Heimat | Aang

TWENTY-EIGHT

"Keep in mind I still have a daughter to return to back home," she mused as she took her stance opposite her.

Tapeesa smirked lightly as she called out, "Never let an opponent's weakness affect you."

Suki smiled as a couple of the officers laughed. "As if you are a non-bender, correct?"

Tapeesa nodded once, set her jaw. "Correct."

Suki attacked first. She rained a barrage of punches, one after the other. Tapeesa barely defected some of them. The last one she countered, her forearm hitting against Suki's. She rotated her wrist, grabbed Suki's arm, twisted it around her back. Suki grunted but freed herself the next moment.

Then the real fight began.

The officers could barely make out who was attacking and who was defending, arms and legs raising in record speed. They never stayed too far away from the other and no matter their attacks, neither of them yielded. A few minutes later, they were just as they had started, both of them standing tall, expressions determined.

They would have kept on going until one of them fell if it weren't for Aang, taking a step closer to them and gently forcing a gust of air between them to push them apart. Suki and Tapeesa looked at each other one more time, then at Aang who was smiling at them sheepishly, and finally, they turned to each other.

Tapeesa nodded at Suki, "You are good."

"So are you," Suki acknowledged with a small smirk, "almost like a non-bender."

"And that is the level of skill you could reach," Toph announced as Aang let his gust of air die out. The aspiring police officers seemed starstruck as they looked from Tapeesa and Suki to each other.

"How are we supposed to reach that skill in a couple of months?" a firebender asked from the back.

Suki and Tapeesa smiled slightly before Suki answered, "You don't. But chances are that even if you manage to become half as good, there won't be that many people who will be able to last against you in a fight."

"We aren't expecting you to become like us," Tapeesa added, "because you won't. You can get the necessary basic training, though, and that's what we are aiming for. If anyone wants, you can always keep on training after the end of our practice."

"That is right," Toph piped in, "Master Tapeesa might not be around for a long time but Master Suki isn't going anywhere. You can always seek her out."

"Where will you be going?" Li asked, frown in place.

"Should I ever decide, I will let you know," was Tapeesa's response. She stole a glance at Toph before she nodded to herself. "You are dismissed."

They started leaving the yard, one by one, and once they were gone, Tapeesa turned to Aang, already expecting him so they could head back to Air Temple Island. Before she could join him by the door, though, Suki standing beside her spoke up.

"You are alright after our fight, right?"

"Just fine," Tapeesa assured her with a small smile, "I didn't hurt you did I?"

"Nothing I can't handle," she told her with a brief pat on her shoulder. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Tapeesa hummed in response as she watched Suki leave. She turned to Toph and Aang talking among each other by the door and walked over.

"My officers have already secured the area, we will catch them sooner or later, we have a pretty good description of them."

"What happened?" she asked as she got near.