Another chapter down. I have no clue how many more I can write. But it's got to be a whole lot more chapters before I finish this story.
Chapter 20: Master of Earthbending
That was it. After all the practice and anticipation, the match ends in a draw. Korra and Mako couldn't believe their eyes. They were sitting in a suite at the arena and everyone in the place except them, are going crazy watching their daughter kiss the new Avatar. The two parents were speechless and couldn't move. Not because of their daughter kissing Tal, but because the match was a draw. And if it was a draw, then who won the bet?
Bolin was the one to fix the issue. He looked over to see his brother and Korra looking all dumbfounded. Then he remembered that they had a bet going. He knew Tal and Katara were the ones that made the terms, but Mako was the one that suggested a bet. Korra was the one that made her own bet with Mako. Bolin looked back to the ring to see that the two kissing teens did stop kissing and did let go of one another. But not before all six benders received a standing ovation from the crowd before going back to the locker rooms. Bolin thought that Tal and his niece probably did not really care about that stupid bet. They appeared to look pretty darn content just being held by each other and kissing.
So Bolin did what h was always good at, making Mako suffer. And Korra was going to have to suffer alongside Mako because she played a part in it. Betting on their own daughter, and her boyfriend. He walked up behind Mako and Korra's seat and place a hand on their shoulders and poked his head between theirs. "You two remember that one time, many years ago. You know? The one time you two betted each other that Katara's first word was going to be mama or dada?" The two parents looked at Bolin with fear, they remembered that. "Good, you do remember! While you two were too busy arguing with each other while we were visiting Korra's parents down at the South Pole, I taught Katara how to say uncle."
"Oh no, Bolin." Mako said as he got out of his chair and faced his smirking brother. "No!"
"He's right , Bolin," Korra said, nearly mirroring her husband's moves and stare at Bolin. "There is no way that Mako and I are going to spend a hour outside at the South Pole only in our underwear during a blizzard. Both of us got a cold that lasted a month."
"Relax you two," Bolin replied as he put his arms around the two of them just like back in the day when they were teenagers. "Since it's a draw. Mako, you have to take Korra, Katara and Tal out to dinner at Kuang's for an evening. Afterwards, Korra has to come along with you and the two love birds up to Tree Line for that dinner in a blizzard which I heard from Hiroshi, who was told by Tai, that Tal was actually planning to have the dinner in an old cabin out in the words he and his dad used when they hunted for food. You will not need a parka out in the blizzard because you four will be inside during the blizzard. Tal was pulling everyone's leg." He let out a laugh as he watched Korra's and Mako's faces blush. Payback, although cruel at times, always seemed to feel so good at times.
Now Asami was out of her seat and walking up to see what her husband and her brother-in-law and sister-in-law were talking about. "Bolin sweetheart," She said to Bolin excitedly as she planted a good kiss on his lips. "After such a match, and not to mention Katara's and Tal's kiss, just think of all the publicity from this when it makes the morning news." She turned to Mako and Korra, "And I bet Kuang's would love to have you all dine there, maybe on the house, or at least with a little discount. This bet had helped raised the number of patrons it has seen out this month. As for the dinner up north, Hiroshi told me the same thing. You all will be eating inside next to a warm fire. You will not be outside in a 30 below white out." Asami was right, since it was a draw, why not do both of the ideas for the reward.
Zuko and Sokka, although it was hours since their bedtime, the two five year old twin boys rush down the halls to the locker rooms as soon as most of the crowd had exited the arena. They nearly sprinted down the hallways, reaching the door leading to the locker rooms and being told by a guard posted at the door to stop because they could not enter that part of the arena. They bugged the guard with stupid questions, such as why, until the adults finally arrived. The guard, recognizing Korra and Mako, let the group enter. In the hallway, they waited outside the doors which lead to the main men's and women's lockers rooms. Ten minutes later, Hiroshi and Ru came out, all freshly showered. But Tal was still inside. Ru's family and the Satos left to go home but the rest had to stay and wait for the others to finish cleaning up.
Soon Tai and Tay came out of the women's room all freshened up and not covered in sweat like they were after the match. Katara was supposedly taking her sweat time to shower and get changed to go back home. She had told the two girls to tell her family that she will be back home later, she never told them why though. Ru said that Tal was taking his sweet time in the showers because the water at the arena stayed very warm, not like the freezing cold showers back at the three teens' apartment.
During the wait, Zuko and Sokka finally crashed for the night and their parents had to carry them. Everyone was just about to leave for the night when Tal and Katara finally emerged from their locker rooms. And the two of them were holding hands again, but now they too were fighting a bit about who actually was the winner. Mako told them Bolin's idea to do both rewards, and then he told Katara that the dinner up in the woods was going to take place in a cabin. Katara slapped Tal in the back of the head but he just smiled at her and she couldn't stay angry after for long.
As soon as they had exited the arena, Katara and her family said goodnight to the three orphans and headed to the nearest ferry dock. Tal and his two sister began their short walk back to the apartment. Yet again, they wished each other a good night's sleep and went right to their rooms. Within ten minutes, the three had changed over into their sleeping attire and were out cold on their beds.
It was a good thing that they had scheduled with Korra that the three of them had their mornings after matches off to rest. But Tal's afternoon Avatar training lessons were still on, unless there was a match then evening. When he and his sisters finally arrived on the island after lunch back on the mainland, Korra asked the girls to go and teach Zuko and Sokka a few bending moves while she and Tal went and meditated. Tal forget it was their weekly day to go and meditate. Every afternoon always started off with him and occasionally Tai or Tay doing laps on the trail and doing pull-ups or sit-ups. After two hours of that, then Korra would teach Tal a certain element during that day.
Mondays was always Tal learning advanced earthbending moves like metalbending while the girls taught Korra's youngest sons bending. Zuko learned firebending from Tai and Sokka learned waterbending from Tay. The two boys had already mastered the basics from their mother and father but they wanted to learn more. Tuesdays, it was firebending from Korra with Tai. Wednesdays was airbending with Korra. Last week's lessons had him trying to get that those damn spinning gates of doom as he and Korra both called them. Thursdays was waterbending from Korra with Tay. Fridays was when most of the Tree Line Three's matches were scheduled so Friday was an off day. Saturday was meditation day with Korra. And Sundays was when the three teens either practiced their free running out on the rooftops of the buildings on the island, or went practiced non-bending combat with their collection of weapons from back in their apartment.
The two of them reached he meditation pavilion and went to their usual spot where Korra had been teaching him how to meditate for the last month. After the one time he was able to talk with Avatar Aang, he really had not much other success with it. It would take hours for him to finally connect to the Spirit World, Korra would have to wake him up in the Spirit World to talk to talk to Avatar Aang, and when they were finished, Korra had to go back to the real world first to snap him out of his trance. "I'm going to change things up for today Tal," she told him as the two of them took their usual spots on the floor of the gazebo. "I not only want you to connect to Avatar Aang, I want you to connect with Avatar Kyoshi as well. To make it easier for you to connect, let us just get Aang first and then ask for Avatar Kyoshi to joins us." He nodded in agreement and unlike Korra using the usual position for meditating, with the arms held at chest height and the fists touching, he rested his elbows on his thighs and held his head between his hands. Korra found him this position after the first time they meditated. His body involuntarily moved to that arrangement before he was able to enter the Spirit World. She waited two weeks before allowing him to start this way. It seemed to work because the time it took for him to enter the other realm was much shorter, although she still needed to wake him up in the Spirit World and back out in the real world.
Tal closed his eyes and did what he was trained, and within what to many in the real world would have called an hour, Tal woke up in the Spirit World. He felt cold and could hear echoing, like what he sensed when in that temple with all those statues of past Avatars. He opened his eyes, and he was there, he looked over to see Korra still with her eyes shut. But within another 5 minutes, she opened her eyes and saw Tal awake and standing in front of the statue of Avatar Kyoshi. She was the last Avatar from the Earth Kingdom and also the last female Avatar before Korra. Like Korra, Kyoshi was a fighter and also had to fight in a war. The women also had raised children, although Kyoshi also had a lifespan of over two centuries to raise a daughter. She was the longest living Avatar.
Korra got up off the ground and walked over to Tal. She was surprised, he actually woke up before her. Then they heard someone clapping their hands, the two of them turned around to see Aang clapping, while Kyoshi stood next to him. Tal remembered his old history lessons back when he was younger about that Kyoshi was a very tall and strong woman. That wasn't a lie, her spirit form in from of him attested to it, she was a whole to heads taller than him. "That has to be a new record Tal." Aang complemented to the boy as the four of them walked back to the center of the room and sat down to talk. "So Korra, why did I have to bring Avatar Kyoshi here with me this time?"
"Well," Korra told him. "I think it is a good time for Tal to meet her, maybe she can review his progress in mastering earthbending? Then I can concentrate more time on training him to get fire down quicker."
Kyoshi was feeling quite out of place. "Evaluate him? Isn't that the work of the White Lotus?"
"Avatar Kyoshi, the White Lotus has been split in to camp after I mastered the four elements. One side feels that they should control every aspect of the Avatar's life until they finish their training. It kind of feels weird when I learned three elements down at the South Pole and never heard about the Equalist movement. Or how about the fact that it had to be Aang's wife Katara telling me about all the crazy puberty stuff I was going to go through when I was 13, instead of my mom. The White Lotus controlled the Avatar, some of my teachers even tried to have me married off to one of their sons." Korra's face was beginning to turn red with anger and she screamed these crimes to Kyoshi. "Now we have two sects of the White Lotus, the old way, the control freak are all but gone for good, now the White Lotus is in charge of helping the Avatar and the security of the Avatar's family and friends, and the only Airbenders we have left in the world."
Kyoshi held up her hand to tell Korra to stop yelling. "Fine Korra, I will evaluate the boy. If he passes my test, he should be labeled as a earthbending master and you may then concentrate on helping him master fire next." She stood up and walked up to Tal who still sat on the ground. She gestured for him to stand and she placed her hand on top of his head. "Normally, to be considered a master of an element, one must be able to fight and defeat multiple enemies in a fight using only that one element, including at least one master of that element. But since you compete in that strange sport of probending using only earthbending, I will just simply look into your soul and determine if you are indeed ready."
The second she finished that sentence, her eyes suddenly started to glow and soon Tal's eyes were too. What he saw astounded him. He was all of a sudden in the middle of practice ring back on Air Temple Island, and there were metalbending cops all around him, including Bolin, the commander of that unit of the police. "Ready for your test Tal?" Taunted Bolin, whose eyes were glowing an eerie red. Kyoshi was going to make Tal fight and defeat a group of cops and Bolin. He assumed as starting stance and then they attacked.
The first two cops to advance at him were easy, he just made two pillars of stone shoot out the ground and smash into the attackers, sending them well out of the ring and landing outside unconscious. Another four then decided to attack and now he made another pillar shot up but this time he used earthbending to rip it apart and send chunks of rocks hurtling right at the cops' heads. Three were knocked out cold and fell to the ground. The fourth was a little harder, he blocked the Tal's shot but the teen responded with another chunk sent right for the cops' crotch. The cop doubled over in agony, and then Tal sent one last rock to the cops' face to get him. It hit hard enough that even the glowing red eyed Bolin flinched when he saw that.
Now another four stepped forward but instead of shooting rocks at Tal, they shot their metal cable at him. Now it had turned into a metalbending fight. He sprinted toward his enemies and ducked under the cables before they could contact him. He formed a pair of gauntlets of stone around his hands and forearms as he moved and was soon battering theses four with punches to the back to disable their cables and then to the gut or head to knock them out of the fight. After the last cop was put down with a gut wrenching hit to his face, all that was left for Tal to fight was Bolin. He was the earthbending master that Tal had to defeat to master the element of earth.
The two of them were still many yards apart. But this fight was not going to b done up close and personal. It was to be done with earth. Bolin began to move and began to send rocks at Tal. The teen used his trusty shield trick to protect him. But instead of using the earth discs, he just made a small wall of rock shoot out of the ground and he used bending to lift it very softly off the ground to make it float. He then advanced slowly at Bolin who continued to send attack after attack at the shield. Tal began to wish that he was allowed to use a wall like this when he was in the ring, it was holding up much better than the discs ever did. When he thought that he was close enough to finish it, Tal summoned all his remaining power to send the wall hurtling at Bolin at an incredible speed and with an unbelievable power. The wall hit Bolin before he even knew what was going on and it sent him flying out of the ring and into a nearby building. If the rules were the same as in probending, Tal had won.
He didn't even have any time to celebrate in the ring because his eyes stopped glowing and he was standing once again in the middle of that temple with all the statues and Avatar Kyoshi had her hand on top of his head. Her eyes stopped glowing as well and she looked down at Tal and took her hand off of his head and then held it out for him to shake. "Congratulations Tal!" She said with her commanding voice. "You are now a master earthbender. Oh, you don't need to worry about Bolin or his cops, it was never really them and nobody was hurt."
"Great job Tal!" Aang said as he too shook the teen's hand. He turned to Korra as Kyoshi soon disappeared into the shadows. "Excellent work on teaching Tal, Korra. This is why Myself and the other past Avatar's decide to let there be two Avatar's out in the world now. Training might now be able to be done much quicker." He gave her a hug and then disappeared in the shadows as well.
It felt as if only seconds after Avatar Aang disappeared, Tal woke up in the real world. Korra woke up too and they both got up. "I'm so proud of you Tal," she told him as she gave wrapped him up in one of her hugs where she pinned his arms to his sides and lifted him clear off the ground. This was her normal way of hugging people. Like Master Tenzin when he told her that she could stay on the island with him and his family after she had run away from that cursed White Lotus compound back down at the South Pole. Tal couldn't reply, the air in his lungs were being squeezed out of him.
Korra finally let him go after she heard something nearby. "Um mom, why are you hugging Tal?" It was Katara who was standing outside of the gazebo with Tai, Tay, Zuko, and Sokka.
"Tal mastered earthbending!"Korra screamed as she ran over to her children and put them in one of her hugs. But this one seemed a lot looser, none of her three present children at the moment were fighting to breathe. She finally let go of them as well and Katara rushed to Tal and hugged him.
"One element down," she said to him as she kissed him."Three to go. Maybe now we can have more alone time with one another, Mr. Avatar."
Well, one element down, three to go. I got both an action chapter in and I got a little romance in it at the end as well.
Thank you as always to those who follow/fav this and thankyou to so much to those who have been leaving reviews as well.
Special thanks to lilyb12, you really like this story and leave a review for every chaper, and I thank you.