"Okay, let's try again."
Zuko closed his eyes, assumed a fighting stance and let loose with several fire blasts. Iroh shook his head as he deflected them all.
"Prince Zuko, you still lack the proper control! All you want to do is make your flames bigger and brighter!" he scolded. Zuko frowned.
"Isn't that the point? If I'm going to be strong enough to beat Zhao and capture the Avatar they need to be bigger and brighter than anything," he said.
"Bigger isn't always better," Mai said from the sidelines. "Hell, if they were any bigger you could've burned me to a crisp." A momentary look of concern crossed Zuko's face.
"You shouldn't be sitting so close to the action, then," he told her. "And no, Uncle, having her watch doesn't make me feel nervous, so don't even!"
"I wasn't going to!" Iroh held up his hands, but his eyes shone with laughter and both teenagers blushed, looking at their shoes. "But anyway," Iroh said, "Prince Zuko, your flames will get bigger and brighter, but you must not get so caught up in the power aspect of firebending that you lose yourself!"
Zuko sighed. How could he make Iroh understand what was at stake here? Even if he claimed to, sometimes he could swear his uncle was subtly trying to dissuade him from his mission. I already lost myself, the day I was banished and sent away from my own home.
Just then, Lueitenant Jee approached them, looking mildly amused.
"According to this message from Admiral Zhao, the Avatar was last sighted several miles away...and is somehow responsible for burning his entire fleet!" he announced. Mai, Iroh and Zuko looked at each other.
"I thought that kid was an Airbender," Mai said. "So how..."
"I know nothing," Jee said as he handed Iroh the letter and walked away. Iroh read what Zhao had really written, showed it to Mai and Zuko, and they all burst out laughing.
"Uncle," Zuko gasped once they'd calmed down a bit, "I think I'd like to go over more of the mental excersizes later."
Better to let his flames take their time growing than to end up like Zhao.