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 Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 7:10 pm
It was spoken of casually by many people, usually adults during pointless chatter or teenagers engaging in mindless gossip. They talked of the upcoming test. Not one to determine the fate of students, but one to determine if one had been dubbed worthy enough to become a student.
It was most likely because 'Master' Sen Wei was great enough to have taught the Avatar students continued to dare to try and gain the woman's teachings themselves.
However, as rumors spoke, she had only trained two people since training the Avatar, and although there were various names people spoke, no one knew for sure who those two former students were, or more, where they were now.
The crowds gathered and the potential students lined up. There were six this month: Four boys, two 12, one 16 and one 17. Then, two girls, both 15.
There was a steady roar of noise. Talking, mumbling, whispering, shouting, that all seemed to clump together, and that all seemed to stop at once when the strong-willed woman emerged from the small dojo and stepped out infront of the youth.
She eyed each of them warily.
"Failed," she said to the 12-year-old boy. He gawked at her. Turning to the 16 year-old, she repeated, "Failed." She lifted a hand quickly. Two rocks rose from behind her, launching forward and knocking over one of the girls and the remaining boy. "Failed. Failed."
The final one, the last girl, seemed to quake in place when Sen Wei advanced toward her. She was five steps away from the teenager when she stopped. "Failed."
Following this, she sighed in aggravation. "This is over. Everyone please get off my property now."
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Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 7:33 pm
Large crowds and whispers of the earthbending master and potential students had prompted the small bender girl to join the throng of people to this strange test.
She pushed to the front and peered between a sharply dressed, plump couple, scanning the scene in front of her. She envied the six in a row (but only briefly). How it must have felt to even be able to test to become the woman's pupil!
"...Sen Wei..." She heard the name murmered around her, and she tilted her head, something triggering in the back of her mind.
This was the woman that Tsai Shen wanted to train him! The one he had described as beautiful, smart and powerful. She looked the woman standing there up and down. She was very pretty, to be sure. And her lean tone shape showed that she was fit. Avani imagined she had to be as smart as she was pretty.
She sighed sadly and clutched her two headed animal close to her chest.
Her jaw dropped as the Master rejected one after another. What was wrong with them? They couldn't be that bad...
The black haired girl stood rooted to the spot as the crowed filed out around, some muttering about Sen Wei's bad temper and pickyness.
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Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 7:45 pm
Indeed, there was just as much talk of how Sen Wei was 'picky' and cruel as there was about how she was beautiful and strong. What annoyed people more was that she didn't seem to care about either. She'd glare at you no more lightly if you called her beautiful than if you called her a b***h, and she either answered with, "Your opinion is nothing of my concern.", or more commonly, "You're wasting my time."
It seemed her time was a very precious thing.
The crowd was gone now, and it was then a particularly loud-mouthed, oddly familiar-looking teenage girl decided to voice her opinion. "Mother! Honestly! Nobody's ever good enough for you anymore!"
"Those petty little children are just as unworthy of bending as you, but the difference is they can do it, anyway," Sen Wei hissed, and her daughter immediatly shut up.
The woman's cold eyes landed on another still present, and she raised an eyebrow at the little girl. "Can I help you?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 8:02 pm
Uncomfortably, she shifted from foot to foot and glanced around. Yeah...the Master was talking to her. She hadn't realized that everyone was gone already. And who was the strange teen who spoke so cheekily to Sen Wei? She said mother, but she didn't recall Tsai Shen mentioning her having a daughter.
Well...he probably didn't know everything about the woman.
"N-no..." she said uncertainly and starting to turn to rush away quickly. "Well, actually," she turned and stood resolutly. "Why weren't they good enough?" She slowly raised her eyes and matched the dark haired woman's cold gaze, obvious fear in her eyes, but she didn't back down. "Why does Tsai Shen say that nobody is worth your time?"
She sighed. "Why won't you help them be their best, especially if they're allowed to?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 8:14 pm
Surprising to her daughter, Sen Wei seemed to have mild interest in what this girl was saying.
That is until a certain named was mention.
"Get lost, kid," she hissed. She didn't have time to waste on that stupid, arrogant little boy himself, let alone his probably equally arrogant and little friends. Oh, when would it end?!
"Mom!" Tu Jin cut in, seeming to have found her voice again. "You really shouldn't--"
"You really shouldn't speak to me that way," warned the woman, and gave the axe-wielder a look that clearly said something along the lines of: I'll smash you as quick as anyone else, daughter or no.
Sharply, she turned back to Avani. "Little girl, you wouldn't understand why those benders weren't good enough. I gave two of them a chance, which you may have noticed, and they failed to even realize I was attacking them let alone counter it, as I'd have hoped. As far as your friend goes, I have no interest in him, and please do remind him of that."
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Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 8:32 pm
Unyielding, but certainly taken aback, Avani hugged her stuffed animal tighter and her eyes widened. What had she said wrong?
The small girl only caught half of the look shot at the daughter, but it was strong enough to feel as though she had been punched in her stomach.
"How can you be so mean? To your own daughter!" she said quietly. She couldn't believe that the bond of mother/daughter seemed to be of no concern to this woman.
She shook her head, frustrated. "No, of course I wouldn't understand what a great and powerful," she said the words with a mocking tone, her heart beating fast. This woman would kill her for this, she was sure. "Woman as yourself could obviously see. I'm just a little girl, I'm of no consequence." She breathed quickly. "Maybe they should have seen it comming, I don't know. I wouldn't. Being nervous shouldn't matter, because it's what they've been waiting for, but..." she held out her hands, hopelessly. She didn't know what to say.
"As for my..." she smiled, using the word delicatly. "friend, I've never seen him so excited about something. I won't tell him anything to upset him."
She didn't know why. She wasn't even sure she LIKED the rich brat.
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Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 8:40 pm
Sen Wei's voice had gone from irratated to fierce. It certainly did seem as though she'd kill her now. "Little girl--"
"Don't worry!" Again, Tu Jin had cut in. It seemed to make the Earthbending teacher even angrier. "I'll show her the way out, alright?" Without waiting for a response, and apparently ignoring the strong look of dissaproval on her parents face, Tu Jin strolled over to the girl, grasped some of the fabric on her shirt and quite literally dragged her away.
She was stronger than she looked, too...
When they had rounded the corner and were out of ear-shot from Sen Wei, Tu Jin turned, hit her knees to be eye-level with Avani, and gave her a very serious look. "Hey, kid, it's really not smart to talk to her like that. You're a friend of that boys, huh? Mom's really hard on him."
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Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 8:51 pm
Avani screamed, which sounded more like a pitiful squeak then a scream, outraged she was being pulled away by the teen.
Angrily she straightned the collar of her robes, glaring at Tu Jin.
"I don't care," she said, clentching one little fist. "She has no right...NO right..." she huffed and looked away from the teenage girl and crossed her arms, her stuffed animal hanging awkwardly from one hand. "I guess kind of a friend," she muttered. "I...ran into him in the streets," she smirked. "And then showed him around, to both our benifits."
"She shouldn't be. He's got a good heart, really."
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Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 9:01 pm
Unfortunately, Tu Jin had inheirted a temper from her mother. Luckily, she was able to control it, and only with certain people did this control crumble. Screaming little girls was not one of those things.
In fact, screaming little girls were her friends as a merchant. "I WANT THAT NOW, DADDY!" the rich ones, or sometimes just spoiled ones, would scream and point to whatever she was selling. They made her money, and she was used to them.
"Kid, have you ever even seen a real fight before? What someone has the right to do doesn't matter, and neither does having a good heart at times like that. My mom just understands that better than most." She didn't want to feel like it, but she felt it was, to an extent, her duty to defend her mother considering she'd drug the little girl away.
"Anyway, friend or not, you know him, right? I saw him with Mom the other day. I think she should teach him, too."
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Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 9:11 pm
The little girl folded and crumbled to the ground, most of her energy spent in her outburst. She leaned against a nearby wall and looked up at the teen.
"No," she said softly. "I've never seen a..." she shook her head, unable to form the word 'fight'. "No." She sighed and shifted, pulling her knees in close to her chest. "She may know what she's talking about, but it doesn't give her a right to be so mean and cruel about it."
She wrinkled her nose. "Yeah, I know him," a stabbing feeling in her heart made her groan. "Yeah, she should teach him, I guess."
Yes, the rich brat should get everything he wanted. SHE couldn't learn from Sen Wei, after all, so he may as well.
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Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 9:22 pm
"You're probably right about that," agreed Tu Jin. But then, she was positive her mother had a reason for why she acted that why. In truth, it was probably just her personality, but a daughter accepting her mother honestly just flat out didn't like her wasn't easy. Not as easy as denying it to yourself.
Judging by her own words and voice, she'd picked up something she found unusual in the girls tone. "You don't sound so sure about it. What's your name?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 9:36 pm
She knew she was right. She was always right.
Avani smiled a bit at the though. Her? Always being right? Pff.
"Avani," she said, loving the sound of it. She had always though her name sounded pretty and enjoyed saying it. It seemed richer then her sister, Lei's (although, she would never tell her that!).
She was unsure if the girl wanted her to expand further on why she didn't sound sure about Tsai Shen being taught by Sen Wei, so remained silent.
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Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 9:44 pm
Also unlike Sen Wei, who couldn't care less who you were or what you were doing (save for the Avatar), Tu Jin was curious by nature. She didn't prod too much about Tsai Shen, though. Perhaps if she was aware how wealthy he was, she would have.
"Why are you carrying that around?" Being a merchant required being a good observer, and knowing a lot about people. She'd noticed the plushie before, and thought it was odd for someone her age to carry one around. There had to be more to it than some emotional attachment...
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Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 10:01 pm
"Why do you care?" she asked, staring hard up at Tu Jin.
She hated people asking her about it, it was none of their business!
Still...
Avani didn't know why she should show this girl, but decided there wouldn't be much harm in it. She sighed and tossed the plush on the ground and stood up, taking a few steps back from it.
Her pale hand pulled the golden yellow comb from her hair, letting it fall around her shoulders. She didn't know why, but she had always prefered her hair to be down when she tried.
She took an odd stance, as one trying to imitate a real bender would, but it was obviously, painfully, wrong. She slid her left foot out and pushed her hands forward.
On the dirt path, her small plush slowly raised up, then fell with a thud onto the ground.
She dropped her arms and shrugged. "Well...I mean..."
Avani's white face was flush from the small excercise, the first she'd braved to do in the few months following her brother's dissapearnce.
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Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 10:07 pm
Tu Jin felt she was a pretty 'aware' person, if that made any sense. But now she was very, very confused.
She'd taken her hair down to bend dirt? She was red in the face because of something as simple as that? All she did was lift a bit of the ground, and besides that, her stance was way off. Tu Jin had watched her mother enough to know that much.
"Sorry, I don't get it," she said unsurely, pondering over what had just happened. "Are you and that Tsai Shen boy rivals are something?"
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