Hello all! I'm sorry for my long absence. I have had such a writing block…It's horrible. I hope that this chapter is good. Please review, much appreciated.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar in any way shape or form.

Entry 4- Weakness

We attacked that water tribe village that day. As soldiers and shipmates ran off to support their prince, I remained where I was. I couldn't hurt those people as the prince intended to do. I turned my back on his actions even though I did not believe in them. It was what he thought he needed to do to capture the Avatar. I was surprised when I heard the retaliation of the water tribe, driving our warriors back to the ship and off of the island. The prince might as well have been a volcano upon returning to the ship. It was apparent that he intended to melt every inch of the ship in his frustration as we ran from the small tribe.

I, once more, said nothing. I let Dragon Iroh take care of the prince's anger. The truth was, I was terrified of the prince. I didn't want to cross him. I had no firebending to defend myself, no weapon. I would be a stupid person for trying to confront him. Because of this fear and feeling of weakness, I asked Dragon Iroh to teach me firebending.

I was very old to begin firebending, not to mention very clumsy. I burned my forearms very badly and started wearing bandages around my arms to hide this. I still have the scars on my hands and forearms from the early days of training.

I had barely any time to begin my training before we were attacked again. It was a jarring movement of the ship that drove everyone to the deck of the ship. I had looked up to see a Sky Bison overhead. The Avatar. The prince started yelling orders, telling us to capture him. Every attempt failed. The Avatar, along with a waterbender, took over the ship. I couldn't do anything but run away from the flurry of water that froze most of the crew to the ship. Everyone survived, but I had to spend a good portion of my day chipping crew members and a very angry prince out of the ice. Our ship had been damaged as well, and we had to head to a close Fire Nation dock to receive repairs.

There, we encountered General Zhao. I remembered his face, one of the many faces in the crowd of the Agni Kai. One of the smiling faces. Once I saw him, I felt a sense of anxiety creep over everyone around us. We had a very damaged ship and couldn't tell the general why. He was, no doubt, looking for the Avatar as well.

Dragon Iroh and Prince Zuko were invited to join General Zhao in his room in one of the areas on the dock. Dragon Iroh insisted on my coming with them, saying I was a personal servant who must be around at all times. The prince seemed to almost hate that I was with them. I noted this and stayed in the back of the room, barely listening to the conversation.

"The task of finding the Avatar is too important to be left in a teenager's hands."

That phrase woke me up. My eyes widened as the prince started to protest. How could he? We had been searching and finally found proof of the Avatar. He couldn't take that away. He would take away the prince's hope. I couldn't let him.

"You can't!" My sudden outburst got attention. A smirk appeared on the face of the arrogant captain face as I spoke.

"So, she does have a tongue." He said snidely. I frowned deeply; a look of hatred was probably on my face. "Aww, now she's upset." The general stepped closer, taking my chin in his hand.

"Don't touch me." I said, backing away. This upset the general and he grabbed at a stray bit of bandage that came from my arm. He pulled the piece of cloth away, revealing the first of many burns that would grace my arms. He grabbed the wound with much pressure, making me gasp in pain. The wound was just barely beginning to stab over, so his pressures on the wound made my arm start to bleed a little.

"Watch your mouth, servant scum." The pressure on my arm tightened, I gasped in pain again.

"Let her go." The calm anger in the voice made both General Zhao and myself turn to look at who had spoken. Prince Zuko. "I'll punish my own servant." He was now standing, obviously angry at me.

"I'm sorry, Your Highness." I apologized and Zhao let go of my arms. I started re-wrapping the bandages as Zhao spoke.

"Such an arrogant gathering." Zhao said. The prince frowned. "You can't take the Avatar hunt away from me." The prince said, purposely turning the subject away from me.

"Why can't I?" The general retorted. "I have higher rank over an outcast like yourself."

"Agni Kai." The two words I hated the most came from the prince's mouth. "Winner takes the hunt." Unfaltering, determined, the prince stood.

"Have you forgotten the last time you fought a master?" The general asked.

"Never." The prince answered, gesturing to Dragon Iroh and I that he wanted to leave. There would be an Agni Kai that sunset. There was no question. Dragon Iroh came to me, placing his hand on my shoulder as we left. "Please, wait at the ship." He told me. I wanted to protest, but he was trying to protect me. He knew I didn't want to see the prince hurt again.

The sun fell like a stone that day, bringing sunset faster than I would have liked. I stayed at the bow of the ship, not watching the fight that was taking place as I waited. I expected to see an even more burned and broken prince to return to the ship. I could have expected worse, but I didn't want to think about Zhao's merciless ways. I could hear the fight from where I was. The discharge of fire, the yells of battle cries. The silence that followed was deafening. I sat for a full ten minutes before seeing the two figures in the distance. An uninjured prince and a proud Dragon Iroh came into view and a smile spread across my face. I was ecstatic to see that this Agni Kai had turned out better than the last. It just reminded me of how strong the prince was. I couldn't help but to think that the Agni Kai was defending me as well as fighting for the rights to capture the Avatar. It made me feel so weak and helpless, just like I had when we were attacked by the Avatar.

The days that followed as we traveled on the ship, I trained hard. Every spare minute was spent firebending. Sometimes I spent my training with the prince as well and it was a good way of measuring my progress. Because of my rigorous training, I caught up to the prince in skill quickly. I also discovered something about my kind of firebending. The fire I created wasn't blue like Princess Azula's. It was a striking white when I focused my skills. When I didn't focus, it was a plain red fire. It was strange, but I found it to be a sign of the strength that I had.

I was no longer a weak servant. I could defend myself.

That's all for this chapter. Once more, please review!