Post by Teяa253 on May 18, 2008 9:17:38 GMT 1
the 13th installment of the "The Cycle Survived" series.
since bending is not all mastered in a day, these next two chapters span about 2 weeks each, totaling about a month.
remember, the world is seemingly at peace, but there is that strange unrest floating around...
THE EARTH KINGDOM QUEEN (I)
I was roused the next morning by my mother, who said that Toph was waiting for me and that I should hurry. I quickly got myself together and went after her. I found her in her courtyard. She was standing tall with her arms crossed. Of course, she was still 2 inches shorter than I was, but I said nothing—not that Toph would have minded. My mother had said Toph was easy-going as a child, and said she hadn’t changed.
“You’re late.” She told me bluntly,
“You never set a time,” I said, “but if I’m late I’m sorry.”
“I’m just messing’ with ya, Kai,” she said, “I was checking if you really were just like your mother—you are; serene, yet real smart.”
“So,” I said, “can we begin?”
“The sooner the better,” Toph said, punching the ground. When she did, a huge shockwave radiated from her hand and want all the way out and under everything.
“Watch this,” she said, and she suddenly earthbended us both up so I could see the walls of Ba Sing Se from where we were. Toph couldn’t, but I knew she could feel the earthen walls vibrate from here.
“In a few seconds, you’ll see those walls appear to twitch. That’s from my shockwave.”
Sure enough, a few minutes later, the walls twitched for a second. Toph’s shockwave had gone underneath everything, and yet nothing was out of place.
“And by order of the Queen of the Earth Kingdom,” Toph continued, bringing us back down, “you are hereby my prisoner until you can do that move as well as I can.”
“What?” I exclaimed, “But I’ll never be able to—”
“With that attitude, you’re right.” Toph replied bluntly, “Kai, if you’re ever gonna become a master avatar, you’re gonna have to buckle down and do this.”
“How did you know I was the...” I exclaimed,
“I could feel it,” Toph replied, “and you just told me.” She grinned. I turned and noticed my mother was watching us. She smiled.
“So,” Toph continued suddenly, “since I can feel that you wish to continue, continue we shall. First order of business: the technique. My style of earthbending is different from the norm, but since you chose me to teach you, and I gladly accepted, you’ll learn it my way. Are there any questions about this?”
“No,” I replied calmly, “none at all.”
“Good, good,” she said, smirking again, “you really are just like your mother. Anyways, put this on. Knowing you, you won’t try to deceive me.”
She handed me a blindfold. I knew that a lack of eyesight while bending was her intention, and I knew that it would be easy to catch on to—after all, my mother, who had perfectly able vision as well, had taught me how to waterbend while blind. She said that the eyes were a prime target to disabling most people from fighting effectively. I took her advice, and now I listened to Toph and put the blindfold on.
“Now,” said Toph, “I’m gonna throw rocks at you with earthbending. You need to dodge them, and feel them. Oh, you’ll also need these...”
Toph earthbended a set of bracelets and anklets onto my wrists and ankles; they were made of rock.
“Before I can attack you and feel good about it, you need to sit down and feel the earth on your wrists and ankles. I notice you are barefoot as well. Never wear shoes. They’re totally overrated—and, they reduce your earthbending abilities. Stay in contact with the earth and the earth will stay in contact with you. Can you feel the earth?”
Surprisingly, I could within a few minutes. I told this to Toph, and she was surprised. She said that it usually took almost half an hour for her students to learn that and I had just mastered it in 7 minutes.
“Keep those on,” she said, “it’ll help you become stronger.”
I had not learned how to bend the earth yet, so I had no choice at the moment. Toph just laughed.
“Earthbending is about feeling the earth you bend.” She said, “And, it’s about waiting and listening. If a lack of eyesight had to be given to benders of one particular element, it would be earth. The badger-moles, the original earthbenders were blind, and they were my teachers.”
“On that note,” my mother told me from behind, “the original waterbenders were my teachers. The moon’s forces taught me what I knew. Your teachers are seriously the very best, Kai. Listen to everything they say.”
I nodded. Toph grinned yet again.
“Like your mother said,” she said, “listen to me, and you’ll be fine. Now, to start out, I want you to smash my rocks. I’m going to attack you with them, and the move I use will soon be one of the moves you learn.”
“How do I smash the rocks?” I asked, and rubbed my hands. Surely my bare feet or hands were not able to shatter rocks.
“Wait and listen,” was Toph’s answer, “as it’s coming towards you, feel for the weak point and then hit it. Once you come in contact with the rock, bend it outwards. It will shatter if done correctly. You might get hurt if you don’t try hard enough, so if you do, you can’t say I didn’t warn you. Now, begin!”
Toph began throwing rocks at me. She started with huge powerful rocks instead of small, swift ones. I wondered why, but soon found out. These rocks shattered easily, and gave me ample time to stop them.
“Good, good,” she said, “keep going.”
“Her rocks got smaller and faster, until she was punching rocks out that were about the size of my foot. These ones, however, were the fast ones that I had to start dodging too. However, when I did this, Toph earthbended a slab of rock at me that nailed me in the gut and sent me sprawling on all fours;
“I’m sorry,” I said, “What did I do wrong?”
“You don’t dodge like that if you take lessons from me,” Toph said, “you either block and stand your ground, or just... slip away.”
When Toph said “slip away”, she had disappeared under the ground and reappeared behind me to help me up onto my feet.
“Try it,” she said, “it’s really easy.”
She earthbended me down so that I was underground; I earthbended myself back up, but back where I started.
“Nice job,” said Toph coolly,
“But I didn’t go anywhere,” I replied, peeking through my blindfold,
“That’s fine,” Toph shrugged, “the fact that I didn’t hear you screaming for help and having to go and get you means you are learning fast—very fast. Therefore, you will be rewarded. That move with the rock punching—I’m gonna teach it to ya. You can take off the blindfold, as you’ll need to watch my movements closely...”
I did as I was told. I watched as Toph got into her stance, stomped the ground once so it cracked, and then began jabbing the air. However, instead of jabbing air, she was throwing out rocks with her fists. They were coming from the ground and shooting out with her fists.
“If you notice,” she said, “when one of my fists is out, the other moves slightly, and the rocks will bend upward. Just focus on your targets and the rocks will come to you.”
“Sure enough, after some practice, trial, and error, they did. I was able to punch rocks by standing there.
Of course, Toph’s teaching was not over the course of a day. The total time spent was over a month. It was day 5 that I mastered the rock punching and day 9 that I mastered Toph’s “dodging”. It was after this that Toph planned to teach me a new move.
“This one may look and sound painful, but it’s really not.” Toph said, “basically, you earthbend a column like I taught you, but at such an angle that it hits you towards your opponent. If you hit yourself just right, you’ll do some sort of midair series of flips which will screw up your opponent real bad. Thus, it’s a good move. Try it.”
Our next few days were spent mastering this move and others that complemented it. Toph said that I had learned 2 out of the 4 great earthbending moves she had coined. She had also taught me how to counter with earthbending. However, my earthbending training was far from done.
~Kai~
since bending is not all mastered in a day, these next two chapters span about 2 weeks each, totaling about a month.
remember, the world is seemingly at peace, but there is that strange unrest floating around...
THE EARTH KINGDOM QUEEN (I)
I was roused the next morning by my mother, who said that Toph was waiting for me and that I should hurry. I quickly got myself together and went after her. I found her in her courtyard. She was standing tall with her arms crossed. Of course, she was still 2 inches shorter than I was, but I said nothing—not that Toph would have minded. My mother had said Toph was easy-going as a child, and said she hadn’t changed.
“You’re late.” She told me bluntly,
“You never set a time,” I said, “but if I’m late I’m sorry.”
“I’m just messing’ with ya, Kai,” she said, “I was checking if you really were just like your mother—you are; serene, yet real smart.”
“So,” I said, “can we begin?”
“The sooner the better,” Toph said, punching the ground. When she did, a huge shockwave radiated from her hand and want all the way out and under everything.
“Watch this,” she said, and she suddenly earthbended us both up so I could see the walls of Ba Sing Se from where we were. Toph couldn’t, but I knew she could feel the earthen walls vibrate from here.
“In a few seconds, you’ll see those walls appear to twitch. That’s from my shockwave.”
Sure enough, a few minutes later, the walls twitched for a second. Toph’s shockwave had gone underneath everything, and yet nothing was out of place.
“And by order of the Queen of the Earth Kingdom,” Toph continued, bringing us back down, “you are hereby my prisoner until you can do that move as well as I can.”
“What?” I exclaimed, “But I’ll never be able to—”
“With that attitude, you’re right.” Toph replied bluntly, “Kai, if you’re ever gonna become a master avatar, you’re gonna have to buckle down and do this.”
“How did you know I was the...” I exclaimed,
“I could feel it,” Toph replied, “and you just told me.” She grinned. I turned and noticed my mother was watching us. She smiled.
“So,” Toph continued suddenly, “since I can feel that you wish to continue, continue we shall. First order of business: the technique. My style of earthbending is different from the norm, but since you chose me to teach you, and I gladly accepted, you’ll learn it my way. Are there any questions about this?”
“No,” I replied calmly, “none at all.”
“Good, good,” she said, smirking again, “you really are just like your mother. Anyways, put this on. Knowing you, you won’t try to deceive me.”
She handed me a blindfold. I knew that a lack of eyesight while bending was her intention, and I knew that it would be easy to catch on to—after all, my mother, who had perfectly able vision as well, had taught me how to waterbend while blind. She said that the eyes were a prime target to disabling most people from fighting effectively. I took her advice, and now I listened to Toph and put the blindfold on.
“Now,” said Toph, “I’m gonna throw rocks at you with earthbending. You need to dodge them, and feel them. Oh, you’ll also need these...”
Toph earthbended a set of bracelets and anklets onto my wrists and ankles; they were made of rock.
“Before I can attack you and feel good about it, you need to sit down and feel the earth on your wrists and ankles. I notice you are barefoot as well. Never wear shoes. They’re totally overrated—and, they reduce your earthbending abilities. Stay in contact with the earth and the earth will stay in contact with you. Can you feel the earth?”
Surprisingly, I could within a few minutes. I told this to Toph, and she was surprised. She said that it usually took almost half an hour for her students to learn that and I had just mastered it in 7 minutes.
“Keep those on,” she said, “it’ll help you become stronger.”
I had not learned how to bend the earth yet, so I had no choice at the moment. Toph just laughed.
“Earthbending is about feeling the earth you bend.” She said, “And, it’s about waiting and listening. If a lack of eyesight had to be given to benders of one particular element, it would be earth. The badger-moles, the original earthbenders were blind, and they were my teachers.”
“On that note,” my mother told me from behind, “the original waterbenders were my teachers. The moon’s forces taught me what I knew. Your teachers are seriously the very best, Kai. Listen to everything they say.”
I nodded. Toph grinned yet again.
“Like your mother said,” she said, “listen to me, and you’ll be fine. Now, to start out, I want you to smash my rocks. I’m going to attack you with them, and the move I use will soon be one of the moves you learn.”
“How do I smash the rocks?” I asked, and rubbed my hands. Surely my bare feet or hands were not able to shatter rocks.
“Wait and listen,” was Toph’s answer, “as it’s coming towards you, feel for the weak point and then hit it. Once you come in contact with the rock, bend it outwards. It will shatter if done correctly. You might get hurt if you don’t try hard enough, so if you do, you can’t say I didn’t warn you. Now, begin!”
Toph began throwing rocks at me. She started with huge powerful rocks instead of small, swift ones. I wondered why, but soon found out. These rocks shattered easily, and gave me ample time to stop them.
“Good, good,” she said, “keep going.”
“Her rocks got smaller and faster, until she was punching rocks out that were about the size of my foot. These ones, however, were the fast ones that I had to start dodging too. However, when I did this, Toph earthbended a slab of rock at me that nailed me in the gut and sent me sprawling on all fours;
“I’m sorry,” I said, “What did I do wrong?”
“You don’t dodge like that if you take lessons from me,” Toph said, “you either block and stand your ground, or just... slip away.”
When Toph said “slip away”, she had disappeared under the ground and reappeared behind me to help me up onto my feet.
“Try it,” she said, “it’s really easy.”
She earthbended me down so that I was underground; I earthbended myself back up, but back where I started.
“Nice job,” said Toph coolly,
“But I didn’t go anywhere,” I replied, peeking through my blindfold,
“That’s fine,” Toph shrugged, “the fact that I didn’t hear you screaming for help and having to go and get you means you are learning fast—very fast. Therefore, you will be rewarded. That move with the rock punching—I’m gonna teach it to ya. You can take off the blindfold, as you’ll need to watch my movements closely...”
I did as I was told. I watched as Toph got into her stance, stomped the ground once so it cracked, and then began jabbing the air. However, instead of jabbing air, she was throwing out rocks with her fists. They were coming from the ground and shooting out with her fists.
“If you notice,” she said, “when one of my fists is out, the other moves slightly, and the rocks will bend upward. Just focus on your targets and the rocks will come to you.”
“Sure enough, after some practice, trial, and error, they did. I was able to punch rocks by standing there.
Of course, Toph’s teaching was not over the course of a day. The total time spent was over a month. It was day 5 that I mastered the rock punching and day 9 that I mastered Toph’s “dodging”. It was after this that Toph planned to teach me a new move.
“This one may look and sound painful, but it’s really not.” Toph said, “basically, you earthbend a column like I taught you, but at such an angle that it hits you towards your opponent. If you hit yourself just right, you’ll do some sort of midair series of flips which will screw up your opponent real bad. Thus, it’s a good move. Try it.”
Our next few days were spent mastering this move and others that complemented it. Toph said that I had learned 2 out of the 4 great earthbending moves she had coined. She had also taught me how to counter with earthbending. However, my earthbending training was far from done.
~Kai~
