Sharing the Skill [Loolaalee, Makaru]

Yami sat on the rock, meditating. She closed out everything around her, letting the steam from the natural hot spring envelop her mind, body, and spirit. She looked inward, finding the balance. Everything revolved around harmony. Without harmony, things shifted, and the world fell into chaos.

The harmony is fading, child. What will you do? Yami took a deep breath, filling her lungs with steam, before letting it out. I'll fight to keep the balance. I will join the fight with the Avatar and the other protectors of the light, and I will restore harmony. She'd been sensing incoming disaster for quite some time. It was only a matter of when.

Focusing again on meditation, she reached out around her. All of the steam around her was just super-heated water. Water and fire. Hot and cold. She opened her eyes and jumped to her feet, reaching her arms out. It was like she could grab onto the very air itself. She gathered the steam in her hands, forming a volatile ball. With a shout, she threw it at the surrounding rock wall. It created a small explosion, causing rocks to fall into the hot water below.

She continued to manipulate the steam to her desire, making it more or less dense. If it felt too humid, she simply had to push it away. It bent to her will. It was at her command.

Finally, she reached both arms out, then up, sending the steam to dissipate in the open air above. She then shot fire into the water below to restore the humid crater. Then she sat, breathing in the air around her. She closed her eyes. Somebody was coming.

https://avatar-rpg-revised.forumotion.com/t3986-aurora-yamitochi

Aurora Yamitochi, Captain of the Dread Maiden

Rumors and whispers. That was all she had to go on. There were mere rumors of what she was trying to find. She wasn't even really sure what she would find. Theoretically this person was some sort of special bender, but they were practically a ghost. Luckily for Aurora, the Captain of the Dread Maiden, she knew much of the wilds of the Imperial mainland like the back of her hand. She had combed through several places, searching meticulously for days. Everything she had bouncing around in her head suggested that this mysterious person was somewhere on this mountain.

She hiked up the trail and she smelled steam on the air. A hotspring...

She drew closer to the hotspring, many people were attracted to hotsprings, maybe she'd luck out and find what she was trying to find here? A sound emitted from the hotspring, some sort of hiss that Aurora was unfamiliar with. The sound intrigued her and her heart skipped a beat. Perhaps she was drawing closer to what she was looking for?

She cautiously approached the hotspring. There on the other side of the pool, she saw a person in a meditative pose. Aurora smiled, if nothing else this person looked interesting. She set down her firearms and other weapons. She put on a smile and waved her arm lackadaisically.

"Hello there! Lovely day isn't it?"

She sat down on a rock on the opposite side of the pool and breathed in the steam.

"Do not worry, I come peacefully."

Yami watched the woman curiously. She was armed to the teeth. Of course, Yami was confident she could take her down if she made any attempt to harm her. But that was unlikely, as this person was most likely seeking knowledge, and you can't learn from a dead person.

The woman appeared to be in her late twenties, early thirties. Yami shrugged. More experience would have been preferred, but at the same time, she would still have the youthful strength that would be required to tame steam.

"Before you come down here, I'd suggest removing excess clothing." Yami gestured to herself. She carried none of her usual gear, sitting in a shirt and thin pants only. "It gets hot down here. Take off as much or as little as you like, but be aware: hot and damp combined are incredibly uncomfortable."

Yami stood up and moved towards the edge of her rock. "I started my training completely naked. I'm not asking that of you, but that was what was necessary for me. Everybody is different. Once you are ready, take a seat opposite of me on the other end of the crater."

You sound like a pervert. Yami smirked. I'm just telling the truth. Besides, I'm just a kid compared to her. I doubt she feels threatened by me at all. She has yet to learn who or what I am, and I intend to keep it that way for the time being. Do you honestly believe you can trust her? Nope. And I won't trust her easily. She'll have to prove her worth first. This is the first trial.

Aurora's eyelids knitted together gently and her smile wavered ever so slightly. Her thoughts raced through her mind and she could feel her heart pumping a little faster. This was the person she was looking for. She was probably younger than her, but everyone had a golden nugget of knowledge that can be learned in this case, she suspected that it was a whole mine full of gold.

The thing that struck her the most, was that she was not dealing with someone with average or below average intelligence. If she gave the young woman on the other side of the pool any reason to distrust her, that would quickly be the end of any chance of learning... what ever it was she was going to learn. She figured it must be steam of vapour of some sort.

Aurora removed her trench coat. Luckily her undershirt was quite thin and her pants only reached to midway down her calves. She opted to keep those for now, if she found a benefit to completely remove everything later on, she would.

She moved to the opposite side of the crater as instructed. The steam licked her skin gently. She observed the woman more closely, she appeared to be normal, perhaps the only thing special about her at all was her bending? It didn't matter, she didn't have a reason to trust her yet.

"My name is Aurora... what is yours? She said calmly, keeping a slight smile on her face.

Yami sighed. Not yet. In order for me to trust her, I need to know that she trusts me. Yami looked down at the water below. It was still boiling from when she blasted it with fire earlier. She smirked. I know what you're thinking. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't approve. You really do have a mischievous side, don't you?

Ignoring her idea for the time being, she looked at the woman across from her. "My name is Yami. And believe me, I know more about you than you know about me." She began walking back and forth, listing all of the things she knew about the woman from their short moments together.

"You found me here. You must have a knack for taking the smallest hints and finding what you desire. And you were searching for me, a young woman rumored to be able to control steam. Rumors I myself started in hopes of finding a curious pupil to share my skill with. Thus, you are either a bounty hunter or a curious student. Yet you left your weapons up above on the rock. So I doubt you're here for the money. Still, no average learner could find their treasure so easily. Am I right in that you are a pirate? Or a bandit of some sort?

"Your weaponry suggests that you originally came from the fire nation, or at least spent a large amount of time there. Therefore I can rule that you are most likely a fire bender. But a fire bender wouldn't enjoy being out at sea as a pirate. You can't use fire when the slightest misstep could set your ship ablaze and leave you and your crew at the bottom of the ocean. Thus I can deduce that you also bend water. And your affinity of both elements has led you here, where you hope to learn from a master how to combine the two elements you are so fond of."

Yami gestured to the boiling water below. "Below us rests the remnants of a meteor strike hundreds, maybe thousands of years ago. The crater formed a natural hot spring as the meteor combined with underground water. But what makes this place unique is that a dormant volcano lies within the mountain range to the north of here. Lava rests just below this spring, heating it to a hot temperature. I've taken the liberty of heating the water more myself.

"Your first task: jump. Jump into the scalding water below." Sensing that the woman had some reservations, Yami explained. "I assure you that this is a legitimate test. I'll explain after you successfully accomplish it."

Laughter rang through Yami's head You actually did it! You just asked a woman to potentially jump to her death! The human body can't withstand that! Yami smirked internally. Good thing I'm more than human, then. If she is in any danger of perishing, I'll save her. She won't die here unless she tries to.

The red-haired Aurora listened along very carefully. Her deductions were mostly spot on... well pretty much all spot on. It wasn't surprising considering she already knew that this Yami was quite intelligent. Aurora looked at her and then back to the water. The steam boiled off the surface menacingly. She looked into the eyes of her would be teacher. She knew instinctively that this person was not a killer.

She considered the fact that this was a test as she stared at the pool below. A few reasons came to mind why the teacher would do such a test as this. To earn trust, to demonstrate the teachers ability over the student, or maybe to test the student themselves. It was Aurora's turn to do some mental deductions of her own.

Yami was up here secluded on a mountain, most likely an introvert. That meant that she didn't like people, however Yami didn't strike her as so mean as to misguide a person into most likely jumping to her death. Yami was definitely right when she said that Yami knew more about her than Aurora knew about Yami. That wasn't a disadvantage that Aurora liked. She steeled her nerves and built up her own chi. She was not very good at bending ice just yet, but if she was to survive this on her own she wanted to be prepared. She was only going to do it at the last second. Sometimes the best way to earn someone's trust was to play along.

Aurora sat there quietly thinking for a full minute before she stood up took a deep breath and jumped.

Yami smiled. So she chose to do it. Excellent. She noticed the determination in Aurora's eyes as she eyed Yami before jumping. Yami watched with a smile on her face. Aurora had chosen to trust her with her life. It was only fair that Yami decide to trust her as well.

Before making contact with the water, Yami reached out and began adding ice to the water as well as pulling the steam out. She drew out the excess heat and cooled the rest. Letting the ice melt, she watched as Aurora submerged fully. The water was still hot, to be sure, but not hot enough to kill her. Might cause some burns, at best, but Yami was a healer.

There was, of course, a way to prevent burning entirely. If Aurora could combine water and fire to keep the scalding water away from her skin. Yami had no idea of she would be capable or not. Whenever Aurora emerged from the water, Yami would assess the damage and determine where to begin teaching Aurora how to bend steam.

It was like a pretest.

Aurora had only that instant of time while falling to see that Yami was in fact cooling the water. Steam was extracted suddenly from the water and there was ice being mixed in as well. It was now cool enough to survive, but still hot enough to burn. She pushed as much ice out of her system as she could while falling in that instant. She extended her senses outward, experience told her that innately she could tell which parts of the pool were most hot with fire bending. She used her water bending once she hit the surface of the pool to push the hottest parts away from her body. The spring was hot and uncomfortable she couldn't tell if she had been burned or not, too much adrenaline was coursing through her. She propelled herself out of the spring with water bending and landed on the bank. Slowly she observed her own skin. Parts of it were red and scalded, but she felt that she was mostly unscathed and would be fine as soon as she cooled off.

She turned toward Yami, many things on the tip of her tongue. The one that ended up coming out though was. "Did I pass?" It was moments in time like this that she was glad that she was an exceptional bender. She realized one more thing about Yami. She might of been young, but she was talented and mature beyond her current years. Unless she was actually a lot older than she looked, but that didn't matter for now. What mattered is that Yami had a smile on her face.

Yami approached Aurora, checking her burns. They weren't too serious, but would likely scab and cause some discomfort later. Gently healing the wounds, Yami began explaining.

"There were many reasons for this test. The first, to see if you trust me. If you can trust me as your master, than I can trust you as my pupil. You obeyed my command without question. However, this was also an assessment of your bending ability." She looked at the water, eyeing the steam that came off as the remains of Aurora's ice melted. "You were clever to use ice, but you neglected the fact that in incredibly hot environments, ice is useless."

Yami demonstrated by shooting fire into the water to raise its temperature, then attempting to freeze small areas only to have the ice evaporate incredibly quickly. "I'm sure you noticed I lowered the temperature so you'd be able to survive. I was wise to do so, as your little ice trick would have done nothing had I left the water the way it was.

"You only received minor burns. You have good control over heat and fire, as can be seen by your efforts to keep the heat away from your body with water bending. Of course, your control over combined elements was lacking, as can be seen by the burns."

Yami walked off the edge, concentrating the steam in the area to provide a platform for her to stand on. She then lifted herself out of the crater, sitting down on the edge above. She wrapped the steam around Aurora like a hand and lifted her up to her eye level, holding her above the crater. "One thing needs to be addressed before we can begin working with steam: your water bending. It's fine, but needs work. But this is no environment for water training. Come with me." Yami set Aurora down behind her, then turned and began walking towards the mountains.

Healing. Aurora watched as Yami soothed the few wounds she did have. She listened to everything Yami said carefully, and realized that she may have jumped with a little too much confidence. The ice definitely wouldn't have worked, but at least now she knew.

Yami stepped onto a steam platform and this was the most amazing trick Aurora had seen out of this just yet. Then a steam hand reached down and lifted Aurora up to where Yami was. She agreed with Yami that her water bending needed work. She was very good at just bending water, but her ice bending wasn't super strong and she knew nothing about healing. This thought caused her to speak up.

"Yami... or would you rather I called you sensei? What title would you prefer? Also, I would like to know if you can teach me how to heal, that was a water bending ability you demonstrated right?"