Seven
The next morning, Maya awoke with an extremely pessimistic outlook on life. She got up from her cot and began what had become her morning routine, going into the bathroom to wash up, and then heading to the kitchen for a bit of breakfast. Uncle Iroh wasn't there, which was odd. Normally, he was stuffing food into his mouth as quickly as possible, not that she minded. Watching him eat made her laugh.
After breakfast, she headed up to the deck, figuring that was where he must have gone. She was right. He was sitting on a stool, watching Zuko, who was shooting fireballs at two of the crewmembers. Maya ran over to Uncle. "What is he doing?" she asked, figuring he'd gone into a temper tantrum or something and had attacked the two men out of anger. "And why aren't you doing anything about it."
"Hush, Maya. It is all right. Prince Zuko is practicing his firebending. These two gentlemen have agreed to be his training partners. Now sit and watch."
Maya breathed a sigh of relief, and sat on the floor of the deck. Zuko stood stock-still, watching his partners as they faced him. They had made a triangle, with Zuko in the middle, while the two crewmembers were on either side. Zuko had a fist facing each of them. They all stood still for a moment, and then he attacked, sending a fireball to the one on the left, which knocked the man to the ground. When the one on the right tried to catch him by surprise, he sent that one flying, as well.
Maya was secretly impressed, but Uncle huffed and stood up from the stool. "No, Prince Zuko!" he said. "Power in firebending comes from the breath, not the muscles. The breath controls the energy in the body, and is released as fire." At the word fire, Uncle released a spout of flame from his fist directly in front of Zuko's face, close enough to blow his hair back.
Maya flinched. She was surprised the Uncle would ever get that close to burning Zuko.
"Drill it again," he said.
Zuko made a loud noise of frustration. "I've been practicing this set all morning. I am more than ready for the next one."
"No, you are impatient," Uncle replied, folding his arms across his chest. "You have yet to master your basics." He sat back down, a sign of finality.
Zuko let out a yell and sent a fireball at one of the men he had been training with, sending him crashing to the ground. He turned back around and got into Uncle's face. "The fire sages tell us that the Avatar is able to control all four elements. He's had over a hundred years to master each one. I will need to know more than basic firebending to defeat him. You will teach me the advanced set!"
Uncle stared at him in silence for a few moments. And then he said, "Very well. But not before I finish my roast duck!" And he picked up a bowl that had been sitting beside his stool, and began shoving pieces of duck into his mouth.
Maya laughed. There was the Uncle she knew. She watched for another hour or so, as Zuko continued practicing. As she watched, and listened to what Uncle was telling his nephew, she began to see what he had been talking about. Zuko wasn't really trying to feel the fire he was bending. He was just shooting random fire out of his hands and feet and trying to make it look good.
Of course, what did she know? She couldn't bend at all. Watching any kind of bending always gave her a pang of jealousy, especially when it came to firebending. She often thought that if she had just been born a firebender, maybe her father would not have tortured her with it. But, secretly, she knew that wasn't true. Telling his daughter that he was burning her body with his firebending to try and trigger her own was a lie, meant to explain away the fact that he got a perverted pleasure from watching her scream in pain.
As these thoughts crossed her mind, eventually Maya stood and went below deck. She didn't want to think about it anymore.