Balance | Old Version

Chapter 92 (Sokka's Master)

Elua's POV.

We were all laying in the grass on top of a hill, watching a meteor shower fly across the night sky.
"Wow, this is amazing to watch," Katara says as she looks up in awe.
"Kind of makes you realize how insignificant we are," Sokka says.
"Eh, you've seen nothing once, you've seen it 1,000 times," Toph says shrugging. Suddenly, a meteorite enters the atmosphere and begins to fall.
"You've never not seen anything like this," Sokka tells Toph as we sit up and watch the meteorite engulfed in blue flames fall at an extremely fast speed. We turn around and watch as the meteorite crashes in a huge, blue explosion off in the distance.

"That's not good," I say as we all run over to Appa and fly towards where the meteorite had crashed. The meteorite sits in a small crater as the fire begins to spread across the land, right outside of a village.
"The fire is gonna destroy that town!" Katara exclaims.
"Not if we can stop it," Aang says as Appa lands near, but not to close, to the fire.
"There's a creek over there. Katara and I will collect some water," I tell the others as they hop off Appa, but Katara and I stay. Appa takes back off into the sky again and flies over to the creek, allowing Katara and I to bend two huge orbs of water and high into the air.

Appa quickly takes off again, flying back to the fire. Katara extinguishes most of the fire with the water she was bending, but there's still fire creeping out of the crater.
"Sokka, stand clear," I tell Sokka as he stands a little to close to the fire.
"Right, stand clear. Got it," Sokka says dejectedly as he grabs Momo and begins to walk away. I bend the water behind me and take a deep breath before pushing my arms forward, bending the water at the fire and exhaling a gust of wind. The water blows out from the center and explodes, spreading some snow all over the area and putting out all the fire.

"Good work, everybody."

The Next Morning.

We were all in the small town we had saved last night, where we were eating at a small restaurant.
"These people have no idea how close they were to getting toasted last night," Aang says as we look at all the happy people in the market place.
"Yeah, the worst thing about being in disguise is we don't get the hero-worship anymore. I miss the love," Toph says as she takes a bite of her food.
"It's not about the praise, Toph," I tell her with a small smile.
"Boo-hoo, poor heroes," Sokka says, sitting on the deck of the building we sit outside of, his shoulders slumped and his tone one of gloom.
"What's your problem? You haven't even touched your smoked sea slug," Katara states.

"It's just...all you guys can do this awesome bending stuff like putting out forest fires, and flying around, and making it snow, and making other stuff fly around," Sokka states. "I can't fly around, ok? I can't do anything," He says sadly. I sigh as I walk over and sit beside him.
"That's not true. No one can read a map like you," I tell him with a smile.
"I can't read at all," Toph states, trying to make him feel better.
"Yeah, and who keeps us laughing with sarcastic comments all the time? I mean, look at Katara's hair, right? What's up with that?" Aang asks, pointing to Katara's hair.
"What? What's wrong with my hair?" Katara asks embarrassed as she touches her hair.
"Nothing, I was just trying to-" Aang starts to say, but is cut off.

"Look, I appreciate the effort, but the fact is each of you is so amazing and so special, and I'm not. I'm just the guy in the group who's regular," Sokka says with a sigh.
"I'm sorry you're feeling that way, but I hope you know none of us see you that way," I tell him, but he doesn't seem convinced. "You really are special, especially to me. I wouldn't be dating you if you weren't," I say the last part jokingly, trying to get to feel better about himself.
"Thanks..." He says, still unhappy.
"I know something that's gonna make you feel better," Katara tells him as she stands up with a smile.

"You do?" Sokka asks her. She nods as she grabs his hand and we walk off the deck and make our way to down the street, stopping in front of a building filled with weapons.
"Shopping!" Sokka shouts as he runs forward and examines various weapons displayed on the tall racks. "Maybe a little something to reinvigorate my battling," He says as he looks around. "Hey, how about these Ho-ya! Smack-a-dacka-doo!" Sokka says as he swings around a nunchaku.
"Be careful, Sokka," I tell him worriedly.
"It's alright I-" He starts to say but hits himself in the head and falls over, I cringe as he does so.
"Are you alright?" I ask him as I hold out my hand to him.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay," Sokka says as he takes my hand and stands up, then starts to look at other weapons. He wonders around the shop for a while, until he comes across a beautiful sword hanging from the wall.
"Ooo. That's what Sokka's talking about," Sokka says as he admires the sword.
"You have a good eye. That's an original from Piandao, the greatest sword master and sword maker in Fire Nation history," The shopkeeper tells him. "He lives in the big castle up the road from here," He tells us as he walks off.
"That's it. That's what you needed all along, Sokka," Aang suddenly says with a smile.
"A sword?" Sokka asks him in confusion.

"Not the sword...a master," I tell him, catching on to what Aang means.
"We've all had masters to help us get better. You should see if you can study with Piandao," Aang tells him.
"That's a great idea. I could've never gotten to where I am without Master Pakku, and Elua...well actually Elua kinda just knows things," Katara says shrugging, I look at over to her confused.
"What? I had teachers," I tell her with a frown. "Everyone needs a teacher," I state.
"I learned from badger moles. They don't talk, but they're still good teachers," Toph tells us.
"It would be nice to be a master swordfighter," Sokka mumbles to himself. "All right, I'll talk to him."