Avatar, the spirit of knowledge

[Third POV]

Solon continued chatting with Gaara. They kept talking about all kinds of things from the power of the earth to the most insignificant information Gaara had from his settlement.

"So, when are you going to go back?" 

"Go back?" asked Gaara at Solon's own question. 

"Yes, go back. You can't stay here, nor can I take care of you." said Solon as he motioned to the surroundings.

"Do I have to? The people don't want me there. You on the other hand can understand me."

Solon felt the desperation in Gaara's voice and immediately understood the problem.

"You don't really want to leave those people behind. You are just afraid of the fact that once I leave you will go back to being the "monster" everyone hates."

Gaara was silent, but the silence said more than enough.

"You seem to have the wrong idea about your life." said Solon calmly.

"Your story may not have such a good beginning, but that doesn't make you who you are. It is the rest of your story. Who you choose to be. At least that's what my brother told me when I started complaining about my younger days." he said as he remembered his time in the forest of time.

After saying everything he wanted to say Solon slowly got up and turned around to leave.

Gaara saw him leaving and just stared intensly at him aware that he was unable to stop Solon from leaving.

Moments before Solon teleported away he paused and thought for a moment.

"I will come here every day for a month, during that time if you come here, I will train you to control the power of the earth." he said without looking back as he finally left.

Gaara got excited that he would be able to meet his new friend again.

[Next day]

[Gaara POV]

When Solon told me he would train me, I was happy.

I really wanted to train and learn how to control my powers.

However, I'm sure this is excessive.

"Get up! If you have time to lay down and relax, you have time to train."

Solon's loud voice woke me up from my thoughts. I immediately got up despite my tiredness.

"In position."

I followed his words and took my prefered stance, yet before I got ready he started throwing rocks towards me from all direction without any kind of movement.

I tried to use the sand I have inside my gourd to protect myself, but the sharp rocks went right throught the shield and scratched my face.

"You keep setting up large shields. They are useless! Create small but sturdier ones instead." He said as he continued to send rocks my way.

I followed his advice and noticed that although the shields were harder to create due to their floating nature they did become more durable.

[Third POV]

[A month later]

Solon continued to train Gaara for multiple hours using all the information he has obtained during his life, to create the perfect enviroment for Gaara's growth.

The training although short, increased Gaara's control over earth in general. That lead to him learning how to turn the rocks around him into sand making it easier to manipulate for him, and a lot harder for other people with the power of the earth.

"This is the last day of training. You have shown exceptional growth, But that doesn't mean that you are strong. During this time we mostly trained your control, from now on you have to increase the amount of sand you can use and your experience through real fights. Lastly, you have to meditate."

"Teacher, I know you made me meditate during this month, however does it really have any effect on my elemental power?"

"Meditation has more effects than you know of. It can calm you down, allow you to think clearly and even strengthen your connection with the spirit world."

"My connection with the spirit world?"

"Yes, the spirit world is more than a different dimension that is connected to this one. It is the origin of chi, all energy you use of the elemental powers come from it."

"I thought humans produce chi on their own."

"They don't, the reality is that they take it from the spirit world throught their connection with it, the stronger the connection, the more energy they can have. In other words throught meditating you can increase the amount of chi you can use, the time it takes to regenerate it and the purity it has."

"I see" said Gaara thoughtfully.

"Don't think about it too much. You just need the basic knowledge, anything beyond that is something you cannot handle yet."

Gaara sat there looking at Solon.

"Now let's drink our last cup of tea together, then you can go back to the settlement." Solon said as he prepared two cups of green tea for his disciple.

Silence followed as both human and spirit enjoyed the tea with.

"Have a nice life, Gaara." Solon said as he faded away slowly leaving Gaara inside the forest.

[Solon POV]

Gaara was a human I valued.

I didn't value him as a friend, what I valued was his talent with the power of the earth. He was able to freely control sand like it was nothing. Unlike back when Bumi was alive, the people of the earth kingdom nowadays mostly use stones during their life.

That fact made the manipulation of sand harder for them since they are unable to control thousands of extremely small pieces of rock.

Throught Gaara I could understand the difference between these two styles. Unlike what I believed at the start, the ownership of the record didn't allow me to really understand everything, it only let me know everything.

I have to explore the world and experiment myself to obtain knowledge.

So I trained Gaara for a month -the time I needed to obtain complete knowledge over sandbending and the concept of sand- and I started walking with no destination or reason.

My only target? To obtain true knowledge myself.

~~~~~{chapter end}~~~~~