Shadow Of The Avatar

Chapter three: The Art Of Firebending

I have a day or two of rigorous training ahead of me. Not to mention when I teach Heido earth bending, but I am excited regardless. These next couple of days will be the start of a new life for me: A life as the dark avatar.

"Mornin'." He says with tea in his hands. "Ready for a long day of training?" He asks tiredly, clearly excited to teach his craft to someone new.

"Ready as I'll ever be" I tell him. "I could hardly sleep last night, too excited for this."

"Good." He says, sipping his tea.

As we head outside, I try to prepare myself, entering an almost meditative state during the walk.

"Alright, time for more training. You must remember to keep the chi flow strong at all times, focusing your breath into every attack you do. Other than that, fire comes from whatever part of your body the chi is flowing through, and burns as strong as the chi is flowing." He explains.

This is pretty much a polar opposite to earth bending, making it really hard to learn.

I punch the air with a lot of chi built up. Barely any smoke. This is fine though, at least I'm doing something right.

"Clear your mind. Meditate if you have to, take your time. I didn't expect you to get it on the first try anyway, but you're able to do it and that's what matters." He says.

I sit down on the soft grass and close my eyes. A field of flowers and lakes appears in front of me, such a beautiful sight.

I can feel the chi flowing from my head, through my arms and chest, and down through my legs.

Suddenly waking up, I stand up slowly. Getting ready for the chi to leave my body.

BOOM. A fire ball big enough to burn an entire tree down leaves my hand with immense force.

"Wow!" Heido exclaims. "Impressive."

I nod. For some reason, I don't feel the need to celebrate. I feel as though I did that naturally, it felt like your everyday bending to me. I know intellectually that it was impressive but I don't feel much different.

"Thank you, Heido." I say calmly.

"No problem, I'm glad I could help you. I can give you a couple of days to perfect it to the point that you don't need to meditate beforehand. You got this!"

I smile. This is the best I've felt in a good while.

He walks into my house while I stay outside and continue practicing. Each meditation becomes shorter and shorter.

Just as I feel like I've got it, I can't bend. Not even earth. Nothing.

Has this all been a dream? Am I really not the dark avatar?

My worries are tamed when I shoot a spark out of my hand while trying to bend. I still have this, I just need a break. I hope my chi will refill quicker the better I get.

I sit on a rock and meditate, this time to recharge my chi and calm myself down overall.

A field of flowers and lakes appears with Katakan there.

"Hello, Hiragan." She says in her forever-beautiful voice. "I may not be here to help you realize your full potential, but my memory will live on in you as long as you're still breathing.

"Thank you, love." I whisper, not caring that it's a mere figment of my imagination.

Waking up, I shoot a fireball into the air.

"Yes." I whisper to myself. "I still got this."

After a minute, I decide to try without meditation.

Standing upright, back straight, shoulders square. The chi flowing through me like a waterfall, I feel unstoppable.

And then it happens. A massive fireball comes out of my fist in a swift burst. I can firebend without meditation.

"That's impressive!" Heido exclaims when I bring him out and show him the firebending. It feels somehow both unreal and completely natural for me to firebend.

"Thanks, now I should start teaching you earthbending, what do you say?" I ask with a lot of excitement.

"Sure, just remember to keep practicing fire bending on your own time" He replies.

"Will do. So essentially earth bending is the very specific movements that you must be

able to do, if you're even slightly off it won't work" I explain. "Chi has near nothing to do with it."

"Wow" He exclaims. "That's much different than fire bending." He continues.

"Yeah no kidding!" I say jokingly. "So basically, you have to bring yourself from a neutral

to a fighting stance as quick as you can, the quicker you do it the more power gets put into the rock"

"Alright" He says, getting into a neutral stance. "I got this." He continues.

His hands drag behind his body in the movement, not quite being able to pull a rock from the

ground.

"Not quite, make sure your shoulders are perfectly square, and your fists move in unison with your body. Any slight variation will end up with mediocre at best results." I instruct.

"Got it." He says, getting ready again.

This time, he does it slowly but the form is near perfect. A small rock comes from the ground but instantly drops. So close.

"You're getting better, just a little more speed and power. Imagine that you're pulling a rock straight from the ground."

"Got it." He says sternly, getting ready again.

"Alright, I'll be back." I explain. "Practice as much as you can, don't worry if it doesn't come naturally. You got this.

There's a forest down one side of the hill I live on, and on the other side there's a path to the outside world, ba sing se being the closest city to my house.

The walk down the hill is nice, no city in sight for miles. It takes days to even walk to ba sing se, but that's not what I'm after so it doesn't matter all that much to me.

I came here because there's a perfect view of the sunset, it doesn't last quite as long as it does on the hill but it's much more beautiful than it is from the hill. The sky in front of me is a pinkish red as it circles the sun, as it draws in, you can see more orange hues as it reflects on the sky and grass, and then it finally reaches orange in the center. The sun, such a magical thing.

Looking out on the sunset turns into twilight, I can't help but stay here for the night.

As I lay down on the ground, I feel the soft, delicate grass touch my back. I feel so in tune with nature, nothing could be any more comfortable to me. Drowsiness kicks in fairly quickly and I sleep like a baby for the night.