บท 12: Chapter 12
"And why did you come after me, Katara?" I asked the girl who emerged from behind the trees.
"I... You know, we're currently traveling with Aang and Sokka to the North Pole. There, we want to learn waterbending. But... we unexpectedly met you, and you showed that you're very skilled with this bending. I'm a waterbender too, and Aang needs to learn the elements in the order of Air-Water-Earth-Fire. It's water's turn now. Could you teach us waterbending? Or at least show us a few lessons that you were taught?" she asked, initially a bit shyly but then relaxing.
"No. I can't."
I replied within a couple of seconds, causing her to be a bit taken aback, expecting a different answer.
"What? But why? It wouldn't cost you anything. Or do you want something in return?" she asked.
"No. The latter is interesting, of course, considering you can't offer me anything interesting since you have nothing, but the problem is elsewhere. Nobody taught me. My brother and I developed our waterbending skills on our own from a young age. Only, my brother died because of the Fire Nation warriors, and I went further, first avenging by killing all the attackers, and then those who killed my family and all dear to me. After that, I continued to develop on my own, surviving alone, using waterbending. Katara, if you want to progress, want to achieve new heights in waterbending, you just have to do it. Don't look for someone to tell and show everything, but independently find approaches, make mistakes and learn from them to avoid repeating them."
"On my own? But you managed to do it somehow. I understand what you're saying, but wouldn't it be better and faster with a teacher? Please."
I looked at her and thought, do I need this? No, absolutely not. It offers me no benefit, and teaching the Avatar would surely bring a heap of problems. Why would I need that? No.
"No. My answer is no, Katara. And don't push it, or I'll show you how waterbending can help get rid of overly persistent individuals."
"I see. Sorry. Do you mind if I sit here? It's not like I can approach Aang right now anyway."
"No. Sit down."
I continued to focus on the fire, occasionally stirring to add a few more twigs. Katara watched me, but it seemed utterly bewildering to her, as I didn't move at all and just sat in one position hour after hour, doing absolutely nothing but staring into the flames of the fire.
"What are you doing?" she eventually couldn't resist asking me, as the sun began to set. A couple more hours and it would be time to head back to the village.
"Meditating on fire."
"Why?" she asked, puzzled.
"To learn firebending."
"What? But you're not the Avatar. How can you learn firebending as a waterbender? Everyone knows that..."
"Everyone only knows what nobody has done, except for the Avatar. I was born to a woman whose ancestors lived in the Southern Water Tribe. However, besides waterbending, I've also managed to master earthbending."
"No. That's impossible! Only the Avatar..."
Without saying anything, I punched the ground, and the patch of earth where I was sitting rose by thirty centimeters. This immediately silenced Katara.
But not for long.
"How?"
"Circumstances forced me. I had to choose, either become an earthbender too, or be burned alive in a stone cage above lava, where I was held for almost a year without food and allowed only two sips of water a day. If you want to live, learn to adapt."
"You were in prison? But for what?" she asked me.
"It doesn't matter, Katara. It's irrelevant now why. I escaped, killed all the prison staff on my way out, and got free. I don't want to remember those times. They weren't the most pleasant, you know."
Katara didn't say another word, and I quietly continued to meditate on the fire until the evening. When I opened my eyes again, I noticed Katara's absence, stood up, extinguished the fire with sand, and headed back to the village.
Finding the training hall where the Kyoshi warriors trained wasn't hard. The rhythmic sounds of kata execution were coming from there, quite loudly, so I headed straight there.
In the doorway, I noticed Sokka peeping through the window at the training.
"What are you peeking at, strongest warrior of the tribe? Or have the hormones kicked in, and you've started peeking at girls due to instincts?" I loudly inquired, quietly approaching from behind.
"Aaaaa! Why are you sneaking up!? Do you have any idea how much you scared me!?" he started to express his emotions but then... "I mean, be careful, I almost hit you!"
"Got it. I'll remember to knock you out with a hit to the head next time I approach from behind. Thanks for letting me know."
Sokka was taken aback for a moment, but I walked past him and entered. The girls heard our conversation and now were not training but listening attentively to every word.
"Hello, girls. I was told I could come here in the evening to spar with one of you. The sun is setting, and here I am."
My behavior was a mix of mockery and politeness. After leading a gang that controlled a small town for a year and a half, I somehow really liked to communicate with people mostly in this manner. You could call it a style, or something of the sort. My personal conversational and behavioral style.
One of the girls stepped forward.
"My name is Suki*, I'm the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors. And I'll be your sparring partner. If you're ready, we can start. Will you be using weapons?" she asked.
"Actually, I don't really need weapons. If the enemy is at a distance, I can reach them with bending; if close, then with hands and feet. So, I suggest we have a hand-to-hand combat, Suki."
"Okay. Start when you're ready."
No need to invite me twice.
After taking three steps forward, I threw my hand forward. Suki caught the hand in a grip, but I bent my knees and squatted, pulling the hand towards me, twisting it in the direction of the thumb of the leading hand of the opponent. Freeing my hand, I struck her shin with my foot, but she jumped back a bit. I rolled over my back and got up in a stance, barely missing her face, but Suki leaned her torso back and kicked me in the face, balancing on one leg.
Our fight was almost even. I clearly had a slight advantage in physical parameters over her, while bending made my body more flexible and fast, so in this aspect, I was successfully surpassing the warrior.
However, she was a far greater master and excellently compensated for the lack of characteristics with excellent technique. I almost had no technique. Well, I had something. A sort of Wushu, slightly modified for water control and movement. This mixed with acrobatics, unnatural movements, and displacements for a human in space
... all this allowed me to hold my own against Suki without using bending for a very long time...
Until I finally got caught in a single sweep and fell, after which the warrior's fist stopped a centimeter from my nose.
"Marvelous! I'm impressed! Honestly! That was incredible, Suki!" a smile never left my face, even though we were now in a rather interesting position where she was sitting on me, leaned in close, and only her fist near my face indicated that there had been, sort of, a fight.
Suki paused and looked around then back at the smiling me and after that jumped off me.
"You fought well. What's your name? I still don't know it."
"You can call me Joe. But really, my name is Freo."
"Alright, Freo, you can come here again and I'll be your sparring partner again if none of the other Kyoshi Warriors wants to."
Suki told me this without turning towards me, so I didn't get up from the floor and watched her in the same lying position.
"Wonderful. Then I'll come tomorrow morning and we'll repeat the fight. Let's see how many more times I have to lose to you before I start to win properly. Alright, I'm off. If you're looking for me, I'll be somewhere on the shore."
Standing up, I headed towards the exit, passed Sokka who had watched everything that happened, and pleased with the fight, I went to the beach.
Meanwhile, the other Kyoshi Warriors stood in the hall and looked at a blushing Suki, but nobody laughed, they just smiled and nothing more.
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