A month passed after I'd gotten my seeds. I'd already gotten some cucumbers and cabbages but my potatoes would take a bit longer and the blueberries were only small vines. With hunting I'd easily made some jerky and stored it and the vegetables for later. With food, shelter, and plenty of water I only had time. I spent most of my time messing with fire and resting. My arm was slowly getting better as I could now move it a bit. My scarred red skin was painful but with the ointment the old lady gave me the pain continued to lessen a bit.
While messing with my fire I found I could simply heat stuff instead of using fire. I practiced on the ice spikes around the boat, slowly going from melting them to straight up slicing them open then apart with pure heat. As I continued practicing I found I could use my fire more and more as I exercised it. Emotions were also useful in amplifying the power of the flame I could exert.
Certain motions assisted greatly in control of the flame, much better for combat and hunting than simply concentrating. As time passed I continued to stockpile food and work on the metal of this boat. Most of the metal on here was steel and the people of the nearby village didn't seem to have any besides the stuff I'd traded. I'd seen how they made their weapons and armor so I grabbed a solid chunk of steel and a helmet and began heating and hammering.
My hammer was a rounded chunk of steel welded to a metal handle. Some thick cloth tied around it and it worked as a decent tool. I quickly found myself making some more precision tools that helped me shape the helmet into that of a wolf. The helmet itself was a rounded piece with small welded spikes, loops, and some holes for the wolf mask of the helmet. The wolf mask was much more complex but it turned out pretty cool. I added some indentation and welding to make it look like more like a wolf. I pinned the mask into the holes of the helmet then grabbed some grey cloth and decorated the helmet itself. It ended up looking like some kind of maned wolf so I continued to make a few alongside spears and other weapons.
I ended up making a few miscellaneous tools with the weapons and armor and went to the village. I'd wanted to pay the old lady back for her help so I'd added some more decorations to a wolf helmet and made a, by my standards, good blade. I'd found some iron powder in a barrel in storage and used it and lots of bones to forge high carbon steel. With that steel I made a machete with a hook blade on the back.
I intended to give the helmet and machete to the leader as I could easily tell he was likely related to the old lady. I easily found them both in the village and gave the old lady some tools and gave the leader the nice helmet and blade. They both tried to return or thank me but I gave them a bow for their help and left to trade. All my helmets sold to the men in the village after they saw their leader wearing his. Most of my weapons sold alongside them and the tools were picked through heavily.
I left the village with an idea in my head. I could make plate armor and helmets well enough but with my left hand mostly available I could make chainmail armor to sell as well. Time passed quickly after that. Multiple months passed and my blueberries started growing. Anytime I wasn't working on the chainmail I was messing with my fire. The rings were easy to make with my heat control so I made just over 40,000 rings. While the work was incredibly monotonous it helped significantly in my recovery. I could now swing my hammer with my left arm, even if there wasn't any power behind it.
My fire abilities grew massively with another arm added for control. On my last trip to the village I'd found out that the warriors of the village were leaving for a war. I'd prepared many weapons and armor for them and had completed my chainmail. It was pretty easy to put it together and I took it and the rest of the rings in case it needed repair. I'd even made some crossbows for them but they were difficult as I needed to string them.
Over the months I'd been back to the village a few times and was taught a few things about survival here by the leader and some of his men. They all seemed to be good people so if they were going to war I might as well help them. Before leaving for the village I finally upgraded my sled. I made a light frame of wood and extended the body for a single blade at the front I could steer with.
I controlled it with ropes on a swiveling handle. Finally I attached the actual upgrade. It was two saw blade like wheels at the back with gears and a chain all powered by foot pedals. It and the chain mail had both given me a sense of pride I hadn't felt in a long time. I easily cut through the ice fields with my sled and got to the village at record speeds.
I could see as I arrived the warriors were nearly done and ready to leave so I pedaled my sled up to them. I dragged the leader and his men over and gave them my stuff. They had helped me learn their language some, and had taught me many other things. I and another warrior helped the leader put on the chainmail and I tied a sheet of it to a box. I then had one of the warriors shoot it and demonstrated the protection it provided. I then showed them how the crossbows worked and gave them some steel tipped bolts. I gave the rest of the armor and weapons to them for cheap and went to find the old lady for more ointment for my arm.
I left after that and kept working on my flame control.
I continued to hone my abilities with flame to the point I could carve straight through glaciers with flame and melt them with pure heat. My arm was functioning much better after plenty of healing time and I was even gaining a bit of meat in my bones. Time continued to fly by as I was forced to cut my hair twice as it had reached my lower back. I'd made my own chainmail and segmented plate armor with a practical helmet and mask.
Eventually I returned to the village to trade. I'd stocked up lots of vegetables and meats for trade with some tools and such. I'd figured out how to make finer tools and was bringing lots of needles and such to them as well. I wanted to get some good bone from the village as I only hunted fish and the penguin things. When I got to the village I found most of the tents had been taken down and the outer wall had fallen into disrepair.
With only a few hunters left and a few young boys they obviously didn't have the time to do certain things. As I pulled into town I was slightly accosted by some boys with whale bone spears twice their size. They tried to look fierce but utterly failed when an adult who obviously remembered my started scolding then. I removed my helmet and began setting out my goods.
After doing some trading the old lady who I'd learned to call gran arrived with a small girl a bit younger than me. I gave her the precision tools I'd made and continued trading till one of the little boys who'd confronted me came up. He looked vaguely like the leader, though that could be said of most in the village. He looked at my stuff after giving me a small bow then pointed at a wolf helmet and a spear. I sold them both to him and sent him off with a pat on the head. Before I could leave the village after my trading gran came and gave me some books and papers.
I thanked her and left back to my boat. A month later and I'd finally finished the books she gave me. One had been about reading and writing and I knew enough to figure out the rest. One of the books had been about the world and was only a few years old. It had been incredibly informative. I was a fire bender and would normally be considered to be from the fire nation. The world had been in a large scale war for over a hundred years now and the war had been started and waged by the fire nation. I was currently in the South Pole.
One of the papers gran had given me was a highly detailed map of the world that had most major cities and regions marked. I guess gran had realized I was likely to leave soon. With the books and papers looked through I began my preparations. I already had armor and weapons so I needed to ready supplies and make my own boat.
I made a backpack with an internal metal frame and wooden bottom and filled it with supplies. I then filled a few more bags with supplies and some high carbon steel. With supplies prepared I began making my own boat. I had studied the engine of this boat so I made my own smaller version. It used a the last oven I had to boil water for steam. Once the engine was finished I lowered it to the ground from the deck and started pulling sheets of metal away from the hull. I quickly welded together a large canoe like boat together and put the engine on.
I then took some barrels and welded them to the boat with long poles as stabilizers. With the barrels I made a backup pedal system with blades from coming out of the barrels. After that I put up a sail and mounted a large hand crank crossbow to the front. With the boat done I loaded my supplies in the metal boxes I'd made for them then stacked in everything I could from my big boat.
I pedaled the boat to the village and gave them everything I couldn't take with me. I thanked gran for her help and set off for the southern air temple. The way there was easy but monotonous as I had to navigate ice the around the temple island to get close to the temple itself. I pulled my boat to the shore and anchored it then tied it off to multiple trees. I grabbed some supplies and the single grappling hook I'd made and began climbing. The temple itself was visible almost the entire time as I made my way closer to it.
I trained myself and my fire bending as I made my way up and even tried basic flight by extending my jumps. At one point I even leapt over a large crevice. My flames for jumping had to be very focused and powerful so I drained myself even fast while climbing. My work at a forge had helped improve my lungs as well as I could barely feel the effects of climbing this high.
My climb to the temple ended after five days of climbing and training. I travelled around the temple finding it in ruins from when the air benders were wiped out by the fire nation a hundred years ago. I carefully picked through the ruins and found some old books stored in a metal box in the ground of a room. I stuffed the books into my bag and continued on till I found what I'd been looking for. A large room that looked vaguely like a workshop. The air benders had been said to have the ability to fly and I could easily guess that they used gliders and their air bending to do so. I found a few examples of the gliders but everything was in bad shape.
I made my own designs based on what I found and ended with one longer and thicker than the air benders gliders. It was meant to allow flight, not serve as a force multiplier like a glider would for an air bender. With what I'd come here for I made the climb back down the mountain to my boat. Going down only took two days as most of it consisted of me jumping and slowing my fall with flame.
I began making my way for the gap in between Whale Tail island and the biggest island of the air temple islands. At the end of the islands I took a straight path to the small Kyoshi Island. I pulled into a small beach area of the island halfway around it on the southern side. I anchored and tied off my ship then grabbed my bag and headed for the smoke I could see in the distance. On the way here I removed the ghillie and most of the outer cloth of my armor. It wouldn't do much for me in a forest except warm me unnecessarily.
As I travelled I noticed I was being followed. My watchers were good but my eyes had been trained in the south poles ice fields were I had to constantly watch for heavily camouflaged predators. Their movements were easy to catch but without them attacking I continued onward. I was met at the village edge by young women dressed for combat in decent eastern styled armored uniforms.
I still wasn't good with the language but I could express that I was a traveler and wanted to trade. "Greetings, I am here for trade." I stopped to think of my next words. "I have steel, weapons, and tools. My own armor as well." When I stopped an middle aged man stepped out from the small group that had gathered behind the women and spoke. "Hello traveler. If you want to trade you'll have to pay for a stand in the market." One of the girls tried to speak up at his words but he hushed her and spoke again. "The warriors of Kyoshi island will be watching you invade you are a fire nation spy." I nodded in reply and followed him into the village. He lead me into the market where I found a booth and a card that gave me the price of the booth. I didn't know if they'd accept southern water tribe currency here but it was likely as the tribe was decently close to this island.
I paid for my booth and set up what little I had to sell and waited. My tools sold quickly and a blacksmith came around to look my stuff over. He immediately brought the steel and weapons and asked me about my forging. I avoided his questions till he left and a Kyoshi warrior approached. "You said you do armor like what you've got on right. Can you make some of that chain stuff you've got on?"
I thought about her question for a bit then finally gave her an answer. "This is chain mail. I can make. Very expensive and time consuming." My answer made her frown then she spoke. "How much would it cost and how long would it take." I thought it over then asked a question of my own. "Do you want full body like me, or just long shirt? Long shirt is more expensive but faster. Full body take longer but slightly cheaper as less steel used. She shrugged and looked to one of the two warriors who'd appeared by her side at some point. The women she'd looked at shrugged and spoke. "The long shirt, what the cost and time? How effective is it?" I'd already gotten a look at the currency of the earth kingdom as they used it here. I could estimate the cost and time easily. "Eighty gold for one long shirt. At least two months for each."
They all looked taken aback before I pulled out a bit of mail from my bag and tied it to the front of my stall. I then drew my heavy machete and slashed it across the mail, doing no damage to it of the stall. I then stabbed it and pulled the chainmail down to reveal no damage. They seemed to be slightly impressed by the chainmail and the second woman ordered three. I immediately bought a small anvil and some iron from the blacksmith.
I took the roughly thirty pound of iron and the fifty pound anvil back to my boat. With a bit of still warm coal from my engine I started a fire and set up a camp. I made a flat pile of rocks near the fire and set the anvil on it. I'd set up a large tent so I could separate the iron inside then actually make the rings outside. While working I realized I'd need a melting pot for the iron if I wanted to make steel. I ran back to the village and bought a pot and bucket from the smith and went back to my camp at nightfall.
I got up the next day and hunted a boar for its meat and bones. I tossed everything but the bones which I tossed in the fire and the meat, most of which I stored away. I fried some of the boar meat and ate it wile waiting for my iron to melt and the bones to char. The meat melted in my mouth and nearly made me shed tears of joy as I ate. When I finished eating I took the bones out of the flames and crushed them. I added them to the melting iron I make primitive steel. It wouldn't be high carbon steel like I'd previously made but it be good enough.
I used a steel rod to stir the iron till the impurities left the iron and scooped the out. I the ladled the molten steel out and poured it into lines on a wooden plank. I continued to follow this process over and over again till I had enough to work with. I quickly shaped the steel lines into rings and started the process of putting them together while hardening them.
This par took the longest but was shortened by making lots of square of mail. With plenty of mail ready after around four months of work I started putting together the long shirts. All it required was making sure I connected the squares and filled gaps correctly. Near the middle of the sixth month I completed the shirts and took them into the village.
I quickly sold the chainmail to the women who'd ordered it and took my money and some more supplies to my ship. With two hundred and forty gold in my pocket and lots of stored boar meat I packed up my camp and and stuff and left the island. I spent the next few weeks going to the inbetween of the mainland and the eastern air temple. I anchored my boat and began my temple climb. It was much like the previous climb but easier as I'd gotten better with my flight.
My fire came in use many times as the mountain and the ruins had massive damage from the fire nations genocide of the air benders. The mountain itself felt like it was only standing because it was a mountain. In the ruins I found many decaying skeletons and lots of old fire nation armor. I avoided most stuff here and only searched the buildings that still stood. I wanted to see if this place had any examples of air nomad technologies.
I found a few sticks and such that may have once been gliders but they were more old decayed wood than anything useful. I didn't find much except a room in a crumbling building that might have been for storage. It had basic stuff but I found some very small gears and other metal things that could have gone to gliders. The stuff I'd found in the last temple hadn't been completed and didn't have most of the internals so I could figure some things out based on the actual mechanisms pieces.
On my way down the mountain I stumbled into a cave with a shoddy structure meant to hide it. There wasn't much here besides signs that someone lived here a really long time ago. I dug around and under the old decayed straw that had once been a bed, I found an intact glider. It had been snapped in half and charred but the outside was worthless. The insides were what I wanted.
I carefully removed the burnt wood to reveal brass tubes and a few complicated mechanisms. It was, at its base, a simple lock and unlock mechanism with brass hinges. With the secrets revealed I quickly remade my previous designs. I copied the entire thing done in my book and resumed my climb down. The second I got to my boat I began setting up my forge and camp. I had a few high quality steel ingots from the ship so I immediately created the internals.
It wasn't horribly complicated and I was done with the metal by the end of the day. The next morning I cut down a massive tree with flames and cut out a nine foot section. I slowly and carefully trimmed the section down till it was a large and heavy staff. I then pulled my knife and went to work cutting precisely as I had designed. At the end of the day I finally split the shaft perfectly.
That night by Fire light I carved into the wood and placed the steel reinforcements. On my third day here I I finally put in the internal mechanism and began putting the staff itself back together. I had to use the remaining fabrics on my ship and the sail to make the wings and tail. I finished the glider on my fourth day by installing its activation lever and tested it.
It was awkward to carry a bit up the mountain but the flight was exhilarating and terrifying. I was forced to catch myself with fire and finally left the island with the massive stick. It was longer than my boat and the wings easily reached past the stabilizers. It was a small plane all fit into a stick with a small but buff 14 year old boy clinging to it.
Over the next few weeks I sailed into Chameleon Bay to an Earth Kingdom ferry port. The seas calmed massively as it got closer to the coast and I was finally stopped and guided to port by an earth kingdom navy ship. A few got off the ship at the dock and questioned me but I avoided answering till they got frustrated and left. I paid the dock fee and grabbed my gold. I went into the small port town and bought a buggy like wagon.
I went back to my boat and put all my stuff in tit then sold the boat for fifty gold to some wealthy looking guys then set off for the ferry to Ba Sing Se. I had to pay extra to take my stuff in but the cost was little. When the ferry finally docked at the Ba Sing Se port I had to pay thirty gold to be allowed into the city. I quickly located a small building in the market district and set up all my stuff after buying it for a hundred gold.
I then spent around fifty gold to get everything I'd need for a small forge. I then spent my first month in the city making chainmail rings. Once done with close to 200,000 rings I took them outside and began putting them together for chainmail. Lots of people asked what I was making but didn't show much interest afterwards.
Eventually I big buff rich looking guy came up and asked if I could demonstrate my new armors effectiveness. I grabbed the water tribe bow I had and shot multiple arrows at a chainmail square. I could see the impressed look on his face as the stuffed dummy got shot and had no damage. I had already gotten an earth kingdom patent for the armor so I could legally sell it and he signed some papers guaranteeing that he would buy the five chainmail long shirts I was making.
On my fourth month here I sold the chainmail to the man and some of his people for a hundred gold each. I used the money to buy better materials and used my fire bending with some modern techniques to purify the iron I had and then make steel that would probably be considered high quality in the fire nation. I spent the next few months working on my own chainmail. Each ring was 7mm thick and made of my best steel.
On the sixth month I completed the chainmail and began making new plate armor. I made the chest plate I made it 3.5mm thick and the rest 2mm thick. I made my helmet 3mm thick and much like my old helmet a two piece with a mask. Over all my armor I made a cloth pattern of black with blue. I put my new armor on and grabbed my heavy blade to test out how flexible and comfortable my armor was. I grabbed my coin purse and stuffed it into my chest plate and went out to the main market.
In the market I grabbed a snack and spoke with one of the rich men who'd bought a sword from me. After speaking with the rich prat I somehow ended up finding myself in an alleyway. While trying to find a way out I caught a wall shifting. I immediately drew my blade and readied for combat. Suddenly the walls sprung alive and chunks started blasting at me. I wove through them but my armor was getting tested. I let smaller chunks slam into me as I dodged and cut other chunks.
As the final chunk exploded against a wall the ground disappeared and hands of stone latched onto me. I thrashed and slashed and fell into running water. I slid down and eventually fell into a dark room with a thin pool of water. I looked up to find the area suddenly lit by green stones on the walls. I was slightly blinded but it didn't stop me from seeing a balding man in green robes and multiple men with armored clothing and bowl hats on.
I found a few other people in the water with me and many of them were armed. I figured the balding man was the leader as he began speaking. I ignored him and evaluated my new allies as a few of them evacuated me. I nodded to them and drew my knife alongside my machete. I shot a look at them then charged the leader. Multiple stone hands shot at me but I weaved through and attacked the man who brought up his own stone covered hands. My 'allies' brutally attacked the rest as more enemies flooded the room.
I delivered a heavy blow to the leaders hands and swung my knife hand at three enemies. They dropped as I heated their heads past three hundred degrees. Them slumping startled the enemies who immediately resumed the attack and four of the charged me to help their presumable leader. A slash of my blade slammed to against the wall with a gout of flame. One slammed into me as I lost my knife in the ribs of the other. The man was an adult earth bender and he slammed me to the ground. His fist dented my helmet as he tried to crush my head. I flaming foot to his balls immobilized him and I put fire in his mouth as he screamed.
I rolled as the ceiling shot down at me in a pillar and I started throwing fire balls. The leader slammed a stone covered fist into my chest and I hit the back wall of the room instantly. I threw my blade at him and while he was preoccupied I lined up a shot. A push of concentrated fire lanced through the stone wall he'd quickly put up and went clean through his chest. As he fell the rest of the enemies fought to surround him.
I pulled my heat and shot the largest blast of flame I could at them. My allies rushed away as my flames washed over the enemy. I stood and started heating the area they were in. I could see most had made shields but they couldn't block heat bending. A few guards at the front quickly fell to my heat wave as I switched to throwing fireballs with quick punches.
I stopped my heat bending and waved for my allies to attack as I started using more concentrated attacks to stagger my targets. An enemy broke off from the group and charged me with a stone launch powered leap. He slammed into me as I blasted a hole through him with my raised foot. The bastard grabbed onto my helmet and ripped it while crumpling it like a tin can.
I usually pulled my heat from my gut to my limbs but this time I pushed it to my mouth and out. I exhaled fire into his face then threw his screaming form off me. I twisted and puked from the horrible experience of breathing fire into a face less than a foot from my own. I resumed throwing fire as my allies clashed with the kidnappers. After a few minutes I realized they were slowly going towards an indentation in the wall.
I staggered over to the spot and began firing concentrated beams of fire. A few minutes of combat and only a few enemies were standing between me and the leader. I removed my helmet and hurled it at the group while charging. With my helmet in the way the front enemy didn't see me jump and kick flames at him and he caught them with his face.
Another got his leg crippled by an axe blow and was pulled away as I engaged the last enemy. I detonated his rocks and stone hands with sharp blasts of fire and slammed my palm into him. A small explosion shook the room as I was thrown back and the man was splattered against the wall. I stood and stumbled over to the leader who was now begging for his life. To bad the explosion deafened me.
A blast of flames ended his pleas and I walked over to the area they had been trying to get to. A blast of flame created a whole in the wall that the earth benders here used to carve through. We were all young, teenagers at most. A few seemed to be mercenaries of some sort and a few were normal earth benders. The rest had been normal, merchant children and the like.
We started going up the tunnels of wherever we were. There were multiple branches in the tunnels that we went down and subsequently increased our numbers. Our original group had been thirty at most as a few died in the fight. With the ones we'd freed for captivity we grew to fifty six in number. Despite them all knowing I was a fire bender they deferred to me for orders.
We eventually climbed out of the tunnels via an entrance carved out by the earth benders of our group. The office had been nearby so I went in with an earth bender as the rest dug our way out. The leader of this place had been the bald man I killed so I took the few valuables he had and burned the rest. We stumbled through the forests of lake laogai.
One of the combatants had recognized the area and led us all to a road to the lower ring. I left most of the group with the guards who met us and with the fighters and benders we traveled to the palace. Without these die Lee guys I easily blasted the door open and we confronted the king and a bunch of nobles. The others in the group had realized I wasn't a good speaker and informed the king of what had happened.
It stunned us and some nobles to learn that the war between the world and the fire nation was unknown to the king and many of the nobles. We and some nobles quickly informed the rest of the situation and the king ordered every general he could to get their asses to the palace. After that some soldiers got most of my fellows to their guardians. The five earth benders didn't have anyone the military could find so one of the generals adopted them. With things taken care of and the kingdom in a frenzy I left for my small forge.
In the morning I lessened the amount of armor I wore. The armor had restricted me just enough to allow for the enemies who were faster to get hits in. I greatly reduced the weight of my armor by making a lighter helmet and decreasing my armor to thick pads rather than full plate. I put a small square shield on my left shoulder and a circular one on my forearm.
With my armor remade I forged a basic rapier and sold everything else that I could. With the money I had I bought a strong ostrich horse and put lots of supplies on it for my journey to the northern air temple. Before I left some military officials questioned me after finding out I was a fire bender but I explained that I didn't have anything they already didn't know.
When they finally left I began my journey to the next temple. Ba Sing Se had lot of people and many traders. I'd overheard from some travelers in a trade caravan of people who could fly. Being someone who could fly, I obviously wanted to see them myself and figure out if they were survivors of the air nomad genocide.