Before any real earth bending instruction began he had me spar against a soldier 'to see and feel what real earth bending is like' the general said. The following day, when i was finally through with being beat and tossed around by a man twice my size, he had me show him my stances, demonstrate to him my movements when I was told to move boulders larger than me, show my dexterity with small stones in my hands, and proves the strength of my stance. Shirtless, barefoot, and from the morning to the afternoon with nearly twenty soldiers watching me.

"How the hell do you even bend with a stance as shit as that?!" I heard the whistle of another pebble, and then felt a sting on my upper back, reminding me to keep it straight and stiff as a rock. Another chorus of chuckles came from behind me when I twitched.

"I taught myself, you asshole!" My legs were trembling at this point. Squatted as I was, with my legs spread and my fists turned palm side up at my waste, and had been doing similar exercises for hours.

He shot another barrage of pebbles that nearly knocked me off balance. Another round of laughter "Did I say you could speak, boy?! Attack!"

I could feel tiny bruises and welts forming where the general had shot me. This was not at all what I was expecting when I accepted his offer to train. Sure my stance was bad, but it was my first day training and he was being ridiculous, at least I thought so. Everybody around me was having fun.

I immediately jumped into the routine the general talked me through. Both heels planted in the ground, lift a pillar as tall as myself with my arms. Break it into three equal segments, without letting it fall. Visualize the stones path as it flew to the target, and attack. I kicked at the air three times, and each time the sound of grinding stone followed. Also each time, my attacks were swatted away like flies by the soldiers I was aiming at.

"Alright, break for lunch" I landed backwards and laid out on the ground, panting and covering my eyes from the sun.

A shadow cast itself over me and I was briefly grateful for the shade. "Come on, Cheng. You're bound to be hungry after something like that." General Yiban gave me his hand, and I took it no matter how much I resented him at the moment.

I very nearly jumped at his neck when he turned around and started walking, but stopped myself. I had signed up for this. "Was that necessary?..."

"Oh yes, very necessary. The stance is everything when earth bending. You're ripping stone from the ground and grinding and breaking it to your will. In order to do that, you yourself must be unbreakable, unyielding. That all comes from the stance."

"...Maybe my stance was bad but I don't think you had to beat me up over it." I wasn't sure I cold take training like that morning everyday until I became a master.

He chuckled and looked at me sideways "have you ever heard of Bumi? The king of omashu."

"Not really, I know he's eccentric, but that's about it" I tried pinching close the cut on my knuckle from when my fist wasn't positioned perfectly above my waste.

"Oh that's an understatement. I was convinced he was insane. But he is a phenomenal earth bender. Possibly the greatest on the planet. And he was my master. Within the first two years of being his student I was given a broken left arm, a twice broken right arm, mashed foot, countless broken ribs and three concussions. Know that I was already a trained bender at that point. For the first day, compared to what I went through, you had it easy." He stopped and pointed to my left "follow the crowd to the cooking fire. Eat small, because we're jumping right back into it after lunch." I groaned but followed the crowd anyway, looking forward to food, having skipped breakfast.

After picking up a plate from the servers around the fire I briefly considered walking back to the generals building, but chose otherwise. The thought of sitting in the same room as him wasn't very appealing after his session of necessary cruelty. And even though I knew it was good spirited, I resented all the soldiers for laughing at my training. So I sat alone under the shade of a nearby tree.

With my hands full, I worked my bending into my steps so that I'd have a solid stone stool and table as I got to the shade. With my back against the tree, I started eating. It wasn't until halfway through my plate that someone noticed me and walked over.

I watched him As he got closer. A knife was strapped onto his belt, and two swords to his back. He wasn't wearing the earth benders uniform so I could tell he was one of the non benders in the army. "Do you mind if I sit with you?" His voice was a bit higher pitched than I expected it to be. Most of the men in the platoon had deep, gravely voices. But his wasn't as coarse as any of the others.

"Uh, sure" in short work I had a stool built in front of me for him, along with an extension of the table.

"You've got to put more effort into bending things as simple as this than all the others" he laughed but continued when I raised my eyebrow at him "just an observation, don't mean to offend"

"Well what did you expect? I'm just a student"

"I know, I was there yesterday... and this morning" he took off his helmet and put it on the table next to his plate. He sported the same look as the general. Though his body was much slimmer, and the hair on his head came back into a ponytail instead of the tight knot that the general kept. "and that makes it all the more impressive. Teaching yourself to bend. The general told me after that spar that you came up with proper bending forms all on your own. Which is impressive, having never been taught before, even if they were rough. I've seen students spend a month on their stature before they get to the big boy stuff. You got it in a morning"

I looked down with a smile and poked at my food "thanks, but I did learn from my father before he died"

"Commoners earth bending and what I saw you do are two very different things. Most children who have never been taught can't do much more than shoot pebbles at your age, but you're breaking the ground easily enough. You're gonna become a great earthbender, kid."

"Thanks... my name is Cheng, by the way."

He reached his hand across the table with a huge smile and I took it with a smile of my own. "Oh I knew your name. But mine is lee. Nice to meet you"

We sat in silence for a moment longer before it clicked and I realized something "why... why would the general tell you about me?"

"Oh! I'm second in command around here" I faulted at that, but before I could think of a way to word the question without offending him, he answered it "how, if I'm a non-bender you ask? By mastering the sword!" He stepped up onto the table in front of me and brandished his swords in as dramatic a pose he could manage.

I couldn't help but burst out laughing "don't you mean swords?"

"Eh, you get the idea" he grinned at me and sat back down. Somehow, he had managed not to nock over his plate on the small table.

"But how? I imagine your swords would go through a lot of wear and tear fighting the fire nation, and training with earth benders. You would never be able to keep an edge on it because fire would soften the metal, and earth would grind the edge away"

It was his turn to fault "well, yes, you're right. I keep six sets near at all times. It's costly but I can beat almost any bender. The only one who could challenge me here would be the general. And I hardly ever find myself in trouble when we have to defend from the fire nation"

"Well, if you're taking precautions like that then I guess it's reasonable to use swords. That's very impressive... especially because you're a non-bender." I looked down at my plate and saw that it was empty. In a quick couple of gulps I finished off the drink and stood up, bending the stool away from the table. "Thank you for sitting with me, but general Yiban said I should come find him after eating."

"That's alright, we'll probably be seeing a lot of each other. Yiban asked me to help train you"

"... in earth bending?"

He chuckled before answering "You think everyone you're going to have to fight will be an earth bender? No, I'll teach how to fight nonbenders" After a second of my giving him a questioning look he waved me away "go, go. I'm sure the general's waiting for you."

I entered the generals shack to find him sitting cross legged in the center of the room, his fists touching in front of him. Instead of his normal armor, he wore a pare of cloth pants with no shirt. His hair was undone and hung around his face. His eyes we're closed and his breath was even and slow, so I at least waited a bit before clearing my throat.

His eyes opened and he smiled lightly at me. "Sit down, Cheng"

I complied and sat down in front him, trying to mimic his position. "What are you doing?"

"Meditating. After thinking about it, and realizing you have never gone through any sort of training before, I decided to let you rest for the remainder of the day. So sit down and meditate with me."

It was awkward for some time, to sit down facing him quietly. But after a little while I closed my eyes as well. I was content sitting like that for a long time, letting my mind wander pointlessly. After a few minutes or a couple hours, I couldn't tell, I heard a knock on the stone behind me. When I turned around I saw lee taping the stone with his arm guard.

"Message for you, general" he walked away once the the general nodded. A man walked in shortly after with a scroll for the general and left it on top of the papers on his desk. I decided to stay seated until he dismissed me.

When I looked back at the general he was still sitting silently, but after a moment he inhaled deeply and opened his eyes. "Go on. Get something to eat and then go straight to bed. Your stance has been corrected well enough, so tomorrow we're starting earth bending forms."

It was still day light... but that didn't matter much to me when I went to lie down. Having sat down meditating for so long, and being exhausted first thing in the morning, sleep came to me fairly quickly.