Calypso-Avatar The Last Air bender (Being heavily edited! Finally right?)

2.21 Travelling soldiers

"Your legs are too far apart and your arms are too close." Raiko instructs, standing in front of Asha with his arms folded behind his back. He watches as she moves her limbs accordingly, the orb of water (taken from her canteen) flowing between her outstretched hands.  The sun had barely even peeked over the wall of rocks that surrounded the group, the others still sound asleep, yet here the two were wide awake.

It was a beautiful serenity that allowed Asha into the part of her brain that was otherwise unavailable. The part that showed her the true beauty of nature, the hues of the dirt around her, the gleam of the sun reflecting off of the suspended clouds, the smell of morning dew. Everything just invading her intensified senses.  It wasn't often Asha felt this relaxed, normally she was tense, stressed or just antsy with what Aang was doing, what any one in her group was doing to be honest. 

Her concentration broke as Aang lept in the air, awoken from his sleep. "Today's the day! Can you believe it? After all this time searching for a teacher, I'm finally starting Earth bending! And this place...I-It's perfect! Don't you think, Sokka?" Aang yells out excitedly, turning to the water tribe boy. 

Sighing, Asha returns the water to the canteen it came from, Raiko looking at her with an empathetic look, only getting a shrug in return.  Walking over towards Aang, Asha watches as Sokka rolls over, glaring at Aang. 

"Oh, you're still sleeping, huh?" Aang raises a brow, Sokka moaning and rolling over. The air bender mutters an apology.   He quickly takes a step back though, arm reaching over Asha as the ground shakes, Toph's tent exploding as the girl emerges. 

"Good morning, Earth bending students!"  Toph approaches the two air benders, both bowing as she does. 

"Good morning, Sifu Toph." Aang speaks.

"What he said." Asha peaks open an eye, nodding over to him.

"Hey... You never call me Sifu Katara." Said water bender mutters, emerging from her sleeping bag with Raiko chuckling behind her.

"Now who has the better student?" He looks to her, Katara glaring back.

"I mean, if you think I should..." Aang scratches the back of his head, Sokka sitting up with an angry grumble. 

"Sorry, snoozles. We'll do our Earth bending as quietly as we can." Toph snickers, kicking the ground. A large rock quickly shoots up underneath of Sokka, causing him to scream as he's launched up.  As he lands he glares at the three benders, bouncing away shortly after in hope of getting some more rest. 

"So what move are you going to teach us first? Rock-a- lanche? The trembler? Oh! Maybe I can learn to make a whirlpool out of land!" Aang moves his hands, demonstrating the moves, as he speaks a mile a minute. He's halted as Toph pushes on hand onto his chest.

"Let's start with 'move a rock'." Toph turns, prepping herself for what's to come. 

"Sounds good! Sounds good! Let's go Ash!" Aang bounces in place excitedly before grabbing the quiet girls hand, following Toph. 

___

"The key to Earth bending is your stance." Toph takes a basic bending stance, waiting for the air benders to follow; they stand on either side of her, focused and silent. "You've got to be steady and strong. Rock is a stubborn element." She pushes the two, Aang stumbling as Asha remains still. "If you're going to move it, you've got to be like a rock yourself." 

"Like a rock. Got it." Aang widens his stance, glancing back to Asha's for reference. 

"Good. Now the actual motion of this one is pretty simple." Toph straightens, only to lunge forward and punch the air, shooting a boulder into the distance, leaving the air benders shocked.   Asha shakily takes stance again, Aang sounding confident as he announces he's ready.