Open Your Mind

Chapter Thirty-One

Again."

Xiaodan huffed in annoyance at Iroh's barked order and she glared over at him from her bent over position, her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. Zuko stood several feet in front of her in a similar position, his own breathing coming in soft pants. Suddenly the scarred teenage boy straightened and thrusted his fist in Xiaodan's direction, shooting a fire blast at her. Xiaodan yelped and flattened her body against the ground, the fireball passing harmlessly over her.

"Hey!" The white-haired girl shouted angrily as she rolled into a crouch then outstretched her leg and twisted around on her hands, sending a blade of air at the banished prince.

Zuko jumped over the air blade only to be knocked onto his back when another air blast hit him in the chest as soon as his feet touched the ground again. He quickly rolled back to his feet and sent kicked another fire blast at Xiaodan, who nimbly dodged it by twirling to the side. The scarred prince continued sending more fire blasts at the white-haired Airbender, forcing her to go on the defensive as she twisted, twirled, and jumped to evade his attacks.

Iroh watched the two teens critically as they sparred, his darker gold eyes narrowed slightly as Zuko and Xiaodan seemed to dance around each other, either dodging fire blasts or air blades. He stroked his beard lightly and quirked a brow when he saw Xiaodan's molten eyes flash angrily after she had barely dodged a stream of fire his nephew had launched at her.

Xiaodan turned her head and stared wide-eyed at the tree that had been blackened by the stream of fire she had barely managed to dodge. Her eyes narrowed and she slowly turned her head to stare at Zuko, who was smirking cockily at her as he stood in a Firebending stance. Without thinking, the white-haired Airbender ran at Zuko, surprising him with her forward attack, though he was quick to recover and he began shooting fireballs at her from his fists, which she lithely dodged as she ran at him.

Xiaodan used Airbending to propel herself up into the air and somersaulted over the scarred prince, who spun around to face her. Xiaodan landed in a crouch just in time for the blast of fire Zuko had shot at her to fly over her head harmlessly. Without straightening from her crouch, Xiaodan pushed her hands against Zuko's stomach, sending him sprawling several feet away with a powerful air blast to his gut.

Zuko growled as he pushed himself to his feet and he prepared to attack the smug looking white-haired girl but his uncle stepped between them with his arms outstretched towards them.

"Enough." Iroh stated firmly, looking sternly first at his nephew then the female Airbender, "We'll end training is over for today and call it a draw."

"Finally!" Xiaodan exclaimed and allowed herself to collapse on her back then she raised head slightly to make a face at Iroh, "And I totally won that spar, Iroh."

Iroh chuckled lowly and shook his head in amusement as he set about preparing a pot of tea. Zuko scowled at his uncle then he crossed his arms and turned his scowl on the white-haired girl. Xiaodan merely smiled cheekily at him and let her head fall back onto the ground.

"What's out here?" Sokka asked in confusion as he stood with his sister and Toph and stared at Aang, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground.

"A lot actually." Toph replied as she kneeled and put her hand on the ground, "There's hundreds of little-"

"Shh!" Aang cut Toph off quickly as he turned to look at his three friends, "I know you can see underground but don't ruin the surprise. Just watch."

The young Avatar held the flute he was holding to his mouth and blew a single note, a second later a groundhog-like creature popped out of a hole in the ground and mimicked the note.