paradisalost | ¤ 27 - A Challenge

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zuko

¤ 27 - A Challenge

[though he's been too wrapped up in his own 'problems' to really follow whatever has been brewing in much of the rest of the castle, he can't dodge the tension. The air feels tangibly charged, people seem to be getting ready for something, and it's very contagious.

With him wanting to test out his newly-healed shoulder, and this whole place feeling like it's itching for a fight... it seems like an obvious combination]

Anyone who wants to blow off steam-- I'll be out on the castle grounds. [and then a pause, as the voice of a certain piratess comes to mind. He better clarify--] ...For sparring.

((ooc: it's been a while since Zuko's been in a good fight. Open for training or whatever else. Come at him, bros!))

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[It takes her a little while to find him, but she wastes no time when she does.]

What about the tree?

[he hears her coming up behind him, but pretends he doesn't. Until she speaks, anyway.

He's tempted to brush the question off. He doesn't want to talk about it anymore, but... it's not like he stopped thinking about it since he'd brought it up.

So, he sighs and drops his stance, arms falling at his side]

There was this big dead tree that showed up outside one day. It was weird, but nobody was really worried about it at first.

[She can talk and bend at the same time, Zuko; she's going on the assumption that so can you.

Uncorking the sling at her side, she bends some water from it, before flinging a thin disc of ice at him. Dodge.]

What happened to it?

[yep, now he's paying attention. He bats the disc out of the air with a slap of flame]

It brought these creatures that no one could see... except for children.

[return fire in several lashes, as he slowly closes some distance]

[She shields herself from the bursts of flame with arcs of ice and water, waiting for an opening to lash a whip of water at his legs.

As he closes the distance, she steps away, trying to keep it; she has the advantage with it.]

What sort of creatures?

[he's watching this time-- he's not eager to get another one of his limbs wrapped up or tangled in those whips of water. He leaps to the side and keeps up the beats of flame, keeping up his advance]

The kind that goes after kids.

[Katara's backing up a little more quickly now, swinging out in an arc around him; she's running out of water quickly, trying to advance them both toward the pond.]

..what did it do to them?

[and that's precisely where he's trying to keep her from reaching, but he's also partially wrapped up in the memory of the story he's telling. Sending out arcs of flame low, towards her legs, hoping to keep her less mobile]

It stole them. One after another, right out from under us.

[using 'us' without thinking about it]

[The bad thing about fighting a firebender without a ready source of water is that the flames eat what she has to fight with. She can't pull it back from the dirt; it's evaporated, and Katara can't leech enough water from the air to stand a fighting chance with it.

She has to be conservative.]

What did it do with them?

[She throws a wave of water down to counter the fire, lunging to the side at the same time -- away from the pond. In the same sort of motion, she flings a small rain of tiny ice needles his way.]

[he has to give her some space now, as he breaks his advance to dodge and deflect the darts]

It was taking them to sacrifice to the tree.

[She's backing up again slowly, toward the pond, but that was the last of her water, and she's still out of range.]

What did it want with them?

I don't know. It was like it was going to feed them to that tree. They just started disappearing, and we had to figure out how to act before it stole the last one.

[he's vaguely aware of the fact that she's essentially unarmed, but he's still caught up in everything, and throws another handful of flame at her. Stay on your toes, Katara]

Ow!

[It comes off as a reflexive yelp; she managed to throw herself back enough to avoid any actual injury, but she's used to having the buffer of water between her and the heat. The sleeve of her robe might be a little singed.]

But you got them back, right? Before any of them got hurt?

[the yelp stops him, and pretty quickly at that. Immediately dropping the flames and flinching into a less aggressive stance, he can't help but look a little apologetic. Especially with this story on his mind, hurting someone is the last thing he wants to do right now]

...Yeah. Once we found out how to get to them, we had to act fast and fight our way in, and then destroy the tree.

You helped save them.

[She briefly checks herself over for injuries, then turns to head toward the duckpond, uncorking the sling again. For now, she's just going to take for granted that Zuko knows what she's doing as she heads toward the water.]

Was it dangerous? For you guys, I mean.

[he frowns, somewhat vaguely, as she heads to the edge of the pond]

I don't know. That's not the point.

[She crouches down, bending some of the water into the skin.]

You want to protect the kids here.

[ugh, don't make it sound like that]

My point is that this place sends really horrible things after us, and it goes after the people who can't fight back!

So, that's why I'm going to be ready.

So you can fight back it it comes for you.

[With the water to her back, she straightens up and bends it toward Zuko's feet, trying to freeze them to the ground.]

It's alright to admit that you're looking out for someone other than yourself, you know.

[she accused him of not caring, and then somehow tricked him into admitting that he does. ...What just happened here? This doesn't seem fair.

Annoyed, he kicks out with a lash of fire to try burning up and deflecting the water before it get to him]

I look out for you. Whether you like or it not -- and I will, for as long as I'm here, too.

[She knows this isn't going to make a breakthrough, is well aware of the fact that this will do nothing but annoy him.. but if they're both going to be here, she wants him to accept her. Someday.

Even if she just pisses him off for now.]

You, and everyone else in the castle.

[And then she flings a hard whip of water at his midsection.]

Great--

[but the crabby-sounding word barely forms before it's cut off. He's a little slow in countering with his sore arm, and that whip catches him right in the ribs, knocking him back a couple steps.

...Yeah. Definitely pissed off now. As soon as he catches himself and catches his breath, he sets more purposefully in on her, bolts of flame coming faster now. The fact that he just burned her is almost gone from his mind]

[With the pond from the water at her disposal, she was able to throw up enough to dissipate most of the heat from the flame. He was backing her up; she hadn't been expecting such an earnest attack, especially without the words as a buffer between them now.

Backpedaling, though, regardless. She didn't want to drain the pond entirely.]

[now that she had an abundance of water, and he was mad, he didn't feel the pressure to hold back so much anymore. This feels much more familiar, and he starts automatically sliding from the predictable back-and-forth pattern of a sparring match, to the much more purposeful rhythm of an actual fight.

This is what they should be doing. Not that talking and trying to be friends crap.

Keeping her moving back, actually beginning to push himself with his strikes]

[It catches her by surprise, the almost visible way he stops holding back, and she can almost put her finger on the moment that it stops being a sparring match and becomes an actual fight.

It's right around the moment that she dodges a blast of fire and her entire sleeve roars up in flame.

She shrieks, douses the fire and hugs her stinging arm to her chest, before fixing Zuko with a look.]

You knew I couldn't dodge that all the way!

[ACCUSATORY.]

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