The fire lily petals scattered like sand in the breeze. Red flowers shifted, dunes and dunes of them, ethereal as though he saw them through rippled glass. He felt weightless, brimming with light. Petals caught in his hair as he walked through the flowers, the hills rolling on and on endlessly. He knew this place, as if the lilies were made of the same crimson as his blood. A familiar hand rested on his shoulder, and he looked up to see the same smiling, golden eyes he saw every time.

"Would you like another story, Jianyu?"

He smiled, "Yes please, Uncle Mushi."

The old man sat down slowly amongst the swaying flowers, green robes floating down around him, legs folded into a loose lotus position. His eyes crinkled in a kindly way as Jianyu knelt eagerly in front of him, waiting. "In a city a long, long way from here, in a time before you were born…"

"Mmphhmm-huh?"

"You overslept." The little Earth Empire boy sat up in his bed, shoulders hunched over ever so slightly. His thick eyebrows scrunched in disgruntlement as the light through his window blinded him for a few brief moments. Eyes full of sleep, he took a moment to re-orient himself; bed, shoes, window, Mom. She loomed over him, a dark green and tan blob that passed him his glasses and suddenly came into sharp focus. Her mercurial eyes, smooth as glass and heavy with the creases of age and something he couldn't quite place, stared down at him. She never seemed pleased when she had to wake him up.

"Sorry, mom. I was having such a strange dream."

"You always do have the most stupid dreams." She swept away, ever the model of efficiency as she got out his things for the day, "You have training in an hour, hurry and get your breakfast."

He pushed himself up, still half asleep as he pulled on the tunic she'd laid out for him, fingers fumbling with the laces on his boots. He still felt some of the lightness in his chest he'd had in the dream, but it quickly slipped away like sand through his fingers, leaving a heavy kind of ache knotting in his gut. Or maybe he was just hungry. Guanyin was still curled up at the end of his bed, his nose snuffling in his sleep. At four years old, the young badgermole already took up a quarter of the space in his bedroom. He gave him a quick pat before he scrambled out to the kitchen, climbing up onto the chair where Mom had put his breakfast out on the table for him.

Chewing slowly on his noodles, he watched out of the dining room window as the staff of the complex hurried around the courtyard. His mom was whirling metal around the kitchen to chop up this and boil that, describing the bending forms she expected him to learn by the end of the day. He nodded absently. Out past the sun-dappled grass of the courtyard, he could see the broad, blue ceiling of the sky. It looked just like his dreams, open and unending.

"Jianyu! Stop daydreaming!"

He snapped back to what he was doing, noticing the noodle that had dangled out of his gaping mouth and landed on his collar. He quickly picked it off, finishing the bowl and moving to carry it up to the sink to wash up, "Mom, do you know anyone called Mushi?"

She sighed impatiently, packing them both a bento for lunch, "No, Jianyu, I don't. I don't know where you come up with these odd questions, either." She wiped off the sauce stain on his collar and pressed the lunch bag into his hand, "Get to training, quickly. Go."

An eager nod, and he dashed out the front door, dark hair still wild from his pillow.

Kuvira watched him go and shook her head fondly, moving to check her hair in the bathroom mirror and pinning it up behind her head, without a single loose strand. Her metal boots clicked on the floor as she left the house, the door shutting solidly behind her.

Alone in the quiet house, Guanyin uncurled slowly.

The thing about fighting Jiji, Qí thought grumpily, is that sometimes it's like trying to dodge the wind in a hurricane.

The bespectacled pipsqueak in question was whirling around to face her, ringed by a shimmering cloud of miniscule (but very sharp) shards of metal, shifting his stance to attack-

Oh no you don't.

A foot to the ground was all it took, and a tiny pillar of earth tripped him up, sending him careening backwards into the dust. Qí smirked and moved over, being careful not to stand on the semicircle of needles speared into the ground around him as she helped him up, "You okay?"

He brushed his sparring gear off with a huff, straightening his glasses, "I'm fine."

She chuckled and moved back over to her side of the ring, "Then you're good for another round. Remember to watch your feet." Jiji waved a hand, and the needles floated back into the air around him, the sun glinting off them and surrounding him with tiny spots of light. She never really understood why he was so intent on getting this needle technique down. "Ready?"

A determined nod. "Ready."

Wait. Listen. The lean tutor stood her ground, watching the metal wasps whirl around her opponent. He was always so hot-headed, going for the more complicated moves first when the most simple action, well-placed, could have defeated his opponent in half the time. He fights like an airbender. Always looking for the tricky solution.

Metal flew.

The sharp zing of metal strips from Qí's uniform sang through the air as they darted past his head. He dodged them, the projectiles sounding like the buzzing of angry bumbleflies in a washing machine.

That was too close. Focus, Ji.

Reassuming his stance, he planted his feet firmly on the ground. Keep your head clear. This was the perfect opportunity to strike. She was looking for another way to get at him; it was time to give her a taste of her own medicine.

He slipped some of the needles down his sleeve, sending the rest flying towards Qí's head. Predictably, she dropped to the ground, the needles flying overhead and burying their tips in the wall behind her. She flipped back up towards him, somersaulting in the air to bring both her heels down on top of him, but he dropped down, sliding underneath her and flinging a clump of rock up, hitting her full in the chest.

Ooof. That's gotta hurt. No time for apologies. Get back up. He was up on his feet again, meshing the needles he'd hidden into a strip that he flung at her, catching one of her wrists before she hit the ground and pinning her up against the wall.

"First mistake," Qí wheezed, "Never leave the other arm free." She pulled the wall out, folding it into a suit of rock armour around her and hitting the ground, sending fist-sized clumps of earth howling through the air at him, turning the wall behind him into a series of pockmarked meteor craters as he ducked and wove.

You can't pin me down, Qí, he smirked. I'm too fast for-

Everything went black.