Forged In Fire || ATLA

Soldier, Poet, King

"There will come a soldier who carries a mighty sword, he will tear your city down, oh lei oh lai oh Lord." - The Oh Hellos

Sokkas Master

🌊⛰️🔥🌪
Previously

The trio of shishi spirits watched the silver-haired incarnate of their old friend with curious magenta eyes. Their purple tongues lolled from mouths full of deceptively sharp teeth as they panted like a set of overgrown wolfdogs. They were almost entirely blue in coloration, with lighter patches of fur around their paws and facial features, and white fur covering their mouths and eyes. Pink tufts of hair ran along their noses and outlined their mouths, highlighting their animalistic features in an almost beautiful way. The cone-like feature jutting from the top of their heads sat much like a hat would, violet in hue and trimmed in red.

Aelita watched them with equal curiosity, still dressed in the simple sleeping gown she had climbed into bed in, knowing but not caring at the moment that she was in the Spirit World. Surrounded by sprawling hills of lush green she was more preoccupied with the certainty that these were the first spirits to have visited her as a child. She stepped back to keep her distance when one rose from where it sat. If memory served right, and Aelita was that for once hers did, the shishi that appeared kind and curious now could take on a form far, far more sinister. They had almost always started as the beautiful beasts they were currently but then something in them would shift and they would turn into monstrous, angry things with midnight skin and yellow slits for eyes. They hunted Aelita then, chasing a young brown-eyed girl through a world she didn't recognize as tears streamed down her face, snapping their massive jaws and threatening to swallow her whole until a still-breathing Sukomo Kenshin heard her screams and plucked his sobbing daughter out of what they both thought at the time was nothing more than a horrifying dream.

But her father wasn't here now, and Aelita knew this was much more than a dream, so she waited for the terrible change and braced herself for an attack that never came. Instead, the shishi that rose to stand trotted happily to the Akira's side before plopping down on his back and offering his belly to her, tongue still hanging out the side of his mouth. She couldn't help but laugh through her shock and exhaustion, crouching down to stroke the animal-like spirit the way it seemed to want her to.

"Well this is a pleasant change in pace," she told the creature, crouching down to oblige him, stroking the soft fur of his stomach until his hind leg twitched. Her smile only grew when his brothers pranced over to join in on the affection, merrily falling at her feet like they were old friends. "Is that what you've always been trying to tell me? That we're friends?" Aelita asked as she moved to scratch them behind their ears. She took their low, cheerful rumbles as an agreement. "I suppose some friendships can last more than a lifetime. You'll have to forgive me for not realizing it sooner. In my defense, I was just a kid then without a single clue who or what I was and you seemed so terrifying then but you're not so scary now, are you? I wonder why that is."

The trio of spirits offered no answer but remained regardless, turning over and curling around her to lounge in a sleepy pile. Aelita chose not to overthink it as she settled amongst them, the shishi dozing off lazily and surrounding her with their warmth. She closed her eyes and breathed in the spiritually charged air. It almost felt nice to ignore the strangeness of it all.

Almost. She hadn't stood so solidly in the Spirit World in longer than she could recall off the top of her head, flittering in and out between the worlds in the wee hours of the morning just as the 'medicine' that suppressed so much of her began to fade from her system. Aelita wondered if its absence was the reason for the relative peace she felt now. Spirits knew she hadn't been at peace when she first jolted back into consciousness a few days ago.