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Title: Knowing How to Read the Wind
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Rating: G
Genre: Drama
Words: 487
Notes/Warnings: None. Done for "power" @ theavatar100
Summary: A young Avatar Kyoshi struggles to learn airbending, and more about how an Avatar should behave.
Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender copyright Michael Dante DiMartino & Bryan Konietzko/Nickelodeon and this derivative work was created without permission.
Kyoshi wasn't exactly sure why her Airbending teacher had taken her all the way out here -- standing on a glacier in the mountains near the temple -- but she had a guess. She felt no earth beneath her boots, and, besides the body heat of herself, her airbending teacher, Tsering, and Tsering's sky bison, felt no fire around her. So, no earth and little fire -- probably so I can focus on the air.
She looked around, charting the terrain. The ice wasn't as flat as it had looked from the air, having hills and valleys, like a crystalline imitation of earth.
"Kyoshi," Tsering spoke then. "I thought you could use a little break from meditation."
"Yes, Sifu," she replied. Her meditation and attempts to learn airbending had been going badly -- sitting in one place had her prone to falling asleep, and every time she tried to mimic the movements of the airbenders, the only air she moved was from the waving of her arms. She could see all the air around her, but when she tried to reach out and grab some to bend, it just slid through her fingers. Firebending hadn't been that hard, once she learned how to find fire.
"So, let us focus on another task. " Tsering produced a kite from her bag, a toy version of the gliders that many airbenders used to get around. "My challenge to you is to catch the kite. Without earthbending or firebending."
But I can't even airbend yet! Kyoshi thought as Tsering launched the kite into the air, and set it into a complicated series of motions. She sighed, trying to relax, then started repeating the motions from her lessons. They worked about as well as they had in the past -- the kite continued to swoop and dive, with no hint that any winds had come to dash it from the sky. Kyoshi stared at it, scowling, as she continued to try to grab enough air to knock the kite away. It almost looks close enough for someone to grab when it dives.
Wait a moment, Tsering never said I had to airbend to knock the kite down.
Abandoning her stance, Kyoshi ran and leapt into the air the next time the kite dived, grabbing the tail with a gloved hand and a yell. She had almost felt like she was flying when she jumped -- both exciting and disconcerting as she lost contact with the earth. She presented the kite to Tsering, grinning.
"Very good. Unlike earthbending and firebending, you can't just muscle through when airbending -- it'll just slip through your fingers. You have to work with the element -- use the movement of the air, instead of making it like earth." Tsering smiled. "And knowing when you don't need to bend at all is also a good skill for an Avatar to have, as much as knowing how to bend."
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Rating: G
Genre: Drama
Words: 487
Notes/Warnings: None. Done for "power" @ theavatar100
Summary: A young Avatar Kyoshi struggles to learn airbending, and more about how an Avatar should behave.
Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender copyright Michael Dante DiMartino & Bryan Konietzko/Nickelodeon and this derivative work was created without permission.
Kyoshi wasn't exactly sure why her Airbending teacher had taken her all the way out here -- standing on a glacier in the mountains near the temple -- but she had a guess. She felt no earth beneath her boots, and, besides the body heat of herself, her airbending teacher, Tsering, and Tsering's sky bison, felt no fire around her. So, no earth and little fire -- probably so I can focus on the air.
She looked around, charting the terrain. The ice wasn't as flat as it had looked from the air, having hills and valleys, like a crystalline imitation of earth.
"Kyoshi," Tsering spoke then. "I thought you could use a little break from meditation."
"Yes, Sifu," she replied. Her meditation and attempts to learn airbending had been going badly -- sitting in one place had her prone to falling asleep, and every time she tried to mimic the movements of the airbenders, the only air she moved was from the waving of her arms. She could see all the air around her, but when she tried to reach out and grab some to bend, it just slid through her fingers. Firebending hadn't been that hard, once she learned how to find fire.
"So, let us focus on another task. " Tsering produced a kite from her bag, a toy version of the gliders that many airbenders used to get around. "My challenge to you is to catch the kite. Without earthbending or firebending."
But I can't even airbend yet! Kyoshi thought as Tsering launched the kite into the air, and set it into a complicated series of motions. She sighed, trying to relax, then started repeating the motions from her lessons. They worked about as well as they had in the past -- the kite continued to swoop and dive, with no hint that any winds had come to dash it from the sky. Kyoshi stared at it, scowling, as she continued to try to grab enough air to knock the kite away. It almost looks close enough for someone to grab when it dives.
Wait a moment, Tsering never said I had to airbend to knock the kite down.
Abandoning her stance, Kyoshi ran and leapt into the air the next time the kite dived, grabbing the tail with a gloved hand and a yell. She had almost felt like she was flying when she jumped -- both exciting and disconcerting as she lost contact with the earth. She presented the kite to Tsering, grinning.
"Very good. Unlike earthbending and firebending, you can't just muscle through when airbending -- it'll just slip through your fingers. You have to work with the element -- use the movement of the air, instead of making it like earth." Tsering smiled. "And knowing when you don't need to bend at all is also a good skill for an Avatar to have, as much as knowing how to bend."