“What did you do to get so fast, Atlas?” asked Bro, a bit out of breath from their last round of Monster & Hunter.

“Training. And working on my field.” Atlas replied, a little proud that his training was paying off.

“Field, field, field. What else are you doing on your field? Is that your answer to everything?”

“Farming is more work than you might think. You will see it in a minute.”

“Should we start to make a field too?” asked Mi.

“If it's just for training purposes, then there might be better methods, but if you want to do something for the village while training, it might be a good idea. With a bit of effort, you might bring the village more to eat than the average hunter.”

“What? That can’t be true. Why doesn’t everyone have a field then?”

“I think they like being hunters. And you can’t grow meat, I guess. So if everyone stopped being a hunter, we wouldn’t have meat.” explained Atlas, omitting that animal husbandry was a thing, because it was difficult to put into practice in the village. At least beyond the catgators, many of his tribe members liked to keep as pets.

Both Mi and Bro stared at him in shock when they heard that there might be no meat.

“I will become the greatest hunter so that we will forever have enough meat. No one needs your stupid fields.” Said Bro.

“Calm down. I won’t force anyone. So now for the training, I will just show you what I do every morning, and you can decide if you want to learn.” Said Atlas and began to demonstrate a few water bending techniques he had already mastered. Many of them from the other water tribes.

A few hours later, Atlas laid in his bed, his legs a little sore from the many sprints he did during Monster & Hunter but quite happy with today's results. Training Bro and Mi was a bit like training Harry, Ron, and Neville, with the exception that those two were absolutely willing to do everything to get stronger, and after seeing how Atlas was not only able to freeze and boil water but also control it to an absurd degree, they were extremely motivated to come every day and do the exercises he recommended.

He closed his eyes, training his occlumency as he did every evening. The progress he made in the arts was astonishing. In the past years, he had tripled the amount of memories he could keep safe, and even his general defense had improved a bit. But like every evening in the past two years, he wasn’t just meditating. He was also waiting. Hermione had improved her legilimency to the point where she could build a connection to him, and since then they “talked” every day. But so far, it wasn’t really talking or telepathy, as they needed to create fake memories of them saying anything, and the other one needed to look at these memories before creating an answer. It was needlessly complicated, but unless they were talking out loud or were writing down what they wanted to say, they could only feel the emotions and intentions of each other when they invaded each other’s minds, which was much more intimate than talking about fake memories but much less precise.

After meditating for half an hour, Atlas felt that Hermione had knocked on his occlumency barriers. Similar to him, she had started school a few days ago. By now, he knew that she lived in a village on the southern edge of the Fire Nation. He had also learned quite a bit about her circumstances in the village. She was the granddaughter of the village elder and had quite a few privileges. Her mother, while chronically ill and Hermione was unsure how long she would be alive for, was quite a nice and caring person. The problem was her father. He was the vice commander of the Southern Raiders, a special force of the Fire Nation army with the purpose of eradicating the southern water tribe. Her father was Yon Rha, the guy who would kill Kya, Katara's, and Sokka’s mother in ten years. At least if everything went as in the original story, but both Hermione and Atlas doubted it. The major problem was that Yon Rha was an abusive and violent man who hit his wife regularly for the smallest "offenses,” like giving birth to a girl instead of a boy, serving other officers too hot tea when they visited, or being ill too often. It wasn't really a surprise that Hermione hated him from day one.

But not everything was bad. At least objectively speaking, as her abusive father was quite serious about training her for the military, which was exactly what they needed. But after a few very rough training sessions with her father, Hermione began to see it as torture and not training. Every night, she would go to sleep with a few bruises or light burns. Her only silver lining was that her father was away for three-quarters of the year for some military campaigns. And he also planned to pull a few strings to get her enrolled in the school in the Fire Nation capital.

After Atlas felt Hermione’s mind, he quickly used legilimency to invade her mind. She naturally didn’t resist, and he saw that she was on her way home from school. There was a six-hour difference between where they lived, so it was still midday for her.

He could feel that she was exhausted. Not physically, but mentally. But at the same time, she felt a bit of relief.

To understand what happened, he opened the first memory bubble and saw Hermione sitting in the Hogwarts common room with a blistering fire. She also looked like the time he last saw her with his own eyes, with the bushy brown hair, the brown eyes, and the Hogwarts robe on. Atlas knew that creating memories like that gave her some sort of comfort. With a father like hers, it was difficult to get used to a new world, and the Gryffindor common room was her safe space.

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“I managed to impress the teachers today. They will probably send me to the capital earlier than expected. If the hero is also a firebender and lives in the fire capital, I might be able to find him there. If he was reborn as a toddler like us, he couldn’t be that much older. Maybe one or two years, so maybe he is still in school.”

Atlas quickly manufactured a memory of his own. He used the same design just because it gave them the feeling of really speaking with each other. He also used his old body for the image, as he hoped it would make her more comfortable and also because it would be strange to talk to his girlfriend in the body of a kid.

“That is good. That means you will be free of that bastard a little sooner. I just hope you will be able to learn a little more in school than the false history they preached in the series. I got my teammates, Mi and Bro, today, and we will meet our teacher tomorrow. They quarrel a lot, but I guess they are one of the best their age.”

A minute later, he could enter a new memory. Hermione stood directly in front of him, her expression a bit pitiful but still cute. It made him curious, as her facial expression had to be intentional.

“That sounds good. How long do you think it will take before we can see each other for real? I miss you.” She stretched her hand forward as if to touch him, and if he wanted to, he could try to hold her, but he knew his hand would go straight through her.

“I’m sorry. But if I leave the tribe now, I will be an outcast everywhere I go. I can probably leave as soon as I officially become a hunter and get the elders' permission. Then maybe I can forge an alliance with the earth kingdom to get the tribe involved in the war. Then we can perhaps meet near a battlefield. I’m sorry. I don’t know a better way. Not without one of us having to leave one side permanently and living in the other nation as a traitor. Adam would probably kill us if we did something like that. But if we find the hero before that, we might be able to meet sooner. So, take a close look at the pampered children in the capital for me, okay?”

Instead of creating a memory to answer him, she pulled him into her mind to let him feel how much she missed him.

It pained him, and he had to suppress a tear. The situation they were in was probably not what anyone would expect from a normal relationship, and not seeing each other for possibly another five to ten years was depressing. Especially if one considers that they only spent a few months as a couple before that.

The next day, after another only mildly interesting lesson about the spirits in the swamp from the elder, said elder announced who their senior hunters would be and where to meet them.

“Does one of you know who Tar is?” asked Atlas, as he wasn’t that knowledgeable about the hunters in the village, with the exception of the few at the top.

“Yes, I know him he is...” tried Mi to answer.

“He is a useless coward. I heard that my father was angry at him because he led their squad and, for no reason, cancelled the hunt even after they almost caught their prey.” Interrupted Bro.

“Bro, let her finish. You can’t always interrupt her.” Said Atlas a little annoyed, but Bro only turned his head away.

“Thanks, Atlas. But Bro is right. I mean, he is known for being… careful. Well, technically, he isn’t really known for it as very few people have anything to do with him. I just know him because he lives in a house close to mine.” Finished Mi.

“Okay. But careful doesn’t necessarily mean that he is a coward. I guess we will have to wait and see.”

After walking through the slightly foggy village, they arrived at an area where hunters normally gather after a successful hunt to dismantle their prey. The stench was terrible, but the people standing there didn’t seem to be bothered and were laughing with each other.

“Haha, that is the first group. Whose kids are these? You look promising. Please tell me you are group two.” asked a muscular, burly man with a scar on his left eye.

“I’m sorry. We are Group four. Can you tell us where Tar is?”

“Tar? That old … never mind. He went down to the river and said he needed to prepare something. Just go down in a straight line. You can’t miss him. But stay vigilant. He is a bit… Ah, you will see yourself.” said the burly man before excitedly winking at the next group.

As the area for the hunters was a bit outside of the village because of the smell, the path was much less used than the ones in the village, and many trees and bushes stood in their way.

“What do you think that guy meant? Do you think Tar would prepare some kind of test for us?” asked Atlas, hoping the other two had heard something along the line.

“I don’t know. Maybe the other hunter just wanted to scare us?” answered Mi, not entirely convinced of it either.

“Doesn’t really matter. We will beat any test he puts us through.” Said Bro with his usual confidence.

A few hundred meters later, they saw a small, almost bald old man putting possum chickens in three wooden cages, and their screeches overshadowed even the sound of the flowing river.

“Whaaa, what is happening?” Screamed Bro out of nowhere, and Atlas could only see how he was dragged over the ground until he was lifted upside down on a nearby tree.

Atlas noticed that the bald man had turned towards him, carefully watching them, with no intention to help.

“Bro. Wait, I will help you.” He heard Mi saying as she hurried towards Bro to free him.

Just before she reached him, Atlas saw that the ground below Bro looked a bit unusual, but before he could say anything, Mi had already stepped into another trap, and her leg seemed to be locked in the ground.

Luckily, she didn’t seem hurt and she only screamed because of the shock.

Atlas decided to be careful as he suspected a third trap, but quickly had to abandon all care as he heard a strange sound behind him. He jumped to the side only to see a ball of half hardened catgator dung flying past him.

He quickly got up again, seeing that the dungball was connected to a thin rope and was swinging back and forth. The bald man was still watching them from the other side of the river.

Atlas decided it was safe enough to help the others free themselves, but remained alert until everyone was freed.

“What the hell was that?” yelled Bro, and angrily stormed towards Tar as soon as he was free.

“You first lesson, kid. Always stay vigilant and watch your surroundings. Otherwise, you won’t grow old.” Answered Tar calmly and winked at them to come to his side of the river.

When Atlas arrived at the riverbank, he got a better view of Tar. The man was small, thin, and looked a bit like a rat, with his small eyes, protruding ears, and pointy nose. Atlas thought he appeared weak and cunning, and the man had almost no presence, yet Atlas felt as if the man was just trying to hide his pride and confidence.