The Legend Of Mira ◇ Sokka

Chapter 30

3rd Person

"Today's the day! Can you believe it? After all that time searching for a teacher, I'm finally starting earthbending. And this place, it's perfect. Don't you think? Sokka?" Aang said. Sokka groaned and turned back around.

"Oh, you're still sleeping, huh? Sorry" Aang said with a sheepish smile. "Sokka's grumpy in the morning. I'm sure some water might wake him up" Mira said. She took the lid off her waterskin and poured it down onto Sokka.

"Mira!" Sokka shouted as he sat up, his hair soaked from the water. The girl simply grinned and turned to Aang. "Told you."

Suddenly, the ground began to rumble and Toph appeared from her tent. "Good morning, earthbending student!" Toph exclaimed. "Good morning, Sifu Toph" Aang said.

"Hey, you never call me Sifu Katara" Katara pointed out. "I mean, why would he? He has a crus-" Mira began but was elbowed by Aang who gave her a glare.

"Well, if you think I should..." Aant trailed off. Sokka looked up to glare at everyone around him. "Sorry, Snoozles. We'll do our earthbending as quietly as we can" Toph said. She then sent him flying into the air with her earthbending and he screamed.

He landed back down and stood up, jumping in front of the group. "Running around and making noises!" Sokka grumbled. "So what move are you gonna teach me first? Rockalanche, the trembler? Oh, maybe I can learn to make a whirlpool out of land?!" Aang asked excitedly.

"Well, let's start with move a rock" Toph said. "Sounds good. Sounds good" Aang said, nodding quickly.

Toph and Aang walked off to find some rocks as Katara and I followed. "Do you think he'll be able to earthbend?" I asked the waterbender next to me. "Yeah, why wouldn't he be?" She frowned.

"Well, his original element of bending is air and earth is the opposite of air. Many Avatars struggled with mastering the element that was opposite of their natural one or their personality" I explained to Katara. "Aang seemed to learn waterbending easily, I don't see why earthbending will be a problem" Katara shrugged.

"I hope" I mumbled. Katara and I sat down on a rock and listened as Toph explained the moves to Aang. "The key to earthbending is your stance. You've got to be steady and strong. Rock is a stubborn element. If you're going to move it, you've got to be like a rock yourself" Toph said, getting into a stance.

"Like a rock. Got it" Aang nodded. "Good. Now, the actual motion of this one is pretty simple" Toph said before hitting the rock, causing it to crash against the pile of rocks in front of us.

"Okay, you ready to give it a try?" Toph asked him. Aang narrowed his eyes at the rock. "I'm ready" He stated. He went to earthbend the rock but instead flew backwards and right into Appa. Aang stood up and walked back to us.

"I don't understand what went wrong. He did it exactly the way you did" Katara said. "Maybe there's another way. What if I came at the Boulder from a different angle?" Aang suggested, walking around. Toph grabbed his collar and dragged him back to face her.

"No, that's the problem. You've got to stop thinking like an airbender. There's no different angle, no clever solution, no trickity-trick that's gonna move that rock. You've got to face it head-on. And when I say head-on, I mean like this!" Toph exclaimed before smashing her whole body at the rock, shattering it into pieces.

My eyes widened slightly and Aang and Katara let out shocked gasps. Katara ran forward to Toph as I turned to Aang who looked disappointed. "Aang, Toph was right. You need to switch your airbender thinking off and think like an earthbender. Better yet, don't ever think. Just do what Toph did without overthinking" I told him. He sighed and nodded his head before walking in Katara and Toph's direction.