The Meeting

Kano straightened up, watching her emerge from the training hall.

"Everyone!" he called out, changing his mind about warning his fellow waterbenders. "Move to safety!"

There were dozens of waterbenders milling around, watching eagerly to see what was going to happen. He had a reputation for having good matches and attracted a fair bit of attention whenever he was mixed up in one. While he had thought initially that warning them wasn't necessary, a re-examination of their fight thus far changed that. This Avatar was powerful, but she seemed to lack a certain degree of control when it came to collateral damage. This would get nasty if people didn't give them some space.

Once he was sure everyone had heeded his warning, he turned his attention back to the Avatar. He was soaked from head to toe and it was more than a bit nippy out. The cold bit at his bare arms and face and permeated his clothes. It was marvelous.

"I have to say," he said, running his hand through his hair to get it out of his face and excise a bit of water. "I'm impressed. This is more fun than I thought it was going to be. Challenging, but fun."

Kano smiled. He re-assumed the opening stance of the Aowaka Style. He was ready to continue his fight with her. He was just about to send another volley at her when a tugging at the tail of his jacket. He looked down and found himself looking into a pair of big green eyes. They belonged to his little sister, Suki.

"Noee!" she said, clutching his cloths in both hands, staring up at him with tears welling in her eyes. "Noee, where's Mommy? I can't find her."

Kano's face relaxed immediately. In the space of a few moments, he went from waterbending warrior, hell bent on victory to loving elder brother, protecting a helpless sibling from fear. He bent the rest of the water drenching him from his body and knelt, picking Suki up. He split his face into a warm, reassuring smile as he did so.

"Let's go find her, okay?" he said. Suki nodded, sniffling. He nodded back, smiling broadly at her.

Kano carried his sister with him as he climbed the steps up to the school. His mother would be in the kitchens. How Suki got outside without her was a mystery for another time. Now, it was time to get back inside. As he mounted the top of the stairs, he turned toward the Avatar.

"I hope you'll forgive me for ending this little match of ours here." he said, inclining his head where he could not bow. "It was an honor to face you in this bout, Avatar. I have learned much. You are welcome to stay and enjoy the hospitality of the Aowaka School if you wish."

His sister situated and the training hall and other assorted damage zones repaired with the help of Old Man Chu, their resident earthbender and handyman extraordinaire, Kano was wandering back to his room, intending to get a bit of studying done when he found their visitor enjoying a meal in the dining hall. She was alone, surprisingly. He'd have thought that the other students would have been all over her. She was, after all, the Avatar, and she had beaten the best student the school had to offer. Regardless, it just wasn't polite to leave a guest without some company, especially when they were eating.

"How are the stewed sea prunes today?" Kano asked, folding his legs and taking a seat next to the low table on one of the cushions arrayed around it. The fire in the mantle was casting a warm glow on everything as always.

"The Aowaka Clan is known for their hospitality." Kano smiled, ladling some prunes into his bowl. "Well... with a few minor exceptions. My father is something of an abrasive man."

They were also known for their ruthlessness, but he didn't really need to mention that bit. He and his grandfather were some of the only members of the clan that preferred diplomacy to combat. There was a reason why the Aowakas were called upon when the Water Tribes went to war, and it wasn't their outstanding diplomatic flair. In that respect, he and his grandfather, Hakano were black sheep, odd apples on the tree.

"Thankfully, my mother keeps him in line." Kano continued, laughing. "She's also great at making Water Tribe food. It's not so common with Earth Kingdom natives."

"I can believe there might be the occasional need, but I don't know if I believe there's anyone who can keep you in line." Kano said, blowing gently into his bowl of food, cooling it down. "You're quite powerful. Of course, I'd expect nothing less from the Avatar."

He took a sea prune in his chopsticks and lifted it to his mouth, taking a bite. It was certainly an acquired taste. The flavor was somewhere between seaweed, plums, and whale-jerky. Strange? Yes. But it was surprising how one could miss it. He took a large bunch of seaweed salad with his chopsticks and dropped it in his bowl.

"Not that you aren't welcome, but what brings an Avatar of the Southern Water Tribe this far north?" he said finally, taking a wad of salad from the bunch he had given himself and eating it. There was nothing quite like seaweed salad.

"Wanderer, huh?" Kano said, nodding as he ate another clump of salad. "I like wandering. You find some interesting stuff when you don't know where you're going. It's a pity that more people don't just wander awhile."

Kano was, perhaps, a little hypocritical in this, but he didn't really care. He'd done his fair share of wandering in his life. He used to drive his mother and father nuts disappearing into the city. there was a lot more in the Northern Water Tribe than there seemed to be. He'd learned that wandering was the best way to find stuff you needed, but didn't know you needed. He'd discovered a small scroll tucked away in a long-forgotten vase in a back alley that had what turned out to be a marvelous little melody he still played on his flute.

"How many nations have you been to?" he asked. He'd always loved tales of places abroad.

Kano nodded. She had been around, hadn't she? He couldn't deny that he was a little impressed. Of course, it was part and parcel of being the Avatar, he supposed. How else were they supposed to learn the bending arts? There was, however, a question that had been nagging at him for quite some time now. It was one which he had been reluctant to ask. But now that he knew a bit more about this Avatar, he felt like he could ask...

"I know this might seem a strange question," he said slowly, placing his bowl back down on the table. "But, is the Avatar susceptible to chi-blocking?"

"I didn't think so." Kano said shallowly through a smile and half a laugh. His voice hid his disappointment well, but it didn't change the facts. He had hoped that at least the Avatar would be immune, just to prove that it could be done, freedom from chi-blocking. It would give him somewhere to start, anyway.

Feeling as though he wouldn't be able to maintain his facade of whimsy much longer, he grabbed up his bowl and brought it close to his mouth to hide the disappointment which finally showed itself. As he used his chopsticks to coax his food into his mouth, he felt as though he'd lost a great hope, one he had never been able to quantify. Somehow, what Zulera had told him had utterly discouraged him.

"A fair point." Kano nodded. He put the bowl down on the table quickly, struck by a sudden inspiration at what had been an otherwise off-handed comment by Zulera. "So perhaps there's a way to hinder it..."

His mind raced through many different possibilities very quickly. Everything from developing a technique for quickly encasing one's self in a suit of ice armor to techniques for summoning a haze of superheated steam that would be just about impossible for anyone in their right minds to cross. But no matter how he looked at it, one option seemed to stand out as being the most viable -- bloodbending. With bloodbending, he could force chi-blocking strikes to land in the wrong place, or miss entirely. Now he thought he had a clue about why his grandfather had chosen that, of all things, to include in the Aowaka Style. It had always been puzzling to him why Hakano, a man he knew to be fiercely opposed to that sort of thing, would even make it a part of their family disciplines...