Chapter 4: A Rough Start
The drive back to the school was a blur. All of my thoughts were fuzzy and slurred together, and I could barely see. I don't remember how long it took us to get back to Andrews Academy, but it felt like eternity.
"Cade, I'm very sorry about your brother," Avatar Yendis tried to console me. It didn't work. There was nothing anyone could do to fix what had happen. The only consolation I would accept at this point was the satisfaction of stopping the Dai Li's hearts. Permanently. "While you were out, I took the liberty of registering you in the appropriate classes." Yendis handed me a folded sheet of paper that I assumed was my schedule. I nodded and walked out of his office where Zander was waiting for me.
"You've got about half an hour before your next class, so let me show you where you'll be staying," he said motioning for me to follow. I walked silently behind him down the hall where he led me to a corridor of nothing but doors. No lockers or windows, just doors.
"Here we are, room 258," Zander said as he opened the door. I entered the fairly spacious room and looked around. It looked similar to my room back at the apartment. The apartment that I swore an hour ago I would never return to if possible. I smiled lightly and nodded at Zander, and he left closing the door on his way out. Today's events so far began to catch up to me, and I collapsed onto the bed in front of me. I didn't cry, sleep, or even move for about twenty minutes. I just lied there. I finally found the strength to pick myself up onto my feet and walk out the door.
I opened up the sheet of paper Avatar Yendis had given me and skimmed my eyes across the words at the top of the page. It read, "Agni Kai. Zuko corridor". Honestly, I had no clue what these words meant. But I started walking anyway, hoping I could find wherever this place was. After about five minutes of searching, I finally wandered down the hallway labeled "Zuko Corridor". I moseyed around until I found an adjoining hallway labeled "Agni Kai" and then came two different paths. One was labeled "Student" and the other said "Observer", so I decided it was best to follow the "Student" pathway. The hall eventually came to a dead and I sighed, about to turn back, was something odd happened. The ground began moving up. I was on an elevator.
As the elevator climbed higher, I could hear cheering and an announcer speaking through a loud speaker.
"In our next match, we have Laura Parker against Walker Young!" he spoke. WHAT? I thought to myself. The elevator came to a halt and I saw where I was: an arena. Filled with dozens of people. On the other end of the arena was a short girl with dark hair who looked like she was going to kill someone (which very well may have been the case). "Challengers, begin!"
Suddenly, the girl thrust her hands outward and fire flew from the palm of her hand. I almost screamed and quickly leapt out of the way. By the time I had gotten my bearings, the girl had already swung her arms back around and launched at least six different tongues of fire towards me. I flung myself to the ground and felt the heat of the flames rush past me.
"Fight back, Walker!" I heard people in the crowd yelling.
"Get up and face me!" the girl commanded as well. It was painstakingly clear that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, so I had a choice to make. The first option was to dance around for this lady until she realized I wasn't the person she thought I was, and the second option was to make the best of it.
Guess which one I went with?
When I got back up on my feet, the girl had already kicked fire at me. Giving myself enough space to leap if what I had in mind didn't work, I got control of my breath and stuck my hands out. It was in that instant that something clicked (I don't know what), and I felt energy rushing through me. I swiped my hands to the side in the same fashion that the girl had, and a strong gust came blowing in, pushing the fire bolt to the side and into the wall. Despite how far away I was from my challenger, I could see that she was shocked to the point where she couldn't move. Still connected to whatever energy was inside of me, I swung my hands above my head and I felt wind gathering in a vortex. I quickly thrust my hands out in front of my and the vortex spiraled towards the girl, sending her sliding backwards. I spun around and pushed my hands out once more and the girl flew backwards against the wall. I still had energy and now I was starting to experiment, so I leapt into the air and was surprised to find that I almost hit the roof. I landed directly in front of the girl and stuck my hands out menacingly, as if I was going to attack again.
"Cade! Stop!" I heard Avatar Yendis' now familiar voice behind me. "She is a friend!" I glanced down at the girl and saw the fear in her eyes. He was right. "Come with me." Avatar Yendis pulled me out of the arena.
"What was that?" I asked in frustration.
"That was a mistake. You went down the Student corridor didn't you?" Avatar Yendis replied. I nodded firmly, still waiting for an answer to my question. "You were supposed to go down the Observer hall. Agni Kai's are a traditional duel held between two firebenders. I figured just watching some of the things we did here would help you get more accustomed to it. They must have mistaken you for the other challenger and assumed that it was Walker who was coming up the elevator."
"Wait, you said that Agni Kai's are only held for firebenders?" I asked.
"Yes, that's why Laura stopped attacking when she saw you were an airbender," Yendis explained. "Come on, let's get you to the Observation Section."