Wandering Firebender

Seventeen: Training

"That was really nice of you to give Sri and her family some money until they can figure out a safer way to keep their business going." Cindra said to Elio as they walked alongside the trail. They were now finally starting on their long journey to Ba Sing Se.

"Yeah, well, I figure it'd be pointless if we saved Sri just for her to go right back into desert the next day. I'm sure they'll figure something out." Elio reasoned. Cindra nodded and chuckled.

"I saw Sri's face when you gave her the money. I think she might have gotten a crush on you in that moment." She teased him. Elio made a face and shook his head.

"Don't be ridiculous." He dismissed the idea. Cindra rolled her eyes and shook her head with a smile.

"Just saying. She was all like 'Oh, Elio, I really owe you one now'." She pointed out, deepening her voice to sound more like Sri.

"That is not what she said!" Elio argued, getting a little flustered at the thought of that exchange in the context Cindra was insinuating. Cindra laughed at him.

"Why are you so defensive at the idea of her liking you? Did you like her too?" She cooed at him.

"Oh come on now, Cindra." Elio scoffed and shook his head. Cindra shook her head again and smiled.

"You totally liked her."

"Anyways!" Elio spoke up, abruptly changing the subject, "I was thinking today would be a good day to train. The map says we should be close to a river. What do you say?" He offered.

"I guess we can... But it's not gonna be much of a training session for me. I only know a handful of moves. Not even really a handful, more like...half of a handful." She said.

"That's okay. We'll have a whole day to figure all of that out," Elio smiled. "I think you're better than you give yourself credit for. Plus, now you get to practice waterbending openly." He pointed out.

"Yeah that's true. Thanks." She smiled at him.

While continuing on their way, Elio and Cindra caught sight of the river. It was far away from the trail. There wasn't a lot of good coverage, but it seemed far away enough for them to practice their bending without being seen.

"This seems like a good place," Cindra suggested, setting her pack down. "Depending on how long we're here, we might be able to set up camp here too."

"Not a bad idea. We'll see how it goes." Elio agreed, setting his pack down too. He removed his extraneous layers of clothing until he was just wearing pants and his training vest.

"Do you plan on stripping down before every fight?" She asked teasingly.

"It's so my clothes don't get burned, Cindra." Elio said, looking at her.

"I know that, dork." She snickered. She removed her shoes and her outer garment down to her pants and a sleeveless undershirt.

"I'll let you do your own thing." Elio decided, taking a few steps away from the camp. Cindra nodded and watched him put some distance between them. Then she got to work on her own bending.

Elio's mind went always back to his time in the training academy when he practiced his firebending forms. He had been doing them all of his life. He knew them by heart. And as he'd been forced into more and more fights, he often relied on those basic teachings.

"What separates the mediocre from the good from the great firebenders, children, is poise. If you do not maintain your composure, you cannot maintain your fire; this leaves you open to attack! You must show your enemy your strength! You must be uncompromising, unrelenting!"

Elio took his stance and began practicing his punches. With each punch, fire shot out forcefully. He stepped forward, throwing several fire kicks. He jumped and spun in a circle, throwing another kick. When he landed, he imagined an opponent in front of him.

Taking in a calm breath, he threw a sweeping kick. A link of fire curved out from his foot. He spun to his feet and threw several rapid punches. He returned to his starting stance, taking in another breath.

One thing that he had figured out early on was the importance of composure; he kept his focus by making sure that he always took in calm breaths. He found that by keeping his lungs full, he could firebend with confidence and push his limits.

While Elio was in full concentration mode, Cindra was only just beginning. She was trying not to let herself be distracted by his display of skill, but it was hard not to be. The gap between him and her was substantial, and she was all too aware of that.

Nevertheless, she wanted to do her best. Elio had been kindly encouraging her since they'd first met. If he believed she could succeed, she had to try. She owed it to herself to give it her best effort. Despite her inner doubts, she was also excited to practice her bending openly for the first time.

Cindra pulled water out from the river and begun bending it in a circle around her. She created a ring around her and moved her hands to keep it spinning faster and faster. She then curved her left hand forward, snapping the water forward like a whip.

She brought her hands in a circle, compressing the ring of water into a bubble. She separated one bubble into three. Her hands trembled as she concentrated on these three points. One by one she used her hands to throw them forward. They didn't shoot straight, but at least they sort of went where she wanted them to go.

Deciding to push herself even more, she extended her hands out towards the river with her palms up. She flexed her arms, pulling up as much water from the river as she could. She lifted up a sizable bubble, but she was only able to lift it up above her own height before she had to drop it.

"Oh man. That hurt my arms a little." Cindra huffed, rubbing her arms with her hands to try and soothe the tension in her muscles.

"That was pretty good, Cindra!" Elio said to her from where he is. She looked over at him. She hadn't realized that he was observing her.

"It was okay. It could have been better." She shrugged. Elio walked closer to her.

"That's what we practice for. But it's a good place to start too." He pointed out.

"That's true. You already seem to have your firebending mastered." She observed.

"There's always more to learn," He said. "Besides, I've been practicing since I was young. My father had me learning from one of the best teachers in the capital city. It'd be unfair to compare the two of us."

"Yeah, true. Still, I envy that you had the chance to learn. The master waterbender in my tribe would just talk down to me and tell me that I could never be a good fighter because I'm a girl." Cindra sighed irritably.

"He's still in your head, huh?" He asked. She nodded, her lip tugging to one side.

"That's all I've ever been told."

"You just gotta stop comparing yourself to others. There's no other waterbenders out here. No one's gonna judge you by your form or the fact that it's a girl doing it. Not if you prove that you're effective." Elio reasoned.

"Really?"

"Yeah! Come on, how about you hit me with one of those bubbles?" He suggested, taking a few steps back.

"What? Are you kidding?"

"No! Come on! You won't know how it will affect an opponent unless you hit one!" He pointed out.

"Okay... If you're sure." Cindra said hesitantly, lifting a water bubble out of the river. Elio got in his fighting stance.

"Alright. Don't hold back." He said.

He waited for Cindra to attack. However, Cindra was hesitant to hit him with a full-on attack. Elio suddenly advanced as if he were going to attack. This prompted her to hit him with everything she had. The bubble crashed into Elio, knocking him off his feet and making him slide back.

"Elio, are you alright?!" Cindra quickly rushed towards him. Elio coughed once and got up to his feet.

"Whew, that knocked the wind out of me!"

"That looked kinda hard." She said.

"Yeah. But that's good! See, your moves are more effective than you think. You just gotta know how you wanna follow it up when you hit it." Elio said. Cindra smiled a bit.

"I guess so. Thanks, Elio... Hey, so I was wondering... What is it like to bend fire?" She asked curiously.

"To bend fire? What do you mean? Like how do I do it?"

"Well not really how you do it. Just...what does it feel like when you're doing it?" She specified. Elio hummed and thought about this question. He'd never been asked to explain it before since all of his former associates were also firebenders.

"That's an interesting question... It's hard to say, really. It's like...handling your own energy? Like when I throw a punch and fire comes out, it's like the flames become an extension of my reach." He did his best to describe it.

"That must be such a weird feeling." Cindra hummed as she thought about this.

"Wouldn't waterbending feel the same way though?" Elio inquired. Cindra quickly shook her head.

"Oh no, not at all. Waterbending feels like...it's like having a pair of hands that you can't see but you can feel it. Like when I scoop up water, it's like I'm holding it and molding it into the shape I want. That's why I have to constantly move my body: to keep the water in its mold."

"Wow... Now that is weird." Elio chuckled.

"I guess it's hard to understand unless you're doing it." Cindra giggled. Elio took a step back and sat down on the ground, crossing his legs.

"Let me watch you practice for a bit."

"Y-You want to watch me? Why?" She asked, surprised.

"I just wanna see what it's like. I've never seen anyone waterbend before." He explained. Cindra swallowed nervously and nodded.

"Alright. Just stay where you are so I don't hit you." She warned.

She began waterbending again, pulling water from the river and trying out different attacks. As she moved, Elio observed the way that she carried herself. Her weight was constantly shifting as she moved to keep the water balanced. She could advance or retreat at a moment's notice.

As Cindra turned and attacked by throwing another water bubble, Elio stood up and nodded. He walked over to Cindra as she stood up straight.

"Hey, Cindra, do you think you could show me some waterbending forms?" He requested.

"Sure, but I don't see how it would help you."

"I'd just like to learn. Here, I'll even create a fire instead of using my own." He said. He stepped into a clearing and lit some dry grass on fire. He created a burnt ring around it so it wouldn't spread before turning to Cindra.

"What do I do?" He asked.

"Uh, okay. Get into a stance like this." Cindra directed.

Cindra directed Elio into a loose stance with his feet close together. Cindra pulled water to her and showed him how she would comfortably move it. Elio pulled some fire from the burning grass to him and did the same thing. The flame quickly fizzled out.

"That's so weird."

"Remember what I was saying about those hands? Just imagine that you're reaching out and moving the fire, like it isn't yours. You're just borrowing it." She explained.

Elio nodded and tried again. He pulled the fire to him and moved it around in a circle. As the fire began to fizzle out, he added his own fire to it just to sustain it. The fire became more lively as he kept it moving.

"Oh wow. I think I feel it... I had done this before with my staff, but I wasn't thinking about it. I totally have this now." He said.

"That's good!" Cindra smiled, "So you can bend fire but you've never tried bending fire that didn't come from you?" She asked.

"Never needed to," Elio answered. "We're taught to rely on our own strength... Cindra, why don't I teach you a little bit of firebending form?" He offered.

"I'll take it. I think anything would help, honestly."

"Alright. Well, firebending isn't as loose as waterbending. Plant your feet but keep on your toes. Strong stance." Elio directed.

Cindra followed Elio's instructions, getting into the stance. He allowed her to pull more water from the river. He then directed her through a simple firebending form, using his own fire to demonstrate. The water swirled around her before she sent it forward. It shot forward like an uncoordinated spray.

"That was different." Elio commented.

"It was. The stances help me with keeping the water under control." She pointed out, picking a bright side out of the awkward attack.

"Why don't you try just putting your full force into the water? Instead of shooting it forward, just kinda... Think of it like you're closing your 'hand' around it." He suggested.

"Okay." She nodded.

Cindra pulled some more water to it. She held up the bubble in her right hand. She concentrated her energy through her hand into the water. As she flexed her hand, the water suddenly turned into ice. Spikes protruded from the ball.

"Woah!" Cindra exclaimed when she saw what she had done.

"Alright! Now shoot it forward with the same energy!" Elio exclaimed. Cindra nodded, spinning forward and doing so. The ice ball shot forward suddenly, flying and crashing into the ground on the other side of the river.

"That was great!" Cindra grinned proudly.

"So now you know how to make ice. That could come in handy." Elio smiled. Cindra smiled at him and gave him a hug.

"Thank you for helping me so much, Elio. I'm already getting so much better!"

"I'm happy for ya." Elio chuckled and hugged her back.

After spending more of the afternoon practicing, they decided to take a break and have dinner before continuing onwards. Cindra was growing and coming into her own faster than ever before, and Elio had learned a thing or two from her about how to adapt at a moment's notice.

Now they sat together by the river eating some food. Elio used his firebending to cook the food before passing it over to Cindra. In this relaxed setting, they were comfortable just eating in silence. It was a sense of peace that Elio hadn't felt in a long time.

"What do you think it's like in Ba Sing Se?" Cindra asked. Elio shrugged.

"Don't know. I've never been there. I hear it's the biggest city in the world." He answered.

"I heard that too. They say it's impenetrable. The safest place in the world from the Fire Nation. Other than the Northern Water Tribe, of course, but that's only because they've never tried to attack." She pointed out.

"True," Elio nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I think that's true though. I remember in history class they taught us about General Iroh; he tried to conquer the city in a siege that lasted like six-hundred days or something like that. Even he couldn't get in."

"Six-hundred days? Is the Fire Nation really that stubborn?" She giggled. Elio snorted.

"You'd be surprised."

"You would think after the first hundred..." She continued, snickering to herself. Elio smiled and shook his head.

"It will probably take awhile for us to get in, even when we do get there. The whole world's running there, after all." Elio realized.

"Probably. But we'll be alright. With our forces combined, we're pretty much unstoppable." She said lightly.

"Yeah, pretty much," He agreed humorously. He reached back with his hand to grab some food and accidentally knocked his pack over. Some of his personal belongings spilled out. "Oh, woops." He reached back to scoop everything up. Cindra immediately scooped up one of his items.

"Isn't this for hair? What're you doing with this?" Cindra giggled. Elio looked and realized that she had picked up Azula's royal headpiece. He quickly took it back and stuffed it into his pack.

"That's not mine. That was a gift." He said.

"Ooh, from who? Sri?" She asked teasingly.

"No," Elio groaned. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me." Cindra smirked. Elio scoffed and stopped for a moment.

"It was a gift from the princess of the Fire Nation. Her name is Azula." He told her. Cindra, as he expected, raised an eyebrow at him. Her expression conveyed her doubt.

"That belongs to a princess?"

"Yeah, um, she was wearing it when we met. I helped her out, so she gave it to me as something to remember her by." He explained. Cindra continued to look at him with the same expression before shrugging.

"Alright... So you can't be with Sri because you'd be cheating on the princess?"

"Stop," Elio groaned and chuckled. "It wasn't like that. She was just grateful."

"Mhmm, I'm sure she was," She teased before her expression became more serious. "What did you help her with, Elio?" She asked.

"Ah," Elio swallowed nervously. "There was a team of earthbenders that had gotten into this Fire Nation city. They were hurting innocent people: women and children. She asked me to help her, and when Azula asks for your help, you don't really get to say no."

"I see..." She said, mulling this over. "Sounds like that was a difficult situation to be in."

"Yeah..." Elio said awkwardly, going back to putting his things away. He scooped up the last of his things and put them in his pack. As he stood the pack up again, he realized he had missed one rolled up sheet of thick paper. He picked it up and immediately knew what it was.

Untying the ribbon around it, he slowly opened it up. The faces of his family looked back at him with neutral expressions. He'd been so busy lately that he hadn't taken any time to look at his family portrait. In fact, he hadn't really thought about them at all since running into Cassian.

"Whatcha got there?" She asked. Elio was snapped out of his thoughts.

"Oh! Uh, it's a family portrait. Just forgot I had it." He answered.

"Can I see?" She requested. Elio turned and held the portrait so she could see it. Her eyes scanned it over and she smiled a bit.

"Looks like a nice enough family. Is that your sister?" She asked.

"Yeah, Taiga. You would like her. You both love to tease me." He said with a chuckle.

"Oh I bet we'd get along great then," She laughed. "And that's your mom and your dad. You said your dad was a general, right?"

"Yeah. General Sol..." He answered with a solemn nod. Cindra saw his look of sadness and thought that it was coming from how he felt about his dad.

"Was your dad tough on you?" She asked.

"No, not really. He was a wonderful father..." He sighed, "He had really big plans for me, I know. Plans that I just couldn't go along with. I know that I must have disappointed him when I ran away. It must have hurt him." He explained. He rolled up the picture and put it back in his pack.

"I'm sorry," Cindra said softly, nodding in understanding. "I disappointed my family too. They were sick of me always trying to get involved with things that they thought weren't my problem. When I left, they didn't even come to watch me leave."

"You deserved better than that." Elio said, looking at her. She nodded and took his hand in hers.

"So did you."

The rest of the meal was eaten in relative silence. As the afternoon began to drift into the evening, Elio and Cindra packed up their things to get some more traveling done before it became too cold and too dark.

"Ready to go?" Elio asked.

"I am," She nodded. However, she paused for a bit and glanced at the river. "Hey, Elio?"

"Yeah?"

"What do you say we do one more thing before we continue?"

"What's that? Elio asked, raising his eyebrow at her. She smirked again.

"Let's have a match."

"You wanna spar?"

"Yeah! I need some real world practice!" She exclaimed. Elio chuckled.

"Yeah, that's true. Okay, one quick match and then we'll go." He decided.

"Great!" Cindra smiled and dropped her pack. Elio did the same, and the two got into a starting position.

"I'm not gonna hold back on you, alright? Well, I won't burn you, but you know what I mean." Elio said.

"Just come at me, dork." Cindra challenged with a giggle, getting into her fighting stance. Elio chuckled and did the same.

Elio attacked first, throwing a fireball at Cindra. She brought water in front of her to block the attack. As steam filled the air, Cindra brought more water to her and used a whip on Elio. He jumped to the side to dodge it, throwing a fire kick at her.

Cindra instinctively ducked down under the fire, creating two balls of water. She formed them into icy spike balls and threw them both at Elio. Elio panicked for a moment and jumped into the air, spinning to avoid both projectiles. He landed on the ground and nearly fell.

Cindra saw this and acted quickly, creating another long whip of water. She stretched it out in a sweeping motion to knock Elio off his feet. Elio pushed himself up into the air, flipping backwards to Cindra's left. He threw several more fireballs.

Cindra brought up water from the river to block the blasts. With each blast, the water quickly dissipated. She shrieked in surprise and stumbled back. Elio landed on the ground and rushed forward to continue attacking.

However, their match was interrupted by a sudden wall of earth appearing between them. Elio bumped his shoulder against it and started looking around for the earthbender. He looked and saw a group of four men; two of them were earthbenders.

"Don't worry, miss, we got your back!" One of them said. The two earthbenders began throwing boulders at Elio. Elio quickly evaded them, spinning behind the rock wall.

"Wait, no, don't! We're not fighting! We're friends!" Cindra protested. However, they continued to attack.

The rock wall Elio was hiding behind disappeared. He turned and grabbed his staff, stopping a boulder from hitting it by jabbing directly into it and breaking it into pieces. He vaulted into the air to avoid being trapped in the ground by another earthbending move.

These earthbenders were becoming more and more predictable to him.

"Don't let him get away!"

"Stop it!" Cindra demanded loudly.

Elio landed on the ground and hopped again to avoid being trapped in the ground. One of the non-bender men lunged at him with a sword. Elio spun his staff to knock the sword out of his hand, turning and slamming the staff into the side of his head. He fell to the ground unconscious.

"Tal! You'll pay for that, Fire Nation rat!" One of the earthbenders growled. Elio said nothing as he spun his staff again, ready to attack.

"I said stop!" Cindra yelled, pulling water out of the river. She created an ice wall between Elio and the men. She held her hands up, "He is not the enemy! Leave us alone!" She demanded.

"She's on his side... She's on his side!" The other non-bender realized, "Take them both down! We need him alive!"

He threw a knife directly at Cindra. She yelped and ducked down to avoid it. She ran to the side to avoid the earthbenders throwing boulders at her. She reached out to the river and spun quickly, throwing an ice ball at them. It hit one of the earthbenders and knocked him back into the ice wall, breaking it.

Elio jumped to the other side of the broken ice wall, between the other two men. He smacked the non-bender first with the staff. He spun on his feet and kicked the earthbender in the side. The earthbender blocked the kick and threw a punch in response.

Elio grunted as he bent backwards to dodge it. He fell onto his back and immediately kicked back up to his feet before the earthbender could trap him in the ground. He used his firebending to jump into the air over the earthbender's head, creating a vertical firebending slice by swinging his staff down as he landed.

The earthbender created a wall to protect them from the fire. Cindra, who had been using water to block the non-bender's knife throwing, went back on the offensive, creating more ice balls and shooting them forward at the same time. They crashed into the man, sending him back into the earthbender. They both slammed into the rock wall.

"You're lucky you're wanted alive, firebender." The other earthbender to Elio's right growled aggressively. Elio stepped back to avoid being hit by a boulder.

"What did you say?" He realized.

"They only want you alive. They didn't say you had to be all in one piece!" The earthbender yelled back, creating two rock walls to pin Elio. Elio jumped into the air and landed on top of the rock walls, throwing several fireballs at him.

"Who wants me alive?!" Elio questioned. However, the earthbender didn't answer, but continued to attack.

The other earthbender pushed his partner off of him. The non-bender fell limp to the floor; he had been knocked out. He pushed boulder after boulder out of the ground, throwing them all at Cindra one or two at a time. Cindra took a deep breath to prepare herself.

Cindra cautiously dodged the boulders. As the last two came at her, she brought water from the river up to her. She enveloped the two boulders in water, changing their trajectory by controlling the water around them. She brought them around behind her and sent them back towards the earthbender.

Not expecting this, the earthbender was hit by both boulders and was knocked backwards. He crashed through his own rock wall and tumbled limply, knocked out. The last earthbender looked over and realized that his partners were down.

"No!" He shouted as he realized they were losing. He hopped into the air and began sliding across the ground, making his way between Elio and Cindra. Elio put his staff away and threw a curved fireball, just barely missing him.

Cindra created a small water bubble and hit the earthbender in the face with it. As it splashed into him, she clenched her fist to freeze the water. The water froze around the earthbender's head. She pulled the ice block back towards her, yanking him back towards her violently.

"Nice!" Elio said, flipping forward and landing on the ground. He rushed by Cindra's side as she let the ice around the earthbender's head melt. He gasped for air, still in shock.

"Who sent you?" Elio questioned him once again.

"There's a price on your head, firebender. I don't know what you did to the Fire Nation, but they want you back." The earthbender finally answered him. Elio's eyes widened in shock.

Elio jabbed his staff into the earthbender's head, knocking him out. There was a silence between Elio and Cindra as the fight came to an end.

As Elio and Cindra returned to the trail and began walking again, they had to take some time to silently contemplate what had just happened. Elio wanted to praise Cindra for how well she had done during the fight, but that had been pushed aside by what the earthbender told them...

"So, what do we do now, Elio? The Fire Nation's after you now." Cindra asked. Elio shook his head.

"I'm not sure... Until I figure out the extent of this, I need to be extra cautious. What are you gonna do?" He asked her. She gave him a confused look.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, traveling with me just became a lot more dangerous. It's gonna be much harder to get to Ba Sing Se now." Elio pointed out.

"It's gonna be hard either way, Elio. Separating now isn't going to get us anywhere. How would we even separate? We're literally traveling in the same direction to the same place on the same trail." She argued.

"I suppose you're right." Elio awkwardly brushed his hand back through his hair.

"Lighten up, Elio. We'll just stick to the plan and maybe be a little more careful about where we show our faces along the way." She said. Elio nodded.

"Okay. You're right. Sorry, I just assumed that because of what that guy said that-"

"That I would distance myself from you to avoid being attacked?"

"I mean... Yeah." He answered.

"It's gonna take more than that to get rid of me, buddy. We're doing this together." She said with a smile. Elio nodded and managed a smile.

"Thanks, Cindra... You did good today. You have a good battle instinct." He complimented her.

"I guess I do, don't I?" She chuckled, "At least I'm not completely useless." She joked.

"You never were." Elio replied, smiling at her.

"Thanks." She smiled back at him, nudging him with her elbow...