Katara stepped forward, raising her arms together with the motion and pushing her weight outward, feeling with her spirit towards the water by the glacier's edge. Her Chi moved together with her, but sometimes it did things on its own. Or at least she couldn't make it move like her Gran Gran taught her. Water only looked calm on the surface, beneath, everything was always moving, she remembered Gran Gran saying.

It was the same with how she moved her body, but her Chi did other things she didn't expect or understand. Since her Chi was inside her, then how come it wouldn't move together with her. If the water was in a waterskin, and the waterskin was moved, then the water also moved. But somehow the moving of the Chi inside her was different from how she moved.

Katara extended her arms forward, then slowly pulled them back, repeating the motions. Push and pull. It was the simplest movement of water bending. It was also the beginning of everything, Gran Gran said. She moved her weight forward, shifting her stance from resting on her heel to the balls of her feet, and pushed the water, feeling a kind of weight against her hands but not really.

She heard the wave she made just as she felt it move, she couldn't see it, but it was like how she could feel her brother hug her through her coat or how her mother would rub her belly over the blankets. Katara felt the water that she wasn't touching move together as she moved.

"Water bending is about the movement of power," Gran Gran said, flowing into the form she was supposed to do. She was old but could still move just as well as anyone less than a third of her age, her other Gran Gran couldn't move as fast as her. "When you understand how water moves, the water itself will teach you how to move next."

Katara set her weight again on her heels, resetting the form and 'sitting' on her hips, as Gran Gran called it.

"You must be water."

Gran Gran stepped forward, moving her hands around her as the surrounding snow turned into water, swirling in a large glob as she moved. The water was a long twisting ribbon, like an eel, it twisted when Gran Gran's hands circled, it went upwards when Gran Gran raised her knee high into the next step. It was almost like she was following some imaginary drum beat, bobbing up and down and sometimes side to side with a rhythm.

Like the waves against the glaciers.

"Water bending is not like some of our dancing," Gran Gran said. "You are not supposed to lock any of your joints or stand still while your arms move."

Gran Gran moved forward with the water following her. The water rose to the air, jumping from the ground and up as she wanted it to. She circled back, and the water spread behind her like a wave against the ice before freezing in place.

"We move as water does."

Gran Gran waved her hand as a smaller mound of snow turned into water and lifted itself over the newly made ice sculpture.

"Watch how the water moves as it moves against the ice."

Katara noticed the sculpture Gran Gran made wasn't just solid ice. It had grooves against it to make the water follow how it flowed, there were also no sharp corners, only curves. It was weird. It didn't look like the ice all around her.

"But Gran Gran, isn't ice supposed to be sharp and blocky?"

Gran Gran smiled. "Sometimes it can also be smooth, but not here above the snow. When you can bend better I'll take you to see some of the ice caves."

Katara smiled. Gran Gran was nice like that. She taught her so much and always gave her those crystal cookies they sometimes got from the big metal ships. Katara really liked those cookies since it meant she was doing well with her water bending when she got them. It made her Gran Gran happy, so she was happy too.

Gran Gran let the water she was holding with her bending pour against the ice. Katara watched how it hugged the curves and made the surface of the ice shine under the light of the sun. Some of the water froze in place and never made it to the snow.

"Water does not jerk or turn sharp corners. Water follows where to go, but it will move the way it wants."

Gran Gran took another ball of water, but this time she swung it from below and threw it against the ice. The water exploded all around her then stopped in the air when Gran Gran raised her hands. The water droplets sparkled like twinkling stars.

"Wow."

"It's nice isn't it," Gran Gran said. "I know you'll be able to do this too someday soon."

Katara nodded.

"Now, pay attention to how the droplets look like when they hit the ice."

"It looks like rain." She'd seen rain before, once a summer ago.

"It does, but look how the water moved." Gran Gran took a deep breath before she moved one hand to point.

Katara followed with her eyes and saw lines when she angled her neck a little. "There's a line."

"Good, there are many lines. What else do you see?"

Katara followed the lines, and saw they formed a curve in the air.

"They form a curve."

Gran Gran took another breath before waving her arm and collecting the water in the air back into a ball. "Good. Water, can be made to move, but it will move how it wants. If your brother threw his boomerang at the ice, it will hit the ice and bounce against it. But when water hits ice, some of it bounces, some of it stays with the ice, some of the water that bounced will form lines forming a curve. Water moves the way it wants even when it's made to move."

Katara thought back to the way her Chi moved on its own, not following how her own body moves. It was the same with what Gran Gran showed her just now, since the water moved how it wanted to move.

"Gran Gran, does that mean the Chi inside moves like water?"

Gran Gran smiled. "Yes and no."

Katara pouted.

"It is like water, but it is also your own so you can move it as you want." Gran Gran laughed. "Did you instead mean to ask why your Chi isn't moving the way you move your body?"

Katara nodded.

"Silly girl, you're not supposed to try moving your Chi yet."

Katara frowned.

"Moving your Chi different from your body is not something you're supposed to do until you can move the water." Gran Gran laughed again. "Though I supposed if you have the ability to heal then it might also happen that way."

"Healing?"

"Yes, some of our benders are able to bend the Chi in others to help them get better."

"You can bend the Chi of other people?"

Gran Gran smiled. "Among other things, yes. But enough about that. I didn't know you were already aware of your Chi within you. The forms I was making you do could be done without knowing how to move your Chi. But since you already know a little, then it might be better to teach your how to better move your Chi first."

Gran Gran held her hands out.

"Take off your gloves and hold onto my hands, Katara."

Katara did as she was told, taking off her mittens and feeling the cold air against her fingers. She held Gran Gran's hands, they were warm even when they were out in the cold for so long. It was something her Gran Gran Kanna really liked having help with her Gran Gran Hama with. Keeping warm was always important in the South Pole.

"Now, I'm going to move your Chi, Katara," Gran Gran Hama said. "Pay attention to what it feels like."

Katara nodded, feeling the warm Chi touch hers.