Heimat | Aang

TWENTY-NINE

Each element was different, unique. Each element held beauty. But beauty depended on the eye of the beholder.

Water was infinite, went on and on without stopping and it created extraordinary things. One of those was cold to the touch and melted with the slightest source of heat directed its way. It was as solid as the ground to touch and could be as sharp as a carefully manufactured blade. It could trap anything inside, from people to artifacts to rays of sunlight that spread depending on the angle to reveal a caleidoscope of colours.

Tapeesa viewed it as something like a wonder she could use to protect herself or those she cared about but to also create something beautiful that wouldn't last for long but would still bring the one who received it to smile.

Others just called it ice.

"Hold it steady," she instructed, her voice barely reaching Yua and Li over Toph's shouting to the earthbenders to move quicker. The two waterbenders under Tapeesa's instructions exchanged a glance before they looked back to the ice they had created just moments before. Ice they were now expected to bend.

"That's very good," Tapeesa softly praised as she looked from the ice to the women, barely a year or two younger than she was. "Now you should try to move it to your right. Who wants to try first?"

Yua and Li exchanged one more look before Li cleared her throat. "I'll go first."

Tapeesa waited expectantly as Li focused, her gaze never leaving her ice. Slowly, she moved her hand on her right. The ice trembled but slowly, it followed.

"Great," Tapeesa praised, taking notice of Li's self control slipping and at once, she raised a hand to stabilise the ice. Li looked up and she offered her a smile. "Let me hold that for you."

She let her hand fall and Tapeesa instantly beckoned the ice to her, changed it back into water and let it settle in its former bucket. She turned to Yua.

"Remember our first lesson," she told her as she met her gaze. "It is just water. Feel it. It's there, no matter that it's frozen. You can bend it."

Yua nodded briefly, more reassured. She trailed her gaze to the ice. Much like Li had done before, she moved it to the side.

"Very well," Tapeesa smiled as she raised a hand, wordlessly taking the ice from Yua who let out a small sigh of relief when she no longer needed to bend. Tapeesa placed the ice in the bucket and let it turn back to water on its own as she turned to her benders.

"I think we have practiced your control enough. In our next lesson we will focus more on violent, rapid attacks. In any case, control is needed, although as you probably know, the more control you have, the better you are in defence. Attack requires feeling. The most dangerous fights you will ever give will be against a focused person who has something to lose. By becoming that person first you will only make things easier for you." Tapeesa waited for a moment until Li and Yua nodded and then she kept on talking. "You are dismissed. I shall see you tomorrow, at the same time."

Li and Yua muttered their farewells and left. With them gone, Tapeesa looked around the yard, to see Suki and Toph were still training their benders but Aang had finished already, as he usually did, waiting for her by the door. She headed over.

"You finished earlier than usual today," he said in lieu of greeting as they started leaving the area.

"They did well," she explained, having to blink to get used to the darkness of the Police Department after being outside for such a long time. "You always finish quickly somehow."

"There isn't much I can teach the firebenders," he explained, "they know all they should, all I'm doing now is polish their skills and show them how to redirect lightning but most of them seem to have caught it."