[3rd POV]
Time had passed by slowly after Gwen had become Korra's teacher. Time that had been spent with the girls on dates, training her own bending and growing her connection to the elements, and training Korra.
The training had went...well, for the most part. The girl was stubborn, hard headed, and refused to give up. Which, meant that she hated not succeeding, especially when it came to the things Gwen was attempting to teach her.
The girl had done well enough in her development of her own Fire Bending, but the footwork...definitely needed work. Even after nearly two weeks of training, the girl had continued to struggle with her development in the area. Mostly due to the difficulty and randomness of Gwen's footwork teachings.
The teachings themselves involved random incoming projectiles, random traps, training and balancing upon a small floating piece of wood on the ocean, under a waterfall, and all sorts of different areas. She wanted the girl to develop herself so that she could properly dodge just about any attack, all through her own senses, footwork, and techniques.
These teachings proved to cause...frustration, with Korra. Mainly due to the difficulty of them, and the fact that she couldn't dodge more than 2-3 traps/projectiles. Her balance was also pretty awful, and she had a tendency to ignore Gwen's aid. Something the girl realized was because of her own stubborn nature, and her dislike of being told what to do, mainly because she had been told what to do for her entire life.
During this week, Gwen ended up getting a total of 10 UL Tickets. From becoming her teacher in the first place, from stopping some crimes that she came across when traveling around the city, and from training Korra for an entire week.
At the moment, Gwen was watching as Korra made her way through an airbender training exercise. Where thin pieces of wood (?) would rotate after being blown on by wind, all of them rotating randomly. It was something she learned from in canon, and was a decent enough training method.
Ikki and Jinora were on the side, watching, as they had already completed all their trainings for the day. Korra was weaving through it with some skill, but definitely not in a comfortable manner, like she needed to.
Footwork can't be "Tense" or "Uncomfortable" as otherwise, you'd never be able to properly utilize it in the first place. Something Korra didn't seem to understand, and something she needed to understand.
"She's too tense" Jinora noted, watching Korra rotate through the spinning wood.
"Mmhmm. She'll never be able to properly use the footwork and movement techniques I'm trying to teach her, with how tense she is" Gwen responded with a nod, standing on the left of two girls.
"How long do you think it'll take to get good enough to go through it without being tense?" Ikki asked, in a rare moment of normal speech, without yelling or excitement.
"She's unused to this sort of thing, Ikki. So I suspect it will take some time. But, she'll get it eventually, she's just hardheaded" Gwen responded with a smile.
"Is it because she's the Avatar?" Jinora asked.
"No, Jinora. Her being the Avatar doesn't matter in this situation. Anyone can learn the movement techniques and footwork I am trying to help her with. And even the Avatar struggles sometimes. Not everyone is perfect, even the Avatar" Gwen responded, causing the slightly surprised Jinora to nod in understanding.
Korra seemed to have heard Gwen, surprisingly enough, and couldn't help but smile slightly, before shaking it off and focusing on the task at hand. Most of her trainers were...not very good at giving direct and genuine criticism, and ALWAYS compared her to Aang. Tenzin was fine in the former, but when it came to comparing her to his father, the man did it...a lot. But Gwen was different, she trained her as if she wasn't the Avatar, and could care less that she was. Something Korra was growingly grateful for.
"She is better than the first time she did it though" Jinora said, remembering when Korra couldn't even get through one piece of wood without getting hit.
"Yeah! She got hit a bunch when she did it last time!" Ikki said, giggling when she remembered the way Korra got hit so much.
"Yeah well, we all get hit sometimes" Gwen replied with a small grin.
"Even you?" Jinora asked, having seen Gwen train a few times, as had Korra and most of the others. Even she, a 10 year old, could see that Gwen was far beyond any normal Master, when it came to things like instincts, senses, dodging, movement, and footwork. So much so, that even her father had talked about asking for her tutoring in the area, especially for his children.
"In the beginning? Certainly. Not so much nowadays" Gwen responded, remembering the early days of her reincarnation, when she struggled with her father. But now a days, she hadn't been challenged. Something she made sure her future worlds would mend. Especially the one she had planned on going to after getting to Tier 5 or 6.
Not to mention the beings that still existed in her previous universe. Ones that she knew were going to eventually come to Earth, and would eventually cause serious issues for even her. A being that was a mere Avatar of his true self.
'Best not to think on them just yet...' Gwen thought, knowing she wouldn't be able to do much until the being actually started to act. As even she didn't know if she could defeat them, knowing how strong their True self is, and how strong some of her counterparts can get.
As Korra finally stopped, Gwen smiled and walked up to her.
"Not bad today, Korra. You've definitely improved, but-" "But?" Korra asked, cutting Gwen off slightly.
"You're too tense, Korra. You can't master or use the movement techniques and footwork I am teaching you, if you're uncomfortable and tense when doing it" Gwen said, causing Korra to frown.
"And how am I supposed to stop that? It's not my fault your techniques are hard! Not to mention all those training methods you're making me do and the fact that they're even harder than Tenzins!" Korra responded, causing Gwen to look the girl in the eye.
"I'd suggest you watch your tone with me, Korra. While Tenzin let's you back talk, I will not, not anymore. Is that understood?" Gwen said, staring the girl in the eye, with a serious tone. She began to realize that with how stubborn this girl was, it would take more of a...heavy hand.
Korra blinked at the look, shrinking back "Y-Yes" Korra stuttered, not being used to that sort of thing. But also because she was trying to fight down a...blush?
'Oh? Now that...that is interesting' Gwen thought, noticing it immediately.
"As for your question, Korra, it's rather simple. You have to stop thinking so much. The techniques are supposed to be second nature to you, to the point that you don't even have to think about it. It just...happens" Gwen responded, causing Korra to blink at the response.
"How am I supposed to make them second nature?" Korra asked, much more respectfully this time.
"Simple" Gwen grinned widely, as she made a motion behind her back, causing Ikki to giggle, as the wood began to rotate once again.
Korra shivered at the grin, as Gwen spoke.
"More training!"
Korra was promptly kicked back into the wood, and left to Gwen's mercy.
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That's the end of the chapter!
Not sure how well this was written to be honest. As I was struggling a bit on the direction for this one.
Next chapter will be a date, and the build up to the next big event. Basically an intermission/Interlude chapter.
I ended up making a mistake a couple of chapters ago, giving her Kuvira when she in fact, already had her. So, just imagine that was Suyin Beifong (Lin's sister) instead of Kuvira, alright? Alright.
Anyways, have a good day, see you tomorrow!