Inner Fire
It hadn't taken long for Korra to realise that there was a normal way to teach something and an Azula way to teach something. The Azula way invariably involved panic, terror, and multiple brushes with death. It was also annoyingly effective, which was probably the only reason the White Lotus had turned a blind eye to all of the insanity that her firebending instructor came up with on a regular basis.
"Can you explain to me why I'm standing next to the ocean in my underwear?" Korra asked, teeth chattering. "Because I really don't feel like freezing to death out here."
"Today, we are going to awaken your inner fire." Azula gestured at the water. "Splash me with some of that water."
"What?" Korra had been dreaming of doing just that for the past five minutes, but she had to be hallucinating. This was too good to be true. There was no way that Azula would ask her to do that. "Are you serious?"
"Absolutely."
"But…" Korra pursed her lips. "You'll get wet."
"That would be the point, yes."
"And it's really cold out here."
"Indeed it is."
"You could freeze to death."
Azula's golden eyes narrowed. She was dressed in nothing more than a thin silk robe. "Do I look cold to you?"
"Uh… no." Korra supposed that was odd. Azula should have frozen to death in that outfit.
"Just splash me."
So Korra did. And if she cackled a little while doing it, well, it was only because of the cold. It had nothing to do with finally getting to splash Azula for all the horrible training exercises she came up with. However, her glee didn't last long. As the water sluiced off Azula, it began to turn into steam.
"This is what my inner fire can do, Korra." Azula smiled thinly. "It is why I don't need to wear a jacket outside. My inner fire is more than enough to keep me warm."
"Wow." Korra nodded slowly. That was impressive. "So… um… how do you do that?"
"Oh, I could give you the entire five hour lecture about how to connect with Agni on a spiritual level, but that was always more my uncle's thing. The simplest way to think about it is to imagine a great fire burning inside your body, a fire connected to the sun. Imagine it radiating warmth through your entire body. Imagine it beating back the cold. It may take a while to find your inner fire, to visualise and grasp it on a spiritual level, but there is a way to speed up the process. Would you like to try it?"
Korra shrugged. "Sure. It beats getting a five hour lecture."
"I was hoping you'd say that."
Azula kicked her into the water.
X X X
Author's Notes
As always, I do not own Legend of Korra. I am not making any money off of this either.
Korra should know better than to agree to something before asking what she's agreeing to, especially when Azula is involved. And is anyone really surprised by Azula's shortcut? Oh well, it's all for the best… hopefully.
As always, I appreciate feedback. Reviews and comments are welcome.