"Healing Academy, Republic City Clinic, may I help you?" asked the secretary a little too enthusiastically into the telephone. Ida rolled her eyes and she made her way to the waiting room.
"Uh, Tahno?" she called out to the small group waiting for help. A depressed boy looked up at her, bags under his eyes and hair a mess. She tried to be friendly as he walked over to her. "Hi, I'm Ida. I'll be helping you today."
"What's with the Earth Kingdom getup?" he asked. As a water bender, she got this a lot, and it really was starting to tick her off.
"I'm from the Earth Kingdom," she answered back, trying her best to keep her cool. "Here's our room. Have a seat." Ida walked over to the basin in the room and dipped her bowl inside.
"You could just bend it, you know. That's what I would do, if I could," Tahno said brokenly. Ida decided this wasn't the best time to get into a conversation about how she had given up her bending.
"They told me you lost your bending when they assigned you to me. How did that happen?" she asked.
"Amon took my bending," Tahno answered. Amon, that name sounded familiar. "You know, the leader of the Equalists?" Tahno said, realizing she was having a hard time placing the name.
"Oh, right. He can take bending away?" she said in awe. She didn't believe it. Amon probably knew a good trick or something. Tahno gave her a look. "Um, let me just try to put some water over your ears here, see if I can get a reading from your mind." It was funny. She knew this kid could bend; she had heard some of his matches on the radio, but he felt just like a non-bender.
"Tahno, I'm so sorry. There's nothing I can do. It would take being able to give non-benders bending abilities for me to heal you," she said, defeated.
"If you can't heal me, no one can," he said, with a hint of crying in his voice. "This is the last place I can go." He got up to leave. Ida made a motion to stop him, but he held his hand up. "I have a meeting with the council anyways. Thanks for trying."
