A/N: This is an A:TLA fanfic incase you were wondering. Hopefully you enjoy it. Took me a little while to make this one. I can't tell yet if I'm gonna continue it but if I am this is the prologue. So happy readings!
I spun around the tree, racing after one of the turtle ducks that flew into our yard. Screaming gleefully, I tried to grab it with my small pudgy hands. The poor turtle duck ran into our pond hoping to escape me. It floated carefully in the middle of pond trying to distance itself from me. Disappointed that I couldn't continue our game, I left it alone.
Suddenly, I heard the front door slam shut. "Father!" I screamed sprinting up past our porch and into our house. He is an admiral for the Fire Nation army, so he rarely comes home. Mother was also part of the Fire Nation army but she was the head guard of Capital City.
They were both considered geniuses in their class when it came to firebending. Both became masters at a young age and went on to be high ranking members of the Fire Nation military. They went from being dirt poor to the most powerful citizens. I couldn't help but idolize them.
Sometimes, when my father was home, I would sit on the large hill in front of our house and watch my father practice advanced firebending techniques with some of his officers. He would dance around the field, blasting fireballs towards his friends, twirling through the air, and releasing flames to cover the entire field.
Soon it was just him and another commanding officer. Both were covered in a thin layer of glistening sweat. They stared each other down, poised for action. Suddenly, like a flash of lighting, Father leapt across the field, shot a fire blast in mid-air, and landed while executing a sweeping fire kick.
The officer, whose name I believe was Osamu, pathetically blocked the powerful fireball and was just barely able to hop over the long stretch of flames that raced over the ground. Already I could Osamu was way over head. This would be a easy win for Father.
Osamu retaliated by launching his own surprisingly aggressive attack. He threw two fire balls at Father's head and then released a long jet of fire. Father sidestepped both fireballs with a practiced ease and countered Osamu's flaming attack with his own flamethrower. Father's quickly overpowered Osamu's and engulfed the poor man.
But the flames were quickly canceled so as to prevent physical damage. My father stood over the battlefield completely oblivious to his son who's jaw practically reached the ground due to the astonishment. My father's muscles rippled through his shirt, hair dancing in the wind, and flames blazing with his unique gold tint.
His strength was unmatched yet he still was able to produce a beauty that only fire benders could. So of course he was the perfect match for my mother.
She didn't firebend as often but when she did it was a sight to behold. She was just as ferocious as her male counterparts, if not even more so, and carefully calculated all her moves. Her fierce tactfulness dominated anyone who happened to cross paths with her.
To them, firebending wasn't just a simple art that originated from the dragons. Nor was it a fighting technique that could be refined until you came out on top. No, it was a lifestyle. You breathed firebending. You slept firebending. You learned it, loved it, and lived it.
Because my father was out commanding the vast armies of the Fire Nation, he planned on teaching me when I aged. He was adamant against letting my mother teach me mostly because of his pride. He was the man of the house and felt it was his duty to be the one to help me realize my potential as a firebender.
I was hoping today was that day. The day I started my firebending training. Of course, I knew this would be a vigorous and painful process but I was up to the challenge. I could only sit on that hill watching my well toned father face off against other benders for so long.
I vaulted over our table with a practiced expertise and lunged towards the large figure standing in the doorway. He laughed and caught me in mid-air.
"Father!" I screamed joyfully at him as he ruffled up my hair playfully. His reassuring touch always calmed me down. Strong yet gentle, his hands were used to fighting and thus became rough. He had lots of scars across his arms and had a story for each and everyone.
He carried me across the room as I traced his scars with my finger. Then I noticed we were heading outside to the backyard. "Today, we will test your skills. I want to see how much you picked up from your mother and I." I felt giddy as if I were gonna burst from the excitement.
Today really was the day! Today my father was gonna teach me the art of firebending. I wiggled out of his hands and sprinted out to the large wooden door. I ran over to the small, rock filled pond and skipped on the rocs until I reached the middle of the pond.
"What should I do first? How bout I try a fire blast or maybe one of those sweeping fire kicks I saw you do? Or-or maybe-"
"Woah slow down." He chuckled plopping down on the edge of the pond. "Those are advanced techniques that require lots of practice. I don't even know how well you can bend yet. Let's start simple. We will try a small fireball once I teach you the basics. To create one you first must tap the energy locked away. Breathe in and out. That's right." And so he taught me.
I spent hours toiling in the sun practicing any task he threw at me, which happened to be the most menial tasks he could possibly conceive. I practiced breathing, which believed I could do just fine but apparently not. Father said it was to help expand my lungs as fire needed lots of air to breathe. A firebender was limited to his element.
Just like an earthbender must be strong and stable enough to lift enormous boulders. They must become physically able to lift large rocks and smash stones with their bare hands. Earthbenders must also be patient because earthbending relies on counter attacking. They must wait for the right moment to strike and they must strike hard.
Just like a waterbender must keep be able to keep calm and withhold the great powers they keep locked away. I mean could you imagine bloodbenders running amuck through the nations? Waterbending has a great versatility and is the element of change. They move from defense to offense and offense to defense fluidly.
Just like airbenders must be trained to be agile and go with the flow as their abilities rely on just that. The key to airbending is flexibility and finding and following the path of least resistance. The Air Nomads fighting style relies almost purely on defensive maneuvers and is the most dynamic of the four elements.
Firebending is all about power. Using fire to overwhelm your opponent. They use concentrated barrages of fire to Attack and then they deal the finishing blow. Due to this, firebending lacks defensive moves unless your a master like my father who can create large walls of fire to stop attacks.
This was totally ok with me because it would at least mean I get to firebend for the first time. As nighttime was nearing I became more frantic. I would already have trouble making a fireball now but doing it at nighttime would make it impossible.
Eventually Father came to the conclusion that it was now or never. "Now that you have mastered the basics it's time to see your potential. The first fireball you shoot will help me gauge how strong you really are. Breathe in and out. The fire needs air to stay alive. Focus on the breathe inside your lungs and try to channel into your palms. Yes like that." He gently encouraged. "Pretend like there is a raging fire pulsing through your body racing towards your palms hoping to escape. Now once you feel like it's built up in your hands release it outwards while punching. It will project the flames away from your body like so." He demonstrated how to do it correctly.
I felt the adrenaline rushing through my body. I projected the fire within my body into my palms and waited for the pressure to build up. It left an odd tingly sensation in my fingertips or maybe that was from sitting in the sun for so long... Anyway, I continued to build the pressure until I felt it was satisfactory and then quickly pushed it out of my hand in a punch.
The air surrounding me filled in flames. I practically engulfed myself with the fire which only made me produce more flames. The fire was so hot it was singing my hair. I was pretty sure at that point I had no more eyebrows. The flames also seemed tinged with blue indicating just how powerful of a firebender I was.
Until I realized that there was no blue flames at all. There was no inferno raging in front of me. My eyebrows were still on my face and my father actually looked suprised. Instead, I was standing on the rock in our pond punching the air.
"Try again. And this time really project the force coming out of your hands." My father commanded. I pulled my hand back and prepared to firebend, again. I teased the chakra out from what felt like my stomach and put forth as much energy as I could gather into my palm. Then I threw my fist out straight into the air projecting all that stored energy outwards.
But again nothing happened. What's going on? I tried again and again. The most I could do was flail m arms wildly and fall into the pond. By that time Father had pulled me out of the pond and was feeling my palm.
"Try it one more time." He said gently while examining my palm. He put his thumb in the center of my palm as I retried the fireball technique. Once I got to the point where I was to punch Father made an odd grunting sound.
"No..." His voice was barely above a whisper. What was going on? I was too scared to ask. The look on my father's face told me enough. Gazing into the house and then back at me, he stumbled across our yard and went to see Mother. Being the frightened child that I was I ran across the lawn and up the tree on the hill that overlooked the field. The field which inspired me to become the strongest firebender that ever lived. Now it was the hill that wretched my dreams straight out of small childish fingers.
I simply stared at them. Firebending was so important to my parents. I literally feel the wedge it would drive between us. They lived and breathed firebending and the best I could do is flop around wildly. Dear Agni, what have I done to deserve this.
I curled up into a tight ball sitting on a large branch. Even at my young age I still knew what this revelation meant. But I had no idea what to do. Maybe I was overthinking this. Maybe it wasn't a look of utter disappointment that I saw on my fathers face. It could have been confusion. I mean, I was also confused so it seemed like the appropriate reaction.
But deep down I knew. When my father was home I sometimes would hear his about his future plans for him and I. He couldn't help but to imagine me as his lieutenant fighting side by side against the rest of the nations. He thought I would become an even better bender than himself but I guess fate decided otherwise.
I looked down from my tree where I couldn't be hurt. Through the window to our house I could see Father talking to Mother furiously. I could almost feel the heat radiating off the both of them which would have been funny if they were earth benders or something else but they were firebenders.
I had two options here. Go down and try to talk to my parents and convince them that everything was alright or stay up in my cozy oak tree. I chose the latter.
Apparently, I had fallen asleep in my nice little tree and missed another huge argument that my parents held. I mean my parents did fight a lot but didn't most people's parents fight. This one was pretty bad though. There was scorch marks left all along the ground. Obviously either Mother or Father tried to get a breath of fresh air and brought the battle outside.
I hopped down from my hiding place and creeped into the house. I opened the door a crack and moved silently across the kitchen. Or at least what I thought was silent. The lights were flipped on and I was caught. With a deer-in-the-headlights look, I whispered hello to my father.
He just stared dully at me. Then I noticed the bottles in his hand. Looked like some hard liquor. His eyes seemed glazed over and ha walked around as if he were in a stupor. I had seen him this way before but for some reason I felt a gut wrenching fear this time.
"Hello." I muttered beneath my breath as I gazed at our tiled floor. The tiles a were a mix of fire red and sunset orange. The unique pattern always captivated me and was another one of my hiding places. One, in a time of strife, could easily get lost in the tranquility of our tiles. I knew I always do.
Father marched across the room and grabbed my hand with force. While I was scared I didn't flinch. Father was never one to hurt anyone. He spoke not a word as I was dragged outside and thrown onto our ostrich horse which Mother had named Haikou. She thought it expressed his beauty in a different way.
Father slapped Hai on the butt to get him moving and off we went. Father still had sad nothing and it didn't look like he was gonna talk anytime soon. I still had no idea where we were going but I decided to trust my father. Bad move.
I woke up in front of a rather large building that had this odd eeriness about it. The house was nice looking and had a cheerful orange painted over it. But something about it still gave me the creeps.
I was looking around for Father when he walked stiffly outside from the house with a frail old lady following. I stifled a giggle. The contrast between the two was just so funny. Here was a large, bulky master of fire with a small old granny waddling behind him.
I was grabbed roughly and set on the ground beside the lady. She scooted closer to me and placed a protective hand on my back. Father still looked grumpy. I had never seen him this way before. He was usually so cheerful and happy but as soon as he learned I couldn't bend we ended up in front of this odd house.
"Stay with this women. She will take of you. Good luck and may Agni bestow many gifts upon you, a nonbender." He spat. Then he hopped onto Haikou and left swiftly leaving a dust trail. As confused as I was I knew what this meant.
I chased after him yelling for him to stop but he only sped up. "Father! What are doing?!" He sat stonily on his mount and continued on. His scarf was whipping back and forth in the wind. He was still wearing his slippers and seemed to have forgotten the rest of his Fire Nation uniform.
The scarf finally wretched free from my fathers possession and flew straight onto my face. Tears in my eyes I stumbled down onto the ground. Ripping the scarf off my face, I was able to catch a last glimpse of my father. It was the last time I would ever seem him.
The small woman eventually caught up to me. She helped me onto my feet with a sad smile on my face. Without uttering a single word, she gently lead me into this odd house. I knew what this meant. I was an orphan.
Once we reached the large oak doors to the house, she turned to me and spoke with that sad smile,"This is the Fire Capital Orphanage but we call it the FCO for short. My name is Chey. What's your name?"
"Piandao." I coldly told her. Then I marched into this new world, leaving my old one behind. My parents didn't want me but I wasn't ready to forget them. Still crying, I marched up the steps onto the old creaky porch. I turned around one last time but I could only see his dust trail that he left. Just like he left me.