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Post by airnomad on Nov 9, 2008 15:54:28 GMT -5
While he unloaded the storm of emotions that had been brewing in him over the past few days, Aang could clearly see Toph's expression growing more and more soured. It seemed like she was getting just as upset with him as he was with her, and despite the training of the monks of the Air Temples, Aang had to admit that it felt good to share his frustrations. It might not have been spiritually or karmacally correct, but it didn't matter at the moment. He needed to stand his ground this time.
He was barely a few stomping footsteps away, however, when he heard the sound of rock and dirt scraping against one another, coupled with a grunt of exertion.
On instinct the Avatar stopped hard on his next step, dropping all his weight onto that front foot while sinking his hips low to root his center of balance. He curled up his hands toward his chest, clenching his fists while he pushed back with that front foot and began to turn around.
I that instant everything seemed to simply fall into place. His stance, his technique, and even his mentality were all just how they needed to be. In one fluid motion Aang made a 180° turn, planted his feet, and thrust both fists out in a twin arrow punch, shouting a guttural sound to enhance the flow of chi.
The chunk of rock that Toph had hurled at him practically exploded in midair into a cloud of dust and tiny pebbles. The cloud hovered in place for several moments before settling back down, and Aang held still in that posture.
His breathing was deep but steady, and the look in his eyes was both one of anger, but was gradually giving way to the realization of what had just happened. Aang almost felt like he'd just lapsed into the Avatar state, only he remembered everything that he'd just done, and he didn't quite the surge of power that usually accompanied that spiritual phenomenon.
"Did I just... earthbend?" he slowly asked out loud, though he mostly spoke to himself. He straightened up a bit and glanced down at his hands, then over at Toph, as if to confirm that that had just really happened.
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Post by blindgirl on Nov 9, 2008 16:12:42 GMT -5
There was no satisfying crunch of airbender guts on the ground nor was there a woosh of air indicating that the boy had dodged. She was a little confused as she felt rocks clunk as they hit the ground. Her eyes were open and they blinked a few times focusing on nothing really but her mind was trying to figure out what just happened. Well, she knew what happened but the question was how it happened, I mean, it wasn't seconds ago that the airbender wasn't even able to feel the vibrations in the ground.
She was stunned, a little shocked, honestly she'd never really taught anyone before, did this mean she didn't fail as a teacher, I mean, it was one thing to do, another to teach, she was the worlds greatest bender in her own opinion but it didn't mean she'd be able to teach a fish to breath water.
" Yeah you did twinkle toes...." Toph breathed a little surprised herself, but then again, she had said it, worlds greatest earthbender, why couldn't she work miracles?! It only made sense after all! Twelve year old blind bending prodigy teaching the avatar to earthbend. Some middle aged lonely men couldn't possibly have written a better story!
" Yeah you did!" She exclaimed again somewhat excited this time, she was a success, she could do anything, she should never have had any doubt in herself but she wouldn't let him get away with just that, now that the flood gates were open they'd need to work at it some more.
With her hands on her hips and a wide grin on her face she felt her ego inflate, of course the little slip of childish excitement would be his reward for finally getting it into his head but now they could get serious, no more wasting time with drills, if anything this was better, he knew the stances and the form, all he needed was to add the rocks and get the grasp of feeling his new element out. " Now we can get down to some serious training."
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Post by airnomad on Nov 11, 2008 22:38:57 GMT -5
A sense of mirthful pride began to swell inside the young Avatar as Toph seemed to congratulate his accomplishment with a bit of excitement herself. Just a moment ago Aang had been furious with her and almost ready to resort to violence, but seeing her confident grin he suddenly began to question whether she knew what she was doing all along.
It was terribly clever of her if that were the case; manipulating him into getting so mad that he was forced to resort to more direct methods of confrontation. But he had been so sure that her anger was genuine too! Then again... did it really matter now?
Aang didn't allow those doubts and bitter feelings to stay for long. This was a moment of triumph, regardless of how close he was to having a throw-down with his earthbending teacher, and for the sake of progress he would assume that it was Toph's plan all along.
A wide smile spread across the air nomad's face, and in a moment of pure jubilation he crouched down and then jumped up high in the air, punching his fist above him.
"Yeah!" he shouted, pulling up an air current beneath him to carry him even higher. Surges of wind filled the voluminous folds of his clothing and they inflated like parachutes, keeping him suspended for a good few seconds. He came down lightly enough and then turned towards his teacher.
"Thank you, Sifu Toph!" he said, bowing quickly before running off toward the river.
"Hey, Sokka! Katara! Look what I can do!"
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Post by meatandsarcasm on Nov 12, 2008 22:06:10 GMT -5
"Hey Sokka... I'm sorry about your fish."
Sokka made a dismissive wave towards her, “Ah, don’t worry about it. There’s plenty more fish in the sea…river…y’know what I mean.”
Besides that, Sokka would rather catch his own fish. Fishing was, after all, a man’s job…not that Sokka seemed to have many other jobs at the moment. With Toph training Aang, that was all he really had to occupy his time. No more planning was needed for the moment, and that was pretty much his job otherwise. A leader couldn’t exactly lead when there was nowhere to go. Until Aang had learned some Earthbending, he just needed to kick back and…
"Hey, Sokka! Katara! Look what I can do!"
That was fast. Turning around, he saw Aang fast approaching and raised an eyebrow.
“You threw a rock?” Sokka guessed, unable to stop himself from making a deadpan remark.
Granted, there was a lot more to it than that, but that was, effectively what Earthbenders did. They threw rocks. Big ones. At people. With their minds. Okay, yeah, he was totally jealous.
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Post by aratak on Nov 14, 2008 20:56:18 GMT -5
Katara let out a sigh of frustration as the large fish got away, but didn't drift too far. It seemed to be waiting for one of them to make another mistake.
"Yeah...Just be careful about where you put your feet." She warned "These ones are hungry..." She said, showing off a badly bleeding foot to her brother. It was unlikely she'd even be able to walk with such an injury. If Katara wasn't an expert healer, and right next to a water source, she would have been in trouble.
"Hey Sokka! Katara! Look what I can do!" The Airbender shouted.
"Hehe! Thats great, Aang!" She told him cheerfully, Standing up so that she could run over to greet him. Katara of course tried standing up with her bad foot, as she temporarily forgot about the pain in her excitement for Aang. "W-Woah...Waaah!" She mumbled, as she started off shaky, and things only got worse. Her footing on the smooth stone was inevitably slipping. Before Katara knew it, her foot came up in front of her, and she slid back on the wet rock and landed into the water, going underneath. The blood from her foot colored the river a sickly pink, and traveled down the current. Katara herself was a strong swimmer, and even if she hadn't been, well...Lets face it, she's Katara. She was down there for a worrysome amount of time though. Thirty seconds went by...forty five... But as she resurfaced, Katara seemed to still be in a good mood, and started to laugh heavily at her own clumseyness. "And here I was, thinking I was a master of the water." She chuckled, as she pulled up the fish from earlier, attached to a makeshift ice spear. She was happy that they could finally leave this place with food, but even more pleased that Toph's training had been a success. It was then that she remembered the fish, and got the hell out of the water as promptly as she could.
"Bleh, stupid fish" She said, tossing the dead meat next to her brother. The fish was easily large enough to feed them all for three solid meals. Katara remembered her foot, quickly healing it. Slipping and falling back was hilarious, but falling back onto the rock still hurt. Katara tried to ignore it, and just be happy"Aang!" She called, standing back up. Attempt number two went well, as she ran over to greet him.
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Post by airnomad on Nov 23, 2008 18:24:15 GMT -5
Aang slid along the sloping ground near the water's edge until he came to a stop, still grinning from ear to ear. "You bet I did," he responded to Sokka's sarcastic quip, not phased at all by the attempt to slow down his enthusiasm. "You should've seen it! It was like-" and at that point he turned around and rapidly scanned the area. His eyes settled on a chunk of rock jutting from the ground a short ways off, and with a strong punching motion he blasted the top half right off.
The young Avatar felt invincible with this new power, and the strength he'd found in the process of unleashing it. He looked back toward Katara and smiled at her as well as she approached him. "I guess Toph did know what she was doing after all," he said, perhaps hoping that would be enough to smooth out the hard feelings that the waterbender was bearing toward their new travelling companion.
Learning to earthbend was only the first step on this new leg of their journey, however. In the days ahead, Aang knew that there were even more hurdles to overcome.
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