Avatar Ghozu: The Sandbending Avatar

Ghozu was beginning to feel silly sitting on a boulder in the courtyard of the Beifong residence. This wasn’t at all what he thought his first earthbending lesson would be. Den Beifong had been waiting in the courtyard this morning, sitting on the boulder opposite Ghozu’s own with his eyes closed. Without opening his eyes, Den instructed him to sit and work on feeling the earth. He called it seismic sense. Ghozu’s first attempt at seismic sense was turning into twenty minutes of looking at the back of his eyelids. The heat of the boulder against his legs was reminding him of baking under the sun of the Si Wong Desert with his friend Sao Li. When he realized the heat was relaxing him to the point of almost dozing, he forced his eyes open. Ghozu was startled to see Den was watching him closely from his boulder.

Den Beifong had presented his best self, wearing his Ba Sing Se military uniform when he arrived as the personal guard of President Juni; the leader of Ba Sing Se, on the day they came to tell Ghozu he was the Avatar just last week.

He was an impressive specimen then, even at the age of seventy, and became no less intimidating in plain green pants, a grey shirt, and suspenders. His signature handlebar mustache covered his mouth, which made it hard for Ghozu to read his feelings completely. He was either bored or irritated.

“I’m sorry sir, I can’t seem to focus,” he felt the crimson on his cheeks. “Who knows how many lessons I will have to spend doing this before I even move a rock.”

“Ghozu, lad, I’m afraid I misled you,” Den laughed. Apparently, Ghozu was dead wrong about his new master’s internal feelings. “I intended this exercise to help you center yourself. No one with the privilege of sight can master seismic sense in a day. Closing your eyes for twenty minutes is not comparable to navigating the world without sight and finding a new way to see.”

“We’re not done are we, sir?”

Den actually laughed out loud, but it wasn’t met to mock Ghozu’s question. “Not even close. You will move one rock today. The one I am sitting on, in fact.”

The boulder in question was easily four feet tall and just as wide. “It weighs more than I do, master.”

“Earthbending has nothing to do with the strength of your body. It is about the endurance of your spirit. You have to match the unyielding existence of the earth around you and show no fear.” Den jumped from the boulder, indicating with a wave of his hand that Ghozu should also dismount. “Please, step aside. I will demonstrate.”

Ghozu stepped into the shade provided by the nearby doorway. Den walked confidently to the middle of the yard. The midway point between both boulders. He extended both arms towards the sky, the boulders followed suit. They were twelve feet in the air and Den didn’t appear to be breaking a sweat. The boulders began to orbit him. He twirled his arms faster and faster and the boulders picked up speed accordingly. Finally, two diagonal slashes downward cut both boulders clean in half. And they fell to the ground, kicking up significant dust around Ghozu’s master.

Ghozu approached gingerly. “Whoa, that was cool.”

“It was nothing. These are the biggest boulders I could find and still keep a decent courtyard,” In a blur of movement, Ghozu did not expect at his age, Den spun on his heels, assumed an offensive stance, and with a swift punch launched one of the pieces of the boulder full force at Ghozu’s head.

Purely on instinct Ghozu cartwheeled out of the way. A rush of wind tickled his heels. He heard the sound of stone on stone as the rock took out several pillars behind where Ghozu had just been. He came up in a defensive stance but without sand around him, he was uncertain.

“Confidence. The Avatar’s spirit is not weak,” Den quickly pointed his feet and launched the next rock with a jab. “Defend yourself.”

Ghozu, instead, went into a split and the rock sailed over his head. But as he was doing so he felt ashamed. Ghozu had grown up in the harshest environment this planet has to offer. Instead of letting his environment control him, he learned to control it. He proudly called himself a master sandbender at fourteen. Lastly, his father raised him to know when it was right to fight, so Ghozu shouldn’t act defenseless during a training exercise.

Den did not speak before the third strike, but Ghozu saw him act in slow motion. He let out the breath he had been holding in and waited. As Master Den completed the rotation on his roundhouse kick the third rock came hurtling towards Ghozu. Ghozu sprung into a high kick. For an instant, he felt the rock on the bottom of his foot, and then it exploded into a dozen smaller chunks around him.

Ghozu was ready for the final boulder. He was zeroed in on Den, ready to counter. Ghozu thought he saw a twinkle in his master’s eyes. Den slammed one foot into the ground, which catapulted the last boulder into the air. The shadow over Ghozu’s head was growing rapidly as it descended. Ghozu moved his left arm in an arch over his head. The boulder was cut in two one half falling on either side of Ghozu.

“Perfect. Now we can get serious.” Said Master Den.

“That wasn’t serious?” Ghozu’s initial adrenaline boost was fading. He surprised himself by laughing. His teacher had hurled four boulders at him and that was apparently him going easy. Being the Avatar was going to keep him on his toes.

Almost to put emphasis on Ghozu’s inner monologue, Den launched another full-fledged assault. With six jabs in rapid succession, he fired rocks the size of his head at Ghozu. Ghozu dodged the first two and broke the rest with his own jabs. The training continued like this for fifteen minutes. He dodged, broke rocks, and took a lot of hits to the body. Ghozu was reluctant to relax even when Master Den stopped. He stayed alert but when Master Den conjured up another boulder and sat down, Ghozu flopped on his back. He stifled a grunt as the bruises on his legs hit stone. Ghozu was used to expecting sand when he did that.

“Tea break,” Master Den waved at someone in the distance. Ghozu tilted his head back and saw black combat boots walking towards him. He flipped on to his stomach to get a better view of the new arrival. He saw red leather pants and a matching jacket, a spiked belt with holsters on each side; one appeared to hold a whip and the other a pair of tonfa. Their long brown hair was held back by a gray headband. Ghozu would be intimidated if they didn’t also have a tray with three teacups on it and weren’t wearing a wide smile.

“I see you're going easy on him, Pops.” The girl, possibly related to Master Den if she could get away with calling him Pops, rolled her eyes. She reached down to hand Ghozu a teacup. It was a couple of inches from him when it floated away along with a second teacup.

Ghozu sat up to watch his precious tea land in Master Den’s hand without having spilled a drop. “Hey, I earned that.”

Master Den was casually sipping his tea. As if he could not hear Ghozu’s indignation. “Ah. You have been impressively ferocious. But you only broke some rocks. You still have yet to move one.” He slapped the side of the boulder he was seated on.

Ghozu pushed himself to his feet. He suppressed the urge to wince. Master Den keeps surprising him, so he cannot show weakness. “You want me to move that?”

“A strong stance and you’ll be fine.” He looked past Ghozu. “Thank you for the tea, Pia. You may go. You know I intend these lessons to be private.”

Ghozu turned to watch her go. She grinned and gave him a thumbs up. Ghozu managed a weak wave then turned to face Master Den. He squared his feet and raised his fists. Master Den nodded approvingly. Ghozu thrust his fist forward. He heard the telltale sign of stone moving against stone but when he looked down it was clear he only managed to move the boulder about two inches. He sighed audibly.

“Again.” Said Master Den in an even tone. Ghozu stepped forward with one foot and punched with the opposite fist. He developed a steady rhythm, managing to move the boulder a couple of inches every time. Ghozu had one good punch left, so he closed his eyes and put all his will behind his right fist. The grinding sound lasted longer than the previous times. When Ghozu opened his eyes he saw he was a good foot away from the boulder. Master Den was holding on to one side as if he had fallen off. “Maybe I’ll make an earthbender out of you, yet. That’s good for the day. Get some rest.”

Four months later

Ghozu was meditating, eyes closed, at the center of the courtyard. The summer breeze wafted the flowery aroma of his tea to his nostrils from where he left the cup in front of him. It relaxed him to breathe it in. Ghozu was far from the uncertain boy exhausted by twenty minutes of practice that arrived in Ba Sing Se months ago. He replaced his gold-trimmed vest and yellow gloves with dark green armor and gauntlets built for metal bending. His hair had gotten long enough that he chose to braid it these days.

Master Den was five minutes late. This raised an alarm for Ghozu. One last long exhale allowed him to clear his mind’s eye and embrace his seismic sense. He could feel the natural vibrations of his surrounding as clear as day. He heard the discs cutting through the air the instant before they entered the range of his seismic sense. At the last second, Ghozu pushed off the ground with one hand, and with a clean sweep of his right leg, the four discs were turned to rubble.

A last-second backhand spring helped Ghozu narrowly avoid a rock spike in the back. He sensed Den preparing another attack behind him. Slamming a foot on the ground collapsed the ground underneath Den’s feet which slowed him down enough for Ghozu to bicycle kick several rock spikes in his direction. Ghozu didn’t hear the satisfying sound that meant he found his mark. Instead, Den quickly broke the spikes into smaller pieces, reformed it into one large spike, and launched it at Ghozu.

Ghozu spun, launching the metal wire from his gauntlet, which cut the spike in half. Before Den could react Ghozu wrapped the wire around a nearby pillar. He used the momentum to launch himself at Den feet first. Ghozu finally opened his eyes to see the look on Den’s face when he won. But the surprise didn’t last long. Den threw up a rock wall to protect himself.

Ghozu was now roughly four feet from his earthbending master. He could see the intent to strike in Master Den’s eyes. They both, simultaneously, reached to the side with both their fists and swung forward with a double-fisted motion. As a result, the stone pillars behind each of them were dislodged and slammed together like battering rams.

Ghozu stumbled to his feet, coughing and sputtering from the resulting dust. He looked around but couldn’t find Den. So, he closed his eyes to let the seismic sense work for him. The payoff was immediate. A metal wire rose up from underneath and lassoed Ghozu. He broke free with metalbending, grabbed the wire, and pulled with all his might. Master Den came with it in an eruption of rocks and mud and hit the courtyard hard. Ghozu levitated a rock over his seemingly winded teacher and waited.

“You got a couple of good hits in. I think we’re done here.” Den smiled which turned into a wince.

Ghozu helped Master Den to his feet. “You’ll need some rest before doing it again tomorrow, Pops.”

“No, son. You’re done here,” Den placed his hand on Ghozu’s shoulder. “You beat me without opening your eyes. Time for you to learn firebending.”