The fairies of Alfea were as excited as they were the previous night when expecting the arrival of the honoured guests as the next morning, anxiously awaiting the anticipated bending demonstration from their honoured guests.
"I can't wait to see some firebending!" Bloom told her friends that morning. "I really hope one of them is good enough to teach me how to manipulate fire!"
"I want to watch the waterbenders and see how waterbending differs from the Morphix!" Aisha enthused.
The bending demonstration was to be held in the arena where duels and battles were usually held, with stands all around for an audience. The Winx were familiar with this place, having been at Alfea for four years and used that arena whenever they trained.
"But what about the earthbender?" asked Musa, referring to the blind girl, Toph. "Are they going to bring in rocks or something?"
"That's true," Bloom said, as she ruminated on it. "Perhaps we should suggest a change of place to the headmistress, don't you think? Perhaps they could have it in the grounds?"
"But where would the fairies sit? They would be furious if they can't watch the entire demonstration."
"Then use magic!" Stella exclaimed. "Use magic to erect stands all around! It is that simple, isn't it?"
The Winx headed to the headmistress's office but stopped outside as they heard someone talking to the headmistress.
"You want a bending demonstration, I'll give you one! I'm Toph Bei Fong, the greatest earthbender in the world, after all! But I can't bend in your arena because it isn't made of earth or metal! You don't think I can just do with a few rocks, do you? I can do so much better than that and I would just like to show all those lily-livered fairies just how much I can do!" said a voice the Winx didn't recognise.
"Okay, okay, calm down, Miss Bei Fong," came Headmistress Faragonda's voice. "We will have the demonstration out in the grounds of Alfea and near the lake, so that it'll be easy for the waterbenders as well! Thank you for suggesting, Miss Bei Fong."
"You have visitors, Miss Faragonda," said Toph. "They're waiting right outside the door."
The Winx exchanged looks. Then Bloom knocked and entered.
"Good morning, headmistress," she greeted, before turning to the blind girl. "Good morning, Miss Bei Fong."
"Please, just call me Toph, the greatest earthbender in the world."
"Uh... sure... Anyway, Headmistress Faragonda, we actually came to suggest to you a change of place as well, just as Miss Bei- I mean, Toph has..."
"Greatest earthbender in the world," Toph interrupted.
"I'm sorry; just as Toph, the greatest earthbender in the world here has suggested. So since it's already settled, I guess we'll just leave," Bloom continued.
"See? Even the lily-livered fairies are aware of what I had just told you," said Toph. "See you all later at the demonstration. I'm outta here."
News got around Alfea fast about the change of location and the teachers rushed to the newly-selected spot and started erecting stands. The newly-chosen spot was a strategic one near the lake.
"What did that Toph call us earlier, anyway?" Musa said to the Winx, as they made their way down to the bending demonstration which was starting in twenty minutes. "Lily-something fairies?"
"Oh don't worry about it, I heard that earthbender's really full of herself and she goes around calling people all sorts of nicknames she made up herself," Roxy, who was with them, said. "She was the Avatar's earthbending teacher, you know, and she used to call him- still calls him 'Twinkletoes'. And the Water Tribe girl whom I heard is the Avatar's girlfriend has been given the nickname of 'Sugar Queen'. Her poor brother has gotten many more."
"She's so vain, who does she think she is?" Stella snapped.
"The greatest earthbender in the world?" Aisha guessed, before they burst into laughter.
"We'll, at least I prefer her to that Fire Nation princess. What was her name again? Azul-something?"
"Azula," said Tecna. "Yeah, she does seem like your typical Cloudtower witch, doesn't she?"
"I heard she's quite a good firebender," Roxy said. "All those stuff you heard about her last night, a firebending prodigy and an unmatched master, they're actually quite true. Well, I haven't actually seen her bend yet, but everyone's looking forward to it."
"They're all younger than us, but already masters? It isn't a fair universe, is it?" Bloom smiled.
"We'll, that's also because they started at a young age," Roxy explained. "I read somewhere that unlike magic, bending can begin at a very young age; three to four, it's possible."
The Winx arrived at the spot of the demonstration and took front-row seats. They were lucky to find good ones as many had already been taken by some of the new Zuko-fan girls, who wanted to see more of the scowling fire prince. To the Winx's delight, the Specialists had been invited to the demonstration as well."
Headmistress Faragonda and the General Iroh walked to the centre and faced the eager audience. "Good morning, fairies of Alfea!" the headmistress greeted. "As I've promised you yesterday, there will be a bending demonstration today! The location had been changed at the last moment because of a few... er... minor complications. Now, I would like to invite General Iroh to say a few words about the art of bending!"
The fairies applauded as the headmistress returned to her seat in the stands and the general stepped up. "I shall begin with waterbending and follow the Avatar cycle. Water is the element of change. The people of the Water Tribe are capable of adapting to many things. They have a deep sense of community and love that holds them together through anything. The moon is the source of power in waterbending, and the original waterbenders learned by observing how the moon pushed and pulled the tides. The Water Tribes are the only people who did not learn bending from an animal, though the Moon and Ocean Spirits took the form of koi fish near the beginning of the Avatar World.
"Earth is the element of substance. The people of the Earth Kingdom are diverse and strong. They are persistent and enduring. The first earthbenders, Oma and Shu, learned the art from badgermoles, just as our great Toph Bei Fong also did. Humans first learned earthbending by observing and imitating the geokinetic powers of badgermoles that naturally inhabit the mountains in what is now Earth Kingdom territory. According to a legend, known widely as "The Legend of the Two Lovers", two star-crossed lovers named Oma and Shu, who hailed from separate villages that were at war with each other, learned the art from these creatures so that they could meet within the mountain that divided them. To make sure no one could ever find them, they used their new abilities to create a labyrinth of tunnels inside the mountain which only they could navigate. One day, after many meetings in the series of passageways, the man did not come to see his lover, as he had died, a casualty of the villages' quarrel. His lover showcased a devastating assault of her powers and ultimately proclaimed the feud over. Then, the villages collaborated to construct a city, Omashu, in their honor. The pathways they made by earthbending became known as the Cave of Two Lovers."
"Aww, that's so romantic!" Flora sighed.
"Fire is the element of power," continued General Iroh. "The people of the Fire Nation have desire and will, and the energy to drive and achieve what they want. However, the recently militaristic Fire Nation twisted this into firebending being fueled by rage, hate, and anger. Firebending draws its power from the sun, and the first human firebenders derived their firebending techniques from the dragons."
"Did you hear that?" Bloom enthused to the Winx. "From the dragons! Just like how I did!"
"Firebending was originally learned from the sacred dragons that had once populated their land. The first people to learn from the dragons were the Sun Warriors. In the remains of their once great civilization, Prince Zuko and Avatar Aang discovered that firebending represents energy and life, not rage and anger as the modern Fire Nation would have its citizens believe," the general went on. "As firebenders draw their power from the sun and other solar objects, such as comets. A solar eclipse has the potential to completely negate a firebender's power, revealing a direct connection between the sun and firebending."
"Solar eclipse!" Bloom and Stella breathed at the same time.
"Air is the element of freedom," General Iroh continued on to the next element. "The Air Nomads detached themselves from worldly concerns and found peace and freedom. Also, they apparently had pretty good senses of humor! Finding peace and freedom was the key to solve their flaws in life. As a result, all children born into the Air Nomads were benders. The first airbenders learned their art from the flying bison."
"How many more weird animals are they going to mention?" Roxy wondered aloud, interested.
"Airbenders first learned their bending from the flying bison, a sacred creature in the Air Nomad culture. The bison typically use their massive beaver-like tail to create gusts of wind and, as the name suggests, can fly without any visible means of propulsion. It is also said that the airbenders had borrowed the arrow mark from the flying bison for their traditional tattoos. These tattoos symbolize one's mastery of the airbending art, and are given to a practitioner once their training is complete. Unlike other nations, all Air Nomads are born airbenders, due to the high amount of spirituality infused in the culture.
"Now, lets move on to the advanced techniques of bending, shall we?" General Iroh flashed everyone a big smile. "We'll start with the techniques of waterbending. There are two, healing and bloodbending.
"Healing is a sub-skill of waterbending which involves healing wounds by redirecting energy paths or chi throughout the body, using water as a catalyst. In the Northern Water Tribe, this ability is the only aspect of waterbending taught to female waterbenders, due to the traditionally patriarchal culture of the tribe. It is not known to what extent the Northern Water Tribe teaches healing to male waterbenders.
"Bloodbending is a specialised technique within the art of waterbending that allows a waterbender to hydrokinetically take hold of the various fluids contained within a living organism's body and then manipulate them to control the movement of their intended target. The technique is revered as the darkest and deadliest sub-skill of any of the bending arts. The technique was discovered by a young waterbender named Hama while she was detained in a prison designed by the Fire Nation specifically to hold waterbenders. During her detainment, she concluded that all life contains water, and proceeded to develop the knowledge and skills of the art by practicing on elephant rats. The forms and styles used by bloodbenders are very similar to how a puppeteer controls a marionette, in particular the hand shape and movements. Whereas waterbending uses flowing motions with the arms, bloodbending seems to require a more rigid and abrupt form of movement, further highlighting how different it is from the primary waterbending forms and its other sub-skill, Healing. Due to its extreme nature, only a handful of waterbenders have demonstrated the ability to bloodbend. The technique is deemed by most waterbenders to be a dark art and is rarely used in combat. The complexity and sophistication required to perform the art usually only allows for its use during a full moon, when a waterbender's power is at its absolute peak.
"Next, metalbending, a sub-skill of earthbending. Metalbending is a specialised sub-skill of earthbending that allows an earthbender to ferrokinetically bend processed metal in a similar fashion to bending regular earth. The technique was invented by Toph Bei Fong after Xin Fu and Master Yu captured and transported her in a metal cage, which she metalbent and subsequently escaped.
"Seismic sense. It is a sub-skill that constitutes for physical sense. This skill enables earthbenders to detect vibrations in the ground to perceive objects, people, and other aspects of their environment, essentially acting as sonar, but through the earth. As the badgermoles were the original earthbenders, they were the first users of seismic sense. Naturally blind, these creatures used this ability to navigate their dark world.
The blind Toph Bei Fong was the first known human practitioner of this technique, developing the sense at a young age by learning from the badgermoles and using it to perfect a form of earthbending different than the normal technique. Later, she perfected her seismic sense to such an advanced degree that she could detect the slightest of movement changes, thus using the skill as her method to explore the world, and developing a technique that serves as a way of lie detection. This heightened sense of awareness is at the foundation of Metalbending, as Toph's sense allowed her to feel the unpurified earth materials that were still present in the metal."
"That's awesome! Bending metal must be really cool!" Timmy said. "And this weird earth sense! It's illogical, but really exciting!"
"In firebending, there is lightning generation," continued the esteemed general. "There is energy all around us. The energy is both yin and yang. Positive energy and negative energy. Only a select few firebenders can separate these energies. This creates an imbalance. The energy wants to restore balance, and in a moment the positive and negative energy come crashing back together, you provide release and guidance, creating lightning. Lightning, also known as the "cold-blooded fire", is very dangerous, even among firebenders, and only a few powerful firebenders are capable of generating it.
"With lightning generation, there is also lightning redirection, which was invented by me after observing the waterbenders. If you let the energy in your own body flow, the lightning will follow it. You must create a pathway from your fingertips, up your arm to your shoulder, then down into your stomach. The stomach is the source of energy in your body. It is called the sea of chi. From the stomach, you direct it up again, and out the other arm. The stomach detour is critical. You must not let the lightning pass through your heart, or the damage could be deadly. You may wish to try a physical motion, to get a feel for the pathways' flow."
"Whoa, lightning! Boy, do I want to learn that!" Bloom enthused.
"Airbenders can fly with air gliders by controlling the air currents," continued General Iroh. "And they can also run as fast as the wind and have the divine ability of halting air. Now, shall we begin with the demonstration?"
The moment everyone had been waiting for had finally arrived. Katara stepped out and began doing some waterbending exercises with water she drew from the lake, mostly the basics. The fairies craned their necks to see. Once she was finished with the exercises, she proceeded on to show the fairies how water can be turned to ice or steam and how waterbending is used in combat. Alfea had already set up obstacles for the demonstration and Katara willingly demonstrated how to take down opponents with waterbending. The fairies 'ooh'ed and 'ahh'ed.
Next, Katara demonstrated healing by healing a wounded cat. And finally, she was to demonstrate bloodbending, which she made clear to the audience that she hated and despised, but still had to do it. Professor Palladium had taken care of this. He had conjured up clones, very much like humans, but they were made from magic and Katara bloodbent them, much to the horror of the watching fairies.
After that, Toph appeared and began demonstrating earthbending, in all it's glory. She then bent metal stuff out of some of the fairies' bags. Some scrap metal had been prepared and Toph ripped these to pieces without showing any mercy. She then showed earthbending in combat along with metalbending.
Once Toph had returned to her seat, Zuko came up, much to the delight of the fairies. He displayed his firebending abilities and redirected lightning that had been part of the set-up for the demonstration. Half of Alfea instantly fell in love with him. Uncle Iroh was next, and he showed his skills as the Dragon of the West, and created lightning, which simply amazed all the girls.
"They'll see what firebending is all about when they see me," muttered Azula to herself as she got up. As she started firebending, the fairies' eyes widened, especially Bloom's, to see that Azula's fire as blue.
"Oh my, she is a real prodigy! Look at how agile she is!" Aisha said.
Azula was showing them firebending in combat and proceeded on to lightning generation. She was perfect. And then, once her lightning was perfect, she shot it straight into the stands, missing one of the fairies at the back by an inch. The fairy was appalled and so was everyone. Smirking slightly, Azula returned to her seat.
Aang was next. He showed them airbending and flying as well as running as fats as the wind before he demonstrated his ability to control the four elements. And that concluded the bending demonstration.
"Did you see what Azula did?" Bloom gasped, as the she and the Wnx were walking back to their rooms. Just then, someone brushed shoulders with her and she turned to see the Fire Nation princess throwing a smirk in her direction.
"Boy, do I really hate her," seethed Bloom.
Sorry if you found this boring with all the explanations!
Please review!
I do not own Winx Club or Avatar: The Last Airbender.
