THE OTHER AIRBENDER (Book 3)

(XI) Water

Throwing airblasts and aiming them takes concentration enough as it is. But combining that with having to face-off with Toph while blindfolded is a whole different level of hard. Especially when this earthbender forgets that her giant boulders can actually hit me if I don't detect them on time.

"Toph! Be careful!" I warn her, as I feel one of them graze my ear by a centimeter.

"Don't be such a crybaby! If I can use the earth to sense my opponents, you can use the air! Now stop complaining and get working!" She then throws several more boulders in my direction, which I manage to dodge gracefully by detecting them through the air currents around me. I have to say, this is pretty helpful, especially when trying to prevent sneak attacks.

I seem to not be the only one having a hard day at training, however.

Zuko's yelling his heart out at Aang a few feet away, while they train with their firebending. "More ferocious! Imagine striking through your opponent's heart!"

"I'm trying," Aang retorts.

"Now let me hear you roar like a tigerdillo!" Zuko urges him, as Aang lets out the saddest sound I've ever heard. "That sounded pathetic! I said roar!"

Aang tries it again, and this time, I can hear a better roar coming from him. In the meantime, I just managed to avoid around five more boulders launched at me with absolutely no remorse. This girl truly wants to kill me.

"Who wants a nice cool glass of watermelon juice?" Katara's voice makes me immediately take the blindfold off, as me and Toph turn to her with interest.

"MEEE!" We both say, and we head in her direction and enjoy some juice.

"Ooh, ooh! Me, me, me!" Aang tries to join us, but Zuko pulls him back.

"Your lesson's not over yet! Get back here!" Zuko scolds him.

"Come on, Zuko. Just take a break. What's the big deal?" Suki defends poor Aang, who seems very sad about not getting some juice.

"Fine!" Zuko says, letting Aang go with annoyance. "If you want to lounge around like a bunch of snail sloths all day, then go ahead!"

"Maybe Zuko's right. Sitting around the house has made us pretty lazy. But I know just the thing to change all that. Beach party!" Sokka announces.

***

In a matter of minutes, everyone around me gets into appropriate beach partying mode, some of them soaking up under the sun, some of them, particularly Sokka, Aang and Toph, take a liking to sand sculpting. Katara decides to go for a swim, fittingly enough.

However, I don't exactly feel in a party mood. We're only a few days away from the comet, and honestly, I think I agree with Zuko. We should be taking every opportunity to train if we want to defeat my evil great-uncle and save the world. But at the same time, we've gone through so much lately. Maybe taking a little break will prove beneficial.

Suddenly, out of seemingly nowhere, Zuko throws a fireblast directly at Aang, which he only barely manages to dodge. Before I can write that off as an accident, he does the same thing again, and again.

"What are you doing?" Aang asks him, as he dodges his fiery attacks.

"Teaching you a lesson!" Zuko replies,  as he continues attacking Aang, only increasing the intensity.

Katara surfs back to the shore, clearly looking concerned. "What happened?"

"It's Zuko. He's fireblasting all over the place," I tell her quickly.