It had been several days since my encounter with the air nomad and his weird survey. I hadn't seen him around the academy, and was starting to believe that he might've took my opinion and ran off with it. I decided that it was best to just let it go. Getting my hopes up that someone might actually stop pushing spirits on me was dangerous. Nobody cared.
My hair was in its usual braid and I was wearing traditional water tribe clothing; a long, dark blue and short sleeved dress with a slit that started at the knee to expose my legs. Underneath I had tight dark blue sweltering heat of the Earth Kingdom didn't allow any room for parkas. My boots were standard training boots, nothing fancy.
I sat down at the dinner table in the eating quarters and kept to myself. My head held low, I was certain nobody wanted to really talk to me. My meal plan for the day was some sort of noodle dish, the academy's idea of "water tribe" food. I knew it wasn't, because my mom was an expert at making real water tribe food even if we didn't live in the tribes itself. What was with schools and their bad food? Where did their money go?
"What, not your fancy?"
I jerked my head up sharply. In front of me stood Kavi, dressed in his traditional dark orange and yellow robes. Today he had styled it precisely to show off some of his broad shoulders and allow some breathing room for his skin. Understandable. "I…" I began, watching him take a seat across from me. Was this some sort of joke? I looked around and the rest of the students eating around me were busying themselves like nothing had happened out of the ordinary. I mean, really? I hadn't seen Kavi in days and all of a sudden he decides to appear - literally - out of nowhere?
"It's okay. I'm not the food supervisor." He teased lightly, folding his hands in front of him.
I smiled. "Yeah. What's up? Do you need something?"
"Actually, no. My duty is over but I need to stay here for a few more days."
"Then what? Back to the temples?"
Kavi pressed his lips together tightly, and it dawned on me that maybe he didn't want me to know. I could only assume that's where he was going to go once he was done here. Air nomads lived at home, and that was that. Only their senior masters really traveled to meet in the other nations.
"Sorry," I said quickly and honestly. "I didn't mean to pry."
He rested his blue gaze on me thoughtfully. "It's alright. I know you don't meet many air nomads."
I wanted to tell him that, yeah, most people don't. But I did. In a way, I was almost related to them. Or my mom was, sort of. Either way, I did meet quite a few air nomads. I was close friends with Avatar Aang's youngest grandchild, Rohan, who took on a big brother/fatherly role to me even though he was young. I think, now, he was probably twenty-six years old. Some of my earliest memories of him were of him teasing me with airbending. I left him when I was 15, and hadn't seen him in four years. That made me a bit homesick and sad. We got along great.
I couldn't say that to Kavi, though. "Yeah, too bad you guys don't come to the academy," my voice was think with sarcasm. "It's a blast!"
He smiled (and I was right! His teeth were pearly white!), reaching up to scratch his shaved head. "I like the temples. I come from the Southern Air Temple, actually. It's nicer there….better air. It's too dry here." His nose crinkled.
"You're right. An earthbender's dream." I agreed quickly. "The academy is full of them."
"Earthbenders have a harder time connecting to their element because of its…hardness. They prefer brute strength. Like you."
"Are you saying I should be an earthbender?"
"Not exactly. You have a lot of those qualities. Waterbenders are usually more flexible and everchanging, not hard."
Now it was my turn to crinkle my nose. My smile was tight and I said, after a moment of silence, "I'm not a waterbender."
Kavi stared at me, dumbfounded. I guess he just assumed from my clothing and my position at the academy. But I took chi-blocking, not waterbending.
"Interesting. I could swear.." he trailed off, squinting at me. Well, not at me. But around me. Like I was fuzzy or hard to read.
I cleared my throat to get his attention. "It's alright. One of my moms is a non-bender. I must've caught it from her. No shame in being a non-bender, right?" My tone was flippant, but something told me Kavi wasn't buying my attitude.
"I suppose." he said quietly, turning to look out the eating quarter's large window.
I didn't know what else to say to him, so I changed the topic. "Is your survey done?"
"Oh, yes. I got many student opinions." When I didn't say anything, he continued. "I think the academy has an ordinary, expected view on spirits and the spirit world. After all, the spirit portal in Republic City is relatively new. Just almost thirty years old. People still haven't really adjusted."
"After all this time?" I scoffed. "They need to get a reality check. That spirit portal isn't going anywhere and spirits are important, too."
Kavi smiled. "I thought you didn't like the spirits, Takanni?"
"I don't." I defended myself quickly. "I just.. I'm uncomfortable around them, and I shouldn't be forced to actually go into the Spirit World if I don't want to. But they are important, and the portal is too. I think people should have choices."
"Nobody is being forced to go into the Spirit World," Kavi said darkly.
"Here they are. Seishin makes it a mandatory trip. Which is what I'm saying, people need choices."
"Well, did Republic City have a choice?"
"What?"
"A portal just opened itself in their city and they couldn't do anything about it." He pointed out.
I blanched at that. That was different. Avatar Korra had been saving Republic City and a spirit portal emerged by accident. It wasn't like spirits were living in the city anymore. At least, I didn't think so. I started to get a headache over thinking on where I stood in the conversation. I didn't like spirits, I didn't want them walking around town, but I didn't want people protesting against something so permanent like a portal.
I huffed, and Kavi took it as cue to leave. He stood and gave me a warm parting wave. "See you around, Takaani. I need to go."
I finished off my crappy noodles and went back to my dorm.
I had a late class later on Spirit World geography and I wasn't looking forward to it. All throughout the lecture I had to listen to people brag about how they climbed Hai-Ryo peak in less than an hour. One water bending boy in my class piped up, "The Spirit World is amazing. I went through the Republic City portal and came out in the North Pole."
Well, good for you. I didn't find it highly amusing, but my classmates did. An earth bender girl scoffed when another girl made the claim that non-benders could bend in the Spirit World. "You've obviously never been there, barren."
I flinched. Barren was a dirty term used against non-benders to signify that they really didn't have a right to bending lifestyles. It was an idiotic, prejudiced thing that only - well - idiotic and prejudiced people used. I decided to speak up. "Don't call her that."
The earth bender turned on me now. "Oh, what?" she sneered. "Seishin's little prize going to step in?"
I looked at her blankly, wondering what the fuck this girl's problem was. Honestly, I never understood the natural tendency to just be rude to other people. Who raised these kids? Her 'little prize' comment did not bother me in the slightest. I shrugged nonchalantly, looking back down to my desk and idly shuffling my books.
Seeing that I wasn't going to comment further, the girl continued in her snobby tone. "What a waste, right? Barrens don't belong in Seishin. They're only here because their families think that they are weak. Bending is true power."
I slammed both of my palms against the desk and stood slowly. My temper was rising stead fast, my eyes locking in on the earth bending girl with extreme disgust. True power? She knew nothing of true power! I knew true power that would make her head snap on her pretty fucking neck. " . .Me?" I hissed. The other students around her balked. If I wasn't so pissed off, maybe that would have made me smug. They all knew I could kick ass, bender or not. Whatever my past held, everyone still remembered how well I could excel at physically fighting.
She regarded me with a flicker of surprise and amusement. "Oh did that hurt your feelings? You're no barren, wolf girl, and we all know it. Too bad you had to go off and get yourself so fucked up that you lost-"
I'd heard enough. Between the play on my name (water tribe word Tikaani, the wolf) and her persistence to bring up something I didn't like to talk about, I threw one of my textbooks at her. The other students watched in horror as SPIRIT WORLD GEOGRAPHY VOL. 4 smacked her in the face. She recovered quickly, and I knew she had nothing on me. That was the great thing about being inside a classroom- you couldn't start chucking boulders at other students.
You could, however, throw water. I didn't see it coming. A waterwhip-like move came from my left side and smacked me across the face. I recoiled by catching myself on one of the neighboring tables, hissing as the sting on my cheek throbbed. I couldn't waste any time. I spun and saw a boy - a really hot one, but what a dick - looking at me with a challenging grin. I strode toward and dodged his attempts to strike me with more water. Hah! Idiot! Using water on another person from the water tribe! I knew all of his moves, each coming back to me in the rush of combat.
He didn't, however, know mine.
I ran toward him head on but twisted and turned so that I was suddenly facing his side. With excellent grace and powerful muscle, I smacked him hard along the areas of his chi. It was standard chi-blocking; a 16 year old could take him down with these moves. He groaned, trying to maneuver his water to hit me once more. I stealthily continued to dodge until he captured my wrist in an ice freeze. Uh oh. He came toward me with his own fist. With my free one, I stopped his hand midair and used it to crack down on the ice on my other arm. He yelped with pain, but I was finally free.
I moved with great speed and slammed him into the desks, body aching as I mustered all my strength.
He was a tall and tanned water tribe boy.
I was a rather petite water tribe girl with a lot of rage.
It was too easy.
"Enough!" A voice rang out. "This is Spirit World Geography not a bending arena!"
I came to a halt and turned my neck to see that our teacher, Advisor Ryo-lu, was fuming. I was relieved that some sort of adult supervision had come to the rescue. I mean, I could only kick this kid's ass for so long. Patiently I waited for him to realize that I had just been attacked with water bending and verbally assaulted by two other students. My patience ran dry when I realized that he wasn't looking at the water bending kid or the earth bending girl. He was looking at me.
"Takaani, I suggest you head toward Counselor Siaki.. Right away."
Well, shit. If I knew that I would get in trouble for this mess I wouldn't have gotten into it in the first place. When I started heading towards the door I noticed that the non bender who originally got called a barren was staring at me with wide eyes and in those wide eyes I saw a glimmer of admiration. I nodded to her as I exited.
Counselor Siaki and I were great friends. Particularly because I had been in her office more times than I could count. Her title of Counselor stemmed from the fact that she ran the academy here, not just giving out advice to students in need. Her hair was a white blond and she kept in high on top of her head, her pale features striking me as an airbender more than the firebender that I knew she was.
Yes, I suppose it was a red flag that a Fire Nation native was running the academy when fire nation students did not attend it. The Fire Nation was in a league all of its own, and while the other nations now had armies and technology to match them- they still had their own training academies and schools where fire bending was taught by their most elite. They didn't need to come to an academy about spirituality, because fire bending had become so spiritual in the last twenty years it was amazing that they ever once committed genocide.
Siaki regarded me with sharp eyes, but she seemed genuinely concerned when she asked, "Takaani..are you alright?"
I probably looked rather bruised and busted, and I could feel that my tight braid had come untidy. "Yes." I said hesitantly.
"Care to explain what happened?"
I told her in full detail and she sighed heavily when I was finished speaking. "Takaani, this needs to stop. Your desire to avoid anything to do with the Spirit World at all is rather disgraceful."
My eyes almost bulged. Was she seriously implying that I had thrown a book at someone's head just to get kicked out of class? I was not that low of a person. I was strong, not violent. Calmly I said, "Are you serious? As if I would allow myself to get another mark on my record for something so idiotic."
Siaki bit her lip. "I don't know what to suspend you from classes if you've already missed so much. Is…is the aspect of spirituality triggering to you?"
I looked away. She had no idea what was "triggering" to me. I had problems in my past and that was it. I had moved on. I took chi-blocking now, and I was good at it. I certainly did not need anymore pity parties about how pathetic people *thought* my life was now that I…. well, nevermind. I shrugged. "No. Not really. I just don't like it."
"And your mother had no way to help you at all?"
I began to fix my braid absentmindedly. "No. I didn't ask her."
"What? Why not? I would think she of all people would-"
"Because I haven't seen here since I came here. Neither of them," I added casually and cooly. It was true. I hadn't seen either of my moms since I was fifteen. Both of them were so caught up in their busy lives that they rarely had time to visit, especially the Earth Kingdom.
Siaki seemed to understand. "I see. Seishin can get into contact with your family if you would like. I understand you are legal of age, but your parents signed a contract that forbids you leaving until you are twenty-one."
Yeah. That damn contract. I didn't know anyone that didn't have parents trying to stuff them into an academy where they could learn about new, exciting information about bending and its connection to the spirits. Or where you could learn about the Spirit World from a brand new textbook. People had been bending for thousands of years without any sort of academy. Why did society think they needed one now?
"I know, but.. well, don't say anything to them." I stood quickly, finishing off my braid. "I promise I am not trying to get kicked out of class. I just don't like to be made fun of. Or see other people made fun of."
Siaki brushed her white blond hair from the side of her face. "Very well, I believe you."
"Thanks. May I leave now, Counselor?" She nodded, so I did.
The hurt in my chest was hard to handle. I was tired of this academy, where people treated me like I was some sort of defected prize. The pity in Siaki's eyes. The rage in my advisors'. The ridicule from other students. I hadn't made friends because I knew this wouldn't be a place for me. It never would be. No matter how many textbooks they shoved at me, no matter how much they threatened me with write ups, I knew that I would never, ever be able to be taught how to spiritually connect myself to the world. It was something I was supposed to figure out on my own, like they did thousands of years before me.
I clenched my fists and wiped a tear from my eyes. Back at my dorm, I ripped a clean sheet of paper and wrote at the top "Do-List". Next to that, I wrote, "DAY OF EVICTION: JULY 30TH". 2 weeks from today.
My first item on the Do-List was not an item at all. It was a person. "Kavi".
