16. A call from afar

…

(92 AG/ 11 years old)

Lee slept on the futon, covered in a thick fur blanket. His face carried a serene expression. He dreamed of swimming in the depths of a vast ocean, without any fear.

As he glanced around, a mysterious egg, as big as his head, floated past him from behind, carried by the deep oceanic current. It glided along the water, going through a school of small squirrel-sardines, past a few hyena-clams, giant oysters, and whatnot.

When the Egg finally settled down beside a group of snail-jellyfish, Lee swam closer to have a look. Its shell was completely transparent, allowing him to observe its insides. In the centre of the egg was a fist-sized red oval, surrounded by multiple yellow beads in a circle.

Before he could investigate any further, a school of small fish rushed toward them, sweeping the egg away into a different water current. It continued its journey, moving toward the north.

Lee swam behind it.

A large family of tiger walrus swam by them, the children separating from their parents to play with the egg for a while. Then, it was a large swarm of otter-penguins, swimming around the egg, as it was one of their own.

Sometime later, a few elephant-koi approached, rubbing against the egg as it glided along the water.

Suddenly, the giant fish swam away as Lee saw an enormous serpentine shadow swimming around them.

.

.

.

Lee opened his eyes, a curious expression on his face. “What a weird dream,” he muttered, rubbing his eyes to chase away the drowsiness. He yawned and then narrowed his eyes as the first rays of morning sun fell upon them from the window.

He turned away in the opposite direction, pushed himself up into a sitting posture and stretched his limbs with another yawn.

Once he relaxed, a frown came over his face. He felt a pull toward a certain direction. A need to go in that direction, to find out its source. It was an instinctive desire from the depths of his soul. It was as if something or someone was calling him, and that he should obey.

Lee shook his head, chasing the feeling away. He failed, but thankfully, the feeling was subtle enough that it could be easily ignored.

He stood up and focused on his breathing, calming himself down. The house was quiet except for the chopping noises coming from the kitchen downstairs. He smiled and then walked toward the toilet.

Half an hour later, he was standing in the backyard. He spun his hands in a circular motion before his chest, breathing in a specific rhythm. The frozen ground in front of him melted away, water rising upward before freezing again into the shape of a strong door frame.

Lee smiled, pleased. He walked below the structure, grabbed the bar above him and began doing pull-ups using the icy frame.

He counted each repetition under his breath, arms burning pleasantly as frost flaked from the bar beneath his fingers. By the thirtieth pull-up, he was sweating, and his arms felt like wet noodles.

He took a deep breath and started to circulate the dense energy. The effect was immediate. A new strength flooded his limbs. His muscles felt denser and bones more robust. He continued the exercise until he completed a full hundred pull-ups.

Only then did he drop lightly to the ground and roll his neck, hearing a satisfying crack.

For a few moments, he simply stood and allowed his breathing to return to a normal pace. After that, he performed waterbending kata again with his body.

The door frame structure turned into water for the second time before gliding toward him, wrapping around his arms, legs and chest before freezing into solid ice.

Lee exhaled deeply. He hopped a few times to feel the added weight on his body. Once he grew familiar with the weight, he began performing sit-ups.

His feet were encased in the ice, joined to the frozen ground to keep him steady as he lowered himself backwards. The ice armour grinded softly with each movement, but his waterbending prevented it from breaking away.

Every rise of his torso sent a sharp strain through his abdomen, but he welcomed it. Sweat gathered at his brow and froze there in tiny crystals.

“One… two… three…”

By the fiftieth sit-up, the weighted shell felt twice as heavy. Lee tightened his jaw and drew in the dense energy again, guiding it through his core. Warmth spread from his stomach to every limb, dulling the ache without erasing it.

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He pushed onward. At one hundred, he sat upright and remained still, breathing in measured cycles.

A few minutes later, he moved on to the push-ups.

Lee placed his palms against the ice and extended his legs behind him.

The ice around his body shifted, redistributing its weight across his shoulders and back like a training weight. He inhaled once, then lowered himself slowly until his chest hovered an inch above the frozen earth.

He pressed upward. After the first twenty, he removed his left palm from the ice. Once he completed the first forty, he pressed the left palm back to the ice and removed the right one. By eighty, every push felt as though he were lifting a boulder strapped to his spine despite empowering himself.

Still, he continued. ‘No pain. No gain.’ He repeated the mantra continuously in his mind.

“Ninety-eight… ninety-nine… one hundred.”

Lee held the final position, body straight as a spear, before letting his knees touch the ground. He exhaled sharply, and cracks spread through the ice armour.

“If you’re done,” he heard Mona say from the side, “you can eat breakfast. It’s ready.”

…

Once Lee finished his waterbending lesson and started walking toward the palace, the pull had grown stronger. It was still pretty easy to ignore, but if it continued to increase at the current pace, he wasn’t sure if he could continue to ignore it after a few days.

He wondered what it was about and whether the strange dream had something to do with it.