fandomtownies | The beach, Friday afternoon

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The beach, Friday afternoon

Dinah had snagged an umbrella and made her way out to the beach after lunch, not sure if she and Azula would be sparring or not, with the syrup raining down. By the time she got there, though, it was mostly just sprinkling, so she settled down under her umbrella and practiced her meditation while she waited for Azula.

Dinah. Not-Dinah. Shields go up. Shields go down. Me. Not-me. Nervous. Not-nervous. ... okay, so that last one needed work.

[for

azuldragon, but open to spectators/gawkers afterward for each.]

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"Bite me," was Dinah's response, and there went any chance of her quitting.

Being in the water gave her enough of an idea, and she slammed her TK into the knee-depth water, aiming an arm-sized splash at each bolt of fire headed toward her.

"You're not my type," she returned, sweetly.

Using water, was she? It wasn't waterbending but it was annoying. Azula charged her fire up a little, increasing the intensity this time she didn't focus the fire with two fingers but concentrated it on her fist.

She punched forward, the fire slowly powering through.

"Good thing," Dinah bitched back. "Hate to disappoint--"

Damnit, Azula was strong, and really good at this, and her own experience wasn't enough to make it so she could manipulate water any better than this, or build up a TK shield like Karla had tried to show her. She dived away again, under the water, letting the flames shoot over her head, and looked upward, think, damnit!

Can't fight fire with fire when you have none. Water wasn't enough. Earth--

Yes!

Dinah burst out of the water at the side, and slammed another TK blast at the sand in front of Azula, sending up a huge spray of swirling dust and silicon in front of the flames.

Edited 2009-09-05 00:15 (UTC)

Azula was surprised when the sand exploded in front of her, driving the Firebender back in surprise. Since the fire she'd been throwing was only a low powered regular fire, it didn't have the concussive effect her blue fire had.

The fires gutted a little before dissipating.

As for Azula... she dropped back into the sand and brought up a foot to shoot more flames.

Or she would have. She'd fallen into the part of the beach where a puddle of sticky syrup collected instead of the smooth flow of her kick, Azula suddenly found herself off balanced.

Which had Dinah rushing her from the water, hair streaming, shoulder down for a tackle-and-flip to follow up the wave of sand.

Azula threw out her arms, spinning them around hoping to catch her balance then she saw Dinah rushing for her.

She was going to take the battle to the ground. Azula smiled, well then, she'll let her. She no longer struggled against gravity and just as Dinah was close enough, Azula dropped into a split.

Shoot! Dinah went sailing over her, and managed to fall right as she went past, turning it into a half-workable somersault before whirling to face Azula again, but knew she wasn't fast enough--

She was right.

Azula rose from the split and released another forward strike.

"We must work on your speed," she said and she was smiling again. The smile Dinah liked so much.

Dinah was starting to tire, and that last strike, aimed straight for her face, had her slamming into the sand, heart going a mile a minute. "No!"

Her aim was true and would have killed any opponent in an instant... if that had been Azula's intention, instead her hand stopped short of the killing blow.

She paused, and her hand flicked forward, hitting Dinah's nose.

Well, wasn't that a let-down? Dinah turned red with embarrassment, gritted her teeth and got to her feet. "We never set any rules for this fight," she said, spitting out a little sand. "I'm thinking that we should have."

Azula laughed. "You were the one eager to I quote, 'go already'."

Right. That was it. Maybe she couldn't fight Azula's fire. Yet. But she could definitely fight Azula.

So reaching out with her telekinesis, Dinah grabbed Azula the way she grabbed Tahiri in their Force-TK practices, and aimed her in a soaring arc into the water.

Splash!

"You're right. I was. Fun, hunh?"

Edited 2009-09-05 00:49 (UTC)

What? Azula felt herself propelled back, she moved her hand in an arc and released one, instinctive fire before she fell.

Into the water.

The shock of the cold and the water around her froze Azula into inaction. This felt familiar. This felt wrong.

Dinah did a diving roll away, then came up, breathing hard.

Uh-oh. Maybe that was a mistake. She took a couple steps toward the water, worried. "Azula?"

Azula was somewhere else, somewhere far. The water suddenly icy cold and she could feel phantom chains wrapping themselves around her wrists.

And it was so, so difficult to focus because--

She flailed around but her feet couldn't gain purchase and it was happening again. Feel her mind splinter--

No. Not again.

"Azula!" Dinah waded into the water, really worried now, even though it was only a little over waist-high where the other girl was, she just needed to surface-- "Come up!"

Someone was nearby and there was only one thought running through her head.

Never again.

Her fire pulsed through her, powered by raw emotion. She was on fire, the water around her beginning to boil as she called more and more of her fire to her.

Uh.

Ohhhhhh.

Dinah started backing away into the deeper water, and tried to reach out with her TK to pull Azula out, even as she tried to get clear, not liking the roiling bubbles that were starting to spread outward in thick foam....

Azula didn't feel Dinah's TK nor would she need it. Azula exploded from the water, her feet letting loose a stream of blue fire. Her hair was disheveled, falling over her eyes and obscuring her vision.

She hovered above the water.

Someone was nearby. She didn't think and with a snarl Azula let loose a powerful but unfocused blast of blue fire, hot enough to melt metal.

Shit!

Dinah dove, as fast and as deep as she could, and sent a blast of TK behind her hoping it would push her farther, deeper, out of reach of that deadly-looking blue flame, under the waves and down as far as she could go, sending water and sand both spewing upward, clouding her passage.

Azula rocketed past the exploding sand and water but some of it caught her in the face. Azula's eyes teared up and as soon as she sensed land she dropped into the sticky sand.

How dare that, Watertribe peasant--

Her thoughts broke off as the sand stuck to Azula's hand. It was sticky and something about that was off. There were no sticky sand in the palace.

Dinah stayed down as long as she dared; the flames above had died away, but that didn't mean it was safe.

She surfaced, and body-surfed a wave to stand in knee-deep water, panting for breath. Glaring at Azula, who was just sitting on the sand.

"What. The fuck. was that?!"

Edited 2009-09-05 01:47 (UTC)

Azula was breathing hard, breathing deep. She tried to focus and rein in her fire. She wasn't in the palace. Her opponent isn't that Water Tribe peasant.

Spirits, she lost control again.

She drew in another shaky breath. Focus. Control. And ignore that light haired annoyance twittering at her.

There was no twittering as Dinah waded the rest of the way out of the water, eyes never leaving Azula, ready to throw her in the ocean again if she made one wrong move. And hold her down, if she had to. There was also a profound wish to snap some bones. Scary that she had a good idea where to start, too.

She waited for Azula to say something, stopping just out of kicking or punching range.

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