Probending Round Four: Crossovers

Team: Ba Sing Se Badgermoles

Position: Earthbender

Task: An ATLA character teaches a LoK character something they never knew

Prompts:

Republic City (2 points)

Leaves (1 point)

Regret (2 points)

Word Count: 1192

Bolin walked down one of the side streets of Republic City. It was a lovely autumn day where the leaves were just turning orange and falling off to carpet the ground for the winter ahead. The air was crisp and gave a lovely peaceful atmosphere to the late afternoon; he turned right and headed towards one of the little known parks on a less frequented avenue. There was where he and Mako had gone for food when they were living on the streets because there was a lovely old lady who always brought the homeless kids food during winter, Bolin smiled at the memory and looked at all the kids practicing their Earthbending in the centre of the park. Most weren't very good, but he saw a few who would make good probenders.

He was about to go and help them with their stances (the kids knew him from the movers and probending matches they had snuck into) when all of a sudden he tripped and fell flat on his face when the earth unexpectedly came up and tripped him over. Grumbling to himself, Bolin pushed himself up and turned to tell off whichever child had pulled that trick on him, but his mouth clamped shut when she began speaking.

"You know, I honestly don't know what my granddaughter sees in you. I know I'm blind, but still." 'Looking' down at him, was the Toph Beifong, with her hands clasped behind her back.

"T-Toph!" Bolin began, but she raised a hand to cut him off.

"I followed you over here, and I gotta say it's a pretty decent spot, but I can't take Su's chatter about your face when you weren't able to Metalbend when she tried to teach you. So I'm going to teach you to shut her up. Ok?"

"You know, I don't think I'm really Earthbending materi-"

"Just shut up and listen, Blabbermouth."

"Yes ma'am."

"Take off your shoes." She commanded.

"What?"

"You can't see with shoes on. Take them off. Don't make me repeat myself, I'm already starting to regret this."

Bolin took off his shoes and relished in the feel of the earth between his toes, he had to hand it to Toph, she was right when she said shoes were torture to earthbenders. He had noticed that Lin and Su walked around with the metal soles of their shoes retracted most of the time, he had been meaning to try and take out the soles of his old pair of boots to try it sometime, but Mako had chucked them out when he went through on his annual cleaning of their apartment, so he was yet to decide which shoes to risk destroying. There was something about the direct contact of the earth beneath his feet that was comforting.

"Ok. So I figure that you will be able to Metalbend when you can see with your feet, that way you will be able to see the earth particles in the metal and manipulate them more easily, that's how I do it, Su does it differently when she trains them, by building up the purity of the metal, starting with meteors and working up to steel, she only tells you to focus on the earth inside it because that's what Lin and I kept telling her, she never really picked it up properly if you ask me."

"What about Lin?"

"She's not as good as me, but she was Metalbending before she could Earthbend, I think she just saw me doing it to entertain her when she was a baby and figured out a different method, to her, Earth and Metal are totally different, she actually had trouble learning to Earthbend, which is weird, but she picked it up faster than most kids. Now get in your horse stance. And close your eyes"

Bolin did as he was told and yelped when the elder bender shoved him, but remained still, opening his eyes when she instructed.

"Good. You can't be moved easily, this should be easy for you. When you lavabend, what do you think?"

"I don't really know, I guess I think of more liquid than earth, and extreme heat?"

"Do you focus on chunks of earth, or just random patches?"

Bolin thought for a moment,

"Well, if I plan it out, I can sort of figure out which area of earth will liquefy more easily, like this type of earth-" He bent a chunk out of the ground and held it in his left hand, "Is easier to make into lava than this sort." He finished, bending another chunk into his right hand. He knew he had said something good because Toph was nodding in approval.

"You could feel which type of rock is where underground, that's good and a lot of people can't do it at first. Close your eyes again, and try to focus on where I am."

Bolin closed his eyes and tried to figure out where she was, he could sort of feel the earth was heavier in one spot as she moved around.

"You're to my right."

"Good. How did you do that?"

"The earth was sort of more compressed where you are standing."

"Yes, you may not be such a sucky earthbender after all."

Bolin grinned at the praise but remained in his horse stance.

"Ok, now I'm going to bend a piece of earth, tell me where it is, it'll be underground, so you really have to focus."

The moment Toph started bending, he told her it was under his feet, she kept making the piece she bent smaller and smaller until he was telling her she was bending one grain of dirt to her left. She nodded again and handed him a piece of metal.

"I don't want you to bend this, just try to apply what you just did to the metal, find each particle of earth in the metal."

Bolin closed his eyes for a moment, all this work was giving him a headache, but he was determined to finish training with his hero, mostly out fear that if he ditched it now, she'd never do this again.

"Oohhh! I see them!"

"Now move them closer together."

He did as he was told and his eyes flew open when he heard a screeching noise, looking down, the piece of metal had condensed,

"Move them apart." The metal widened, he was starting to get the hang of things and he started making shapes out of the metal, a huge grin plastered onto his face.

"I did it! I can Metalbend! This is so cool!" Bolin yanked Toph into a hug, causing her to pout, but she didn't shove him away. "Thank you!"

"Well I couldn't have a such a pathetic excuse for a grandson-in-law."

"Regret teaching me now?"

"Not at all, now I know the trick to lavabending." Toph bent a piece of earth into her hand and Bolin watched in amazement as the top began to melt into lava.

"Don't just stand there gawking, we have to hurry if we want to get to the docks before the last ferry leaves. Hurry up!"

"Yes ma'am!"