The Little Dragon

||81

February 16th, 2020

Kaida

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    The next day and a half was a whirlwind and now I was packing up to head to the Earth Kingdom to drop off the letters to Bumi. "Are you sure you have enough food?" Hakoda made his way into my igloo while I was busy strapping bags onto Hyo.

    "I have enough food to last a month it looks like." I patted the food pouch, in reality, it wouldn't last me more than a week but that was more than enough. I just wanted Hakoda to rest with ease.

    Over the span of a day he and I had become very close. It kind of felt like I was adopted into their family. He patted my head, "I just want to thank you again for protecting Katara and Sokka, I heard all of the stories." I learned at the gAang and Hakoda met up when running away from Ba Sing Se.

     "Then you must have heard how many times they have saved me." I sat down on the bed and let out a sigh, exhausted from all the packing. That's when I noticed something in Hakoda's hands.

    He sat down next to me, "this is for you." He placed in my lap another maroon water tribe dress. Though now the sleeves were shortened and the legs had pants, making it easier for me to move in and not worry about burning the sleeves. "I was supposed to give it to you before the battle next week, Katara requested I had it made for you." I looked up at him, shock still on my face.

    "I didn't think I would meet you so soon." My mouth was open like a gasping fish.

    "I-" I started to stammer, unsure what to even say. "I don't know how I could ever thank you." I held it out in front of me. The one I had on was plain, due to the fact that it was made in a hurry. I still loved it because it was one of the first gifts ever given to me out of pure kindness. But this one was made with so much care, love, and time.

    I swallowed the lump in my throat, "It's so pretty." I hugged it close to my body, burying my face into the soft and warm fabric.

    Hakoda started to pat my head, I turned and looked at him. He had a gentle look on his face. "I hear your Nation was giving you a hard time, I just wanted to let you know that you always have a home in the Southern Water Tribe, no matter how this war turns out."

     I flung my arms around him, "thank you." The words only came out as a whisper but I knew he heard it. "Thank you so much." I don't know if he knew how much those words meant to me. A home outside of the Fire Nation, the home that never accepted me.

    Baba would be so happy to see me living happily with humans. That was his whole intention of sending me away.

    He would be so proud of how far I have come.

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    "You don't know how long I have waited for this." I cracked my chuckles as I faced off against Pakku. The new maroon dress flowing slightly in the gentle breeze. It was the deal we made so that I would sit in the meetings without complaining about how boring they were.

    I heard him sigh, "why do kids always want to fight their elders." He shook his head and then brought up to tsunamis of water. I gasped in shock as they came down.

    I put myself in a ball, hearing the water hiss into evaporation. When the water was gone I shot two fireballs at him to get him off his feet. I needed to stop him from doing that attack again or I would never get my chance to K.O him.

    He stumbled backward and I charged in, I dropped to my knees and swung my arms up, my fire lashing up and down blocking him in. He wouldn't be able to get to his precious water now. I jumped forward shooting two balls of fire.

    He dodged both of them and used the snow that was under the ice below us, cracking the ice between us. "Woah!" Our footing tilted as we became two floating icebergs in the middle of the arena.

    He brought up a huge chunk of ice and shot it at me. How in the world would I dodge this? I blasted below my feet, sending me sky high. I flip over the ice and work my way towards the landing.

    Pakku saw what I was doing and started to move the ice out of my landing place. He wanted to send me into the water below us. If I even get a foot into that water it would be over for me. He would freeze it and I would be stuck.

    I shot myself forward landing on his iceberg. Now it was time for hand to hand. I shot out my fire fist and he used his forearm to block it. I sent a fire roundhouse kick making him jump backward. He knew he was going to lose in close distance and so he tried to escape by freezing a path no the next floating chunk of ice.

    "Oh no, you don't." I clapped my hands together sending a U shape of fire, stopping him from moving. I smiled to myself, "nowhere to go old man." I brought my hands closer to my chest, closing the wall of fire between us. He retreated towards us. I used my breath a sent a roar of flames at him.

    He raised his hands to protect his face and I used that time and closed what was left of the gap. The second he stopped protecting himself from my roar I flew in and put my nails to his neck.

    "Good match." I smiled, I put my hands in my new dress pockets. I know now that Katara has outmatched her master.

    "It was, I'm glad there is hope for the next generation." I smiled at that and we bowed to each other.

    "It's an honor for you to think that." He raised his head and I followed after. I looked over to where Hakoda and Hyo were. I waved my hand and watched the water benders put the arena back together.

    After everything was frozen over I walked over to where Hakoda was waiting, "that was really impressive." He smiled like a proud father. "It was amazing to see you in battle it didn't look like you broke a sweat."

    "Oh, I definitely did." It was not fair to use the water underneath us. But that is what made the fight so much fun. "Well, I better get going." I looked over to Hyo who was already waiting for me to get on.

     "Safe travels, Kaida. See you in a week." He smiled at me and I nodded down to him.

    "See you in a week." I looked over to Pakku who was standing with the King and Queen. I nodded towards him and he nodded back.

    "Alright Hyo, let's get out of here. Aren't we sick of the cold?"

    "Yes."

    I gasped in shock again and then we lifted off.

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