Wandering Firebender

Twenty Four: Friendly Fire

And so Elio's journey to Ba Sing Se continues on. Now that he was back to being on his own again, he found himself thinking deeply and reflecting a lot more. There were certainly a lot of advantages and drawbacks to traveling alone versus with someone else.

But overall, he was pretty sure that he preferred traveling with Cindra.

However, he couldn't let that deter him. After all, he was beginning to learn how the strength of his firebending and his skill with his staff would be dependent on two things: his inner peace and balance, as well as training.

So he decided that it was time to get back to his training.

He made his way off to the side, coming upon by the river again. He set all of his things down and removed his extraneous clothing. Once he had stretched his arms out, he grabbed his staff and began to practice his formations.

As he'd gotten more opportunities to fight with the staff, he'd become quite proficient with it. And as he'd gained experience, his training had changed to match what he'd become used to. So now, instead of perfecting his basics, he was now practicing how to chain together attacks...

"There he is. Do you really think that's the guy, Amari?"

"He fits the bill pretty good. And he's got the black staff. Get down!" Amari pushed down the two heads of her companions, ducking down behind a nearby bush. The two boys with her peeked through the leaves.

"He almost saw us!"

"Man, this guy is good."

"Okay, you two. Remember the plan. We need to make sure that this is the guy. So that means we need him to-"

"What're you three kids doing?" Elio asked, peeking over the bush.

He watched as a young girl and two young brothers all jumped back in surprise. While they had been plotting behind the bush, Elio had heard them bickering and rustling around. Realizing that they had been caught, the girl raised her fist up.

"New plan! Fight him now!" She shouted.

"What? Whoa!" Elio exclaimed in surprise as the two boys stood up and began earthbending rocks at him.

Elio slid back and did a spin to avoid getting hit by the initial attacks. He spun his staff around and began deflecting the rocks. The two boys advanced on him and worked together to create a wall out of the ground. They both began shooting boulders rapidly out of the wall towards him.

"Keep going! We gotta get him to firebend!" The girl coached them.

"What?" Elio said in confusion. He jumped over the attacks and landed on the other side of the wall. As the boys turned around, he spun his staff around quickly and allowed a few bursts of fire to come out the sides; a brief display of firebending.

"He is the guy!" One of the boys exclaimed. They immediately ceased their attack.

"We found you, finally!" The girl laughed triumphantly. Still confused, Elio put his staff away.

"What do you kids want? Why did you attack me?" He questioned.

"We had to make sure you were really the guy." The other boy answered.

"What do you mean 'the guy'?" Elio asked impatiently.

"You're the Wandering Firebender; the circus performer, right?" The girl asked. Elio looked at her in surprise.

"You've heard of me?"

"We've heard stories of a firebender traveling with a waterbender who's been fighting with the Fire Nation." One of the boys explained.