disclaimer: I don't own ATLA but I do own the OCs

Sanosuke silently followed Haruki back to camp where Rikiya waited with his arms crossed across his chest.

"About time you showed up!" exclaimed Rikiya when he saw the Avatar. "So, you ready to learn some earthbending?"

Sanosuke bowed slightly to Rikiya

"Of course sifu Rikiya." said Sanosuke respectfully

"Huh." Rikiya held his chin and looked up thoughtfully, "Sifu Rikiya. I like the sound of that."

Sanosuke couldn't help but smile and roll his eyes.

"So what move are you going to teach me first?" he asked

"We're just going to star with 'move a rock'."

Sanosuke shrugged. "Whatever."

He didn't notice the glare Haruki was giving him.

Sanosuke and Rikiya stood in front of a boulder near a canyon. Aura, Kya, Xiu, Jin, Momo, and Toshiro watched from a rock outcropping nearby. Haruki went hunting for meat for dinner.

"The key to earthbending is your stance."

Rikiya lowered himself and widened the distance between his feet as a demonstration. Sanosuke copied him.

"You've got to be steady and strong." He shoved Sanosuke, causing him to stumble backwards. "Rock is a stubborn element. If you're going to move it, you've got to be like a rock yourself."

Sanosuke took a deep breath as he rubbed his side where Rikiya shoved him.

"Like a rock." he echoed. "Got it."

"Good. Now the actual motion of this one is pretty simple."

Rikiya lunged forward and punched, causing the boulder to shoot off into the distance and slamming into the side of the canyon.

He turned to Sanosuke. "Okay, you ready to give it a try?"

Sanosuke took up a similar stance, looking determined.

"I'm ready." he told the earthbender. His eyes narrowed and he punched forward, the rock shifted slightly.

"Try again." instructed Rikiya.

Sanosuke took his stance again and punched the rock harder, making it move almost as far as Rikiya did. The earthbender nodded in approval.

The rest of the day, Rikiya pushed Sanosuke hard with his earthdending. During the bitter work, the Avatar learned that earthbending wasn't as easy as waterbending.

At sundown, Rikiya brought Sanosuke to the middle of the canyon. Aura, Xiu, Kya, and Toshiro stood a small distance away, watching.

"This time we're going to try something a little different." Rikiya informed Sanosuke, "Instead of moving a rock, you're going to stop a rock. Get in your horse stance!"

Sanosuke widened his stance. Rikiya stood in front of him with a trail leading up an angled cliff behind him. "I'm going to roll that boulder down at you." He pointed up the hill at a large boulder that sat at the top of the trail.

"If you have the attitude of an earthbender, you'll stay in your stance and stop the rock."

Sanosuke's felt his jaw drop. The girls looked on with concern. "Like this." Rikiya lunged toward the boulder with his arms outstretched to illustrate what he meant. Xiu walked up to the earthbending teacher and student.

"Sorry Rikiya, but are you sure this is really the best way to teach Sanosuke earthbending?" asked Xiu quietly.

"I'm glad you said something." said Rikiya, smiling at Xiu. "Actually, there is a better way." He reached down, grabbed her belt, and jerked it off.

"Hey!" protested the youngest member of the group but the earthbender ignored her. He blindfolded Sanosuke with the belt.

"This way he'll really have to sense the vibrations of the boulder to stop it." he said, "Thank you Xiu." He ruffled Xiu's hair, much to the annoyance of the girl, only her annoyance didn't match the Avatar's.

"Yeah, thanks Xiu!" said a blindfolded Sanosuke, scowling at Xiu.

She shifted her feet guiltily and walked back to the spectators.

Rikiya ran to the top of the hill while Sanosuke stood at the bottom. The earthbender shoved the rock forward and it began to roll down the slope. Sanosuke looked worried and afraid as it rolled toward him. Xiu, Kya, and Aura covered their faces with their hands. Toshiro looked on with a worried look on his face. Sanosuke's teeth were clenched and beads of sweat flowed down his face. Momo cowered down on Xiu's head. Sanosuke suddenly jumped to the side to dodge the boulder just when it was about to hit him. The boulder rolled passed the girls and Toshiro and slammed into the side of the canyon. Sanosuke got off the ground, removing the blindfold as he did so. Rikiya ran down the slope and up to Sanosuke, glaring at him disapprovingly.

"I guess I just panicked." said Sanosuke, "I don't know what to say."

"There's nothing to say." Rikiya said angrily, "You blew it. You had a perfect stance and perfect form but when it came right down to it you didn't have the guts." Sanosuke glared at Rikiya.

"You know, if you're not tough enough to stop the rock," continued the earthbender, "Then you could at least give it the pleasure of crushing you instead of jumping out of the way like a wimp! Now, do you have what it takes to face that rock like an earthbender!"

"No." said Sanosuke quietly. He still glared at Rikiya. "I don't think I do." He turned and walked away.

Rikiya crossed his arms, scowling. Sanosuke handed Xiu her belt while he passed her. She ran after him while she tied on her belt.

"Sanosuke, it's no big deal." she said. She put a hand on his arm. "Just take a break and try earthbending again when you're ready. How about I give you a few chi blocking lessons?"

"Yeah..." answered Sanosuke, still annoyed, "That sounds good."

"Yeah, whatever, go poke each other until you feel better." Rikiya called after the two.

Elvira squated down to examine something on the earth floor. She found some footprints and they looked fresh. Behind her on komodo rhinos were two of her soldiers.

"They could belong to some Earth Kingdom traveler." said Cari, her second in command.

"No, they don't." said Elvira. Her fingers traced the inside of one of the footprints. "Whoever these footprints belong to weren't wearing shoes made in the Earth Kingdom. They were wearing shoes from the Water Tribes." a small smile creeped on her face. "Men, I think we found who we're looking for!"

She ran to her komodo rhino and jumped on its back. She urged it forward into a run and the rhino ran forward. Her soldiers were close behind her. She looked down at the tracks and followed them for several minutes until they suddenly stopped. She had her rhino stop, raising her arm to signal the men to stop also. The soldiers did so and everything was silent. Elvira jumped off her mount and examined the tracks. They were fresh but the trail just stopped. She looked around but didn't see any rocks to climb or any rivers to jump. She suddenly heard the sound of a body hitting the ground and a grunt of pain. She looked behind her and saw one of her soldiers on the ground.

"I don't know what happened." the soldier said, groaning while he sat up, "It's like something invisable knocked me over!"

Something blue swooped over them. Elvira felt a powerful wind and Cari was forced off his rhino. While he got to his feet, groaning, Elvira looked at the canopy of trees, eyes scanning not just for something blue, but for some movement. She saw some leaves in a tree move and she shot a fireball at them. The fire burnt the leaves in the tree and a hogmonkey jumped out from the leaves and into a different tree. Cari and the other soldier stood behind Elvira and the three soldiers looked around.

"This is pointless," growled Elvira, "Just burn the forest!"

She and the two soldiers firebended the trees surrounding them, making sure not to burn the komodo rhinos. Screeching birds shot out of the trees and flew into the sky. Elvira's cruel smile changed into a frown when the blue thing flew into the burning forest and flew over the fire. While it flew over the fire, the flames were immediately put out. The fire died down. Through the smoke Elvira saw that it was a boy in Water Tribe clothing riding a blue glider. She shot a fireball at the boy who narrowly dodged but skidded to the ground. The boy let go of his glider and rolled on the ground. The boy groaned and got on his hands and knees but a foot slammed down on his back, forcing him down on the ground again. Cari forced the boy's arms behind him and tied his wrists together.

"Let go of me!" yelled the boy. He struggled but it was no use. Elvira crouched down next to him.

"Look kid, we can do this the easy way or the hard way."

The boy glared defiantly at the woman and continued to struggle. Elvira shrugged.

"The easy way then."

She stood up, looked down at Cari when he was finished and nodded. He smirked, walked a short distance, and picked up a large rock. He walked back over to the boy, wieghing the rock in his hand, then brought it down hard on the boy's head. The boy laid on the ground, unconscious. Cari tossed the rock aside and turned the boy over so the soldiers could see his face.

"This ain't the Avatar." said the third soldier. "I recognize him from our last attack on the Southern Tribe. What do we do with him?" He added, looking at Elvira.

Elvira walked away from the boy and grabbed his fallen staff. She turned it over in her hands while she looked it over. She had heard of it and seen pictures of it; she recognized it as the last Avatar's staff. An idea came to her. She threw the staff to the ground and addressed her soldiers.

"We're taking the boy with us. I doubt he's traveling alone. He'll be perfect bait."

"Bait?" questioned Cari.

"The last Avatar was the last airbender and owned a flying bison." she pointed at the boy, "This kid has to be his son. That night at the North Pole, I saw a flying bison. No doubt he's following in his mother's footsteps and helping the new Avatar learn the other elements."

She approached and mounted her komodo rhino. She looked down at the soldiers. "Bring him."

Cari grabbed the boy and dumped him on his rhino. The soldiers mounted their rhinos and rode out of the woods. Before they left, Elvira ripped something off her chest armor and tossed it next to the staff.

"Where is Haruki? He should've been back two hours ago." said Xiu. It was nightfall already and the team were grouped around a campfire. Xiu was pacing.

"It's getting late." said Kya. "I think it's time we searched for him."

"We'll find him faster if we split up." said Rikiya.

"Let's split up into groups." said Jin. "Toshiro and Kya," she pointed at the Water Tribe siblings, "Aura, and Rikiya," she pointed at the acrobat and earthbender, "Xiu and Sanosuke," she pointed at the youngest in the group and the Avatar, "You're with me."

"Take Appa with you." Kya told Jin, "It'll be safer for the Avatar to be in the sky than in the forest."

Jin, Xiu, and Sanosuke flew on the bison over the forest. After several minutes, Xiu noticed something below.

"Look at that!" she told the others. They looked down and saw a large group of trees that were black. Jin had Appa land on top of the trees that weren't burnt and the kids slid off Appa and climbed down from the trees. They ran to the area where the trees were black and saw that the trees were burnt from a large amount of fire.

"What happened here?" asked Sanosuke while he looked around. He tripped over something and stumbled slightly. He looked down and found Haruki's staff.

"It's Haruki's glider." he picked it up and held it out for the girls to see it.

Jin gasped and pointed at the ground. The other two looked where she was pointing and saw a silver phoenix emblem. Jin picked it up.

"The symbol of the Chikara Army." she whispered. She squeezed her eyes shut to keep the tears from falling. With a scream of rage she threw it on the ground and shot fire at it. Xiu held onto Sanosuke's arm, a scared look on her face. Sanosuke couldn't take his eyes off Jin's face, which looked pained and had tears streaming down. She stopped torching the emblem and fell to her knees sobbing.