I don't think this is my best ever chapter, but I couldn't think of a better way to write this, hope it's ok.

; )

Chapter 9

There was really only one thing to say about long journeys on water dragon back. Dead boring, Kaiya thought. Nothing had happened in the past few days except swirling white clouds, glimpses of endless ocean and the occasional ice berg, though those had gotten rarer over time as they headed further south. They hadn't stopped to make camp last night, no point. Suli didn't need to sleep as much as the lazy humans did. Kaiya hoped to see land later today. That would mean a more comfortable campsite than a random unstable ice berg.

At the moment though, she'd be lucky to get one of those.

Kaiya sighed and rolled over onto her stomach, stretching out her legs until they lay across the saddle.

On the bright side, she had the water in the bag Kouyo gave her to amuse her. That was something. The only thing was, there were only so many times you could freeze and unfreeze water before it gets boring too.

She glanced over at the bag sitting at the back of the saddle. Nah, she didn't feel like water bending now.

What to do, what to do. She thought. She tapped her fingers on one of the bags slowly. She looked more closely at the bag. It was the one containing all the stuff she would need for the earth kingdom.

"Might as well take a look" she muttered, undoing the shiny silver clasp on the rough brown bag.

There was the stuff she had seen before, clothes, combs, and money, all in the earth kingdom green. She dived a bit deeper, coming up with more and more interesting items. Scrolls and writing equipment, a better set of clothes and a motley collection of pots and pans. Well two, a pot and a pan. But there was a bowl, a cup and a spoon in the ever present green colour too.

"Well, would you look at that Suli?" Kaiya murmured to the water dragon. "Stuff."

She reached for the scrolls and writing kit.

"What do you suppose is in these, girl?" Kaiya asked, more to herself than the water dragon.

She balanced the nearest on her lap and broke the red wax sealing the parchment shut tight.

She examined the ink writing closely. She peered from the text on the left to the carefully drawn diagrams on the right.

"They're earth bending forms!" Kaiya suddenly realized. She traced the arrows on the diagrams, showing the direction of the forms. "I don't have to wait until I get to the earth kingdom to start! This is so awesome!" she grinned to herself, pleased with her discovery. "I should start trying some of these right away."

There was a silence as Kaiya realised what she just said.

"Uh... I should start trying some of these as soon as we find some earth." She rephrased.

She leaned over the side, peering through the clouds to the sea below.

Again, nothing but salt water. Not even ice anymore. She thought gloomily.

It was a few hours later that Kaiya saw the island. It was barely more than a brown and white blob floating in the sea. Its features yet still undefined. As they got closer the land marks got sharper, revealing hard unforgiving coastline and a barren mainland. There seemed to be a small stream, however, and a few trees. It looked deserted, not even an animal in sight.

It was the perfect place to stay for the night.

Kaiya carefully manuvered Suli down onto the island, careful not to smash any of the poor trees. It took a while to make camp, Kaiya had never done it all by herself before. Greta, or her Ma, and Kouyo were always there to help her. It got done though.

She didn't realize she was crying until it was all set up.

Kaiya angrily wiped the tears away. Now was no time for it, she wanted to get something constructive done.

She eyed the ground of her campsite. It was smooth brown dirt.

"Stand back Suli" Kaiya said "this could get dirty, dirty... get it. Because I'm bending dirt!"

Suli tipped her head to the side, wondering what was wrong with her human.

Kaiya shook her head from side to side. "I really need to hold off on the bad jokes, don't I girl?" she ran over and daintily patted her dragon on the snout.

"Well..." Kaiya turned back round to the pounded earth. "The scroll said to have a solid stance" she thought out loud, "so I should probably do that first."

She spread her feet wide, planting them firmly into the dirt. She bent her knees until her butt was almost as the knees themselves and she bunched her fists bringing them firmly to her sides, next to her hips. She stood like that for a minute.

"Right... now what?" she questioned the sky. "Am I supposed to just...? I dunno... stomp and a neat little bolder comes out of the ground?"

She stomped her foot experimentally.

Nothing happened.

"Urgh" Kaiya flopped to the ground "what does the stupid scroll say?" she picked herself off the ground and stumbled over to her bags, now slightly emptier now that the camping stuff was out. She picked up the scroll and examined the first drawing, tracing the directional arrows over and over.

"You know Suli," she said finally "That actually makes sense."

She discarded the scroll and walked back over to her patch of dirt. Resuming her stance, she frowned in concentration, eyebrows coming neatly together with an almost audible click.

Following the sequence she had just studied, she breathed deep, almost putting her into a half trance of sheer concentration. After a few second she lifted one of her legs and smashed it down onto the hardened soil. A huge clump of dirt exploded out of the ground and hovered into the air.

Kaiya spluttered and gasped.

"It worked." She whispered, dumbfounded. "It actually happened, like, for real." She stared at the huge lump of dirt just hovering in the air.

She sat down hard, her lump of dirt collapsing as she did so. Before this whole 'earth bending' thing had almost been a joke. She'd only half believed that it would actually happen. But there was the proof right there, she was Definitely the avatar. Only the avatar could bend more than one element.

Well, now she knew that the water priests were right she'd better work hard. Kaiya got up and dusted the stray lumps of dirt off her tunic.

She resumed her stance and breathed deep. She stamped her foot once again. The lump of dirt lifted back off the ground, trailing loose pieces.

"That won't do, back into a single lump thank you." Kaiya scolded the rock. She mulled over another of the simple moves explained on the parchment, Compression. Maybe that would work.

She lifted her hands, palm up, until they were level with her chest. She then clenched her hands again, straining them into a fist. Slowly and shakily the stray pieces wobbled back to their original positions. Kaiya grinned, so far, so good.

What was another of the movements? Right. Moving a rock, she had defiantly seen that one. Kaiya lined up her fists in front of her face. Breathing deep, she concentrated on the rock.

Striking suddenly she thrust her right forearm and fist forward, a movement which almost seemed as if she was going to try and push the dirt away from her.

The rock exploded.

"Crap"

Kaiya looked around disappointedly at the mass of rocky lumps now spread all over her campsite. She absentmindedly picked a couple out of her, now dusty, hair while she thought.

Maybe I better go look it up in the scroll again; maybe I accidently did an exploding move by accident.

The scroll didn't help much. The move was clearly labelled with plenty of arrows and description seemed simple. It wasn't until the end that Kaiya realized what she did wrong.

"Did you know you had to use your feet too Suli?" Kaiya informed her spectator "Fancy that, using your feet in earth bending is actually quite essential." She chucked the scroll down once again.

Summoning a new rock was easy; soon she was ready for another try.

"Right. I have to step forward and thrust my arm forward at the same time," Kaiya reminded herself "step and thrust, step and thrust."

She stepped forward and flung her arm forward once again. This time the rock wobbled a bit, and moved a few centimetres back.

"Not good enough Kaiya," Kaiya grunted "you can do much better than this."

She stepped forward again... and again. Nothing happened.

"Crap, crap" Kaiya kneaded her forehead. "Right, what did it say? Key to this move is to be firm, stubborn. Like a rock."

She breathed deep. Feeling the energy run through her muscles. It was hungry, it wanted a way out. It wanted to crush, push, pull her. She pushed down with her will, it screamed defiance. Channelling into her right arm and leg, Kaiya felt its power. She turned her gaze to the rock in front of her. She thrust forward with her right arm and leg.

Move

The rock creaked and shot across the clearing, slamming into the sheer cliff at the other end and disintegrating.

Kaiya stared at the destroyed bolder for a few seconds, savouring her triumph. She turned to her audience.

"Did you see that girl?" Kaiya danced over to the water dragon and tapped her happily on the snout. "I made a rock move! It was so different to water, more solid, you know. Oh that was brilliant!" She twirled in a circle around the calm and practical creature. "I'm a real earth bender now! One that can make rock actually moves by itself! Well not by itself, I made it move really. I really made a rock move by itself! This is so cool! Am I using too many exclamation marks?!" Kaiya flopped down in front of the baffled creature, breathing deep. The dragon regarded her with golden, no nonsense eyes. The girl sighed and rolled back onto the balls of her feet and stood.

"You're right Suli; it's too early to brag yet. I have to practice more." Kaiya sighed and returned to the now more familiar earth bending stance.

For the next hour happy shrieks of joy could be heard all over the tiny island as the avatar played with her rocks. Massive dust clouds blew up into the wind and thousands of rock shards were often seen to be exploding into the air.

It was only after she had succeeded in destroying the rocky patch she had been standing on that she decided to fall, happy, into her old seal fur lined sleeping bag, still drunk with silliness.