Avatar:Folk tale of an earthbender{Book One:Earth}

Chapter 6: Daiki

The loud "WAIT" drew too much attention for Kaori to handle, on instict she bowed her head. "Sorry." She muttered. The boy was staring back at her with a confused expression, he himself was also pretty embarrassed by all of the sudden attention he'd gotten. He stared back at her with wide eyes, waiting for her to say something. "Well...are you...do I...Can.." she stumbled on her words, not sure why she felt the need to speak to him. "Could I buy you lunch?" She said nervously. The boy stared back at her. Why was this frail little girl asking to buy him lunch? Should he accept? Should he ask her name? She didn't exactly look dangerous, but why would she ask him?

"What?" He said, tilting his head. Thankfully, most people had shrugged them off at this point, but the two still had some curious eyes on them. Kaori spoke again, clamping her eyes shut, preparing for rejection. "Can I buy you lunch? You..look familiar." The boy blinked, tilting his head. "Uh. Sorry. No thanks...anyway..I gotta go..see you...around?" He said, with a confused expression. "Weird girl.." He muttered as he walked in the opposite direction, taking one last look at the avatar imposter as he was ambushed by teenage girls. "Serves him right."

Kaori felt a rock grow in her stomach, she'd just embarrassed herself for nothing! But, still, she couldn't help but feel as if she knew this boy, she had seen him in a dream, but how? She'd only ever been in the earth kingdom once before, and at the time she wasn't even in omashu. "Weird girl? Did he call me weird girl?" She muttered as she watched the boy walk off, furrowing her brow. "I'll show him who's weird.." she muttered, as she walked forward, folding her map and shoving it into her bag. She was planning on spying on him, well, she told herself that it wasn't spying, it was "gathering information". Though, she wasn't exactly being discreet, everytime he moved his head to the side at all, she'd hide behind the nearest pedestrian, which was attracting more attention than she'd like.

She'd been following him close to an hour at this point, and he hadn't done anything out of the ordinary, he stopped at a market stall every now and again, but that was it. She was ready to give up and find somewhere to sleep, but, suddenly, he took a turm into a dark alleyway, she followed cautiously, becoming too excited for her own good, as this had been the most danger she'd ever been in, though, this wasn't exactly danger. But alas, nothing interesting. She kept walking until her legs felt sore, but to no avail, he just kept walking to the forest. She let out a long sigh, and stopped, sitting on the ground as he got farther away from her. She took out the flask of water she'd brought and drank some, looking around, with her back to a tree.

Was this ever a good idea?

Should she turn back?

She felt her chest tighten up, as her hands began to shake, her entire mouth got dry, no matter how much water she drank. "O-oh no..." She felt as if her entire world was crumbling around her. But...if she returned, she was well aware what her future would hold..living in Anzu's shadow...dyeing her hair every so often, eventually getting married off to some cranky general. She shook her head at thought, she felt as if a pit had grown in her stomach, closing her eyes, and breathing, as she tried to calm herself down, a bury all of the negative thoughts in the back of her mind.

It was then when she heard rustling in the bushes around her, but not the type of rustling you'd here from an animal, it sounded as if, a person had tripped or something, she looked around cautiously, clutching her bag, she'd imagined that a huge monster would crawl out of the bushes, and take her. Or the kemurikage! Maika had told her that story years prior, yet it still scared her.

"Is someone there-" she spoke, but she was cut off, by a firm hand placed over her mouth. "Don't you dare scream." Said a raspy, scary voice. "Get her bags." Kaori felt her heart drop as soon as he began speaking, knowing she wouldn't be able to take on both bandits alone, as an amateur earthbender, who could barely speak for herself. One bandit held her back as the other rummaged through her bags, she clasped her eyes shut, wishing that this was all a dream, that she'd fallen asleep while Maika was telling her a scary story. But alas, this was reality, and she needed to fight, she bit the bandit's hand, elbowing him in the stomach, as she dashed forward, but he stopped her, grabbing her foot and twisting it, she gasped, feeling defeated. The other bandit, who was an earthbender, took a firm stance, launching two boulders at her legs, her ankles now had nasty bruises, she let outa blood curdling scream, clutching her head in her hands.

"That's what you get, mutt." He picked up her bag, rummaging through it. "Woah..we really got lucky.." he muttered, smirking at Kaori as she tried to get up, grunting as she felt her ankles buckle beneath her. But she hadn't lost hope just yet, she pressed both of her hands against the ground, hoping to launch some boulders at the men, she closed her eyes, biting her lip. She heard a loud noise, along with the sound of footsteps and the two men grunting. She opened her eyes, hoping to see that she'd earthbended. She looked around, seeing that the two men had been knocked down. "Did I-" She stopped as she looked up.

It was the boy from earlier, he stood there, panting, taking a firm stance as he shot two pillars back at the men, pinning them up against the trees. "Leave. Don't pick on little girls. " He said sternly, furrowing his brow as the bandits ran off with a terrified expression. Kaori lay there, her mouth wide open in shock, with nasty bruises covering her legs from the knees down. "That was great!" She said without thinking as she tried to scramble to her feet, falling over once again. The boy raised an eyebrow. "Weird girl...I mean..Sorry, do you want help?" He asked, picking up her bag. "Yes please." Kaori mumbled, with an awkward smile. The boy wrapped an arm around her, hoisting her upward and looked down at her ankle, which had began to swell. "That looks nasty..no offense.." he muttered, as he lifted her to a small white, old looking cottage, sitting her down on a chair. He was being so nice to her, she'd began to feel bad for following him.

He laid a cold towel on her ankle. "This might help. I'm...Daiki by the way." He said, as he rummaged through a box, looking for bandages. "I'm Kaori." She said under her breath. The room was quiet for a few moments. "So..uh...you're an earthbender?" She said, trying to clear the air. "Yeah..I wouldn't call myself a master but I guess I'm decent." He said, raising an eyebrow. "Decent? I thought what you did was really cool!" Kaori said, without thinking.

Daiki, who wasn't a very sociable person, didn't know how to react to this, a girl, who he'd only just met an hour prior, complementing him? It wasn't miraculous, but it felt strange to him. "Thank you..Are you a bender?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "Sorta. I only just learned I could earthbend" Kaori said, slightly embarrassed. Daiki raised an eyebrow. "Recently? How's that?" He asked. "Well, my mother was earthbender, or at least, her family was, and I never knew" She muttered. "Oh." He got the sense that it was a sensitive subject, and decided not to elaborate further. "So you're not from Omashu, are you?" He said, desperate to end the awkward silence. "Not really, I'm from the fire-" She thought for a moment, perhaps it wasn't the best idea to give out much information, so she'd better come up with a fake story. "I mean, I'm from..the..southern water tribe" She said quickly. "Must be cold." Daiki said, not realizing how dry his responses sounded, the reason being that he was really just an awkward person.

After wrapping up her ankle, and giving her a make-shift bandage, he looked up at her. "You can go now, but, you really should be more careful. It's really dangerous around here at night." Kaori stopped for a moment, leaning on the door, feeling as if she couldn't leave. How could she have seen this boy in a dream, if they'd only just met. "Well, uh, see you around." Daiki said.

Kaori looked back at him, biting her lip. In a matter of seconds, shd got down on her hands and knees and begged. "Please teach me how to earthbend!" She begged.