*8*Chronicles of a Waterbender*8*Roleplay

((Sorry. But, yeah, she's in the garden.))


Karisa hurried after Narra and Shoryu. She hadn't really heard much except something about visiting the Princess. She had been so caught up in the architecture of the buildings that she ended up not paying attention to where she walked. She tripped over Kita and crashed into Shoryu. She muttered curse words as she stood. She felt a blush coming on as she spoke "Sorry, Shoryu."
 
Anat peaked out her window as Maris curled up like a huge white lump in the middle of her room. A beautiful garden stretched out before and in it Narra Karisa and Shoryu. It looked as if they were about to hold a meeting and there was no way she was getting left out. With a sigh she spun around tossing her traveling bag softly onto the plush green and gold bed and clucking softly for Maris to follow as she exited the room. She rapped on Arlen's door twice and said "We are meeting in the courtyard if you care to join us," before darting down the hallway. Maris was surprisingly light on her feet for such a large creature and kept up easily and quietly.
 
Before he could hop onto Kita, Shoryu was toppled by Karisa. He had heard her approaching, however, hadn't expected to be ran over. He managed to cushion her fall as much as possible, being a gentleman and all. As she got off of him, he stood up as well and brushed the dirt and dust from his clothing. He usually didn't mind being dirty, but in the royal palace of Ba Sing Sa, it was best if he looked in tip-top condition. He ran a hand through his hair, getting rid of any remaining debris as he heard Karisa's apology. Shoryu looked up in just enough time to see her blushing, which made the side of his mouth quiver into a tiny, crooked smile.


"Heh, don't sweat it. I've been hit harder, trust me." Shoryu said nonchalantly.
 
Narra laughed lightly, Kita shifted beneath her uneasily and began to pace in slow circle. Narra lifted her head a few minutes later and was pleased to find that Anat had joined them, and they didn't have to go searching through the palace to find her and her brother. "Anat," Narra called just loud enough for her to hear her, "Excellent! I was just going to find you. We're going to go search out the princess! Would you and Maris care to find our new 'friend'?" if one thing was for sure, it was that the Earth Kingdom princess had very important information for them.
 
.::.Karisa.::.





I nod slightly, barely tipping my head forward. I brush a few curly locks of dark brown hair from my eyes. I turn from him, afraid he would see my furious blush. Pretending to brush dirt from my skirt I let my blushing smile come. Taking a deep breath I turned around. I smiled regularly and began walking with Narra. I carefully pretended to look at the plants, every know and then taking a quick glance over at Shoryu. 'I hope he doesn't see me.' I thought to myself as I fingered a small lotus plant.
 
Anat cocked her head, "Are you talking about the shy little princess whom had something to say but was cut off by her father?" she asked as Arlen rounded the corner and entered the courtyard. She flicked her hand sending a small stream of water his way but he put up his hand before the water could hit him. He was so used to her tricks that even without waterbending powers he could stop her, of course Anat wasn't actually trying to hit him.
 
Shoryu, having brushed himself off, walked behind the Avatar. However, he continued seeing Karisa giving him glances from the corner of her eye over her shoulder. She was acting as if she was watching him. Was this because she didn't trust him, or something else..? He decided to walk with the group and found a place next to Karisa. He interlaced his fingers behind his head as he walked, taking in the beautiful scenery. However, that was cut short when he was distracted, seeing someone who seemed familiar to him, yet he couldn't really place his finger on it. He watched the individual for a moment, then continued looking forward as he walked. Every so often he would glance around and again, he would see that same individual. There was no doubt about it: they were being followed. But in the royal courtyard? Shoryu thought that he was just being paranoid, but he decided to be on guard, just in case. However, not watching where he was going, he accidentally bumped into Karisa, not hard, but enough to bring his focus.


"S-sorry 'bout that." Shoryu said as he blinked and gave her a small, apologetic smile.
 
The person following the Avatar's party came closer, a hood hiding their face. "Um, hey!!" a small voice called out in an attempt to get their attention. Shoryu had already noticed the figure, but the Avatar hadn't, and it was her attention that the hooded person wanted. The person pursuing them waited until Avatar Narra turned around, then removed their hood. It was Princess Iliana. She waved them over. "I'm sorry if I frightened you," she said, mostly to Shoryu. She bowed politely to the Avatar. "I just wanted to find you."
 
Narra turned around to see the Princess. She smiled and returned the bow. "You just made my life a whole lot easier by appearing out of nowhere," she joked, meaning that she didn't have to track her down. Narra then turned more serious. "You have information for us, do you not?"
 
"Yes." Iliana said, smiling. "I know where you can find an Earthbending master." She looked at each of them in turn. "I've been training with him for a couple of years now!" She stopped smiling, looking around. "Oops... I hope no one else heard that..." she said quietly. "No one in the palace knows I can Earthbend... Or anyone else, for that matter..." she started fiddling with her hair out of nervousness, but tried to stay on subject. "Umm... anyway..." she started. "I can take you to him in the morning if you'd like. I usually sneak away from the palace for awhile anyway during the day, no one will even know!"


 
Karisa blushed even more as Shoryu stood beside her. She bit he lip and tried not to look at him as much. She noticed how Shoryu kept glancing behind them. Karisa turned to see who might be following and smiled as she recognized the Princess. She bowed politely, barely affected by Shoryu's bump "Princess...I could tell you were a Bender. I don't think a non-Bender would be so restless while standing." Karisa said as she stood straight again. She smiled at the Princess and turned to Narra, an eyebrow raised. She yet agaIn questioned whether or not her friend had noted that the Princess was a bender before.


Kendra sat on the smooth black rock that made the steps to the fighting class. She laced her slipper-like shoes quickly before standing and running a hand through her thick black hair. She pulled it up and tied it with a red, black, and gold band. She walked out of the courtyard before heading toward the market place. She stopped at her mother's good friend's fruit stand and chatted with the older woman before continuing her way home.
 
Raven finished off some of the food she'd stolen earlier and headed back into the market. She might as well make a second round while she was nearby. It would save her the trouble tomorrow when she was hungry again. She walked through the streets, passing by a fruit stand that had a customer currently and continued to a more deserted area of the marketplace.


((I'll reply as the Earth Kingdom princess when [MENTION=822]MagicPocket[/MENTION] has a chance to reply))
 
"Earthbender, huh? That's quite a surprise," Narra said in a not-so-surprised tone. "Honestly, I wasn't sure if you were a bender or not. I reasonably inferred from your behavior that you might. I guess I need to work on my spiritual side of bending." She laughed and rubbed the back of her neck. Narra stepped closer and lowered her voice, "Who is your master?" She stopped herself and took a good minute surveying the courtyard, the shadows, and the towering walls, before turning back to the Earth Kingdom Princess. "Would you mind showing me something that you've learned, maybe?"
 
Iliana smiled brightly. "He's a very old man, Master Yun Fong. He's taught me a lot, but of course, I'm still learning, so I'm sorry if you aren't terribly impressed." She took a step back, giving herself room and looking around one more time to make sure the group was alone. She positioned her body, kicking one foot into the Earth. A huge plot of the land rolled up and away from her to look like a wall. She hit it swiftly with the palm of her hands, making it move and fly off in dofferent directions, showing Narra and her party a wide array of things she'd been taught. One significant skill of her's was that no matter where she sent the dirt and boulders flying, no matter what shape she influenced it to form, she was always able to guide it so it never broke anything in the surrounding area. When she kicked the wall back down to the rest of the ground, it disappeared, leaving no trace it had been moved. "I'm sorry if it wasn't all you had hoped for..." Iliana apologized. She would never give herself the credit she deserved, even if she was one of the best.


--- Merged Double Post ---


((*different, sorry it bugs me but on mobile it would take forever to go through the edit form))
 
Narra clapped politely. She was impressed, of course, she wasn't very familiar with earthbending, so almost any was fascinating, but she doubted this was the Earth Kingdom Princess's full scope of expertis. "I can't wait to meet the master then." Narra told the Princess. "I'll be so glad when I can get started with my training. Tomorrow morning then? Bright and early." She grinned with anticipation.


[[hope you don't mind a time skip]]


Moonlight poured over the courtyard. The night was quiet except for the occasional breeze that rustled through the thriving foliage and the bubble of the ornate stone fountain. A pair of bare feet padded soundlessly across the stone paths. Her first night in a new country. It had been the night before the last that she had gone home to her house in the Northern Water Tribe. Two days since she was declared the Avatar. Her first day of training started in just a mere several hours.


After waking up from nightmares of doubts and fears, Narra could not get back to sleep. Instead she found herself wandering into the courtyard, unaware of any intension of deciding to do so. She stood, standing at the base of the statue of General Bei Fong, staring up at it. Her mind was reeling over earthbending.


"Earthbending," Narra said to herself, considering the concept, the one word seemed too loud and harsh against the overwhelming silence. It occurred to her that she hadn't even attempted to earthbend once. Narra glanced around, even though she knew no one was there, it was much-much too late--or early, she supposed. She went to stand in the middle of one of the clearings. She stood still and took long and even breaths. As she breathed out, Narra lowered her arms into her stance, pushing her palms down and turning her fingertips in towards her body so they touched. She breathed in, it was almost like she could feel the connection flow from her core down into the soles of her feet and into the stone under them. She breathed out; her heal slid back and pivoted, and her weight rocked back and then forward as she swung her arms in an arc and pushed forward.


Though she had finished through the stances, Narra did not let her arms drop to her sides and unclench her muscles. She remained in finishing move of the stance, frozen, her palms open. She was ashamed. Narra let out a heavy breath, as she did so, the sharp stream of water that had been curling and traveling through the air, dropped lifelessly to the dry stone ground. She had copped out as she had begun her movement, afraid of failure, she had turned her momentum into waterbending and sent a stream flying out of the fountain.


Narra finally dropped her stance and began pacing. Pacing angerly, her face twisted, and her arms clenched. What was she afraid of that she was so afraid to even try. What had she to lose. Possibly her pride, her self-confidence? Waterbending had come so easily to her, she never had to put an effort into it. She trained hard, of course, but...waterbending just came naturally, she never had to doubt herself--her abilities. It was her subconscious and her worries that had made her fearful and doubtful. What have I got to lose? she repeated to herself again.


Narra thought about everything she had seen of the earthbending since she had arrived in Ba Sing Se. She was breathing hard, angry and frustrated, she stopped pacing. Her mind ran over a move she had seen an earthbender perform. It seemed simple enough. Narra took a deep breath to steady herself. She felt stronger and more confident. She thought over the move one last time before nodding; she would not cop out. Narra ran forward a few paces before leaping into a hop-step. Her arms swung forward, and as she landed in a lunge, she grunted and thrust her fists upwards, her motions swift and stiff. The ground in front of her shook and broke into a line of jagged rubble under fifteen feet long. It wasn't exactly the desired effect, as she remembered the Earthbender made columns of rock burst from the ground in a similar pattern. Nontheless, Narra's face broke into an instant grin and she jumped in the air excitedly and pumped her fist. "YES!" It wasn't much, that was for certain, and it definitely wasn't an easy, but it was progress, and that was what counted. She really wished that no one was watching her. Narra didn't know how exactly an Avatar should act, but she decided it was best not to find out the hard way.


She went back to her room and laid down. It wasn't long before she was feeling nervous again. Being outside and bending took her mind off of thing. Narra was tired and wanted to sleep, but she found going to sleep difficult when she was so fidgety. It took a while. But Narra finally managed to go to sleep, feeling a tiny bit better than before, and also knowing that the coming day would be a very long one


.
 
Iliana sat in her room, unable to sleep from the anxiety of what would happen tomorrow. It wasn't really a 'bad' anxious, more of an 'excited' one. She had not shown the Avatar her full ability, but she didn't want to look like a showoff for one, and for another she didn't want anyone to see if she had done something more 'amazing'. No one here knew of her power, and she needed to keep it that way. She'd shown of something small, something she expected the Avatar would learn the very first day of training. Narra was the Avatar, afterall. She probably already started learning Earthbending, right? No wonder she didn't seem impressed. Iliana sighed at herself in disappointment. She couldn't even be brave for the Avatar, the Princess was too afraid her family would find out. What would they say? It wasn't a bad thing to be a Bender, but if she was the only one in the entire royal family it might be a different reception. They'd find out eventually... But not yet.
 
The next morning, Narra was walking around the palace looking for the dinning room or the kitchens where she could get a quick breakfast before finding her team and heading out. Kita was literally at her heals, nose almost touching the pale blue fabric of her Water Tribe garb tunic, egging her along towards the food.
 
Karisa awoke to the sound of a canary tweeting outside her window. She yawned and brushed her hair from her eyes. She yawned and tossed the blankets over her side. She swung her legs off the side and stood up. She grabbed a outfit from her bag. She headed into the bath room and changed. She brushed her long brown hair with the ivory and tortoiseshell comb.


Karisa hurried outside and searched for the dining room. She saw the swishing tail of Kita and hurried after the dog. She caught up and stroked the fur of the animal. She smiled at Narra "So, how does it feel to be the Avatar?" she asked.
 
Karissa jogged up besides her, "..." Narra really didnt know how to answer the question, so she didn't really. Narra shrugged, "How does it feel to be in the Earth Kingdom Palace with the Avatar?" As they walked, they finally came across the vast dinning hall, it's long table spread with food for its royal occupants and the palaces numerous diplomatic inhabitants as well as the palace guests. It must have been too early, since there was hardly anyone in there. Those how were occupying the table stopped eating and starred at the new Avatar and her giant arctic leopard. Narra made sure to sit on the opposite side of the table from them, not feeling too social to being a conversation with a bunch of stuck up prunes she didn't know. Narra took a seat near the south end of the table. "I'm so starving, aren't you?" Narra asked Karissa as she began to pick things from the platters in front of her and load her plate with fruit and breakfast pastries and things.
 
Iliana entered the dining hall. She looked around to see the regulars, then Narra's huge pet, then the Avatar and one of her companions. Iliana couldn't help but smile; she gave the Avatar a huge friendly grin that even her family rarely witnessed. The Earth Kingdom Princess began making her way toward Narra and Karissa, but the King and Queen entered from another entrance and her smile fell. She looked back at the girls, giving them a small smile to let them know the deal was still on, that they would meet up later to wander the city to find the Earthbending master Narra required. The Princess took her seat by her father, directly across from her mother, quietly picking at her breakfast.
 
As the Princess passed, Narra gave a smile and a nod in recognition, she then watched the girl take her seat beside her parents. Narra frowned slightly and looked around her. She picked up a leaf used as decoration at the bottom of one serving platter and dipped her finger in a blackish substance that looked to be the Earth Kingdom palace chief's interpretation of sea-fig stew in order to impress her with some Water Tribe-native food. Narra wasn't really impressed as shed rather use it to write with. She pretended to lift her finger to her mouth and taste the stuff and wipe it off on the leaf, but really wrote a note to the Princess. Narra waterbend a droplet of water on the corner of the leaf and froze it there, before slipping it under the table and sliding it along by the ice into the Princess's lap, a note stating a single word, 'courtyard'. From that place they would be able to bend over the walls and slip out of the palace and head into the city.
 
Iliana watched Narra wrote her note, surprised at how oblivious everyone else was. Narra put the note under the table and soon the Princess felt the leaf land softly on her lap. She glanced down inconspicuously at the note, reading it then tearing it up so no one could see what it said. She looked back up, giving the Avatar a small nod to let her know she understood.
 
Narra caught the Princess's eye and winked. She looked down at her plate and began eating again. It was fun being all sneaky in the Earth King's own palace--though she wondered how much got passed the Dai Li.


Soon after breakfast, they were in the courtyard again. The sun was warm and cozy, the air light and breezy and smelling of cut roses. Kita was roaming through the vast gardens, her large wet black nose close to the ground sniffing around after meadow voles and sparrowkeets. To keep busy and active, she was having Karisa help her brush up on some more difficult and complicated waterbending moves. Narra was breathing hard but continued to keep light on her feet without slowing down. She moved into her stances, and started bending the water from the fountain around her. She shifted her weight a little differently and found she got a slightly different effect than from the time before. "Was that better?" Narra asked her friend.
 
Iliana quickly entered the courtyard, wearing the same cloak as the day before to hide her face. She couldn't risk someone out in town catching sight of her with the Avatar or her father would be alerted. She had to get the Avatar to the Earthbending Master without anyone knowing it was the Princess hiding under this hood. She walked over to where the Avatar and her friend were practicing, briefly revealing herself to let Narra know her presence. She hid her face again. "Is it just you two or are the others joining us?" she asked. She didn't want to rush the Avatar but she didn't know how much time she had to sneak around before someone found out something was going on.
 
Anat was quiet all through the breakfast although invited and honored to be on the journey with the Avatar small talk wasn't her thing. In that way she was similar to Arlen its just that he put up with it. Because of this it was basically her fault she was out of the loop most of the time, to be honest she barely had any idea why they were even in the earth kingdom's palace. It was obvious the royals were reluctant to give information about benders they should be out on the streets looking for information.


Anat knew how hard it could for a girl to go against her family's wishes and by getting information from her they were putting the Princess in a hard situation. Than again Anat had been experiencing conflict like this her whole life and it had made her stronger. Maris broke her out of her trance nudging her foot playfully under the table until she excused herself to a courtyard. Arlen had long ago dismissed himself to one of the many studies.
 
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