Avatar: Two Brothers

New Teacher

Deep in the prison of the Earth Kingdom, locked under heavy security was Ruthar who was chained up. They kept him in a tightly contained room that didn’t allow for much airflow. The prison was well thought out to keep air benders trapped in dire conditions.

As Ruthar was sitting on the ground of his prison, he heard his door beginning to open. “You have a visitor.” he was told by one of the guards. Ruthar didn’t respond but the guard allowed the visitor to enter after she had been screened for hidden weapons. The visitor who arrived was none other than Fire Lord Risensa. She asked if they could be left alone to chat and the guard begrudgingly agreed but signaled that she only had 5 minutes.

After the guard closed the door and left the room, they began their chat in peace.

“You must be happy to see me locked up like this.” Ruthar jokes.

“Stop! This is not the time.”

“Sorry, force of habit. How did you manage to come see me anyways? I thought they wouldn’t let anyone visit me.”

“Well when you are the amazing Fire Lord, you can pull a few strings. But more importantly, what is going on?!” Risensa began flipping out. “Why are you in prison for something you didn’t do! It's all a set up!”

“It's complicated but this was the only way we can stop his plans.”

“Sigh, you are really putting all your faith in that group of young benders?” Ruthar reponses with a smile and leaves Risensa speechless.

“How is our friend? Did you manage to get a hold of him?”

“Man, he was such a pain in the neck to reach!”

“So did you or did you not?”

“Yes, I got a hold of him. But do you really think he will be able to help them? His methods are a bit… unorthodox.” The Fire Lord replied skeptically.

“They will be fine. After all, he is one of the few people we can trust.”

“I sure hope you are right about this…”

“Risensa, you should go back to the Fire Nation. If you stay here any longer, they will be suspicious of you too.” Right as he said that, the guard came knocking on the prison door to alert her that time had expired.

“Ha figures, always trying to get rid of me. Take care of yourself here. You still owe me.” Those were her final words as she was escorted out of Ruthar’s prison.

As the fire lord was about to leave the prison grounds, she bumped into someone she was hoping to avoid, General Gursehaj. The general was not shy as he marched up to greet her.

“Fire Lord Risensa, what a coincidence to see you here!”

“Greetings to you too, General.”

“Now what business could you have here?” Inquired the general.

“As a visitor of Ba Sing Se and a guest of the Earth King, I don’t think you should be interrogating me.”

“Oh don’t misunderstand, I wouldn’t do such a thing. I’m just a very curious person.”

“Well you know what they say, curiosity got the catdeer burnt.” She said with a serious tone. Seeing her anger, the general stopped speaking and allowed her to keep walking.

“My guards managed to track down Ruthar’s apprentices.”

Upon hearing that, Risensa immediately stopped walking. “That’s great news! Were your men able to apprehend them?”

“They were unable to do so. The young benders proved to be craftier than expected.”

“That’s unfortunate, better luck next time!”

“I also got reports of a young fire bender assisting the air and earth benders. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about this would you?”

Risensa was glad to hear Isabelle was with them but she couldn’t show any emotions to put her in danger. “I apologize but I don’t know. I will look into the matter.”

Suddenly the General appeared up close to Risensa and threatened her. “You better be careful about your next move. You might be the Fire Lord, but remember you are on Earth Kingdom territory right now.”

Not wanting to escalate the situation, Risensa calmly replied, “I will keep that in mind.” And she left the general to himself. After she left, Gursehaj signaled for one of his soldiers.

“Send word to the leaders of the water tribe and the fire nation about Ruthar’s betrayal. Warn them that other air benders might rebel.” After his orders were given, the soldier left the scene and went to the messenger hawks to send Gursehaj’s message.

It had been awhile since they left the Bagga Bog. Both Chloe and Isabelle were resting while Da-Wei stood watch with Niall scurrying around. He had the look of worry on his face as he couldn’t stop thinking that the position they were currently in was somehow his fault.

With his focus on his comrades, the oarsman suddenly smacks him on the head with the paddle. “Oww, what are you doing you crazy man. That really hurt!” Da-Wei shouted while clutching his head in pain.

“Your reaction time is dreadful. Are you really an air bender?”

“Hey, who do you think you are? And what makes you such an expert?”

The man thought about giving the young lad a lecture but he knew it wouldn’t do any good. Instead, the best way to get the young air bender’s attention was through a demonstration.

Spotting an island nearby, he steered the boat toward it before securing it to the shore. After the boat was secured, Da-Wei followed the man onto the shore. The man then turned around and commanded Da-Wei to attack him and not to hold back.

Da-Wei was caught off guard by what the man said. He looked at his hands and then backed up, not wanting to injure the man. But his indecisiveness was getting on the man’s nerve, and once again he smacked him on the head, this time with his hand.

“Owww, would you stop doing that!”

“Your hesitation will cost you more than just a smack in the head in a real battle. How will you protect your friends, if you can’t handle such a weak attack?”

Those words trigger something within him. Da-Wei was now concentrating his energy and his breathing. He channeled the wind around him onto his fist. He then launched himself with incredible speed towards the mysterious man. However, as his fist was about to land its mark, the man disappeared from Da-Wei’s sight. Da-Wei was confused and looked around to spot the man but the man suddenly reappeared right in front of him, without him knowing.

With his opponent in point blank range, Da-Wei could sense the man was about to land a devastating attack. Da-Wei braced himself for the worse but the man changed up his initial strike and instead, flicked Da-Wei’s face with his right finger. Again, he held his face in pain, but he knew the results could have been far worse.

Despite being humiliated, Da-Wei refused to give up. He kept trying over and over again to attack the man from every angle possible. However, no matter what he tried, the man saw through every one of his attacks and struck back in the silliest way possible.

Eventually Da-Wei would tire himself out so the man picked him up and threw him back on the boat and smacked him on the head with the paddle one more time. Once they were both back aboard, he continued on their journey towards the Northern Water Tribe.

With Chloe still out and Isabelle asleep, Da-Wei sat in the boat aggravated by what happened on the island. He couldn’t hold it any longer. He pestered the man to tell him how he was able to counteract every single one of his attacks.

The man remained silent as if he was ignoring Da-Wei so he yelled again, “HEY! I’m talking to you! Stop ignoring me!” Then Da-Wei took another paddle to the face causing a throbbing pain. “I’m sorry but I was trying to get a mosquito on your face.” The man replied.

Da-Wei was not amused, he knew the man meant to smack him in the face. While the pain was still there, the man spoke again but his tone changed. “Put your hand up.” Da-Wei was confused so the man repeated one last time. “Put your hand up and concentrate.” Da-Wei did as the man said but he didn’t see the point of the activity.

“What do you feel?”

“Uh, the wind?”

“Which direction is it coming from?”

“The North. Wait no, the South. East maybe? West? Why are you asking me these questions anyways?”

“Air is a vital force of life. It is always around us.”

“You sound a lot like my master when he gets into his wisdom talk.”

“Well I guess that means you didn’t do a very good job of listening to what he taught you.”

Having been called out like that, he remained silent and allowed the man to continue.

“Every single movement you make creates energy that is unleashed in a certain direction.”

“Yeah, that's pretty basic stuff. My master told me about that.”

“However, when your body isn’t moving, it's still storing energy. That energy, although it's not moving, it can still be sensed.”

“Uh huh. So what does all this mean?”

Instantly, the man smacked him on the head again. “Oww, stop!” However, after that clunk on the head, Da-Wei finally got some insight into what the man was talking about.

“Wait? Are you saying that’s how you are able to see my attacks before I make them?”

The man nodded to confirm. “Everyone’s energy is portrayed in different ways. For one of your friends it's the earth she stands on, the other it's the fire within her, and for you…” Da-Wei then finished his sentence, “It's the air around me..”

“You and Laghima were both able to counter all my attacks because you could sense when and where I was going to attack!”

“My goodness, there might be hope for you after all…”

“Alright, then let’s get started. Teach me how to see all this wind energy!”

“No can do.” Da-Wei dropped to the ground in disbelief. “What do you mean no?”

Without a verbal response, the man pointed and Da-Wei turned around to look. He had been so busy talking he hadn’t noticed that they were surrounded by ice in the area. They were about to arrive at the Northern Water Tribe.