Well here is another good one. And if you didn't see, the edited version of chapter 25 is up as well. And don't forget that Chapter 27 will go up this Wednesday. I hope you enjoy this one :D

Chapter 26

No Rest for the Weary

In the aftermath of the Warrior Games, people looked on me with a new air of respect. People also noticed the intensity of the fight between me and Taruk and that more had happened than what was seen. School always went on a break for a few weeks after the games, so my schedule was nothing but training. Taruk would glare at me every time he saw me, but he kept his distance.

I walked out of the tunnel and onto the porch in the Shui Temple. Lamara and Master Sonam were waiting for me.

"Hyriu, you have proven yourself a talented flyer, so we are going to work with that. Today, you will practice air combat," Sonam said.

"Who am I going to fight? Lamara?" I scoffed.

"And me," someone announced.

I turned and saw Daminao land.

"You're late, Daminao," Sonam said sternly.

"I am sorry; I got distracted by the daises on the mountain side," he said with a smile.

"Yes of course, how silly of me to forget what a nuisance daises can be for your attention span," Sonam said, his face completely stoic. He turned his attention back to me, "Anyway, you will climb to the top of Gaofeng and then attempt to land on the Vine Temple which is atop the end of the Greenwall. Lamara will fly next to you and try to stop you from reaching your goal. Daminao will be patrolling the skies. And I will be waiting for you at the temple. Now go. Oh, and here is your glider," he said as he handed it to me.

"How am I supposed to climb Gaofeng, the tallest mountain in this part of the Bei Shuis, with a glider in my hand?" I asked him.

"That is one of the hardships of life," he said sarcastically.

"Why can't I just fly up? Why do I have to climb?" I asked.

"That is part of your training," he replied.

I walked up the paths by the temple with Lamara. When the paths ended, we trudged through the tropical forest. I saw a river near by.

"Sonam said I couldn't fly up, but he never said I couldn't water bend up," I smiled.

A lemur landed on Lamara's shoulder with a note. I prepared an ice raft, but before I could get on it, I was knocked to the ground. I stood up and looked at Lamara.

"What? Sonam said to start 'hindering' you," she said, waving the note.

"Great," I said as she shot another blast.

I made an ice wall and blocked it. I made another ice raft since the first went down the river. I jumped on it and raced against the current. Lamara opened her glider and flew after me. I shot streams of water at her. She flipped through the air, shooting blasts of wind that obliterated the water I threw at her.

Eventually, we got near the top of Gaofeng, where there was only ice and rock, so we battled with the wind. I got to the top of the mountain. The view was terrifyingly beautiful. I opened my glider as Lamara circled me. I saw Daminao, and I looked towards the small Vine Temple.

I dived.

I was kneeled on my glider, so I was surfing but still going very fast. Lamara was close behind. I did flips and turns to try and lose her, but she was too good. I tried to blast her away with wind, but she countered my every attack. I shot a blast of fire at her. She quickly dodged. I saw Daminao in front of me. I shot a blast of fire at him. Unfortunately, since I was flying so fast, I shot the fire in front of myself. I flew into my own fire blast. I could see Daminao laughing ahead of me.

"Alright," I said to myself, "You think it's funny, huh?"

I dived straight down. Daminao stopped laughing and dived after me. I looked behind myself and saw them both diving at me. I smiled; they had fallen right into my trap. I shot a huge blast of fire. Since they were diving, they had no time to dodge. I saw that they tried to block the flames but still got singed.

I continued shooting blasts of fire with an occasional gust of wind at them.

Suddenly a huge gust of wind knocked me off my glider. I was tumbling through the air, free falling. I panicked.

'Hyriu!' Kyoshi said, 'Calm yourself. You must remain calm and think of a logical way to get out of this.'

"You're right," I said.

I took a deep breath, which is something that is hard to do when you're plummeting to your death. I entered my state of mind when I meditate. I used air bending to steady myself so I was no longer somersaulting or spinning. My feet were pointed to the ground and my head to the sky. I saw my glider. I started using slow but powerful air bending techniques to slow my descent and started moving closer to my glider. Just as I was about to reach it, it was blown away from me by an unnatural current of air. I saw Sonam standing atop the Vine Temple. He was moving in slow graceful movements, unleashing powerful blasts of wind. He held his staff in one hand. I knew now that I was battling him. I knew I couldn't beat him with normal bending, so I entered Stage One. Then I realized I had mastered Stage Two, so after I felt like I was ready, I entered Stage Two. I could feel the air currents all around me. I selected one that I could use to my advantage, and with the help of my air bending, I moved toward my glider. I was able to grab it and get back on. While I was doing this, I had fended off Sonam's attacks.

An idea occurred to me. Sonam said I was to practice air combat, but that didn't mean I had to use air bending. I had fire bended a little bit, but not much. I saw a cloud nearby. I began to combine my air bending and water bending skills. The cloud began to move toward me. It started to swirl all around me. I moved it toward Sonam on the temple. I enveloped him in the cloud, and it covered an entire section of the Greenwall. I could feel Sonam trying to dispel the cloud, but it was too powerful. I then began to shape the cloud into a swirling cylinder, like a tornado cut short. I could still feel Sonam trying to break through the cloud. I swirled the tornado faster and circulated the air inside it so Sonam would be having trouble standing still.

I made the tornado go even faster. I started to freeze the tornado, so a cylinder of ice as big as the Shui Temple surrounded Sonam on the Vine Temple. I continued swirling the air around in the cylinder. I flew over the top of the cylinder and looked down at Sonam. I began to descend to the temple. As I descended, I began melting the ice then turning the water into steam. I used air bending to blow the steam away. As I got lower, I swirled the wind below me faster. Sonam was using all his skill to stay on the temple's roof.

When at last I was just above him, I unleashed blast after blast of wind at him. Finally using the swirling wind to my advantage, I let loose a powerful gust of wind in all directions, knocking Sonam off the temple and disintegrating what was left of the ice cylinder. I jumped to the ground and came out of Stage Two. I walked into the temple just as Sonam, Lamara, and Daminao walked in from the other side.

I smiled, "Looks like I win."

I realized just how tired I was and slumped against the temple's wall.

"Hyriu! Are you alright?" Lamara asked as she rushed over to me.

"I'm fine, just tired," I said.

"Yes, it seems Stage Two really takes a toll on you," Sonam noted.

"Apparently," I said.

We flew back to the temple. Wei and Arnook were waiting for us. We landed and they walked over to us.

"Well, Hyriu, that was quite a performance," Arnook said.

"You saw that?" I asked, still tired.

"Most of it, we walked up when you started freezing the tornado," Arnook said. "You seem tired, Hyriu."

"Yes, very," I said. "I can't wait to go home and sleep.

Arnook looked at Wei, "Well then, I have some bad news for you. I was able to contact Master Lee, and we have scheduled a time for you to visit and practice earth bending."

"Oh, that's great," I said. "Wait, how is that bad news?"

"It is bad news because you leave tomorrow, so you will have almost no rest," Arnook explained.

"Ah, how long will I be there?" I asked.

"Around two or three weeks, depending on your progress," he said.

I took a deep breath, "Cool."

I was looking forward to seeing Shan, my friend, but I was not looking forward to the rough training ahead. I went home barely able to stand. I started to prepare my stuff for the coming journey, but I fell asleep before I was half way done.

Well this is the chapter that starts off Hyriu's more intense training. In the next chapter we get to see more of how Hyriu stays hidden when he travels and the capital. If any of you have seen the show then you knew what it looks like but I think I did a good job describing it. Also one of my personal favorite characters is introduced. See you Wednesday for Chapter 27: To the Earth Kingdom.