Chapter Seven: A Little Chat
Xlo cried out excitedly. Li was somewhat shocked that Xlo had done it so quickly. When she was learning with an actual monk, it took her a few days. Of course, she was only seven.
"Close your hands tightly and visualize a marble forming in your hands." Guiszo instructed.
Li closed her eyes and held her hands tightly together. She was still trying to get this move right, even though it was the easiest move to do for most. She was hoping for a purple marble. It was her favorite color.
When Li opened her hands there was nothing in there but a few pieces of purple dust. At least she'd gotten somewhere. "Monk Guiszo, how long did it take you to learn dark bending?" Li asked him.
"Well, I started when I was about you age. I finished by the age of thirteen." He told her with a smile.
"So I'll be a master by then, too?" she asked him, looking up at him. She was very short compared to him.
"Let us hope for the best, my dear." Guiszo said, putting a hand on her head. She smiled up at him happily, her eyes sparkling.
"I want to be the best dark bender that I can be!" Li cried with joy; throwing her arms around Guiszo. Guiszo was like a father to her, since she had never met hers.
Guiszo smiled warmly down at her. "Who knows? Maybe you'll be even better at it than me."
"Wow, you got that really fast. It took me days to learn that move." Li said, impressed.
Xlo smiled at her. "Maybe I'm just special" she said with a sparkle in her eye.
"Maybe you cheat!" Li said, wiggling her fingers around. It was easy to tell she was joking around.
She and Xlo laughed for a while; saying things like that. They had become good friends now, connected by a bond.
Li flopped down on the ground, still giggling a bit. Xlo joined her and lay on her side. Xlo looked at her intently.
"Li, how old are you?" she asked. She knew it was rude but Li seemed like she was a six-year-old in a thirteen-year-old's body.
Li rolled over so she was on her side, looking at Xlo. "People think that I'm thirteen." She said with a smirk.
"Then how old are you? Sixteen, eighteen?" Xlo asked.
"If you guessed like that it'd take you forever. But I'd be able to listen without changing. I'm one hundred and thirteen." Li said; giving Xlo a grin.
"No way! If you were a hundred and thirteen you would be dead by now!" Xlo said, not believing her. She had sat up.
"The avatar isn't dead." Li said as-a-matter-of-factly. She sat up as well so she'd be eye-level with Xlo.
"You know the avatar?" Xlo gasped. There was too much about Li that shocked her, frightened her, or made her laugh.
"Know him? I'm one of his best friends!" Li said with a laugh. She grabbed her glider and held it on her lap. "He and I made this together."
Xlo snatched it and looked at it. She spread it out and got whacked on the head with the fans. "This is an air bender glider. You're an air bender, too? Well, I guess that makes sense, seeing how old you are. I don't really need you to prove it though, after that flight."
"And a light bender." Li added.
"A light bender, too? Li, you scare me." Xlo said, putting the fans back in the glider and returning it to Li.
"Y'know, you're one of the few people who know that. I try to keep it a secret, at least until I get angry. You saw how I get when I tried to open the door." Li said, looking down at the ground.
"I thought it was cool." Xlo said with a smile. The cat on her head meowed. She looked up at him and took him off. She looked at him. She could tell that he was hungry.
"What's your cat's name?" Li asked her.
"Ashen." Xlo said, letting him run off into the forest to catch a mouse.
"He's very small. Are you sure it's safe to let him run out there? What about hawks or pearl bears?" Li asked her; she was concerned for the cat.
"Ashen will be fine. He may be small but he can bite. Pearl bears know to stay away, and hawks can tell that he's more than a match for them. He could chomp their legs off!" Xlo explained. Li flinched at the legs part.
"You want to head back? We've been talking for a while." Li said, only now noticing that the sun was going down.
Xlo nodded and got up. She noticed that Li was opening the glider and bit her lip. It was going to be another ride on the Glider Express and Xlo had third class tickets.
Yes, a longer chapter for you all. Not by much but it is longer!
