Shape up or ship out [GAang] <Wilderness, EK>

[blindgirl]

Rocks were rattling, birds were flying off in the distance away from the sound of the tiny blind girl screaming at the idiotic monk. Honestly being in Gaoling with the firenation invading had been quieter... On the flight away, Toph was distraught, that much was true but no one, not even Katara who'd attempted to comfort her was allowed near. So much went through her head making her physically sick. Her parents were in a town with the firenation, but seeing as they totally knocked their buts back to the curb they might leave. Worry still was there, worry for her family, it was a rare moment of tenderness for the girl. She clenched her sides to keep herself together crying and shouting curses that would make a sailor blush towards the occupants of the bison merely asking "whats wrong". She'd agreed to teach Aang earth bending once she'd calmed down, before falling asleep, she figured that if nothing else it'd give her a group to travel with for a while. But she let on that she didn't need any of them, because of course she didn't

That much should have been obvious.

The next morning Toph was back to her chipper self. running earth bending drills into the boys head from the momment they woke up till the moment they went to bed. Toph was no where near satisfied with the sub par progress he'd made. In fact through the days as they'd trained and traveled across the earth kingdom he seeed to be getting worse. As Toph so often shouted at him. " Step it up! Thats the poorest excuse for bending I've ever seen! It's a Pebble, how hard is it to bend a pebble?!"

She got right up in his ear. Her black ebony hair obscuring her face as she shouted at him once more. " My GRANDMA can bend better than you Twinkle toes!" Honestly she was surprised that the tension hadn't already broken, though Toph acted oblivious to it. The people in the group, especially the whiny water queen seemed on edge with the would be instructor, but they needed her, this was surely evident, who would be a better teacher for the avatar than the best earth bender in the world.

The rocky landscape they sat in had an out cropping of rock with sparse trees dotting the terrain, a small water source running near the camp where the bison floated in the water, no doubt sugar queen was over there, she wasn't keeping track of her though. " Put more force in your stance, your trying to move something that doesn't want to move, you gotta force it!" To illustrate Toph slammed her foot into the earth prompting a collum of rock to burst from the ground. Taking a step forward she punched the rock sending it yards away into the wall of the cliff face exploding into a bunch of peices upon impact.

[airnomad]

The last few days had been taking and increasing toll on the young Avatar's self-esteem. He had at first approached this new elemnt with optimism and excitement, but ever since it came time to actually attempt to move a rock Aang's spirits had been getting lower and lower. For reasons beyond his understanding, and despite his teacher's persistant... encouragement, he just couldn't do it.

Since that initial failure, in which Aang successfully managed to nudge a boulder ever so slightly as the cost of rocketing himself backward into ditch, Toph had switched his training more towards the conditioning that Earthbenders underwent to supplement their techniques. His legs were constantly sore from the horse-stances he was forced to hold for hours each day. His arms also ached from the various punching exercises where Toph had him thrusting his 'delicate lady fingers' into pits of gravel.

His only refuge came from Katara, who seemed to pick up the pieces of his shattered self-esteem after each session with Toph. The Water Tribe girl would intervene when things took a turn for the worse and help him master a few more waterbending techniques. His successes in this regard helped to rejuvinate his hopes that the next day would allow him to be just as successful with earthbending.

And now, on the latest day of their rapid travel across the southern mountain ranges of the Earth Kingdom, Aang found himself staring down a very irrate little girl who seemed to be losing her patience with him. He flinched a little when she stomped a column of rock up from the ground and then sent it shattering into the wall of the cliff beside them.

"I'm trying," Aang said, trying hard to keep his voice from sounding pleading. "I just can't... There has to be some other way we can do this." His inflection rose at the end, almost asking Toph to come up with another method of teaching, because he was not making any progress... aside from his collection of bruises and calloused toes.

[meatandsarcasm]

For the first time in what felt like months, Sokka had no plan, and not because he was stumped about something, but because he didn’t need to think of one for now. It felt kind of nice, actually, just having to worry bout gathering supplies as Toph attempted to train Aang in earthbending. His free time had been spent lounging around and watching the training sessions, wherein he learned that “attempting” was the key word to the whole affair. For once, Aang wasn’t a natural at something. His earthbending was simply abysmal, and Toph seemed to be beginning to lose her patience. Sokka had his own theory about why: earth and air were opposing elements, and therefore the least natural for Aang to learn, while waterbending had more of a connection to airbending and as such was easier. He didn’t bother mentioning this, though, as it wouldn’t solve much and it was Toph’s training, anyway. He was still overall leader, naturally, but the earthbending teaching was Toph’s department.

So, instead of helping there, he’d spent the last few hours fishing. He emerged from the bush with several fish in tow to find Toph once again berating Aang, who still couldn’t seem to earthbend his way out of a rice-paper cage.

“Still failing over there, Aang?” he called casually as he made his way over to the fire pit he had constructed earlier, not really expecting an answer.

[blindgirl]

Toph huffed putting her hands on her hips and letting the her shoulders slump a bit, she looked in the general direction of the boy, honestly she knew a lot more about the boy seeing that way she did as opposed to seeing the way she did. She could tell how his body was standing, she could see how he slumped and seemingly was giving up. How he was looking at her. All the subtleties that most people couldn't pick up. Sure she couldn't "see" bruises or the like but injuries would heal if you toughened up.

She let out a sigh her expression relaxing and seemingly she was done for today, giving him a bit of a reprieve. " Sure twinkle toes." She added her pet name for him just out of spite but from her honestly it was becoming a title of endearment. " We can look at it from another angle." Toph was curious how much time would need to pass before he'd get all happy and excited, it was the usual eb and flow she'd become accustomed to. The boy was so energetic she was surprised he didn't cough rainbows.

The "little blind girl" began to turn but instead her hands went out in a upward facing claws with her feet moving along the ground kicking at the earth forming two rock walls in a tent trapping him from the right and the left then her hands pushed down and jerked up closing off the two openings leaving only a partition in the top for air and light. " Bend your way out of that." She spat at him crossing her arms and tapping her foot on the earthen ground.

How was she supposed to teach someone so stupid that he couldn't bend a single boulder? Honestly it seemed impossible even for an earth bender as skilled as she was. " Yeah Aangy is failing as usual" She murmured to Sokka, well, if a murmer was a half shout. It was still training time and if he caught dinner then he should find something else to do, Appa was sleeping no doubt, they moved a lot at night napping in the saddle as they went somewhere Toph didn't care to find out about.

[aratak]

Nearby where Toph and Aang trained, Katara stood silently and didn't even seem to be paying much attention... though close in proximity, she was distanced when it came to the mind. Her stance was wide, with her arms draped lazily at her side... She seemed mesmerized as she stared up at a cloud that was hiding the sun for the moment. She was in a trance-like state, and she seemed to stumble back a bit as she got dizzy. The sun represented fire...it reminded her of the prince. Even two days after Zuko chased them out of Gaoling, Katara was still trying to take everything in.

It had been too close of an encounter...their escape had been sloppy, and she realized how close she came to losing both Sokka and Aang to Prince Zuko and that man he had been with. She seemed to sigh, though nonchalantly. A few minutes of thought passed through her, and the sun emerged, and blinded her. She turned away to avoid any damage to her eyes. Something caught her peripheral vision to her far left... She watched Sokka distantly, as he approached them. The combination of the sudden light, and the presence of her brother seemed to snap her out of the mindset that was distracting her from the rest of the group.

As this happened, the voices of her comrades became clearer. She was becoming more aware of her surroundings, and she focused her eyes on the struggling airbender. She sort of frowned as her friend tried hard, but was getting no where. Toph was being pretty hard on him, but she had good reason... Aang just wasn't getting it.

She watched as Toph sealed him in one of her tent-like structures, and she knew she had to intervene. "Toph, wait..." She spoke before making two snowballs materialize from a vast source of water vapor in the humid air. She gripped them in her hands, behind her back. A smirk began to emerge along her lips, but she tried to keep it concealed.

"He's not going to learn anything if you just seal him away in some rock dome...You've gotta test his reflexes....Like this!" She said, before she launched the snow at her unsuspecting brother first, and another at Toph herself.

[airnomad]

Aang's hands flinched up defensively when Top sudden began bending the earth around him. So far, his earthbending sifu's training methods had been rough, but never intentionally painful. He trusted that the earthen walls springing up around him weren't going to cause him harm, but Aang couldn't tell when his frustrating lack of success was going to push Toph to extremes.

"Hey!" the young Avatar exclaimed, l;ooking up at the narrow gap left at the top of the enclosure. He only barely heard Toph's challenge for him to end his way free, but he was hesitant to give it a try. So many failures had decreased his desire to even attempt to move the stone. Aang just wished Toph could stick with the conditioning training. As tiring as that was, at least it was something within his skill level. Maybe after enough punches into gravel or balancing on stone pillars things would just click?

The air nomad blew out a sigh and collected himself. This was just something he was have to keep trying. Aang looked over at the nearest wall of the tent andresigned himself to trying to earthbend his way out.

"Okay..." he said, and then dropped low into a horse stance. His knees were bent at 90° angles, his hands clenched into tight fists and tucked firmly at his sides. He raised one hand forward, index finger pointing while his other fingers curled up at the second knuckle, andf then punched out his other fist at the wall. He circled both hands out wide and straightened up a little bit before dropping down low with his feet close beneath him. Aang then thurst his hands up high over his head, putting all his focus into lifting the slab of earth free from its place.

Aang looked expectantly at his target element, but there didn't seem to be any reponse. After a moment, a few pebble-sized pieces of the wall dropped loose, but not much more. The young avatar slumped a little bit and then let out a sigh. On a whim he turned his attention upward and then fell back on his airbending. Aang jumped up high, propelling himself with a gust of air so that he could reach up and grab the edges of the opening atop the earth tent.

"What was the motion for moving the rock again?" he started to ask Toph after hoisting himself up over the edge.

[meatandsarcasm]

Sokka nodded sagely at Tophs reply and kept moving towards the campsite, looking none too worried about the situation. Aang would get the hang of things eventually. He was the Avatar after all. Therefore, of more concern than the avatar was the delicious meat that he was carrying. He’d started a fire before he left, in part to help dry any clothes he got wet while fishing, but mostly because when he was hungry, there was no time to waste on making a fire. He would have to gut and clean the fish first, though, so with this in mind, he sat down by the fire, still holding his catch, and reached for his knife…only to by smacked in the back of the head by a snowball.

It was with horror that he felt his precious food slip out of his hands upon the snowballs impact and go sailing through the air. Desperately, as though in slow motion, he reached out towards his prize, but too late. Before he could grab them, his entire catch had fallen into the fire. Letting out a girlish shriek of dismay, Sokka clutched his head in both hands, going straight into panic mode. Without thinking, he reached a hand out towards the fire only to pull it back with a yelp as he paid for his mistake. Blowing frantically on his wounded hand, he looked around desperately for something to put the fire out.

Grabbing a spare tent sheet, he tossed it over the fire only to leap back in surprise as it too caught fire. Falling to his knees in despair, he let out a melodramatic cry of anguish over his lost food.

“Oh no, it’s ruined!” he lamented. “My precious meat is ruined!”

[blindgirl]

She could feel her eyes roll at the girls stupidity. She had no idea of the world outside her silly little puddles, other elements weren't like her piddly little water balls If Aang was going to lean earth bending he'd need to learn it the way most people did, getting down dirty and beat up. Spirits know that she didn't have a walk in the park to learn what she knew. It was hard, harder considering she was blind and had to learn how the earth moved, how to read it before she could even move a pebble. Toph spat at the ground, debating telling her to bend that into her mouth and shut up but she crossed her arms acting as if she was listening. Her head pointed in the right direction for the voice and the vibrations that she estimated were the girl.

Toph felt her movements, no doubt bending and brought a wall up between herself and the annoying girl. She let out a sigh dropping the earth back to the ground after she heard a thud that was the projectile making contact with the stone. "Listen here Sugar queen." Toph strode up over to the girl, even though she was shorter than the girl she managed to point at her face seeming intimidating, well she was an earthbender and the scrapes and dirt did help somewhat.

" That might work for the sissy elements but rock is tough and you've gotta be tough to command it." After she was finished barking at the girl Toph strode away taking care to sense the brat should she try something else. Her focus was on the rock tent she made around Aang. Her hand pressed against the stone making the slabs move together, the airholes smaller so that he would stay inside. He needed to not see with his eyes as much as his other senses. Honestly, blindfold the obnoxious water witch and she wouldn't be able to bend at all, let alone defend herself.

"sit in there and meditate, your a monk, you should be good at that, try and feel the rock, ya gotta be tough like it." She sighed and looked over towards the noise she recognized as Sokka. It seemed that tonight dinner would be foraged foods again since he failed so miserably at cooking.

It didn't take any time at all for toph to bend herself a couple boulders for a chair and another to act as a foot rest. Which once her feet were on she wiggled her dirty toes letting out a sigh. "This is gonna be one long day."

[aratak]

Katara watched, intrigued by her brother's fumble of the would-be meal. She cringed a little bit and looked away as he hit the ground, but her amusement only grew by the second as he started screaming about the lost meal. "Sorry Sokka..." She said, with a giggle. Her voice didn't sound like it was an accident, but more of "oops, I didn't realize the chain of events would unfold like that".

As she threw the second snowball, Toph blocked it masterfully, as expected. Then again, with the warning she had given them, even "twinkle toes" Aang would have been detected flying on one of his spinning balls of air. Toph is a blind earth bender, after all...a snowball without warning would likely catch her off guard if it contained no rocks...Thats precisely why Katara warned the young blind girl of the incoming frozen surprise.

Katara began to open her mouth, in an argument about how Toph wouldn't have been able to block it without a warning, due to the girl only using an estimate of where Katara's feet were in relation to the water-bender's voice. The wall Toph used was big enough to stop anything from that general direction, as opposed to being precise and all-knowing of the tiny snowball that opposed it. This argument was to be interrupted though, as Toph made a hasty advance toward Katara.

"Listen here Sugar Queen" She said to her. Katara just rolled her eyes, not that Toph would be able to see that. "Okay, Footsore Princess... " She growled back. She did back up slightly, though, as Toph pointed an aggressive finger at her. Toph went on and on about about how water was a sissy element, and how earth was an element for the strong. Obviously this annoyed Katara.

"Yeah, you just go on thinking you're so great. I'm gonna go for a swim..." she said. though as she walked away, she looked back at Toph, and it bothered her. Just the whole idea of Toph bothered her... Sealing Aang up in her little fortress, and expecting him to immediately understand. Its not like Toph understood anything aside from earthbending...It had to be hard for the kid to learn an element that directly opposes what comes natural for him.

She couldn't let the little wild child win their little dispute about earth and water either...

She grinned a sly, mischievous grin...But Katara didn't stop walking away. She didn't want Toph to think she wasn't doing exactly what she said she would be... Silently, she formed another ball of snow, but this time, she didn't throw it. She watched, as it flew up into the air, under her control of course. It wasn't ice, or anything hard. Just pure, water snow. The soft fluffy kind, that makes the best snowballs. She wasn't aiming to harm her. Just wake her up from her ego trip... Toph was just sitting there on her chair... Like the Queen of the world. As opposed to going in a straight line, the frozen orb took a curved pattern... It took a lot of concentration to do it while walking away. But it was fully nessicary. She wanted the snow to come from the side where Katara wasn't. Finally, she managed to get it about ten feet behind Toph. "Checkmate..." She whispered, as the velocity of the snow picked up, as it traveled mercilessly toward Toph's pretty little face.

"Hmm, might as well replace his fish...he worked hard..." She thought to herself. She didn't bother to watch for the result, instead leaving as she said she would.

-Ooooh, the nerve of her...- She thought to herself. She began to run, after she was far enough away. Her facial expression indicated much displeasure... her long sleeves were curled up to her elbows, as her arms draped down, fists clenched. Her once soft and gentle hands were curled up, tense with veins visible on the backs of them. She stomped off, growling the whole way. Her mouth was curled into quite the snarl, and her nose was bunched up to compliment it. Don't even get me started about her normally-docile eyes, that now looked like they were about to fly out of her head and eat the next person she saw... They were narrow, locked in place on her destination. Katara was pretty scary to say the least. No one was really ...safe... from her wrath.

A crow made an obnoxious noise at the angry teenager, and she turned to glare at it, before launching an airborne tsunami from the river at the entire tree. The crow casually flew away, squawking and calling for it's friends. Three more of the charcoal-colored birds followed, after shaking out their feathers and making similar noises. "Stupid birds..." She muttered, as she kicked her boots off one by one, and approached the rapidly moving water source. Katara sat down, slouched, on a boulder that was hanging over the river. As she put both hands on her cheeks and yawned, she kicked the cold, rushing water below her. She seemed to be slightly calmer now that she had peace and quiet... her muscles relaxed, and she just layed back and continued to kick the water, making it splash.

[airnomad]

Aang frowned at Katara's attempts to bend at Toph. He figured that Katara was just trying to look out for him, but this didn't seem like the best way to go about doing it. Provoking Toph could only lead to more conflict, and he really didn't want that.

"Hey! Wait-a-second-!" the young Avatar tried to say when he suddenly felt the stone around him begin to contract. He was begrudgingly forced to let go of the stone and fall back into the earth tent or else risk being crushed. After a few moments of trying to orient himself in the darkness of the tent, he could pick out Toph's instructions from the other side to begin meditating.

Aang sighed heavily once more. She kept relegating him to simpler and simpler tasks. It was a little degrading to the air nomad whose natural talent alone had been enough to carry him through the first two elements he'd learned. Even his attempts at firebending went better than this, even if things did get out of hand... But at the very least, Aang was confident that he could do what was asked of him this time.

He sat down in what he assumed was the center of the earth tent and folded his legs over each other. He rested his hands in his lap, fists touching at the knuckles, straightened his posture and breathed deeply.

"Ooommmmmmmmmm...." he chanted as his mantra, that single resonating syllable bringing the chaos of his thoughts into order.

He cleared his mind and tried to visualize the world as Toph must see it. Vision was useless here, and even his ears were hampered by his enclosure. Smell was still functioning, but there was limited information to be gathered from the uniform scent of unsettled dust. In order to truly 'see,' he would need to rely on Touch. That one sense that would allow him to incorporate his earthbending and see the world in a whole new way.

"Oooommmmmmmm.... Aang continued to hum, reaching notes as deep as his tiny diaphragm would allow. Aang maintained that pattern for several long minutes, trying to let the answers come to him while he allowed his mind to relax and simply feel whatever his senses could tell him.

[blindgirl]

She was attempting to relax, she could feel the avatar well enough to know he was attempting to do as he was told. But it was bothering her, he was meditating like some little monk or priest. What was he hoping to accomplish that way? Honestly!

Toph slammed her foot into the ground somewhat forcefully not pleased with Aang's meditating. She stood up with a gruff exhalation of air and rolled her sightless eyes in irritation, hardly noticing as the snowball collided with the rock of her makeshift chair. She grumbled and placed her hands side by side before forcefully pulling them apart and the rock wall she created with it. " How are you supposed to connect with the earth when your heads in the clouds!" Her girly yet gruff voice nearly cracked when she shouted at him and had to hold herself back from throwing a rock into his face.

" Feet on the ground." Her first command and then she thought about Katara and how sissy girl thought she knew best, yeah? Well she could be all sugary flowers and gumdrops dancing in rainbows too. Her arms crossed and her blind eyes stared in front of her, an approximation of where Aang stood based on his vibrations. " Up." She commanded again knowing he would be as chipper and whiny as he always was, at least the wind was predictable, it would always blow, it may change directions but it would always breeze through in the same manner.

With a could steps she stomped up to Aang placing her hand on his shoulder, it was a touch higher than where hers would be, he was taller than her, a fact she found annoying and amusing at the same time. She loved knocking guys bigger than she was down a couple feet. " Earth is an element that doesn't bend easy so you gotta be tougher than the rocks got it?" The advice was her best attempt at being reasonable, it wasn't something she did well. Her face tilted upward a bit, black hair hanging in her line of vision obscuring other people from seeing her clearly.

" Get it?" Toph queried hoping for spirits sake that he would have an appifiny and save her the time, once he could move something, anything she'd be able to really train him. Teaching someone who couldn't move a pebble was like beating a dead ostrich horse, as gratifying as it wouldbe it got you no where.

[airnomad]

Aang started to feel the rumble of the earth beneath him, and for just a moment he dared to hope that he was connecting with this new element. All these days of painful training had paid off!

But then the walls of the stone tent around him shrank back into the ground and he realized that it was just Toph bending. He cracked open one eye against the sudden brightness and looked over at the approaching girl. Almost immediately his tranquil atmosphere of meditation and solitude was replaced by a very irrate bending instructor who seemed bent on reducing his self-esteem to rubble.

Aang slowly got to his feet, only to have Toph push him around by the shoulder, and at first he started to feel down on himself. Just when he thought he might have started to find some manner of progress, she had knocked him back to square one. It was depressing, but strangely there was something else brewing inside the young Avatar.

Anger.

Aang's expression began to harden as Toph repeated the same litany of advice that she'd been saying for the past three days. She was right up in his face, and even her lack of respect for his personal space was adding to his anger. But when she stopped talking, the air nomad clenched his fists and took a step toward her, using his minimal height advantage to look down at her.

"Look!" he said harshly, lifting a finger to point directly at her face,"I've been trying as hard as I can! You keep saying the same thing, over and over. Be rock-like! Blah-blah-blah! I get what you're saying but I just can't do it."

At that point Aang turned away and began pacing side to side in front of her, speaking very quickly and with exhasperation.

"I'm doing the training, I know the stances... My legs hurt. My fingers are nearly broken. I'm covered in dirt! And I don't have anything to look forward to except more of your gems of advice!"

Aang turned once more toward Toph and pointed at her accusingly.

"So until you can come up with a better way to teach me wearthbending, I Quit! I'll defeat the Fire Lord with the other three elemnts, and if you don't like it then..." Aang's face screwed up for a moment in thought as he tried to pose some ultimatum for Toph, but nothing intimidating or tough-sounding immediately came to mind. Instead he simply stammered slightly and finished by sticking his tongue out at Toph and storming away.

[blindgirl]

Toph sighed, the idiot didn't get a word she said did he? It was like talking to a wall, a metal wall, rock walls could communicate with her, he was metal, or wood, or something stupid like that. He was dense and stupid and, did he just get up in my face?

The blind girl blinked feeling the close proximity that Aang had to her, he felt angry, she could feel it coming off him in waves, she was somewhat surprised, she didn't think little twinkle toes could do anything like that. She set herself in a glare looking straight ahead of her at what she would assume was his face but it was only his neck.

So now HE was telling HER what was what? Her face pulled into a frown and she was just about to knock his hand away from her but he began talking and she decided it would be a better idea to punch him, knocking his hand away was too leiniant. He was tossing her kindness back into her face! what did prissy pants know about earth bending anyway?! Toph was doing it her way and getting more results that HER WAY was.

Her teeth all but ground themselves together, he was gonna get it, he was gonna get it big time. He was only making it worse when he began moving around her like one of her pretentious teachers at home lecturing her on this and that like she was some stupid little blind girl! It was surprising she didn't boil over sooner that she did. He had his face in her hand again and then he walked away. She frowned looking after him. Her temper testing itself.

Would someone be eaten by a spirit monster if they gave the Avatar a few good knocks on the head? She doubted it.

Her feet slid apart on the dirt and she hefted a large boulder out of the ground. She didn't speak, she didn't say a word, she was beyond that, they DRAGGED her out here and BEGGED her to teach the avatar and he wasn't even a very good student! He was ignorant and incompetent, perhaps all around retarded. Boy did the spirits know how to pick them. A small growl escaped from her mouth and she hefted the large object towards Aang, he could use his little bendy tricks to get himself out of the way.

She just wanted to put a little fear of god in him. What the hell else could he possibly do?

[meatandsarcasm]

Sokka soon gave up on trying to rescue his fish from the fire, and instead resolve to just head back to the river and catch a few more. How hard could it be? He was, after all, a strong manly man, and they were wimpy little fish. Besides, he would much rather be trying to catch fish than sit there listening to Aang and Toph have their little quarrels. Honestly, the kid needed to toughen up. The Firelord wasn’t going to give him a pat on the back for trying his best. He felt bad about it, since Aang was just a goofy kid who happened to be the Avatar, but that was the way it was. The bending training wasn’t his department anyway, so it would probably be best if he just stayed out of it.

Fishing rod in hand, he headed towards the river. As he cleared the last of the bush and found himself on the bank, he heard a small splashing off to his right. She didn’t look like she was in a good mood either. What as with everyone today? Still, Sokka couldn’t help but grimace in concern. His sister was normally the perky optimistic one and he was the sarcastic grumbley one. He didn’t like seeing her like that. Even when he did do his usual sibling thing, it was all in good fun and understanding. With a sigh, he walked over towards her. Sitting down on a rock next to hers, though not quite as big, he cast his already baited line into the stream.

“Sup,” he said casually, looking lazily out at the river.

He let the silence hang for a few moments, reeling in his line just slightly. He glanced at his sister, then back at the river.

“Not used to our terrific trio turning into a fearsome foursome yet?”

[aratak]

Aang's voice was barely audible from down the hill where Katara was sitting, but the fact that she could still hear him from that distance emphasized just how unhappy he was. Katara just let out a deep breath, and thought about the waves below her feet. Currently, she had her mind set on not interfering with Toph's teaching methods... not for the young earth-bender's sake, but for her own... Katara had already told Toph how she needed to approach Aang if she was going to get through to him. Toph clearly hadn't hadn't caught on right, judging by the tone of the airbender's voice... Katara honestly couldn't hear what he was saying with any sort of clarity, just that he sounded like he was giving up. That, and the fact that the two of them felt a sort of connection with each other... Their emotions tended to rub off on each other, so Katara was beginning to feel that Aang's current feelings were her own fault. She was so regretful, and felt so stupid for having a temper tantrum in front of him like that. As for Toph... well, Katara pretty much just wanted to avoid the girl until Aang was done learning; which might take a while, she had to admit.

A couple minutes went by, and she decided that most of the bad energy was her fault. Perhaps the group would be more content if they actually had dinner for the night; and since Katara was pretty much at fault for losing Sokka's fish, she felt obligated to do the fishing. Little did she know that she was currently the prey, as opposed to the predator. It happened quickly. "Ouch!" she suddenly yelped, as a fairly large fresh water carnivore chomped down on her foot. The fish was a bright orange color, with red and primarily yellow fins and tail. It looked almost like a Piranha fish, but it was way too big, and unlike those little scavengers, it appeared to be alone. She quickly pulled up her leg, with a fish attached to a now-bleeding foot. "Ugh...Hi, dinner..." She growled to it, kicking the massive fish off sucessfully with the other foot and catching it in a water 'basket".

Sokka managed to get pretty close to his sister before she noticed him, and he seemed to startle her. Katara thought she was alone, so his arrival broke her concentration. As she glanced over and noticed her brother's hairy legs, she dropped the fish and he hopped back into the river, seemingly swimming against the current to try to get away. "Hey Sokka... I'm sorry about your fish." she said, not looking up at him. Instead, she tried to pull the fish out of the water with her bending.

"Just one sec, okay?" She muttered.