A Stone's Throw Away

Bumi surveyed the field and thought. Then he chose.

He levitated a chunk of rock above the ground with his Earthbending, and with a mighty heave he hurled it across the plain. He brought his wrist back slightly. The chunk stopped in midair, then crunched into the ground.

"You call that a move, old man?"

He looked across at his opponent. "You have yet to better, baby face!"

Toph laughed. She considered-then nonchalantly flicked her wrist. A chunk of rock popped up off the ground. With a roundhouse kick she sent it flying. After a moment she stopped its flight, and it too obediently crunched into place.

Bumi nodded. "Not bad."

"Think you can do better, Wrinkles?"

"You'll just have to see, won't you, Cheeky?" With that, he hurled another rock.

On the ridge above, Katara looked on, dubious. "I don't know if this is such a good idea."

"Aw, come on, Katara!" Aang shrugged. "It's just a little fun."

"I don't know..."

"Besides, I get to watch two master Earthbenders at work, study their technique. I just might learn something."

"Yeah. Learn something." Sokka nodded. "You see, Katara, this is educational."

"Yeah, educational… right down to the trash talking?"

"Come on, Katara, you know how they were at Earth Rumble Six-this isn't that much worse."

"No, but I should have invented potty training—just for you!" yelled Bumi.

Katara glared.

Aang laughed nervously. "Okay, maybe it is a little worse."

The rocks continued to fly—along with the insults. Both opponents were pretty jovial. Aang continued to watch the Earthbending and where the rocks were landing, Sokka wrote down a few original insults he heard (for later use), and Katara alternated between rolling her eyes and glaring, sometimes doing both. But then…

"Uh-oh…"

Sokka looked at Aang. "What?"

Aang smiled. "I think Toph missed something."

"She did? Where?"

Toph flung another rock. Bumi answered quickly. Aang winced a little. "Oooo, that didn't help."

"What?"

Aang pointed. "Right there. She shouldn't have done that. And if she doesn't—"

Another rock of Toph's flew. "Oh, I see now." Sokka grimaced. "Oof. She's not gonna be happy."

"No."

"Are we up high enough, you think?"

Another rock whizzed by. "What do you think?"

Toph flung another rock. Bumi readied another throw—but Toph raised her hands. "Wait! I want to change my move!"

"I'm sorry, there are no take-backsies in this game."

"Aw, come on, please?"

Katara elbowed Aang. "Write down the date. That's the first time I've heard Toph say 'please' about anything." Aang laughed.

"Well…" Bumi considered. "Okay. Just this once."

"Thanks. You're pretty nice-for an old man." Toph lifted a rock from one place on the field, then hovered it over to a new spot.

"Why, thank you. And just for that…" Bumi lifted a rock ever so gently, and sent it in a graceful arc to its place. The disc landed with a gentle plop. "And that's the game."

"*What?* I-you—uhhhh!"

Aang tried not to chuckle. He knew he didn't know anywhere near as much about pai sho as Bumi did, but as the heavy carved disks fell into place one by one, even he could sense the endgame coming.

"Wanna play again?" Bumi asked. "You play pretty well-for someone in diapers."

Toph growled. She lunged.

An Earthbending current rumbled across the field, and a hole opened up under Bumi—who fell in. "Hoooooooo-hoo-hooooo!"

He replied from below with a current of his own-and an Earth wave slapped at Toph. She cleaved it in two, and started hurling rocks at Bumi, game pieces and all, with a fierce smile on her face. Bumi started doing the same thing, laughing and snorting.

Aang backed away from the ledge. "Uh, guys… much as this is very educational…"

Katara nodded. "I couldn't agree more."

They moved back-then came back to drag Sokka away from the edge, who was howling, laughing, and all but drooling and foaming at the game-which by now had turned from a stately, formal game of pai sho into an Earthbending version of Whack-a-Badgermole.