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The next day, Taizen got up bright and early, and went far-farfar-far away from the northern tribe, to reach, a beach. yes, a beach of frozen cold water, jagged rocks on the sand, and unpleasant cold-ness, "What are we doing here?"Taizen asked, bored and cold.

the old man grinned. "We'll be training for your earthbending challenger, as you can see, a beach is a place where sea meets land, it's unlikely, but it might be that your battle will occur near the ocean, the place of battle is undeterminable until the day of the battle, but everytime there was a battle the tournament officials have chosen a place, both benders can bend, if it was a waterbender vrwaterbender fight, they might put them on opposite sides of a river, or possibly in a water-quenched land, where gathering water would be hard, and you would have to use it sparingly."

Taizen nodded, this made sense, being a bender meant you had to think like a bender, not just fight, so the tournament officials put the two in a situation, where the two had the same level of power/source of power, and the smarter one would win. Taizen smirked, if it was about being smart, he'd win for sure.

"As Unlikely as it was, i've seen a powerful bender defeat a genius, mind you he was an earthbender, the genius had been a waterbender, the genius was a small frame boy, not nearly as tall as you mind you, but still as scrawny."Taizen twitched"The earthbender was as thick as a brick,(earthbending pun!!) But he was a great bender, tall, big, and muscley, the genius ducked and jumped, deflected, and redirected, but the earthbender would not stop, finally, the waterbender was cornered, between a rock, and an earthbender, the two together is disastrous for an enemy, True the waterbender still lost, but he coninued to battle the earthbender, despite his lack athleticism, and his use of countless battle stategies."

Taizen sighed again. "So, your sayign that earthbenders surpass us no matter what?" he groaned, "EARTH BENDERS DO NOT SURPASS US!" The bender shouted, "what i'm trying to say, is that the two were half complete sides of yin and yang.""I dont follow..." Taizen said, "Allow me t explain, the waterbender was at a disadvantage where ever he ws, because he couldn't fly like air benders, and was always on the ground, or ontop of a rock, where the earthbender has the power. there was a stream, that provided refuge for the waterbender, as it was all he had, to deflect the the earthbenders attacks, but each deflection cost him a wound, bruise, or ache, he was not fast enough or physically strong enough to take the aftershock of the earthbenders attacks."

Waterbender <> Mind= Pure White

"In other words, if he had eben more physicall fit, he would have had been able to get away from the earth benders attacks, and take the damage they dealt without a passing glance..."

Waterbender <> Mind>body=Yin

The Old man grinned highly "YES! Thats it! It is not because the Waterbender was not delivering blows to the eatrhbender, it was because the earthbender endured the blows, and where as the waterbender had to exert terrible energy to inflict these minor wounds, the earth bender had to exert none."

Earthbender <> Body= Pure black

The earthbender, despite inflicting blow upon blow of the waterbender, would not have won the match until hours later, why? Because the two were opposites, Yin and Yang fighting against eachother leads only to exhaustion, because one cannot beat the other, if either, had worked on becoming whole, rather than purely relying on one side."

Earthbender <> Body>Mind= Yang

"When it came down to it, the earthbender won, why? Because he had the advantage, the stream, with which the waterbender had been using to defend and atack with, was slowly being damned up by rocks, the earth bender didn't know he was doing it, but simply aiming at the waterbender, who clung closely to the water, You and i both know about the power of waterbending, even without bending, hand-to-hand combat, if the waterbender had been able to deflect the earth bending long enough to deliver the one blow that would start a chain reaction of blows, that would unsettle even sure footed earthbenders, even stop from bending, the waterbender would have won the match." The old bender nodded sagely. "And if-"

Waterbender <> Body=Mind= True yin and yang.

Taizen interrupted "If the earthbender had been smarter, he would have known to get rid of the waterbender's supply of water, or because of his frail frame, deliver a powerful blow... Your saying, that we need to find balance, inside ourselves, not only in life.. but in bending...?"

The old bender glared. "Yes, that is what i'm saying, but you should have known this, the moment you learned to be a waterbender!" he waved his finger in his face. "Balance, is the key to everything, it's how waterbender's bend, it's how waterbenders and firebenders learned to stop the war, it's how even sure footed earthbenders, learned to be like free spirited air benders, and right now, you have an imbalance of Yin and Yao! So, lets get yoiu limber!" He said pushing Taizen to the floor, a very surprised bender, and began pulling his leg at an angle not human.

"AAH!!! GET OFF ME YOU CRAZY GEEZER!! AHHH! MY LEG!!!"

"Ow..." Taizen said, as he rubbed his sore arms, it was near dawn, and he was laying on the beach "Too much..." He said aloud. The old man had been Showing Taizen a new move, when Taizen just fell on the ground.

"It's because your body is not used to it, you do not have 'muscle memory'." The man dropped into an easy kneel horse, which was the third strike's horse "I myself can do this for hours" he stated before getting back up, well, it's almost day time, and im getting tired, i would advise that when you have free time you practice the horse stances, kneel, T, and normal. None of them are all that flattering, But befoe i go, I thought i might teach you the same move that the water bender had used to get away from the earthbender."

Taizen's eyes shot open "What? Really? you mean...?"The old man's eyes twinkled in the beginning of the new day "Yes, you can learn to walk on water." As Taizen struggled to get up, the old man took a deep breath, as he waded through the breakers, but only so much that the old mans calfs got wet. His stance wasnt a horse, but rather, it was a 'normal' standing, like one of in the army, Feet together, and back straight, then, his arms, which were at his sides, moved to the right, his whole upperbody moved in the same way, the arms raised up to his chest, one in front of the other, one in a fist(the one behind) and the other in an open palm, Slowly he kept on taking steps, arms together, quite obviously, if he were to bend, it would involve multi-Bending, keeping his feet from falling under himself, and striking or defending. Slowly, the old man made his way back to the shore, once on stable sand, he stopped his stance, "It's incredibly hard to bend like that, It's better to freeze the water if you are in a battle, but one good thing, is that you will be able to avoid an attack immediately, dropping beneath the waves."

Taizen nodded, for all the crazy things the old man did, or done, he was a great bender. The old man left, waving good bye, hoping to get to his home, and sleeping, before his bending class, first thing at night. Taizen felt horrible, but thought he might try the water walking as well, at least a little. Wading into the water, to his calfs, he assumed the old man's stance, then moving his arms, and upperbody, the he slowly took a step, once he raised his foot, he found he couldn't push down on the water, it was solid beneath his feet, solid as earth, but it wasn't, it was water, he took another step, now he was ontop of the water, not just partially submerged, it was weird walking on wwater, it was... like flying... or atleast as close to flying a waterbender could get to, the sensation of not having anything solid to fall on, the sense of, being in or on ones element... Taizen took a deep breath and took another step, this time he stepped on a breaker, when the breaker passed him, he fell, "Ow... he could have given me some advice... Probably expected me to do that..." He said aloud, splashing the water with an irritated wave of his hand before getting back up, bending the water off his body, and heading to yoko's home, it really was nicer than the shoddy home the northern benders had supplied him.

Taizen stopped what he was doing- cooking - to answer the door. "Oh, hey Kazuki!" He said grinning.I didn't know you would be coming, otherwise i would have cooked another pigchicken." He said, the herbs he was using to spice the pigchicken still in his hands. "But, i cant talk right now, bye." He said closing the door in Kazuki's face

Meanwhile, somehow, the pipes to the sink had become frozen clogged, and Taizen had been forced To waterbend the dish water out of the window, straight into Kazuki. "Well, Yoko shouldn't be back for a while.... I hope...." He said to himself, as he bended bits of water off the pile of plateshe had used. Then, he smelled something burning. "Oh No! The pigchicken!" Taizen sid, bending some water from the faucet, with a sweep of his hand, holding his hand still, he ran towards the oven, opened it, and waterwhipped the burning peice f pigchicken. the fire went out with a 'sizzle' "Wow that was close..." Taizen said to himelf. Setting things up for a meal. "Now then, for some rest and relaxation..." Closing the oven door, he grabbed one of the newly cleaned plates, set the pheasant chicken ontop of it, then, he grabbed some of the gravy from the stove top,holding the tub open over the pheasant chicken, he raised his hand, and began chopping the air around the pigchicken, the gravy rose from the tub, and 'water' whipped the pig chicken into several delicious slices, once that was done, he carefully water bended the gravy over the body, making sure to not overly bend the gravy over the chicken, otherwise, the herbs he had left on the chicken, would be an unwanted taste, while the aroma from the herbs would be covered by the smell of gravy.


GFrabbing another plate, he grabbed himself a slice, bit into it, and sighed, Cooking was so much like alchemy, that Taizen would volunteer it whenever he could, it was great! pluck the pigchicken first, bast it, cook for said amount of minutes, places herbs in convenient places where they will not be dislodged, for aroma, texture, and depending on the herb, taste. Once the chicken was done, you were finished, but, like Alchemy, sometimes the container was just as important as the potion itself, Therefore, Taizen went out of his way, to troublesomeley, bend the gravy over the pigchicken, leaving it shinging, with a new coat of gravy.Life was great! He really felt like he was home, whenever he was outside, he was cold, miserable, and working, but when he was inside, doing 'alchemy' for fun, that was great! Taizen made a mental note to say 'thanks' to Yoko, for letting him stay.
((Bahahah! dishwater hair!))

Kazuki grabbed a suit case and then opened it and looked around in his closet, "Ok how about this." Kazuki said moving some clothes around and grabbing a Chinese type outfit.
It comes with a white collared undershirt that buttons up with Chinese frogs. It is long sleeves and the ends of the sleeves have cuffs which have Chinese frogs on the sides.
The pants to the costume are white and are slightly baggy but are tight around the ankles.
The over coat of the costume is dark green lined yellow around the neck and sleeves; next to the yellow trim it has orange trim that makes designs around the costume. The sleeves of the outfit drop down about 36". The bottom half of the coat is open on both sides. The front of the costume has a black and white design with orange trim going around it. The front plate has a yin-yang symbol with a yellow sun symbol around it. The back plate has a gold bell at the bottom.

The costume also includes an orange belt, green shoes, and green hat with yellow and orange designs. "This will be great to wear" Kazuki said folding it up and putting it into the suit case. "What else, I know." Kazuki said moving some more clothes around and then grabbing a a robe, shirt, pants, scarf, headband, belt, backpack and socks.
The robe is blue and sleeveless. It extends down to the mid-thigh.
The shirt is green and short-sleeved.
The pants are tan and relaxed fit.
The scarf is yellow and it ties around the neck.
The headband is white and ties in the back of the head.
The belt is brown with a gold buckle.
The backpack is gray and hangs on the side of the belt. It has a clasp in front to keep it closed.
The socks are green and go up to the mid-calf.
The costume is made from Cotton.
"Perfect." he said as he put the clothes into his suit case and then closed it.

Tui internally squealed when she read the letter that was currently in her hands.

She was going to be an intern at the tournament hospital! She! Tui!

It was simply unfathomable, but it had happened.

Even though the trip was a couple of days away, the healer began to pack her few posessions into a bag, leaving only what she would need until she left.

This is going to be so wonderful...I can't wait...

::Raziel walks though the streets of the city, gazing at all of the building, towers, and walls, and sees people hurring around him. He wanders over to a square near what seems like an ice palace.::