First ep
Making his way down the dusty dirt path towards the village, Kezai tries to calm his nerves. His first Agniki tournament is today. He is only entered into the Amateur division but he still feels the excitement of completion. This is what he has trained for the past 3 years when he found out what exactly an Agniki Tournament was. He is worried about not doing well. It wouldn't be a surprise; after all he never had a formal teacher. The only instruction he had was from a book that he "borrowed" from a store. His stances never seemed to look like the pictures, and his fire bending techniques were only ones that he heard about or made up in his head while he was training in the small canyon 2 miles from his aunt Casmi's house. Her words from this morning at breakfast still rang in his ears "I don't like you doing all this fighting stuff, there's a reason why most people abandoned those bending moves after the 100 years war. They're dangerous and this isn't something an 18 year-old boy should be doing."
Shacking the words from his head he knows she is just worried about him and he also knows that this is what he wants to do with his life. He has known this since he stumbled across a professional level tournament and he saw a fire bender beat a water bender in the final fight. The way that they moved and held themselves, full of confidence and power, made him want to know everything there was to know about Agniki. He found out that the name Agniki comes from an ancient fire nation duel where the two opponents fought for honor or for vengeance. Now the name means a competition between all benders from every nation just to see whose best. And now the whole tournament is non-lethal but the injury rate is pretty high.
As he quickly walks into the town of Pei Guy he wonders if he is wearing the right clothes. He only wore things he saw people wearing in the book.
He wore traditional fire boots with pointed toes. Loose fitting flowing brown pants with shin wraps to keep them from being burned. And a red vest with gold trim also with forearm and hand wraps. And he only carries a small bag with lunch and more cloth wraps. His brown hair is cut short and slightly longer in the front.
This tournament is relatively small and only has 8 contenders 3 other fire, 3 earth, and 1 water bender. He is a no body but one earth bender is expected to win easily. His name is Bront. He can only hope that he doesn't get matched up with him early. He could really use the money. The prize of the tourney is 100 copper pieces and a place in the next tourney, but the top two go on.
He reads the assignment board and his first opponent is an earth bender named Darcho.
And he is to go on after the first bout, Bront Vs. a water bender. Kezai is excited to see his first real Agniki. But as usual he is running late and only manages to catch the end of the fight, Bront throwing the water bender out of the ring by lifting a slab under her and lifting sharply.
After the first bout is over Kezai finds himself on the left bench on the side of the stadium. On his right the earth bender Darcho is warming up on the other bench. He is a big guy probably early twenties and from the looks of things fairly experienced, and greatly contrasts Kezai's average size and lost puppy look. Not really knowing what else to do he prepares himself by re wrapping his hands and arms, and warming up with a series of stretches and poses that he learned from the book. He can tell he looks like he doesn't know what he's doing. Because some of the girls in the stands are smiling a little bit too widely.
The stadium is a square table of rock raised and surrounded by a mote of water. With 4 poles that hold torches on the tops at all 4 corners. The Referee and the two support benders who make sure that none of the bending is fatal are waiting at the center of the ring. Kezai and his opponent are called to the center and are explained the rules. "No bending can be lethal and some one wins when their opponent is knocked out of the ring or can no longer continue, are we clear?"
"Yes" says Kezai
Darcho just bows not letting his eyes stray from Kezai and both contenders taker their places at opposite ends of the stadium.
The referee signals start and Darcho launches 3 pieces of rock at Kezai. He fire kicks the first and dodges the second and third with a sloppy roll, going only on instincts. He knows he needs to get into close range to stop the projectiles, at least that's what the book said. He launches two fire balls that will enclose on Darcho to distract him. Darcho pulls up a rock shield (blinding him) while Kezai covers the ground quickly then a round house fire kick destroys the rock shied. Darcho moves back and kicks up a rock between himself and Kezai then punches it forward forcing Kezai back. Punching through the giant rock Kezai sees two more coming at him one headed strait for his knees and one for his head. Kezai decides to take the path of least likely resistance and ducks and sweeps the lower rock away with a fire kick then jumps and continues his rotation sending a large flame out toward his opponent in a crescent shape. Darcho bends up a two foot wide pillar of earth in front of him cutting the flame in half. Kezai then runs and sends a leaping fire punch aimed at the pillar also getting in close to Darcho. The pillar falls to the left and Kezai ends up in front of his enemy. Darcho tries to send two rocks at Kezai from both sides but Kezai ducks and does a sweeping fire kick. Darcho jumps to avoid the attack and before he can land Kezai delivers a powerful fire uppercut that knocks Darcho out of the ring. The referee signals the end and holds Kezai's hand up. He is excited about the win but something is nagging at the back of his head. Do all fights last that long? That was pretty quick wasn't it? Maybe he just got lucky. Maybe the other guy just isn't that good. He assumes that he was just lucky, he didn't really know what to expect, maybe that was it.
Because there are only 8 people he is already in the semifinals and he looks to see who his next opponent is. It's a fire bender from a town not too far from here. He's never heard the name. He also sees that Bront has to face another earth bender named Demas.
He fights first after lunch. So he finds a shady area near a food store and pulls out his meager lunch. He eats the lunch he packed of bread and some platypus-bear meat. Then he buys a cold fruity drink that is too sweet for his taste and decides to just go with water.
Then he mentally prepares himself for his next fight. Not really knowing how to do that he just concentrates on some of the forms from the book. He whishes he brought it now, but then again how inexperienced would he look reading an Agniki book between fights, its probably best to maintain his already poor façade of an experienced fighter.
As he enters the stadium for the second time he gets his first look at his next opponent. The fire bender is tall, thin, and has long hair dressed in only shorts and sandals. The crowd seems excited; apparently the stranger was very good in his last fight vs. another fire bender. Not good news for Kezai. His stomach turns and he thanks himself for not packing a bigger lunch. Now he can only hope this is over soon and not too humiliating.
The referee says the rules and signals the start. This time Kezai's opponent attacks quickly with a series of punches and kicks that are very well aimed. He can block almost all of the attacks but one hits him in the shoulder. Not a bad injury but enough to through him off balance. The long haired kid is on him faster than he can react and punches him almost off of the arena but he catches himself on the edge of the stone wall that holds the mote. His opponent tries another series of attacks focusing on punches from a distance. Kezai notices that his opponent is swinging rather wildly while the aim is good his defense seems to lack. Kezai kicks water from the mote to stop the attacks then jumps onto the left side of the stadium. His attacker swings a wild high kick and Kezai catches it. Then he sends the tall kid flying with a fire kick to the stomach. He manages to get up before Kezai gets there and sends a fire ball at him but it is weak and Kezai easily blocks it. Kezai notices that his opponent is limping, and he knows that he needs to use that to his advantage. Now the kid isn't as fast as Kezai and "projectiles are good against slow moving targets" says the book. Kezai sends two of the biggest fireballs he ever bended at the kid with a wild two punch combo. His opponent just falls and rolls but sends a fire kick back with his good leg, n attack that Kezai didn't see coming, he barely had time to jump over it and it gives the long haired kid time to get up. Kezai goes on the attack and aims a kick high and slightly to the right. As expected his opponent goes to the left and meets one of Kezai's fireballs on his way. Kezai decides to get in close and go for the win by sending ground attacks aimed to throw him off balance the tall kid jumps and lands on his bad foot then falls over and grunts in pain.
Kezai lands on top of him and holds his hand up with fire ball ready. The referee calls an end. And Kezai is pronounced the winner. Now knowing that his first win wasn't just luck he feels more confident. This kid was good but he was better now he is excited about the final match. "Come on Bront lets see what you can do. No… let's see what I can do."
At the announcement board Kezai is surprised to find that Bront was defeated by an unknown earth bender named Demas. He is kind of disappointed he wanted to test himself on an esteemed opponent, try and make a name for himself. He has never seen Demas fight before and has no idea what to expect. "This could be bad" Kezai mumbles under his breath, his mood now just as low as it was before.
But one good thing is now no matter what he is advancing on to the next round. He reads the board and sees that he has about an hour and a half to rest and prepare for the final match. "Better go and do something productive" he says, but sarcasm probably isn't the way to go right now.
He waits on the bench and sees his opponent on the opposite side. Demas is a stout tan guy that has a strong jaw and a black goatee to match his short cut black hair. He is only wearing white shorts and a tan short sleeve shirt that has a cut in the neck at the front about 2 inches long, and no shoes. He is not much shorter than Kezai but way wider.
"Here it goes." Kezai says walking up the stairs to the stadium.
The fight is called and the two contenders step in to the ring. Kezai's nerves are going wild and he feels the adrenalin pumping through him. In the moment had never had so much meaning to him before, but the feeling was like he had heard the crowd's cheers got quieter his body got lighter and his brain flashed thousands of thoughts through his head in a single moment visions of winning and defeat but the fight itself got skipped somehow. It's like his brain was telling him to not worry about the fight just concentrate on afterwards. After his tunnel vision faded and he was able to clear his mind of annoying unconscious thoughts he took in his surroundings. It's dark out now with an almost full moon the only light are the fires from the torches and the moon. The crowd is much larger than before and much louder. And the excitement only makes the butterflies more active. The referee moves to the center of the ring and points to both fighters. The crowd gets quite.
The calm before the storm Kezai thinks. So cliché but so true.
The ref. signals the start and Kezai decides to take a leaf out of his last opponent's book and sends a flurry of kicks and punches toward Demas the earth bender is ready and pulls up two rocks and forms them around his hands. A very advanced technique that he had only heard about, and now he's fighting against it. Demas blocks the fire attacks. Then Demas rushes Kezai and catches him of guard because Kezai was in the middle of advancing. The punch lands squarely on his elbow. The attack knocked him to his side and he rolls out of the way in time to dodge the second attack. He launches a sweeping kick abandoning fire attacks and manages to make Demas retreat. Demas bends up several squares of earth the size of Pai Sho boards and sends them sailing toward Kezai. He barely manages to evade them and is near the edge of the ring. He only has the ability to send a couple of attacks before he has to dodge the next barrage of earth and rock. He realizes that he needs to stop the long range attacks and try to get inside but he needs to make Demas come to him. He makes a couple of quick fire jabs to knock out the barrage of rocks. Then he launches into a series of attacks of his own with a couple of kicks followed by a sweeping flamethrower. He pulls away and launches two fireballs at his enemy face. Demas blocks with his "rock hands" and runs at Kezai. In the middle of a battle when you are pushing yourself to new limits time seems to slowdown and you can feel your body react without your mind telling it to. As he is bringing his hands back down he looks into the face of his opponent. It is utterly still no emotion and no exertion. In turn his own mind calms and he feels his body moving to the right and he feel the familiar warm sensation run up his right arm and into his hand. Then he feels his whole arm get warmer. At that moment time sped up but not to normal, to extra fast. Like somebody hit fast forward straight from pause. He barely felt the impact on his fist after so much training this was not surprising. But two things did surprise him. One his opponent was sent flying back halfway across the ring and two his whole hand and fore arm was on fire. He felt the ref. hold his hand up, the one that wasn't on fire. And he also felt bad for knocking Demas out. The feeling of accomplishment was overshadowed by the feeling of surprise.
There was a traditional feast after the tournament and all of the contenders, refs, and support benders are invited. For winning Kezai is supposed to sit beside the second place finisher and the host( the local wealthy merchant who funded the event) At the center of the table. Late like always he is one of the last people there. As Kezai sits down next to Demas and Kagi, the merchant, he finds that Demas is well, very well in fact is joking with another contender and Kagi. Demas greets him like an old friend.
"Hey that was a pretty good finishing attack, where did u learn it" shocked at the fact that Demas is so friendly he stutters "I..I don't really know I just saw you do the rock hand thing and it just kinda happened."
"Really" Demas says with a look of surprise" it took me months to perfect that. And my dad said that that was quick."
"I hadn't even thought about it until now. It just came out" Kezai admits.
Kagi at this point getting into the conversation says "yes, you took us all by surprise, until that punch you were playing all defense"
Kezai says "Yeah Demas is a very good bender I just got lucky"
"Luck is nothing but the combination of skill and opportunity" says Demas smiling.
"Thanks." Says Kezai, "But can I ask how you can be so friendly to an enemy" then whispers "I mean look at Bront he was supposed to win and you put him out, he has barely touched his food." Demas glances over at Bront who indeed was looking very disturbed to not be sitting at the middle of the table.
"Well" says Demas "my dad always taught me to think positive, so I'm just glad that I get to go on to the next competition"
"You have a good relationship with your father, don't you" says Kezai.
"Yes he's my father and my teacher, so I have to listen doubly to everything he says" Demas laughs.
Kagi decides to change the topic of conversation and asks "so when are you two leaving for Tougen"
"Where is that?" asks Kezai.
"Its on an island in the Fire nation" Says Demas "It's where the next stage of the tournament is being held" says Demas.
"I haven't even thought about that yet." Kezai says into his bowl of rice pudding.
"How far away is it?"
"It's about a days hike to the shore then a two day trip by boat. It's a long way from the earth kingdom to the fire nation." says Demas.
"I don't know why they still use those names for places anymore" Says Demas. "Everybody lives everywhere nowadays."
Kagi replies "I think it's just a habit now. So how will you two be getting there."
Kezai answers "I haven't even made plans, I didn't really expect to make it this far."
"Come with me" Says Demas "My father won't like me traveling alone anyways and we can train on the way."
"That sounds great" Kezai says surprised at himself. How can he be so trusting of a guy he just met?
"Awesome I'm leaving tomorrow at dawn."
"Why are you leaving so soon" asks Kezai
"Well, if we leave tomorrow then that gives us four days to get some practice in before the tournament."
"OK I'll meet you out side the village tomorrow at dawn" Says Kezai.
"Done" Says Demas.
The feast went very smoothly from there on and Kezai ate his fill and also got to know his new friend Demas. He left much heavier than he arrived not only the food but also the 100 copper pieces weighed him down.