masters of the earth / listening and waiting for / the exact moment

[roc_on]

Beila will need to practice more to be truly a master of waterbending, but she knows the technique, now, and the rest is application she can practice on her own time. The nuns find her an earthbending teacher.

She goes to Dao's house after her first earthbending lesson. "Shifu Riko is a strange person," she remarks.

Comments

[thinklikethis]

"I am envisioning this lesson and it is a weird, weird vision," giggles Dao.

[roc_on]

"Are you incorporating into this vision that she's three inches shorter than me and wears assorted rocks tied in her hair and lots of bracelets?"

[thinklikethis]

He sporfles.

"Well, now I am! Rocks tied in her hair? Really? Are the bracelets also rocks?"

[roc_on]

"Yep. I mean, gemstones - mostly - but rocks. She's very serious about her rocks."

[thinklikethis]

"I'm definitely getting that sense."

[roc_on]

"I don't really know why the nuns picked her out, but I'll give her a while before I write her off as incomprehensible, I guess."

[thinklikethis]

"Maybe she's a really good earthbender," he hypothesizes. "What with being so serious about her rocks."

[roc_on]

"Maybe, but she doesn't have any other students - not right now, anyway - so whether she's a good teacher remains to be seen."

[thinklikethis]

"Well, good luck, I guess."

[roc_on]

"Thanks."

[thinklikethis]

"Maybe you will learn how to listen to the earth."

[roc_on]

"I wonder what it has to say."

[thinklikethis]

"Um... 'quit stepping on me'?" he suggests.

[roc_on]

"Spirits, I hope not. I don't think that would be sustainable."

[thinklikethis]

"Yeah, if the ground wants people to stop walking on it, it's kind of screwed," laughs Dao.

[roc_on]

"Maybe it'll say, 'walk on me more, I have this awful crick in my spine'."

[thinklikethis]

Dao cracks up.

[roc_on]

"Or 'walk over there, I have an itch', I don't know. Maybe Shifu Riko has an idea and will tell me eventually."

[thinklikethis]

He giggles some more.

[roc_on]

"I would like to actually, you know, bend some earth, and I thought I was going to today. I haven't gotten it to work trying it on my own. Perhaps it's ignoring me because I don't listen to it."

[thinklikethis]

"Well, when's your next lesson?"

[roc_on]

"Tomorrow. The lack of other students does make scheduling densely more convenient."

[thinklikethis]

"So you can learn how to listen to the earth really quickly. I guess."

[roc_on]

"Perhaps the earth speaks very slowly, and I need to show up every day to listen to the two syllables it utters at around noon."

[thinklikethis]

Dao giggles helplessly.