fire & lightning

chapter thirty-four

       "I know you're nervous, but remember, firebending in and of itself is not something to fear." Zuko explained to Aang, attempting to calm him down.

Today is Aang's first firebending lesson. He wasn't too excited for it, but i can't blame him because of his past experiences with fire. I've decided i would sit and watch them, since nothing else interested me at the moment.

"Okay, not something to fear." Aang sighed, then repeated after Zuko.

"But, if you don't respect it, it'll chew you up and spit you out like an angry komodo rhino!" Zuko shouted, frightening Aang.

"Zuko, what was that?" I scolded him. "Don't scare Aang like that."

"Sorry." Zuko turned to me quickly and apologized, which he should've done to Aang instead. "Now, show me what you've got. Any amount of fire you can make."

Aang took a deep breath, then pushed his arm out and tried to firebend. Unfortunately, all that came out was a tiny puff of smoke.

"Maybe i need a little more instruction." Aang slouched after failing his attempt. "Perhaps a demonstration?"

"Yeah, Zuko. Show him something." I sighed in disbelief, then earned strange looks from the two boys in front of me. "...What?"

"Anyway, that's a good idea. You might want to take a couple steps back." Zuko warned, then got into one of his signature stances. As Aang moved back, he let out a small flame from his palm, surprising me that he didn't give it his all.

Trying my best not to, i bursted into laughter by the fact that Zuko's fire wasn't any better than Aang's. Aang just stood by and clapped, being polite.

"What was that?" Zuko examined his hands and had a look on his face that amused me even more. "That was the worst firebending i've ever seen."

"Well, Aang, looks like you need a new teacher." I continued to chuckle, then received an angry look from Zuko.

"Oh, you can do better than that, Mo?"

"Probably!" I immediately teased Zuko. At this point, my belly was hurting from all of the laughter coming out of me. Aang kept looking back and forth between us, a puzzled look on his face. He looked so cute and confused and made the situation even funnier to me.

"Well, i thought it was nice." Aang tried to cheer Zuko up. He's such a kind kid and sometimes i just want to snuggle him for being so carefree and lovable.

Zuko tried to firebend again, but received the same result as the first time. I calmed down and stopped laughing, realizing that something truly wasn't right with Zuko.

It makes me think, haven't i predicted something like this before?

"Why is this happening?" Zuko growled as he clenched his fists.

"Maybe it's the altitude?" Aang guessed.

"Yeah, could be."

~

An hour later, we came back to the same spot so Zuko could try again. Unfortunately, his fire wasn't any stronger, which was really concerning now.

"That one kind of felt hot." Said Aang as Zuko kept on attempting to release fire that wasn't so weak.

"Don't patronize me!" Zuko suddenly yelled at Aang. "You know what it's supposed to look like!"

"Sorry, Sifu Hotman."

"And stop calling me that!"

"Zuko, calm down!" I raised my voice at him. "We'll figure this out."

Sokka walked up to the scene, munching on an apple. He then sat down beside me and began to chew rather loudly, irritating me.