The morning Isaruq left the Southern Water Tribe, the sea was glassy and still, as if the ocean itself waited for his next command. The fleet he had built stood silent in the harbor, masts cutting through the mist like spears of ice. The warriors who once cheered his name now stood lined along the pier, their expressions a mixture of pride and reluctance. Hakoda clasped his forearm one last time.
"Bring back the wisdom of the North," he said. "And try not to sink too many Fire Nation ships on the way."
Isaruq smirked. "No promises."
He stepped aboard his ship, Moonfang, its hull painted blue and white. As the engine heated up and started releasing smoke, the ship started moving, shortly Amaruq Qel'a faded into the fog, and the open sea embraced him once again.
The journey to the Earth Kingdom was long and quiet. Without the roar of battle, Isaruq found the silence strange, almost oppressive. He spent his days practicing bending with the crew or standing alone at the bow, watching the horizon. Sometimes, when the moon rose full, he would feel the pulse of the ocean beneath his skin, the rhythm of something vast, something calling.
When they finally reached the emerald cliffs near Omashu, he parted ways with his crew. The rest of the journey, he decided, he would travel alone. Knowledge was a solitary pursuit, and some paths were meant to be walked without witnesses.
The land routes were treacherous, thick jungles and shifting rivers that led him far from the familiar scent of salt and frost. He moved north and west, toward a place few from either Water Tribe had ever dared to go, the Foggy Swamp.
The air thickened as he approached, humidity wrapping around him like a damp shroud. The deeper he went, the more it felt alive. The vines creaked. The water rippled when he breathed. He knew stories of the swamp's spirits, of its people who could bend plants as though they were extensions of the ocean itself. But for three days, he found no one.
Until they found him.
It happened at dusk. A whisper of motion in the trees. The faint hiss of reeds cutting through the air. Then ropes shot from the shadows, wrapping around his arms and legs, pulling him down with surprising force. He could have cut through them in an instant, the water in the vines begged to be freed, but instead, he let them capture him. Curiosity was stronger than pride.
When the swampbenders finally stepped into view, their faces were painted with mud and moss, their eyes sharp and suspicious. They muttered among themselves, uncertain whether he was friend, foe, or something worse. They dragged him through twisting waterways until they reached a vast banyan tree whose roots formed a natural temple.
The chief waited there, a wiry man with deep-set eyes and a grin that seemed to know too much. "Not often we get a visitor who walks in uninvited," he said. "You got courage… or foolishness."
Isaruq inclined his head. "I came to learn. I've heard of your ways, how you make the vines dance and the swamp obey. I want to understand that connection."
The chief chuckled. "Outsiders always want somethin'. Knowledge, power, spirits. But the swamp don't give nothin' for free." His grin faded. "You'll have to prove yourself. This place sees through words."
And so, the test began.
For a week, Isaruq lived among them. They made him wade through mud, meditate under mosquito clouds, and listen to the heartbeat of the banyan tree. His first attempts to bend the vines failed, the swamp's water was too heavy, with mud and dirt. He realized it wasn't just waterbending, it was listening. The swamp was a single organism, and to move it, one had to move with it.
He spent nights submerged in the swamp's pools, eyes closed, feeling the pulse of its roots. By the fifth night, he felt it, a slow, breathing rhythm that matched his own. When he raised his hand, the vines stirred.
By the seventh day, he could command them as easily as waves. The vines responded not to force, but to understanding. He shaped them into spiraling whips, shields, and nets, each motion fluid and effortless.
The chief watched him with quiet pride. "You listen good, boy. You didn't fight the swamp. You let it guide you."
Isaruq bowed slightly. "All water remembers its source. I only learned to follow the flow."
When he departed, the swampbenders gave him a gift, a charm carved from banyan wood, symbol of unity with the living world. He wore it beside his tribe's amulet as he set his course north once more.
The land grew colder as he traveled. The forests gave way to stone, and soon he found himself among the jagged ridges that separated the Earth Kingdom from the Northern seas. It was there, amid cliffs veiled in mist, that he saw the remains of the Northern Air Temple.
At first, he thought the temple abandoned, its great arches broken, its wind channels silent. But as he climbed higher, he saw smoke rising from there, and people flying on some sort of gliders and he also felt a subtle tremor in the air, not the wind's whimsy movement, but deliberate motion. Controlled. Living.
A figure moved across the upper terrace, swift, graceful, hair streaming like a dark banner in the mountain breeze. When she turned, he saw her eyes, pale grey, like the heart of a storm.
She was an Airbender. And around the temple, people milled about, kids looked at her in wonder as she performed gymnastics thought impossible with the help of her airbending as the kids laughed.
When she noticed him, her stance shifted, blades drawn, air swirling faintly around her feet. "Another refugee or a threat?" she asked sharply. "Or just a lost traveler?"
"Neither," Isaruq said, stepping forward with his palms open. "I'm a Waterbender from the South. I didn't expect to find anyone here, let alone an Air Nomad."
Her gaze narrowed. "There are no Air Nomads left."
"Maybe," he said softly, "but atleast the Airbending is not lost to the world."
A flicker of something, pride, maybe pain, passed across her face. Slowly, she lowered her guard. "Naerya," she said after a moment. "And you?"
"Isaruq."
Then a slightly aged man came along with a child riding a wheelchair. The man introduced himself as mechanist and the child as his son, Teo. They told Isaruq that they used to live in a nearby village but got displaced by flood and due to the 100 year war, support from cities was few and far between, so they decided to settle here.
"I could understand, I myself come from Southern Water Tribe and our villages were alsoraided by Fire Nation regularly until recently. Truly speaking we were only surviving until recently when we started to rise up for ourselves." Isaruq said, looking at their condition, lost their village and their loved ones, have to stay in this isolated and tough place. "Please don't mind my question, but does Fire Nation know of your occupation of this temple. As I can see, you use a modified version of the airgliders of Air Nomad. From distance, it would look like you are airbenders and they could decide to attack you." Isaruq asked, remembering how this mechanist was one of the main reason Fire Nation was so succesful in their attacks and how he was also a key player in their defeat, if he could transfer them to a safer place right now, he could create a lot of trouble for Fire Nation in future.
"No, as far as we know, they don't know about us. This place is pretty isolated and no one visits it since the genocide so we don't believe they know about us." The Mechanist answered and by looking at his face Isaruq could guess that he was not lying. That means he arrived before Fire Nation would force him to create weapon for them.
"But still, staying here is not safe, specially without any arrangements for defence. I have some connections with King Bumi of Omashu. If you want, I can help you all in settling there but remember, all of you would be screened thoroughly. If any of you support Fire Nation in any form you will be executed." Isaruq told them, but also warned them just in case.
"Truly, you could do that." Some of the villagers asked.
"Yes, we have recently started providing mercenary service to the city of Omashu and have a long term contract with them during which I met Bumi." Isaruq said and taking out some pen and paper wrote a note, signed and used his own stamp on it, the stamp of a giant wave in blue. "Show this at the gate of Omashu and they will directly take you directly to Bumi. Tell him about your talent in engineering. By looking around here, I could tell you have a great mind that Bumi could use in his war effort."
Naerya was pretty impressed by his generous help for these refugees and started to trust him slighly. Naerya volunteered to show him around. They walked around the temple. Later they came out during sunset, looking at the beautiful scenery. They stood in the wind for a time, measuring each other in silence. Eventually, conversation came. She spoke of her lineage, descendants of a monk who left before the genocide, preserving scraps of knowledge and scrolls. She told him of her village, destroyed by Fire Nation soldiers, and of her vow to rebuild what was lost. The Air Temple, she said, was a grave of her ancestors' ideals, pacifism that led them to extinction.
He listened quietly. Her words reminded him of his own struggle, the balance between peace and survival. When she asked about him, he told her of the South, of ships captured, of Amaruq Qel'a gleaming like ice-born moonlight, of a people reborn.
"You built all that?" she asked, disbelief softening into admiration. "From nothing?"
"From desperation," he said. "And a little faith."
Something changed in her eyes then, the storm within her calmed, if only slightly. "Then maybe there's still hope for the rest of us."
She showed him what little she had recovered, fragments of scrolls, burned and half-legible, and sketches of the glider staff that could once carry Airbenders across the sky. None were complete. The temple's secrets had been eaten by time and fire. Yet even in ruin, she refused despair.
When Isaruq told her he was bound for the Northern Water Tribe, she hesitated only a moment before saying, "Then I'm coming with you. The world's too big for solitude, and you seem to find answers wherever you go."
He smiled. "Then the winds will travel with the tides."
It took them another month to reach the North. The journey was long, through frozen rivers and icy plains, but their companionship made it light. Naerya's laughter was rare, but when it came, it broke through the cold like sunlight on snow. She challenged him often, sparring both with words and with bending. He found her wit as sharp as her blades.
When the towers of the Northern Water Tribe finally rose on the horizon, Isaruq felt a pulse of recognition. The city was majestic, cascading walls of ice, canals gleaming under the moon, spires reaching toward the aurora.
Chief Arnook greeted them at the gates, his beard touched with frost and his eyes shrewd but kind. "The South's phantom warrior," he said with a smile. "We've heard the tales, a man who commands the seas themselves. Welcome, Isaruq of the Southern Tribe."
"It's nothing like that, I barely command a lake let alone a sea. And that's the purpose of my visit here, I want to learn advanced waterbending and any gaps that I have in my knowledge of it." Isaruq said humbly.
He welcomed Naerya as well, curious of an Airbender surviving in this age. That night, Arnook hosted a feast in their honor, and it was there Isaruq first saw her, Princess Yue.
She entered the hall like moonlight breaking through storm clouds, silver hair flowing, eyes soft yet piercing. When their gazes met, the room seemed to still. Yue inclined her head, graceful and calm. "We've heard of you," she said. "The mysterious waterbender from the South."
"And I've heard of you," he replied. "The one touched by the moon spirit, Tui himself, a feat many are willing to die for."
Her smile was faint but warm. "I have heard that women in Southern Water Tribe are allowed martial roles like hunting and fighting. Is it true."
"Yes, it is. It is due to the long conflicts from Avatar Kurruk's time to just before Avatar Roku's time, where men have to leave and all the responsibility came down upon women." Isaruq answered. Yes, it is the reason for such. Avatar Kurruk used to remain in spirit world and was more interested in duels with strong benders then solving problems of the 4 nations, Kyoshi remained focused on Earth Kingdom for majority of her time. It was only during later period of Kyoshi and Roku's time that peace was truly achieved.
Arnook seemed to approve of their conversation, his tone jovial as he said, "Our tribes have long been divided. Perhaps the spirits mean to mend that through friendship, or something more."
Over the following weeks, Isaruq trained under Master Pakku in the morning, mastering the intricate techniques of the North, graceful flows of defense and the art of ice manipulation at its purest form, and learned healing from the women in the noon. His progress astonished even Pakku. "You learn like a sponge absorbs water" the old master said. "You are a prodigy."
When not training, Isaruq spent his time with Naerya and Yue. The airbender sparred with him in the mornings, their duels a dance of wind and water. Yue joined him in the evenings by the moonlit canals, discussing philosophy, duty, and the burden of leadership. Slowly, affection deepened between them all.
Naerya teased Yue's formality, Yue softened Naerya's edges. Isaruq found himself at the center of something unexpected, two women who mirrored the duality within him, one storm, one still water.
One night, as they walked along the frozen harbor, he confessed the truth, that his heart belonged to both, and if it helped his tribe and waterbenders than maybe more. To his surprise, neither woman turned away. Naerya only smiled wryly. "In the Earth Kingdom, kings take many wives. So long as you give each her due, I see no chains in love."
Yue looked at him for a long time, moonlight gleaming in her eyes. "Even my father had 2 wives. I was raised with the teaching that my husband may have more than one wife, specially if my father had a son in future and he becomes the heir."
When Isaruq spoke with Arnook about his feelings for Yue, the chief regarded him in silence before nodding. "My daughter's heart is her own, but I see the man she has chosen. You've given the South strength, perhaps you can give the North hope."
With Arnook's blessing, Isaruq carved a betrothal necklace from moonstone and blue coral. When he placed it around Yue's neck, her eyes shone with quiet joy. "This is just the beginning," she whispered. "Not of conquest, but unity."