Flameo, Hotmen! :D I'm back again and bringing you more stuff from "The Legend of Korra"! I'm not sure if you've seen it yet, but there's an official commercial trailer for the show, and this story is somewhat influenced by it. If you haven't seen the trailer yet, check it out! You'll be glad you did! Anyways, on with story! Enjoy and please review! :D
DISCLAIMER: I do not own "Avatar: The Last Airbender". The show and its characters belong to Mike and Bryan, the brillant geniuses behind one of the greatest cartoon shows in the history of cartoons. Their work is legendary, and I salute them for it. I also do not own "The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra" or any of the characters associated with it. I am merely a fanboy who is eagerly awaiting the return of one of the greatest shows ever created.
First Day of Airbending Training
When Tenzin had shown Korra what she'd be wearing for her Airbending training, the teenage Avatar angrily pouted and stubbornly crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I am not wearing that thing."
"Come now, Korra," chided Tenzin as he held up the article of clothing, "you should be honored to get the chance to wear these robes. These used to be my robes when I was your age; I trained in them all the time."
"Oh great," unenthusiastically groaned Korra as she rolled her eyes, "I get sweaty hand-me-downs for my Airbending training clothes." Spinning one finger in the air, she dryly added, "Whoop-di-doo for me."
One of Tenzin's arched eyebrows irritably twitched at Korra's sardonic statement, but the Master Airbender maintained his composure and merely sighed as he said, "Well, if that's how you feel about such an important piece of clothing, then I guess you came all this way for nothing."
Korra's eyes went wide with panic as Tenzin turned around, as if he were going to put the robes back in the closet. "Wait!" she cried out, holding out her hands as if she were going to physically stop him. Thankfully for her, Tenzin stopped and turned around to face her, eyebrow raised in curiosity. Swallowing her pride, Korra defeatedly sighed and hung her head and arms down. "If I wear it, will you train me?"
"Of course," nodded Tenzin. "It's important for you to train in the clothing associated with the element you're working with. Surely you did something similar in the South Pole when you trained with the Order of the White Lotus in the other elements?"
"Well, yeah," admitted Korra with a shrug as she looked up, "but the outfits I had for my Waterbending, Earthbending, and Firebending training were way cooler than-" Tenzin began to turn around again, as if he were still intent on putting away the robes. "No no no, don't go!" Bowing in an exaggerated manner, the young Avatar quickly said, "I'll wear it, I'll wear it! Please, Tenzin, just give me a chance!"
Tenzin considered Korra's words, knowing how far the Avatar had come just for this chance to finally complete her training and learn the element of her predecessor: his father, Avatar Aang. Deciding that there more important matters to take care of than bickering over the choice of training clothes, Tenzin decisively said, "Very well. If you agree to wear this, I will train you to be an Airbender." Korra came out of her bow and ecstatically nodded, agreeing to his terms without a moment's hesitation. Handing the robes to her, he walked past her and said, "My children and I will be waiting for you outside whenever you finished getting dressed."
Korra watched as the Master Airbender walked out of the door, closing it behind him to give her some privacy. Moving over towards the mirror, Korra held up the robes, pressing them against her chest in order to get an idea of what she'd look like with her training clothes on. Disappointedly sighing, she unhappily said, "I'm going to look so stupid in this thing." Looking up towards the ceiling, she huffily scowled and said, "I hope you're happy, Aang. Because of you, I've got to wear this ridiculous looking outfit." Much to her chagrin, she donned the red and orange Airbender robes, pulling them on over her normal clothes, slipping them onto her body like she would a parka from back home.
After slipping her arms through the sleeves and straightening out the crinkles in the fabric, Korra took time to somewhat admire herself in the mirror. The upper-half of the robe, the part that covered her shoulders and part of her chest, was a deep red, same as the cloth belt that held the whole outfit together, while the main part of the robe that came up to her collar and covered her chest, arms, and legs was a mango-like orange in color. She thought she looked so strange and utterly out-of-place wearing something that was such a contradiction to the attire of her frozen home, but there was still something about the robes that set her heart a-racing, as if the very fact she was wearing these robes was a prideful indication of how far she had come throughout her life as the Avatar.
Brightly smiling to herself and deciding that the robes weren't so bad after all, Korra made her way out of the building, slightly squinting as the morning sunlight struck her eyes. She was on the northern side of Air Temple Island: the ivory tower soared above her to her immediate right; the training courtyard with the spiritual symbol of Yin and Yang in the middle was just in front and to the slight right of her; and straight in front of her, about eighty to a hundred feet away, was the training area with the upright panels – which were arranged in a circular pattern of five wide and seven deep - where Tenzin and his children Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo were all waiting for her.
Jumping down from the ledge, choosing not to take the stairs on either side, Korra ran towards the Air Nomad family as fast as she could, her new attire fluttering as her feet pounded on the stone below. Ikki, of course, was the first to notice her coming. "Good morning, Korra!" the little girl cried out as Korra was within thirty feet of them, her siblings and father looking towards the newcomer as she approached.
"Morning, kiddo!" Korra cheerfully greeted back as she stopped in front of Tenzin, panting slightly to catch her breath. When her breathing returned to normal a few moments later, she bowed to Tenzin and respectfully said, "I'm ready for my first lesson, Sifu Tenzin."
"Good," nodded Tenzin as Korra came out of her bow, "because I can assure you that Airbending won't be as easy as you think it might be."
"She hasn't even started training yet, Dad," pointed out Jinora from Tenzin's left, standing between her father and two siblings. "She might be as good of an Airbender as Grandpa was."
"That has yet to be seen, Jinora," stated Tenzin as he looked down at his eldest child. "Your grandfather was a natural-born Airbender, whereas Korra was born in the Southern Water Tribe." Noticing that Meelo was pulling on one of Ikki's loose braids, eliciting a small cry of pain from the young girl, he chidingly exclaimed, "Meelo, stop pulling on Ikki's hair! You're hurting your sister!"
"Yes, Daddy," meekly said Meelo, letting go of his Ikki's hair, leaving his sister to tenderly rub at the ensuing soreness.
Tiredly sighing, Tenzin turned back to Korra, gaining his student's attention as he said, "Now, for your first lesson, we're not actually going to have you do any Airbending yet."
"Ah, are you serious?" complained Korra, staring at her teacher in disbelief as her shoulders slumped in crestfallen disappointment. "Then what am I doing today?"
"That," simply replied Tenzin, pointing towards the panels that were arranged behind Korra, all of which had the symbol of Airbending engraved in a cyan field in the middle of the panel.. As the Avatar looked back at the panels, Tenzin dropped his arm back underneath his crimson cloak and said, "As an Airbender, you must be quick and agile, even more so than you are now." As Korra looked back at him, he said, "What I'm going to have you do is dodge the panels as best you can without getting hit too much."
Korra blinked a few times, a confused and perplexed expression clear on her youthful face. "Umm…no offense, Tenzin," she slowly said, seeming very hesitant, "but those panels aren't moving at all."
"I believe I can fix that," replied Tenzin. With a flick of his wrist, a quick stream of air burst forth from his fingers, passing through the panels and causing them to spin at a medium speed.
"Oh, right," Korra dumbly chuckled, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. "Airbending, duh," she added as she slapped a hand to her forehead. "Shoulda figured." Looking back towards Tenzin, she jerked a thumb at the now-spinning panels and asked, "So all I gotta do is run through those panels without getting hit?"
"Precisely," firmly nodded Tenzin, folding his arms behind his back.
"Easy!" shouted Korra with glee, pumping a fist in the air. Spinning around to face the twirling panels, she proudly declared, "You better watch out, spinning panels, 'cause here comes Korra!" The Avatar sprinted forward, leaving Tenzin and his children behind as she rushed into the midst of the gyrating panels. At first, she ran in a straight line, trying to get a feel for the pattern of the panels' movements. Once she felt comfortable enough to move, she veered off to her left…
And got smacked in the face by a panel.
"Ack!" She stumbled backward only to be slammed in the back by another panel, starting a game of 'Whack-A-Korra' as the panels constantly juggled her back and forth as they hit her again and again and again without end, eliciting painful cries of "Oh!", "Ah!", "Of all the-", "Hey!", "Yow!", "Yeouch!".
Meelo was laughing his little head off beside Ikki, who was trying to contain her own mirthful giggles, as Jinora looked up at Tenzin and observantly said, "I don't think this is going well for Korra."
"It would appear that way," agreed Tenzin as Jinora looked back at Korra, who was being so mercilessly flailed about by the spinning panels that he felt a little guilty for the Avatar's misfortune. After all, that was his father's reincarnation being tossed about in that gauntlet, and it was a bit unnerving to watch, but Tenzin was determined to make his father proud of him by training Korra to be an Airbender.
After about five minutes of being battered around, Korra finally managed to get into an open space between the panels. "ALRIGHT!" she furiously screamed, her face searing hot with frustration and rage. "THAT'S IT! I'VE HAD IT!" She swiped at the spinning panels with her left fist, sending out a blazing arc of flames roaring out of her knuckles and blasting them against the panels as she screamed. Pulling her right fist back, she began punching fireballs at all the panels around her, still screaming her head off as the immediate area around her exploded into flames, sending some of the panels flying through the air, brutally charring and destroying the remaining panels, stopping them dead in their tracks.
Korra's feet were set wide apart as she stood in the midst of the destructive aftermath, her shoulders hunched and her face scrunched with exasperation as she held her fists down by her sides, her arms bent crookedly downwards as she roughly panted. Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo stared dumbfounded at Korra, while Tenzin was utterly shocked and aghast by what Korra had done, his sapphire eyes wide with astonishment.
Finally finding the ability to speak again, Tenzin appallingly said, "That was a two-thousand year old historical treasure!" His eyebrows raised upward at the last word he spoke, while Korra finally stopped panting and stood back up straight.
Realizing what she had done, Korra hung her head down slightly in shame as she said, "Woops."
"Woops?" exclaimed Tenzin in outrage, his entire head turning crimson with anger. "Woops? It took my father two months to excavate those panels from the Eastern Air Temple, bring them here to Air Temple Island, and install them, and after you destroy them in a matter of seconds all you can say is woops? Do you have any idea of the historical value you just destroyed?"
"Hey," defensively shouted Korra as she looked back up at Tenzin, "your 'historical value' was slapping me around like a ragdoll!" Throwing her arms up in the air, she exclaimed, "It was frustrating, alright? Cut me some slack, Sifu! This was my first time doing anything having to do with Airbending training, and I wasn't even Airbending!"
"ENOUGH!" bellowed Tenzin, storming over towards Korra. "You may not be an Air Nomad like I am, but you will respect everything my father did to make this place the way it is today!" Stopping in front of Korra, he glowered down at her and threateningly added, "You will learn to control your impatience and frustration, young lady, or otherwise I will not train you. Am I clear on what I'm saying, Korra?"
Korra scowled up at her teacher, trying to match the ferocity of his glower, but in the end she decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to tick off the only Airbending Master in the world. Dipping her chin down in submission, she closed her eyes and lowly mumbled, "Yes, Sifu Tenzin."
Tenzin stared at the young Avatar for a few moments, letting his presence linger over her before he firmly said, "We're done for the day." Korra looked up with surprise as Tenzin turned around and walked away, saying over his shoulder, "We'll continue training tomorrow. I suggest you think over what you've done today and ponder on how you can better yourself."
Ikki and Meelo hopped up into the air, conjuring up their Air Scooters and landing on them before they went racing around the courtyard as Tenzin continued to walk off, leaving Jinora alone with a disheartened Korra. Seeing the Avatar hold her head down and close her eyes with regret, Jinora walked up to the teenager and put a comforting hand on her arm, gently smiling as Korra opened his eyes and looked over at her. "Don't worry, Korra," supportively said Jinora, "you'll get Airbending eventually. My Grandpa had trouble with Earthbending when he first learned it from my great-aunt Toph."
"He did?" Korra asked with a perplexedly raised eyebrow.
"Yeah," nodded Jinora, still keeping a hand on Korra's arm. "Grandma said it was because Earth was his natural opposite, so he had a harder time learning it."
"But my natural opposite is Fire, not Air," retorted Korra, not seeing the young girl's point.
"It's different for every Avatar," explained Jinora. Amiably smiling, she added, "If you want, I could teach you some stances my Dad taught me when I first started Airbending."
Korra couldn't help but softly chuckle as she reached over and patted Jinora on the head, agreeably saying, "I'd like that, Jinora." With a bright smile, Jinora left Korra's side and made her way towards the middle of the training courtyard with Korra following close behind.
Looking up towards the peaceful sky, Korra mentally said, One way or another, I'm going to master Airbending. I'm going to make both Aang and Katara proud of me, no matter how long it takes. With that resolute thought in mind, Korra returned her attention to walking, smiling with eager anticipation for the continuation of her training tomorrow.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The reason why Jinora called Toph her great-aunt is because I feel that since Aang and Katara were such good friends with Toph, they'd consider her part of their family. While Sokka would be Jinora's biological great-uncle, Toph is more of an honorary great-aunt.