Chapter 3

Ranshi

The high from the bow must have still been giving me a confidence boost when I told Zan that I would join them another day. I actually meant it too. Maybe it was because Ji had kept her mouth shut, maybe it was because Zan had seemed so genuine. I didn't know what it was but I knew it felt good. I could hear Ji talking as I walked away but I blocked her out and just kept walking. At least until I heard the collision. My whole body swerved towards the sound and saw a huge rock wall and some dust. Even after the rock wall fell I was petrified. Lu looked at me for a moment before she turned to face Ji. The way her face contorted in anger was scarier than the sound of the collision, I had never seen my sister like that before. I knew Ji was a capable bender- in fact she never let me forget that- but for a moment even I felt scarred for her.

"What in the name of the spirits do you think you are doing?!" She yelled. I saw Ji cringe and everyone else step back.

"I was just going to scare her! Then you had to go and mess it up by making a wall!" Ji retorted when she finally recomposed herself.

"By attacking her? With everything that's been happening in town you think THAT is acceptable?!" Lu seemed to be gearing herself into a fighting stance.

"Lu, I'm fine." It took me a second to register that I had said it. Lu looked at me and seemed to loosen a little to my relief. As much as I appreciated her I didn't want her fighting on my behalf. Lu must have realized none of us wanted a fight to break out, and so instead of making her magic rocks fly she spat at Ji's feet and turned away, She walked by me, grabbed my arm, and began to drag me away from the group.

"Where are we going?" I asked apprehensively. Lu still had that look on her face, it was still scary.

"We're having sister time." She said. It didn't sound like a request either. It didn't take long to figure out where we were going, she was pulling me in the direction of the Bafen river. We used to play there together all the time. We still did sometimes, whenever Ji was sick usually. When we got there Lu stomped her foot causing some of the dirt to shoot up to reveal where we kept our bathing suits. They weren't exactly clean, but hey we were from the Earth Kingdom, what was a little dirt? One change later and we were in the water. I tended to like swimming a lot more than Lu, it was harder for her to earthbend in the river. She was out of her element, I didn't have an element to be out of. Already it felt like all the fear from Ji was flowing far down the river. I splashed Lu, making her laugh and splash back. This, of course evolved into a full on splash war between the two

"Careful Lu, you can't stomp your foot and win here!" I teased, getting me a face full of water. I sputtered for a second before sp;lashing, She tried to block it with her hands, but she wasn't able. I was always able to get a bigger splash than her. After she did some sputtering of her own, we couldn't help but laugh again.

"Hey," Lu began "I've been meaning to ask. What do you do in that old man's house?" She asked. My mind froze. What was I supposed to tell her? Relishing the company of the one person I knew who was less like her and more like me? Learning a new skill just so I could feel on par with her and her friends? Suddenly the bow, which I had been so proud of less than half an hour ago, seemed like a stupid coping mechanism. Lu must have seen me shut down because she began to backtrack immediately. "It isn't a big deal or anything! I mean, unless you want it to be a big deal? Like, it's only whatever you want to make of it! I-" She cut herself off. Even she could tell how bad she was blundering.

"I think I'm going to take a break from swimming." I said, sudden;y feeling a wave of apathy hit me as I waded out of the river. I was thankful that Lu didn't try to stop me. With that, I went and sat in front of a tree, the dirt turning to mud beneath me. With nothing else to do I began to look at the nature around me. The trees blocked any view of Bafen, so it felt like I was viewing the Earth Kingdom in its purest form. The nature around me always felt weird, like I wasn't meant for it. Unlike my sister. I couldn't help but glance at Luyi. As shameful as it is to admit it, I was mad at her. I knew she didn't choose to be an earthbender anymore then I chose to be a nonbender. Nevertheless I couldn't help but be mad at her for being everything I couldn't, so perfectly molded to her environment. She had everything she needed to be a poster child, not just of our family but of the entire kingdom. While I was willowing something in the river caught my eye. It took me a second to realize it was a piranhasloth. I didn't even know they lived around here! Instantly I shot to my feet.

"LU LOOK OUT!" I yelled. I don't know why, but as I did I reached out with my arm. As I did a powerful gust of air seemingly exploded from my hand. As I fell back from the recoil I saw the piranasloth get blown out of the water. Lu seemed to see it as she looked where it seemed to have landed. Suddenly, she scrambled out of the water as I guessed we could kiss the river as a swimming spot goodbye.

"What was that?! You pointed at the river and suddenly the air was like FWOOSH and the river was like BWEH and...and,,,you just airbended!" While I knew what she said was true, it took me a second to actually believe it. Me? Airbend? Why would I be able to airbend? Everyone in my family is an earthbender!

"Yeah...yeah I guess I did." I said. Even I was surprised by how nonchalant my voice was. I knew I should be excited, no I was excited, but for some reason a part of me was numb. Maybe that's just how bending made someone feel?

"Do it again!" Lu said. She had a childish wonder in her eyes. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Neither of us had actually seen an airbender before. Now suddenly I could. I took a deep breath. If I really had just airbended then I should be able to do it again right? I flung my arm out, but nothing happened. I flung again, and again not even a slight breeze.

"Don't worry, it took me years before I could consistently earthbend. I'm sure you remember how stupid I looked stomping around all the time." I giggled a little, remembering a time before we felt like we were from two different worlds.

"I don't want to take years though." I said. "I've already spent a decade and a half as a nonbender." Lu looked at me sympathetically. The way I had airbended reminded me more of Hisumo's firebending then Lu's earthbending so I began to mimic his aggressive punching style.

"No, no, no'' Lu said "You're copying Hisumo. He's a firebender. You can't bend like him." As annoyed as I was that she had read me so easily, I was more concerned with what she was saying.

"How would you know? You aren't an airbender." I said. She just sighed.

"No, but I've lived basically my entire life as a bender, I know a thing or two. None of the elements bend the same way. All the styles have different jings. Fire bending has an offensive jing, airbending has a defensive jing." She said. I vaguely remembered talks of jings from early in my childhood, but I had purged it all from my mind long ago. I thought about how I had just airbended. I was trying to defend Lu, was that what she meant by defensive jing? I took another deep breath. I tried to stop thinking about doing airbending and instead stopping other things with airbending. Stopping Ji's bullying, stopping the division between my family and myself. This time I flung my arms, and a current of wind erupted from me. I flung my other arm and once again caused a wind current the other way. I saw a flock of pigeonsquirrles fly away from my blast of air.

"Now you got it!" Lu said. I smiled, but I felt drained, like I had just done a moderate workout. Once again I sat in front of a tree. "We have to go tell mom and dad!" Lu said excitedly. She seemed more excited about my airbending than I did.

"Not yet," I said "we need to dry off first." Thanks to the bursts of air I had made we were both considerably drier, but even being a little wet wasn't the best combination with living in a dirt house. Forget tracking mud into the house when you've turned your house into mud.

"Fine." Lu said. "But can we at least go find Hisumo?" That sounded nice, and so we changed out of our bathing suits and began to make our way to Hisumo's house.