The chill grew more substantial as Nik's warm breath escaped his lips in a form of a vaporous cloud, dispersing to form the space for another breath. In front of him, the lady kept on moving. 

No conversation was initiated until the silver-haired lady took a turn towards the entrance of the valley that housed the base of the river connected to the waterfall before she surprisingly slumped on the ground while heaving a deep sigh.

"Haaa~ Finally!"

She almost cheered, yet, kept a semblance of mediocrity before snapping her head in Nik's direction with her eyes and lips growing wider with each passing second.

"Hey! Sorry for being soooo boring back there... you know..."

The lady stood up and placed her hand in front of her face before coughing lightly, her voice turned deeper, somehow, perfectly imitating Bhiman as she continued.

"As a human born of spirit I must take care of my image—"

Coughing once again, the somber expression turned little bright as her voice returned.

"— or something like that."

She smiled before her walking towards Nik.

"I am Yue. Princess Yue. Nice to meet you... er... Nip?"

'ple.'

Nik kept the pun within him, he didn't wish to show his lack of sense of humour just yet.

Instead, he focused on the dynamic changes of the expression showed by the lady named Yue... no, she just introduced herself 'Bond' style.

"Hello. I am Faran..."

He couldn't hold back after all.

"Nik Faran."

It was quite gratifying that Kurumi didn't stand in place of Yue since all he would receive in case of his introduction would have been a humiliating eye roll of annoyance.

"Nik... I see. Father told me that I need to take you to meet with the Ocean Spirit La. So... let's go!"

She spoke before turning her heels while beckoning Nik to follow. On the way, as the walked deeper into the Glacial Valley, Yue started introducing the whole place.

"Our ancestors used to live here before moving out in fear of angering the Koi Spirits due to their needs of resources."

Yue started with how the Northern Tribe first discovered the twin Koi Spirits.

La, the Spirit of Ocean, the master of water.

Tui, the Spirit of Moon, the mover of water.

Without Tui, the waterbenders could 'feel' water but cannot bend it and in the absence of La, the entire lineage of waterbenders would simply be cut short as they wouldn't even be able to form any connection whatsoever with the water itself.

"So... they are really Koi fishes?"

Nik asked out curiously while Yui nodded. She flung her braids behind her and stopped before looking back. Her smile had already receded as she frowned at Nik.

"Before we move further, I should establish some ground rules. The Koi Spirits are defenceless. They are spirits that enable us to bend the elements, yes, but they are sacred beings that have existed with us since ancient times."

Walking forward, Nik felt a faint sense of pressure exuding out of Yue. It would have been alright if this pressure was only ethereal, but honestly, he felt his physical body being pressured as if something tangible was being used to achieve this method.

"So, I must clearly state whether you aspire to be a tribe member or not, no harm should come to the koi spirits."

A silver sheen touched her blue eyes as she gazed at Nik's face seriously. Even she subconsciously let go of her biggest secret as Nik could swear that he saw Yue's body glowing silver for a moment before everything turned normal. 

Even with his enhanced stats, he couldn't help but gulp as he once again gazed upon the sweetly smiling Yue who stood with her hands behind her back, her body leaning forward and her tilted with a sense of cuteness.

Terrible!

"Uh... yeah. I get that.

No need to worry about that."

He nodded as the duo continued their walk for five more minutes before they found themselves standing in front of a glowing lake with two distinct entities rotating in the pool of water, as if chasing each other, yet, kept a safe distance as they weren't destined to ever get into contact with each other.

"Are they?"

Nik looked at Yue, who happened to be looking at the duo spirits with a warm smile, her eyes narrowed as if enamored by their entire existence.

"Yes, they are La and Tui. The Black Koi represent the Ocean, the Silver Koi represent the Moon."

Before Nik could reply, a snort could be heard within the back of his mind.

"Moon, my sparkling ass! Isn't that Tama? The Spirit of Gravitation?"

Pavāka's frustrated groan echoed within his mind.

It was Nik's turn to be surprised but the moment he heard the term Gravitation, he felt quite an illiterate even after understanding the ways of nature during his training.

The 'moon' pulls the water to form the tidal waves, in fact, refers to its gravitational pull. Hence, this gravitational pull allows the waterbenders in sense with water to manipulate the water while subconsciously tapping into those 'pulls'.

It was THIS simple!

Just a single concept of gravitation defined the entirety of waterbending.

That's all!

"That Tama is a rogue one! Always appearing in places and allowing others to manipulate gravity!

Hmph! It was only after... whatever. Well, he does not play that much. So this Yue must be quite a special one to—"

"bend the gravity."

Nik whispered in amazement as his look towards Yue changed entirely.

"Yeah... Nik. If you actually plan to follow... the plan. I think you should reconsider. 

This spirit actually affects the entire plane way more than the Avatar could ever hope to achieve..."

"You think?"

Nik asked in mock amusement as a deep desire to smash Zhao's head into a bloody pulp and feed his brain matters to dogs, cause that's the only thing his I.Q. will ever be worth, erupted within his heart.

'Fuck him! Wanting to actually kill the gravity?!'

Nik never thought he would use the word 'kill' to associate with the word 'gravitation' and yet, here he was.

"Alright, take off your clothes!"

Yue clapped her hand, alas, the sound of her claps remained muffled due to her hands covered in gloves while she looked at Nik happily.

Not minding her words at all, just like Pavāka.

"Hehehe... she is rather cute now she speaks this way..."

You sound like a perverted old man, Pavāka!

Nik sighed deeply before smiling bitterly.

"Um... it's way too cold... don't you think so?"

Nik asked out with hollow laughs in tandem, only to see Yue smiling even brighter.

"Hurry up! The water of the pool is actually way warmer than the surroundings."

***

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