What surprised me more wasn't the quantity but the quality of the energy. It was so pure that I felt it tingle my skin, seeping in. I couldn't wait to start meditating!
I found a rock near the forest and close my eyes to look inwards observing the changes that were happening in my body.
The energy was entering my body through my skin, purifying my skin, and in turn making the process pick up the pace. I started to breathe taking in energy this way as well and it hit me like an avalanche, putting my gag reflex into gear, for better or worst nothing happened since I couldn't throw up energy. Once my body got used to the influx I started to use the energy to clear my meridians. The energy flooded the impurities washing them away, the sensation of levitation through the air overtook me, the normal reaction would have been to get scared or at least surprised, contrary to that I felt serenity, I felt like I was one with the environment, one with nature, one with the world. The progress I was making now was worlds apart from what I did in Republic City, months of training there were mere minutes here.
It seemed like only minutes have passed when I felt my meridians aching, they weren't used to such violent and rich chi, this was aggravated by the fact that I used the energy like a hammer to clean the impurities slightly damaging them. I opened my eyes and saw the people I came here with looking at me.
"Err... Why is everybody staring at me?"
"Ethan, are you ok?"
"Korra! You managed to bring back the southern lights, congrats! Yes, of course, I'm fine why wouldn't I be?"
Right as I said that I felt something hot coming up my throat.
-Blarg-
I throw up a hefty bit of foul black goo, making me feel better than I already was. Since my body didn't have time to get rid of those things naturally, I guess it made sense that they got expelled this way.
'Damn if I knew that it was so easy and efficient to train here I would have come here long ago!'
"Healthy people don't puke black stuff!"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mako!"
Korra approached me and started scanning my body. The more she scanned the more confused she got.
"I told you guys I'm fine! Scratch that, I feel amazing, now since we've done what we came here to do let's leave, I can't wait to sleep in a warm bed."
"I feel you..." Said Bolin shaking his head, trying to reminisce the last time he slept in a warm bed.
While the others packed for the trip back, Korra approached me again.
"Can I talk with you for a second, Ethan?"
"Sure! What's on your mind?"
"It's about something that happened in the forest, I felt you, when I fought the dark spirit I mean, I don't know how, but I felt your presence, at the time I thought you sneaked in while the others weren't looking. When I got back you were there on the rock and the others told me that you didn't move a muscle, not only that, they said that the snow around you started to melt and Bolin swore he saw you levitate at some point."
"Ah, Bolin, I can never understand what's going on inside his pretty little head."
"I'm serious here, I want to know what happened and how did you do it! Can you teach it to me?"
"Did you ever ask yourself why some people can bend and some can't? It's quite an interesting subject and I would recommend you do some research on it, but for the time being, I will summarize and simplify it for you, benders have generally more chi, internal energy, than non-bender, this is one of the reasons some can bend and others can't, let's put it this way, it's easier for you to move a boat with a paddle than a stick or dig a hole with a shovel than your hands. Chi is the essence of life, the essence of this world, the more chi you have the more freedom you have in shaping it, case and point the avatar, the avatar has a ridiculous amount of chi compared to normal benders and in turn, he or she can influence his or her surroundings in a greater scale than normal benders. I think the best example of it is the avatar state, did you ever ask yourself why you become more powerful when you enter the avatar state? It's partly due to the combined experience of the past avatars and partly because you have greater access to your chi. The reason why you can't use the avatar state more often is that your body can't normally handle that much stress for prolonged usage. Also, you become more exposed in your avatar state, wounds or simply damage will feel worse than in your normal state, granted you are almost untouchable when you are like this."
"That's pretty interesting, but that doesn't explain how you did it or what you did."
"Sorry I was getting sidetracked, there is chi all around us, people can't sense it since usually it's in low quantities and of subpar qualities, but here... Here it's different, I not sure why but here the quantity and quality of the chi are levels above its counterparts on the outside. I was sensitive to chi since young even though I can't use bending I can somewhat use chi. It makes me stronger, faster, more focused. Training in chi is like training a muscle you need to constantly work it out so it gets stronger. I do it constantly and I've been doing it for years but it has never happened to me to feel so connected with the outside energy as I was now. You could say I entered a state of enlightenment, I became one with the energy around me. This is why you felt me, but you can forget about learning how to do it since I don't have the slightest idea how I did it either. It just happened."
