New generation benders

Herkio lost hope as time went on. He was all alone to his thoughts and thought about his future. In just some hour he would be married. And to a spolied brat. He had spend a lot of time with Siku and he hated her. She was spoiled, naiv and just wanted to show off. She had chosen him because he was 'perfect'. He didn't know what that really meant.
And after the wedding he guessed he would be important in the northern water tribe. He would even take over the job as a chief when her father died. It was never his dream to have power or be a leader, but he was forced to now.

He had a blue paintings on both his cheek, it was the symbols for the soutern water tribe. When he married Siku they would bring the tribes closer to each other, even if Herkio wasn't such a important person in his tribe. He also had white paint around his eyes, making him look like some weird panda. And to top if all of he also had a braid in his hair.

Finally the time came and it was time for the wedding. Guards took him over to the cermony. Siku was standing besides her father with the bittersweet smile. She had paintings in her face as well. He was forced to stand beside her and looked up at her father. "Please! Let me go! I don't want to get married!" he said but the father just gave him a look before he looked behind them. The priest was coming.

Herkio looked over his shoulder and saw the priest, wait, was he a firebender? He could see marks in his face that said so. And behind him he saw Ela, and Ryuu, Hye and Bipin. "Oh god!" he said and was about to run to them when the guards grabbed his arms to keep him still. "I don't want to get married!" he said for the last time.

"I don't want to get married!" As Herkio said this something... cracked. Hye was being restrained by Ilak who was a waterbender... not a lavabender. Ela was pretty sure that Hye would've murdered everyone in the room by now. Elas father had tried speaking to her, she hadn't talked at all.
"Was this why you didn't want to talk to me Ela?" Her father turned to her in the middle of the room. "You think I support forced marriage now?" He continued Hye finally got loose.
"Leave me be!" Hye told Ilak who seemed to be surprised.
"Excuse me, I'm getting married!" The bride said from the stand with such an expression she deserved to be hit with a chair. However Ela was more interested in the dark spirits which were filling up the room ever so slowly. Creeping in through everything. Slowly... it was maddening. Ela could see them, why is she suddenly so... high-wired? It feels like everything just disappears.
"I'm sorry, but I'm not about to support forced marriage." Her father said but it was echoing... what happened? Had he done something. "Especially not when there are so many malevolent spirits here disagreeing with you." He continued and looked around.
"Father!" The girl shouted and her father seemed... frozen in place as the spirits kept creeping around. Ryuu however was suddenly up and about when he kicked down the guards holding Herkio.

Herkio struggled and tried to get away but the guards grip just tightned. They could hold him until he was married, and then they would take away his friends. "Please! Just let me go! I promise there are a lot of young men around here that are eager to marry you!" he said and turned to Siku, he was begging her. She just smiled. "No! You're perfect! I don't want any other man!".
He sighed and looked around them, could his friends even help him? The guards could take them away. He noticed the look on Ela's face and froze as well when he saw the spirits, or some of them. One turned to him, but it wasn't as dark as before.
He noticed that all people seemed to be a bit petrified when Ryuu kicked down the guards. "Thank you!". He got away from the water tribe people and over to his friends. "Thanks guys" he said and looked at Siku with angry eyes. "I will get away from you if it's the last thing I will do! Spoiled brat!".

"Calm down!" Elas father suddenly shouted and grabbed Hye was about to jump up and probably beat the hell out of the spoiled bitch. "These spirits feed off emotions, even if you have all the right to everyone here needs to calm down." He continued and rose his hands to try and calm the situation. Bipin seemed to be concerned about this too but in a different way.
"Ela?" He whispered and Ela looked up at him... but couldn't see him. "Ela are you allright?" He continued and rose up and pulled Ela up too. "We have to go, these spirits... seem odd." She nodded. She could see the spirits, that's not an issue and she could see her very own tormentor creeping around in the room. However she had never noticed that the spirit didn't actually look like her until now. As if the evil spirits made it clearer. It actually looked more like a painting her dad had. Her tormentor was walking around with a huge smile on her glowing lips. Ela could see the tormentor properly, everything else was a blur.
"No! You're not going anywhere!" As Siku screamt this the spirits grew and her tormentor laughed loudly.
"Ela, what's happening?" Ryuu said and he tried to get Herkios chains off.
"Siku, calm down, now! The spirits will turn on us." Elas father exclaimed as the spirits started moving faster.
"I will not calm down!" Siku screamt again, the spirits harnessed the mixed emotions.

Herkio couldn't calm down. Before he had given up, lost all hope and had almost gotten married. And he had been a bit afraid what Siku would do if he got her angry. She wasn't a bender, but she had her father wrapped around her little finger. She could do whatever she wanted to.
He noticed that the spirits grew but he couldn't control his anger. "You sick people! I begged you but you where just going to force me to marry her!" he shouted. He still had the chains that kept him from bending. He didn't know when they had planned to get those away from him. Maybe never. Because with his bending he could get away.
But now he felt Ryuu trying to get them off and he tried to help as well. "Just wait until these chains are off! THen you will se how fucking perfect I am!" he shouted and the spirits grew more. Soon they got of and he got his hands free.
He still had his skin bags with water, they hadn't taken them since he couldn't bend, and got out the water. There where two people he needed to take out, the guards wouldn't follow them if they had to take care of their masters. So first he turned to her father. "Sorry, but you have spoiled your daughter too much". He quickly snapped at his feet with the water, making him fall. He then turned to Siku. "And you..I hope I will never even hear your name again". He snapped at her feet again so they where both down and the guards tried to get them up. "Let's run!" he yelled and opened upp the door out.

"So much suffering! Can't you feel it Ela!?" Said her tormentor who was everywhere now. She was jumping around, her voice echoing through Elas mind as Bipin was urging her out through the door. She felt like throwing up. The colors, the sounds, the voices everything was just blurring up. She tripped and fell and Bipin tried helping her up as Ikal showed up and swooped her up.
"Just get going already, these spirits will kill us all. Father! Come on!" He shouted at Elas father who sighed heavily and followed them.
"Come on now, you have to feel it. Otherwise I'll make you see it!" The spirit said and laid her hand on her eyes.

"The spirits are getting to her, Father." Ikal shouted as he saw the teardrops of blood fall down Elas pretty face.
"Just get out, the spirits won't be calmed back down now." He answered and Ikal bit his lip in frustration. Ela had always been... wired with the spirits. However it was never this bad when she was home. Ikal switched his grip so that Ela would end up on his back. Ela quickly clasped her arms around his neck and Ikal picked up the pace.
"Get to the docks, our ship's waiting there." Father called out and used his lavabending to seal the door shut behind him.

"This is suffering, this is greatness, this is power! Why not stay here where you belong?" Echoed through Elas head as the drops of blood fell down her cheeks. Hye was the last one out after blowing half of the church to bits.

Herkio just ran with the others. He didn't say anything for the moment, and to be honest he would mostly just shout if he tried to say something. He was still angry, relived that he was free and had a lot of mixed feeling, he was happy to see them.
He continued to run and didn't notice how bad it was with Ela, or that the spirits was so angry. He just wanted to get away from the northern water tribe, he never wanted to set his foot on the place again. And soon he saw the ships.
He sprinted the last bit and finally was up on the boat. The other got on as well and some people from the boat came and tried to help Ela. He would have been worried for her if he was himself, but he wasn't at the moment.

He was swaving at the place he was standing, among the others, it looked like he could faint any moment. He was tired, he had so many feelings inside of him that he almost wanted to puke. He starred in front of him, the white paint around his eyes made him look even weirder. And his still got the traditonal clothing and the braid in his hair.
"Herkio?" Bipin carefully asked and Herkio turned to him and just starred at him, shaking. "I understand that what you have been through have been very...". He didn't get any further until Herkio fell to the floor of the boat, passed out. The boats had started moving now.

"Herkio!" It wasn't Bipin though, it was Ela. However she hadn't seen him, in fact she had seen a blur of colors fall to the ground. Bipin was like a beacon, she could see him without any trouble. She knew it was Bipin. The others were harder.
"Ikal, he needs healing." She whispered. She was just scared that Herkio was going to be a victim of the spiritual imbalance. Anything from a trip to the spiritworld to just simple nightmares. It was ages since Ela found peace in the spiritworld and meeting her mother wasn't necessarily that peaceful either. Ikal was able to heal, he was one of the few healers of their tribe.
"He needs rest, that's all, Ela." Ikal replied harshly enough and Ela forced herself out oh his grip. She managed to land on her feet though. However Ikal had to grab her so that she wouldn't fall over.
"Stop, just go and heal him, Ikal!" Ela said and Ikal sighed heavily before complying.

Ikal didn't like the fact that Ela was so quick to get him to heal this other waterbender. She also just showed up randomly back in the village just to get him saved as well. Ikal understood that he was some new friend of hers but Ikal got ordered around and he was her childhood friend. She was his... tribe-sister. He brought out the water that he had stolen from the South Poles spirit-portal when he escaped from there. Now, he wasn't some criminal or anything like that. he had just been tired of it and left when he was around eight. That was when he first met Ela... and her family. When her mother sacrificed herself to save them all from the monsterbirds and their evil spiritleader. Ikal did his best healing the waterbender anyway. Trying to calm him down. Ela was brought below deck by Father. Ikal concentrated on the healing.

Herkio hadn't passed out totally, but he couldn't move or speak, or even open his eyes. He was still full of emotions and wasn't feeling well, and now he could see one of the reasons. He could see even if he was passed out in some way, maybe he was in the spirit world.
Dark spirits bent over him, tried to feed on his emotions, on his spirit. He tried to calm down, tried to get them away, but he was to upset. They just came closer, and soon he could see them properly. And he felt himself become cold. One of them looked like him, he even had those paintings, but more paintings as well, more marks. He grinned at him and Herkio wanted to scream but couldn't move his lips. He felt how he became weaker and weaker as the spirits feasted on him.

But then the healing begun. The spirits quickly moved away, even the one that looked like himself. They had done some damage to him, but the worst of it was away. He didn't wake up, but a deep sigh of reliev came out of him and they could knew he was okay. A guard lifted him up and carried him down, placing him in a empty room. They didn't wash away the paintings, just placed the blanket over him to let him rest. But soon he woke up again. He groaned and looked around, he was alone, and he felt so weird, so tired, and he remembered the spirits.

Ela stepped into the room which she had been in during the trip there. They had full power on, the north had to deal with the spirits first. She started being able to almost see again. He father sat her down on a chair.
"Sit still, please." He urged her and she knew she didn't have much choice. His voice was soothing, he was calm and cold as he brought up his lava to calm her spirit down. It didn't hurt her... she was used to it. However she did prefer the serenity and softness of the water. Lava was harsh and forceful. It was the way to force spirits into submission while water was like a lullaby. There was still blood on her cheeks from her tears and when her father was done he dried them of her cheeks with the care of a small child caring for a bird with broken wings.
"It will be fine, little one, it will." He said hugging her and Ela didn't even bother to lift her arms. "I love you, you know that, right?" He said smiling.
"Yes, father." Ela replied emotionless. "I love you too, father." She continued in the same tone.
"Your clothes are in there, little priestess." Her nicknames always begun with little. He pointed at a wardrobe and she nodded.
"Yes, father." She said and he left her alone. She changed clothes, they were a little different from last time. More orange but still just as drapery.

It took a few hours until she could feel safe about walking out and therefore she ended up on deck staring out towards the horizon toying with the metal-accessories that came with the clothes. She was calm even though she knew what awaited her back home... her traveling was over. In fact, her whole damn life was over.