The air Spirit

Michael seriously doubted his idea, but he simply had no other choice. He did not know how the laws of physics work in the Spirit World, and to be honest, he was afraid to find out. Considering that during the three days of sailing, he could only eat the wild vegetables and fruits that he had collected, the teenager thought that he had no other choice.

So with a heavy sigh, Michael brought the raft to a complete stop and set a bowl in front of him. He poured some water inside, put a leaf of wood that he received from the Goddess on the surface. The leaf remained on the surface and floated softly, almost undisturbed by the waves of the sea. Although it may have been because Michael used Waterbending to calm the water.

He took out a sewing kit from his bag and took out a needle from it, which he placed on the surface of the raft and hit the blunt end several times with his metal staff to magnetize it. Michael laid the needle down on the sheet and nodded in satisfaction as it slowly turned in the direction of his path, if a little to the left.

His makeshift compass was a wildcard because he didn't know if it would point north, but now that he had confirmed his guess, he could safely continue on his way.

"To be honest, this is the first time I've seen a person determine their path in this way. But then again, what do I know about people, right?"

Michael groaned softly and thrust his staff back into the hole in the raft. He turned around and was about to say something very rude, but stopped when he noticed the appearance of his new companion. It was a woman with a too long neck and clouds for arms. Her body and legs looked normal if one could ignore that there were only three fingers on her legs and no navel on her bare stomach.

Her hair was also a cloud, oddly enough, and her eyes were blue like the sea, not that Michael could focus on that, because right now he was trying to figure out exactly what he was seeing. It was definitely the Spirit, but her speech was not the usual "Holier than thou" attitude that Michael was used to hearing from the Spirits.

So the only thing he could do was turn away and ignore the problem like he was trying to do with the other Spirit.

'If she wanted to kill me, I'd be dead already.' He thought, creating a current that pushed his raft forward.

"You know, it's rude to ignore someone." She said as she flew in front of Michael's face. "My elders always say that being rude will get you nowhere in this world. My name is Sylphy, nice to meet you!"

Michael frowned and looked at his makeshift compass to check his route. Sylphy, meanwhile, looked at his staff, trying to understand why there was a metal stick in a wooden rectangle.

"I don't agree. Sometimes a couple of rude words are just what's needed to get the ball rolling."

The Spirit's eyes widened comically and she excitedly flew up to Michael, almost food for happiness.

"Don't you think I'm a hallucination! You're the first person who didn't start yelling 'Go away Demon!' as soon as you saw me!"

Suddenly, understanding hit Michael like a truck. The Spirit in front of him was too happy to see the man in her territory, too glad to talk to him once she knew of his existence. She spoke much more clearly than other spirits and did not irritate him in the same way that many others did.

'She is a young spirit. That explains why she isn't an asshole yet.'

The fact that she was young also explained why she still hadn't tried to kill him. Few of the young creatures could hear the voice of the world, even if that voice shouted the order to get rid of intruder.

With a new understanding, Michael decided not to judge as quickly as he used to and try to talk to Sylphy.

"I don't think many people are used to seeing Spirits, especially when they don't expect it."

She nodded sagely and rubbed her chin, which had grown a large beard made of clouds.

"You say wise things, my new friend. Where are you going? I don't think many people travel the spirit world with their bodies just like that."

Michael wanted to ask how exactly she knew he wasn't there as a Spirit, but quickly realized it was a stupid question. Without his body, he would not be able to use Waterbending.

"Well… Some silver condom named Gotl decided to drag me here and feed my emotions to the lake, whatever that means. I couldn't return the way I came, so I decided to get to the Northern Spirit Portal leading to the human world."

The girl looked at him with a strange expression and nodded slowly.

"Right… Two questions: did you kill that annoying bastard, and what's the Northen Spirit Portal? Is this one of those cracks the elder was talking about? If you want one, you can just stop on that island over there. The one on the North is closed I hear." Here the Spirit pointed to the Northwest. "I don't know where this portal leads, but it's quite warm even in winter. At least that's what the elder says."

Michael's brain stopped working for the second time in a day, but this time he was able to recover much faster than before and decided to ask questions rather than ignore the problem.

"Cracks? I only saw one and it was destroyed as soon as I went through it. It didn't even look like a crack." He muttered. "Are you telling me there's more? And how do you even know that the portal in the North is closed?"

Michael checked his memories, but couldn't remember anything about the closed portal. He knew that the portal existed, and having no other choice, he decided to head towards it. Sighing heavily, he steered the raft in the direction that Sylphy had shown, wondering where exactly the portal was leading.

"You have a lot of questions, don't you?" She smirked, but turned serious in the next second. "The elder found records of portals when these cracks started to appear everywhere. It was said that the Avatar closed the North Portal to separate the Spirit World from the Human World, but no one remembers why. Spirits can travel through these cracks without problems, but if people pass through them, then they close immediately."

Michael silently thanked Loki for the fact that he was lucky enough to meet a Spirit that doesn't say nonsense in every word. In his eyes, most of the Spirits were arrogant pseudo-sages, and the rest were just a pain in the ass. Seeing with his own eyes that this was not true was very pleasant, even if unexpected.

"Have these cracks always existed? Why does no one know about them?"

Sylphy tilted her head and her cloudy hair became slightly darker. Michael assumed it had something to do with her thoughts and emotions, but didn't think much about it.

"Well… Not many people know about these passages. Some Spirits can create them for their own purposes, but most of these cracks started to appear about half a year ago on their own."

Michael blinked at that.

"Half a year? What happened half a year ago to… Oh."

The teen looked down at his scarred hand and frowned. About half a year ago, he appeared in this world, he was not sure that this event was the cause of the cracks, but so far this was the most logical explanation.

That was bad news. Michael had no idea where to look for the World Gate, but he already had obstacles in the form of these cracks. Even if these Gates look like real gates, the appearance of possible passages around the world promised only problems.

"You haven't answered my questions." Sylphy reminded, waving her hand in front of his face. "Are you still here?"

Michael shook his head to get rid of unnecessary thoughts and adjusted the mast/staff to sail towards the island that his new acquaintance pointed out.

"No, I didn't kill him, at least I think so. And the Northen Spirit Portal is a passage between our worlds, but permanent."

Sylphy snapped her fingers and her face brightened.

"A-ha! I remembered what it is! The elder told me that this passage was closed about ten thousand years ago!"

As soon as Michael heard this, he felt his brain explode with pain. He saw with his own eyes how the first Avatar closed the Portal to separate the world of Spirits and humans, he saw the consequences of the existence of Vaatu and couldn't say that he liked what he saw.

Destroyed lands, war, deaths on both sides, corruption that pushed everyone to self-destruction.

He was able to get out of his own mind only when Sylphy started shaking him like a ragdoll, the Spirit looked at him with worry, but Michael couldn't understand what she was saying, his ears were ringing like never before.

Michael decided to think over his plans to steal the Vaatu in a little more detail… maybe he doesn't need a twenty thousand year old Spirit in his body after all…

"You good? I've never had such troublesome friends like you before." Sylphy shook her head and helped Michael to his feet. He didn't even notice when he fell to his knees.

Deciding to sort out the mess in his head later, Michael grabbed his staff so as not to fall again and turned around to look at the Spirit.

"I'm fine, it's just that this world doesn't like me. Can you show me that crack you were talking about?" Michael chuckled, thinking how ambiguous his words sounded.

Sylphy perked up and took his hands in hers, smiling as widely as she could.

"Sure! You'll even meet our elder! She's very funny when she's not trying to be scarier than a storm." She shuddered. "Anyway, to the crack we go!"

Michael just nodded in understanding and swam in the direction that Sylphy showed. Suddenly, it seemed to hit him and he began to giggle. These giggles quickly became hysterical laughter that startled the young Spirit. Sylphy looked at him like he was crazy and raised an eyebrow in a silent question, to which Michael muttered only one thing:

"Crack… like an ass crack."

Sylphy didn't find it funny.