8. Avatar Kyoshi

…

(A few days later)

“Senior brother Uluk,” Lee called softly, looking hesitant.

Master Pakku had already left the open square to attend to his other duties after completing his teachings for the day.

Lee suddenly felt the gaze of everyone present in the square upon him—namely, the rest of the students of Pakku.

“Yes, little Lee?” Uluk asked with a curious expression on his face.

“I’ve been practising the kata using the scroll given by our master,” Lee explained, “and wanted to make sure that I’m not making any mistakes. I don’t want to develop a bad habit since getting rid of them can be so tough, you know.”

“Indeed.” Atka nodded his head, standing some distance away from them. “That’s very wise of you, little Lee.”

Lee tried to hide a growing blush born from being praised. “So, umm… Can I demonstrate the kata in front of you, so you can point out my mistakes as you did with senior brother Bato and Hakoda?” Lee asked while looking at Uluk with his puppy dog eyes.

“Ah, yes,” Uluk nodded absentmindedly. “Of course I can, little Lee.”

Lee’s left eye twitched. If being referred to as a child wasn’t enough, now he had gained another dreadful nickname.

‘Why must everyone refer to me with weird names? Give me a break already. Ugh…’

He sighed, exhaling all of his current grievances about nicknames, before he stepped forward and started to perform the waterbending kata as he had practised.

Once he was done, he turned toward Uluk with a hopeful expression. He didn’t disappoint.

“The waterbending kata is based on balance between both calm and the storm. You have to be both. Yin and Yang. Pull and push. Ebb and flow. You’ve flawlessly mastered the Yin aspect, but your movements lack the proper force present in the Yang aspect,” he said gently.

“Look,” he added before demonstrating one of the movements of the kata. “You see how I slammed my feet on the ice just now,” he continued. “How forceful I was. That is the Yang aspect of the movement. Meanwhile, my arms spun calmly because that was the Yin aspect of the movement.”

“Likewise, in this movement….”

“And in this movement…”

Uluk patiently listed every mistake he made during his demonstration while Lee listened with rapt attention.

Once he was done, Lee bowed and saluted him for his help with a sincere heart. “Thank you for your guidance, senior brother.”

Uluk nodded with a soft smile. “It’s a small thing,” he said, waving his hand as if telling him not to mind it. “Feel free to ask me again if you have any other doubts.”

“Yes, senior brother.”

“By the way, little Lee,” Atka said, grabbing his attention. “We are going to the market to have some seal-otter buns for lunch. Want to join us?”

Lee blinked, surprised by the sudden offer. Then he remembered something very important. “Umm… my apologies, senior-most brother,” he said, scratching his head with an embarrassed smile. “I don’t have any money.”

“Gosh,” Atka shook his head with a chuckle. “What kind of senior brother will I be if I can’t treat my junior-most brother to a meal?”

“Apologies again, senior brother,” Lee bowed his head. “My caretaker might worry if I don’t reach home in time without any prior notice for the delay. Maybe some other time.”

“No matter,” Atka nodded in understanding, a gentle smile on his face. He didn’t look offended, so Lee breathed a sigh of relief.

“So, it’s true, huh?” Hatoka muttered. “That you live with Master Pakku.”

“Yes,” Lee nodded, as there wasn’t any point in lying about something which could be easily verified.

“Lucky,” Hatoka added as a loudly spoken afterthought.

“Lucky?” Bato asked, looking doubtful. “Even two hours with Master Pakku are terrifying. Living with him will surely be dreadful.”

Lee couldn’t help it. He laughed out loud for a few good moments. Once he was done, he wiped a tear from his eye while clutching his stomach with the other hand.

“Thankfully, he doesn’t spend a lot of time at home,” he said with a grin. “And after dinner, I just retire to my room.”

…

“So,” Mona asked, sitting down in front of him. “What should we do today? Mathematics? You’re pretty good at it after all.”

Lee shook his head. “No,” he said with a grumble. “I don’t want to study maths today. Just because I’m good at it doesn’t mean I like it.”

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“Is that so?” Mona muttered. “We can do something else then. Something that you like.”

Lee let out a thoughtful hum as if he was thinking about his likes and dislikes. A few heartbeats later, his eyes sparkled, and he sat straight. “History,” he said, his tone excited.

“History?” Mona tilted her head.

“Yes, tell me about avatars,” he quickly said, leaning forward with an infectious smile. “Just like you did two weeks ago.”

“Alright… but which avatar should we talk about today?”

“…Avatar Kyoshi.”

“Kyoshi, huh?” Mona rubbed her chin, eyes turning to the ceiling. “Fine,” she relented after a moment. “We can talk about Kyoshi.”

“Long, long ago, before Avatar Roku. On a journey to earth kingdom, Jessa, an air nomad nun and master of airbending, met a young man Hark. One thing led to another, and soon she fell in love with him. They had a daughter after, whom they named Kyoshi.

“Unlike her mother, Kyoshi had the talent for earthbending. It is said that her father, Hark, was an outlaw, and her mother also became one after meeting him. After they had Kyoshi, they stopped their activities and started to travel from one place to another.

“Alas, some years later, they decided that they wanted to return to their old life, and thus abandoned their Kyoshi in a village—”

Lee gasped. “How could they be so cruel?”

“Little Kyoshi suffered a great deal. She was forced to live on the street as an orphan, eat garbage to survive, scrap her head on ice to relieve a burning fever. Naturally, she blamed it all on her parents.”