"Okay Sifu Toph. I'm ready to start my earthbending training!" Korra shouted excitedly. Toph let out a deep sigh as she made her way to the training grounds in the underground bunker below the palace. Rien followed her wearing his normal training garb, a green sleeveless shirt accompanied by brown shorts and a large leather belt. Toph on the other hand was wearing a full length shirt and pants under her tunic, hiding her scarred skin. Once they were at the large metal doors, Toph stepped forward then put her hand on the raised lock, metalbending the tumblers inside to their open positions. Once the lock was fully opened, the doors began to wind back into the walls.
"Whoa..." Korra awed, watching the walls disappear. Toph took a deep breath then walked into the bunker. Rien followed her before stopping, taking a bending stance. With one fluid motion he stomped his foot to the ground while bringing his working arm upward, bending hundreds of crystals up from the earth.
"Cool! When are you going to teach me that?" Korra exclaimed. Hearing her Rien looked towards her then chuckled.
"Oh, you were serious." He said, leaving Korra with a puzzled look. He shook his head and headed to the oldest part of the training area. Korra watched him before turning her gaze towards Toph, who smiled.
"Come on Korra. And take your shoes off, you won't be needing them." She instructed before heading down the same path Rien had just disappeared down. Korra looked down at her shoes then quickly followed her.
When Toph stopped, Korra stopped seeing blocks of earth scatted around, a large boulder embedded in one of the walls, numerous perches and a pair of earthen walls. This wasn't at all what she had expected. Earthbending was just bending rocks out of the ground, so why did they need all this stuff. Toph turned to face her putting her hands on her hips.
"Shoes off, come on." She said pointing at Korra's feet. Korra sat down and quickly began to unstrap her leather boots. Once they were unstrapped she pulled them off and set them aside and stood up. Toph smiled and moved one of her hands down tapping her heal to the ground, bending the boots into the ground. Korra jumped back a little surprised then looked at her master.
"What was that for?" She asked. Toph bent a large block of earth up at waist height in front of Korra.
"You won't be needing them until you can bend them from the ground." Toph explained. "Rien! Put the weights down and come demonstrate the first exorcize please."
Hearing his mother's calls Rien walked over, holding a metal weight then looked at her. "Which one we doing?" Toph picked up a contraption that looked like a pair of handcuffs that, instead of being held together by a length of chain, had a metal rod between the two cuffs.
"We need to toughen her hands, so we're starting with the chopper drill." She said then tossed the cuffs at Rien, who quickly dropped the weight in his hand to catch them. The weight on the other hand fell to land right on the tanned girl's bare foot. Korra bit her lip feeling her foot crushed by the metal, then cried out in pain. She bent down and pushed the weight from her foot before grabbing the throbbing limb and bouncing on the other.
"Ow! Ow ow ow!" She yelped. Toph sighed rubbing her face with her hands. This was going to be longer than she thought. Rien watched her running his hand through his raven-colored hair then went over to Korra.
"Korra, sit down and take a deep breath. The pain goes away if you just calm down." He assured, pushing the younger girl down to sit on the block of earth that his mother had bent up just a little while before. Korra sat and slowly bent a small amount of water from the air, just as her aunt Katara had shown her years before and formed it around her hand placing it over her injured foot. The water began to glow a brilliant blue as she eased the pain surging with each beat of her heart. Toph bent herself a stool and sat down crossing her legs. She understood the pain the young Avatar was experiencing. Rien, having only one functioning arm, was always lifting weights to keep it strong, and he was fond of twenty pound weights at the moment.
Once the pain died down Korra took a deep breath and let the water around her hand and foot drop to the ground before getting up. 'Seeing' this Toph stood up and shifted her heal across the ground, bending her stool back even with the floor. She could tell by the distribution of Korra's weight between the two feet that her hurt foot was still bothering her greatly, she was putting very little of her weight on it.
"Sifu Toph... can we start tomorrow maybe?" She whispered, but Toph's well developed hearing picked up the question. Rien also caught it and looked towards his mother, knowing she wasn't one for being a 'pansy' as she always put it.
Instead, she did something that Rien never expected.
"Go rest that foot Korra" Toph said, pointing her hand towards the already bruising foot. "To be an earthbender you must have a strong root to the earth, the connection is everything. I can see that because of the injury your connection has become weakened." She explained then smiled.
"You have already shown that you will make a great earthbender. You are stubborn and brunt, and are ready to take things on head on. Tomorrow, we will put those traits to the test." She said then went over and helped Korra hobble to the entrance of the training area. Rien stared in disbelief as they left. His mother had never, NEVER, stop a training session because of a minor injury, let alone before any work was even done. Every time he had sustained an injury, even the time he had broken his hand, she had moved on to a drill that did not affect the injured area.
'Suck it up. Pain makes you stronger.' She had told him. But now she was helping Korra out just fifteen minutes after they had gotten there, comforting her even. The idea of it just struck him as odd.
Once back above the surface, Toph led Korra to the courtyard where Miki was. Korra smiled and limped over to the airbender, who was meditating under the apple tree, before plopping herself beside her. Miki cracked her left eye open to glance at the person bothering her before closing it again continuing to focus solely on her breathing. Korra watched her for a minute, before waving a hand in front of Miki's face trying to get her attention. Miki's nose scrunched up in frustration trying to ignore her, but as the movement continued she opened her eyes and glared at the Water Tribe girl. Korra looked back at her, confused.
"What?"
"Couldn't you tell that I was doing something?" Miki snapped. Korra was taken aback. Miki had never yelled at her before. "Aren't you supposed to be learning earthbending with mom?"
"Rien dropped a weight on my foot so your mom said we'd start tomorrow." Korra explained, showing Miki her foot, which was just a little swollen but dark blue in color. Miki's gray eyes moved to the foot then back at Korra.
"Okay, well I am trying to meditate. So could you find something else to do until I'm done?" Miki asked. But instead of getting up to leave Korra smirked.
"Come on airhead, lighten up" She said then bent a large stream of water from the fountain and sent it at Miki. Miki slid out from under the tree, water dripping from her clothing.
"You want a bending battle Korra, I'll give you a bending battle!" Miki shouted then got up sending a spiral of air at the waterbender before wringing the water from her dark brown hair. Korra rolled away from the mini tornado and bent water from the fountain. Miki took a bending stance, waiting for Korra to make a move. She was not very good at distance combat. Her dad had sent scouts to every one of the air temples to collect scrolls on airbending, and each one focused on being near your enemy.
Smiling, Korra took advantage of Miki's weakness and sent the water at her, bending the tentacle like form to grab Miki's leg and lift her into the air. Miki yelled in surprise finding herself upside-down in the air.
"Put me down! Korra this isn't funny put me down!" She commanded, getting a nearby guards attention. Korra smiled and bent the stream so that Miki was over the pond then followed the orders, letting the water fall naturally into the pond, Miki along with it.
"What is going on in here?"
Korra quickly turned to see Fire Lord Zuko standing at the entrance of the courtyard, opened her mouth to answer just as a blast of air knocked her face first into the grass. Zuko looked from where she was on the ground to see Miki, sopping wet, standing over her. The thin and lightweight clothing she wore for comfort might have been baggy when dry, but now they were skin tight and visibly transparent.
Korra lifted her head, spitting out a tuft of grass from her mouth before moving to look at what had hit her. Miki crossed her arms smirking down at her friend, completely unaware of her wardrobe malfunction. On the other hand, Korra noticed and burst out into laughter. Miki's look of triumph turned into one of confusion before her cheeks flushed bright red as she looked down at herself. The guard who had seen the girls fighting quickly ran over to the princess and held out a towel. Miki snatched it and wrapped it around herself, bright red from embarrassment.
"We were just playing Fire Lord Zuko." Korra explained as she began to stop giggling. Zuko looked from Korra to Miki, who looked away then headed inside without saying anything. Korra watched her then looked down, realizing how much her actions had hurt her friend. Sitting up, she looked at Zuko then down.
"It may be best not to make her hate you Korra, she's the only airbender left in the world. And you will need to learn from her when the time comes." Zuko said, going over to her. Korra thought over what he had just said, then looked up at him.
"Fire Lord Zuko, if you are a firebender and Sifu Toph is an earthbender, then..." She paused to take a deep breath before finishing her question. "How did you two... uh... make an airbender?"
The question took Zuko by surprise. Of course he knew that one day he and Toph would be asked about this subject. But he was expecting the question would come from Miki herself, and he wasn't ready to answer. He took a small breath and looked at Korra.
"It's a long and complicated story Korra. And its one that is not ready to be told."
Author's Note: Sorry that it took so long to update. School has been a nightmare lately. Please leave reviews and constructive critism. Every little bit helps. Since my last story was really serious, I am trying to add flares of humor to this one. Hope you like.