steel.

"Thanks, that was a good demonstration. Did your really take down Koluk or was it staged?" I asked with a smile.

"Um, it was staged," he said and we both laughed.

As our laughter quieted down I heard something that killed it right away, "Hi Hyriu!" it was Hana, "I can't wait for our date tomorrow!"

My face turned bright red and my head dropped and everyone in the stands and the field started laughing. I looked up at Hana and I also saw Lina had fallen over laughing and Fai and Koluk looked like they were about to follow her. I just barely lifted my hand and waved back because I knew if I tried ignoring her she would yell again.

"So is that your girlfriend?" Tekton asked in a mocking tone with a smirk.

"Oh Spirits no," I said a little forcefully.

He laughed, "Okay then."

Master Desu walked up onto the platform, "Okay everyone settle down," he said with a smirk. "Master Wei will not be joining us today he has, other matters to attend to," he glanced at me when he said that, "but it is time to begin today's lesson. We are going to begin learning ice bending."

Everyone started talking excitedly and someone even cheered. I smiled to myself I had learned ice bending ages ago.

"Quiet! Quiet. Yes, it is very exciting. Now I will not go over the theory of ice bending since Master Wei already taught you that. As you know ice is solid, so of course to freeze something or bend it in its ice form, you need to use more solid movements. Watch carefully," Master Desu said and then with a few quick movements he made a mound of ice and formed it into a pillar, then he made motions with his hands like he was trying to pull the top of the pillar to him. And it seemed to be working as the pillar began to curve downward until the top of it touched the ground forming a large archway. The group of kids were amazed and some cried out in surprise. I myself was impressed with Master Desu's bending.

"Obviously I don't expect any of you to do that anytime soon. All I want you to do is to lift up a sphere of water and freeze it into a ball of ice. Like so," he demonstrated the move, "Now you try."

We all lifted up some water; a few kids including me had some trouble with that. Tekton gave me a look that said 'You're not fooling anyone'.

"Now compress the water feel how warm it is and imagine its temperature dropping, feel the water begin to cool. But be careful if you apply too much pressure to the ice it, will begin to crack and could explode, so take it slow."

We began to do that and it was dead quiet, even in the stands. I was compressing my water and the sphere grew smaller. I looked over at Tekton and his face filled with concentration, I saw he already had a few small pieces of ice in his water. I looked up at the platform and saw that Master Desu wasn't there. Instead there stood a tall man wearing a black robe with a hood that covered his entire face. I looked around to see if any of the other kids noticed the robed man. They were all too focused on their water. I was about to say something to Tekton about it when I saw the robed man was gone and Master Desu was there on the platform like he never left. I looked back at my water very confused, only my water looked weird. I then realized there was a shadow in its reflection, there was something behind me. I looked over my right shoulder and saw the robed man standing right behind me. Under his hood I saw two red eyes glinting evilly and looking right at me. I jumped and dropped my water, it splashed loudly. I looked at my feet and blinked a few times and looked back up. The robed man was gone and there were no footprints in the fresh snow. Tekton was giving me a weird look, he could always tell when I was pretending to be bad at water bending but right now he knew I hadn't meant to drop my water. He knew something had scared me.

I tried to ignore him and the other kids giving me weird looks. Even Master Desu was looking at me strangely. I heard someone snickering; I looked and saw Taruk looking at me as I made another sphere of water.

"Having trouble with ice bending Hyr-o?" he said and some people laughed.

"Taruk," Master Desu said sternly, "Turn around and focus on your ice."

More people laughed at that. Taruk gave me one last dirty look before turning around. Tekton gave me a mischievous look. While still holding his water with his left hand he sneakily slid his right hand behind his back. With his fingers he made a claw-like motion then closed them into a fist, Taruk's half frozen sphere of water exploded. Some people screamed and everyone except a few other kids, Tekton, and me dropped their spheres and several others exploded as well, causing even more chaos.

"Alright everyone calm down!" Maser Desu said. "Taruk maybe if you were more focused on your sphere and not Hyriu's then maybe this wouldn't have happened. However, seeing as it did, it showed me those few of you that can keep your focus, even when others around you can't. Those of you that can keep your focus, Gen Li, Huan, Da-Xia, Tekton, and Hyriu, you all are excused from the rest of the lesson and have some free time. I only ask that you are not too loud and not to disturb the remaining students. Oh and stay close because I will call you back at the end of the lesson for an announcement. Those of you left seem to need more time to focus. So I will give you that time," they all groaned as we walked away from the group.

When we were far enough, Tekton and I burst out laughing. When the others gave us strange looks Tekton told them what he did and they joined in our laughter.

"Wait," Da-Xia said, "So you purposely made his sphere explode?"

"Well yeah, Master Desu's punishment was just a bonus, now the other kids will all be mad at him," Tekton answered.

We all talked and laughed for awhile. Since they were all a few years older than me, they talked about stuff that did not interest me and I started messing around with some snow and water.

I eventually started to make a building. I decided to make a castle out of snow and ice. Something awoke deep inside me and influenced the shapes I make with the ice. When I was done I saw I had made a miniature city with many tiny houses and a grand castle upon a large cliff with a waterfall. I was amazed with my craftsmanship, Tekton, Huan, Gen Li, and Da-Xia were also amazed.

I hadn't realized, but they stopped talking and were just watching me.

"Whoa Hyriu!" Huan exclamed. "That's incredible!"

"I thought you were bad at water bending," Da-Xia questioned.

"We just learned ice bending today, how did you do that?" Gen Li said.

"I knew you were better than what you let on, but that's just amazing," Tekton said.

"I'm not sure how I did it. Something just… came over me. It felt like someone else was moving my hands," I answered.

They looked like they were going to ask more questions when Master Desu called us over.

"Now then," Master Desu began when we all got over to him, "I have an exciting announcement. Chief Arnook, Princess Yue, and the entire Royal Court are in Hydronia," there were exclamations of surprise. "They arrived in town early this morning and are staying for a few weeks. Two weeks from now though ,they will host a celebration and they want us to perform. So starting tomorrow we are going to work hard, that is why I gave such a severe punishment today. No funny business of any kind. And Chief Arnook has a meeting planned in the Grand Hall and has asked that everyone be in attendance," when he said 'everyone' he looked directly at me. "That is all, you are dismissed, and remember to practice your focus for those of you I assigned it to."

We all started to walk away. Koluk, Fai, Lina, and Hana all came down to meet us.

"Wow Hyriu, I can't believe your learning ice-" Hana started to say when I saw a group of kids had gathered several feet behind her and were talking excitedly. I tried to see what they were looking at when I saw the miniature city and castle I had made out of ice. I quickly waved my hand to melt the city. As I was waving my hand Hana who was still talking glanced down at my hand then looked where I was looking just as the castle was collapsing, "-bending," Hana finished her sentence, but she said 'bending' very slowly like her mind was completely focused on something else.

The others didn't notice my hand movement or the group of kids behind them that were now freaking out at the destruction of the little city.

"Hana?" Lina said, "Hana are you alright?

"Yeah," Hana said still talking slowly like her mind wasn't even here. She was still staring at me but not like she normally does, her eyes where not filled with longing or happiness, but filled with suspicion. It made me very uncomfortable, I was hoping she didn't see my hand move or the castle, but the look she had now told me she did. "Yeah," she said again, but talking faster now, "Yes I'm alright. Well I really must be going."

"I'll walk with you," Koluk offered since he lived close by her, "I was about to leave any way."

"No no," she said talking very fast, almost like she was afraid, "It's fine, I'll walk alone," she ran off.

"Run alone is more like it," Fai said.

"Well that was weird," Koluk said, "Even for Hana."

Yeah, no kidding, did you see the way she was looking at you, Hyriu?" Tekton said.

"Yeah," now I was the one talking slowly.

"Hyriu, you said you had to meet Master Wei immediately after practice," Lina said.

"Oh, right thanks," I said, "See you guys later."

Lina and Tekton walked with me since they lived on the way. Lina and I picked up our conversation about the Spirit World and Tekton joined in. I had to hold back on all that I knew since Tekton didn't know who I really was and Lina had to restrain some of her questions as well. Every so often I would catch a glimpse of a shadow moving between buildings following us, but every time I turned my head to get a better look, it disappeared. That greatly unsettled me and I remembered the dark visions from History class and water bending training.

We got to the street Lina lived on and she said bye to us. We rounded a corner and saw Taruk standing in front of his house holding up a ball of water, Master Desu's assignment no doubt.

As we got closer I wanted to say something to him so bad but I held back. As we passed him he glared at us and I opened my mouth to say something, but Tekton beat me to it.

"Oh, hey Taruk. How's the, ice bending going? No… problems I hope," he said in a mocking way.

Taruk just looked away and tried to focus on his ice but a large crack appeared on its surface.

"Oh, be careful. We wouldn't want another explosion. Would we?" Tekton said darkly.

Taruk gave him a look of complete hate, "You did that?"

"All I did was stand up for a friend," Tekton answered.

I glanced at the ally next to Taruk's house, I had seen the shadow again, but this time when I turned my head to get a better look I saw something that froze me in fear.

I saw a stream of black smoke just like the ones from my earlier vision, but this one was different it seemed more powerful and it was coming right at me. I tried to warn Taruk and Tekton but I couldn't move, I was literally frozen in fear. The smoke stopped just at it reached the back of Taruk's house. When the smoke cleared I saw it was the robed man I saw at water bending practice. His red eyes were fixed on me. I knew somehow he wasn't human.

A red light shone from his eyes, it steadily grew brighter until it blotted out everything else. Then everything went black and I was standing in a room of black stone, a girl was in chains in front of me. The robed man came in the room. The girl lifted her head. I was shocked, it was Lamara, my air bending friend, except she looked different. Her hair which was usually very short, was past her shoulders and she looked older. The robed man raised his hand and there was a flash of orange light and Lamara cried out in pain.

I'm was in another room, Koluk was slumped against a wall. He looked different also, older. His cell was of the same material that Lamara's was made of. The robed man walked into the room. He slashed his left hand through the air and I heard a sound like a whip cracking. Koluk cried out in pain and I saw that a fresh welt had opened oh his left check. As I looked closer I saw that similar wounds covered the rest of his body.

I'm in yet another room and the robed man is already in it and I was behind him. I could see that there is a Fire Nation girl in this room, but I can't see her face. He moved and I saw her hair and it was golden. I only knew of one person in the whole world with golden hair and that was my fire bending master's daughter, Zaria. I was horrified that even she was being tortured. The robed man seemed to think better of torturing her further and walked out. I followed him. We were in a dark hallway, we passed a room that had someone in it I had never net. He looked Earth Kingdom and wore tan clothes with lots of brown leather.

We continued walking; he entered a room with a young Water Tribe boy in it. With a shock I realized it was Hiko. The robed raised his hand again and there was a flash of green light and Hiko's chains broke and he fell to the floor unconscious.

With a flash I was back with Taruk and Tekton, and the robed man was no where to be seen. Taruk glanced at me them back to Tekton, then back at me seeing me clearly shaken. My heart was beating fast and perspiration had gathered on my face. Adrenaline was racing through me.

Taruk smiled, "Careful Tekton, your boyfriend looks scared."

"He's not my boyfriend!" Tekton shouted back, he looked at me, "Hyriu are you okay you look like you just saw a ghost? Your eyes look weird too."

I realized it wasn't adrenaline running through me, I was so scared of the robed man that I had entered the first stage of the Avatar State. I closed my eyes and came of out stage one.

"I'm fine," I said, "Come on Tekton, let's go."

We walked away and as we were walking Taruk yelled at us.

"That's right, run away you scared little baby, run right to your dead mother!"

I stopped in my tracks and clenched my fists. Cracks opened in the ice street. I moved my right fist to my chest. I could feel Taruk's sphere of water almost completely frozen with my bending sense. I whipped my right hand out and opened my fingers. Taruk's sphere exploded for a second time but this time with a much bigger force.

I turned around and saw Taruk's face was covered in little cuts, but I didn't care.

"Looks like you need to focus more on your ice bending, Tar-yuck," I snarled back at him, and stormed off, the ice cracking beneath my feet.

Tekton caught up to me, "Whoa, you ok Hyriu?"

"I'm fine," I said between gritted teeth.

"You sure? You seem a little-" Tekton began.

"I said I'm fine!" I yelled. I realized I was walking so fast that I had already reached the street where Tekton lived.

"Well, see you later," he said a little unnerved.

I started toward the Square. I could see the shadow again out of the corner of my eye following me in the ally ways. My anger subsided and was replaced by fear. I did not want any more visions today.

I heard the sound of moving water behind me and I slipped and fell. I looked behind me and saw Taruk. On the ground I saw a fresh patch of ice that he had made.

"Still think I need to work on my ice bending Hyr-o?" he said. I didn't answer. "There's no one to save you here."

"You know you really should mind your surroundings better young man," a familiar voice said, "Because I believe I am still capable of saving people.

We both turned to see who was talking. Standing in the middle of the street, with a smug look on his face, was none other than Master Pakku.