Sitting atop a spherical vortex, my arms were folded as I intently watched Korra perform the thirty-six moves of Baguazhang; I've been teaching her for the past twenty minutes, and she's already performed them over a dozen times, but I was thoroughly flabbergasted. 'Did Tenzin ever teach her? She's horrible.'
Honestly, 'horrible' was an understatement; she knew roughly thirty moves, and for the last six, I could tell from her awkward movements that she was just guessing. 'Korra always had a difficult time learning how to airbend, but still.' Softly sighing, I cleared my throat, grabbing Korra's focus as she stopped performing a made-up thirty-fourth move and looked at me with hopeful eyes.
"So, how was I, Aang? Tenzin, your first son in my world, said I lacked a little bit of talent in airbending compared to the others." Smiling, Korra placed her hands on her hips and enthusiastically gazed at me, causing my face to twitch as I dispersed the spherical vortex while approaching her.
"Tenzin, did he teach you?" "Yeah, he's still teaching me right now, it's just that a group called the Equalists has been taking up time; good news though, we're close to catching him!" Seeing how she was probably close to encountering Amon, teaching her how to airbend could either help her end her.
Originally, Amon took away Korra's bending, but since she didn't know how to airbend, he wasn't able to seal it; however, if I teach her and she still gets caught by Amon, she'll lose the ability to bend altogether. 'I suppose I must place some trust in Korra.' Korra is a warrior, so when it came to fighting, she had excellent instincts.
"Hmm, I see. How long has it been? Since Tenzin started teaching you?" "Um, two months? Around that time." As Korra thoughtfully tapped her chin, I caught myself after nearly tripping, stunned at how terrible she was despite such a long time of practice. 'Two months, and she still doesn't know the thirty-six Baguazhang?'
Lowering my head with a sigh, I rubbed the bridge of my nose, pitying both Tenzin and Korra. Raising my head, I gently grabbed Korra's shoulder, snapping her out of her thoughts as she gazed at me while I decided to just tell her the truth Tenzin had been obviously keeping from her. "Korra." "Yes?" "You have abysmal talent when it comes to learning how to airbend." "Eh? That can't be, Tenzin said I was pretty decent."
Clearly, Korra didn't believe my words immediately, but as I silently stared at her, the words began to finally set in as she finally lowered her head with a deep sigh of frustration. "Does that mean I won't be able to air bend? Am I going to be the first Avatar unable to use the four elements?" Listening to her self-deprecating, I gently removed my hand from her shoulder.
"No, that's impossible." "Then will it just take an extraordinarily long time?" "No. You'll learn it quickly." "How? Didn't you just say I'm terrible to teach?" "Teach normally. Tenzin is probably teaching you in a similar manner to how he was taught. You just need to be taught differently." As Korra's eyes slightly widened at my words, I walked past her, approaching the entrance to my room. "Come, Korra. I'll use a different method." "Oh, yeah, okay."
Exiting my room, we walked down the hall until we left the trunk and stepped out onto one of the many branches of the Jathr; once we reached a suitable location, I turned and suddenly poked several spots on Korra's body. "EH!? I can't bend! Are you with the Equalists!?" The instant Korra finished speaking, a blush slowly crept onto her cheeks, while I silently stared at her. "T-They've been causing a lot of problems in Republic City, so they're almost always on my mind." "You are a unique one, Korra."
Faintly chuckling at Korra's nonsensical question, I shook my head. "No, I'm not a part of the Equalists, Korra. I learned chi blocking after the Fire Nation's Invasion; I couldn't use bending for a year, so I had nothing better to do." Showing off slightly, I poked three spots in her arm, causing her to lose all feeling for several seconds before returning the sensation in her arm, stunning her. "Do you think you could teach me that as well?" Stepping close, Korra firmly grabbed my shoulders while standing on her toes, causing me to wryly smile. 'Her eyes are so eager.'
"One thing at a time, Korra." "Ah, yeah, I guess you're right." Fixing my clothes, I waved my hands, creating a vortex and then adding a spherical one atop it, which I stepped onto while gesturing to Korra, prompting her to do the same. "Is this not difficult for you?" "No, why do you ask?" "I've just never seen Tenzin do something like this." "I'm sure he could, just probably not to the same magnitude."
Raising my hand, I manipulated the vortex to grow taller until we were above the canopy of Jathr, our height spanning thousands of feet; we were so high we could vividly see the curvature of the realm, though surprisingly enough, despite being so high, the air wasn't any thinner. 'Hmm, interesting.'
With us being so high, I now moved my arm to the left, controlling the vortex to distance itself from Jathr, which only took a few moments; now that nothing was blocking our surroundings, I glanced at Korra, who had been gazing at the surroundings with an expression of awe, causing me to faintly smile.
"I, too, was in awe when I first saw the world from this height." "We're so small." Now, I couldn't help but lightly chuckle as I remembered having such thoughts as well. "It's very humbling, isn't it?" Seeing Korra nod, I placed my hands behind my back, patiently waiting for her to come back to her senses.
After several minutes, Korra finally tore her gaze away from the world and glanced at me. "Ready to continue?" "Um, what were we doing again?" "I was teaching you how to air bend." Just as Korra stood up while nodding, I snapped my fingers, causing the vortex and the spherical one we were standing on to suddenly dissipate, prompting gravity to take control.
However, Korra, whom I expected to freak out, must've somewhat expected this given her calm expression. 'Or she just knows I'd never harm her.' It could've been a blend of both, but either way, it didn't matter much.
"Before I teach you anything, I first want you to understand air. We'll do this until you can describe what air means." "Don't really get it, but okay!" Yelling loudly amidst the sound of our bodies cutting through the air, we fell for a solid three minutes before we started to dangerously near the ground, prompting me to swiftly slow our descent before gently setting us down.
"What have you learned, Korra?" Looking down at Korra, who was face-first in the ground, she rolled onto her back and silently gazed at the ceiling before glancing at me. "It was fun?" "Oh, I've got a feeling we'll be doing this for a long time." Wryly smiling, I waved my hand, creating a vortex that lifted both Korra and I into the sky, taking us to the same height as before to do the same thing all over again.
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A Week Later
Folding my arms, I glanced at Korra, who was performing the thirty-six Baguazhang while free-falling; I'd taught her the correct moves, but she was clearly a more hands-on learner. Once we neared the ground, I slowed us down and gently set us down while Korra plopped onto her butt. "Man, it was fun at first, but now it's just exhausting." "How so? You're not even sweating." "Not physical, mentally exhausting. Doing the same thing repeatedly for several days straight is boring and isn't stimulating. I feel like I'm going stupid!"
Rolling onto the ground while holding her head, I softly sighed and stood up. "You've made relatively good progress; you may not be able to see it, but I can tell. When you return to your world, you'll only be a mediocre air bender." "Mediocre? Ah, I'm so happy, Aang." Ignoring her sarcastic remark, I helped Korra onto her feet, only to faintly frown.
Turning around, I looked far out into the distance beyond the numerous hills and mountains. "Hmm, is something wrong, Aang?" "I think the world has answered your desire for something stimulating." Poking several places on Korra's body, returning her bending to her, I wrapped my arm around her waist and glided across the air as we headed back to Jathr while she looked behind us.
"That's a lot of corrupted spirits; they're like a bunch of ants, only actually dangerous." I didn't even need to look behind to understand Korra's description; I could sense the sheer number of corrupted spirits through the air.
"We'll be able to withstand the attack with Roku and Kyoshi." Although the sheer size would've been a bit disheartening by ourselves, together, the four of us were stronger than any individual Avatar.
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Who y'all got as the top three most beautiful in ATLA?