Atlas shucked off his feelings of nostalgia and stared at the kids sitting in front of the elder’s house, waiting for the man to come out. The kids were sitting quite close to each other, as the elder was infamous for speaking quietly, and that one needed to sit as close as possible to even understand him.

The day before, during their first lesson, the kids had to introduce themselves while the tribe elder preached about how important it was that the tribe sticked together. Atlas had tried to get in touch with two kids that looked fairly popular at first glance. His idea had been to become “friends” with some of the kids and train them into competent aids, but the two he picked out first had been dumb as rocks. While that would be fine if he wanted to have two grunts as friends, he needed someone who would gain influence in the tribe even without his meddling.

The major problem was figuring out those people, as the tribesmen shown in the series were already young adults, and even if not, he didn’t know how influential they would really be.

So today he observed the kids more carefully in the hope of spotting someone better suited for his needs. The earlier he picked, the easier it would be to integrate into a circle of friends, so he couldn’t just test everyone. But judging the potential of a six-year-old was more of an art than an exact science. In Atlas' eyes, everyone looked just like kids. Some were taller, some shorter, some looked confident, some shy, and others carefree, but everyone looked immature. He didn’t judge them for that and knew that he was the odd one, but that didn’t change his dilemma.

He tried to listen in on some of the kids talking, but even that yielded almost no results, as the kids were only talking about playing Monster & Hunter, a weird game of roleplay tag kids in the village liked to play, or that they dreamed of becoming hunters, and some even talked about older siblings already being hunters.

“My father is the better hunter! He shot a frog squirrel in the eye from over 60 meters,” yelled a girl. Her brown hair, resembling a tangled nest, cascades in wild waves around her shoulders. Small twigs, leaves, and even a feather or two seem to have found a home amidst the tousled strands, creating a natural and earthy headdress that was only visible because her headleafe had slipped down her head while she yelled.

The boy she screamed at looked surprisingly athletic for a six-year-old, and the freckles in his face that became visible as the brown mop of hair waved around as he yelled back at the girl led Atlas to suspect that he spent a lot of time outdoors and perhaps even trained to become a hunter from an early age.

Atlas remembered that the girl was called Mi and that the boy she was yelling at was called Bro. He had seen the two of them a few times when they were running around in the village playing Monster & Hunter.

“That is nothing. My father could do that with his eyes closed. But can your father wrestle a deerbear? I know that my father did.” countered Bro with a smug expression.

“Your father was saved by his teammates!”

“Pah, the deerbear was saved by his teammates. My father is the strongest.”

When Atlas heard the two quarreling, he got a little interested. While he wasn’t interested in whose father was the better hunter, the fact that they were quarreling about whose father was better meant that their fathers needed to be fairly good hunters. At least he hoped for that. He hoped that Mi and Bro had some of their genes and the drive to become good hunters themselves, so he decided that he would try to get close to them.

So he sat right in-between them, earning himself some weird glares from the two. Sitting so close to them, he noticed that Bro was even a little taller than himself.

“Who are you?” asked Mi in a tone that still had the anger from their earlier quarrel ringing through.

“I’m Atlas. Nice to meet you.” said Atlas in the friendliest way possible.

“What do you want?” asked Bro, just as annoyed as Mi.

“You are the rice boy, right?” asked Mi with a surprised expression. “My mom told me about you. She told me that you are a genius that was able to water bend when barely a year old.”

“What!? That is impossible. Even I only started bending when I was three years old. Tell that farytail to someone who would believe you.” said Bro, but his tone sounded more doubtful than his words.

“Are you saying my mother lied to me?!” protested Mi.

Atlas' feat of bending water so early on hadn’t gone unnoticed, but it didn’t become a big topic because of his meager chi reserves. The topic only resurfaced after he started supplying other people with rice and motivating them to create their own fields.

Being reduced to a “rice boy” because of it was a little irritating, but Atlas chose to ignore that. He needed to be the adult, the leader of the group, and just joining a senseless quarrel was not the way to do it. Just when Atlas was about to answer them, the village elder came out of his house, and all the kids turned their attention to him. Even Atlas began to listen to the elder, as participating in the lesson and standing out as a prodigy were the main reasons he even participated in these lessons. Bonding with Mi and Bro could come later.

“For hundreds of years, we have lived in the swamp. The swamp is like a father who guides our lives while taking care of us; he provides us with the food we need and hides us from our enemies, but he also wants us to live by his rules. And the rules are simple: don’t take more than you need. Don’t cause more harm than necessary, and treat the spirits with the kindness they deserve. If you follow these rules, the swamp will be more than just a place to live; it will become a part of you, and you will become a part of it.” started the village elder while shambling over to a tree stump to sit on.

Atlas asked himself how much of it was really true. In his first world, he would have put it off like some religious nonsense, but in this world where spirits were real and the swamp was one giant connected entity, it couldn’t be brushed off so easily. The question was just what it meant to take more than one needed to. The swamp apparently didn’t have a problem with the tribe cutting some wood to build houses or with the hunters, who killed quite a lot of animals. On the other hand, the swamp also didn’t protect hunters if they were ambushed by a predator.

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But this set of rules also explained a lot about the peculiarities Atlas observed in the tribe. For example, their lack of ambition and the drive to improve themselves. “Only take what you need.” With a mindset like that, it was only logical that the tribe never tried to tame the swamp, and it might even become a hindrance to his future plans of advancing the tribe unless he managed to overcome that mindset or work around it. If he deemed it impossible, he would need to reshuffle his plans again and leave the tribe even before becoming an adult.

“At the center of the tribe stands the Banyan Grove Tree. Some people in our tribe get chosen by it and awaken the powers to guide the swamp. In this generation, only Huu was enlightened by the Banyan Grove Tree and, as such, became the protector of the tribe and swamp. In the future, after your Hunter inauguration, you will receive the chance to be guided by Huu before being allowed to meditate under the Banyan Grove Tree. And maybe you too will become enlightened, but before we come to that, you need to learn the customs of our tribe and also become capable hunters.”

After the village elders' explanation, the kids began to murmur about becoming the next enlightened protector, becoming a good hunter, and other such things. Even Atlas couldn’t help but think that such a position might bring him some benefits. Especially if he had to change the mindset of a whole tribe. Since reaching “enlightenment” was much easier when one knew how plant bending really worked, it might be easy for him to get that special position within the tribe. Unless enlightenment meant something else.

“And the first thing towards reaching both is getting to know your fellow tribe members. As such I will now divide you into teams. Each team will be taught by a senior hunter twice a week.”

After that, the elder went around and divided the kids into groups of three. The split into different teams came as a surprise to Atlas. Even his mother or Huu hadn’t warned him about it.

“I don’t want to be in a group with him!” said Mi and pointed her finger into Bro’s face.

“And I don’t want to be in a group with her. Please, Elder.” answered Bro and slapped Mi’s hand away.

“Stop. Both of you. Can’t you two be like Atlas? Do you see him complaining about being in a team with two bickering fools?”

Atlas was a bit embarrassed at being pointed out like that. But in a way, he hoped it worked in his favor as the elder presented him as a role model. The problem was that kids didn’t necessarily like being told to behave like another kid.

“But he is the rice boy. You can’t expect us to be on a team with him. He only crawls in the dirt and takes care of his plants. He never even played Monster & Hunter with us.” Said Bro, causing Atlas to feel a headache building up. He almost regretted sitting next to these two. “He will only drag us down.”

“Please stop. First of all, never call me Rice Boy again, both of you. It’s mean. Secondly, taking care of my field is my water bending training. I can show you what I do there, and if you still think it disqualifies me as your teammate, we can gladly fight it out in a spar, but I think that the elder would want us to get along. I’m sure in the stories you heard from the hunters, you learned that hunters need to trust each other. And you both want to become great hunters like your dads? Right?” Atlas didn’t want to come off as aggressive, and he wasn’t particularly eager to spar with a six-year-old, but if it was a quick way to establish his authority among the children, he would do it.

The Elder looked at Atlas, his mouth, framed by a weathered face, curves into a gentle smile, revealing a lifetime of experiences etched in laugh lines. His bushy eyebrows, though gray and slightly unruly, lift in a light-hearted manner, adding to the overall expression of amusement.

“My brother was right about you. You are a bright child.” said the elder, and he continued dividing the teams. His comment surprised Atlas a bit, as he had seen Thi’s teacher Pak only a handful of times, but maybe Thi had talked about him. With how much Thi liked to gossip, it wasn’t really a maybe. She definitely talked about him.

Mi looked at Bro with a complex expression, while Bro looked everywhere but Atlas and Mi.

“What? Don’t I get an answer?” asked Atlas.

“Fine. We do your stupid training but if it’s useless I will beat you up. But I still don’t want to be in a team with her.” Said Bro glaring at Mi.

“Is it so important to you whose father is the better hunter?” asked Atlas, trying to find a way to make the two of them work together. Their problem seemed to be more personal than the one they had with him.

“He also pulled my hair when we were playing yesterday. And I always have to play the monster while he is always on the hunter team.”

Mi’s explanation frustrated Atlas a little, as the reason for their quarrel seemed to be related to some childish issues that could be solved with logic. But Atlas wanted to mediate between them, as he could at least feel some ambition in them that he could use form and control them according to his needs. At least he hoped he was able to do that, as his experience doing something like that were quite limited, and he would dare to say he really controlled Ethan’s actions.

“Bro, do you want to say what problem you have with Mi?”

“She always laughs at me and calls me fish boy since a fish slapped into my face during training my bending near the river.”

Atlas noted that he wasn’t the only one that got an annoying nick name from Mi before speaking again, but also noted the hypocrisy as Bro had just called him Rice Boy too.

“So, if Mi were to apologize for calling you fish boy, would you apologize for pulling her hair, and if you play together, you switch roles sometimes?”

Atlas sighed as none of the two answered. Kids could really be troublesome.

“I just want to remind you that we will probably have to work in a team and maybe even work together in a hunter squad. Would your dads work together if put into a single hunter squad, or would they quarrel like you?”

Mi was the first to falter, and after biting her lips, she answered, “I’m sorry, Bro. I will never call you fish boy again.”

Bro stared at her, not moving an inch at first, until he noticed that Atlas too was waiting for him to say something.

“Fine. I’m sorry. But playing hunter is much more fun than being the monster.”

“Perhaps. But if no one plays the monster, no one can be the hunter. So switching roles sometimes is only fair, don’t you think?” said Atlas and realized that any adult looking at them from the outside would have realized that he was the odd one out of the three, but the elder was still occupied with dividing the last two groups.

Bro only gumbled to confirm it.

“And now shake hands.”

“What? Why?” said both in unison.

“Because I want to see that you mean it.” Said Atlas before realizing that maybe the tribe didn’t have the custom of shaking hands to seal a deal. But luckily, Mi and Bro just shrugged their shoulders before shaking hands.

“Now that you are all divided into teams, I want to tell you what that means. For the next four years, twice a week, a senior hunter will teach you how to become a good hunter, how to survive in the swamps, and how to work in a team. A hunter never hunts alone. In four years, the senior hunter will judge your team. If you fail to meet his standards, the whole team will not be able to become hunters. After that, you will tag along with hunter teams on actual hunts, where you earn the approval of five different squad leaders. Only then can you become official hunters of the tribe and attempt to gain enlightenment under the Banyang grove tree.” spoke to the elder with his monotonous old voice.

Atlas just hoped that Mi and Bro were what he thought of them, as it didn’t sound as if he could change teams now.