Wandering Firebender

Eighty Six: Distancing

Elio's airship returned to the Fire Nation and everyone promptly entered into the palace, going off in different directions. Elio went straight for the throne room to meet with Fire Lord Zuko. Alger went over to a neighboring airship to meet with Koda, Nezu, and Marx.

Cindra and Sri made their way back towards the rooms. Although they were walking together, they weren't speaking – Sri wasn't sure what the deal was, but she knew that something had gone down between her and Elio.

Whatever it was, it had to be bad for Cindra to be like this. She was trying to muster up the nerve to ask about it, but before she did, a familiar face passed by and stopped to greet them.

"Hey! There you are! I heard you guys had just gotten back from a mission," Suki said, meeting up with them as they were walking into the entrance to their wing. "It's good to see you again!" She said with a smile, giving both Sri and Cindra a quick hug.

"Oh hey, Suki! It's good to see you too! How've you been? How are Aang and the others?" Sri asked excitedly.

"Um, I'm not sure. They've been out, I haven't seen them in a little while." She admitted.

"That's too bad. How've you been though?" Cindra asked, speaking politely but keeping her arms folded in front of her.

"I've been good. I'm actually on my way to a training session with some of the Kyoshi Warriors," She brought up. "Wanna come? Well, you guys must be tired, right?" She assumed since they had just gotten back. However, they both shook their heads.

"Actually, that sounds great! I gotta keep working at my fighting style." Sri said with a smile, bringing her fists up in front of her as if ready to fight.

"I'll come too. I don't have any plans." Cindra answered with a shrug.

"Alright, follow me then." Suki smiled and walked between them, leading them back the other way. They walked through the halls towards an outdoor training area where other Kyoshi Warriors were already practicing formations.

"Why are there so many Kyoshi Warriors here?" Cindra asked curiously.

"Zuko opened his doors to us so that we have a place to stay when we're not assisting with relief work in the Earth Kingdom. It's much nicer than staying in tents." Suki commented with a laugh.

"Really? That's awesome. The Fire Lord is really generous." Sri commented with a smile.

"Oh yeah, Zuko is super sweet," Another Kyoshi Warrior chimed in, doing a cartwheel and a side flip as she joined up with the girls. "I haven't seen him in awhile!" She giggled.

"Oh? You know him?" Cindra asked curiously.

"Yeah! We're friends!" She answered with a laugh, "Oh sorry, where are my manners? I'm Ty Lee. What're your names?" She asked.

"I'm Cindra. Nice to meet you, Ty Lee." Cindra shook hands with her politely – she wasn't necessarily in the mood for Ty Lee's cheerful attitude right now, but she did still appreciate it.

"It's a pleasure, Ty Lee. Suki mentioned you before. You're the...you chi-block, right?" Sri recalled. Ty Lee grinned widely and nodded, showing a little bit of pride.

"Yep! I taught everyone how to do it too! All the Kyoshi Warriors here, and even Elio!" She brought up in a matter of fact way, since she knew that they knew him.

"Oh?" Cindra's head perked up at this. However, before Ty Lee could elaborate further, Suki changed the subject.

"Alright, everyone. Let's get started with some formations." Suki raised her voice to address the group of Kyoshi Warriors in the training area. Everyone began to line up. Cindra, Sri, and Ty Lee all exchanged glances before lining up with the others.

"Here, we do these moves to warm up every training session. I'll show you what to do. You'll love it! It really loosens up the muscles!" Ty Lee said to Cindra and Sri.

The two of them followed along with Suki's instructions, staying silent as they stretched, posed, and practiced basic attacks like real Kyoshi Warriors. It was interesting for both of them, getting a taste of a completely different culture.

"Alright, girls. Let's pair up and do some sparring!" Suki said with a clap of her hands. The girls all began to chat idly with each other as they split off into pairs.

"You wanna pair up?" Ty Lee offered Sri.

"Sure! You can teach me some more about chi-blocking." Sri said with a smile, walking off with her to an area where they would have space to practice. Once everyone else had broken off into their groups, Suki approached Cindra.

"Hey there. Having trouble finding a partner?" Suki asked with a little laugh. Cindra shook her head, standing there with her arms folded.

"Well that Ty Lee girl took my partner. But I guess I can settle for you." Cindra answered, managing to throw in a joke at the end.

Suki and Cindra began to spar with each other – Cindra had been wanting to get better with her hand to hand combat anyways, so this was the perfect opportunity to work out some frustrations. Suki, who was much more experienced than her, had no problems keeping up, but she could tell that Cindra had something on her mind.

"Hey, Cindra, how're the missions going? I hear you've had some pretty big ones lately." Suki inquired.

"Yeah. Which one did you hear about?" Cindra asked, assuming that Suki was wanting to bring up one mission in particular.

"Well everybody knows about Princess Azula – that girl's no joke. And I also heard something else about a statue?" Suki elaborated.

"Yeah, we were just supposed to be on guard while the Ozai statue was taken down, but we got attacked by a group of...I don't even know what you would call them. Rebels, I guess?" Cindra shrugged.

"Really? Why do you say they were rebels?" Suki asked.

"Because they were saying 'Fire Lord Ozai' this and that. I guess they don't really like how the new Fire Lord is doing things." Cindra commented.

"I don't know how anyone would rather things stay be as they were before," Suki said with a shake of her head. "But you know, some people are delusional...either by ignorance or choice." She added.

"Yeah. Speaking of delusional..." Cindra began, rolling her eyes at the thought.

"Ha, the princess? I heard that she's being held in, like, a mental facility? What happened there?" Suki asked curiously.

"She went crazy, apparently. I mean, I didn't know her before, but Elio said she was acting very differently." Cindra said. Bringing this up made her recall what happened again. She sighed and shook her head, looking away from Suki.

"Something happen with her?" She asked, immediately noticing Cindra's irritation.

"Not with her, with Elio," Cindra clarified. "He did something stupid and I'm mad at him." She gave a short summary. Suki nodded.

"Ahh, dumb stuff. Wanna talk about it? Or you wanna punch it out?" Suki offered.

"Punch it out, definitely." Cindra answered quickly with a nod.

"Well then let's go another round, but I'm not gonna make it too easy for ya." Suki invited with a smirk...

After some more practicing with Suki, it came time for everyone to switch partners. As the different groups split apart and formed new ones, Suki and Cindra made their way over to Sri and Ty Lee, who were more focused on their conversation than finding new partners.

"Just start by stretching every day, and little by little just take it further, and before you know it you'll be as flexible as me!" Ty Lee said with a big smile.

"Yeah, haha, I highly doubt that, but it would be cool to be able to do the splits like that. I can add that to the list of random useless skills I have." Sri joked with a laugh.

"Hey, we're supposed to be switching up, you know? Stop being friends." Suki teased.

"Haha, no can do, chief." Sri laughed.

"Oh! I didn't realize we were switching, haha, sorry! Cindra, yeah? You wanna partner up?!" Ty Lee asked her excitedly.

"Huh? Oh yeah, sure. That's fine." Cindra agreed with a nod.

"Alright. Sri, how about you and me then?" Suki requested.

"Learning from the master, huh?" Sri chuckled.

"Ha, well I don't know about master. I'm just the instructor." Suki said as they started to walk away, leaving Cindra and Ty Lee alone.

"Hey, are you a waterbender?" Ty Lee asked curiously, tugging on the fabric of her blue tunic with her thumb and pointer finger.

"I am," Cindra answered, turning her body slightly to pull the fabric free. "I'm from the Northern Water Tribe."

"Wowww! That's so cool! I hear it's really cold in the North Pole, haha, I'd love to visit one day!" Ty Lee smiled.

"It's really nice up there. You definitely need to dress warmly though," She said with a small chuckle. "It's way colder than any sort of cold you're probably used to." She added.

"Oh yeah, haha, I'm from the Fire Nation but I've only ever traveled in the Earth Kingdom, so I'm sure cold for me is like summer weather for you." Ty Lee joked and laughed it off. However, this caught Cindra's attention.

"Hold up, you're from the Fire Nation?" Cindra asked in surprise.

"Yep! Born and raised, haha, I used to be best friends with Princess Azula...not anymore though...heheh, but my friend Mai and I still talk!" She rambled.

"Oh...you mentioned before that you know Elio?" Cindra inquired.

"Oh yeah, yep! I haven't talked with him in awhile. How is he?" Ty Lee asked curiously.

"He's fine. I didn't know that Elio had met other Kyoshi Warriors before." She commented.

"Oh haha well that's not how we met. I wasn't a Kyoshi Warrior. We used to perform in the circus together." Ty Lee clarified.

"The circus?"

"Yeah! Elio was such an amazing firebender, even back then. I bet he's gotten even better now! Have you ever seen him perform?" Ty Lee asked.

"No, no I haven't," Cindra shook her head. "But he's talked about it in the past." She added.

"Ohh I see. You should ask him to do it again. I betcha he would love that!" Ty Lee suggested enthusiastically.

"Maybe." Cindra sighed.

"Did he return from his mission already? I think I'll go by and say hi to him later." Ty Lee decided.

"Yeah, I'm sure he'd love that." Cindra rolled her eyes, turning away from Ty Lee and starting to make her way back towards the palace.

"Huh? Wait! Where are you going?!" Ty Lee asked, surprised that she was just walking off.

"I'm gonna get some rest. I'm all trained out." Cindra said with a wave of her hand before going inside, hugging herself with her arms in front of her as she walked at a hurried pace.

There was no one word that could perfectly describe Cindra's emotions – she felt a mix of them: anger, frustration, embarrassment; she felt silly, she felt stupid.

There was no denying that Cindra had developed feelings for Elio – she knew that, and she was pretty sure that Elio knew that too. She had been led to believe that Elio reciprocated those feelings to some extent, or maybe she had just fooled herself into thinking that.

Otherwise, what happened between Elio and Princess Azula wouldn't have happened. She still couldn't wrap her head around that one. Why would a guy like Elio allow himself to get into anything with a psychopath like Azula, even if she was a princess?

Perhaps she didn't know Elio as well as she thought she did.

That seemed to just add insult to injury, because the two of them had gone through so much together. They've shared moments together both friendly and romantic. And yet now Azula could say the same thing. Who knows if this Ty Lee girl could too.

Perhaps she was just letting insecurity get the better of her, but she couldn't help but wonder, "What is it about me that Elio doesn't like?" She was thinking hard to find answers to this questions, but she didn't like any of the answers.

Aside from the usual things about herself that she was unsure of, she found herself coming to the conclusion that the reasons why Elio had not continued things further with her after the war were twofold: one, because of the work that they were kept busy with.

The second reason was because she wasn't from the Fire Nation like these other girls were, so there was less familiarity between them and fewer things that they could relate to. Which seemed unfair to her, since that was something about herself that she couldn't change.

She was feeling more down on herself now as she reached her room. That's when Sri finally managed to catch up with her. She ran up behind her and grabbed her by the shoulder to stop her from fully retreating into her room.

"Hey! What's going on, Cindra?" She asked. Cindra turned back around to look at her.

"Huh? What do you mean? Nothing's wrong." Cindra tried to deny it with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Then why'd you storm off?" Sri pressed, knowing that she wasn't being truthful.

"I just...got upset by something." Cindra admitted reluctantly.

"Why? Did Ty Lee do something?" Sri asked, assuming that she was upset about something that had just happened.

"No no, she's fine. She's really nice actually." Cindra commented.

"She is. So then what's up?" Sri questioned curiously.

"Nothing, nothing...I'm just upset about something dumb, don't worry. I'll get over it." Cindra waved it off.

"Something about Elio, I assume?" Sri guessed.

"What makes you say that?" Cindra raised her eyebrow at Sri.

"I know you and him have been having some weird problems lately. I don't mean to pry, that's between you two, just letting you know I'm here if you ever wanna talk about it. Get an outside opinion. I know Elio can be a little headstrong sometimes." She commented with a little chuckle.

"He's never really been...well, I guess I get what you're saying. Thank you, Sri. I'll keep that in mind. It's stupid, anyways. I just need to get over it, I guess." Cindra tried to shrug it off, letting out a sigh afterwards.

"Just let me know. I'mma get back to training for now. I'll talk to ya later." Sri smiled comfortingly, giving her a little nod before turning and walking back the way she had come from.

"Thanks. I appreciate it." Cindra replied shortly before entering her room and quickly closing the door behind her...