Time kept picking up its pace, and the books that remained unread by me were becoming fewer and fewer. It was good that this was only a small library, which the Chiefs replenished purely for their own needs. In the city itself, however, there was a general library, where there were many more diverse books, manuscripts, and even old parchments made from animal skins.
This world reminds me of the New and Old World, where the fire nation people play the role of the white-faced ones, having an established army, production capacity, as well as a whole series of innovations put into flow. While the water and earth peoples still use simple sailing ships, the fire nation already had an entire fleet of high-quality steel ships running on coal at the start of the war. Even the forms of government converge — the two water peoples essentially remained tribes that simply united and mint their own coins, while the Fire Country is an absolute monarchy that possesses a more solid and complex form of statehood. [ image ]

The history also converges to some extent: at one time, the Fire Sages ruled the fire nation archipelago single-handedly, having an analogy with Christianity, which for some time almost completely ruled Europe. At the north pole, they worship spirits, which is very similar to the Indians from America.
***
I recently turned a whole six years old. We didn't eat cakes or blow out candles, but there were several gifts both from parents and from people who essentially work at my home, or more precisely at the Chief's Palace. I still can't get used to this. They gave me new clothes — the old ones had become somewhat small. There were several toys made from animal bones, as well as a whole notebook. This I considered a really valuable gift, because such a thing is very difficult to find at the north pole. My father gave it to me — that's what it means to be a chief, he immediately saw my love for books and made an exceptionally correct conclusion. Now I need to learn to write with doubled effort. And most likely, if I start writing in languages from my past life, parents might interpret this not quite correctly. They might even think I'm just drawing scribbles on things that have better uses. Of course, all this isn't so critical, but they might stop giving such gifts.
A few days after my celebration, mom started going to her work at the Healing Huts, where she teaches young girls the basics of healing magic. When she found out she was expecting — work was temporarily abandoned. Childbirth already heavily burdens the body, and giving birth to a potential bender, moreover a strong one, takes resources from both the body and the energy source. Jun was allowed to fully use bending only recently, when it became clear that the situation had normalized.
Now Aska sits with me more often — the nanny who has been looking after me since birth. I began to notice that parents sometimes don't sleep in our room, but leave as soon as I "fall asleep," leaving Aska in their place. I think someone finally got their hands on something sweet, heh-heh.
As soon as I started walking independently, albeit slowly, new expanses opened up for me to explore. The world, being one room, suddenly expanded to an entire palace, where there was still so much new and unexplored for me. Every day on schedule after breakfast, I was obliged to go explore the palace. Before, I was influenced by the nature of a lesser spirit, now I'm influenced by a child's body. It's encouraging that the second is definitely temporary, and I'm going to enjoy my childhood to the fullest. With age, you start to lack such simple pure emotions in life, when you rejoice at everything.
I was getting closer and closer to the Northern Water Tribe. Father often took me to his office and tried to teach me what he knew: about our way of life, traditions, and things that every wise chief should know. Sometimes I sat in the Healing Huts and observed the work of experienced healers. They quickly nullified all injuries that in the twenty-first century would be treated for months, or even whole years.
Sometimes they took me on walks around the city. This part of everyday life was my favorite, especially when we passed the place where water masters train their students. Only there did I understand how one-sidedly I had used the water element... Yes, it was effective to have several techniques that guaranteed to kill my enemies, but here I saw a whole art that had been honed over many centuries. The flowing smooth movements seemed slow, but this was just an illusion — when the situation required it, the bender calmly changed his fighting style to a rougher and sharper one. People who were weaker than spirits by their nature didn't take with overwhelming power, but with the ability to adapt to any opponent. By the way, I hadn't seen so many different new techniques even in the animated series itself.
And this was just watching sparring matches of simple students, who aren't even close to being masters. I'm afraid to imagine what monsters are — people who have understood the water element much deeper. Live and learn, right?
There was also an opportunity to see another colorful character there who figured in the series. This person was water master Pakku — now his head is just beginning to turn gray, but he beats his students something fierce. By the way, the cartoon showed only one water master Pakku, but here there are many more, there were even old men who managed to go through the war. [ image ]

Watching from afar the skinny old men who seemed like they could be blown away by even a random breeze — you definitely don't expect to see how they show with stingy movements what even Pakku can't do. Even other masters seemed to become smaller when communicating with them. Maybe by the Avatar's arrival they simply weren't there anymore — after all, benders don't live much longer than ordinary people, but while they're here I can continue to observe how they scold other masters, including Pakku, like green youngsters.
There was an opportunity to beg for the start of my training, which I successfully used. After seeing the fight, it was easy to make pitiful eyes and say with visible determination: "I want to be like them!" and point my finger at the training benders. For my age, they came up with simple gymnastics that wouldn't burden little me, where mom mainly just stretched my body, which in the future will make my joints more flexible.
Serious load is harmful now, but good stretching will be an excellent foundation when I start doing my own, more intensive training on opening chakras — as they say: "The devil is in the details." Now, being not at all a manipulator, I try to intuitively lay down some of my peculiarities so that in the future they won't pay much attention to them.
At eight years old, I again descended deeper into myself to check the state of my energy. Everything was going well — more than half of my spirit had merged with the body. By my rough calculations, complete completion will come by nine to ten years. The process has really dragged on, but there seem to be no problems.
***
Looking absent-mindedly at Jun's rounded belly, I began to suspect that this wasn't just a loss of figure due to overeating.
Hitting myself on the forehead, I remembered how parents seemingly casually started conversations about little sisters and brothers...
"Mom, are we going to have an addition to the family?" I asked, looking expressively at her rounded belly.
"Finally someone noticed, and you don't even pay attention to me and dad, do you?" all this was said with a sad expression on her face, but mom's eyes, which sparkled with merriment, completely gave her away. "You seem to be growing up such a smart little one," Jun continued her teasing.
The main thing — don't blurt out that at first I thought about something completely different, you could get quite a beating for that.
"I noticed this last month, but somehow kept forgetting to ask," I said with an imperturbable look, while continuing to calmly drink tea, to give my words even more credibility.
"Well, well, I really believe that," said the now completely cheerful Jun. "Arnuk and I decided that you'll give the name, how do you like the idea?"
"I'm all for it!" I said with a joyful smile, while hoping to myself that the new child would be good consolation for the parents. It's very unlikely that I'll want to stay at the pole my whole life. After all, there's a strong desire to see this huge new world with my own eyes.
***
Looking at my reflection in the mirror, I wondered why at nine years old I look like I'm twelve. Only one answer came to mind: "It's magic, Harry!" or in my case — it's your nature of being a spirit, Yuki!
Having quite long, silky hair that seemed whiter than the very first fallen snow. Pure skin untouched by earthly affairs, which even thousand-year-old cultivator women would envy, as well as delicate facial features that were even more feminine than the famous bishounen from the Naruto anime, Haku Yuki. I just wanted to shout: "It's a trap, don't fall for the feminine face!" Where is it? Where is my brutality, I lamented to myself. Although there are advantages — I'm a walking target for shotacons. It's just a pity this isn't everyday ecchi — with such appearance I would definitely take the main role just thanks to it. Okay, let off some steam — now I need to pull myself together. [ image ]

Today, according to doctors' prescriptions, Jun will give birth, but I didn't want to stay waiting in the room — better to be near the maternity ward just in case. Since morning I've had a bad feeling, not knowing what to expect from today, I've been on edge all morning. Father is also restless about something — he even posted additional guards on the wall and increased the number of guards patrolling the city.
Even if there are problems with the birth — father can always ask the spirits for help, they didn't refuse in the series, so they shouldn't here either...
Sighing heavily, I decided not to torment myself — nothing has happened yet.
Coming for me, father led me to the ward where mother's labor had already begun. The wait seemed like an eternity, although only two hours had passed. Father, an hour ago, hearing mother's painful screams, went into mom's ward to somehow support her. I decided to stay here so as not to get in the way of the healers.
Labor began at sunset, around eight in the evening, and has been going on for eight hours now. The body, unaccustomed to such long wakefulness, began to signal for sleep, but the tension that had held me all day showed no signs of subsiding, and as labor progressed, it only increased.
After another hour, father appeared in the doorway, looking as if he had aged a decade, and seeing such a strong-spirited person — I had never met anyone stronger — in such a tired and broken state seemed unreal to me.
At that moment I felt with all my soul the flowing away of time. Already knowing that the baby most likely didn't survive — I still rushed headlong into the ward. Father tried to stop me, but I twisted and ran under his legs.
In the ward I was met by the sad faces of medics and a sobbing mother holding the baby's body. Running up to her, I pressed against the child. There was some small hope that this little bundle was still alive, and the reason for all this atmosphere lay elsewhere, but there was no breathing... [ image ]

Panic seized me, and when I was about to give up, I remembered that I wasn't quite human. Grasping this thought and hoping for a miracle, not knowing why, how, or what for, just giving in to intuition, I tore out a piece of my spirit that had almost merged with the body. Mentally pushing a piece of myself toward the baby, I physically felt the pressure on me disappear — it seemed as if the world itself told me: "You did everything right!" The last thing I remembered was mother's worried face looking at me.
…
"Is he definitely all right?" Jun asked the healers anxiously for the umpteenth time, while stroking her son and newborn daughter with her thin fingers.
"Yes, physically for sure. The only thing we diagnosed is a decrease in his energy volume, as well as tension in the energy itself, but everything should pass in a month," the chief healer said soothingly. "We don't know exactly what your son did, but we assume he unconsciously shared his gift of magic... Being a healer yourself, you know that benders' bodies are much stronger than people's — most likely, your daughter will now be a bender too. What a brave young man indeed! This can't even be called a miracle — that would be too modest," she finished with approving nods toward the boy.
The mother of the child also knew that her son was a great hero. Only a few minutes ago, seeing how he lost consciousness, a panicked little thought came to her tired head that she would lose him too.
"What will you name the girl?" asked the healer, already holding a thick book where all the children born were recorded.
"Leave the name blank for now — we promised that Yuki himself would name the newborn child," said the mother of now two children.
"Good, promises must be kept," she said, closing the book, and without waiting for an answer, turned to Jun to see her sleeping, peaceful face.
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