Hey Hey! I drew pictures for the story:-D Yeah so... um, check them out?
I don't own Avatar, and all that junk.
Iroh knelt on the cold metal of the ship and patted the floor opposite him for me to sit on. I knelt too, and looked at him curious to see how he was going to test me.
"Now, we are going to try and see if we can get you to control any of the elements. Punch the air in front of me and imagine it blowing me back." He folded his arms and waited.
I looked at him oddly, then did as he asked. I punched… and nothing happened.
"Try again, you may not have been doing it right."
Oh that's right, imagine it knocking him back. This time when I punched, I thought of something hitting him so he would fall over. And this time, a light flared at my extended fist and Iroh tumbled over backwards. However, there was no stirring of the wind.
"That wasn't Air bending was it." I looked just as confused as I had a moment ago.
"Afraid not, but we do know you can do generally the same thing as an Air Bender. Now let's try this water." He set a cup of water down between us. "Move the water out of the cup. Remember though," he held a finger up warningly, "water is not the same as air. It moves differently."
I nodded and focused on the water. It moves differently… air pushes… and water… water flows! I set my hand a few inches above the cup. I moved my fingers in a dipping movement, like when I test out the warmth of the pool, and tried to make my movements as smooth and flowing as possible. Continuing the dipping movement of my fingers, I twisted my hand and brought it about so my palm was facing up. I was surprised to see a ripple in the water, a dip, and then following the movement my hand made, the water in the cup formed a thin trail and came to rest in my hand.
"Wow…" I grinned, "this is cool."
"But not Water bending." This time Zuko was absorbed in our tests as well. He was kneeling in between his Uncle and I, watching.
"It wasn't?"
"No." Iroh shook his head sagely. "Did you see your fingers as you moved your hand?" I shook my head.
"I was concentrating on the water. What about my fingers?"
"They were glowing, just like those other times." Iroh pointed to my fingers, which were indeed glowing softly.
I move my fingers closer to take a better look and the water dropped from the air onto the deck, making me jump slightly.
"Now for earth." Iroh pulled off one of his boots.
"Um, how are we supposed to see if I can Earth bend if we're on a boat?"
Just as I asked this, Iroh shook his boot over the empty bowl that had previously been filled with water and some dirt and pebbles tumbled out. I laughed.
"I'll bet that was uncomfortable." Iroh grinned at my comment.
"I knew I kept that dirt in there for a reason."
Zuko grinned at his Uncle. "Or you were just too lazy to take off your shoes." I cracked up laughing at that.
Iroh cleared up his throat after our bout of merriment. "Now, Earth bending is –"
"It's alright, I think I understand the elements now." Focusing again on the little bit of dirt in the cup, I stared at the particles.
Particles… molecules. Wait, water has molecules too. Well, just about everything does. Am I controlling the molecules? I mean, it makes sense. I could have controlled the air molecules somehow when Zuko shot fire at me, that time in the Doctor's room, and when I stopped the soldiers. And I probably controlled the water molecules just now.
I decided to try moving the molecules in the cup, and focused on them. Again, I placed my hand a little above the cup and focused on lifting them in the air. I made a fist and jerked it higher, putting a lot of power into it. I was pleased to find that the dust was collected in a ball and followed my fist in the air. I grinned.
"I think I know what I'm doing now."
Iroh looked surprised. "You do? I still have no clue. Shall we try fire before we make a conclusion? Zuko, a bit of fire please." Zuko held out his hand and a small flame formed in the palm of his hand.
Placing my hand over his, feeling the warmth from the flame, I remembered the quick movement of air molecules. Pulling my hand away from his, I saw the little flame came with me and made the flames grow bigger, smaller, and follow my hand like a snake through the air.
I suddenly realized all the stuff I had been doing and I stopped. The flame dissipated in my palm.
"This is crazy, I can't do this. It isn't possible! It shouldn't be possible." I looked at the water and dirt on the floor of the boat.
"But it is possible, and you just did it. Though I'm not quite sure what it is." Iroh scratched his head.
I sighed. "I think I can control the molecules in stuff. Like when I pushed you over, I didn't imagine the wind doing it really, I imagined you being pushed over. And with the water, I imagined the molecules of the water following my hand. Same with the earth and fire."
"Molecules?" Zuko and Iroh looked confused. I suddenly realized they didn't have to take chemistry classes in school.
"Oh, um… the little particles that are too small to see but are in everything. They're what make things… there. I don't know it's hard to explain without going into the technical stuff. See, I'll bet I could even make that cup move."
Zuko crossed his arms disbelievingly. "Go ahead then. I'd like to see that."
"Alright. I'll show you." I placed my hand a few inches to the side of the cup and imagined it moving toward Zuko, and it did just that. He jumped away startled. Then I lifted the cup into the air and forced it to come to a rest in the palm of my hand, which I presented to Iroh with a slight bow of my head.
"Wonderful!" Iroh almost clapped his hands. "Well, there's almost an unlimited source of possibilities for this. You must let me help you train."
He looked so eager, I couldn't tell him no, so I nodded as I set the cup back down on the deck.
"Ok but, some other time please. I'm really dirty," I ran my fingers through my hair that I hadn't washed since my arrival because it'd get curly. "and I need to change clothes again, these are kind of burned." I suddenly noticed a few other tears and burns on the cloth. I sighed.
"Nothing to worry about! We won't start right away. And in short while we'll be docking for supplies so you can buy some proper women's clothing." I glanced at him.
Proper? I have proper clothes thank you very much.
Later that night, I sat lay on my bed, my wet hair bunched behind me so it would curl better, and tried to perfect my control over a ball of water from my bath until late that night.
