Eight

And that's how life continued for the weeks that followed. Every morning we would have breakfast with the family. Sometimes the Fire Lord had a meeting and had to miss it. After breakfast Aeiroh and I would go to town, stroll through the palace gardens or sit in the library and talk for hours. Of course Aeiroh had his lessons and the state to attend to and during those times I discovered the secrets of the palace or I went to town with Geoi or Prince Iroh.

Of course they had questions for me, too. During the first breakfast I'd had with them, they'd let me ask them, to set me at ease, but they wanted to know my story as well. I hated lying, but there was no other way. Leaving was not an option anymore, not now anyway. The news of my dissappearance had reached them, but no one had expected me to be in the Fire Nation so no one actively searched for me here. Especially in the Royal Palace with some of my mother's closest friends. There was, however, another reason for me not to go. Somehow, a bond had formed between Aeiroh and me that first day. It was something I couldn't quite describe, but I found myself telling him things I'd never told anyone. Thoughts, opinions, I told him everything. Everything but the truth about myself.

I'd had to change a lot of facts, but I tried to lie as little as possible. This was no easy task. I had come up with the story that my name was Angie Sowat. Sowat was for Southern Water Tribe. I was 16 years old (this was the truth, at least) and I had been born in a little village in the Fire Nation, called Kuoi. It was quite far from the Capitol, and it wasn't very remarkable in any way, so there had never been paid much attention to by the Fire Lord. My parents were kalled Kala and Nugato Sowat. My mother was a bender (true), a firebender and she was born in Kuoi (not true). My father was also a bender (true), but he was an earthbender from Ba Sing Se (not true). When I was asked about my blue eyes I'd said that my great-grandmother (my mother's grandmother) had been from the Northern Water Tribe. (This was also true, though I didn't say a word about the necklace that she'd brought into our family.)

There were more things I'd changed though, because there were some things very wellknown about me that could make people suspicious. For example, everyone in the Southern Water Tribe knew that my favourite flower was the ice lily. Since A. I could have never seen ice lilies in my life before, being a small town Fire Nation girl and B. It was known that it was my favourite flower, I changed it to a fire lily. This was the same for my favourite smell, which was the smell of the air after a snowstorm. I'd changed this to the air after a thunderstorm. My favourite colour (purple) became red and my favourite activity became swimming, instead of penguin sledding. There were some things that changed on its own, though. After I'd tasted the Fire Flakes, they became my favourite food and my favourite object became the necklace I'd gotten from Aeiroh.

Normally, I wouldn't have thought out this much details, but during the times we were alone he asked me everything, and I asked him. I'd gotten to know every single detail about him. His favourite time of the day (morning), drink (hot chocolate), flower (night flowers and fire lilies), smell (the ocean), person (his father), colour (night blue), food (also fire flakes), object (Avatar Roku's hairpiece, which he had gotten from his father when he turned 16) season (summer), place, everything. The last one was very special to him. There was a duck pond in the garden of the Royal Palace. It was his father's favourite place, Aeiroh told me, and he always took him there. And so it had also become his favourite place, where he went to to think, meditate, practice or just feed the ducks and talk with his dad. It held special memories to him. We hung out at the pond a lot and soon it held special memories for me as well.

As much as I loved being around Aeiroh and with his kind and loving family, I hated the fact that I couldn't waterbend, even more than the fact that I had to lie to them. Waterbending was like a second nature to me, I felt naked without it. One day, I spotted Aeiroh practicing his bending at the pond. I was on a hill somewhere further off, and I was covered by a few trees. Seeing him bend changed something in it. To hell with it. I thought. The fact that I can't bend doesn't mean that I can't practice moves so I can use them with my bending later. I had already heard of using other bending forms in your own, and I decided just to copy what Aeiroh did. When I would get the chance to bend again, I could transform these moves to waterbending moves. I took the stance he had, legs apart, firmly on the ground, shoulders squared and arms low. The stance I got, but the movements were something else entirely. Firebending was unpredictable, swift, with hard stabs and quick shots. Waterbending is graceful, flowing and it seems like dancing, every move flows into another. It was so hard for me to copy the moves and I just couldn't seem to get them.

I shouted in frustration when I couldn't copy yet another move. This gave me away. Aeiroh looked up to where I was and walked over. I'd put my hand in front of my mouth in shock, but it was too late, Aeiroh had already found me. 'What are you doing here?' he asked, not sounding angry at all. Just confused. I decided to be honest – I tried to be as much as I could, anyway. 'I tried to copy your moves, so I'd... you know, so I'd be able to defend myself with them.' I had to blush and looked down. I'd also told everyone I couldn't bend, naturally. 'So you're trying to do some marshall arts, why hadn't you said so before?' I looked up as he spoke to me, confused. 'What do you mean?' 'Well, I get that you want to be able to protect yourself, especially after that incident on the Summer Solcistes. And I agree that firebending – or any kind of bending – is also very useful as a marshall art. But if you want to learn it, why didn't you just ask me to teach you?' I was stunned. He wanted to teach me firebending? That would be... great!

I told him I had only though of it just then, and he nodded. 'Okay, next time you get such a brilliant idea, just come to me, deal?' he looked at me sternly. 'Yes.' I said, and smiled. 'Well, let's go, it's almost dinner time and you should be in bed early tonight.' He took me by my arm and guided me into the Palace. 'Why?' I asked. 'Well, I've noticed that you're not much of a morning person, so you need to get to bed early tonight so you can rise early tomorrow.' 'Why do I have to rise early tomorow?' I raised my eyebrows, and he grinned misschievously at me. 'Because you're firebending practice starts at sunrise.' I stopped walking. 'Sunrise?' 'Yes, we're firebenders, remember? We rise with the sun. So if you want to be a firebender – withouth the fire – you're going to have to rise with the sun, too.


Well guys, another chaper, updated a lot sooner than the last one, thankfully. I'm finally getting more writing time so I'll get things done much sooner. Hope you liked it and Happy New Year to all of you!!:D
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