Chapter 8
AN: Here's another chapter, I hope you enjoy it. On the advice of a review, I ran this chapter through Grammarly, so we'll see if it makes it better.
"Higher twinkle toes!" Toph yelled as Aang raised an earthen well in defense of her attack. Apparently shoulder height was not up to her standards.
"I'm trying!" Aang yelled back, frowning in concentration as he widened his stance, bringing his skinny arms upwards with a grunt as he earthbended once more. With a rumble, a much taller, thicker wall rose beside the already existing one, towering over Aang in height and twice as thick as the first.
"Better." Toph nodded in approval, only to a second later shift her foot as she swung an arm towards her pupil's defense, clenching her fist as a pillar of earth erupted from the ground at an angle, its tip narrowing almost to a point as it punched through his defense with ease, making the wall split as Aang's surprised face was revealed to the world. "But not good enough. Again!"
Aang groaned at the young girl's orders but otherwise complied, knowing that arguing his case would not help here, not with the harsh taskmistress that was Toph Beifong.
From where he was sitting, Feng snorted at Aang's evident misery, taking amusement out of it. And why wouldn't he? Aang, while rapidly improving his mastery over the element of earth as the days wore on, continued to struggle with the mindset required of it. It was an almost constant struggle for him to bend the stubborn element to his will, and even when he did so he was often left short.
"Poor Aang." Katara said in concern from where she was watching the spectacle, within easy hearing distance for Feng.
"Poor Aang?! What about poor me?!" Sokka cried from his place beside her where he was sharpening his machete, rasping a wet grindstone against its edge. At her brother's words, Katara's head slumped as she placed a hand against her face, sighing.
"It was a month ago Sokka, you have to let it go."
"14 hours!" Sokka yelled in reply, scowling as he turned his back to his sister, concentrating on his weapon maintenance instead. Unfortunately, the turn allowed him to bring Feng's sitting form fully into view, the young man taking advantage of this to smile and wave.
"Don't even try it," Sokka growled midstroke, lapsing in concentration momentarily at the provocation at just the wrong moment, as his whetstone inevitably slipped off the blade and his palm took its place, biting into his palm.
"Gah!" Sokka yelped, withdrawing his hand in pain as he shook it out, quickly holding it in view of sight to reveal the deep, blood-red cut he had opened up in his palm.
"You might want to get that looked at," Feng commented helpfully, pointing a single finger at the wound as Sokka clenched his hand to staunch the bleeding. Unfortunately, judging by the frown on his face, it felt as bad as it looked, which meant asking his sister for assistance.
A sister who would take the opportunity to chide him for his clumsiness along with talking about his aloofness while she closed the cut. He would do so however despite his gut reaction because he knew just how bad a cut on his palm could be, and how long it would take to heal by itself.
Still, while Sokka went to beg for his sister's help, Feng took the time to turn his thoughts to himself, and the practice he had to do.
"I'm going to my spot if you need me," Feng said as he moved to his feet, his midmorning break now over as he looked at the sun, noting the time.
Katara took the chance to wave even as she maintained her focus on her bother's palm, not taking her eyes off it. Getting at least some acknowledgment, Feng casually walked out of the clearing, not letting the sounds of earthbending bother him on his trip.
Taking the first right at a unique-looking pile of rocks, Feng followed the gentle curve of the rock wall as he traveled, keeping it in sight as his path began to elevate, gradually gaining height until he reached his destination.
Located in the middle of the highest hill in the area was a circular tunnel, one that almost seemed to go nowhere as a faint light spilled out of it. But it did go somewhere Feng knew as he moved through the entrance, using the embedded stairs to continue further upwards, his path circling around in a uniform fashion until it no longer did, the stairs leading out to a flattened courtyard on top of the rock.
Taking in a deep breath, Feng inhaled as much of the cooler air as possible, letting it enrich his lungs before exhaling it in a flurry, a small but powerful stream of air passing his lips.
"It's good to be back," Feng smirked as he cracked his neck, shaking the rest of his limbs to loosen them up before he bent his legs a little, putting one foot in front of the other as he held his arms forward, palms relaxed.
On an unseen signal, Feng stepped forward and thrust a hand forward, a strong burst of wind erupting from his palm that spread out in a wide arc, dislodging the small amount of dust left on top of his little mountain abode.
Satisfied with his strike, Feng turned on one foot, throwing a foot outwards in a swipe as a blade of wind left his heel, traveling in a horizontal line for some time before dissipating into the breeze.
He called it his little abode, but it was really more of a medium-sized training area that Feng had set up with Toph's help. Once they had landed in the area almost two weeks ago, it had been unanimously decided that they would give Appa a break from the constant traveling, as it had been taking a toll on their furry buddy, a fact they'd noticed in how each day he would travel a little less before exhaustion set in.
So, when the group had found a suitable area with lots of rock and water to bend alongside foliage and animals to hunt, they settled in. For Feng, that meant that he could set up a more established training area than his normal one.
One like, say, the top of a large hill. It had been love at first sight when Feng had seen the hundred-meter tall collection of rock, so at the first chance, he got he had badgered Toph into creating a one-person tunnel and stairs up through and to its top where he had her flatten the area, leaving him an oval area of around 7 meters in width and 10 in length.
Plenty of space for him to be doing his bending at an elevated height that was not Bison-back.
"Hah!" Feng yelled as he unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks, small bullets of compressed air leaving his limbs rapidly as he fought through a tirade of imaginary opponents. Benders and non-benders alike, Feng would picture how he would fight them as he practiced his bending, becoming more fluid as time passed and he increased his knowledge.
Performing a final flying kick in the air, Feng twisted his body as he came down, slamming a heel into the ground as a rolling wave of air moved out in every direction, throwing several imaginary figures over the edge as Feng ended his fight.
"I've certainly gotten better at that." Feng nodded to himself, rolling his shoulders again to relieve any tension that might have formed due to the rapid movement. Luckily, there was none. "And thankfully, it's the last standard level technique I have to learn, which means I can finally get down to the good stuff."
The good stuff, as Feng said, was the master-level techniques of airbending that you couldn't even begin to learn until after you had shown mastery of all the other standard techniques an air acolyte would learn on their journey to becoming a master.
This didn't mean that he had mastered all of the standard techniques, not by any means. Hell, the only techniques he was confident he had masted were temperature regulation, the wind run, the air shield, the air cushion, and the air blast, even if he was getting close in a few others.
It may seem like he learned them all quickly, and he had, but there was a reason for that. It seems like the more techniques he learned, the faster he picked them up, and the easier it became to practice them. It was like a snowball effect really, one that had the ultimate goal of being declared a master.
"But I'm still a long way off of that." Feng frowned as he thought over his skills. He had actually been feeling pretty proud of his progress, thinking he was getting close to being declared a master, but he couldn't have been more wrong.
There was still so much he still needed to grasp about the art that was airbending, the least of which were three master levels techniques. Feng remembered being explained this by Aang in some of the boy's downtime from learning two new elements, and it had been as intimidating as it sounded.
…
"Master Level techniques?" Feng said in curiosity as he peeled a wild carrot, passing the prepared vegetable to the boy next to him who went to wash it as Feng picked up another carrot, taking his sharp knife to the vegetable.
"Yep, Master Level Techniques." Aang nodded. "They're basically the next level up of airbending that has to be accomplished before an airbender can be declared a master and get their tattoos."
Aang bent a handful of the stream's water beside him, running it carefully over the produce in his hand before he added the still-wet carrot to the pile in the basket.
"Alongside obtaining great skill in all the regular airbending moves, Master Level airbending moves are the other barrier to being counted among our number, and they are usually where most people get stuck."
"Really?" Feng asked in suprise. "Why's that?"
"Because they're so difficult." Aang shrugged, taking another offered vegetable. "Unlike the standard techniques that you have to learn, which normally takes most acolytes two decades, by the way, Master Level techniques have an added level of difficulty, generally in at least two of three ways."
"Alright." Feng nodded, cutting up the last carrot as he moved onto the potato, urging Aang to continue.
"Firstly, is just the sheer amount of air that needs to be moved. It's a bit hard to accurately grasp just how much air this is, but Monk Gyatso explained it to me in terms of water. If a standard technique like the air cushion is a pond's worth, a master-level technique is like a lake. It takes a lot more effort to grasp onto that amount of air, although I'm pretty sure you can already do that. The Air Vortex is a master-level technique like that."
Feng nodded, he could move around a lot of air when he wanted to and had shown it many times. His Air Fortress technique was like that, as well as when he used his Fan's. To be honest, he'd never actually found it that difficult to grasp more air, but he wasn't going to tell Aang that.
"And the other two ways?"
"The other two ways were often considered to be the same thing by the other monks, but I never saw them that way, even if I could understand why. The first is about feeling the wind, about taking on its boundless nature as a way of life. The Reed in the Wind is a technique like that, which can be used to evade any and all blows an enemy may throw at you by flowing your body around them."
A smile crossed Aang's face as a memory came to him. "Zuko was always quite annoyed when I used it on him, as he became frustrated at not being able to touch me."
He shook his head as he got back on track.
"The other way is motionless bending, which is what I consider to be the hardest of the three. Or at least it's always been the hardest of the three for me, but it is considered the highest level of skill an Airbender can possess. Once an Airbending master can perform every standard level technique with little to no movement, they are considered ready to become a council member."
A blush crossed Aang's face.
"This was actually my goal before I found out I was the Avatar, and after that, well…anyway, that's the three separate factors required for Master level techniques," Aang explained, gesturing with his hands. "People usually specialize in one or two of them, which I did for the first two, while Monk Gyatso did for the last."
"Okay, so there are three separate factors that make techniques master level technique, got it. Do I need to learn all of the master-level techniques to be considered a master?"
"All of them?" Aang asked as he suddenly broke out into laughter as he clutched at his stomach, barely managing to avoid tipping over the basket full of washed vegetables in his lap.
Feng let him get the outburst out of his system, even if it was annoying.
"Sorry, sorry, it's just that if you had to learn all of the master-level techniques, no one would ever be declared a master. No, alongside the other aspects of airbending that must be mastered, only three master-level techniques are required. For me, it was the Air Vortex, Air Blades, and Reed in the Wind, although I learned a few more after that."
This explanation cleared up a few things for Feng, alongside giving him a goal to move towards. Three master-level techniques, it can't be that hard, right?
…
He was wrong.
"Man was I way too optimistic on that front. Air blades are just plain kicking my ass with how limited my progress with them is."
Because of cause, he would go for a technique that Aang both knew, thus could give advice on, and would allow Feng access to a more advanced version of the gale slice. It would be a direct counter to the more widespread techniques common for airbending, as well as giving him an option if he ever wanted to put someone down hard.
After a couple of days of frustration with the technique, however, he had put it on the back burner for a while, at least until he'd mastered the smaller scale version that was the hand-powered gale slice as opposed to the fan-driven air blade.
This meant that he had freed some of his time up to work on the two techniques he wanted to most. His Air Fortress, and the Air Flow sense, as he had a feeling if he could combine the two techniques, he would be a force to reckon with on the battlefield.
"But only if I can actually use them properly by themselves first," Feng admitted as he took in another deep breath, fortifying himself as he crouched down and drew his arms together in the customary first stage of the technique.
Harnessing his immense focus, Feng drew the air around him into a condensed wall, one that appeared three-quarters of the way around his body to cover his front and side, the wind swirling with fierce intent as it howled to the world around him.
This was already a strain on his mind and chi, but Feng took it a step further as he disengaged his left arm, letting it fall to his side before hesitantly doing the same with his right, letting it come to his side as more and more of the technique was handed over to just his mind.
Well, his mind and his legs that is, as they formed the solid foundation of the technique, leaving him rooted in place.
"So far so good." Feng breathed out heavily, sweat already beading on his brow despite the cool temperature of the air around him. Creating a mental target in his mind, Feng swung a fist outwards in its direction, using the gesture to help his control of the Air Fortress flourish as it sent out a column of compressed air, swiftly traveling some distance away from him.
This redirection of the contained air made the shield wobble slightly but otherwise, hold steady as Feng reasserted his control with deadly focus. This was another issue he had with the technique, aside from the fact that he could only cover his front and sides, leaving his back open.
When Feng used the barrier to attack like he just had, he ran the risk of destabilizing the technique as it ran under a delicate balance of pressure and outwards force. Because of how the air circulated, it was perfectly fine with deflecting physical attacks like rock and even water the one time Katara had elected to join in. Anything that connected with the barrier was flung away from Feng and he even had minimal control of the direction now.
But it wasn't enough, not for what he envisioned of the technique. Not when it wasn't a complete covering and he could send out attacks at the same time as he defended, and not when he was rooted in place, free to be assaulted.
Needless to say, there were many issues he had with the technique, and none of them were simple ones, but he was determined to solve each and every one of them one step at a time. First up was the issue of its coverage, which he had already made substantial progress on in the last two weeks, so he suspected within another week or two it would be accomplished.
Feng also suspected that if he could get the shield to fully encompass him his stability issue with attacking would also be fixed, as he would just be able to have all of the air moving around his body in a simple loop while sending the outer layer outwards as an attack.
After that would come movement, but that was still a long way off, what with it being declared a master-level technique by Aang who, considering he was the only Airbending Master in the world, had the final say in this declaration.
Once he had mastered the Fortress, however, Feng would turn his attention to the Air Flow sense, which he imagined would be even harder to make than the completed Air Fortress, but it would be worth it.
On hearing Aang's explanation of the process of being a master, he had decided then and there that he would only accept the accolade once he had finished both techniques, as a sort of motivation to push him forward in his development of the techniques.
And once he did, once he combined the two techniques together? Well, outside of the Avatar State which Feng had only heard about but not seen, he would be the most powerful air bending in the world.
He really liked the sound of that title.
…
Back in the mountains, in a prairie, Aang and the rest of the gang stood before a series of holes in the ground, the young Avatar sitting as he held a thin wooden flute in his hands.
"What's out here?" Sokka asked, looking around for any sight of why Aang had badgered them to stop at this position. To be honest, Feng had been wondering that as well, but he now knew from experience that Aang could get quite stubborn in his own way when he set his mind on something.
It was an amusing effect of his earthbedning practice, believe it or not. Feng guessed it was true what they say that a bender's element had an influence on their personality, which is potentially why most benders didn't become masters until they were older. The longer they bent, the more they would change and adapt to their element, leading to their eventual mastery as long as they kept at it.
Really, Aang, Katara, and Toph just had a head start advantage.
"A lot actually," Toph said as she rested a hand on the ground. "There's hundreds of little…"
"Shh!" Aang half shouted as he turned to face the girl, placing a finger on his lips. "I know you can see underground, but don't ruin the surprise. Just watch."
Hundreds of little things didn't sound very good to Feng, as the only thing he could think of that would contain hundreds of what he assumed were animals was an...insect…nest.
Feng took a few careful steps backward from the holes, ignoring the strange looks he received from the others. It wasn't cowardice, it was just…getting a better view, yeah. A better view of whatever supersized bugs came out of those holes.
Bringing the end of the flute to his lips, Aang played a few notes of a melody, causing a gopher to pop out of one of the nearby holes and mimic the noise before popping back down. Feng gave an internal sigh of relief at the action, stepping back beside the others as he did.
It was just gophers, not anything else. That was good.
"Yeah!" Aang cheered, repeating the action as another Gopher popped out of its hole to mimic the action. "I'm putting an orchestra together."
"Orchestra, huh?" Sokka said with annoyance. "Well la-di-da."
Pretty soon, as Aang continued to play his flute, more and more of the little animals made an appearance, all of them joining into the melody. Even Momo joined in, although that was just in an attempt to catch the little beasts, doing so unsuccessfully under Katara and Toph's laughter.
Even Feng smiled, enjoying the cheerful ambiance of the performance as he sat back and watch. Unfortunately, Sokka was not a fan of it like the others were, as the stick-in-the-mud stuck his finger in the end of the flute, blocking the next note Aang was going to play.
"This is great and all, but don't we have more important things to worry about? We should be making plans." Sokka said, his annoyance bleeding through his words.
"We did make plans." Toph declared. "We're all picking mini-vacations."
"There's no time for vacations." Sokka cried in frustration, throwing his arms in the air as he looked for support from the others. Unfortunately, there was none to be found from the other members of the group, as each of them, whether quietly or not, was glad for the opportunity to relax.
"I'm learning the elements as fast as I can, Sokka. I practice hard every day with Toph and Katara. I've been training my Arrow off!"
"Yeah," Katara nodded as she walked beside Aang, "what's wrong with having a little fun in our downtime?"
"Feng, come on buddy, back me up here." Sokka pleaded as he turned to the one member of the group that he believed would have his back. Yeah, no.
"I'm sorry about this Sokka, but I kind of agree with the others." Feng apologized, earning grins from the trio. "As Aang said, he's been training his "Arrow" off, and it shows. Katara, Aang's about three-quarters of the way to mastery, right? And Toph, he's a third of the way through the earthbending katas?"
"He is, he's making fantastic progress." Katara nodded.
"Well, a touch over a third, and only the easier ones, but yeah, Twinkles Toes is learning pretty quick."
Feng turned back to Sokka, seeing some of his irritation fading away. "Exactly, Aang hasn't been slacking off in my training, nor have I for that matter. I can only imagine how hard it is for Aang to be learning two different elements at the same time as learning one is hard enough. He starts training almost as soon as he gets u and doesn't stop until the sun goes down, which is more than I can say about the rest of us."
Aang blushed at the praise, rubbing the back of his head.
"That amount of effort isn't sustainable and will catch up to him in the long run, but as you said, we are on a limited time frame for him to learn the elements. The fastest way for him to do that is to work hard, but also to take a rest when appropriate so that he can refresh himself to make his training more efficient."
Feng looked at Aang, lifting an eyebrow in question.
"I think it's safe to say that it's time for a break?"
Aang nodded rapidly, his head bobbing back and down as he grinned, making Sokka sigh.
"I know that, Feng. I know Aang's working hard, but theirs just so little time left. Aang still needs to find a firebending teaching alongside mastering the three elements, and that's not even including the intelligence we are missing about the fire nation. Hell, we don't even have a map. What are we going to do, head west until we reach the Fire Lord's house?"
Sokka's face scrunched up slightly as he knocked on an imaginary door.
"Knock-knock. Hello, Fire-Lord? Anybody home? I don't think so. We need some more intelligence if we're going to win the war."
That actually reminded Feng of something as he moved towards his pack, quickly rummaging around in it for his desired item.
The other three sighed but knew Sokka was right. "All right, well finish our mini-vacations and then we can go look for Sokka's intelligence."
"Found it!" Feng yelled, thrusting a hand holding a worn scroll in the air, making Katara, Aang, and Sokka blink in surprise.
"Really? I've been looking for Sokka's intelligence for years and I never found anything." Katara replied.
"Not that." Feng waved his hand, making Sokka's face twitch as Aang and Toph struggled to contain their grins. "I mean a map of the Fire Nation."
"Say what now?" Sokka said calmly, unsure if he was hearing correctly.
"Yeah, a map of the Fire Nation, I've had it for years. You should have said something sooner if you were so worried about it Sokka. Come, take a look." Feng offered, unrolling the large scroll and laying it flat on the ground so everyone could see.
There were two parts to the map. The main part, which took up over 80% of the paper's surface, was a highly detailed black rendition of the fire nation's lands, stretching from crescent island in the east to the capital in the west in all its minute detail.
"This…Feng, this is amazing!" Sokka yelled with excitement, moving to his hands and knees to get a better look even though it blocked the view of the others. "It's even got the major military bases labeled clearly and the rough number of troops stationed there!"
Aang and Katara followed Sokka's finger to what he was looking at and found out he was right, the military bases were listed.
"But where exactly is this, you know, in relation to the rest of the world?"
In response to the water-tribe boy's question, Feng did not reply. Instead, he knelt down beside him and tapped the top right corner of the map, where the second part of the scroll was displayed, a basic yet accurate description of the world map with only the nations themselves labeled due to the lack of space.
"Oh," Sokka said in embarrassment, rubbing the back of his head as Feng returned to his feet, standing back in contentment.
"So, do you think we can spare a little time for those vacations now?"
"You bet we can." Sokka nodded, not even meeting Feng's eyes with how engrossed he was with the map.
Turning to the other two, Feng grinned, as did they.
That is until Katara frowned however as she tilted her head, looking thoughtful.
"Feng?"
"Yeah?"
"It's great that you have this map, and being so detailed is a definite plus, but how exactly did you come across it? Something like this…" Katara trailed off, thinking about how to word her question, "if it was a map of the Southern Water Tribe, it would be restricted to only the military leader of the nation along with the people who serve just below them. I can't imagine it would be different for the Fire Nation, so if you could just help me understand how?"
Feng pursed his lips at Katara's words, staring silently into her eyes before looking at the also curious eyes of Aang and Sokka. Toph wasn't exactly meeting his eyes, but she also looked interested, a fact that he wouldn't begrudge her for.
He would be similarly curious(suspicious) if the situation was reserved, so while it would probably be best if he claimed he had just found it, that wouldn't exactly be truthful. Which the living lie detector would point out anyway, so really honesty was the best policy in this case.
"If you really want to know?"
"I do." Katara nodded.
"I stole it. Right out of a Fire Nation Base."
The rest of the gang feel silent for a moment, each of them individually digested the new information they had learned about their friend.
"Ha! Knew it!" Toph laughed as she crossed her arms, looking smug with herself, entirely unfazed by his admission.
"Well…you are pretty sneaky," Katara admitted, thinking of the times Feng had disappeared only to show up again a few hours later.
"Yes, sneaky…" Sokka trailed off, staring at Feng with suspicion. "But just how sneaky would you have to be to pull off something like this? You say that the map came from a fire nation base, but a small one wouldn't hold something like this. Only a big one would have something like it, and a place like that would be crawling with guards."
"Mm." Feng nodded, confirming Sokka's suspicion. "It was the Ketu Harbour Base, actually."
Seeing the confusion on his friend's faces, he elaborated.
"It's a major naval base on the southwest coast of the Earth Kingdom, where ships go to dock and resupply on the journey between the Fire Nation and the Rest of the world. It's well established too, being captured almost 90 years ago during Sozin's reign, so the soldiers are pretty relaxed there. That's how I got in, actually."
"Really? How does that work?" Aang asked curiously, ignoring the slight tension between Sokka and Feng.
"Well, as you can tell I look like an Air Nomad, at least my facial features and hair colors do, right?"
"U-huh." Aang nodded.
"Well," Feng smiled wirily, "you're basically the only person in the world who can confirm that. To everyone else, however, what do black hair and pale skin signify?"
"It says Fire Nation!" Sokka realized, the first too as his face eased as he relaxed a little. "With all the new soldiers walking around you would have blended right in."
"Yep. I stole some Fire Nation armor, and no one gave me a second glance, even when I went to the more private areas where only the Fire Nation leadership could go. As long as you can get past the guards blocking off the area, anyone who sees you inside just assumes you have permission to be there. For an airbender, that's a breeze."
Three heads turned towards Aang.
"That's true, Airbenders are naturally sneaky." He confirmed, his face turning wistful. "We actually made a game out of it, me and my friends, to see who could sneak up on the masters the best. It never worked for a few of the more sensitive ones, but after a while, we got pretty good at surprising the rest. In hindsight, we may have made them a bit paranoid around corners when we kept popping into view around them, but at the time it was great fun. Or at least, it was."
Seeing Aang become a little despondent, Katara caught Feng's eye and tilted her head towards the boy. Getting the message, Feng nodded as he placed a hand on the boy's shoulder.
"If you want, we can do that too, Aang. Make a game out of it as you used to as we attempt to snake up on Katara and Sokka. For some reason, I feel like it won't work for Toph."
"You got that right mister," Toph smirked, polishing her nails against her chest.
"I'd like that Feng." Aang smiled shyly, looking up at the taller teen, missing the thumbs up of approval Katara gave the elder boy.
"Just what I needed." Sokak sighed, rolling up the scroll and putting it in his pack for safekeeping. "Another reason to be paranoid."
"Maybe," Feng admitted, picking up his own bag as the rest picked up their own items in preparation to leave. "But it will also be good training. If you can detect the presence of an Airbender, you should be able to do the same for any Fire Nation soldiers."
"That doesn't make it better."