The Good and the Bad: Kainora

Chapter 5: Almost There

The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon. As it climbed higher into the sky, the towering, impregnable walls of Ba Sing Se could barely be seen. After all, it covered the entire northeast region of the Earth Kingdom. It was still a few hours away, though, before they actually touched down in the Upper Ring. As the first rays hit Jinora's eyes, she struggled to open them. 

"Hmmph," she sighed. Her head was resting on something round. And something was resting on top of her head.

Meanwhile, Kai had just woken up too. It suddenly occurred to him that something was resting on his shoulder. 

"AHHH!" He yelled. Instantly, Jinora was wide awake.

"AHHH!" She screamed. They simultaneously sprung away from each other. 

"I...er...um...we're not..." Jinora fumbled around for the words that couldn't describe what just happened. 

"Were you--" Kai began, but he cut himself off.

"What's wrong?" Jinora asked, but he put a finger to her lips. At his touch, Jinora found her cheeks warming up. 

"Hold on, somebody's coming," He whispered. Kai quickly peeked around Oogi. 

"Kai? Jinora?" Korra was calling for them. "Where are you two?"

"Right here Korra!" Kai cheerfully shouted back. "How did you sleep last night?" He waved from behind Oogi. 

Korra came up to him. "Where were you? When we woke up, we assumed you'd been in your bunk the entire night, but it was empty! Geez, you gave us quite a scare." She pulled him into a quick hug. Korra eyed Jinora with suspicion and raised an eyebrow. "What were you doing here with him? We couldn't find you either! You had Tenzin worried."

Before the young airbender could formulate a response, Kai beat her to it.

"It's okay Korra. We were just taking an early morning walk. Wouldn't want to miss the sight of Ba Sing Se." He gestured off the starboard side of the airship. 

"Well, we were just about to start breakfast. Come down and join us." With that, Korra walked back down the stairs and into the common room. As soon as she was out of sight. Jinora breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thanks for covering both of us. I wouldn't have known what to say in that situation," Jinora said with a shy smile. 

"Hey, no problems. Being quick on my feet is my specialty," Kai boasted proudly. She giggled.

"Is that so?" Jinora asked coyly. She leaned in slowly and whispered in his ear, "then you'd make a good airbender." She pulled away, smiling at Kai's confusion. "C'mon, let's join the others for breakfast, then we can start our first lesson."

***

They stood facing each other on the top of the airship. The spacious area gave them plenty of room to practice without the risk of being blown overboard. 

"The most important part of airbending is finding the path of least resistance, like the wind," Jinora began. "You want to be like the wind."

"Sounds easy enough."

"Normally, we would use the airbending gates..." She pondered for a moment. "But this will have to do instead!" Out of nowhere, Jinora launched several gusts of air at Kai. He barely had time to react before the first gust came at him. Surprisingly, he kept his word on being quick on his feet, because he managed to evade all of them, even sneaking in a cartwheel. 

Showoff.

"That..." Jinora didn't even know where to start. "...That was just...amazing. Most new airbenders don't get it right the first time."