Chapter 2

I met up with Suki in the dinning hall after a very exhausting water bending class and healing lesson. She was still dressed in full Kyoshi warrior armor, her face painted white with red eyelids and black winged eyeliner. She kept rambling on about the new techniques she had learned, how she could now slice a cabbage in half with a flick of her wrist that sent her metal fans flying at great speed.

"Is this seat taken?" Someone asked from behind me.

I turned around to find Toph Beifong, the blind earth bender, standing behind me.

"Not at all, have a seat", I smiled at her.

"Thanks", she said, before unceremoniously plopping down beside me. "I'm Toph".

"Katara", I responded and then pointed to Suki, "The girl in full costume and makeup over here is my friend, Suki".

"You're a Kyoshi warrior?", Toph asked Suki.

Suki seemed surprise by the question, wincing a little as she remembered that the girl was blind, "Yes I am. Just learned a few new tricks with these bad boys". She pushed one of her metal fans over to Toph.

Toph grabbed the fan, playing around with it, "So, I heard you're that boomerang boy's sister".

I grunted, "Yeah, I am".

Toph snorted, "Way to sound excited about it". She turned her head towards me, her milky green eyes staring at me and not at me at the same time, "Trust me, it's better to be known as boomerang boy's little sister than as the blind girl who got in because she's rich". Toph's smile turned sad.

"People are saying that about you?", I asked, a little angry. Toph didn't seem that way at all, even her clothes were common.

Toph snorted, "Yep. Seems like people keep forgetting I'm blind, not deaf".

Suki giggled, making Toph brighten up a bit. "You are a great earth bender", I started, "Spirits above, you learned from the original earth benders themselves! People must be stupid jealous to be saying those things about you".

"I don't know about the jealous part", she said, "but people sure are stupid".

Suki burst into laughter, "I love this girl".

Toph beamed at her, "You guys are not so bad yourselves".

"You can hang out with us", Suki smiled, putting a hand on Toph's shoulder. "Meet up with us in the common room after classes".

Toph nodded her agreement and then started ranting about how her earth bending class had been a total nightmare. Her teacher had tried changing her bending forms completely, making Toph seriously consider challenging him to a duel to show him that she did not need correcting.

The bell rang, indicating the end of our lunch break and sending the dinning hall into a frenzy. Toph groaned, letting herself fall back onto the bench.

"Well, I better hurry to my next class", Suki said as she picked up her stuff, "I've got warrior history, what about you guys?".

"Earth kingdom history", Toph said, sticking her tongue out and making a bleh sound, like she had just tasted something foul. "What about you, Katara?" She asked, propping herself on her elbows to look at me.

"I've got battle training, so I need to go back to my dorm to change", I answered.

Toph's eyebrow shot up, "You're a bender too?".

Suki smiled, "The best water bender I know", she stated before saying her goodbyes and running to her next class.

Toph said nothing and shrugged, like she didn't really care what kind of bender I was, or if I even was a bender. "I have battle training tomorrow, let me know how it goes", she said and then with one swift push of her arms, she jumped out from the bench and started towards her next class, waving goodbye.

I watched her as she dodged students who ran right up to her, failing to spot the tiny blind bender in who was right in their path. That's awesome, I thought. She was blind, yet it was like she could see and feel the space around her. She was nothing like I expected her to be, being a prodigy and all. I expected Toph to be stuck up and entitled, just like Azula, but she was actually really laid back and chill. That's when I noticed that she wasn't wearing any shoes. I tilted my head, puzzled over that fact. I tried to come up with an explanation for that and failed, so I decided to ask about it after classes were over.

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I tried to pay attention as our battle's teacher explained the way the class was going to work. But the Airbender's presence kept distracting me. His blue tattoo's and monk clothes stood out like a sore thumb amongst the other bending colors. I must have been studying him too carefully because he turned around and flashed me a big smile, waving hello. I waved back, feeling my face heat up and turned back around to pay attention to the explanation.

"To rank you in your bending skills and pair you up with a good partner I will ask you to pair up with any of your classmates for the mock-battle", instructed the battle master.

Suddenly, the air nomad was in front of me, that big lopsided smile on his face, "Hi, I'm Aang. Wanna be partners?".

I giggled, he was speaking so quickly it was almost hard to understand him, "Sure. I'm Katara".

Aang shook my hand eagerly. Damn, this kid's got energy to spare. We sat down on the edge of the battle ring, watching as pairs were picked and demonstrated their abilities. Most of the northern water tribe benders were good at defense, but their attack skills were lacking greatly.

"Why is it that you're like, the only female water bender in this school?", Aang whispered, "That's not specializing in healing, I mean".

I tried to not let that tinge of sadness that I felt, as I recalled the terrible incident that had befallen on my tribe, show. "Unlike most of the water-benders here, I'm from the southern water tribe".

Aang's eyes glowed with excitement, "The southern water tribe! That's so cool! What's it like there? Do you go penguin sledding a lot?".

A smile twitched on my lips, "Not really no. Ever since all of the water benders were taken from my tribe it's been hard to get things back to how they were. I'm the last bender from the south pole. Everyone else was taken or killed". I started fidgeting with my necklace, like I always did when I recalled the memory of my mother. She was killed by a firebender, back when the nations were at war.

Aang's smile disappeared from his face, "I'm sorry... It must have been terrible". He stared at the floor, his expression full of grief.

I stared at him, the grief in his face all too familiar to me. He was the last Airbender after all. He knew what it felt like to be the last of our kind, even if there were other waterbenders, I was the last southern bender. Aang, he was the last Airbender. The nomads were taken away from him too, just like the water benders from my tribe had been taken away,

I touched his arm gently, making him look at me, "It's alright. But now it's up to us to rebuild what we lost, right?".

He brightened up a bit at that, "Right".

"Airbender", the master announced, "you and your partner are up next so be ready".

Aang nodded at our teacher and gave me a thumbs up with the big goofy smile of his. Right then, my nerves started getting the best of me. I've never fought an Airbender before. No one has. Will I even be able to see his attacks? For the moon's sake, what did I just agree to? Now I know why no one picked him as a partner.

Aang rocked back on his heels casually as he waited for me to ready myself on the other side of the ring. We were outside on a field, the edge of the circular ring painted with white powder that stuck to the grass. Water buckets had been refilled and placed all around the ring for me to use, yet another disadvantage. Air was all around us so Aang didn't need any buckets filled with his element, neither did the earthbenders, or the fire benders. I gulped, trying to get a hold of myself and readied myself in a defensive position.

"Begin!", called out the master.

I was about to start one of the new bending forms I had learned a few hours ago when Aang turned towards the teacher, "Master Fang, do I really need to do this? Air nomads are usually against unprovoked fighting".

I dropped my stance and tilted my head, I was a little confused that he decided to announce this just now and not before.

"Plus I've got great air bending skills, I don't need a mock-battle to tell me that", he smiled innocently at our battle master.

Master Fang rubbed his face, clearly annoyed with him, "Fine. You can step down, but I need a volunteer to fight with the water bender. We still need to evaluate and rank her".

Aang nodded and sat back down at the edge of the rink, giving me a wink and a thumbs up. Did he... did he step down for me? I looked at him confused, trying to search for an answer, but he just smiled at me.

"I'll do it", someone announced.

"Very well, Haru", Master Fang answered.

The boy named Haru stepped into the ring. He was wearing earth bending colors, his hair was half up in a bun, a green bandana wrapped around his forehead. He was clearly stronger than me, and taller. But I had a better chance at winning with him than I did with Aang.

"Begin!"

I readied myself for Haru's attack by going into a defensive stance. Haru slammed his foot on the ground, making a big chunk of rock fly up, he punched forward, sending the rock right at me. My arms moved almost instinctively making a wall of water in front of me. With a twist of my wrist, the wall had turned into solid ice. The boulder slammed into my shield and then fell to the ground, cracking my shield just the tiniest bit.

I flicked my wrists again, turning the ice into water and with a fluid movement of my arms, I sent the water right at Haru. He moved quickly, creating a barrier of his own. I smirked. I bended the water towards me in two quick movements, creating a whip for each of my hands. By the time Haru bended his shield back into the ground, I was already running towards him. His eyes widened, and he sent a pillar of rock right to where my stomach would have been, had I not anticipated that and jumped over it. But another, smaller boulder slammed into my hand, sending my whip flying away.

I ground my teeth as I landed, and tried to land an attack on Haru. He kept blocking my whip with thin rock shields that shattered every time my whip hit them. This wasn't going to do. I let my whip drop, making it splatter into the ground. I acted as quickly as I could, bending the water out of the grass near Haru's feet, and locking him in place. Without his feet, half of his attacks were now impossible. Now all I needed to do was to wrap his hands in ice, just like I did his feet.

I was so focused on bending the water as quickly as I could, that I failed to see how Haru had stopped moving, how he stared in awe and shock at the now dead grass around his feet and the ice that wrapped around his feet. I spun the water around me and sent it in a fast wave towards Haru's hands, who had started moving again. My water found its mark, coiling around Haru's wrists and I turned it into ice once again. Then, bending water out from the moist air, I surrounded him with sharp ice shards to keep him from trying anything. Haru stared at me, shocked and in awe all at the same time.

Then everyone broke into a clapping frenzy, whooping and cheering for me. Aang ran up to me , giving me a high five, "That was awesome Katara!".

I chuckled between my panting, dropping my stance and the ice shards with it. Master Fang said nothing as he clapped, a satisfied smirk spread on his lips.

"Uh, Katara is it?", Haru asked. I nodded. "Can I get a little help here?" He said, shaking his hands around to point out what exactly he needed help with.

"Oh! Sorry!", I flicked my wrists again, and the ice melted into water, freeing Haru's hands and feet.

Haru walked up to me and patted me in the back, giving me a warm smile, "That was a great match, you were amazing".

I blushed, mumbling my thanks.