Tale Of Two Avatars

The Cave Of Two Lovers

We take a bit of a detour on our way to Omashu, landing at a cliff with a small body of pristine water. Standing in the water, both Aang and I were facing Katara, practising our waterbending while Sokka was relaxing, floating on a large leaf in the water with Momo sleeping on his stomach.

"You guys are going to be done soon, right? We have a lot of ground to cover if we're going to make it to Omashu today," Sokka reminded.

"What? Like you're ready to go right now, naked guy?" Katara smirked, smiling smugly at Sokka.

I shook my head, looking away from Sokka who was only in his underwear, "I'd prefer it if you don't remind us about that, Katara."   

"I could be ready in two minutes. Seriously, whenever," Sokka argued.

"So you were showing us the octopus form?" Aang asked, regaining Katara's attention. 

"Right, let me see both your stances." I get into the waterbending stance Master Pakku taught me, already accustomed to positioning myself in that way whenever I was waterbending. 

I turned to look beside me, seeing Aang in his waterbending stance, though it did not look at all convincing. 

"Uhh," Katara carefully observed our stances. "Suzume, I think you should help Aang out with his waterbending stance."

I drop my stances, walking over to Aang. "Aang, your arms are too far apart," I position his arms closer together. "See, if you move them closer together, you protect your centre. You got it?"

Aang grins at me and I notice his cheeks suffused with a light shade of red, "Oh, yeah... thanks."

"No problem, Aang. Glad to see you practising your waterbending," I walk back to my original position, assuming my original waterbending stance. 

"Okay, let's see what you both got. Aang, you go first," Katara goes into her waterbending stance and Aang bends the water beneath him, creating a globule which eventually transforms into eight whip-like water tentacles. 

He carefully manoeuvres them, fending off shards of ice that Katara repeatedly sends at him by throwing them away and dodging them. He then spots his opportunity, manipulating one of the tentacles and entwining it around her leg, gripping it firmly and pulling on it.

"You make a fine octopus, Pupil Aang," Katara smiled proudly as Aang releases his grip on the water. "Alright, Suzume. Your turn."

I feel the flow of water, concentrating on the molecules of the water and bending them to my will, I shape them into eight water tentacles. Katara begins launching shards of ice rapidly at me and I repel most of them, dodging some in the process. I summon even more water tentacles, whipping at and breaking the ice shards with ease while launching several tentacles at Katara's leg, entwining the tentacles around it and threatening to pull her down. She stops shooting and raises her arms in surrender and I release my grip on the water tentacles, letting the water settle back into its original place. 

"You might be one of the best waterbenders out there, Suzume," Katara praised. 

"I can say the same about you, Master Katara," I bow respectfully before her.  

Before she could reply, the sound of music floats to our ears and we turn to look in the direction of its source,  seeing a group of nomads playing their musical instruments and approaching us. The leader of the group halts abruptly in front of us, "Hey, river people!" 

"We're not river people," Katara informed politely.

The leader of the group stares at us quizzically, "You're not? Well, then what kind of people are you?"