Pirate Love (kataang story)

Trouble

Aang felt himself breathing heavily as he dodged a rock, a pillar of fire, and a water whip all at once. Over the last few months, his sifus had been training him hard, teaching him everything that he would need to know for when he eventually stepped into his role as the Avatar. Though he hoped that this wouldn't be any time soon, he knew that he had to be prepared for whenever it was his time, and had spent what time he could training.

Waterbending had been the easiest for him to learn, given that waterbending was a lot like airbending. Firebending proved to be a little more difficult for him to learn, as he had not had an easy time concentrating with the rather boring lessons that Zuko had started him off with, but he eventually had managed to get the hang of it. Earthbending, however, was a different story.

As Katara had explained to him when he had been struggling with it, he had been an airbender his whole life, and earth was the opposite of his natural element, making it much harder for him to understand it than usual. It certainly didn't help that Toph basically tried to beat him into being an earthbender, but after a little while with some advice from Katara, she figured out a way to get Aang to figure it out. Even if it damaged her pride a little bit from admitting that Katara had been right.

Despite the hard process of getting used to earthbending, he found himself excited to learn all the elements. Airbending would always be his favored element, but the other three proved to be useful as well, especially while they hunted down other pirate ships.

Normally, he would want to hide his identity as the Avatar, but considering that Katara's mission was to hunt down the pirates they would be attacking, he figured that it was safe to say that they wouldn't survive to tell anyone else of who he really was.

Not that he would ever be the one to kill them, of course. He would help them disable the ship, and even the enemy pirates, but he would never be the one to kill them. If there was one thing he knew, he would not allow their blood to be on his hands.

Snapping himself out of these thoughts, he looked just in time to see a big wave come at him, reaching his hands out to it as he took control of its will and sent it back to the sender. Using the ability that Toph had taught him, he felt a boulder come out of the ground and be shot at him, dodging it at the last second as he jumped into the air and flipped it over his head back at Toph.

"Not bad, Twinkle Toes!" she called to him as she stopped it in place and broke it into tiny pieces. "But let's see if you can handle this!"

Aang's eyes widened as she threw up a wall and started shooting the small pieces out of a small slot in the wall, using some quick movements and a little airbending to dodge them until it reached the last one. With the last one coming right at him, he punched it and sent it back faster than anyone but Toph could see. Unfortunately for her, however, she hadn't quite expected this, and did not react fast enough before it crashed through her earth wall and knocked her to the ground.

The young airbender didn't get to enjoy this victory for long, however, as he soon felt heat coming from behind him and just barely managed to jump out of the way as some flames zoomed past him.

"Come on, Avatar! Show me some firebending!" Zuko ordered as he kicked a few flames at him.

Aang broke the flames with his hands and decided to grant his sifu's request, doing a sweep with his leg as he went to the ground, sending a small wave of fire that went straight for Zuko. Zuko easily jumped above this with ease, thinking that this was child's play, but became surprised as he saw Aang in the air shooting a large burst of fire at him.

He tried to get into a good stance to stop it, but he too was unable to do so in time, and ended up getting knocked back into a nearby palm tree.

With two of his sifus taken care of, he then turned to his last remaining sifu, who was currently holding some water in her hands. Though as he watched her, she didn't appear to be doing anything, making him confused. Why wasn't she attacking him?