The following months, my daily routine, you could say, settled into a steady pattern where I spent most of my time sleeping, and the rest of the time I occupied myself with whatever I could, since my brain fairly quickly began experiencing terrible information hunger. I was even willing to read dry lines from Wikipedia.
Fortunately, my parents decided it was worth starting to gradually teach me the basics of the local language. Often my mother or the nanny would stay with me, simply to tell various instructive stories, sometimes trying to teach me to pronounce words correctly. So far I could only babble something incomprehensible — my tongue wasn't ready for such complex manipulations yet. But I could already just stand on my feet, and leaning against the wall, even walk a little.
Closer to my birthday, I already knew the entire alphabet, could speak individual syllables, and had even learned in advance to yell when I felt I was about to do my business. In my opinion, these were impressive achievements...
My body's motor skills pleased me with gradual improvement. If in the first months, wanting to move my left hand, I could easily punch myself in the face with my right fist, now I can punch myself with the hand I originally intended to use. Progress, as they say, is evident.
You can also congratulate me — I'm a man! Well, more like a future one, still just a larva for now, but my masculinity will only grow. This momentous, epochal, unforgettable event happened a month ago when we went to something resembling a Russian bathhouse and Japanese hot springs. Essentially, when not in use, this room would look more like a simple pool, but mother Jun, simply standing in a certain pose with a concentrated expression on her face, turned some part into hot steam, leaving the remaining water warm. And yes, I learned my mother's name — after my hearing "normalized," I often heard others calling her by this name.
That same day I learned that she's quite a strong water bender. Apparently, changing states of matter isn't just simple manipulation of ordinary water. It's much more complex.
Then it got even more interesting. After undressing and laying me on a flat surface, she began checking my condition with healing water. I'll need to learn more about Northern Tribe traditions. Before this, walking through the city, I hadn't seen girls master water beyond the basics and healing magic. And if the plot is to be believed, combat magic is forbidden for women. This means mother is either hiding her abilities well, or being the Chief's wife, she has certain privileges that allow her to go beyond basic elemental manipulation.
Now for the main point — there was a mirror in the bathhouse. A large mirror, near which they held me naked in their arms. In the mirror's reflection, I saw it! Yes, maybe it's still small for now, but I can already see its enormous potential!
The entire following month, a happy smile didn't leave my face. I didn't even pay attention to the routine torments conducted by the palace's female population.
…
Mother's eyes looked at me, seeming to simply burn with some touching expectation and faith in me. How could I refuse when someone looks at you like that? And I couldn't.
"Ma-ma," I said somewhat clumsily.
"Ah-ah-ah, my precious," mother almost sang. Then they began trying to traumatize me in every way possible — it was fifteen minutes of torment that accidentally took the form of hugs and other tender gestures. Father just looked at me sympathetically, not trying to stop his wife.
Seeing my progress in mastering the language, they began bringing books and helping me read them together. Of course, there were no children's books here whatsoever. Maybe the Fire Nation has established paper production for entertainment books. But here, among the Water Tribe, books serve as precious experience that helps people accumulate knowledge and wisdom. My first book turned out to be a local encyclopedia about animals.
The author didn't even bother to draw these very animals. And honestly, looking at his drawings, the thought occurred that in my previous world, he would definitely be paid simply enormous amounts of money. The guy had real talent. And how he described predatory animals? It felt like the author had steel balls! Going to predatory animals during mating season when they're especially aggressive? I can, I know how, I practice. He described many such situations! It doesn't even really resemble an encyclopedia, but rather a collection of what not to do when encountering various animals.
Now I'll tell you about several really strange creatures of the local fauna. I won't even attempt to examine the embarrassing facts pointing to impossible cross-species relationships between various animals that preceded the creation of such chimeras. Let's just blame it all on Wan — the first Avatar. He disrupted harmony, so a couple more sins won't matter much for him.
First come the white hamsters — a combination of hamster and cat that make sounds resembling rat squeaks. Does it also seem to you that one of the ancestors of these amazing creatures, either the hamster or cat, cheated with rats?
Turtle seals — marine pinnipeds that for some reason decided that a shell is a useful household item. [ image ]

Tiger seals — the same seals, but having feline features and tiger stripes on their bodies. By the way, they're the main food source for the Southern Water Tribe. [ image ]

Polar bear dogs — a combination of bear and dog that are still considered wild and are prey for hunters. Apparently, Avatar Korra will be the first to tame such an animal, which will undoubtedly prove its usefulness in her adventures. After all, these amazing creatures have more loyalty from dogs. I hope in the future I'll manage to find and befriend one, and people will understand there are options besides just killing them. [ image ]

Otherwise, it's not a very joyful picture: the Air Nomads have flying bison, the Fire Nation had dragons, which they themselves screwed up by starting to hunt them. The Earth Kingdom has cool badger moles. Only the Water Tribe doesn't have such an animal that would be a totemic beast. [ image ]

Another amusing animal is the koala otter — well, everything's more or less clear from the name itself. Northern Tribe children love keeping them as pets — they're quite undemanding and not such troublemakers as the winged lemurs of the air monks. [ image ]

Next came records of Northern Water Tribe history. The very first pages tell of the time when most of the Water Tribe people settled at the North Pole. Observing tides and ebbs, the pioneers began comprehending the nature of waterbending. It should be said that there were people who figured out on their own to watch nature to comprehend magic, but the first successes only began happening at the North Pole, where the spirits Tui and La lived. People weren't fools — they quickly figured out who gave them the necessary push in mastering the water element. Thus was laid the foundation for worshipping the Moon and Ocean Spirits, who provided invaluable help in the formation of an entire water nation.
Next come various records kept by numerous tribes inhabiting the North Pole, when there was no talk of centralized power — clans lived separately from each other. People here had lived in tribes since ancient times, and each such group had its own chief.
As they say, where there are people, there will be disagreements. Local wars and skirmishes between tribes often flared up, but there were also people who managed, through speeches and war, to unite most tribes to create a unified state. At the same time, some dissenting tribes broke away from them, later founding the Southern Water Tribe.
When creating the state, the first chief was chosen, holding almost all power over the people, but to create a counterbalance, they established a council of chiefs, which included all former tribal chiefs, and which over time, due to wars, began including both outstanding military leaders and strong waterbenders.
Waterbender society is more patriarchal, with gender roles divided very strictly, which in my humble opinion is not entirely correct policy. You only need to look at how in the series, female waterbenders of the Southern Tribe sank Fire Nation ships alongside men, if not more than them. Also, based on the series, you can notice that the strongest waterbenders shown there are mostly women. But for now I won't make unfounded statements — I should see and hear everything with my own senses.
There were records of people who managed to witness with their own eyes the simply desperate determination of Southern Pole warriors and benders defending their city. Yes, there used to be an entire medium-sized city there, which wasn't much smaller than the "northern capital."
As described here, for Fire Nation warriors to advance even a little further, they had to sacrifice almost twice as many people as the Water Tribe. This was a major blow to the Fire Nation's pride, which already had victorious marches of their army across almost the entire world behind them. Losing to pitiful aborigines who still lived in tribal society made them grind their teeth. Not sparing resources, they simply crushed them with an endless stream of people and war machines.
And such intensive raids stopped only recently, when the Fire Nation was confident that not a single waterbender remained at the South Pole. Yes, sometimes various Fire Nation ships would drop by for checks, as happened when they took Katara and Sokka's mother.
How were things at the North Pole?
The northerners managed to withstand a whole series of Fire Nation attacks thanks to even harsher weather and a wall erected in time. But several other factors shouldn't be excluded either.
At that time, the Fire Nation was essentially fighting all nations simultaneously, excluding the already destroyed Air Temples. Naval attacks were conducted on both the Southern and Northern Water Tribes, while conflicts of various sizes flared up daily with the Earth Kingdom on the continent. The northern people managed to withstand many attacks — the last capture attempt was about seventy years ago. At that time, the Chief and Council realized the fatality of the situation, because even fighting defensively on their own territory, they still lost many people and didn't have enough strength for any serious counterattack.
Thus a decision was made to almost completely cut off contacts with the outside world, hoping that if we don't stick our necks out, they won't bother us either — a kind of "ostrich burying its head in the sand" effect. Of course, it was written differently there, but anyone who can read between the lines will understand that the Water Tribe essentially lost the war. However, they preserved independence since they were no longer really needed by the Fire Nation. They didn't bother finishing off someone who was already down...
Honestly, all this is quite sad. Even if there were serious reasons for the Fire Nation to begin expansion, later it became like a strange obsession with the motto: "Kill everyone — I'll be the only one left."
Without proper arguments, I won't build theories purely on my assumptions until I fully understand all the nuances. But being a Water Tribe resident, I'm already an enemy to the Fire Nation by default. But I need to understand that killing Fire Nation warriors and benders who serve in the army and are ready to kill and be killed themselves is one thing — they can't be compared to ordinary residents who perhaps just want a peaceful life. Quite often politicians in my previous life set fraternal peoples against each other.
Various maniacs, murderers and similar individuals should be wiped off the face of the earth under any circumstances — this isn't even up for discussion. Of course, I'm not going to purposefully seek such people, and I won't kill without fully understanding the situation, but having one hundred percent certainty — I can and will stop such things.
During my time as a spirit, I didn't much torment myself with the moral side of killing fellow spirits. It seems that being buried under various problems and losing my mind from magic and the new world in general — all this somehow passed me by.
But now I should start gathering information about the world around me. Of course, I'll try to stick to my moral compass, which should help me remain human in any situation. Yes, I know this is a different world and there might be different customs here, and wartime isn't for such "righteous" people, but being human in my understanding means remaining one always. I'll hope this world is closer to what was shown in the cartoon, where there wasn't so much cruelty...
Alright, alright, I'm loading myself down. Maybe I'll even forget about all these thoughts when I'm really standing at the top of the world, so I should calm down. Nobody appointed me Emperor of Humanity yet. Dreamed enough.
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