Yara hurried over the ice, moving away from the large village made of said ice. The village of the northern water tribe was an impressive sight, shaped and maintained by the powerful water benders who lived there. But Yara's destination was outside the village, out on the plains of ice. It was just a hut, where she met in secret as often as possible with a skilled water bender who was teaching her. In the northern water tribe, it was forbidden for women to learn water bending for anything other than healing. For a woman to fight, it was not allowed. Yara wasn't satisfied with that though, and luckily she had found this bender willing to break the rules and teach her secretly to really water bend, and to fight with it. It seemed almost as if it were taking too long though. Maybe it was the secretive nature of their lessons, or maybe he was holding back and not really teaching her as much as he could, as she'd been training with him for a while now, and still only knew the basics. But she was determined, no matter how long it took, she would become a great water bender. She hoped tonight, they would move past the basics and into something more advanced. She hurried up to the hut, stopping outside to catch her breath a bit. "I'm here! I came as quickly as I could."<|im_end|>
He sat in the hut, furs wrapped loosely around his frame as he rested against the wall, icy blue eyes looking right at the door as she entered. His expression was unreadable, passive and yet seemingly cold.
"You are late," he said as he stood up, meeting her gaze for a moment. "Let us see if your skills have improved better than your punctuality." He added, stepping out into the icy cold, the ice itself shifting with the gesture of his hands, forming a ring.
"Now then, use the stance I taught you," he said, taking a low one of his own. As always, the first move was hers.<|im_end|>