Wandering Firebender

Fifteen: Fiery Waterbender

Elio stood near the edge of the water, practicing with his staff. As usual, he had set his things and his extra clothes off to the side so that nothing would get caught. He practiced spinning his staff with one hand then the other, switching back and forth between the two.

"Elio?" Cindra called to him. He quickly caught the staff with his hand and turned back towards her.

"Hey. How're you doing? I haven't seen you since you ran off last night."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I just...had to wrap my head around everything and figure out what I'm gonna do now... What are you doing?" She asked curiously.

"Training with my staff," He answered. "You wanna give it a try?" He offered.

"Me? Uh... I don't know how to use a staff."

"That's okay. I can show you." He said with a smile. Cindra walked up to him. He handed the staff to her.

"You'll see. It's not that hard to start out."

"Okay... It might be good to learn how to use a weapon since I'll be stuck here with sucky waterbending." She muttered.

"Right... You said that they denied you the chance to learn how to fight because you're a girl, right?" He brought up.

"Yep. It's against tradition." She answered.

"That's kind of dumb. Even in the Fire Nation we have plenty of female soldiers. In fact, one of the best firebenders in our nation is the princess. Seems pretty impractical to me." Elio observed, shaking his head.

"Ha, maybe I should have been a firebender then. Sounds like home could learn a thing or two from the Fire Nation. How sad is that?"

"Mhmm... What happened that made things get so bad that you decided you had to leave?" Elio asked curiously. Cindra sighed.

"That's kind of a long story..."

In the Northern Water Tribe, life wasn't without its challenges, but it was doing better than most places in the world. Virtually untouched by the outside world, they were safe from the tyranny of the Fire Nation.

However, separation from the world was not without its consequences. Society in the North Pole was encapsulated; things had stayed practically the same for decades. So passionate people like Cindra were not given the choice to act in the way they wanted.

Cindra sighed to herself, working on her healing routines like she was supposed to. She'd gotten so used to these practices after doing them repeatedly for so long that she barely thought about them anymore.

It might have been at least a little better if she had the chance to heal actual people rather than just training dummies. But nothing notable was happening in the Northern Water Tribe. They didn't seem interested in what was going on in the world.

But Cindra had heard talk amongst the fishermen and the traders; there was a world war going on. The Fire Nation believed that global conquest was their destiny. But since the Fire Nation had yet to attempt a siege on the North Pole, they weren't concerned at all.

This was frustrating to her! Surely there was something that her people could be doing to help. Perhaps, but it didn't really matter to them. And it wasn't like she'd be able to contribute much; if she got in a fight, she'd be pretty much helpless.

"Cindra, you're exerting too much pressure. Ease up." Her instructor advised her, pulling her out of her thoughts. She flinched and moved her hands away from the dummy, ceasing the healing exercise altogether.

"I'm sorry, Yagoda. I need to take a break. My head's not in the right place for this." She said, clenching and unclenching her fists. She ruffled her hair up a bit, further showing her impatience.