Fen was met with an obstacle. He couldn't really move his right arm, due to some effect from the snakebite. Sure, he could swing it back and forth, but he couldn't bend it or his fingers without moving them himself with his other arm, meaning that his right arm was practically useless. Fen looked at the problem optimistically. This meant that he could practice his left arm, which was his weaker arm. And it would help him fight whenever one of his arms was damaged. So Fen started on his left arm. He went through the drills that he had been taught at school, then started on some of his own exercises. Fen didn't actually fire-bend when he practiced. He saved that for when he actually needed it. Fen just did the fire-bending moves and imagined the fire, what it would look like and how it would come out. He remembered when he was very small and first saw fire-benders doing their stuff. Afterwards, he mimicked the moves, and finally his father showed him how to actually fire-bend. He had continued practicing without the use of fire the rest of his years, and it had proved very helpful when he was at 'reform' school and at prison, as fire-bending was forbidden at both places. Fen worked some more on his left arm, then switched to practicing with his feet.
"Argh! Why isn't this working?" Ea asked the air in exasperation. She panted, and tried one more time, but still nothing. No lightning. Sometimes she'd get a spark now and then, but nothing that could be respectably called lightning. She kicked up a flame wheel and punched a few fire balls at nothing in particular just to prove whatever animal was watching that she could still fire-bend, despite her lightning problems, then reluctantly walked off in search of Fen. "I'll just tell him I want to observe how lame his technique is," Ea told herself. It didn't take her too long to find the boy, he hadn't walked that far away from their site. When Ea found him, he was practicing something with his feet, his back to her. Ea waited until he got into a critical position, and sent a fireball in his direction to see how well he'd hold his balance. Surprisingly, he kept his position, but he did give a yelp of "What the…" and then executed an impressive 180-degree spin on one hand. Ea crossed her arms, putting on her most "You-are-insignificant" smirk. "What…What are you doing here?" the boy asked with slight disbelief. "Observing how lame your technique is, obviously," Ea said simply, "And on a scale of one-to-ten, it'd be somewhere in the thousands. Which means it is lame beyond lame,"
"Oh really?" Fen asked, "Well then, why don't you correct me on what I'm doing lame?" "I think your technique is beyond correcting. Nothing could un-do it's lameness," "Riiiiight," Fen said, rolling his eyes, and picked up where he had left off. He was pretty much good, foot-wise, so Fen practiced his routine. He had two, one for hard-on fire-bending and one for lightning. He practiced his fire routine first. This included many sets of punches where he would be setting off fireballs, then some foot-wheels, kicks and other fire-bending moves in a sequence. Fen tried to ignore the girl's falcon-like eyes as he went through his routine.
What an odd way to practice. This boy is even more messed up than I thought Ea said to herself who practices fire-bending without fire? Actually, if Ea thought about it, she could almost see the fire coming out from the boy's fists and heels. But she wasn't about to tell him that. Instead, she impassively stared at the kid's movements, a blank yet bored look on her face, her arms still crossed. "You look like you're dancing," Ea commented, but the boy said nothing, obviously trying to shut out any distractions. She noticed that he wasn't using his right arm much, if at all. Ea wasn't surprised. Either it hurt like hell, or he couldn't move it because of the bandages. That, or it was the snakebite that had done it. Ea hadn't remembered paralysis as one of the symptoms. Then again, there were many things that Ea hadn't remembered. Such as how to properly bend lightning.
Fen finished both of his routines, but his head still hurt. So did everything else. His right arm was tingling now. Maybe he could move it. Fen tried to bend it. It didn't do much, but he found he could wiggle his fingers. Then again, they could just be trembling. I guess fire-bending practice doesn't do much for my headache Fen thought, his head pounding. He suddenly felt nauseous, and as the feeling grew, he stumbled as quickly as he could to the nearest bush so he could puke up whatever was upsetting his stomach. When he finished, Fen kept his eyes closed until he was sure the back of the bush was out of his range of sight. His headache continued on steadily, and his arm was practically vibrating. As he had nothing better to do, Fen resumed practicing. The girl had not moved from her position.
Ea couldn't stand it anymore. She hated not knowing, especially when she actually wanted to know. "Did that snake poison screw up your fire-bending, or have you used up all your fire?" she blurted out. The boy paused and stared at her, puzzled. "No, I always practice like this," he said. "Without fire? How can you practice fire-bending if you don't actually practice with fire?" The boy looked lost for a moment, then shrugged. "I dunno, I just do," his face took on a pained expression and he immediately resumed practicing "Besides, you don't burn anything or get in trouble this way," he added. "Trouble fire-bending?" Ea asked, "We're in the fire nation. I don't think fire-bending is a crime where it is most prominent, much less where it was practically invented,"