Lost and Found

Kano darted through the water like a fish, looking around. He'd dropped it around here somewhere... If he lost it, he was going to be seriously angry with himself. Of all the things to happen on his first real break since the start of the war! Loosing his grandfather's dagger and his grandmother's flute in one go! He'd never forgive himself.

Of course, it was hard to concentrate on the search, what with having to concentrate on heating the water and propelling himself. It was one of those things that sounded easy on paper but ended up being a real pain, like holding large books out for long periods of time. Eventually, you just ran out of steam. Of course, in his case that was literal. He'd been holding his breath the entire time. If it weren't for years of swimming and bending, he'd have broken quite some time ago.

And then he spotted the leather scabbard. It was sitting, knife and flute safely within it, on an icy outcropping a few dozen feet below him. He just set aside heating the water around himself entirely and rocketed toward the outcropping. The icy water stung against his bare skin. He had left his parka, jacket, and boots up on the surface, wanting to find his belongings quickly and figuring it wouldn't take too long. Those bits would have just slowed him down. But once he was in the water and the difficulty of the task became apparent, he'd wished he'd worn them. Still, there hadn't been much point to going up, getting dressed, just to come back down again when he could just bend the water warmer. Thankfully, getting out of the water altogether seemed to be a goal within grasp. As his fingers closed around the leather of the scabbard, he twisted around and shot skyward, bending his way up. He broke the surface with enough speed to be thrown up onto the ice and somehow managed to land on his feet, stumbling just a bit. He was quick to bend the icy water off of himself. It was hard to believe that somewhere in the world on this July day, someone was enjoying some nice, warm beach weather...

He had just stooped to pick up his belongings, eager to don the warm clothes once more, when out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a pair of boots standing there. His gaze traveled up them to the legs sprouting from their tops, up and up till he found himself looking into the eyes of a girl, perhaps better referred to as a young woman...

Negu wanted to practice some of her waterbending without Aria, her teacher. She had gotten pretty good, but she needed to work on this by herself now. The wind was blowing so intensely, which caused her to tighten up her jacket. The footprints that her thick boots made in the snow, didn't last too long since the wind tried refilling them as quickly as possible. As she passed a large, protruding rock, she heard splashing. Almost like someone flailing around in the water. Her thoughts immediately went to someone might be drowning. Also, she was quite irritated that someone would try to swim in this kind of weather. Waterbending training can wait.

She quickly removed her jacket while trying to run around the huge rock. She can't let someone drown, it's not in her nature. As she tried to take her boots off, she stumbled over a built up pile of snow. Despite common belief, when one falls into a pile of snow; it makes no sound. Quickly regaining ground, she got up and ran towards the water. No time to worry about wet clothes, she needed to hurry.

She reached the water, but there was no one in sight. She began to worry, and started thinking that they might have drowned. She didn't know what to do. Before she had a chance to fully think about it, a figure shot out of the water and landed on their feet. First, a feeling of happiness came to her, but then she noticed that he was shivering. She hurried over to part of the shore where he was and saw that he had something in his hands.

"A scabbard?" Her eyes widened. She tried catching her breathe, even though the cold tried taking it from her. "You almost died in there. All for a scabbard?" She put her hands on her hips. More of her Mother rubbed off on her than she thought.

Kano looked down at the dagger and flute in their scabbard and then back up at the girl as the wind began to die down. It had been a nice day for the most part, but the wind out of the south was kicking up some rather pretty severe gusts now and then. He picked up his jacket and pulled it on, fastening it as he straightened up. A single cloud passed overhead, casting a shadow on the both of them briefly before the wisp of a cloud raced off again.

"Not the scabbard." Kano said finally, panting slightly from the rigors he'd just put himself through, shaking his head slightly. He couldn't quite summon any display of emotion other than exhaustion at that moment. "The dagger and the flute. I can always make another scabbard."

He picked his sash up of the stack of clothing and wrapped it around himself, fastening it and tucking the scabbard, dagger, flute and all into the back of the silken belt it formed. He stooped again and caught up his parka, brushing the snow from it. The cold under foot was starting to get pretty unpleasant. If it weren't for the small bit of warming he was able to bend into the ice with the movements of his toes as he dressed himself, it would have been truly unbearable. It didn't matter how long you lived in the cold of the North, it never got more friendly...

Negu was curious as to how a flute and a dagger would mean risking someone's life, but she didn't want to push too deep. The wind blew Negu's braid as it thrashed against her back.

"Well, be more careful. Okay?" She genuinely cared and she felt like she recognized him, but couldn't remember fully who he was. She didn't want to be rude and ask, so she searched her brain for more mindless small talk. 'Compliments,' she quickly thought. "You seem really talented. As a waterbender, I mean." She still wasn't used to fully conversing with other people yet. She stumbled over her words. Words that were compliments, and hopefully taken as such.

"I'll try." Kano grinned, shaking his head. This was rather cute, all things considered. He had the sneaking suspicion that she might not have been so forward had she known who he was. But it was his vacation from all that. That meant he left the title behind. Thankfully, he'd left the vestments of the chief back at the Blue Palace. There was absolutely nothing on him, save his face of course, that identified him as the chief. It was nice to shed the ranks for awhile.

He rubbed the bottom of each of his feet, warming them with heated water before drying them completely and stuffing them back into their boots. Soon, he was fully dressed once again and toasty warm. He pulled up his hood against the wind that seemed to be kicking up a bit. It was around this point that she offered him the compliment. He couldn't help but chuckle a bit. If she only knew...

"Thank you." Kano said, bending the water away from his body one last time, leaving his clothes dry and warm. "What brings you out here, anyway?"

Negu grew more and more impressed with this man's Waterbending skills that she felt obliged to not say exactly what she was, even though it has been a huge blessing to her. He could bend water really well without looking like he was trying. She was never good at making up stories, despite all of the thousands of historical accounts she practically memorized. She had to answer him. He was nothing but kind, and she wanted to return such kindness.

"I - uh...am here to - ummm - I ran away!" She hated herself for just blurting out the most ridiculous thing. She wanted to take it back, but she knew it would be even stranger to make it a joke. So, she continued. "Yeah, My mom and I had a huge argument." She waved her arm around as she started to pace, weaving this huge lie. "Plates. Expensive plates were thrown. Names were called." Before she knew it, her emotion was building up. The ice nearby them started to melt and become part of the water beneath it. Negu didn't notice. "That's when I ran here, trying to get some air." Another gust of wind blew through them. "And there is plenty of air here." She gave an awkward smile.

Kano chuckled. This was an interesting, albeit tall tale. It wasn't that she was a bad liar or anything. It was more the content of the lie. While he didn't doubt for a second that the situation can and indeed had at some point come to pass, he doubted that was the case here. She was a little too... eager with the information. He didn't know many people who would volunteer information about something that upsetting to them to a perfect stranger. Still, he figured playing along couldn't hurt.

"Expensive plates? Name-calling?" he said, folding his arms with a sigh and a beautifully executed look of concern. "Sounds serious. Per--"

At that exact moment, he caught sight of the water sloshing around unusually on the banks. The water of the North didn't usually jump around like that for no apparent reason. And then he took note of the relation between the movements of her arms and the movements of the water. A small grin, quickly subdued, managed its way onto his face.

"Perhaps..." he said finally, his eyes darting back to her. The deduction had taken him a mere second or two. The pause was hardly noticeable. "Running away out here wasn't the best way to deal with the situation?"

Negu's arms fell slowly back to her side. She wanted to tell him that she came over here to practice Waterbending, but also thought he was drowning and wanted to save him. Time to be honest? That always seemed to be the answer in her favorite stories.

"Well, actually..." She began to play with her fingers. She was usually so proud of her bending, but for some reason she felt intimidated. Who was this guy? "Did I mention you are a great Waterbender? You did pretty awesome out there." Negu spat out more compliments. Hopefully, her fast awkward talking and nervous smiles could distract him from the bigger question. The wind wasn't even a factor anymore, it was now the questions that was numbing Negu to the bone. Why did she feel so nervous about revealing she was a Waterbender?

"Thank you." Kano repeated, chuckling a bit. "You're not so bad yourself."

He jerked a thumb toward the sloshing water with a grin on his face. She was clearly something of a beginner if she couldn't control which movements did and did not bend. But for a beginner, that was a fair bit of power considering how vague and unintentional the forms had been. Making a few dozen gallons of water move by accident was something indeed.

A huge gust of wind blew through them and he gave a sigh. This was becoming bothersome. Using an old technique he had adapted from earthbending years ago, he brought up a huge wall, curving it over them slightly like a wave. It towered over them about a dozen feet and was thick enough to withstand the force of the winds. It was a very effective wind-break. They were entirely shielded from the sharp winds now, and a good twenty-foot area around them in every direction was wind-free as well. You could see the snow carried by the swift wind skirt around the calm area he'd just created.

"That's better." he said, lowering his hood again now that he didn't need it to protect him from the harsh cold of the wind. The North had bearable enough cold when all you had to worry about was still air. It was one of the many reasons the Northern Water Tribe had maintained their great wall all these years. The military advantage didn't hurt either.

"Oh. You noticed that? Yeah, I'm a Waterbender. Not as good as you-" Negu was interrupted while he took the words from her mouth. He used Waterbending to make a wind shield. That was amazing.

"Yeah. Great idea! A bit windy today. I'm glad you are okay, and I'm sorry to waste your time. I came here to practice Waterbending, and ended up meeting an even better Waterbender. Not a horrible day." She put her hands in her large pockets and began examining his shield. As she peeked her head around the shield, a huge gust of wind almost knocked her down. Whoa! Just what she needed, more embarrassment.

"Yeah. You'll want to be a bit careful." Kano chuckled as the wind took it out of her. "Going from still air to, well... not still air isn't the best way to stay on your feet."

He gestured for her to join him at the little ice table. It wasn't the most comfortable accommodation, but it was better than milling around on the ice.

"So what kind of training do you have so far?" he asked, tapping the ice under foot lightly to bring up a back to his seat and leaning back on the newly formed ice. "Have you begun working with techniques yet?"

(OOC: Sorry it's so short.)