Part two: Learning to Fly
"I want to give you something," His old teacher, Quan said to him. "The Fire Lord has been very generous to you."
"What do you mean?" Roku asked. He knew very little about the Fire Lord, and other than his supposed "power" to keep balance between the nations, had no idea why he would be interested in him at all.
Quan led him into the large building that they used for training, through the smaller rooms to the innermost chamber, a large, open, room used for practice duels, mainly, unless, of course, one of the students badly disrespected the wrong master. There, in front of him waited a dragon.
"I--uh--I don't understand…" Roku said. He had always been a little afraid of the giant creatures. They seemed to know so much more than the lowly humans that the let ride them, and he always expected them to some day get the better of the Fire Kingdom.
"This is your spirit guide, Roku," Quan said as he spread his opens wide in front of the dragon, expecting him, obviously, to be happy.
"Uh um… "Roku looked at the giant beast. It looked back at him with the cunning, over-intelligent eyes that he had come to expect from dragons. "What, exactly, does a spirit guide do?"
"He will guide you, and take you to where you need to be," Quan explained.
"So… I'll ride on him," Roku tried to clarify.
"Basically, yes," Quan said.
"Eh… I don't think I can do that…." Roku said the idea of flying up over everything and then looking down… it made him sick.
"The only way you're going to get to the air temples is if you take a dragon," His old teacher explained, annoyed at his ex-pupils ungratefulness.
"Do I have to learn airbending?" Roku asked quietly.
"Yes you do!" Quan said, and Roku felt the familiar quick hit to the back of his head. "As Avatar, you must keep the balance between all of the nations, not just fire, water, and earth."
"But it's so… high," Roku said. He had a vision of him flying on the back of a dragon, and the falling to his death. "I can't do this…." He said in a shaky voice, running his fingers through his long brown hair.
"Than you might as well go home. If you're not going to treat all of the Kingdoms equally, and look over your own fears, than you might as well forget that anyone ever told you that you are the Avatar," Quan said.
"But it doesn't change the fact that I am," Roku said.
"Exactly! No ones going to do your work! So you might as well get used to forgetting yourself," Quan lectured.
Roku glared at his master, though he knew he was right. Sighing, he stood and walked up to the dragon. Slowly the great beast lowered his head, and Roku put a hand on the side of his face, 'please be a nice dragon…' he thought before he started to climb up on the dragons head. Once he had reached the most level area of the dragons head, he quickly picked up the reigns that were tied to his horns. "Wait, so where do I put my feet?' he asked his old teacher.
"How am I supposed to know, I've never ridden a dragon," Quan said, shrugging.
"Wait, what? You got me to get up here without even knowing how I'm supposed to stay on!" Roku yelled, panicked.
"Yes. I'll see you at the port, Roku," he said as the dragon lifted his head.
"What?" Roku practically screamed. The dragon stretched out its crimson wings and flapped them to begin rising. "Wait, wait, wait, wait!" he could feel his feet slipping on the dragons scales, and in a panic he ran forward to desperately hold onto one of the dragons horns. He felt his feet loose all grip on the dragons scales. He closed his eyes tight and tried to calm himself. 'I'm not flying… I'm just dreaming right?' he then opened his eyes, and saw clouds fly by his head and glimpses the Kingdom below him. 'No, not dreaming…' he pulled his legs up and curled them around the horn, to ensure that he didn't fall to his death.
It seemed like forever until he found his body sliding down the horn, landing on the dragons head. Somewhere, not far underneath him, he heard Quan laugh. He opened his eyes, pleased to find that the dragon had landed, but, unhappy that it had landed in front of half of his village. He pried himself off of the horn and stood up, shakily and, blushing furiously, he scratched the back of his head and waved. "Uh… hi…" He eagerly jumped down from the dragons head and walked over to where his teacher was standing. "You could have killed me!" He hissed angrily.
"Well, then I'd only have to go to the Air temple to see you again," Quan smirked.
Roku opened his mouth, but then closed it and clenched his teeth, "I don't know why I try…"
"You'll have to deal with me for a while, Roku, after all, I'm going to travel with you," Quan said.
"Y—you are? How? I can't even ride on that thing!" Roku yelled.
"The dragons not the only thing the Fire Lord sent you…" He then gestured to a great fleet of Fire Navy ships that waited in the harbor.
"Why did he send those?" Roku asked.
"You're going to the Earth kingdom, the largest kingdom and the closest to this one. He wants to ensure that you're safe," Quan said.
"And he doesn't want to miss an opportunity to show off." Roku added.
"Exactly."
