At the end of a journey all you think about is the beginning.
Amidst mountains of ice a forest miraculously remains green and luxurious like an oasis in the middle of a desert, a paradise for lost travelers, or at least, that's how it should be.
In the center of this forest where the vegetation is so dense that even walking was difficult, a hooded figure sits in a lotus position with one hand on top of the other and the tips of the thumbs together, breathing, engulfed in wath seemed like an transparent flame he standed deeply in concentration without moving.
After remaining like that for some time, the figure got up.
With eyes still closed and breathing steady he took off his coat, his wrinkled face and thick darck beard now exposed to the extreme temperatures of the south pole.
Yet he did not shiver.
Layer after layer he continued with no sign that he would stop soon.
Now, completely naked as the day he came into the world, it was possible to see the many scars all around his flaccid but well-defined body, showing what was left of a once strong warrior.
His eyes then opened and he stared at the half sphere of light coming out of a crater in front of him, his eyes filled with determination.
Behind this determination was fear, fear of failure, fear of finding out that all his efforts had been in vain, however, this anxiety was not strong enough to overcome his determination and sheer stubborness.
Most of his life he wished he had something that surpassed everyone else, something special about himself that made him unique, or a talent that allowed him to stand out from the others, but cruel reality had shown him several times that he was not one of those people, despiste all his efforts, he could never confidently call himself the "best" ore "strongest" at anithing.
He was strong yes, but to him, all his victories were nothing more than circumstance, some kind of luck ore "destiny" saving him.
He had eventually grown up and had tried to accept this fact and live his life in peace, but no matter how childish he knew this wish to be, before he could do anything about it, pursuing it had become his only goal in life, the only thing that made his life worth anithing and he would not give it up so close to finally achieving it.
Returning to the lotus position he looked one last time at the sealed portal in front of him, gathered all his courage, and said:
"I'm ready."
breathes in, breathes out.
"On my mark."
He seated uonce again in the cold, icy ground, this time the flame that surrounded him did no beave like a normal flame, instead it retreated inside of him making his skin glow an iridescent light , and, as if it was nothing special he continued.
"I'm ready... and ,tank you, truly, for evrithing."
And as he said it, he was immediately swallowed by a wave which suddenly froze, freezing him in place on top of the spirit portal.
"You are most welcome, my friend, thou it was a short stay, it was a plesure to both have you in my library and to be able to witness the birth of new knowled with my own eyes."
"I shall take good care of you're section, in hopes that you may one day come back and expande it with the new knowledge you will acquireonce through this ordeal"
For most this voice would semed to have come from the air it self, but for a selected few, that was not the case, a giant owl was the one who had talked, a powerful spirit that had accompanied the man in his journey to the southernmost point on the planet.
Looking at the frozen figure it had just helped, the spirit gave it self some time to think, the uncertainty of it all was Infuriating but also exciting, to be parte of such experiment souch discovery, he normaly didn't like to interfere with de development of knowledge but this had proven to be quite fun for him as well, in its own way.
And so, like if he wad never been that to begin with he vanished without a trace.
He suddenly woke up, his eyes bulging and desperately gasping for air, being frozen alive by a high ranking spirit was no joke.
After composing himself he finaly noted where he was.
"-Haaa, well, at least this part of the plan worked, now it's just trying to keep me stable on this side." he said with a bitter smile.
Knowing that his body would ,in theory, remain untouched and unable to age, preserved inside the ice, and that he would stay active and alive by circulating the residual spiritual energy from the conection of body and spirit.
With some confidence in the success of his plans he decides to advance to the second stage.
The old man walked to the huge tree that was in the middle of the crater where he was at the moment.
When he reached it, his jaw dropped and his eyes almost fell out.
In front of him was a giant tree, with no leaves roots visible from the surface and a hollow space in the middle of its trunk, low enough for anyone to reach and large enough that groups of people could enter and leave without problem, or so it should be. Occupying all this space was a shiny sphere with strange marks, and within that sphere was a giant dark spirit incessantly attacking the walls of his round prison.
"-Who the hell thought that sealing Vatuu in the faking Tree of Time was a good idea. There is a reason why they have been fighting since the beginning of time." he mumbled while trying not to face palme.(ಠ▃ಠ)
Even if Vatuu was imprisoned, without Raava around to counterbalance him his presence would continue to influence the spirit world, this was nothing more than a temporary solution and he needed the power to review memories from the Tree of Time to keep his connection to his body stable. Without it, he risked being permanently separated from his body and get trapped in the spirit world until he becames a spirit himself.
'Calm down'.He took deep breathes and tried to remember the old monk's word's. 'the tree of time is directly connected with the energy of the universe because of this it retains all the information from the beginning of creation, by meditating in the hollow space of its trunk, one is capable of reviewing all the events of his life'
-"So, in theory, being inside the tree is not a prerequisite to access this universal memory right??" He mumbeld ,his mind desperately searching for a solution.
"-I can assume that the connection would probably be more stable and strong within the trunk but, since this is impossible, meditating in the canopy of the tree may be enough!?". Without thinking twice, the old man jumped from branch to branch and slowly made his way to the top of the tree. A supposedly impossible feat but he was already too used to the broken rules of the spirit world to be surprised. However, had someone else spent more than a few hours there and he wouldn't eve begin to know how hard something like this actualy was.
He then sat in the lotus position and he then prepared to begin the process."Please work, please work, please work... "It was slow but, the old man felt a wave of relief wash over him once he started to feel his memories popping into his mind so fresh and detailed. It was like being young again. Knowing he had secured the anchor that would keep him connected to his body, he began to dig as deep into his mind as he could. Reaching the ends of his memory, he pulled his spiritual energy into his mind, guiding it to create a circle that connected the first memories with the latest. Effectively creating an infinite loop that would trap him inside his mind forever without him realizing it was inside one ,while it wasn't ideal. No matter how much he thought, this seemed to be the only way he could stay connected with his body.
Had he chosen to remain in his body no matter what he did to distract himself being conscious in the midst of a life or death state, it would only be a matter of time before he lost his sanity, and if he decided to just wander and explore the spirit world until the gates open, he would eventually begin to lose his memories and replace them with new ones, slowly losing his conection of the physical world.
Yes, this was the only viable solution,. By traping himself in an indefinite cycle of memories, his connection with his body would be kept in perfect condition and his mind would be kept stable by starting each cycle without memory of the previous one, and would remain so until something or someone woke him from his trance, hopefully, by opening the portals and restoring the conection between the two worlds.
Without any doubt, he started the loop. The loop that would go on and on for thousands of years, far exceeding man's expectations, until...(Continues in the next episode of AVATAR:The last energy bender)
----------------------------(A/N)-----------------------
Hi readers, I apologize for taking so long to post but I am a complete novice at writing in general. I have always had enough ideas to try, but never before have I tried to bring forth these ideas in concrete stories. I also greatly underestimated how hard it is to write a medium quality fanfic. Beside that. i also have school and am a bit lazy but, don't worry, it will be slow but I will continue to update this story and plan to do others in the future.