Avatar: Scorching Earth // Not Accepting!

Kyori shrugged as Yotem answered her question with "do as you will." If he was okay with watching over them, she wasn't worried about it. At least I know they won't stand a chance at getting away with him on guard. I mean, getting away alive at least, if they attempted. The thought made her face twitch in a small, snickering smile. "Alrighty then, goodnight," Kyori said, adding an exhausted sigh. "If you need anything just holler -- my tent isn't too terribly far." With a half-assed wave, Kyori turned and disappeared into the darkness.

Kesuk woke up as soon as night outside began to lighten into morning. He was a morning person, so it wasn't difficult. He got up and grabbed his shirt, slipping it on quickly. He picked up his staff and stepped outside. The morning was nice and cool, and he was glad he had chosen this time to train. Fortunately, it wasn't hot as it had been yesterday afternoon. This was somewhat closer to his preferred temperature. Kesuk made his way through the rows of tents, the atmosphere of the camp just beginning to stir as people woke up for the day.

He hadn't specified a certain time for Zasi to meet him, so he didn't hurry. He walked through the forest quietly and slowly, listening to the birds sing and taking the time to let his body warm up and work out the stiffness of sleeping in one position all night. Kesuk arrived in the clearing shortly after the sun cleared the horizon in a blinding display of yellow and red and orange. Zasi was seated peacefully in the middle of the small field, waiting for him. He approached her, moving in a way that wouldn't startle her in case she was meditating. "Good morning, Zasi," Kesuk said once he was a few feet away. He seated himself across from her with a decent amount of space between them. Setting his staff on the ground beside him, he began stretching out his legs in preparation for a training session. "We'll stretch first and then get right into training," he instructed. Kesuk wanted to finish before the morning started to get too hot.

Zasi turned her head when she heard soft footsteps coming from the left. Kesuk greeted her and sat down in front of her. She smiled and gave a small wave of her hand. "Good morning, Kesuk." She spoke with a cheery attitude. When Keusk mentioned needing to stretch, Zasi couldn't help but nod her head a little too eagerly. Stretching her legs out she wiggled her toes. There was about a foot or so in between the two when they had their legs outstretched. She reached to her toes, grabbing them and folding her body in half. She was pretty flexible, but not stretching the day before had made her stiff. Once she felt her legs were loosened up she stretched her arms above her head and stood to stretch her back and abdomen. Once she felt completely stretched (I didn't feel like writing too much detail about stretching XD), she wiggled her shoulders and moved her arms in a circular motion to release some of the tension in them. Swooping down to pick up her staff, she shook out her arms. "I think I'm ready. It's such a nice morning. The weather is just perfect for training, you know? I mean, I'm sure as a waterbender you are used to chilly weather. Well, more like freezing weather, but still. I think it's nice anyways." Zasi realized she started blabbering and she just gave a small chuckle at herself. "Sorry I talk a lot, don't I?"

Lí awoke for the second time since he went to sleep, but this time, when he looked through the opening to his hut, he saw the sky lightening. The last time, it was to a nightmare of him walking back to his village after it had been burnt to the ground. He remembered the feeling of growing unease as, walking through the woods after his hunt, he saw the sky above the treetops starting to fill with smoke. At first, he didn't know where it was coming from. It could've been a wildfire. But as he drew closer to home and the smoke kept getting thicker and ticker, Lí knew that something was wrong. He broke out into a run, panic filling his mind as the smoke started to sting his eyes. Then, finally, he crested the hill and stood on the edge of the clearing where the place he called home belonged; only it wasn't there. Heaps of ash and still burning logs stood where his home had been, where his friends, Kanan and Gao's homes had been. Where his mother and Rocky had been...   That was the second time he'd had that nightmare. He hoped it didn't become a recurring one.

Fortunately, Lí still had managed to get a good amount of rest and he felt rather refreshed, as now that the sun was rising, he would need to go out and hunt for his breakfast... Aaaand for the two firebenders, he realized. If he was lucky, he might be able to take down something big enough to feed them all, but more likely, he would need to find at least a few small animals, like rabbit squirrels or groundhogs. Strapping his knife and water pouch onto his belt, Lí set out just as the sun finished climbing above the horizon.

After about 30 minutes walking through the brush in the forest, Lí noticed a rub on a broad off to his right. The bark had been rubbed off just above the level of Lí's head, telling him it was a fairly tall animal that had made his mark here. Moving over to the tree, Lí felt the fresh, slightly moist bare wood and knew that the animal had been here recently, probably this morning. Looking around his feet, Lí's eyes landed upon a set of hoofprints in soft dirt that clearly belonged to a large green-tailed moose-deer. Jackpot! If he was able to track this guy down, he could probably feed half of the camp! Continuing in the direction that the tracks pointed, Lí starting being more careful to make as little noise as possible while he walked, avoiding twigs and dried leaves that lay in his path. The tracks became harder to follow as the dirt hardened, but every 10 or 15 feet, Lí would see a tuft of fur, or a few crushed leaves, or a branch rubbed bare by thick (thicc) antlers, and he knew that he was still on the right track. 

After maybe a half hour of tracking, Lí began to hear the babble of a stream off in the distance. That made sense; perhaps the moose-deer would be there, drinking before going on with his day. As the sound of the stream came into clearer focus, Lí saw a small hill rise above him. Near the crest was a pile of fresh scat, each pellet almost the size of a walnut. Lí made his way towards the pile, but stopped dead in his tracks when he crested the hill. Directly in front of him was signs of a massive struggle. The grass in a large area was flattened, where something had rolled around on the ground. Lí saw a few hoofprints in the bark of trees around the flattened grass. Clearly, something had gotten the moose-deer onto its back, where it started kicking wildly. And then he saw the blood splotched trail where the moose-deer had been dragged away. The track went towards the stream, which was now in sight; his eyes followed the track until they came to rest on the culprit of the assault. At the side of the stream, Lí saw a massive platypus-bear feasting on the moose-deer. It was roughly 70 yards away, but that was about 500 yards closer to a platypus bear than Lí ever wanted to be. Fortunately, it seemed to be very focused on its meal, but that didn't mean it couldn't look up at any time. Lí slowly backed down the hill as quietly as he could, and kept going back the way he came from until he could no longer hear the stream. 

Finally relaxing a bit, Lí gathered his thoughts. 'Ok. I set off around 5:30, and it's been at least an hour- probably an hour and a half. Looks like we'll still be snacking on small game, if I can even find that.' And so he set off, following his own trail back the direction he came, keeping an eye on the ground below him, and an ear out for rustling in the branches above. Just as he was about to give up, he spotted a rabbit-squirrel sitting in the crook of a tree, about 15 feet off the ground and 30 feet ahead. He sidestepped slightly to the left out of the way of a branch that would block his shot, and then stealthily entered his horse stance. He felt his connection to the earth around him strengthen, and he reached out through this connection until he felt the perfect pebble- smooth, round, and the size of a marble, he lifted it into the air in front of him with his bending. It hung, suspended in mid-air, in front of his face. Lí drew his fist back slowly, lined the shot up with the center of the rabbit-squirrel's head, and then shot his fist forward. There was certainly power behind the punch, but more importantly, there was deadly precision. His fist never made contact with the pebble, but he felt it nonetheless as he sent it rocketing forward. The rabbit-squirrel would have no idea that anything had happened. The pebble made contact, the rodent swayed momentarily on its branch, and then it toppled to the ground. 

With the rabbit-squirrel down, Lí jogged gently over to the base of the tree it was in and leaned down to pick it up; lucky for him, it was very large for the kind of animal it was, and it would probably be enough to feed him as well as both the firebenders. Hopefully the others had their own food, because the sun was rising ever higher and there was probably only 15 minutes left until the time he was supposed to meet Kyori. As he walked, he smiled a bit, thinking of the female earthbender's tough, yet caring attitude (Based on their talk the night before, when Kyori gave her opinion on the firebenders). He had to admit that he was looking forward to seeing her soon, even if it was for a 'changing of the guard' at the makeshift holding cell. And so it was with a smile on his face that Lí exited the forest and made his way through the camp, walking to the outskirts where the holding cell was located.

Kesuk went through a similar routine as Zasi, stretching out his muscles until they felt loose and warm, ready to be worked. He kicked his staff up into his hand as Zasi finished up as well. The airbender immediately launched into a topic of conversation about the weather, of all things. He should have known waking up so early wouldn't deter her from talking. He would have to find other ways to make her go quiet. Rather than indulge her with inane, useless conversation, he just sighed. She apologized, saying that she talked too much. "You do," Kesuk said. "Let's see if we can fix that." He jumped right into instructing her on what he wanted her to start off with for the day. "Run through some katas using your adjusted stance. You need to get used to that stance, until it's muscle memory. After that, we'll spar together so I can see how solid your defense is. Then we'll work on any flaws I spot during your katas or while we spar." Kesuk stepped back, motioning with his staff for her to take center field and begin.

(I think maybe Lex and I should only do a couple or a few more posts, since Zasi and Kesuk need to be in the middle of training if their training's going to be interrupted by The Raid XD)

It was something like watching a train wreck. Kesuk, with an outsider's perspective, caught the mistake and impending disaster about a mile away, the very moment Zasi began to settle herself into her stance for a second run-through of her katas. For a brief moment, he wondered whether hitting the ground would help cement the proper stance in her head. Then he decided that no, it probably wouldn't. Just as Zasi began to fall, Kesuk strode over and wrapped his free hand around her waist, pulling her back to her feet. "If it hasn't become painfully obvious to you already, you're not doing it right," he said, his voice flat. Somewhat impatient, he tossed his staff to the ground and moved his hands to her shoulders, shoving down to get her to lower herself and, therefore, her center of gravity. "Down, down further." Then he pushed on her abdomen with one hand. "Focus your balance here. Now try it again." The 'and don't fall this time' was heavily implied. Then he stepped back a few paces, ducking to pick up his staff again as he did. He wanted to get to sparring before the sun rose much further and started baking them alive. Damn this Earth Kingdom heat. Cross one channel of water and you go from nice, cool snow to roasting heat. How did that even make sense? It didn't, and Kesuk didn't like it.

Zasi felt an arm wrap around her waist to stop her from falling. Kesuk had caught her, and she was grateful yet embarrassed. The waterbender made a snark comment about her not doing it right, and Zasi scoffed and rolled her eyes with a small smile. That much was obvious. He still had a hold on her waist, and she became painfully aware of it. She felt a hot flush on her face. Great, now she was blushing while standing less than three inches away from him. As if he didn't think she was clumsy before he definitely would now. Just before she was going to question him, Kesuk tossed his staff to the ground and grabbed her shoulders. She was so thrown off guard by this, she had barely registered he was instructing her. She felt him move her body down and she obeyed, getting into a lower stance. He pressed on her abdomen and Zasi wasn't sure if her blush could get any more red. Even her ears were burning. He finally stepped away, and Zasi took a moment to cool down slightly while trying to remember the stance. She stepped out of the stance and then crouched back down, trying to mimic the way she was standing a moment ago. She tried a kata and felt much more grounded this time. She glanced at Kesuk. "Uh, thanks. I feel a lot more balanced now. It just might take a little getting used to, but I think I have the hang of it now... Hopefully anyways."

Kesuk watched Zasi as she began a new kata, this time keeping her center of gravity lowered. Interestingly enough, her face and neck were flushed red. It was probably because of the gradually-increasing morning heat, though Kesuk had thought only someone used to snow like him would find this kind of weather uncomfortable. Then again, airbender temples were generally far up in the mountains, if he recalled correctly. That must be it. She was used to cooler temperatures like he was. ((YOU NAIVE, EMOTIONALLY-STUNTED CHILD! I THOUGHT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE A GENIUS!)) Finishing her run-through, Zasi looked over at him and thanked him for the help, mentioning that hopefully she had gotten used to it now. "You better have the hang of it," he commented, "or our sparring match won't be much of a match at all. Run through your kata one more time. Then we can really get started." Kesuk tossed his staff back and forth between his hands, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet several times in anticipation of a fight, no matter how short it might be. It had been a long time since he'd practiced with another person.