Next chapter, yay!
This one was hard to write from Eira's perspective since this was a Sokka episode, but I hope I did okay.
Thanks to lostgamer64 for reviewing again, you're really awesome! And thanks to Elemelons164 for reviewing. I'm glad you like this so far.
Your reviews really help motivate me :D
Chapter 4- Sokka's Master
"Wow," Eira gasped in awe as another shooting star flashed across the night sky. There were so many stars and a meteor shot by almost every couple of seconds. It was the first time Eira had ever seen a meteor shower. Whenever she thought she saw one before, it just turned out to be a helicopter.
They were all lying back on a field, watching the sky. Aang had been the first to spot it and they'd all stopped to admire the sight.
Their campsite was a nice, cool place. A river snaked its way by the base of the mountains and hills and it was very pretty, even at night.
"This is amazing to watch," Katara said.
"Kind of makes you realise how insignificant we are," Sokka added philosophically.
Eira admitted to herself that he had a point. The stars looked so small but they were thousands of lightyears away, and their light still reached them.
"Eh, you've seen nothing once, you've seen it a thousand times," Toph said casually.
Then, out of the blue, they all spotted a particularly bright meteor that wasn't going away. It appeared thebe getting brighter and bright, bursting with orange flames, and, startlingly, it was getting bigger.
"Oh man," Sokka said, standing up. "You've never not seen anything like this."
Eira, Aang, and Katara also stood up, growing nervous. It flew past them overhead and with a loud rumble it crash landed.
They all scrambled up the hill to look at the crash site. It was quite a distance away, but, unnervingly, an orange glow was spreading from it.
"We have to stop that before it escalates," Eira stated. "The Fire Nation doesn't have a lot of rain. A fire could be devastating."
They all nodded and ran back to Appa, quickly throwing their things on the saddle and climbing on. Appa took off with great haste but by the time they got there the fire was already starting to grow.
Katara scanned the area, leaning over the side of the saddle, and her eyes widened in horror. "The fire is gonna destroy that town!" she cried, pointing to the nearby collection of buildings.
"Not if we stop it!" Aang said, making Appa land and jumping off. Eira, Sokka, and Toph followed him as Katara moved to take Appa's reigns.
"There's a creek over there," she said, pointing the right of the fire. "I'll bend the water over."
"I'm going to go near the town. It's dark and most people will be asleep so I'll warn them if the fire gets too close," Eira said, starting to run off to the left.
Eira skirted around the growing fire, making sure not to get too close to it. She jumped up onto a short ledge to get a clear view. From there she could see much better. To her left was a medium-sized village with mainly wood buildings but some stone from what she could guess in the darkness. It would be a disaster if the fire got anywhere near it. Even though they were in the Fire Nation, Eira guessed that they weren't well equipped to handle it.
Toph and Aang stood in the way of the fire, using their earthbending to created deep trenches of earth to block its path. Eira was surprised at how loud it was, crackling and roaring as it burnt. The heat was also surprising. Even from her distance, she could feel the rising temperature causing her to sweat.
Katara pulled the water from the river, sending it in a large arc flying towards Aang and Toph. Aang stopped with his earthbending and redirected the water towards the fire. The two of them continued this stream together and a large hiss of steam billowed up into the air.
Toph jutted out her foot and fist and a large slab of earth sprung up. She knocked her hand to the side in the air and it toppled right onto the fire, smothering it. Aang took some of the water and with a burst of airbending he spread it all over the area, dampening the flames. The three of them continued this cycle, stamping out all remaining sparks as they moved closer and closer to the crash site.
Toph earthbent her slab to roll over the steaming ground and Eira smiled in relief, glancing back at the village. Luckily she wouldn't need to scare anyone awake. Eira jogged back, treading over the ashy ground and joined the rest of them just as they put out the last spark.
Eira grinned at them. "Well done, everyone. You made me feel a bit useless you did that so well."
Sokka made a sour face at that remark and like a switch, Eira recognised the episode. Now she felt really bad.
Aang yawned, not really noticing Sokka's expression. "Man, I'm tired. That took a lot out of me."
"Yeah," Katara agreed. "We should probably go back to camp and get some rest."
"Sound good to me," Toph said. The adrenaline of dealing with the fire was fading and they all looked exhausted. A lot more exhausted than either Eira or Sokka. They all climbed up onto Appa's saddle again and it took no time at all to re-set up camp and sleep.
Eira stayed awake a little longer than the others though. She honestly didn't know how she was going to handle to next day or two. She didn't really remember a lot from the episode.
o.O.o
The next day they all went into the town. It was a very warm and rich-ish place. The wood and stone building Eira had picked out the previous night were very well built, with intricate roof decorations, tall walls, and multi-stories.
Eira, Katara, and Toph were all sat at a table in an outdoor restaurant. The place was nice, if a bit expensive. At least, Eira assumed it was expensive. She didn't quite understand how their coin systems worked or the value. It seemed to fluctuate heavily from the Earth Kingdom to the Fire Nation and she hadn't been in the Fire Nation long enough to grasp it.
"These people have no idea," Aang said, joining them at the table with drinks, "how close they were to getting roasted last night."
"Yeah, the worst thing about being in disguise is that we don't get the hero worship anymore." Toph leant back on her chair. "I miss the love."
"You should probably be a bit quieter," Eira commented in a low voice. Toph especially seemed to forget that they were in disguise for a reason.
"Boo hoo," Sokka said sarcastically, a grumpy expression on his face as he rested it on his fist. "Poor heroes." He turned his face away from them.
"What's your problem?" Katara demanded. "You haven't even touched your smoked sea slug," she noted, gesturing to the reason Eira wasn't particularly hungry. She probably needed to be more adventurous but why did everything have to be so… slimy?
"It's just…" he sighed exasperatedly. "All you guys can do this awesome bending stuff like putting out forest fires, and flying around while making other stuff fly around. And I can't fly around, okay?" he admitted, gesturing with his hands. He looked surprisingly defeated, not at all like he usually was. "I can't do anything."
"That's not true," Katara insisted. "No one can read a map like you."
"I can't read at all!" Toph added.
Eira looked concerned at him. "Look, Sokka. Just because you're not a bender doesn't mean you're useless," she said reassuringly. "You're a brilliant strategist. Without you, the… invasion plan," Eira said in a quiet voice so no one could overhear them," wouldn't nearly be as complete or refined. You're organised and put the needs of others before your own. Even though you went a bit overboard, you really do keep us on track."
"And you keep us laughing with sarcastic comments," Aang said cheerfully. "I mean, look at Katara's hair, right? What's up with that?"
"What? What's wrong with my hair?" Katara asked, touching her hair self-consciously while going red.
Aang realised that his attempt at "joking" was a mistake very quickly. "Nothing! I was just trying to…"
Sokka held out his hand to stop him. "Look, I appreciate the effort but the fact is each of you is so amazing and so special and I'm… not." He looked up at the sky. "I'm just the guy in the group who's regular.
Katara got up from her seat and sat next to her brother, looking concerned for him. "I'm sorry you're feeling so down, but I hope you know that none of us see you that way." Katara looked down, thinking, before putting a hand on his shoulder. "I know something that's going to make you feel better," she said confidently.
"You do?" Sokka turned to his sister, curious.
"Shopping!" he said cheerfully, clapping his hands together and gazing at all of the weapons, armour, and other battle-related things with pure glee.
He ran over to look at the weapon section and picked up a sword. "Maybe a little something to reinvigorate my battling." He put the sword down and picked up some nunchaku. "Hey, how about these."
He spun them around in his hand, making exaggerated attacking noises and gestures but one span around, smacking him in the head and sending him tumbling backwards into the other weapons.
Eira winced. That looked painful. "Are you okay, Sokka?" she asked, pulling him up from the pile.
"Never better," he said nonchalantly, even as his forehead was looked stung with a big red welt.
"Maybe you should try something closer to your skills," Eira commented. "You have a machete and club, right?"
Sokka nodded. "But they kind of stick out here so they're still with Appa."
Eira nodded in understanding and as she looked around to inspect the swords, she stopped in her tracks and burst out laughing.
"Aang, what are you wearing?" she asked, incredulous.
Aang, a short twelve-year old, was dressed in the most ridiculous and overly-intimidating armour she had ever seen. His helmet resembled a dragon skull with massive shinning horns curling from both sides and beady jewelled eyes. His chest plate had abs carved into them, one of his gauntlets was a large clawed paw of sorts, spikes jutted out of the skull shoulder plates, and a buzz saw was attached to his arm.
He waddled forwards in his ridiculous get up, clunking from the metal layers. "Pretty slick, huh?"
Katara and Sokka looked at him with a mix of horror, surprise, and disbelief. Katara held up a hand to block her eyes from the shine as she approached.
"All I need to complete this outfit is a wind sword?" he continued.
"A wind sword?" Eira asked, curious.
"It's where I get a sword handle and then I just swing it around and bend air out like a blade," he explained. He picked up a sword handle from a nearby shelf and swung it around like a sword while making swishing sounds. "Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"
Eira was wondering if that was a real thing you could do with airbending. It sounded a lot more… dangerous than other things she knew about airbending. She knew that airbending could definitely be dangerous, but the nomads sounded too peaceful to ever invent something like that.
He swung the "sword" upwards and toppled, losing balance. He and the armour fell with a spectacular BANG! Eira, Katara, and Sokka clamped their hands over their ears to block it out.
Aang sat up, looking dizzy from banging his head inside the helmet. "I'll just stick to what I got," he said wearily.
Sokka recovered and picked up a guan dao, a curved blade mounted on a staff with a red ribbon tied through a hole in the metal. He swung it from side to side before spinning it in a circle like a baton dancer and flung it up into the air, sticking into the ceiling.
Sokka stared up at his, holding his hands out innocently. Next one.
Sokka picked out a metal club almost as ridiculous as Aang's armour. It was far too heavy for him to even lift off the ground. He scraped the enormous thing across the floor with a horrid screech like nails on a chalkboard. He groaned with exertion as he did his best to lift it but lost his grip and fell to the floor.
He tried out dual swords, spinning a chain around and causing himself to get caught up instead, trying to stab the air with a wobbly, too long spear, using a sai (as a toothpick). Eira found it strange that he was trying out all those types of weapons that he had never used before but she guessed that Sokka wanted something that would stand out.
Sokka looked around, growing increasingly dissatisfied, but held his gaze on a sword propped up on a smooth, polished sword rack.
Its blade was shining with light and looked sharp. Its hilt was made of polished red word. It looked simple, but obviously well made. The pommel was painted gold with a flower design engraved at the base.
"Ooh!" Sokka ran over to it, taking in every inch of it. "That's what I'm talking about."
The shopkeeper, who had mainly been writing them off as just window shoppers, saw Sokka take an interest in the sword and walked over.
"You have a good eye," he noted. "That's an original from Piandao, the greatest swordsmaster and sword maker in Fire Nation history." He pointed out of the shop towards the walled mansion overlooking the town. "He lives up the road from here."
"That's it!" Aang exclaimed. "That's what you needed all along, Sokka?"
"A sword?" Sokka guessed, looking at the one on display.
"Not the sword, a master," Aang explained. Sokka reached out to take the sword from the rack. "We've all had masters to help us get better. You should see if you can study with Piandao."
Katara nodded, smiling. "That's a great idea. I never could've gotten to where I am without Master Pakku. Everyone needs a teacher."
"I learned from badgermoles," Toph offered. "They don't talk, but they're still good teachers."
"And Aang is a good teacher, even though I learnt a lot of the forms, I guess, from the Shifu at the dojo I went to," Eira added.
Sokka pulled out the blade and inspected it, thinking. "It would be nice to be a master swordfighter," he mused. "All right, I'll talk to him."
"Great, we'll see you off there," Aang said.
They all walked out of the shop and as they did, Eira could see Sokka's mood picking up. She smiled in relief.
The mansion was situated on top of a large bluff. The white walls surrounding it were broken by a tall red wooden gate. It looked very well crafted and very expensive. It was clear that being the best swordsman in the Fire Nation was quite a lucrative job.
Sokka looked tiny as he looked up at the tall walls and gate, but he steeled himself. He was going to do this. He turned back to the rest of the group.
"Thanks, guys. You can go now," he said. "I can take it from here."
"Good luck," Eira said. "You'll do great."
"Thanks."
"Bye!" Aang said cheerily, waving goodbye as they all wandered back down into the town.
Katara kept on glancing back. "I hope he'll be alright," she said.
"Don't worry about Sokka," Eira said reassuringly. "This will be good for him, he needs this."
They continued to walk out of the town, back to their campsite in the middle of the countryside. Appa was sleeping peacefully in the grass and Momo flew about, trying to catch the little midges flying around and buzzing.
Aang and Katara chatted about nothing in particular and Eira reached into her bag to begin writing. Even though she didn't want to become the psychic consultant for the war and the invasion, she still wanted to try and see where she would be able to help. She'd been thinking about possible things that Jianguo, Teo's father and the inventor from the Northern Air Temple, could make for the invasion. She would often suggest ideas, and Sokka would write them down or conceptualise them.
So far, they'd come up with a clock/watch, a water-bender powered submarine, and different types of flash bomb grenades for distractions.
On that note, Eira realised that she really couldn't continue. She still couldn't write. Sokka had been teaching her a couple of things, but they had found it much quicker for him to just transcribe everything for her. In the middle of planning a war, there wasn't a lot of time.
So, Eira just spent her time uselessly scribbling on some paper. Everything she thought of doing felt silly or a waste of time.
They could go back into town, but they had already got everything they needed in the morning and it was too early for another meal. They could all continue with their bending training, but even this far away from the town, they were still too obvious. It would be too risky.
Eira wasn't sure what the other wanted to do. Eira was pretty introverted so, if pushed, she could spend the hours just thinking to herself, but the others were younger and more extroverted than her. She doubted they would be able to do the same without going stir crazy.
"What should we do today?" Aang asked as he, Katara, and Toph lay about lazily on the grass. Each of them looked incredibly bored. Momo ran through the grass before setting near Katara, happy with a bug he had caught.
"I'm tapped out," Toph admitted." I've already picked my toes, twice."
"Twice?" Aang said.
"The first time was for cleaning, but the second time's just for the sweet picking sensation," Toph explained. Eira stuck her tongue out in disgust. Blech.
"Sokka's been in charge of the schedule. I'm not sure what we should be doing," Katara said, staring up at the sky.
"Plus, it's so hot today," Toph added.
Aang sat up, an idea popping in his head. "How hot is it?" he said, trying to set up a joke of some kind.
It was too bad Toph didn't have anywhere to lead it. "I dunno. Rea hot?"
Katara looked around. "I-It's so hot… It's so hot…" Her eyes settled on Momo. She stroked him and flicked tufts of fur from her fingers. "Momo is shedding like Appa. Huh?"
She looked around expectantly but no one was laughing. Her face fell, clearly disappointed.
"I guess jokes don't run in the family," Aang said.
"Oh, everyone's a critic," Katara huffed.
"Well, Sokka's humour is either from just acting silly to his surroundings," Eira explained. "Or being deadpan or sarcastic. I honestly don't know what you were trying to do."
"Don't you have Sokka's schedule," Katara said sharply. She was surprisingly wounded by her lack of joking ability.
"Okay, I'll see what's on it," Eira said, rummaging through her bag and pulling out the revised version. He'd cut out a lot of unnecessary events from it, such as monitoring their eating breaks down to the minute, so it was thankfully shorter.
"All it has for today was 'Go into town for supplies'," Eira said. "I guess in these cases, we do just go into a town and continue travelling, or get side-tracked by some event."
"Did you remember anything we can do?" Aang asked hopefully.
Eira grimaced. All they did was lie around being bored to learn to appreciate Sokka. "I… Uh, aside from knowing that Sokka gets accepted into training, I don't know anything. I don't think I saw what happened with you guys."
"Then what should we do?" he asked.
"What do you mean, Aang?"
"You're the oldest, and you're usually the one making plans, after Sokka," he explained. "What should we do?"
Eira felt very put-on-the-spot. She felt he face turning red. "I'm not good at making plans, guys. I'm not organised or smart enough for that. I think the best we can do is wait and remember this is for Sokka's sake."
The others visibly looked disappointed and slumped back down onto the ground.
"Guys, if you're that bored then I don't really know what to tell you," Eira sighed. "But on the bright side, things will be even better when Sokka arrives."
And Eira was right. They were all bored. Very bored, in fact, Eira thought they fell asleep, but after about an hour of waiting.
"Sokka's coming!" Toph announced, sitting bolt upright.
Katara and Aang opened their eyes, smiling excitedly. Eira looked up and, sure enough, Sokka was walking up to the top of the hill.
"Hey, guys," he said casually, waving. "What are you doing?"
Katara, Aang, and Toph practically knocked him over as they ran to give him a group hug.
"Sokka!
"You're back!"
"We missed you so much!" Katara said. Eira almost couldn't stop herself from laughing. It had only been just over half a day.
They stepped back from the group hug. "Say something funny!" Aang insisted.
Sokka stared at him, confused. "Funny how?"
Aang and Katara burst out into hearty laughter. Toph smiled, crossing her arms.
Sokka looked to Eira helplessly. "What's their deal?" he asked.
"They really missed you," she explained with a smile on her face. "Apparently, I'm not very entertaining to be around."
"Aw, thanks. That's warms my heart," he said, putting a hand to his chest. "Anyway, I need some help."
"What is it?" Katara asked.
"I need to forge my own sword, and I'd like to get a special material."
Sokka lead them back towards the ashy area where they had put out the fire, and down into a small valley.
They all stood at the edge of a blackened crater. Burn marks and random clumps of stone and earth littered the site but at the very centre, there was a slightly shiny black lump.
"The meteorite?" Aang said, staring at it. "Cool."
They slid down the side of the crater and stepped around the rubble. Sokka reached down to pick it up. It was bigger than Eira had thought. For some reason, she had always remembered it as a tiny thing that was only as big as her foot. This, on the other hand, was about quadruple the size. Big enough to make a sword from.
"It would be pretty cool to have a sword made from a meteorite," Eira said. "But how do you know you can use it?"
"Well, it's in one piece after crashing down," Sokka said, tapping his knuckle on it. "So it's pretty strong." He then gestured to the small melted shards around it. "And it can melt, and be pretty sharp." To demonstrate, he picked up on of the sharps and tossed it downwards. It sank into the ground without any resistance.
Eira nodded. "That's pretty interesting. I wish I knew more about swords."
Sokka clapped his hands together. "Then come on. I have to get this back to master Piandao."
The difference in Sokka's attitude was almost outstanding. He held himself more confidently and he looked happy again.
They walked all the way up to Piandao's mansion, and Sokka knocked on the gate door.
A man in a traditional black and red martial arts outfit opened the door. He had dark skin and hair as well as a cool beard. He looked pretty stern, and very disciplined.
He nodded in acknowledgement of Sokka, but cast suspicious looks at the rest of the group behind him.
"Who's this?" he asked.
"Oh, these are my friends," Sokka said quickly. "Just other good Fire Nation folks."
Aang, Katara, and Toph bowed in respect, with Eira repeating the action after a few seconds delay. She never knew when to do the whole bowing thing.
Piandao bowed back. He looked down at the meteorite in Sokka's hands and gave him a questioning look. "Do you think we can make a sword out of a meteorite?" Sokka asked hopefully.
Piandao took the meteorite and inspected it closely.
He gave Sokka a small smile. "We'll make a sword unlike any other in the world." Sokka beamed.
Piandao led them to the forge. It was boiling as fire burst out from all over the place. It was dark, dirty, and small, but Sokka never looked happier.
Sokka went to work straight away as the others watched him. Eira would've loved to help, but this was something Sokka needed to do without them.
He threw coal into the fires with a small spade to heat up the meteorite. Piandao's assistant hammered the metal as Sokka chiselled it into shape. He cut pieces off to try and get it to the right size, filling a bucket with fragments.
It was fascinating to watch. Sokka worked at the bellows diligently, shovelling more coal into the fire when needed.
Eira, Aang, and Katara weren't the only ones watching Sokka's process. Piandao observed his work from outside with a neutral expression, making it hard to guess what he was thinking.
Sokka worked for hours and hours, but finally, nearing the end of the day it was almost done. He took a bucket of molten metal from the fire with iron tongs and poured it into the mold.
As the metal glowed red with heat, Piandao raised the blade up, looking carefully at every inch.
Sokka looked up at him hopefully, and Piandao nodded.
"It is ready," he said. He carried the blade over to a water trough and dipped it in, sending hissing steam flying upwards.
They all sat on the stairs in Piandao's courtyard, watching anxiously as Piandao stood before Sokka. Piandao's assistant held the impressive black blade in his hands, standing to the side of them. "Sokka, when you first arrived, you were so unsure," he said. "You seemed down on yourself. But I saw something in you right away. I saw a heart as strong as a lion-turtle, and twice as big."
Katara glowed with pride for her brother.
"As we trained, it wasn't your skills that impressed me," he continued as his assistant knelt before him to present the sword. "No, it certainly wasn't your skills."
Well, that's a bit harsh, Eira thought critically as Sokka hung his head at Piandao's words.
"You showed me something beyond that." Piandao took the sword and swung it. "Intelligence." He swung it again, striking the air with perfect form. "Creativity, versatility… These are the traits of a great swordsman." Piandao sheathed the sword. "And these are the traits that define you."
He knelt before Sokka, raising the sword to him.
Sokka looked speechless. He held out his hand, and slowly took it from him.
"You told me you weren't worthy," Piandao said, standing back up to look Sokka in the eyes. "But I believe that you are more worthy than any man I have ever trained."
Eira, Aang, Katara, and Toph all smiled, but Sokka lowered his head in shame, and their smiles faded.
"I'm sorry, Master," he said solemnly. "You're wrong. I'm not worthy. I'm not who you think I am. I'm not from the Fire Nation. I'm from the Southern Water Tribe." Katara gasped and they all gawked at him. "I lied so that I could learn swordsmanship from you. I'm sorry."
Sokka held out to sword to give it back to Piandao.
Piandao regarded Sokka with a cold stare. "I'm sorry too."
He turned and lashed out with his sword. Sokka jumped back, gasping in shock. He got over it quickly, unsheathing his own sword and steeling himself.
Aang, Katara, Toph, and Eira all jumped up from their seats, prepared to help defend their friend but Sokka raised a hand, stopping them.
"No, this is my fight, alone," he said shortly.
Sokka readied his sword. Piandao's sword aimed at the ground while his hand was raised and pointed. He lunged forwards. Sokka backed away under the strikes. Sokka raised his sword to parry and followed up with one of his own. He jabbed it at Piandao. Piandao moved his head out of the way and stabbed his sword towards Sokka.
Sokka swayed backwards, narrowly avoiding it. Piandao swung his sword in a wide sweep and Sokka jumped up, lunging at him.
Piandao's sword jerked upwards, deflecting the attack with a loud clang of metal-against-metal. The force pushed Sokka back several feet and he slid over the ground. Sokka flipped himself backwards to get into position, grabbing hold of a small post to regain his balance.
He climbed onto it as Piandao tried to stab at his feet. Sokka jumped from post to post, using his greater speed.
As Sokka leapt away from the posts, he ran into better space.
"Excellent!" Piandao congratulated him. "Using superior agility against an older opponent… smart."
Sokka didn't take it as a good sign that Piandao could talk so casually to him as they fought.
Piandao pushed him up the stone stairs, assaulting him with strike after strike. Sokka parried and dodged like his life was on the line.
Sokka backed up against the wall. He ducked just as Piandao swung. His sword embedded itself into the stone. He tugged it out just in time to deflect the blow Sokka aimed at him.
Sokka climbed up to higher ground. "Good use of terrain… fighting from an advantage," Piandao commented.
Sokka swung at Piandao below him. Piandao thrust his sword upwards, throwing him off balance. He grunted as he fell back into a collection of bamboo.
Katara winced. Sokka had to duck again as Piandao sliced through the bamboo like it was nothing. Sokka was starting to look scared, strands of hair falling out of his topknot into his face.
He ran further into the bamboo, trying to lose his chaser. He slashed at the bamboo to block Piandao but the master easily cut through them.
Sokka pulled a bamboo stalk, releasing it to hit Piandao. He once again cut through it, but Sokka had vanished from his line of sight. Sokka jumped at him from behind. "Yes, use your surroundings." Piandao blocked the attack as Sokka ran back again.
He pulled on two more bamboo stalks before releasing them. They whipped around towards Piandao before being split in half. "Make them fight for you!"
Sokka ran back out of the bamboo thicket and back into the fighting ring as Piandao finally chased him out. He was screaming from exhaustion and fear. He looked around. Piandao had vanished off to the side before readying a strike.
Everything seemed to go in slow motion. As the blade arched towards Sokka, he grabbed a handful of dust and threw it at his master. The dust exploded into a cloud as it struck Piandao's face. Piandao swung his blade around, holding it defensively as he couldn't see anything, the dust blinding him.
"Very resourceful."
Sokka nervously raised his sword, not wanting to make any sound. He slowly stepped backwards. CRACK! Sokka's foot stepped on a twig and Piandao rushed forwards with his sword. Piandao closed in, catching Sokka's sword with his own. He twisted and the sword went flying. It landed a good couple of meters away, stabbing into the ground.
Piandao struck again, but not with his blade. He pushed Sokka backwards with his arms. Sokka hit the ground on his back, winded. All he could do was look up fearfully at Piandao.
Aang, Katara, Toph, and Eira surged forwards, but before they could do anything, Piandao looked towards them and sheathed his sword.
"Excellent work, Sokka," Piandao said.
Sokka squinted at him, not wanting to let his guard down.
Piandao looked right at Aang. "I think I'm a little too old to be fighting the Avatar," he said.
They all dropped their bending stances.
"How did you know?" Aang asked, incredulous.
Piandao's assistant walked over, holding a drink and a white cloth for Piandao as Sokka stood back up.
"Oh, I've been around for a while," he said vaguely. "You start to pick things up." He took the cloth and wiped his face. "Of course, I knew from the beginning that Sokka was from the Water Tribe. You might want to think of a better cover name." He looked up thoughtfully. "Try 'Lee'. There are a million 'Lees'." He took a sip of his drink, not caring about how utterly confused Katara, Aang, Toph, and Sokka were.
Of course, Eira knew what was going on. Looking back on it, she knew that Piandao wasn't going to hurt Sokka, but the rush of the moment got to her. It was still pretty scary watching someone attacking your friend with a sword.
"But why would you agree to train someone from the Water Tribe?" Katara asked.
"The way of the sword doesn't belong to any one nation. Knowledge of the arts belong to all." Katara still looked like she didn't get it. Eira didn't blame her.
Piandao pulled Sokka's sword out of the ground. "Sokka, you must continue your training on your own. If you stay on this path, I know one day you will become an even greater master than I am."
Sokka bowed to his teacher as he took the sword and Piandao bowed back in mutual respect.
The group walked out of the gate doors, all quite tired. That was certainly enough excitement to make up for the boredom of their morning and afternoon.
"Wait!" Piandao's assistant came running out after them, holding a tiny brown bag. "The Master wanted you to have this, as something to remember him by."
He gave the bag to Sokka before waving his farewells and closing the gate doors behind him.
Sokka opened the bag and pulled out a game tile with a white lotus painted on the sides.
"It's a Pai Sho tile," Sokka said, turning it around in his hand.
"What's Pai Sho?" Eira asked.
"It's a board game. Different tiles do different thing," he explained. "Most people play it to gamble."
"That's interesting," Eira mused.
Aang stared at the flower painted on the tile. "White Lotus. Huh."
"What does it mean?" Katara asked.
"I have no idea," Sokka admitted. "Eira? Any clue?"
Eira put her hand to her chin. "Hm... I think all I can really say is that it means that he's on our side. And there are more like him."
Sokka flipped the tile in his hand and he smiled. "Well, that's good." His eyes widened. "Oh, I almost forgot." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small chunk of meteorite. "Toph, I thought you might like this since you've probably never had a chance to bend space earth before."
Toph snatched it out of his hand. "Sweet!" The meteorite swirled in her hand, almost like it was liquid. She bent it into a swirl, a star, and a weird splatter shape. "Check this out," she said proudly.
"Okay, that looks amazing," Eira said. Eira looked out onto the horizon. The sun was beginning to set. "Well, it's getting late. We should get back to the camp now."
Sokka yawned, nodding. "Yeah. That's probably for the best. I'm exhausted."
"You know, I don't think there's such a thing as 'space earth'," Katara commented randomly as they made their way down. "I mean, if it's form space, then it's not really 'earth'."
Sokka shot her a look. "Must you ruin everything?"
Katara laughed, shaking her head. "I can't believe I missed you."
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