Chapter 6: Northern Life

Sen had been expecting the first bit of schoolwork to be a bit below standard, but he had not quite been expecting anything this bad. Twenty percent. Less than a fifth of the questions were correct. If the mocking mumbling of the students around him was to be believed, that made him the worst in Taina's makeshift class.

It was a bit disappointing, to say the least. Taina had given him a few extra hours of one-on-one time before the test, trying to get him caught up, but it seemed he was further behind than she had first believed. The worst part of it all was that he seemed so eager to learn; there was a palpable disappointment on his face when he saw that he was failing.

The lesson carried on, and Sen paid close attention to every word. He didn't understand a lot of the things that Taina said, so he wrote down everything he didn't understand for later reference. By the end of the lesson he had a page full of notes on things he had to catch up on. When everyone else was wrapping up for the day and going home, Sen remained, hunting down books on those topics and cracking them open.

The snow split in half as Sen thrust his hand forward. Studying would be much easier if he didn't have to multitask in his waterbending training. He had managed to work out a decent schedule that balanced both his pursuits, but it occupied most of his day. The hardest part was trying to keep his daily tutoring sessions a secret. Ariak was especially interested in why Sen was taking hours out of his day. Sen had explained it away by saying that he was pursuing "Avatar duties". It was a blatant lie, but it kept Ariak from asking questions. Sen didn't want too many people to know the situation he was in.

"Water is comparable to all elements and none," Ariak said. "It can crash like fire, flow like air, and hold fast like earth. In any one of these things it can excel, but true mastery comes from being able to use them all at the appropriate time."

Ariak demonstrated by calling up a tendril of water, striking with, before freezing it into ice, then thawing it again, and finally, allowing it to dissipate into a mist that quickly froze and fell to the ground as flakes of snow. Sen reached out into the frozen layer of snow beneath him and mimicked Ariak's demonstration. It was easy for him to follow the path; first it was dynamic, like fire, then static, like earth, and then inert, like air. Every lesson he had learned up to now was applicable to water.

"Water has substance, but not form," Ariak advised. "It becomes what it must become. Put it in a cup, it takes the shape of the cup. Put it in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. But though it mimics each of these, it remains water and water alone, always ready to adapt to another form at a moments notice."

Ariak demonstrated a few of the stances and styles most commonly used when waterbending. Sen carefully watched and replicated them all. He kept the fluid nature of the element in mind as he worked.

He had once thought to himself that he admired the mountains, for being unchanging. That seemed like a lifetime ago, and he no longer shared the sentiment. He didn't want to be unchanged and eternal. After everything Sen had been through, after all the ways he had grown, being the same forever seemed like a fate worse than death. In the back of his mind, he pitied the mountains, stuck forever on the same horizon. He could explore new places and learn new things.

Sen waved his hands, and the water moved with him. It was a natural connection. Sen was no stranger to change. He stepped into the fluid role as easily as he could walk through a door.

Suda got home from another day at the hospital. His volunteer work was, as ever, exhausting but rewarding. Lately one of the senior nurses at the hospital had taken him in as sort of a pet slash assistant. She was an elderly woman, called Granny Loqo by nearly everyone at the hospital, including her own patients. She was too old to carry most of her medical supplies on her own, so she had Suda do all the lifting for her. Granny Loqo was a nice lady, but she had to do a lot of lifting every day. Suda went home with his arms feeling like glass every single day.

Though the first thing on his mind was collapsing into bed, Suda took a moment to look for Ada. With him being at the hospital and her training with Yakkul all day, they got very little time to talk. Aside from the training, Ada spent a great deal of time on the phone. Yakkul had a good phone, one capable of making calls to Zaofu, and Ada was very liberal in her abuse of that privilege. She had made regular contact with Zaofu almost every day. Mostly she spoke with her long-absent boyfriend, making Kunik rather jealous, but she had managed to get in touch with her parents now and then.

Suda found Ada in the usual spot, sitting on a chair in front of the phone, gabbing away at whoever was on the opposite end. Though the first few days had been tearful reunions and longwinded stories of her adventures so far, she had worked through that phase and now managed to carry on normal conversations.

As soon as he saw her speaking, Suda simply nodded and tried to go on his way, but Ada actually put the phone down and called him back.

"Suda! I was hoping you'd get back."

Suda quickly turned around and walked back to her. Ada held out the phone.

"I want you to talk to dad," She said.

"Your dad?"

"Yeah. I've been telling him and mom about you and they really wanted to talk to you."

She pushed the phone forward a little further. Suda reluctantly took it and pressed it against his ear.

"Uh, hi, Ada's dad."

Suda sincerely wished he'd had some warning about this. He had no idea what he was going to say. Ada waited patiently on the sidelines while the two began to speak. Ariak walked by eventually. While Sen was out doing his studying, Ariak was left with very little to do. He was aimless without the Avatar.

"I'm surprised to see you off the phone," He noted.

"I wanted the two of them to get acquainted," Ada said with a smile. "Suda's been like a brother to me. I kind of want him to feel like a real part of the family, you know?"

Ariak tilted his head slightly and gave her a look.

"How do you do that?"

"Do what?" Ada wasn't doing anything special as far as she knew.

"You disagree on important matters, you've fought with him, you've even hurt Suda," Ariak said. "How do you think of him as family?"

Ada nodded her head slightly. She understood what he meant now. Ariak had trouble working through his own conflicts within his family, so he was looking to another for guidance.

"I disagree with him, yeah," Ada said. "But I love him more."

Ariak bit his lip. Ada tapped him on the shoulder lightly and then stepped over to Suda and the phone call.

The ice cold water sank into Sen's skin with a chilling bite. This was not a pleasant experience.

"The temperature difference makes it easier to work with the water," Tlun insisted. "Your body is warm, the water is cold. The contrast emphasizes the interaction between the two."

Sen knew that much. He had been reading up on convection just the other day. He knew all about the transfer of heat now. He would have to act quickly before the heat from his body diffused into the cold water and equalized the temperature.

Guided by Sen's will, the water worked through his skin and muscle, healing the minor scrapes and bruises that Sen acquired during his training. Healing such small injuries had become easy for Sen at this point.

Tlun turned Sen's arm over an examined the place where the wounds had once been. If he approved, he did so silently. Tlun was not quick to praise. His criticism came much quicker, and the fact that Sen heard nothing at all said that he was improving. He took pride in that fact.

"I believe you're ready to move on," Tlun said suddenly. "You can only learn so much by healing yourself."

That was surprising to hear. Sen had expected his training to be a very small, private affair.

"There's no shortage of sick and injured to go around," Tlun explained. "I'm sure we can find some minor cuts and scrapes for you to fix. It will free up our more experienced healers to do more important work."

"Well, as long as the hospital says it's alright. I wouldn't mind learning more about healing."

Considering that he would be diving headfirst into a full scale war at some point in the near future, being able to heal would be just as useful as being able to fight. On top of that, Sen just felt like knowing. Curiosity was a powerful thing.

Alrok, as usual, arrived early, just to annoy Taina. He dragged a chair across the floor, making a loud screeching sound as the metal legs scraped across the floor. The librarians gave him a venomous glare. Taina quite deliberately ignored him, and Sen was too engrossed in his paperwork to notice. Alrok sat down across the table across from the two and watched Sen drag his pencil across paper. Ir was almost alarming how fast his hand scratched across the paper. As his pencil suddenly ground to a halt, Sen's back straightened.

"Oh, I see what I did wrong now," He said. He demonstrated his work to Taina, and she nodded approvingly. Sen gave a satisfied smile and put his paper.

"Why don't you go find the next workbook and read up on it? I need to get some work done myself, but I'll answer any questions you have."

Sen nodded sharply and wandered off to find the next workbook on polynomials. As Sen left, Alrok scooted in even closer.

"And I thought I got here early," Alrok grunted. "How long has he been here?"

"Longer than I have," Taina said. She returned to her paperwork, but she got in one last jab. "Maybe you could learn something from him about studying."

Sen had caught up admirably, and Taina couldn't take full credit for it. He was astoundingly perceptive. He could work through entire chapters of textbooks on his own with no teacher to guide him. Occasionally he encountered a problem that he set aside to ask Taina about later, but for the most part he was actually self-taught. He still had a lot of catching up to do, but Sen was advancing rapidly.

Whistler had managed to drag herself out of bed for one reason and one reason only; the promise of snacks. Yakkul never disappointed when it came to snacks.

The school of Yakkul had a very simple rule: all good work should go rewarded. At the end of a long week of training, there was always a day to relax.

"So what are we even going to watch," Yakkul asked. He was used to having mover night all to himself, but now there were a bunch of guests bringing their own opinions on movers to the show.

"Nothing with Kaizo Uehara," Suda said.

"Hey, some of us like Kaizo," Ada protested.

"The man is a master of romance," Kunik agreed. "You can't argue with that."

"Cut the chatter, I don't even own any Kaizo films," Yakkul said. "Do I look like a romance fan?"

"Clearly not," Kunik jabbed.

"You shut your mouth," Yakkul retaliated. Kunik had been Yakkul's student for a long time, and he had witnessed some of Yakkul's misadventures with romance.

"Okay, so what do you have," Sen asked. "No point discussing movers you don't have."

"Let me see…"

Yakkul dug through several reels of film. A few of his favorites were piled on top, but there was a large stack of his less favored films near the bottom. He pulled one out at random.

"Why do I own a documentary on the Equalist Uprising?"

"Oh, that one sounds good," Sen said.

"Depends on how much they cover the part with the planes and explosions and that stuff," Whistler said.

"Don't you have anything more recent?"

The debate raged on, with very little progress. Sen attempted to claim authority as the Avatar, only for Yakkul to shoot him down by saying that it was his house, and so the debate continued. Over time, two sides gradually began to form: Suda, Whistler, and Sen on the side of the Equalist documentary, with Yakkul, Kunik, and Ada in favor of a more recent war film. It was tied, and nobody was willing to compromise.

"Whatever, we can flip a coin," Whistler suggested.

"No, you'll just use airbending to make it land on the side you want," Ada argued.

"I am deeply offended," Whistler said. "That you thought of that before I did."

As the debate raged on, Ariak walked into the room. He had been too preoccupied to join Mover Night before now, but the rest of the group was quite excited to see him.

"Ariak! Break a tie for us," Yakkul said. "Equalist documentary or war film?"

"What does Sen want to watch?"

"Equalist documentary," Sen said.

"Then Equalist documentary it is," Ariak said. The opposing team groaned loudly as Sen triumphantly played his chosen mover.

The next time Sen marched through the gates of Yakkul's compound, he did so with a little bit more pride in his step. His latest work with Taina had yielded a grade of sixty-two percent, his best yet –and more importantly, better than Alrok. Sen was no longer the worst student in the group.

"Hey Avatar, think fast," Whistler said.

There was a popping and a hissing noise. Sen spun around and grabbed Whistler's projectile out of mid-air, dousing the flames that surrounded it immediately. Whistler tucked her new flare gun away and turned to Ada.

"Told you he could do it," She said. Ada put her palm on her face and shook her head. She'd spent the past half hour trying to convince Whistler not to do exactly that. The now-harmless ball of flammable materials rolled in Sen's hand as he examined it.

"Where did you get a flare gun?"

"Turns out you can just buy them at stores," Whistler said. "They aren't even that expensive."

Sen dropped the doused flare and kicked it. The ball of flammable materials and chemicals shattered into dust as his foot made impact, and then the dust settled harmlessly in the snow.

"Don't aim that at people," Sen cautioned. "And not inside, either."

"I wasn't," Whistler protested. "It was just the one time. I knew you could take it."

"Still, I want to make sure as few people as possible get set on fire."

"And yet one of your best friends is a combustion bender."

Sen shrugged.

There was a flash of bright light and a smell of acrid smoke. Yakkul removed his welding mask and took a close look at the result of his labor. Soldering in the last bits of the electrical devices was always the hardest part. He was the only smith skilled enough to create high-quality blades that could be joined with shock prongs without losing durability or sharpness.

"That's the last of it," Yakkul said, removing his mask and gloves. He gave the soldering a moment to solidify before he put the metal casing in place, fastened it securely, and handed the blade to Ada. She held it in her hand for a moment, just to get a feel for the blade.

It was slightly longer than her old sword, and weighted more heavily towards the hilt. Yakkul assured her that it would work better for her, given her shorter height and low center of gravity. A few test sweeps of the blade confirmed that.

"I take it you approve," Yakkul said.

"Thank you, Master Yakkul. This is perfect."

Ada held up one of her old blades, comparing the two. Yakkul admired his handiwork, past and future.

"This one will serve you much better, especially without the impurity in the core."

Ada frowned. She still didn't understand the reason behind that strange metal impurity in her old blades. Ko Rin had purposefully requested it, but why? What reason did he have to purposefully sabotage her blades?

"I'll let your master know you've been re-equipped. It's been a while since he and I have been in touch."

"I'll tell him myself," Ada said quickly. "Just another excuse to call home, you know?"

"Heh, like you need an excuse," Yakkul said. "My phone bill is going to give me a heart attack, you know."

"I'll get back to you on that," Ada said. She took her new blade out to the courtyard to get some practice in, but at the back of her mind, she was still thinking of Ko Rin. There was a burning behind her eyes that made her feel as if she was missing something.

Alrok dragged his chair across the ground once more. Taina covered her ears.

"Hey teach," He said. "How're the tests looking?"

"You got a fifty-two," Taina said. She knew what he would be asking next. She was ready for it this time.

"Alright, alright," He said. "And how's our new friend doing?"

Taina grabbed Sen's test and slammed it down on her desk. Student-teacher confidentiality was great, but taking Alrok down a notch was worth so much more. The young delinquent took a quick look at the paper, and his eyes widened.

"Eighty-five?"

Alrok took the test in his hands and double checked it. It didn't do much. He had no idea whether Sen's answers were right or wrong. He just couldn't believe it. It wasn't a perfect score, but it was a massive improvement for just a few weeks of study.

"He said he'd never even been to school a few weeks ago," Alrok said. "This has got to be some kind of trick, it's got-"

"It's not," Taina said. She leaned forward on her desk. "You want to know what this is? Why Sen's doing so good?"

She pointed to her left. Once again, Sen was there, completely oblivious to the world around him. He had a stack of books in front of him, some already read, and some still waiting for their knowledge to be devoured.

"Because he doesn't come here early to bug me, he comes early to do his own work. When you leave, when you're so glad to be gone, he stays, wishing he could do more. You're here because you have to be. Sen is here because he wants to be. That's why he will always be better than you."

Alrok sat quietly in his seat. He'd never thought of that. He only attended these tutoring sessions because the school made him. Sen had come here under no obligation to anyone, of his own free will, to learn for the sake of learning. Alrok stood up and walked left.

"Hey Sen," He said. "What're you reading?"

"Architecture," Sen said somewhat absent-mindedly. He never took his eyes off the book in front of him. There was a fascinating chapter on why marble was such a good building material, and Sen was absolutely enthralled.

"Don't you think that's kind of boring?"

"I kind of wanted to be a builder growing up," Sen said. "I think it's neat."

"Yeah, well I wanted to be a Shorewatcher," Alrok said. "No books to read about that, are there?"

Sen briefly left his book behind, leaving Alrok sitting alone as Sen weaved amongst the bookshelves. When he returned, he slammed down a stack of books in front of Alrok. Every single one of them covered some topic related to the Shorewatchers. Alrok looked over his new reading material in confusion.

"Where did all these come from?"

Sen smiled playfully and returned to his book, getting in one last jab before he did so.

"You'd be surprised what you can find when you're actually looking."