First Class {Bailey/DalDal}

(This is to test and advance the skills of DalDal. I will be using my Earth Bender, Clarissa and her fox, Ranger, pre-training for this Topic)

Topic is taking place in Earth Kingdom: Omashu.

Clarissa walked along the Omashu mail shoots, letting the carriers rush past her with Ranger at her side. The fox ran around her feet, keeping enough distance that Clarissa wouldn't trip over him. She smiled down at him before hearing the sound of someone approaching.

(Dal, go ahead and reply, don't worry about length or anything. Just reply the way you are used to. I'll coach you from there.)

Shion strolled along the path with a packet of donuts in hand. Chewing mindlessly, he eyed a cabbage stall a level below the path he took with a gleamer of interest. This stall, was famous for its cabbage selling since back in the days of the 'Aang Era' as of what the stall keeper had bragged. It's amusing how even cabbages had a mark of place in Legend... AND the cabbages that made him puked like hell after buying one and tasted it out of curiosity, 'It even tastes worse than the awful seaweed stew i had in freakin' Water Tribe!'

The long line of thought had soon took a twist in his emotion, briefly turned the curios face of the unusually pale boy into an unwanted distortion. Well, the heat was not helping. At all. His throbbing head was getting worse over time and it was not an issue to be taken lightly. Last time he had this hallucination of a mud monster he'd defeated in a mock arcade down town and had nearly destroyed an entire earth village without a reason.

His silver eyes turned into slits as he detected an incoming crate, which soon brushed pass his hair, leaving a painful buzz in his ears, but that was not all, an approaching footstep from the opposite direction halted his entire movement.

Shion turned his gaze with anew interest. It was a brunette about his height, that white top and the extremely short pants had suited her well, if not her behavior, and that.. fox, it was almost exquisite. She had stopped. He looked at her unblinkingly, noted that she was in his way. He was in hers, too, so to say.

She seemed alert to his presence, but had not taken any approach, though she did look up, and his breath caught. Her eyes, like none other, were like frozen lakes, they seemed deep and void, and unusual. Suspicion plastered across his face for seconds before his doubts were brushed aside, since she looked him in the eye. His usual smile returned.

"It's blazing out here," it was a fact, he doubted she cared. Anyway, one of them had to make a move or else they would be staring at each other, like idiots, he unwillingly affirmed. He strode over and bent down to the fox, in front of the girl at the moment, and handed a large piece of donut to it. The fox-like creature sniffed, it didn't look afraid, to his great relief. It open its muzzle wide, revealing two rows of razor white teeth, and chomped down, donut or hand alike.

"YEEOUCH!!!"

(This is great. Let's keep going to make sure you don't need anything.)

The sense someone was near grew closer, and Clarissa stopped walking and looked up. Ranger began a low growl as he stood in front of her, symbolizing that she didn't know the person. She assumed he was a boy when he spoke about the weather. "Yes, but it's one of our better days." She told him as she felt the sun on her skin.

Clarissa couldn't tell what the boy had been trying to do, leaning over towards Ranger, but she didn't want him to get hurt. "You shouldn't do that. He's not friendly..." before Clarissa could finish saying 'other people', Ranger bit the boy's hand. "See."

Clarissa reached down and tapped Ranger's muzzle just slightly, he whimpered and released the boy's hand, giving Clarissa a sorrowful look before running to hide behind her legs. He kept growling, but stayed there. "Good boy." She told the fox before turning back to the boy. "I apologize if he may have hurt you, but I promise he's clean of any infections. Are you ok?" Clarissa took a daring step forward and reached out her head to him. "I'm Clarissa Burke, and this is Ranger" She gave him a quick smile as Ranger kept growling.

Shion took away his hand almost immediately after the fox had loosen its mouth. He looked at his right hand pitifully, observing the bite mark with sorrowful gaze. It had become slimy with saliva. He'd just hope that maybe the fox had his teeth brushed and the smell wouldn't be lingering long after washed. Shrugging his hand and eyeing the stubborn remaining drops with disgust, he looked up, "Well, it seems your pal has gotten me some juices, but it's nothing," he made an afford to grin widely. So what did she say just now? Her name.. what was it again? ..Clarissa Burge, and Ranger.

"Hey, nice te meetcha! I'm Shion, by the way, and have some donuts!" He took a piece of donut in his hand and placed it in Clarissa's palm, then he tilted to a side. "Hey, buddy! You must be Ranger, right? I can feel the ferocity of your name in those teeth you got there," he made a motion pointing at his own teeth. Ranger was growling even louder now, it somehow disappointed him that the fox had already munched off his donut, "It's not nice for people to return kindness by biting of hands," he suggested sadly. Said fox' growling got EVER louder, "you're welcome!"

Shion averted and looked at Clarissa, "you kinda look local to me, are you living here?" the sparks in his eyes returned. "Say, you've got the world's biggest slide system in history!" Shion exclaimed with unconcealed joy. Maybe this journey he could have some fun. Maybe even he could make a friend after all.

Clarissa was glad Ranger hadn't hurt him too badly, and looked down at the fox. "Ranger, be nice." She told him before turning back to the boy. "Like I said, he is very protective of me." She could tell from her earth bending that he was about her height. She wondered what anyone was doing out here with the mail slides besides her.
She was a bit shocked when he placed the donut into her hand, but she accepted it anyway. She started to eat the donut as the boy introduced himself. Shion, that's an odd name. She thought as she listened to him talking to Ranger. "Sorry, Ranger hates strangers, or anyone knew." She told him before kneeling down and tapping Ranger's head again. "Shh, boy. It's ok. I doubt he's going to hurt us. Now, shh." Clarissa told Ranger as she petted his back to calm him down. Ranger started to argue, but quieted his growl. "See, that's better. Now be nice."

Shion looked at Clarissa petting the calming down little fox in awe, seemed like it was really loyal to its owner. He wondered deeply just how did she tame something so viscous into a friendly lifelong companion? "How did you do that?" he mumbled unknowingly, it was quite impossible for him, at the very least. A small smile lit his face, she had such kind heart, pure kindness was hard to find nowadays, it was luck that he had encountered one.

He put his hand into the brown paper bag, feeling up the insides to search for any ring-shaped structure, his hand met up with a few crumbles lying nicely at the bottom. He looked into the packet with doleful eyes, it had always finished before he had knew it. Shion reluctantly took out his waterskin and rinsed his hands, using least water he could afford least he went out of water and got himself baked under the sun on his journey, it had happened everytime.

His vision blurred for a moment. The heat was getting too intense for him to walk in broad daylight unsheltered. Even though he had every part of his body covered with clothing, heck, he even had his front hair grown long to shade from the sun, the heath was enough for him to catch a fever. He dried his hands with airbending, they stung from the long exposure under sun, and proceeded wearing the gloves he took out from his pocket.

"You know what? I'd like you to join me ride that slide at least once in my life in this great city Omashu," Shion pointed to a slide which had the highest fall, "but the sun had gotten a great deal out of me, maybe we should move to somewhere cooler." He had regretted as soon as the words were out, "Or maybe you have some errands to do, everyone seems busy with work."

He scanned the life bursting city, "I'm an adventurer, so I've had many adventures around the world, but this is the first time i've stop by here in Omashu," a moment's thought, "And to tell you the truth, you've kinda got the world's worst cabbage seller in history, or I should say, universe," he corrected.

(Would we have some kind of fighting or fun scenes, cuz i think it would be best to test on bending moves. I want to see my grasp of words involving fighting styles and martial arts, its kind of new to me)  

(Your story work seems to be great. So I agree, lets work on fighting scenes first.)

Clarissa smiled and watched as Ranger stayed still despite his want to attack the boy. "I've had Ranger for almost three years now. He was trained by my neighbors to obey me. He's been my loyal companion ever since." She answered him, keeping her hand on Ranger's back just in case he tried anything. The sun warmed her skin and felt good to her, but something about Shion's voice made her feel like he was suffering under the heat.

Another shoot flew past as he asked about riding one. Clarissa wasn't supposed to ride them because of the risk of not knowing where she would end up or how she would land. The thought scared her and she wasn't sure how Ranger would react to her jumping into a shoot. What if the fox was hurt as well? "I don't have anything to do at the moment." She replied as she stood back up and faced him. "I don't know about the shoots though. Shion, Ranger is my service animal. I'm sorry, I should have said something earlier, but I'm blind."

Clarissa had just let her weakness be known as another person came into the alley. His demeanor and the way he walked into the alley alerted Ranger quickly. The man was behind Clarissa and walking closer to the two of them. "Is that Clarissa Burke, famous Clarissa Burke? Why, this is my lucky day." The man called as Clarissa turned to face him. "Ranger, stay put." She whispered as she stepped back toward Shion. Remembering what Shion had said about shelter, she quickly formed a dome arch around Shion and herself, bending the stone around her and leaving the shoot and alley open so they could see the man clearly. "Sir, I'm sure you mean well, but please leave. You have no business here." She called to him, Ranger growling and barking as she spoke.

"You're blind?" The news itself was not shocking, judging by how her eyes held no life, but "Seriously? Wait, then how.. This is AMAZING!" he eyed Clarissa with such interest that now she looked like a guinea pig on a scientist's lab table. "Does Ranger know you're blind as well?" He looked at the seething orange fox, now with a glint of respect. It's no wonder he had a complex to his master, Shion had came up with the wrong idea, it could've been years of genuine friendship.

Somebody spoke up from behind Clarissa. His voice sounded more cynical than friendly, from what Clarissa had responded, he was no friend of hers, let alone Ranger's. 'The famous Clarissa Burke'? What does that even mean? "I get the idea that you're not even close to known each other, so who are you and what do you want from her anyway?" The particular tone of man's chuckle had somewhat succeeded sending chills down his spine.

The ground underneath began to shook violently, it took moments for him to occur that Clarissa was trying to earthbend, so she is an earthbender. This problem might as well be solved quickly. The soil moved and a wall began to form its shape around the teens, as it gradually manifested itself into a huge dome, there were still arches enabling carts to move in their slides without disturbance. And the third arch, it led to what seemed like an alleyway. It was quite dark and the temperature had went down, "This is convenient," he eyed Clarissa gratefully.

Shion's head was giddy at the moment, but he felt much better, as his sight returned, he could vaguely see a silhouette standing at the third entrance to the dome.

Clarissa took a step away from the man and closer into the dome. The man started to walk towards them, looking like he wasn't going to stop until Ranger jumped at him. "Stupid fox, thinks he can just attack anyone." The man called out as he caught Ranger's throat. "Clarissa, your parents are looking for you. I'm sure they would pay me a great deal for bringing you back home." He said as he set Ranger down. Clarissa took a step toward him and called Ranger to her, not wanting the fox to get hurt anymore.

"Shion, I don't have any parents, don't listen to him." She whispered as she concentrated on the shoots. One, full of cabbage, was sliding past just close enough for her to use it. She focused on the shoot and just when it was in the right spot, she threw it at the man with her earth bending, then removed the extra ground so it wouldn't stop the other shoots. The man was too focused on Ranger and snagging Clarissa that he didn't see the basket coming at him. The shoot landed on his head, sending cabbages everywhere and knocking him to the ground for the moment. The man stood up furious and charged at Clarissa and Shion, going to take Clarissa for hostage whether or no she was conscious.

As the silhouette drew closer, with sharp eyes Shion studied him thoroughly. His form was bulky, under his clothes Shion could clearly see his rippling muscles, he must had worked out a lot. The intruder wore a brown vest, showing off tan chest. A large sinister serpent tattoo coiled around the whole of his left arm. His also brown pants strapped a belt, judging by the red worn out hilts protruding at his back, plainly it held two swords, or blades. He may have twin blades.

The stranger's attire did not show his nationality or status, and Shion did not know whether this man was a bender or not, but surely as a weapon wielder he'd shown to be quite a threat. Seeing how he held Ranger by its throat was completely butcherism, and Shion did not like the sound of it at all. The stranger had mentioned Clarissa's parents, for seconds Shion had felt a tinge of anxiety. Clarissa's reassurance had only doubled the duplicity of this man.

Clarissa had made her move once again, throwing the currently inattentive man off guard. A CRASH, WHACK and THWACK, the man was standing around cabbages with cabbage leaves hovering around.  Rotten cabbages. How Angelic. "Pfft." However the man had raised his right arm just in time to defend from severe damages. Shion was about to lose it when the intruder, feeling humiliated charged toward them, left hand touching a hilt about to draw his blade.

Sensing danger, with both hands Shion felt a ball of air between palms, rolling bigger and bigger until turning into brief barrier around them, enough force to knock back the stranger, sent him flying back to his rightful original spot , which was in the angelic circle of rotten cabbages.