Air, Water, Earth, Fire.
I was in my new room at air temple Island finishing putting on my Air Bender outfit when Tomoko walked in and sat down looking exhausted.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Master Topden was not exactly pleased with me just bringing someone back to train myself with my own training not really finished technically. Of course back before I joined I heard they were not as much as strict about the requirements for becoming a master." She told me.
"What happened?" My interest was peaked.
"Not long after I started my training there was this 'Traditionalist movement' where people started believing that we became to lax when it came to our training and that the old requirements and traditions from before the hundred Years War should be brought back. There was push back on some things but in the end it just raised the requirements to an unfathomable degree that someone like me has had to work twice as hard just to learn the same basic stuff."
"Well I am glad I am learning from you then as you probably have a better way of teaching."
"Maybe. Now let's get going and start your first lesson."
I fallowed her out to the courtyard where there was this thing that had panels that spun.
"I was told to 'be like the leaf' when I was trained with this thing. And my master had a leaf fly through it while it was spinning. That is in fact a load of dung. What this is about is teaching you the basic foot work involved in Airbending as Airbending is about avoiding your enemies attacks. At the same time I was told that Air is supposed to be the Element of Freedom yet when you look at how this place is ran at times I question that." Once she finishes talking Tomoko used an Air blast to cause the panels to start spinning. "Let's see what you can do."
I try to see if I can apply my knowledge of water bending to this by 'going with the flow' of the panels. It's not perfect as I get hit a few times but it seems to work some what.
"You did a decent job for your first attempt." She told me.
"I met a few water benders in my life. So I decided to apply that knowledge to here." I told her.
"Would have never thought of the parallels between this and that. But every thing is connected right?"
"Yeah."
"Now let's do this a few more times."
We do this exercise for about an hour before I realize Tomoko fell asleep. I go over and try to use air bending to wake her up. Nothing happens. I try again and once again nothing happens. Then I rub my hands together and try a third time, then a gentle breeze came from my hand and blew across her face moving some of her hair but otherwise not doing much. However it does wake her up.
"Hey you kinda feel asleep master." I casually say.
"Oh, well you did good now let's get some lunch. Also I know your being respectful but I rather you not call me master except when around the others who I try to avoid personally at this point."
"How come?" I ask.
"I just feel uncomfortable being called it and I don't think I really earned the title yet."
"Ok. Well where do we eat?"
"Unfortunately that is a public space."
"It can't be that bad." We start to walk to where ever we get our food at.
"The food around here actually sucks. It's all vegetarian and you can't really leave without a good excuse so getting good food is difficult."
"Maybe I can do something about that later tonight."
"How?"
"We could go to Avatar Island and I could show you."
"Why not."
We go into what is basically a common area grab something to eat and sit down. The only thing that looked remotely appetizing where the ingredients for a salad. Even then it's disappointing that we couldn't put meat on it. Things were quiet until some other people came in.
"Hey look it's Tomoko and her 'student'." The one guy with a shaved head tattoos and silver eyes said. If I remember correctly from when I was introduced his name was Chodak.
"Heh she can't pass on her own so she thinks by training someone she can get her tattoos that way. What a joke." A female named Norbu jabbed.
"I'm sure it won't be long before they are both kicked come on." A third one who I haven't met yet said before they all walked off.
I placed my left hand under the table and decretory formed black ice in front of Chodak causing him to slip and force the other two down with him. Then I quickly melted the ice and went back to eating. Tomoko though had that confused look on her face not knowing what happened.