Chapter one

I shot off fire balls left and right. Throwing myself into a midair spin, I executed a perfect lightning bolt before landing cleanly on my feet. "WAHOO! And she STICKS the landing!" I walked over to where my father was watching me, a smile on my face. "Well?" I asked hopefully, crossing my fingers behind my back. "Will you advance me?" He smiled. "Your forms have greatly improved since your last demonstration, Maraza. These past six years have been kind to your training." He looked me straight in the eyes. "Very well. We will start on the next set tomorrow." I pouted like a sad puppy. "Aw, come on, father! Please oh please?" I begged. "I can take it; I haven't even broken a sweat, see?" To prove it I arched a flame over his head with a jumping outer cresent, backed up and ran into a ten foot long jump across the deck, jabbing the air with my punches as flames shot out of my fists. I landed, launching straight into a string of backflips back over to him. He seemed fairly impressed considering I'd been training for an hour already with my forms. The extra demonstration did leave me blowing slightly, but I didn't let my father see so.

He grinned and smoothed my shoulder length black hair back. "My, my, all of this extra training has turned you into quite the little spitfire." I playfully rolled my eyes. "Father, I'm sixteen now. There's nothing 'little' about it." He just smiled. "Should I have one of the grooms tack Zesta for you? This next set's going to be mounted." This time the eye roll was one hundred percent real. "I'm strong, you said. I'm perfectly capable of saddling my own horse." You would think he'd be mad at my comment, but he just smiled. I bowed slightly and trotted off to Zesta's stall to tack her up. She pranced at the end of her reins as I led her out onto the deck, throwing her head as her black mane flew around in the wind. This horse and I were so similar, it was almost scary. We both loved to train and go on crazy adventures, that I was one hundred percent certain of.

My father gave me a leg up onto Zesta's polished brown leather saddle. We didn't do much since it was reaching the hottest part of the day, just some Dressage, sword basics and my basic firebending forms mounted. Although the high sun made it hot out, the extra power it gave my mounted forms made them nothing short of deadly.

I swung off her back a short twenty minutes later. "Maraza, if you're not too tired I'd like show you one more thing." My father said gently as I handed Zesta off to her groom. To put it bluntly, I was on the edge of dropping, but I knew this was my own fault for putting in that unnecessary demonstration. My hands were red and almost raw from Zesta pulling at her bit during our Dressage drills. Sh almost pulled the reins out of my hands due to the force with which the mare threw her head. That horse just loved to go! I shook my head slightly to clear it, forcing myself to find my second wind, and nodded. "What's next?"

"Drill her again, Azula." My father looked over at her a little. I huffed and lined myself up again, not even attempting to hide my annoyance. Azula shot a few flames toward me; I filled in the gaps with my own flames so that a circle was formed around me. My father looked over at me as I sustained the flames. "Good. Keep going." I quickly summoned lightning to my fingertips, listening to the voilent hiss of connecting sub-elements as I brought the lightning toward the flames. Sustaining the large dome of connected hot and cold fire above me with an open palm, I looked in my father's direction for approval. He silently nodded. "Finish. Remember your reflexes." I crouched to the ground and let the main flame dance out of my palm.

Tucking myself into a reverse summer sault, I rolled out of the dome...just a smidge too late. I grunted loudly as the lightning exploded in my face, knocking me backward onto the hard metal floor of the ship. Rolling into a stand, I brushed myself off angrily. "Maraza," My father began, concern in his voice. "It's alright, just-" I cut him off. "NO father! Just NO! I'm sick and tired of this constant training. The war's OVER; what's the point?" He sighed. "The POINT is, you never know when you-"

He was cut off yet again by my shrill whistle and the pounding of hooves. Zesta, my striking black dragon-horse, cantered out onto the deck, her lean, fit body shimmering in the sun. "Forget this," I said as I grabbed her rein, my voice blazing as hot as my fire. "I'm going for a ride." Jumping into the saddle, I looked back at my father's shocked expression. "Don't be surprised if I'm not back in time for dinner."

I kissed Zesta into a canter, taking a two-point position as I asked her to jump the ship's rail. Giving her a gentle burst of flame with my heel, I asked her to find her stride in the air. She flew about twenty feet before crashing into the water, making an enormus wave. We left an angry-and not to mention soaking wet-firelord in our wake.

It took us about five miles of swimming before we even came close to reaching land. I looked at the shoreline of the area; it looked kind of like a city. 'Well, it's land. Why not?' I thought as I kissed my mare into swimming faster. We finally found ourselves about ten feet from the dock when I coaxed Zesta into thrusting herself up onto it. "Poor girl," I cooed to her, stroking her mane as we walked. "You're exhausted, aren't you?" She gave a tired snort. I decided to give her a break; I swung off of her back, landing lightly on my feet. This place sure was crowded.

I took her reins in my hand and carefully led her through the bustling streets. I was so busy looking around I didn't see where I was going until-"ugh!" I plopped to the ground as somebody rammed into me, a flame coming out of my butt in the process. "Hey, hotshot, watch where you're going. Don't you-" I almost finished my snappy, Azula style comment...that is, until I got a glimpse of those eyes.