I remember the year I turned five. Five is a very important year in one's life. Most people say you become an adult when you're eighteen, but they don't know what they're talking about. Adulthood really begins at age five. It was when Father stopped disciplining me with little swats and progressed to leather strapping that had me seeing stars in the daytime. It was when Mother expected me to listen to her, understand her, and obey her. It was the year I learned that when people died, it was forever. It was time for me to start acting like a young princess and not a baby.
On a good note, I was finally allowed to abandon my stupid frilly baby garb and begin wearing normal clothes. And I was also finally able to begin learning. I didn't begin real school, but I was taught how to read and write and figure, and a lot of my learning was what I taught myself. Father sat me on his lap and showed me how to move fire, back and forth. We'd sit in front of grandfather's throne and go through the motions of very basic firebending. Much of the bending was Father and not I, but soon I could do it alone with no help.
Father no longer coddled me with tremendous praise, but his eyes were shining as I showed him how I could bend the fire into an arc if I spun a little. Father never really smiles, but if you ever please him, you can see it trying not to show in the corners of his mouth.
I know this sounds random, but I must say it: I really started become more aware of who I was. As children we all sort of rush through our days in a babyish, hysterical haste, but when you turn five, you realize that you are something. People see you as something. You have a task to carry out, and a lifetime to prove yourself. I was a princess. By some twist of fate I had been dealt a very lucky hand. In a book, I read a sobering statistic: In the Fire Nation , your odds of being born in the 3rd class: 85. Your odds of being born 2nd class: 13. Your odds of being born 1st class: 1.999. Your odds of being in the Royal class: 0.001. The odds were against me, 1:1000, and I was born a princess.
Wow.
I would make the best of it, I promised myself. I wouldn't waste my opportunities. I was going to the best at everything.
At night time, I taught myself more bending. I liked to see it come bursting out of the dark from my fist, like a flower made from fire. And, in the months to come, I'd make myself so good that I couldn't keep it a secret…