It was night, and there wasn't a cloud in the starry sky. The small Fire Nation village was quiet, and there was nobody outside their house. Nobody, except for a boy, sat on the roof of his parents' house. His dark brown hair was hard to see in the darkness of the straight street, but what really gained detach was his eyes, from a goldish brown, typical of Fire Nation people. He worn common clothes, a weak tone of red predominating on his shirt and pants, under a blood-red vest with gold-yellow borders, also normal for citizens of the village.
His name was Dewei. He was 14 years old, and had, just like some fortunate ones of the place, the unique ability of firebending. His father was a militar man, and had some prestige in the village. He was tough and severe to his soldiers, and even to his son. Yes, even more to his son. He wanted Dewei to be a soldier for the Fire Nation army, and an excelent firebender.
Dewei was put under pressure by his father, who taught him personally this bending art, but was overly strict. Any mistake would be retributed with harshness, what would just make Dewei more nervous and prevented him from doing the right forms. Another fact was that Dewei had his own firebending style, but his father, Qiang, wanted him to stick to the tradicional forms at any cost. Not that Dewei wasn't a good firebender, he was very good. When he challenged his schoolmates for small Agni Kais, he was frequently the winner. The boy with time learned not to expect admiration from his father, who only would say that he could be much better.
Dewei, however, wasn't so affected by that anymore. Mainly because of the support of his mother, Mitena. Despite the rigid training he received, it wasn't with his father Dewei learned to firebend for the first time. It was from a friend his parents did not know. His name was Yao. An old man, but who always showed much enthusiasm. Dewei had met him at the age of 10, when he was returning from school and caught himself surrounded by his class' bullies. He did not fear them, but his courage, though allowed him to hold them back for some moments, did not stop him from getting hurt.
He was going to be knocked out when he was saved by Yao's fire blasts. Once the bullies had been scared away, Dewei thanked Yao, who offered himself to take care of his wounds in his small house. Something in Yao made Dewei trust him immediately, and he followed him to his house. The old man was experient as a healer, and complimented the way the boy resisted the pain caused by the anti-inflamatory medicines, which burned even more in that time.
Dewei had told Yao about his life, his conflicts in school and home, and the old man showed himself to be wise, giving him great advices. Since that day, they had become great friends. With some time and insistance, Dewei would convince Yao to teach him firebending in secret. Surely, he was a better teacher than Commander Qiang. He was patient, and had great please from solving the boy's doubts. He taught him that he should draw wisdom from other places, and that all elements were connected. He instructed him how the principles of the other elements could be useful to firebending, and how firebending's could be useful to the other bending kinds.
Dewei got dazzled by the way Yao controlled the flames with the soft and elegant movements of waterbenders, the strong and steady ones of earthbenders, and the quick and evasive ones of airbenders (though those were extinct).
Something Yao and Dewei had in common was their opinion about the war. Both knew Fire Lord Ozai just wanted more power, and used the lie that he wanted to expand the glory of his empire to the world. Dewei didn't want those beautiful distant cultures to be just wiped out form history. He didn't want to fight in the war. At least not the way his father wanted him to, and he knew this one wouldn't accept his opinions in the most graceful way. And even less that Yao had something to do with that.
The boy breathed deeply the cool air of the night. It was full moon night. Something about it intrigued him. In those short periods of the month, he felt a cool energy perpass his body. It was weird, but felt good. On the next day, he would have to deliver his work about the extinction of the dragões. He had decided to finish it in school. He knew very well what had happened. Fire Lord Sozen, grandfather of Fire Lord Ozai, had decreed that to kill a dragon woud give you great prestige and glory. It was silly, actually. Dewei knew it was stupid to kill dragons just to win the title of master Dragon.
The boy yawned lazily. It was late. He would have to go sleep soon, or he would be late for school. His classes were only bearable because of Yao, who would be waiting for him in his house after school time. Dewei stood up and slid agile and silently to the ground, with his martial art abilities aquired from his trainings with Yao. He lighted up a small flame, which kept floating over his palm, to light his way into the house and until his room.
In front of the door of his cubicle, the boy let his little light go out, and went inside the room. The militar strictness of his father obrigued him to keep his room clean, and that annoyed Dewei deeply. In the middle of the darkness, only broke by the stripe of moon light that got in by the window, the boy started to set his school pack. He put inside it the paintbrushes he used to write, the small box containing paint, the scrolls of parchment he would use to write down the teacher's boring explanations and the books that supposedly told te history of the Fire Nation.
He put his most dear items with more care: the scrolls with advanced firebending moves, secretly inherited from his deceased grandfather. The old man was a good person, always kind, despite his arrogant son. Dewei had never met his mother's family. And for some reason, always he got into the subject, his parents would just evasively change subjects. The reason of that, he never knew. He put his pack on his desk, threw himself on the bed, and without even covering himself, fell asleep.
"Dewei! Wake up!", Mitena called.
The boy opened his eyes, still confused. He sat up slowly, still woozy.
"Dewei! You're going to be late!", his mother called him once more from outside the room.
"I'm up, mom", he replied, and with a last yawn, he stood up with an acrobatic jump and got his school uniform.
Once at the dining room, completely dressed up, Dewei sat down in front of his father, who was distracted reading a scroll with the morning report of the troop's performance.
"Morning, dad", Dewei risked, not aprehensive at all about the reaction Qiang would have, despite this one's temper.
The commander just groaned in return. Compared to the usual, that was enough.
"Good morning, son", Mitena greeted, giving him a kiss on his head.
Dewei retributed the greeting, soon after suiting himself with the buttered bread pieces disposed on the table. Mitena, different from many Fire Nation citizens, had a slightly dark skin, light brown hair and deep blue eyes. To look into those eyes was like looking inside a wonderful blue lake. That generous and affectionate shine in his mother's gaze brought peace to his heart. More than once he had asked himself if she were from other nation, but taking in count his father's despise for the other nations, that was out of thought. Mitena spied through the window over the sink to the flowery garden, full of wonderful flaming colors of carmine and golden, amongst the lively green of the leaves. Dewei knew she was watching the sun clock, though he did not expect the reaction she would have.
"Oh dear! Dewei! You're five minutes late", she exclaimed, turning her gaze to her son.
Dewei was already aprehensive, but the situation got worse when his father laid his scroll on the table. Qiang stared at him with his golden, intimidating and severe eyes. He had a short controlled beard, giving him a mature aspect, if it wasn't for his angry expression.
"What are you waiting for, boy?!", he spat harshly, "Move! A vital characteristic of a soldier is punctuality! Go!"
He didn't even need to say. Dewei got his school pack he had laid under the chair, and now stormed through the back door, taking in one hand a piece of bread he managed to catch before leaving. From his house to school it would be needed to take many detours, but there was no time. He ran through the first two blocks among the persons that were distracted with their own affairs.
"Late again, Dewei?", the old herbalist lady of the neighbor asked, smiling from the door of her shop.
"This time I took too long!", he answered quickly, without deaccelerating, leaving the chuckling merchant behind.
He used his agility to, by jumping, climb the shorter walls, and from those to the neighbor walls, cutting way through the town. He heard breefly the exclamations of the owners of the houses he violated, but he couldn't stop for explanations. He could now see the school gates, golden, between tall and smooth stone walls. The gate keeper was closing slowly both sides of the passage. Dewei leaped from the wall to the ground and rushed to the entrance in a desperate attempt to get there in time. But he only managed to colide with the forged metal, and be thrown back to the ground. The keeper laughed.
"Didn't make it this time, did you, boy?", the employee mocked.
Dewei grunted angry, unwillingly burning black marks on the rocky ground. He knew the man wouldn't open the gates for him. He had never done it when he was late. The keeper turned his back at him and walked away heading to the school building, leaving the boy alone. He rose, furious. In a loom of anger, he waved his hands violently, thowing to the air two fire blasts. Calming down, he headed then to Yao's house. There was no hope to get in class. The wall was too tall, even for him, with all his agility and strenght. In his way, he saw a careless lad that always annoyed him when they met, reclined on the wall of a grain shop in which he worked.
"I knew you wouldn't make it this time", the lad provoked.
In return, Dewei, with his fingertips, threw a small, yet powerful, fire blast on one of the soy sacks next to the mocking boy, scattering grains all over the ground.
"Hey! Boy! Didn't I tell you to be careful with that?!" complained the shop's owner, apparently assuming that his employee was the responsible for the mess.
Dewei gave a last victory smile and kept on his way.
Yao's house was a bit far from the comercial center of the village. The boy approached the door. As he knew, the lock had no entrance for a key, but a metal covered hole, which Dewei knew knew that was the way of opening it, with nothing less than firebending. But not any sort of firebending. It was a sort that only Yao and he knew in that town: Blue Fire. Dewei rarely risked to use that kind of fire, for it was harder to control, and much more destructive.
He put his fingertips in the metal hole. He inhaled deeply, and exhaling, he concentrated his energy on his fingers, and from them a small blast of blue fire went out violently. The glow of the small flame vanished inside the lock, which emited some mechanical noises. Soon after, the door unlocked itself for the newcomer. It was a humble, but comfortable house. It was composed by the living room, which was also a dining room, with a short table on a carpet on the middle of the place, with a contiguous small dark kitchen and a door that Dewei knew to keep the room of his old mentor, where he had never entered.
By the silence, there was nobody home. He headed to the door of the room, and knocked some times.
"Master Yao?", he called, unanswered.
Would it worth it to just open the door a little bit to be sure that the old man wasn't sleeping? The firebending master always avoided to talk about his past, and never allowed him to enter his bedroom. What was he hiding all this time? He approached his hand to the handle slowly.
"Ah, Dewei", he heard the old man's voice coming from behind, "You arrived early. Got late again?"
The apprentice hid the hand movement under the false pretext of fixing his pack's strap, and turned aroung to his old friend.
"Hey, Yao. Yeah, I got late", he greeted, disguising perfectly his previous aprehension, with his natural ability for lying, "Where have you been?"
Yao laid the heavy packs he carried on the wooden ground, reclined on the table.
"Shopping. My storeroom's stock is at the end"
The old man was about Dewei's height, his gray hair and beard were laid on his red and golden clothes, slightly worn out. His skin was a little darker than the average of the villagers, and his eyes were dark brown.
"Have you trained the forms I passed you last class?", Yao asked, smiling.
"Yeah, I think I got them"
"Great. Now help me taking this stuff to the kitchen, then we can go to the backyard see your performance", the master said, grabbing at once two of the heaviest packs, and taking them almost comfortably to the next room.
Dewei did the same, grabbing the last three, and took them to where his mentor had gone, though not so easily as he did. How Yao was so strong at that age, the boy did not know. Once all the packages were in the badly illuminated kitchen, both headed to the backyard. The place was an open grassy field, from where they could see the forest, which because of the ghost stories about it prevented the villagers from getting too close. Dewei liked the place.
Yao kept walking, followed by his apprentice, through the grassy plain. Ahead, there was an improvised dojo. It was a small rocky and slightly rough arena. Yao stood on a side of the dojo, and crossing his arms, instructed:
"Now, Dewei, I want you to do the Turtle-Lion's Form"
Dewei stood on the center of the dojo, on his normal fighting stance. Then he started doing the moves, throwing powerful fire blasts from each one, with his fists in some, with his feet in others. He felt he was doing it correctly. He didn't lose his balance in any moment. He was used to the heat that appeared inside his abdomen, spreaded through his limbs and became fire when expelled. He had great control over his breathing, what was vital for firebending. And for the last movement, he opened his hands with his fingers encurved, shaping claws, gathered his wrists, and threw a last devastating fire ball to the air.
He returned to his waiting stance, waiting for his master to order him to relax. He got surprised when he heard an aplause. He turned to see a smiling proud Yao.
"Very good, boy! Really good! It was of a precision and swiftness close to Azula's herself", the old man complimented, happy.
Dewei smiled.
"Thanks, Yao, but isn't Azula a firebending master? I'm still far from that", the boy reminded, realizing that the Fire Lord's daughter, though evil, was talented.
"No", Yao replied, carelessly.
"No what?"
"She's not a true master. And you're not farer from that title than her"
That was sounding weird. Azula was the best blue firebender of the Nation, and she was the fastest lightning caster (only beaten by her father) and inspired fear just with her gaze. Yao noticed his confused expression, and explained:
"I'll tell you why. Azula does not understand the true principles of firebending. She, like her father, and almost all of the firebenders of this nation, rely on hate and anger, and she forgot that fire isn't just destruction"
"It's also energy and life, you told me that", Dewei completed.
"Exactly, Dewei, exactly. And that's what makes you superior to Azula", the old man continued, "You, one day, will be a master far better than Azula will ever be"
Dewei felt flattered, and deep inside knew he knew Yao was right. Almost all of the firebenders relied on anger to bend, and never realized what fire really was.
"Thanks, Yao", the boy said with a smile.
The old man smiled back again, and headed to the opposite side of the arena, where there was a small secret compartment where he used to keep the objects he used to train. He opened the wooden doors and took a real-size puppet and an old wooden stick. He stepped up the dojo again, and with a small but powerful fire blast from his firgertips, he opened a small whole on the rocky floor of the arena, where he put an end of the stick, so it could stay vertical. With some pieces of rope, he tied the puppet to the improvised stake and stood back.
"Now", Yao continued, "I want you to do the Fire Whips"
"But, Yao, that's almost a master-level move"
"Do it anyway", Yao replied, raising his shoulders, "Hit the dummy as much as you can"
Dewei turned to the puppet, which looked more like a scarecrow, stood on his fighting stance and focused. He inhaled deeply, and focalized the energy he had taken from the oxygen being catalised to his arms, and from them to his hands, and from them to the outer enviroment. A continuous jet of flames got out from the boy's fists, assuming the shape of two flaming swords.
He kept inhaling and exhaling carefully, and caused the two "blades" to stretch and to shape two long golden whips. Elegantly associating his movements with the martial art moves he had learned, he shook the flaming weapons, causing their ends to head straight to the dummy, which quickly fell in pieces on the ground, reduced to ash with few still entire pieces. After two more strikes, there wasn't anything to hit anymore. Only smoking ember and a broken piece of the wooden stick. It wasn't so difficult after all.
"This just proves what I tried to tell you, my friend", Yao declared, "You're at a level that few of your age have reached. Just for you to know, Azula's 15 years old"
"No kidding!", Dewei got startled.
"You are as capable as her, and will be even more some day. Now I want you to make some harder moves"
Yao stood on the other side of the dojo, on his fighting stance, staring at the boy.
"I will strike, and instead of redirecting my attack, you'll use your fire as a shield"
"Huh?!", Dewei exclaimed, "But, Yao, fire's not exactly solid, how can I use it to defend myself from other strikes? Wouldn't it be better to throw the attacks away like always?"
"Not every benders are firebenders, you know?", Yao added, "You can redirect strikes from other firebenders, but what if some day a waterbender or an earthbender attacked you, and you had no time to dodge?"
He was right. Dewei already could imagine a water whip hitting him while he tried to dodge, and soon after a large boulder smashing him to the ground.
"Come on, take your stance", the old man ordered.
Dewei obeyed. On his fighting stance, he faced his mentor, waiting for his strike. And soon it came. Yao threw a fire ball with a kick. The boy saw the flame approaching quickly, and focused his energy to create his own. But simply creating a barrier of fire wouldn't be enough. Then an idea ocurred to him. With the flames that sprouted from his hands, he formed the flaming shield, but instead of keeping it still, he caused it to keep swirling, like a wirlwind, and when Yao's attack arrived, the barrier was just slightly affected. Dewei let his defense vanish in the air, expecting evaluations, but Yao was still on his stance.
"Don't lower your guard, boy! We're still not over!"
And the old man threw another fire blast, but this time, it came much faster, forcing the boy to make a more desperate defense. He shot his own fire blast on his master's, and gave an acrobatic jump back to protect himself from the explosion that occured then.
"Very well, use all defenses you can think about. Quick wit is vital", Yao said, launching two more fire blasts.
This time Dewei was ready. He created his fire shield quickly, blocking the attacks. And Yao kept throwing him more and more strikes, and Dewei would either block them with his fiery shield or use his own attacks against the old man's.
"Why are you not striking?", the master asked, sounding harsh, confusing the boy, "You can't dance forever!"
Another fire ball came. Dewei, with a spin, forced it to fly to another direction with another blast, and threw another agaisnt the old man. Yao generated a flaming shield, similar to the one Dewei had made before, but bigger and more powerful looking.
"Now bend my attacks back!", Yao ordered, throwing a particularly intimidating attack.
Dewei forced his control over the big flame quickly, and without making it stop, he made it make a turn behind him and fly back at its original author. The old man made the strike stop, and made it divide into many smaller flames, that flew back at the young firebender, all at once.
"Dodge!", Yao yelled.
Dewei, with his heart almost on his throat of fear, spinned, jumped, ducked and rolled on the arena's floor, evading the small yet letal attacks of the master. Yao stomped the ground, and a very powerful trail of flames spreaded towards Dewei. The boy then jumped away when the fire wave came, which missed him for few, but before he could land, another one turned visible precisely where he was about to fall.
Dewei did it instictively: he pointed his hands down and projected powerful fire jets, which propeled up to the air again, and he landed agile as a cat on the opposite end of the dojo. Suddenly, he understood what Yao was trying to do. He wanted him to think new ways to get over obstacles and dangers. The firebender boy then put himself back in the fighting stance, waiting for his master to attack.
Yao launched another fire blast. The boy then surrounded himself with blazing flames, which spinned around him, hiding him from the old man's sight. The fire blast that came was rejected by the fire barrier easily. When the small flame tornado vanished, Dewei was no longer there. Yao got confused. He looked all around for him, alert, but he didn't see the lad.
Only when he looked up he saw him. Dewei had jumped higher with the help of some fire jets from his feet while the fire tornado distracted the master firebender. The boy started to fall in Yao's direction. The master then threw a torrent of flames at him, but he missed, and Dewei landed behind him, and with a low roundhouse kick, he took him down.
Yao, on the ground, shook his head, and saw Dewei in his fighting stance, pointing his fist at him, victorious. For Dewei's surprise, Yao started laughing. Why?
"Boy, you are a prodigy!", the old man exclaimed, "I surely didn't see that coming. You thought yourself very good ways out"
"Right, but, Yao, next time think classes that can't kill me, okay?", Dewei complained, cleaning the sweat from his forehead.
The master laughed as the boy helped him getting up.
"Just one last thing", he said.
Dewei put himself instinctively on his fighting stance, afraid that Yao would attack him again. The old man laughed again.
"No, I'm not going to strike you again. I just want you to perfect the technique of blue fire before the end of the class", he explained, "Show me the Turtle-Lion's Form again, but with blue fire, and instead of using your fists, use your fingertips"
Dewei, though aprehensive about using that dangerous technique, obeyed, putting himself on the center of the arena while Yao stood back. He stood on his fighting stance and started the form. Bending that fire felt weird. The blue color of the flames made them look cold, but they were even hotter than normal fire, and the strenght with which those flames flew from his fingertips was so much that they were pushed back. Something about that fire made him feel… wild. A certain rage which's source he didn't know slowly started to take over him.
Finally, when he made his last move, he put on it unintentionally too much anger, and the blue flame that was generated was too big and powerful, what scared him. Dewei was pushed by the force of the concussion, and fell after tripping on his own feet. The fire disappeared in the air, not before returning to its normal golden coloration. The boy, after sitting up, looked at his master, unsure. Yao stared at him, serious.
"That was necessary", he explained, "You needed to live the danger blue fire can bring. This kind of fire yes, has as principle, anger. It is almost impossible to bend it without feeling it growing inside you. That's why Azula is so good at it. She was always a monster. Just use this kind of bending in case of great need"
"Gee, I'd never find out that alone. – Dewei said sarcastically, getting up.
"I think it's enough for today. Wanna stay some more time for some tea?"
"No, thanks, Yao. Dad said I'd have to get back from school for another firebending lesson", the boy answered, bitterly.
They gave each other their last goodbyes and Dewei left through the front door, heading home.
When he turned to an apparently empty street, he stumbled across a boy about his age, leaned on a wall, apparently waiting for him. He stared at Dewei with a mean smile.
"Well, well, well", the lad said, "Look who got late… again"
"Hey, Chen", Dewei greeted him, dry, "What do you want?"
"To know what you do around here everytime after school and when you get late", Chen answered, cynically.
"I'll warn you when it's your business", Dewei replied, without getting aggressive, "And I have the impression that this is not really gonna happen"
He restarted walking, but he was intercepted when a fire blast hit the ground inches away from his feet. Dewei looked back. Three more students had joined Chen.
"You're so brave that you need your little friends to fight for you, Chen?", he asked, careless.
"That's just a matter of point of view, Dewei", Chen answered, putting himself in the fighting stance, being mimicked by the others.
Dewei didn't move while his hostile schoolmates surrounded him. Only then he surprised them with four fast consecutive fire blasts at each of his opponents. Two fell, one dodged, and Chen blocked. The boy that was still standing shot a fire ball, but Dewei agilely jumped up to the air, evading the attack, and from there he threw three flame blasts, which propositally didn't hit him, but just exploded around him, distracting the student. The boy screamed in startle. Dewei landed back on the ground and gave him a low roundhouse kick, bringing him down.
The other two students had gotten up, and threw many blasts at Dewei. The firebender then, to evade, spinned jumped to the left, throwing his legs forward, and with that movement, throwing a fire arc on all opponents that were left. They used their bending to protect themselves, just enough to not get burned, and where thrown back, knocked out.
There was only Chen left, who stared at Dewei with a furious expression, and he started to strike. One, two, three, four powerful fire blasts were shot by him, with kicks. Dewei decided to use the same strategy he had used on Yao. He surrounded himself with tall flames and made them spin around him. The four attacks hit the flaming barrier, and vanished along with it. Dewei had disappeared. Chen looked around, afraid, impressed by his enemies power to control so much fire. He was above him, stopping propeling himself with his fire jets, letting himself fall. He landed behind the confused Chen, and with a well aimed kick on his back, he took him down.
After making sure all of his enemies were really defeated, Dewei just caught his school bag, and with a chuckle, said:
"It was nice playing with you, guys, but I have to go now. See ya"
He turned his back on the fallen students and walked away. He hastened his pacing in case any of them had gotten up and turned to another street.
"Do it again!", Qiang shouted.
Dewei repeated the form his father had ordered him to do, and though he was doing it perfectly, Qiang insisted to make him repeat it.
"What do you think you're doing? Close your fists and keep your stance firm. You look like a lame waterbender!", the commander shouted again.
Dewei stomped the ground with anger, leaving a dark burn mark on the dojo.
"If it's so bad, why don't you do it yourself?!", he replied, harshly.
Qiang looked like he was going to explode of rage.
"Insolent boy! Don't you dare to talk to me like this!", he spat back.
"I talk to you however I please! Why should I respect you if you don't respect me?!", the young firebender shouted in response, "Why do you treat me like that all the time? I never did anything wrong for you to hate me!"
With a growl, Qiang lauched a fire ball from his fist at his son, who bent it away easily and threw another near his father's feet.
"You, boy, are grounded for a month! It's just home and school for you now!", the commander demanded, furious, "Go to your room! NOW!"
Dewei, not wanting any more confusion, swallowed his anger and headed silently to his room.
At night, when everyone was sleeping, Dewei escaped from home. He had worn up dark clothes to avoid being seen in the darkness of the streets. After sneak-passing the guards of his house, he started walking through the streets without any certain destination. How could his father treat him that way? Why did he treat him like that, like he was never what he expected? He wanted Dewei to be a good firebender, and so he was. Why all that frustration and despise? Would it be some other reason?
The boy got out of the city's limits, now entering the forest. He wasn't afraid of it, even at night. There was a lake in the woods, which he enjoyed visiting. At least now he had a destination. He walked among the trees, ignoring the sudden noises he knew to be from small animals. He got in a denser part of the forest, where trees were closer to each other. Their branches blocked the light of the full moon, leaving the trail completely dark. Dewei lighted up a small flame with his bending, and kept it suspended over his hand, lighting the way ahead.
He walked a little more, but was forced to stop when he heard the sound of voices cut the silence. He let his flame go out, hiding in the darkness while he approached carefully the source of the voices' sound. He peeked over some bushes, and saw the margin of the lake, and on it, the sillouettes of six persons. He recognized five of them as Fire Nation soldiers. They all worn black and red armors, and helmets with red horns and white faces, resembling skulls, what denounced that they were firebenders. The sixth figure Dewei recognized as a young lad, apparently of his age. He didn't wear red and golden clothes from the Fire Nation, but very dirty green and brown clothes, and he was on bare feet. He was from the Earth Kingdom!
"What did you get from running away from prison, lad?", one of the soldiers asked, teasing the fugitive, "You knew that there's nowhere to go. You're in our Nation. You can't get away, unless you want to swim back to the continent"
"Watch out!", another soldier alerted.
The Earth Kingdom lad stomped the ground strongly, causing a big rock to raise from the soil, and with a second movement, the boulder was thrown at the soldiers. The rock was exploded by a combined fire blast casted by the soldiers. The one that had spoken before threw one himself at the lad rapidly. Dewei felt his heart clenching when he heard his scream. The fire had hit the boy's arm, and he fell on the ground, helpless. The author of the attack, apparently the leader, got ready to launch another fire ball. Dewei felt he had to do something. He leaped out of his hideout and landed between the earthbender lad and the soldiers.
"You stay away from him!", he threatened.
"Who're you?", the leader asked.
"It doesn't matter. And with the funtion of you guys' brains, I'm sure you wouldn't get it today", the boy mocked.
He gave a punch in the air to throw a fire blast and… nothing happened. He didn't feel the heat that perpassed his body when he bent, and no flame got out. The soldiers laughed, and recovering the seriousity, they threw together a large torrent of flames in a combined movement, with success. Dewei felt his heartbeats accelerating. He and the earthbender would be obliterated!
He wasn't sure of what he did. He threw his arms to a side, in a last attempt to firebend, but instead of feeling heat in his body, he felt a cool energy. It was the same sensation he used to feel in the nights of full moon. The water near the margin of the lake was raised in the air and thrown roughly on the flames' way, extinguishing them. The soldiers, just like Dewei and the earthbender got stunned. Dewei could waterbend!
How could he? It didn't matter in that moment. He would have to use it, seeing he couldn't firebend. He pointed his hand at the lake, focusing on the cool and fluid energy he had felt before, and he did feel it again. A water bubble raised in the air, assuming the rough shape of a large whip. The soldiers ran towards him, about to strike again. Dewei closed his eyes and threw his arms forward, feeling the coldness inside him getting stronger, and then stopping.
He opened his eyes. The soldiers were compeltely covered in ice! Five statues of firebending souldiers, unable to make a move. All that was incredible, but if it was in a good or bad way, Dewei couldn't tell. He turned to the lad he had just saved.
"Can you walk?", he asked.
"Yeah", the other answered.
"So let's get outta here before more of them show up!"
And they ran inside the forest the fastest they could. They reached the city's limits. The young firebender (and now waterbender also) turned to the earthbender.
"Find shelter and wait for me tomorrow at night near the lake, I'll bring you disguises and food"
"Thank you!", the lad replied, with a smile, and followed some other path back into the forest.
Dewei came back running the most silently he could, and when he finally reached the safety of his room inside the house, he locked himself in. He changed his clothes. How could he waterbend? His father's despise at him came back to his mind. Whatever the reason why his father treated him bad was, it surely had something to do with that.
To be continued…