After her tense encounter with the Prince of teenage angst, Rei quickly made her way towards the main deck of the ship. She did have a brief flicker of hope that she could find common ground with the teenager in regards of being homesick or something of the like, but that hope died quickly with the interaction that followed. Oh well. Rei just had to keep from stepping on the young prince's toes then she should be fine.

As she walked down the hallway however, she had a sudden realization that made her stop in her tracks. She was in a situation of terrible magnitude. She was already tripping over the fire nation's toes. She's been captured twice by the fire nation so far and already bore a blistering wound from them. She was in the belly of the beast, surrounded by those who would most likely kill her in the blink of an eye if they knew her secret. She didn't get that vibe from Iroh but his nephew on the other hand, she didn't know what he's capable of. Oh shit, what did I get myself into? Rei started to feel hot and sweated profusely. This sudden onset of stress also started to make Rei feel queasy, which prompted her to lean one arm into the side of the hall and wrap the other arm around her stomach. How did she think that she could possibly escape with all the soldiers around her? Sure, she had Sora with her but she didn't even know what that meant for her in this situation. Rei groaned and slumped her head downwards as she leaned more into the metallic wall. She closed her eyes and mentally called out for Sora, who appeared in front of her in a blue haze and smiling down at her.

"Sora, what do I do?" Rei asked, exasperated. "I'm in some deep shit right now and I don't know what to do."

Sora placed an ethereal hand on Rei's shoulder. "First, you must breathe."

"Breathing is the least of my problems at the moment." Rei gasped, trying to keep her voice low to not be heard. "I'm on a ship full of fire nation soldiers and royalty. How can I get out of here?"

"Perhaps you shouldn't focus on what's outside, but the opportunities present here." Sora replied.

"What?" Rei swatted away Sora's hand with her arm, which passed through Sora like smoke. "When I'm freaking out is not the time to speak in riddles. Just spit it out."

"This is the time to be patient and observed." Sora explained. "Look around you, be vigilant and learn from what you see."

"So you're basically saying the same thing they said back there, that I'm stuck here?" Rei shot.

Sora's eyes showed a glimmer of concern. "My child, if you rush out into the world, you will be rushed back into the cell you just escaped from."

Rei huffed. "So I'm stuck on a ship full of firebenders with no idea how to airbend." Rei paused. "Can't you teach me how to airbend? Aren't you a spirit of air or something?"

Sora hesitated, and backed away slightly. "Yes I'm a spirit, but spirits do not follow the same ways of bending as you. Our power is raw, and cannot be channeled through traditional bending techniques."

"Is that such a bad thing?" Rei questioned. "Raw power sounds like a good thing to have to defend myself."

Sora sighed. "Consider a typhoon. It is a raw power of air, but one cannot have full control over it. One cannot bend a typhoon to their whim, and can easily harm one's self more than their enemies."

Rei slumped down against the wall. "So you can't help me at all."

"You can help yourself, my child, and I will guide you." Sora moved closer in front of Rei, and planted a soft kiss on her forehead. "I will always be here to offer you guidance."

With that, Sora dissipated into thin air, leaving a frustrated Rei to decipher her words. Some guidance you've provided… Rei thought sarcastically. She tapped her fingers on the wall behind her for a few brief moments, considering what to do next. She pushed herself off of the wall and started towards the door to the main deck down the hall. She didn't realize how big and complicated the door was until she was right in front of it. The door was held shut by a crank, which required a considerable amount of effort to release. The crank was slightly rusted, which probably made the action more difficult than it needed to be. Finally, Rei pried the door open and stepped out onto the main deck.

Rei was temporarily blinded by the sudden stream of sunlight shining down in her eyes. She instinctively shielded her eyes with her forearm to allow her to adjust to the light. When she was properly adjusted, Rei gazed out at the main deck which was busy with life. Some fire nation soldiers were mopping the floors while others did other various things such as patrolling, scouting in the crow's nest or practicing firebending on the sides of the ship. Amongst the sounds of activity on deck was the sound of waves crashing into the side of the ship, sending sprays of salt into the air. Rei jolted at the hiss of nearby firebending, feeling its warmth traverse through the air by her. She looked in the direction from which the stream of warmth came and saw the fire nation soldier looking quizzically at her. She quickly looked away and walked towards the end of the main deck.

Rei noticed that not many of the soldiers bore the skull mask, like their counterparts who served under commander Zhao. Actually, some of them didn't wear any helmet at all and let their faces be visible. The majority of the men seemed older than Rei would have assumed to be accompanying the prince of the fire nation, closer to being old comrades of Iroh than anything. Perhaps they followed Iroh more than Zuko at this point in time. All Rei knew however that these soldiers were all turning to watch her one by one as she made walked by. Rei could feel all of their eyes on her, and pulled her arms tightly around herself for comfort. She noticed one man who got up from the sidelines and start to approach her. Rei stopped in her tracks and allowed the man to approach and meeting at the middle of the deck.

The man had short light grey hair and a beard, which curved around the edges of his jawline and around his mouth. He had a neutral expression on his face, which bore a few lines of wrinkles especially around his mouth. From where he stood, he seemed to be almost a head taller than Zuko, which meant that he towered over Rei. When the two finally met, Rei had to lean her head slightly to look at his face. The man looked down at Rei and let out a quick "hmph".

"So you're the stowaway that knocked me over earlier." He stated.

Rei realized that this must be the soldier that found her hiding spot a few hours earlier. "Oh, that was you. Sorry about that, I hope I didn't cause you any harm…" She replied shyly.

"I was just surprised is all. Didn't expect someone to bolt out of the barrels at me." The man looked around at the surrounding soldier on deck, who all seemed to stop what they were doing to look at the pair.

"What are you all lookin' at? Back to work!" He shouted. The crew members all jolted and went straight back to the tasks they were doing previously. The man cleared his throat and looked back to Rei. "General Iroh said you would be coming to me for work. You took long enough to get here."

"Oh, you're Pho-Jin then?" Rei asked. "I'm Rei."

"Yeah, yeah." Pho-Jin waved her away dismissively. "We've got a lot of work to do before training begins."

"Training?" Rei was puzzled.

"Prince Zuko trains with General Iroh soon, and goes until dusk. The deck has to be spotless for then." Pho-Jin pointed to a nearby mop and bucket. "Now get scrubbing."

Rei brought her hand up and gave a quick salute in acknowledgement before proceeding to the mop bucket. She took a mop in hand and proceeded to wash the deck. There were a few other soldiers doing the same thing on different parts of the deck, so she hoped that the job would be done quickly. When she looked down at the deck, she then realized how dirty it actually was. There was scorch marks and soot all over the place, presumably from the firebending training. Footprints dotted the deck which made the deck look like one big map to everywhere and nowhere all at once. Rei sighed and got to work at cleaning her assigned spot. She cleaned furiously with the mop and in certain areas, she had to get down on all fours and scrub viciously with a sponge. Finally, after some time, Rei got the deck to look somewhat decent before Pho-Jin stepped towards her.

"That'll have to do for now. The training is about to start so you need get out of the way." He said.

"Could I watch from the side? I've never really seen much professional bending." Rei asked.

"Fine, just stay out of the way." Pho-Jin sighed and signaled for another group of fire nation soldier to join him in a line in front of the housing section of the ship.

Rei awaited at the side of the ship for the training to begin. She saw Zuko step out of the bowels of the housing section of the ship dressed in his usual armor with Iroh trailing behind. The fire nation soldiers all bowed before following behind Zuko and getting in a square-like formation around the prince. Iroh sat down cross-legged about ten feet behind Zuko with the palms of his hands resting on his knees. Zuko stepped into his offensive stance with his arms outstretched in front of him, still as stone. The soldiers surrounding him all stood in their respective offensive stances, with Pho-Jin standing on the side overseeing them with Iroh. The air was charged with tension, and it seemed that the entire ship held its breath. All of this changed when Iroh said "Begin.".

The fire nation soldiers all shot fire straight at Zuko, who deflected it with ease. Zuko's deflection of fire sent most of the soldiers staggering backwards, which gave him a distinct advantage. Zuko sent two streams of fire flying out of his hands in opposite directions, dealing with the bulk of his opponents on his far sides. One soldier on his left side sent a fire punch towards Zuko, which Zuko ducked out of the way. A soldier on his other side sent another fire punch flying Zuko's way, where Zuko jumped over it and bent fire from his leg and arm towards the two soldiers he focused on. Zuko landed swiftly on his feet, reaching his arms to his two opponents. Rei was in awe staring at the impressive fire bending moves. Zuko started off at a clear disadvantage, fighting many enemies at once but lands on his feet with the upper hand. But apparently Iroh was not nearly as impressed as Rei was.

"No! Firebending comes from the breath, not the muscles!" Iroh began, standing up. "Breath becomes energy, and that energy extends past your limbs and becomes…" Iroh let out a strong fire punch, which hissed as fiercely as a dragon's breath. "Fire. Do it again."

There, Rei watched as Zuko repeated the drill time after time. With every practice, Zuko honed his skills to a razor point. He jumped higher, landed softer, reacted faster, but didn't seem to get the concept of breath as well as he should. Rei could see that his rage influenced his inclination for body over breath, which was a specific hinderance on his abilities. Finally, Zuko seemed like he's had enough.

"I've been repeating these drills for long enough, Uncle! I'm done with these mundane tests!" Zuko puffed. "I'm ready for the next set!"

"Prince Zuko, you still have to master your basics. You're still using your muscles instead of your breath!" Iroh sighed. "We have trained long enough for today, we will resume tomorrow."

With that, Zuko stomped off back into the bowels of the ship. Iroh let out a long sigh and shared a bow with the exhausted fire nation soldiers around him before following his nephew. The group of soldiers passed below deck, presumably to change or get some food. Rei was left on the deck, processing all of the firebending techniques she's just witnessed. She was happy that she got to witness the training exercise, she learned so much just from watching. Rei felt so tempted to try out the moves right then and there but realized that she was still in enemy territory, so it would not be wise to do so just yet. Rei looked over the side of the ship and stared into the sunset. The sky seemed to be bleeding, with red and dark orange pigments dancing in the landscape. The light of day was slowly dying and being replaced by a subtle darkness laced with stars. It was a strange sight to see, like seeing the death of something bright and beautiful and being replaced by a slow darkness. The stars dotting the night sky kept glimmers of hope alive, the hope of seeing the light of day emerge once more. This reminded Rei of the events of her recent past, being the burning of her village and subsequent capture. Rei felt a twinge of fear but also hope in terms of her current situation. The life she's known for so long has been disrupted in a blaze of violence and fear, but her escape from Zhao onto a new ship gave her the hope of finding her life once more. However long the night might reign, the stars live on and give her hope.


Hey guys! I'm now trying to get back onto my updating schedule, and hopefully shouldn't be disrupted as much anymore! I don't know how I came up with the name Pho-Jin for this new character, but I just woke up one morning and said "Pho-Jin will be that guy I've been thinking of introducing". Thank you so much for all the new favourites and story follows! Please please please review and favourite if you like what you see and don't worry, I take no offense to constructive criticism! If I don't get it, how can I get better right? I love comments on how to improve and you guys' inner thoughts about my writing, so please keep them coming and I'll see you lovelies next week! X