Author's note :

Happy new year folks ! I hope 2008 will be great for you all, especially Newguy22, who's become Jee's number four fan - number three being me, number two being oyone, and number one being zuko. (wOOt) Oh come on, i've rewatched "the storm", and you know what they say about people who argue all the time - plus they're stuck on a boat and they've got nothing to do but chasing the avatar, soooooo... i guess i should just go on with the story.

Anyway spread the reviews' love !
and you'd better enjoy this chapter, because i've really worked hard on it. well, there's still that line that can totally crack up your brain if you take it out of context, but other than that I think I can pat my shoulder... next chapter should be coming in middle february since i have both my semi-annual and driving license exams to prepare. And that's NOT gonna be easy...

(PS : as the stupid note above "subtly suggests", you can bet i had a good time on the new year's eve.)

'I spare you the details of those repetitive two years. Well, two years and a half to be precise.
I suppose you don't need me to tell you what kind of stupid chores and exercising we were doing. Army's the same everywhere. And No, there were no special exercising when the chores were done. Get that wicked smile off your face, Oyone.'

But the summon only turned the innkeeper's slight smiling into a broad grin.
Oyone. Jee thought for a second how strange the name felt in his mouth. It was not something he was used to, but somehow he knew he could cope with it.

Come on, you must have a few interesting anecdotes you could gossip about with your humble host.' Oyone teased back.

Jee looked at the woman in front of him – and he had quite a nice view since her wrap-over top was so loosely fastened.

'Alright. Well… you know that Master Sho I told you about ? The one who wore his weakness for delicacies around his waist ? It turned out he was not someone to be daring with, yet.

The martial art lesson always started with us lining up in 5 ranks of 5 people – as to our initial group of 20 volunteers, 5 called up were added on the first days of our training to make our section complete.

Then Master Lieutenant Sho came and inspected us, if anything was wrong in the way we were standing or looking or breathing, he would make all of us do fifty push-ups, then the trouble some guy would have to do fifty more while the rest of the group would stand at attention and look at him. No matter how long it took, no one would do anything until he was done. And since we were training in an open courtyard, it would sometimes grow very uncomfortable. Not to say unbearable. When the weather was hot, we had to stand there sweating, and when it rained, completely chilled for hours.

All that while our revered master was sitting in a large plush chair, with a fancy umbrella above his head and a cup of tea in his hand. His aide guarded him and circled around him like a stupid dog.
And all from his little throne, Master Sho was ordering us to move our arm this way, to turn out leg to the other side, telling us how to shift our weight and how we were doing it all wrong. The he gestured to his aide and the guy overplayed the expected move with disgusting pride on his face. We would do it again, three times, and the ones who didn't get it right away after he had done so had a special punishment. They would be pulled apart from the others at the end of the training, and they would have to show master sho the move over and over again until it was done right. For each time you had to redo it, master sho would give you the honour to lift his wide person from his chair and lash by himself your bare back or feet with a stick.
And I personally had a few extra lessons of this kind, so I know what I'm talking about.

This was all to serve a purpose, and I have to admit that everyone including me was outperforming. But on the other hand, it wasn't long before I didn't find master sho's speeches so inspired anymore.

He was cruel, a little man who thought himself tall when he was nothing more than living on top of the remaining of other people's glory.

I remember that time a man of our unit –he was called Jozu- could not stand because he had been sick all night long. He was not of a big constitution, but he was willing to do good and seemed very honourable. I believe he had engaged in the army because his son had fallen on the warfront.

In the morning inspection, Master Sho saw Jozu's limbs shaking when they should have been motionless. He said a good soldier had to show respect to his superior no mater what, otherwise it would be the end of our civilisation and disgrace would spread and sicken our bloodline. The usual punishment began, and since Jozu had been throwing up everything he had eaten since the previous evening, we had to wait two whole hours.

Time went by. The sun was high and had a deep colour, and still Jozu was not finished. His panting was heavy and he was collapsed on the ground. There were a few uncomfortable stares passing among us, but no one dared to speak up.

Jozu was not making any move to go on, so Master Sho exceptionally rose from the plushy chair and stalked nearer, lips curled and jaw clenched.

'I've been in this camp for twenty three long years of my life. I've worked and trained and fought with everything I've got to prove myself worthy of my element. And I've turned a thousand other airheads like the sorry piece of filth you are, into soldiers and heroes of this Nation. Now is not the day that I'll be stopped ! Get up !'
And with that he gave a little kick on Jozu's left side. The body made a slight swinging and a muffled noise.
If I had an once of respect left for maser sho, it was wiped out at this very moment.
'He was sick all night, Sir'.

Heads turned around, but mine didn't, for it was me who had spoken. I can't really tell what I was thinking then. It was more like I wasn't thinking at all.
Master Sho walked toward me, waving his hands around him like to dig his way through the thick and hot silence.

'Soldier… Jee, right ? This is not the insolence I was expecting of one of my pupil, even if from such a slum as you are.'
'Sir, I just think –
'You're not here to think, soldier !'
His face was centimetres from mine, and all of his muscles contracted.
'And you'd better let people who have some sense do it for you if you want to stay out of troubles. You are here to do every single thing that I command you to. It is your place. So keep your little pointless comments for yourself. The only thing people like you should take the risk to use their brains for, is to remind themselves to shut up and do as they're told ! Stick to you job soldier, is that clear ?'
I was boiling inside.
'Yes Sir. But-

The wind was knocked out of me as master sho sent his arm forward and hit the middle of my chest with his outstretched palm.
What do you know, he did have some strength left behind his fat.
I fell backwards and landed hard on the soldier behind me, and only then did the pain struck. It spreaded from my sternum to my body muscles and my arms, and then up to my head.

Master Sho went back to sitting in his chair, then dismissed us, all.
Everybody wisely walked away without even looking back at me, except for Shannan who helped me back to the dorm.

Of course, for the next month I was on toilet scrubbing chores and other delightful activities of this kind. Sho did not punish Jozu, and the smart guy avoided me like if I were plague-stricken. How grateful, right ?

I had another revelation on the… complexity of human nature, a few weeks later.

We had this stern and exacting firebending teacher. Master Jeong jeong. He made us stand with our legs wide open for hours to "breath" before we could do any type of real practise. We did look pretty stupid…
Master Jeong Jeong was strict, and he had an utter ideal on what discipline should be.

At first it was really annoying, moreover since we had seen him without his protective mask during our training sessions : He was probably not even 25. And here he was, yelling at men sometimes older than him, commanding us and telling us what was right and what was wrong, like, you know, he knew so much better than us... It was hard to swallow, but with some time, and the more I used my firebending, I realized he was probably the best teacher in the whole camp.

Sure he was fastidious and at times tiresome, but he was never unfair nor cruel. And he did know better than us.
Even his breathing techniques I had found dead boring at first proved to be very useful as we were learning more advanced firebending techniques.
And I'll tell you, I wasn't looking forward for each training session only for the bending – although that's something really thrilling actually. I also seeked his advises, and it was very nice to know not every officer in the army was narrow.
In a few months he had earned the respect of our entire unit.

But then one day, we learnt he had been promoted, and I've never seen him again.
None of us were surprised he had left : he was much too gifted to stick to teaching firebending to new recruits his whole life. We were proud we had been trained by Captain Jeong Jeong. And I think we've all been even more each time we heard about him getting to a higher rank.

That is, until Admiral Jeong Jeong became The Deserter.

Things were different then.

Don't you think I scorned him. I never did, and I never will. It's just that by the mean time, I would have lived different things. My eyes would have changed with insight. I would see differently. And I would have learned to be a bit more sceptical and defiant about what things looked like at first.

And this, started right away with my two years training. Master Sho if anything taught me that charismatic people's great speeches are often only words that have a nice sound to it, put together. And Master Jeong Jeong taught me the difference between something nice and something good.

You know what was killing me ? I had to wait until I met him to understand it. I mean, I should have known better ! Then maybe I would have listened to my father when he was yelling about a random one of my friend : "you can put as much sugar as you want on it, and it may taste better, but believe me, it will still be a rotten fish."