Beila will need to practice more to be truly a master of waterbending, but she knows the technique, now, and the rest is application she can practice on her own time. The nuns find her an earthbending teacher.

She goes to Dao's house after her first earthbending lesson. "Shifu Riko is a strange person," she remarks.

Author: roc_on	Beila will need to practice more to be truly a master of waterbending, but she knows the technique, now, and the rest is application she can practice on her own time. The nuns find her an earthbending teacher. She goes to Dao's house after her first earthbending lesson. "Shifu Riko is a strange person," she remarks.
Author: thinklikethis	"Strange like how?" he wonders.
Author: roc_on	"Well, for one thing, I didn't get to do any earthbending today, it was all about stances and breathing and listening to the earth."
Author: thinklikethis	"...Does the earth make noise? I didn't think it was known for doing that," he laughs.
Author: roc_on	"Well, it does during seismic events, but I think she meant some kind of earthbending sense thing. I think I might have felt something by the end, but then she gave up for the day and sent me home."
Author: thinklikethis	He snorts. "Well, maybe you'll get it next time. Did she, like, explain that it was an earthbending sense thing, or...?"
Author: roc_on	"She didn't say so. She didn't say much at all, actually, she poked me and moved the earth under my feet to get me to stand how she wanted."
Author: thinklikethis	"I am envisioning this lesson and it is a weird, weird vision," giggles Dao.
Author: roc_on	"Are you incorporating into this vision that she's three inches shorter than me and wears assorted rocks tied in her hair and lots of bracelets?"
Author: thinklikethis	He sporfles. "Well, now I am! Rocks tied in her hair? Really? Are the bracelets also rocks?"
Author: roc_on	"Yep. I mean, gemstones - mostly - but rocks. She's very serious about her rocks."
Author: thinklikethis	"I'm definitely getting that sense."
Author: roc_on	"I don't really know why the nuns picked her out, but I'll give her a while before I write her off as incomprehensible, I guess."
Author: thinklikethis	"Maybe she's a really good earthbender," he hypothesizes. "What with being so serious about her rocks."
Author: roc_on	"Maybe, but she doesn't have any other students - not right now, anyway - so whether she's a good teacher remains to be seen."
Author: thinklikethis	"Well, good luck, I guess."
Author: roc_on	"Thanks."
Author: thinklikethis	"Maybe you will learn how to listen to the earth."
Author: roc_on	"I wonder what it has to say."
Author: thinklikethis	"Um... 'quit stepping on me'?" he suggests.
Author: roc_on	"Spirits, I hope not. I don't think that would be sustainable."
Author: thinklikethis	"Yeah, if the ground wants people to stop walking on it, it's kind of screwed," laughs Dao.
Author: roc_on	"Maybe it'll say, 'walk on me more, I have this awful crick in my spine'."
Author: thinklikethis	Dao cracks up.
Author: roc_on	"Or 'walk over there, I have an itch', I don't know. Maybe Shifu Riko has an idea and will tell me eventually."
Author: thinklikethis	He giggles some more.
Author: roc_on	"I would like to actually, you know, bend some earth, and I thought I was going to today. I haven't gotten it to work trying it on my own. Perhaps it's ignoring me because I don't listen to it."
Author: thinklikethis	"Well, when's your next lesson?"
Author: roc_on	"Tomorrow. The lack of other students does make scheduling densely more convenient."
Author: thinklikethis	"So you can learn how to listen to the earth really quickly. I guess."
Author: roc_on	"Perhaps the earth speaks very slowly, and I need to show up every day to listen to the two syllables it utters at around noon."
Author: thinklikethis	Dao giggles helplessly.
Author: roc_on	Beila's next lesson lasts longer, and she shows up at Dao's, visibly exhausted, dry of perspiration thanks only to the constant play of wind around her. She flops onto him and groans.
Author: thinklikethis	He hugs her. "How was listening to the earth?"
Author: roc_on	"Today the earth was mad at me and it decided to show its displeasure in the form of a tiny madwoman."
Author: thinklikethis	"Oh, dear. What'd she do?"
Author: roc_on	"She said I wasn't listening to the earth, and if it was so hard, I should see how much harder it would be to get rocks to move by brute force, and I spent most of the day carrying chunks of stone around. As in, in my arms. And you know how I can barely walk without airbending? That does not get easier when I'm carrying something heavy, I fell over a lot. Occasionally under the heavy rocks. This is me after fixing up a lot of bruises as best I could. I don't think this is standard earthbender training."
Author: thinklikethis	"...I don't think so either," says Dao. "That is weird. Weird and disquieting."
Author: roc_on	"If she tries to get me to do that again I'm signing up with a regular dojo," says Beila, shaking her head.
Author: thinklikethis	"That is a wise decision!" he says. "Because wow."
Author: roc_on	"But I dunno, maybe tomorrow all of this boulder-hauling will have granted me special insight and I'll be able to bend the earth like I have its children hostage."
Author: thinklikethis	"Maybe that's why she carries rocks in her hair," giggles Dao.
Author: roc_on	Beila bursts out laughing and hugs him.
Author: thinklikethis	Giggling, he hugs back.
Author: roc_on	"I think she might actually carry rocks in her hair so she can have them available in a pinch. Sort of like how metalbender cops like Chali wear metal armor," shrugs Beila.
Author: thinklikethis	"That makes more sense," he concedes. "But isn't as funny."
Author: roc_on	"It is not nearly as funny," Beila agrees.
Author: thinklikethis	"So I'm just gonna keep thinking about her taking them hostage."
Author: roc_on	"Very well. You may do so," says Beila magnanimously.
Author: thinklikethis	He giggles some more.
Author: roc_on	"Anyway. I don't wanna walk anywhere right now, but we could hop on Liqing and catch a movie or something? Sit in the nice rock-free theater," snorts Beila.
Author: thinklikethis	"I am all in favour of rock-free theaters!"
Author: roc_on	"Excellent. I continue to never have any idea what's playing, do you know?"
Author: thinklikethis	"Nah. Guess we'll find out when we get there!"
Author: roc_on	"All right." She hauls herself to her feet, totters out the door, and whistles for her bird, who has just been sitting on the roof and promptly hops down to easier wafting level. To the theater they go. Available are two romances, a comedy, another bloodbending-horror movie (sequel to the one they saw on their first date), an action-bending flick, and something historical about the Kyoshi Warriors.
Author: thinklikethis	"Well, I know which one I wanna see."
Author: roc_on	"Enlighten me."
Author: thinklikethis	"The horror one?"
Author: roc_on	"The horror one it is." She buys the tickets and limps into the correct part of the theater with him.
Author: thinklikethis	He plops into a seat and hugs her.
Author: roc_on	Hugs. The movie starts after about fifteen minutes, and it is gory and horrifying.
Author: thinklikethis	It is! It makes Dao squirm a bit.
Author: roc_on	Beila thinks that's very cute. She squeezes his hand.
Author: thinklikethis	He blushes. And squeezes back.
Author: roc_on	And eventually the movie is over. (A lot of characters are dead now, but there was a B-plot about some others who can be used in the next sequel if they make one.)
Author: thinklikethis	"That was fun," says Dao.
Author: roc_on	"Yes. We should find someplace to go make out. Which is not too far away because my legs are still not in full working order."
Author: thinklikethis	"Is 'somebody's house' too far?"
Author: roc_on	"I can get Liqing, I suppose. Pick a house," she says, wobbling out of the theater and whistling.
Author: thinklikethis	"Yours is nicer," he laughs.
Author: roc_on	"Okay." When her bird appears, Beila flies them to her house and doesn't bother going down through the roof, just gives Liqing a treat and flings her arms around Dao for makeouts.
Author: thinklikethis	Makeouts! Rooftop makeouts!
Author: roc_on	Post-gory-movie makeouts.
Author: thinklikethis	Yeeeeeeeeeeees. Those.
Author: roc_on	She thought he'd like that.
Author: thinklikethis	She was right! She was very right.
Author: roc_on	Good. She likes being right.
Author: thinklikethis	She is right pretty often!
Author: roc_on	Yep! It's a good thing she has a taste for it. Mmmmkisses.
Author: thinklikethis	Kisses kisses kisses. On the roof.
Author: roc_on	Is the roof special in some way?
Author: thinklikethis	Well... it's a roof. It's theoretically possible that someone might see them kissing on it.
Author: roc_on	If he would like to depart the roof he has only to ask.
Author: thinklikethis	He is busy kissing, though.
Author: roc_on	Well then. They can carry on kissing on this roof.
Author: thinklikethis	Yes. Yes they can.
Author: roc_on	Delicious boyfriend!
Author: thinklikethis	Delicious girlfriend.
Author: roc_on	Yes. She prides herself on flavor. Well, no, but she'd start pretending to if this possibility were ever raised.
Author: thinklikethis	At the moment he is too busy to bring it up. Maybe later.
Author: roc_on	Snuggly kisses.
Author: thinklikethis	Yes. Very snuggly. And very kisses. Very, very kisses.
Author: roc_on	So, overall, more kisses than snuggly?
Author: thinklikethis	Yes indeed.
Author: roc_on	Beila can work with that. Happily.
Author: thinklikethis	Oh good!
Author: roc_on	The next day, Beila comes over to Dao's house in a much better mood. "Bent some earth!" she says.
Author: thinklikethis	"Congratulations!" he says. "Did you take its children hostage first?"
Author: roc_on	"Nope," laughs Beila. "I asked Shifu Riko what in all the spirits' names I was meant to be hearing, and she realized she wasn't dealing with someone who'd known herself an earthbender all her life, and actually explained quite lucidly in plain language that since earth isn't transparent like air or water I need to be paying attention with bending senses, to have a handle on all of it at once when I'm trying to move a chunk bigger than a grain of sand. And she got me some sand so I could use waterbending forms with it as a transition and then I was able to pick up some rocks. She doesn't like sand herself but she knows how to work it."
Author: thinklikethis	"Okay, that's much better," says Dao. "Like, reasonable. Reasonable is what that is."
Author: roc_on	"Yep. She maintains that hauling boulders was good for my character but apparently I won't have to do it again."
Author: thinklikethis	Dao giggles. "Oh good."
Author: roc_on	"I can live with a little philosophical disagreement, yeah."
Author: thinklikethis	He laughs and hugs her.
Author: roc_on	Hugs!
Author: thinklikethis	Hugs and kisses. Of a congratulatory nature.
Author: roc_on	Yay! There's also now a little bottle of sand on Beila's belt next to the little bottle of water. It might attract notice if he's going to be in her personal space.
Author: thinklikethis	"I thought you said you didn't take any hostages," he says playfully, tapping the bottle.
Author: roc_on	"Fff. This isn't the earth's children. It is the earth's dandruff."
Author: thinklikethis	Dao cracks up.
Author: roc_on	"I can work with sand almost like water," she adds. "Except it's about five times harder. I'm not sure if that's because it's unfamiliar or if it's just naturally more difficult to bend sand."
Author: thinklikethis	"I guess you'll find out, if it gets easier later," he says.
Author: roc_on	"Yeah. And of course I can't heal with sand. I guess I could exfoliate somebody."
Author: thinklikethis	He giggles.
Author: roc_on	"Actually I could probably really inconvenience someone with excessive exfoliation if I were ever in a situation where I needed to do combat sandbending, although I doubt it's ever going to be my first choice."
Author: thinklikethis	"...Wow, there's a mental image," laughs Dao.
Author: roc_on	Beila snorts. "In a good way or a bad way?"
Author: thinklikethis	"Kiiiind of a good way."
Author: roc_on
Author: thinklikethis	Dao blushes.
Author: roc_on	That requires kisses.
Author: thinklikethis	Awesome!