|
|
|
Zaedan was practically primping himself for battle. So, he got to be hero today!
Maaaaan.... Did that bender HAVE to come in and cramp his style? Wait, was that...
"Sen Wei! Sen Wei!" Zaedan jogged up to the master bender, "Wow! You really are amazing, I bet---"
"Save it, Zaedan." (She knew his name! But that tone, why did she speak to him that way?) "I don't need your words to know what I just did. And, no, you cannot train under me."
Awh, crush! Zaedan's mouth would have dropped, except he was at least well-mannered enough not to do that. Begging was beneath him, but he wasn't mannered enough not to try and coerse, "I'll do anything for you. I'll get whatever you want and--"
"I don't want your money. Or anything it can buy."
"NOTHING? Well..no..no, of course not. I don't want to try to buy you out or anything. I mean, that would be, like, saying you couldn't, and of course you can, I mean, you're the greatest---"
"I said save it." She wasn't usually this curt, but this sort of ignorant, arrogant rambling made her cringe. He had a smooth, pleasent voice, but did he know how unattractive the words that came with that voice were?
"Well, what can I do?"
She stopped then, and looked fully at him. This had to be the first time she'd ever seen him still, but it was an energetic, eager sort of still and she wondered how much he would listen. Zaedan. He never did think on anything long enough to truly process and understand. She knew the words would be lost on him, but maybe not on his memory and on an older, more mature boy.
"You need a greater master than I to teach you."
"I'm THAT good?"
Sen Wei brought a hand to her forehead. How to be diplomatic? "Experience and maturity are two things I cannot bring to you, but you need to develop further. Stillness, peace, concentration, respect, self-sacrifice, and purpose, these are just a few things that would be better suited for a student such as yourself."
She thought for a moment she'd gotten through to the boy. He wrinkled his brow as if concentrating on it, and that alone made her not simply pass on as she'd intended to do.
"So, you want me to write an essay on how great of a student I---hello?"
She was gone.
Zaedan sucked in a breath. He had a faint feeling of being insulted, but he quickly pushed those thoughts away. Surely she hadn't meant all THAT, maybe she had a headache or something.
"What a spoiled p***k," Zaedan's head snapped up at the giggles and the voice.
"What did you say?"
"Said yer SPOILED, not even Sen Wei wants nothing to do with you! Bratty bender boy, thought the world a toy, broke it once, broke it twice, got left with the mice!" The girl trilled.
"I am not spoiled! Sen Wei just thinks I'm too good for her, didn't you hear? She said I needed a GREATER teacher!"
"Yeah, experience and time," snickered a boy.
"Oh, oh, Sen Wei, I'll buy you a mansion. I'll bat my eyes and charm you down." another boy danced around the girl.
"Pooh, pooh, use your money to buy some manners." The girl's words may have been sassy, but she stood tall, even in her rags she was prim and proper, pretty and proud when emulating Sen Wei.
"You little brats! Your just jealous because you couldn't afford her even if you pulled all your money together." He was livid. How dare they?
"My sister sees her," the girl's eyes danced with pride, even to the most oblivious, it was obvious that she couldn't feign the truth that her face eluded, "She helps Sen Wei with things, so we don't haveta pay."
"Yeah, and she says that you ain't got enough sense nor care to be taught. Says you're too uppity!" the boy could have been lying, but the words really stung.
"Brats." Jaedan held his head high, "Your words mean nothing, you and your siblings won't ever do much more than beg or something." He turned and walked around, satisfied that his one shot crumbled that look on the girl's face.
He took about three steps before his conscience caught up to him. What had he just done? He turned around, just in time to see the backs of the boys flying off after the now distressed girl. He shook his head in wonder at himself. It wasn't their fault that they were born that way, he shouldn't have hurt their feelings like that. He was better than them, like he was better than most people, and that meant he had a duty to protect the little guys.
But if they were really that little, why did their words stick so hard to him? Jaedan tried to shrug off the serious thoughtfulness that came over him, and tried to trade it back in for the happy-go-lucky attitude, but he found he kept going back to the former. Maybe the older, more mature boy that Sen Wei was hoping to remember her words would come sooner than expected.
 SapphireLynn · Sat Oct 07, 2006 @ 06:33am · 0 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
