10. Three coppers

…

“Let’s teach you how to manipulate water, shall we?”

Lee nodded, giving his teacher his complete attention.

“Chi is the fuel,” Pakku said, widening his stance to adopt a crab-like posture. “Kata is the tool. But these two alone aren’t enough to perform waterbending. Water needs a direction to flow. Something to guide it. That something is your intent. You must imagine how you want the water to act.”

He started to move his arms in a circular motion at a slow enough pace to copy. In response, some of the ice ground between them melted into water and floated upward in the shape of a bubble until it reached his eye level.

“Imagine what you want the water to do,” he continued. “Then imbue your chi with that intent before extending it toward the water while performing the kata.”

“Let us play a game. I’ll pass this water bubble to you. You need to gain control over it, spin it around you, before passing it back to me. It’s fine if you fail. We’ll keep doing it for half an hour before I go to teach the others. You’ll meditate on the experience once our game is over. Understood?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Then let’s begin,” Pakku smirked devilishly before pushing the water orb toward him.

Lee’s eyes widened in panic before he hastily imbued his intent into his chi and extended it toward the incoming orb by performing the kata. For a second, it looked like he succeeded. Then, his control over the orb slipped.

It splashed against his chest, soaking into his clothes. Lee shivered from the coldness of the water. It had been ice only moments earlier after all.

Lee opened his mouth to complain, but stopped when a simple gesture from Pakku turned his clothes dry again. Water returned to being a floating orb.

“Water will reject your control if your understanding isn’t deep enough,” Pakku remarked, effortlessly moving the orb in the air. “Remember what water is. Both physically and spiritually. You must be intimately familiar with it. Only then will it follow your intent. Try again.”

…and so it continued. Lee spent the next half an hour getting soaked in icy water in many ways, but he was forced to grudgingly admit that the exercise, or the game, as Pakku referred to it, was highly effective. By the end, his failure rate had drastically shrunk to once out of every eight times.

He couldn’t be happier as he sat down on the icy floor and began to meditate. He looked back at the exercise, trying to understand the reason behind each of his failed attempts.

Some distance away, Pakku instructed his other students.

Lee tuned them out, focusing within himself. His breathing turned longer and steadier. The last half an hour played like a movie inside his mind, providing him with an observer’s viewpoint to trace his failures to their source. Once he identified where he was lacking, he started to think about solutions to remove his weaknesses.

Time slowly passed.

Pakku left after he finished giving personal lessons to each of his students.

“Little Lee.”

Lee opened his eyes to find Atka, Uluk, and Bato standing a few steps away from him.

“The training session has ended,” Atka said with a soft smile. “Come. Stand up. It’s time to visit the market.”

Lee blinked, surprised that more than an hour had passed without him knowing about it. He stood up as instructed and followed the other three as they walked out of the open square.

“Tell me, little Lee. Have you ever been to the market before?” Atka asked.

Lee shook his head in denial.

Atka grinned. “Then, we must show you the entire market today.”

“That’d be great,” Lee nodded. “Since I want to buy some things from the market.”

“Oh? What do you want to buy?” Bato said, his tone both curious and a bit excited as he joined the conversation.

“Something to express my gratitude to Sister Mona, my caretaker, for taking care of me, and some soft candy with the rest of the money.”

“That’s very thoughtful of you, little Lee,” Uluk said, patting his back a few times in an encouraging fashion. “I’m sure she will be very happy with your gesture.”

“I know,” Bato exclaimed. “You can give her a frozen blue lotus. I’ve seen a vendor selling blue lotus flowers frozen in a clear block of ice. They are cheap, beautiful and won’t go bad for a long time because of being frozen using waterbending.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“That sounds like a great idea. I was actually worried about not having enough money to buy something nice. Can you please lead me to the vendor once we reach the market?”

“Sure. Leave it to me,” Bato said with a proud grin, thumbing his chest with his fist once.

“Speaking of gifts…” Uluk turned his gaze to Atka. “When are you going to propose to sister Kalli, brother Atka? Have you at least made the necklace you plan to give her yet?”

“Yeah, senior brother,” Bato nodded. “Sister Kalli is quite popular, you know. You should propose to her soon, or someone else might end up doing it before you. I wouldn’t want you to wallow in regret later.”

Atka blushed and looked away. “She’ll decline them if anyone does,” he said softly, barely above a whisper, while scratching his head.

“How can you be so sure?” Uluk asked with a frown.

“…Well, because I confessed to her that I love her and want to ask her hand in marriage. She said she likes me too. We both decided that I should give her the necklace once Master Pakku declares me a waterbending master, and she will gladly accept it.

“…So, maybe after a month, I’ll give her the necklace.”

“Whoa,” Uluk muttered, his mouth hanging open in shock and disbelief. “You’ve hidden yourself well, Brother Atka. I didn’t realise you were such a master of love.”

He cupped his fist and bowed to him. “Forgive me for not seeing your extraordinariness.”

Bota and Lee shared a look before doing the same.

“Will you three stop your antics and stop embarrassing me? People are starting to stare,” Atka hissed.

“You must teach us your ways, senior brother,” Lee said with a completely serious face.