<div class="floatleft">(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/eb/13/a0/eb13a094331c93cd0434d0a85506cefe.jpg)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Name:</strong> Rikkar<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong> Open.<br/><strong>Content:</strong> </div><br/><hr/><br/><br/>Rikkar strode with a reserved expression behind the line of students, arms tucked and folded behind his back.<br/><br/>There were two rows of students, facing each other inside the drab atmosphere of the Dojo. It had once been a retail warehouse, packed with floors of clothing and other textiles. Now it was long abandoned, until recently being purchased for construction of a Bending school. The first and second floor had been torn up, allowing one giant space where the two masters created a rudimentary Pro-Bending stage, complete with a raised platform and a moat of water around. The third floor was the gym, littered with nets, bending discs, and vats of water for more advanced and intensive purposes. The fourth floor was for basic lectures on bending, where the basics were taught to larger groups and beginners. The fifth and top floor were for the teachers only, where they had their office and rest areas.<br/><br/>Normally Rikkar would have preferred to train their recruits outside, where they could get used to the more open aired environment of Republic City rather than the cramped compartments within the building, where their Bending would be limited. There had been several incidents, with water and earth benders both, where in their haste and excitement they had boosted their elevation so high via their bending that they slammed their heads on the ceiling, dropping like flies. It was not uncommon for a wall to be blasted apart by a wayward stone disc or the electrical lightning to be short-circuited by an excited water-bender. The books were already tight as it is without adding these little accidents to it.<br/><br/>But they had no choice, given the recent spate of harassment on their students. Local gangs and rival dojos both seemed to want a say in the running of things. And with only two teachers at the school, it was impossible for either Rikkar or Ima to respond to them all. But they sure as hell tried.<br/><br/>And the students themselves…were no warriors. Not yet. Rikkar had before him a mix of Pro-Bender hopefuls, firefighter trainees, and the odd student looking to employ bending as his hobby.<strong>“Alright you squirrel-toads, this exercise is straightforward and routine.”</strong>Rikkar explained to his students, speaking with a firm, authoritative tone.<strong>“The push and pull is essential to the basics of waterbending. The old masters say it resembles the motions of the moon in how it pulls and pushes the tides. You must be the same. Solid and fluid, like the moon, with no edges or bumps. All of you can control water but you do not <em>feel</em> its motions. In order to truly be adept, you must be like the moon. Push…and pull. Now begin.”</strong>Rikkar explained, his hands moving swiftly in a short elegant dance, drawing water from a nearby basin and with gentle motions, directed it into a spiral around the rows of students.<br/><br/>One side began to mimic his poses, drawing a short tendril of water from the greater than he manipulated around them. Turning to their partner, they began to wave it back and forth between each other, until all of the water that Rikkar had summoned was gone. He straightened his posture and exhaled deeply before observing them…and frowning. One pair barely lasted a full moment before one partner blasted the tendril in the other’s face. Another got distracted and caused his rope of water to splash heavily on the ground between him and his. An older pair of water-benders seemed to work fluidly, but they were not<em>feeling</em>it, as was evident by how exhausted they quickly became. Brute force didn’t work with water as it did with earth. It should be like a dance, graceful and conjoined in mind and spirit.<br/><br/>One by one, the duos failed in maintaining the flow of water back and forth between them, until each tether of water splashed on the ground, leaving tired or shamed waterbenders standing. Rikkar slapped his face and internally groaned.<em>This lot will never do</em>. They had been at it for a full hour and not one had gone more than a full quarter-hour.<br/><br/><strong>“Go and get cleaned up. You’ve done all you could for today.”</strong>Rikkar said with a wave of his hand, contempt laced in his voice. He was not an easy teacher either. To further test the students, he caused all the splashed water on the ground to avert into ice with just a spread of his arms, his wrists twirling as he locked the water molecules and forced them to expel all heat. Half slipped and fell at the unexpected gesture, gasps of shock and hurt resonated in the room. A few managed to have learned from previous occasions, knowing Rikkar always threw out a last minute test before breaks or the end of the lesson. Perhaps there was still some hope for these students.<strong>“I ought to send you all to dance school first! How do you expect to be a Water-Bender without balance of foot?”</strong>He bewailed at them, causing them to stagger and slip their way out. Rikkar sighed and rolled his eyes again. He wondered if Ima had been luck with her students.<br/><br/><br/>