That One Dreadful Moment…

(A/N warning: the following chapter depicts some degree of graphic violence)

Little Hyeonji could bend too, and fairly well for such a young child her age. But Jeong-Jeong had put too much faith in that and not in his own restraint and common sense.

"C'mon, lets just play until sundown." He smiled at his sister. " Here I'll start. It'll be fun. Remember, make sure to catch it and don't let it touch the grass."

"Oh, Okay!" Hyeonji smiled, eager to please as usual and happy to spend time with her older brother again.

It started innocently enough. Jeong Jeong drew back from his sister and started 'the game'. He ignited a ball of fire and threw it at her. The girl caught the bundle of heat and used her small, but quick hands to throw it back.

"Throw it to me faster!" the boy exclaimed, wanting a challenge. "C'mon, help me out here, my teacher says I need to be quicker on my feet on these kinds of agility sets."

The child pouted and ignited her own ball of fire and sent it fiercely to him.

"I thought you said this was jus' a game for the two of us ! Not practice jus' for you…"

"It IS a game! But it's good to practice too, right?"

"Fine--Here!"

"Haha, nice one!" Jeong Jeong laughed.

He smiled at Hyeonji. But the girl had always been skilled as he was, and a little bit more competitive at times.

Yet unlike him, she mostly never wanted more out of her own bending. She had only been happy having him as her constant playmate. But Jeong-jeong had been ditching her lately, and spending more time with the other neighborhood children around his own age.

Well, at least, for now, Hyeonji was getting her wish.

So they continued the tossing.

Back and forth.

First two fireballs.

Then three, then four.

Faster and faster.

After half an hour, the sun still showed no sign of easing its heat. It was taking effect.

"I'm…getting…tired. Let's stop… now. Please…" Hyeonji panted, sweat dripping from her hair. She had been having so much fun laughing and playing, but it was getting far too hot.

"Just a little longer, Let's see if we can break our record!" The boy exclaimed.

Excited with adrenaline, his heart thumped fast through his chest. Jeong-jeong had forgotten about the world around him, the dryness of the air, where it was they were playing, his sister, and merely practicing to improve so he could show off later to his other playmates.

The heat of this dangerous game was making him feel that familiar exhilaration, a sort of rush, a secret childish yet violent curiosity at pushing the boundaries of playing with his primal element.

It was something that every mother and father of every firebender child preferred to keep watch for. Considered as natural for any person, whether young or old, but something to be closely guarded.

But without knowing why, this feeling of power also frightened Jeong-Jeong again, a troubled stirring inside of him, …and he would soon find out why.

The boy continued to catch, throw and punch the flames out even more rapidly…

He failed to see that Hyeonji had grown drowsy from being out in the heat too long.

Suddenly, her legs faltered, and as she fell down, she was caught by surprise and failed to catch one of her brother's incoming hits…

And in a that one dreadful instant…

FSHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

That one fireball.

Because of it, an area of dry grass around the little girl had ignited in a dangerous flash…

Flames spread on her legs and soon, her clothes. It engulfed her.

"Oh no--JEONG-JEONG AHHHHHHH!" Hyeonji screamed wildly, panic-stricken and unable to calmly react as a firebender to get rid of the flames on her own. The little girl had never gotten into an accident before and didn't know how to protect herself efficiently.

As she screamed, the boy was violently jolted to his senses. He ran to the little girl and tried to dissipate the flames around her as fast as he could.

"HYEONJI!"

Thank the fire spirits that the dry grass around did not cause the entire field to catch fire.

But, obviously the fire spirits had not been too merciful.

Jeong-Jeong looked down and realized what he had done.

To his own little sister.

He foolishly had forgotten...

She had not been wearing her fireproof skin suit.

It is his first violent memory that will forever be plagued and burned into his mind. An eerie sight that tossed him out of his childish world and into a disturbing place he did not want to be.

There was Hyeonji, she lay on the ground, she shrieked and cried helplessly in pain. Her high-pitched, piercing screams grow louder and fill the air, and Jeong-Jeong's ears.

He looked closer at her, what he saw made his stomach lurch.

The skin on her legs, the side of her back, arms and shoulder were marked deep red with large terrible, frightening burns. Many areas of her clothes were burnt black, sticking to her flesh. Already, the gashes had begun to blister and darken. He could see her exposed muscle tissue shifting through the open wounds.

Gaping in a mixture of disbelief and revulsion at what he looked at, Jeong Jeong touched her burnt arm with his quivering fingers.

Some layers, literally pieces of skin fell off.

"NO, STOP YOU'RE MAKING IT WORSE! AHHHHHH--" Hyeonji screamed at him.

"…H-Hyeon-jji, I-I'm s- sorry…I didn't m-mean…" his eyes grew wide, he grasped his head in his hands and shook in fear.

"IT-IT HURTS, M-M-MAKE IT STOP PLEASE!—" the little girl sobbed and screamed hysterically, tears streaked down her face, which (even if it fortunately wasn't burned from the hit) was also red and was grimaced in such an expression of pain.

The terrified look in Hyeonji's eyes cut deep inside him.

She tugged helplessly at her brother's sleeve, the weakened girl opened and closed her mouth, like fish flopping around on dry land, as if she was beginning to lose the physical energy or ability to talk.

The boy himself could barely speak. "H-Hyeonji, D-don't move, it's going to be alright…Ju -Just—"

It is then that the girl's eyes drew back into her head, only the whites showed through her half-closed lids. The tremors of pain from the large burns must have shocked her small body so horribly, she began shake and shiver uncontrollably, almost into a convulsion, and spit leaked from her open mouth.

Hyeonji then went limp, and fainted.

Jeong-Jeong, horrified out of his mind, and not sure of what to do, quickly took his small sister in his arms and ran frantically through the field.

"H-HELP! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!" he shouted in a shrilly, helpless voice as he ran. "MY SISTER IS HURT, PLEASE HELP ME!"

As he ran, holding little Hyeonji close to him, limp as a rag doll, a disturbing smell filled his nose, making him feel ill.

The smell of her charred flesh.

"I'm a monster, I'm so stupid, and blind and oh, for the love of heaven, why didn't I just listen to her…why…" he thinks to himself.

He could not hold back his tears. The world around him went wild and blurry.

"…I burnt my sister."