AN :
if we hit 450 power stones, there will be an extra chapter guys ;)
...
Thankfully, Pakku and I know each other's style by heart and we synchronise our movements to bring the wave back down gently. His control always feels like a prompt greeting, and I mentally pat his shoulder in turn as we move simultaneously.
The other two watch with open mouths.
...
Pakku draws himself upright. "Sequences like this," he begins to lecture, "Are all about harmony. That means we need to all work together, there is no competition, no rushing ahead. Aang, I expect you to follow through with the movements the next time. Katara, you too. You have to synchronise with your fellow benders and get the water back under control."
They nod, "Yes, Master Pakku."
I stifle my laughter and flatten my expression. I was never this polite. Pakku glances at me in warning. No corrupting his cute little students.
"How did you…? What you did wasn't ending the sequence," Katara says, still astonished.
Pakku and I share a look. He stares a bit. That means he wants me to answer. "Pakku and I have been bending together since I was five. So, twelve years now. With that amount of time you just know what the other will do and how to take up the rest."
They both nod looking thoughtful. "Okay! Let's do it again!" Aang enthuses and we get back in position.
We manage it together, this time. It's a heady rush of power and it's fucking impressive.
When we've brought the wave back down, there is clapping from behind us. We've gathered an audience. Perfect. Ah, and there's Arnook. Even better. He always knows what I'm thinking.
"Very impressive," he compliments, "I've never seen it before."
That's a question for Pakku. "It seems the Avatar and his friends stumbled across a waterbending scroll from the Southern Watertribe. They had trouble with it individually, but this is one of the sequences that are best done with many."
Arnook, thankfully, looks at me then, and he understands immediately what it is that I want to do. "With many, you say? How many do you think could do this?"
Pakku catches on that this could mean an extra layer of defence for the city. He's all for it. "With enough practise, I'm sure thirty benders could manage it to create a wall taller than the palace."
Thirty is usually the very limit to synchronised bending. The creation of our city is one of the few known examples where the number of benders was greater. Far greater. It illustrates how much the city was every single one of their desires.
Aang and Katara trade looks of confusion. Arnook looks thoughtful, then his eyes lock back onto me. Aw, crap. "Kaito, how about you teach twenty-nine of your fellow waterbenders this sequence. We'll have a demonstration in four days on the night of the full moon."
I sigh heavily. Pakku elbows me in the side. "Yeah, fine…"
Most of the bystanders express their exasperation by rolling their eyes or exchanging amused glances. All Arnook does is smile. If he thinks responsibility will make me grow up, he's about to be proven wrong.
Six days is a bit short to make thirty people harmonise a rather complicated sequence, but I'm sure I can beat them into shape. I learned from the best, after all.
...
I hoped I'd get an aide or something, but it seems not. I'll have to pick my own, then. Why do work you can delegate to someone else?
Hiraku seems like a good choice. He might not like me, but he's one of Pakku's, so we should work. I find him at the market where he's chatting up a girl. She looks distinctly uncomfortable.
"I hate to interrupt…" I say as I approach them, and it's true, I'd like to have seen if she was going to do anything about her discomfort. She sends me a grateful smile that Hiraku doesn't see, and beats it.
Hiraku's turned to face me. "Kaito. What do you want?"
I smile a lazy smile. "Chief Arnook is asking for a demonstration of a new sequence the Avatar and his friends discovered. I'm meant to teach it to twenty-nine others to give a demonstration on the full moon."
His eyes widen. Then they narrow suspiciously. "And you want me to help you?"
I shrug. "Yeah, sure. I mean, if Pakku let you go, you have to be competent and I figure you know a bit more about the other bender's abilities and who clicks with who."
He adopts a haughty expression. "Quite. After all, not all of us have the privilege of guarding the princess."
That's meant to sting, is it? It's always been a sore spot for the others. Guarding the princess is meant to be an honour, and I've been on the rotation ever since I made master. That's not to say that I haven't been on patrol, just that it's been less frequent.
I give him a bland smile. "Sure. You in or not?"
He nods haughtily. Spirits, he's worse than Pakku on a bad day. Worse than Hahn when he's in front of his dad.
"Good," I pat his shoulder, which he hates, because he's not as tall as me, "See you in two hours in front of the palace steps with the others then."
"Fine," he says, then marches off to rise to the challenge of finding twenty-eight more benders for our cause. That was just pathetically easy.
I set about finding myself some lunch.
...
Pakku and his students have agreed to move to the side a bit, so thirty more people have enough space to bend together. About half of the lot have arrived, and we wait on the rest.
Hiraku leads the rest and then comes to stand beside me.
"Nicely done," I comment to him, then I smile at the assembled benders. "I'd like to thank you all for coming. I'm sure Hiraku's already filled you in on our objective, but I'll lay it out again, just in case. The Avatar and his friends have shown us a new sequence that could potentially serve to strengthen our defences in the case of an invasion. Chief Arnook would like all of us to get it down and demonstrate on the night of the full moon, which is in six days."
They all nod along, so I nod back and then turn around.
"Hey, Aang, Katara, why don't you show us how it's done?" I holler and at a nod from Pakku, both of them come over.
They manage quite nicely and everyone is suitably awed. I give them an applause in which everyone joins in. "Very good. How about we repeat dry and see who can get it down well enough to try with a partner?"
I gesture the kids over and we stand in front of the assembled to demonstrate the movements. "Alright, let's do this a little slower, so everyone can see the sequence properly."
They stand on either side of me and we work it like professionals. When we're done, I clap their shoulders. "Thanks. If you don't mind, would you keep doing that, so everyone can see the sequence while I go and help the others out?"
"Sure!" Aang agrees and Katara rolls her eyes, but does as asked.
Hiraku, I note, has got it down to two mistakes that he corrects on his second run. Five of the others are just as good. The rest need a little prodding.
"Hey, Kaito, can we stop yet?" Aang asks after their seventh rendition. I wave them off and they scurry back over to Pakku.
Those who I think should be okay I send to pair off with someone and the results of that vary from close to perfection to abysmal. After one such horrifyingly catastrophic attempt, I tell Hiraku to supervise the singles while I go around and help with synchronising the pairs.
Mostly, I insert myself into the dynamic and have them match my tempo. That way, when we go at it later, they should all have the same rhythm. I make two of the better pairs work as a team of four and that goes less smoothly, but still quite well. I hope to have at least three teams of four work as nicely as Katara, Aang, Pakku and I did.
I get four, which makes me dismiss them all with a grin. "Right, good going for today, I'll see you tomorrow after lunch!"
Hiraku lets them go, but turns on me with a frown. "Why so late?"
"We have to perform at night on the full moon. I intend for them to stay until midnight tomorrow, longer the day after and so on. We need to get used to bending together as we grow stronger with the moon, otherwise we might just botch it all up because of the power increase."
He nods stiffly, then marches off.
"Not bad," Pakku says from behind me, smirking.
I shrug, "We're getting there. Up for a spar?"
He grins. That's definitely a yes.
...
Don't forget to throw some power stones :)
...
If you want to read ahead of the public release, or just want to support me.
you can join my p atreon :
[email protected]/Numera