Candle's POV.
We woke up to the sound of someone banging on our door. Mara, Sapphire and me were sharing a room while the boys got one across the hallway. We had been staying here for a few days, mostly staying in our rooms talking about what we were going to do. Since the night that Tina figured out about Sapphire's mom she hasn't really talked to us. I think she was getting over the fact that her best friend was alive.
We had learned that Tina was a firebender and had adopted Akoi when he was young and taught him how to control his firebending. Akoi had also agreed to teach me and Sapphire firebending. Zoe had told us that she was a waterbender and we got to meet her turtle named Leo.
"Girls wake up. Today is school," Akoi was yelling through the door. Then after about a minute he stopped and I heard him walk away.
"Come on Candle we're all dressed except up," Mara was hitting me with a pillow.
"Five more minutes," I groaned. I didn't want to get out. I was so done with waking up early.
"No, get up," Mara ripped off my comforter. I felt the cold air hit me.
"Ah," I screamed and ended up sending Mara to the wall with a wave of air. She turned around and sent a wave of water at me. I sent a wave of rock dust at her. She screamed and then soaked me before I could even get my glasses on.
"Fine princess. I will get up," I told her getting out of my bed. I sent a small wave of air down through my body. instantly drying myself. Mara washed the dirt off her and then I dried her.
"Meet us in the main hall in five minutes," Sapphire said while walking out with Mara.
I dressed in a pair of jeans and an old T-shirt that had a snitch from harry potter on it. The snitch was fading, I had had the shirt for a few years now. I just hadn't grown. I put on my converse that were returned to me just yesterday after they had been cleaned and dried. Zoe had also washed all of our clothes the first night we had been here.
I walked out into the main hall to see Zoe and Akoi talking with all my friends.
"Ready to go to a school that is only for benders?" Akoi said I nodded. He smiled and walked out. He didn't have a bag and neither did Zoe. I was guessing that they didn't need one.
We walked even farther up the trail that was outside of their house. We had probably been walking for 20 minutes until I saw a huge courtyard. There were kids of all ages battling, talking, reading, and running. I could see that there was one big building that sat over to the side. It looked to be only one room, but that seemed to be big enough for everyone. There were about 15 kids out here, and when we walked in a lot of people looked our way.
I suddenly remembered that I was wearing short sleeves. Everyone could probably see my tattoos. Akoi turned around to us and gave us a thumbs up.
"You'll like it here. Everyone's in the same situation as you guys, just not as extreme," Zoe told us. She went over to group of girls who were waving at her.
"Come on, come on. Everyone gather around in a circle. We will be sparring for today," an older woman started to yell. Everyone started to cheer," we won't if you won't be quite though."
Everyone shut up after that.
"No, for first pairing we have Cami and Shan," The woman called out. A girl and a boy stepped up. This girl looked to be about 10 years old, and she was facing off with a dude who looked about 16.
"That's Mrs. Torri. She has been teaching kid benders for all her life. Ever since she had noticed that she wasn't the only one. She can be really sassy though. The girl out there is Cami, she has been here ever since she could walk. One of Mrs. Torri's first students. But don't be fooled by her young looking self. She actually about 17 years old. She's an earthbender, and could knock you out if you ever messed with her," Akoi was explaining to me, I was taking in everything," the boy is Shan, he's new. Been here about 2 years. But no one makes fun of him because he's black. In fact most of the people here fear him. He's a waterbender."
I didn't pay much attention to the next few battles, until this one pair was called up. Everyone started to gasp. There was a girl and a boy again. This girl looked about 15 years old. She had Blonde hair with a few reds streaks in it. Her eyes were a dull gray. The boy who stepped out was very brood and sorta reminded me of Zach.
"That there is Skya. No really knows what her skill is. She has never put full power into her attacks. But I can tell you she is one tough firebender. It's almost scary. She does dangerous things for fun, but she is very smart. The boy right there is Jake, he's an earthbender. And rumor has it that they like each other, but no one knows if they are in a relationship. Zoe tells me that she ships them, whatever that means," Akoi started to talk more about them, but I tuned it out.
I was interested in the part about how she had never shown her real power. Akoi had told me that in the end of the sparring you could challenge people. I intended to challenge her.
I watched her battle. She seemed to have a pattern, to use her fist most of the time. Then every once and a while when Jake would send a rock at her, she would use her foot and explode it. So it seemed that her legs were most powerful for defense and that her hands were most powerful for attack. Though they were both slow, maybe she had slowed down for Jake or they were just both slow.
The day stretched on. Akoi was called up a few times and I saw him fight through pretty long battles. Each one he had ended up winning. Zoe had been called up even more than Akoi. She had used the pond that was next to the fighting area.
"Volunteer time!" Mrs. Torri yelled out. Everyone shut up to see who would go up.
"I will fight," I yelled out. Everyone turned my way.
"You're a new girl aren't you. What do you bend?" Mrs. Torri asked.
"I bend air," I said. Whispers spread out.
"I see, well who do you challenge?" she asked.
"You didn't let me finish. I also bend water," more whispers spread out and Mrs. Torri's mouth slightly opened," and earth and fire."
By that time people were whispering harshly.
"Who do you challenge," Mrs. Torri's voice rang out.
"I challenge Miss Skya," I yelled out. All the whispering stopped dead.
"You wish to challenge me?" Skya called out," Ok, I am the easiest one here aren't I?" Sarcasm dripped out of her mouth.
"Come up and shake hands," Mrs. Torri said. We did. I shook her hand. It felt very powerful. Compared to mine, which probably still had cuts on it.
"So, tattoo girl. What's your name?" Skya asked.
"Candle," I said as we got down into fighting stance.
"I see, and you bend all the elements? Now that is something I would like to fight. Have you heard that I have never shown my true power? That's because no one has proven they are worth it. Prove to me that you can see my true power," she laughed a little under her breath.
"Begin!" Mrs. Torri yelled out. We sprang apart. The first thing I did was quickly make small water bubbles with one hand. And with the other i collected small rocks. I moved fast and it seemed to surprise Skya, but she stayed still while I spread out the water bubbles.
They were all over the place. The next thing I did while i held the water bubbles there was making a shield out of air. I wasn't going to get more than one person hurt during this battle.
Skya started to twitch. And soon I saw that her curiosity hi her. She reached out and blasted on of the water bubbles. I smiled as I watched each on explode quickly, one after the other. People outside the barrier gasped and pointed. They had never seen something like that. Skya was taken by surprise and was hit by billions of small rocks. They all cut her like paper cuts.
"I see what you did there. You got my curiosity to make me move. Nice move," Skya said. She started her attack. She moved forward quickly while shooting fire balls at me. I jumped out of the way using airbending to send something at her everything she attack. She wood either try to break the waves with her foot and fire or dodge out of the way.
Both she was quite bad at. i landed after the last attack. I moved a small pedestal up from the ground and sat on it. I smiled while she breathed hard. So far this had been a great battle. The first where I hadn't ended up blowing an airport, a house, a school, or a prison up
"That's it," she whispered.
"So it's time for you to show me what you can do. Come on I want a normal battle where i end up blowing something up. Mainly a building," I told her. She found that funny and started to laugh. She ran at me with fire following her every step.
"You laugh. I am not kidding," I said while jumping around the fire balls she shot at me," you can ask my friends. We have blown up plenty of things. Let's see, about 3 or 4 schools...," she was now sending waves of fire with her feet, I still jumped them," Well we blew up quite a few airports. Um, broke out of that prison. Also blowing up. Now that i look at it. Our prime source of getting out of things is blowing it up."
Now Skya was laughing. It made her attacks weaker, but they were still strong. I could feel the fire burning right below me. She was powerful. She started to send huge waves of fire. Some that were taller than me. I was starting to breath hard. She now had whips that were making me jumped while going through waves of fire.
"How's that Tattoo Girl. I haven't be able to do that in a while," she was smiling and laughing. I was breathing hard, pretty hard.
"Dude, you laugh a lot. More than I do, and that's saying something," I told her. She only laughed harder," well we should probably get this over with."
She started to send more waves of fire at me. This time she controlled several whips of fire in each hand. It wasn't able to touch the ground for more that a few seconds before I had to jump again. I was getting tired of this, and before I knew it I was getting hit with a few. They left burn marks on me. That was probably pay back for the millions of mini rock cuts i gave her.
I felt power course through my body. I knew that I had accidentally enter the avatar state. Not like my tattoos were glowing and I really had no control over my body. Like my eyes glowed for a minute and then I became super powerful.
I stopped jumping. The second I hit the ground i spun myself and made waves upon waves of air. They all seemed to radiate from my body. I was forcing the fire, and everyone who had been watching me. The fire was soon gone and then I stopped. Skya was on the ground shielding herself from anything.
As I walked on the ground each step brought up rock from the ground. It soon made a cage for Skya. One which she lay in. I walked up to it, she look terrified. I walked up and put my hand within the cage. She winced and brought up her hand.
The power left my body and I felt my self relax. I could feel her pulse and her breathing. I could feel what skya was feeling and she was scared of me. Half of me felt bad about that.
"Hey, I thought you like to laugh," I said, my hand was extended to help her. The cage that was around her started to crumble. I felt all of the power leave my body. She took my hand stood up. I stood next to her. The crowd started to cheer.
"Thanks," she said.
"I should be thanking you," I told her.
"Why-," she was cut off by me falling on her. All of my control had gone. All the strength I had had was gone.
"I need to get better at this. I can't deaf him, if I can't even hold up my own weight when I am sparring," I whispered to her. My face was leaning against her shoulder.