Jin and Li sat in front of the fire, looking down despondently at the flickering flames. "Hey, are you guys okay?" Katara asked in a concerned tone, and the twins turned to look at her. She crouched down beside them, and Jin wrote on the ground that they were just thinking about their father. "I imagine seeing your old captor would bring up some bad memories".
The Earthbending boys cast surreptitious glances at each other, and Jin hastily scrawled an acknowledgement on the ground. They had been so close to being reunited with their father, closer than they had ever been since the North Pole. The only consolation they had was that he was still alive.
"Today's the day!" Aang excitedly declared, leaping into the air. "Can you believe it? After all that time searching for a teacher, I'm finally starting Earthbending! And this place, it's perfect. Don't you think? Sokka?"
The Water Tribe boy glared at the Airbender as he growled from within his sleeping bag.
"Oh, you're still sleeping, huh? Sorry".
Suddenly, the ground quaked, and the twins turned to their left to see Toph literally bursting from her earthen tent. "Good morning, Earthbending student!"
"Good morning, Sifu Toph" Aang said respectfully as he bowed.
"Hey, you never call me Sifu Katara" the Water Tribe girl complained.
"Sorry, snoozles" Toph said down to Sokka, who growled from within his sleeping bag. "We'll do our Earthbending as quietly as we can". The blind girl winked over at the twins before she struck her heel against the ground. A rock suddenly emerged from the ground, launching Sokka into the air. As he screamed, Jin and Li exchanged devious grins. They struck their heels against the ground, and Sokka proceeded to strike a descending line of rock columns that struck him as he fell.
The Water Tribe boy stood up, his sleeping bag still wrapped around him, and he started to mutter an angry, incoherent rant as he hopped over to glare at both of the twins, Aang, and then Toph before he stalked off.
"So what move are you gonna teach me first?" Aang asked. "Rockalanche, the Trembler? Oh! Maybe I can learn to make a whirlpool out of land!"
Toph placed a hand on his chest, stopping his excited list of dream moves. "Well, let's start with: move a rock".
"Sounds good. Sounds good".
The twins then sat next to Katara as Toph moved two boulders as large as her in front of her and Aang. "The key to Earthbending is your stance" she explained. "You've got to be steady and strong. Rock is a stubborn element. If you're going to move it, you've got to be like a rock yourself". She emphasized her point by shoving Aang, knocking him off balance for a moment.
"Like a rock, got it" he said, getting into a passable stance. Jin exchanged a smirk with Li; the first time they had ever used their Bending was in the streets of the lower ring of Ba Sing Se. Jin had thrown a rock at some street thugs who were going to hurt Li; even from an early age, the twins were stubborn, always ready to face a challenge head-on.
"Now, the actual motion of this one is pretty simple" Toph continued. She then punched towards the boulder, and it shot forward, crashing into a wall. "Okay, you ready to give it a try?"
"I'm ready" Aang replied, trying to copy Toph's stance. He punched the rock, but instead of shooting it forward, he ended up firing himself backwards into Appa.
"Rock beats Airbender" Sokka gleefully noted.
"Uncle" Zuko said as Iroh slowly opened his eyes. "You were unconscious. Azula did this to you" he said, referring to the bandage on the older man's shoulder. "It was a surprise attack".
"Somehow that's not so surprising" Iroh dryly remarked. He looked at Zuko, and his eyes widened as he asked "What happened to you?" He was referring to the teenager's left eye, which was still swollen and bruised from when I had punched him.
In response, Zuko turned to glare at me, but I barely noticed. I was leaning against a wall in the decrepit building we had found after leaving the village where we had run into Azula and the Avatar. I stared down at the floorboards, my expression sullen as my despair continued to eat away at me.
After a moment of silence, Zuko handed Iroh a cup of tea he had brewed. I had been too emotionally distraught to brew it myself, as I usually did. "I hope I made it the way you like it".
I glanced over at Iroh, who took the cup and drank the tea. His face contorted into a disgusted expression before he forcefully gulped the 'tea' down and said "Good. That was very, um, bracing".
"So, uncle", Zuko said, not noticing as Iroh threw the rest of the tea in his cup out the window, "I've been thinking. It's only a matter of time before I run into Azula again. I'm going to need to know more advanced Firebending if I'm going to stand a chance against her. I know what you're gonna say: she's my sister and I should be trying to get along with her".
"No", Iroh replied, setting his cup down. "She's crazy, and she needs to go down". He then groaned as he attempted to stand. I rushed over and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, using my weight in order to support his. He smiled at me before looking down at Zuko. "It's time to resume your training".
"I don't understand what went wrong" Katara said as Aang approached the rock that had defeated him. "He did it exactly the way you did".
Jin and Li shook their heads. "Maybe there's another way" Aang suggested. "What if I came at the boulder from a different angle?"
Toph grabbed him by his collar. "No, that's the problem. You've got to stop thinking like an Airbender. There's no different angle, no clever solution, no tricky-trick that's gonna move that rock". She then shoved him onto his back.
Li crouched down and wrote on the ground. Katara craned her neck in order to read before saying "When you're Earthbending, you have to be like the mountain. It doesn't evade when a tsunami or wind is coming. It stands its ground and absorbs the blow".
"Exactly" Toph said, pointing over at Li. "When I say head-on, I mean like this". She proceeded to leap into the air and strike the boulder with her head, shattering it into fragments. Katara took her aside, and Aang kneeled on the ground.
Jin sat beside him, patting the Airbender's back encouragingly. Suddenly, Toph barked in her high-pitched voice "Keep your knees high, Twinkle-Toes!" She then had Aang perform a number of training exercises, such as carrying a boulder on his back or trying to push his hands through solid rock or using small boulders as strength-building tools.
The twins had to admit: he was slowly making progress. However, he had a long way to go before he became a true Earthbender.
"Lightning is a pure expression of Firebending" Iroh explained as I handed tea cups to him and Zuko. This time, I had brewed the tea. "Without aggression".
"It isn't fueled by rage or emotion the way our people practice Firebending" I added after taking a sip from my cup. "Some call Lightning the 'cold-blooded fire'".
"It is precise and deadly, like Azula. To perform the technique requires peace of mind".
"I see" Zuko said. "That's why we're drinking tea: to calm the mind".
I paused in the middle of a sip before rolling my eyes. To Zuko, it seemed, tea was some strange, mystical thing that one could only partake of if they wanted to accomplish something extraordinary. "Oh yeah, good point!" Iroh replied, causing me to smirk. Clearing his throat, he added "I mean, yes". We then made our way outside, to the edge of a cliff overlooking the landscape. "There is energy all around us. The energy is both Yin and Yang: positive energy, and negative energy. Only a select few Firebenders can separate these energies, such as Shan We".
"Not anymore" I grumbled. Huffing my annoyance away, I said "Separating the energies creates an imbalance. It wants to restore balance, and in the moment when positive and negative come crashing back together, you provide release and guidance. This creates lightning".
Iroh held a hand up, and Zuko and I backed away as he started moving his arms in circular motions. His fingers began crackling with electricity, and I could feel the raw power pulsing around him. He then thrust his hands forward, and a bolt of flashing blue lightning arced into the air.
"I'm ready to try it" Zuko said, sounding optimistic.
"Remember", Iroh said, "once you separate the energy, you do not command it. You are simply its humble guide. Breathe first".
Zuko followed his uncle's instructions, taking a deep breath before moving his arms in circular motions. I seriously doubted that an angst-filled teenager like him would be able to create lightning, and my doubts were proven true as he was thrown back by an explosion.
Iroh shook his head, and I said "I'll try".
"I do not think…" the older man started to say in protest.
"I'm going to try it!" I said more forcefully as I walked up to the edge of the cliff. This had to work; my Firebending might be gone, but maybe, just maybe, I could re-ignite the spark of my inner flame. Taking a deep breath, I moved my arms in circular motions like I had dozens of times before. I consciously attempted to separate the positive and negative energies around me, but as I thrust my hands forward, I was thrown back by an even larger explosion than the one Zuko had created.
I crashed against the wall of the decrepit building before sliding down onto the ground. I gazed up at the sky, feeling my despair washing over me in waves. I doubted that I would ever get my Firebending back.
"This time, we're going to try something a little different" Toph said. "Instead of moving a rock, you're going to stop a rock. Get in your horse stance!" As Aang got into his stance, she pointed to the top of the makeshift slide she had prepared, where Li was standing in front of a boulder as large as Aang. "He's going to roll that boulder down at you. If you have the attitude of an Earthbender, you'll stay in your stance and stop the rock, like this".
"Sorry Toph", Katara interjected, "but are you sure this is really the best way to teach Aang Earthbending?"
"I'm glad you said something" Toph said. "Actually, there is a better way". She proceeded to wrap a blindfold around the bald boy's eyes. "This way you'll have to sense the vibrations of the boulder to stop it. Thank you, Katara".
"Yeah, thanks, Katara" Aang added sardonically.
Toph then nodded to Jin, who waved over at Li. The other boy proceeded to push the boulder onto the slide. It rolled down, gaining more and more momentum as it came ever closer. When the moment of truth came, Jin watched as Aang leaped into the air, allowing the boulder to roll harmlessly below him. The boy shook his head as he pressed his hand down, creating a pit that the boulder rolled into before he launched it back over to Li.
Toph moved to stand only a few inches away from Aang as he removed the blindfold. "I guess I just panicked" he said meekly. "I don't know what to say".
"There's nothing to say" Toph retorted. "You blew it. You had a perfect stance and perfect form, but when it came right down to it, you didn't have the guts".
"I know" Aang said, looking down at the ground. "I'm sorry".
"Yeah, you are sorry. If you're not tough enough to stop the rock, then you can at least give it the pleasure of smushing you instead of jumping out of the way like a jelly-boned wimp! Now do you have what it takes to face that rock like an Earthbender?"
Aang hung his head low. "No, I don't think I do".
"Aang, it's no big deal" Katara said, attempting to soften Toph's brutally honest teaching style. "You'll take a break and try Earthbending again when you're ready. Besides, you still have a lot of Waterbending to work on, okay?"
"Yeah, that sounds good" Aang replied.
"Yeah, whatever. Go splash around until you feel better" Toph said derisively. Turning to Jin, she pointed to him and said "Come on! You twin sponges need to learn how to sense vibrations in the earth, and I need students who can actually Earthbend. Let's go!" Jin hastily nodded, not wanting to become the next target of her wrath. He started to follow her, but then he nervously tapped her on the shoulder. "Hm? Oh, yeah; since you two learn new Earthbending techniques all the time, you're like sponges, hence your new name". She proceeded to laugh manically as they walked off.
I watched as Zuko was thrown back, yet again, by another explosion. He had been trying to create Lightning all morning, with no success. At least I had learned my lesson the first time and given up. "Why can't I do it?" he angrily asked no one in particular. "Instead of lightning, it keeps exploding in my face, like everything always does".
Iroh and I exchanged a glance before he stood up and said "I was afraid this might happen. You will not be able to master Lightning until you have dealt with the turmoil inside you".
"What turmoil?" he demanded, turning to face us.
"Zuko, you must let go of your feelings of shame if you want your anger to go away" his uncle said sagely.
"But I don't feel any shame at all" the scarred teenager countered. "I'm as proud as ever".
"And it is your pride that you must give up if you are to find peace" I said. "It isn't the opposite of shame, it's the source. In order to cure your feelings of shame, you must embrace true humility".
"And I'm supposed to take advice from a man who constantly tried to stop me at every turn while hunting the Avatar?" Zuko angrily demanded. "You took every opportunity to rub your superiority in my face!"
"I took every opportunity to try and make you accept the reality of your situation" I countered. "You were allowing anger and pride to dictate your actions. When we crossed paths, I honestly tried to help you".
Zuko snorted. "I don't need help" he muttered. "I never did".
After a moment of tense silence, Iroh said "I have another idea. I will teach you a Firebending move that even Azula doesn't know, because I made it up myself". Zuko and I then sat down in front of him as he began drawing images in the dirt with a stick. "Fire is the element of power. The people of the Fire Nation have desire and will, and the energy and drive to achieve what they want. Earth is the element of substance. The people of the Earth Kingdom are diverse and strong. They are persistent and enduring".
His words reminded me of the lesson I had given Jin and Li back at my father's camp, before I had been tasked with capturing the Avatar. That all seemed like a lifetime ago, and thinking of the twins made my eyes misty with regret.
"Air is the element of freedom" Iroh continued. "The Air Nomads detached themselves from worldly concerns and found peace and freedom. Also, they apparently had pretty good sense of humour!" He grinned widely, but neither Zuko nor I were in the mood for jokes. "Water is the element of change. The people of the Water Tribe are capable of adapting to many things. They have a deep sense of community and love that holds them together through anything".
"Why are you telling me these things?" Zuko asked.
"It is important to draw wisdom from many different places" Iroh explained. "If we take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale. Understanding others… the other elements, and the other nations… will help you become whole".
"All this four elements talk is sounding like Avatar stuff".
"It is the combination of the four elements in one person that makes the Avatar so powerful" Iroh replied. "But it can make you more powerful, too. You see, the technique I am about to teach you is one I learned by studying the Waterbenders".
"I, too, developed a Firebending technique by studying Waterbending" I said. "Though not one as potent as yours" I added with a smirk.
"Waterbenders deal with the flow of energy" Iroh explained as he led Zuko and me through the motions of his special technique. "A Waterbender lets their defense become their offense, turning their opponent's energy against them. I learned a way to do this with Lightning".
"You can teach me to redirect Lightning?" Zuko asked.
I found myself sharing in his excitement. I could scarcely have believed such a thing to be possible before I had seen it in action.
Iroh nodded. "If you let the energy in your own body flow, the Lightning will follow it. You must create a pathway from your fingertips up your arm to your shoulder, then down into your stomach. The stomach is the source of energy in your body. It is called the sea of Chi, only in my case, it is more like a vast ocean".
He laughed heartily, and I smiled.
After a moment, he returned to being serious and continued. "From the stomach, you direct it up again and out the other arm. The stomach detour is critical. You must not let the Lightning pass through your heart, for the damage could be deadly. You may wish to try a physical motion to get a feel for the pathway's flow, like this".
Zuko and I proceeded to copy his motions, first down the arm, then to the stomach, and finally back up the other arm.
We repeated the motion several times, and Iroh asked "Now, are you focusing your energy? Can you feel your own Chi flowing in, down, up, and out?"
"I think so" Zuko said.
"Yes" I echoed, feeling confident that I had adequately learned the technique.
A few minutes later, as the sun began to set and dark storm clouds began to darken the sky, Iroh told us "Excellent. You've got it".
We both bowed to him, and Zuko said "Great. I'm ready to try it with real Lightning". My eyes widened in shock as my mouth fell open. I turned to look down at the teenager incredulously; would there ever be a time when I would be surprised at his acts of insanity?
Iroh bore a shocked expression as well. "What? Are you crazy?! Lightning is very dangerous".
"I thought that was the point: you teaching me how to protect myself from it!" Zuko said angrily. I slapped my forehead in annoyance.
Iroh finally snapped. "Yeah, but I'm not going to shoot Lightning at you! If you're lucky, you will never have to use this technique at all". Off in the distance, thunder began to rumble from the dark storm clouds.
"Well, if you won't help me, I'll find my own Lightning".
He then made to mount the ostrich horse, and I started to stop him when Iroh said "Let him go".
I watched as Zuko rode away, towards some nearby mountains. I sighed, shaking my head. "You are a stronger man than I" I said, turning to look at Iroh. "I would not have the strength, or patience, to deal with him for this long".
"The young are always difficult to deal with at times".
I turned to stare after Zuko. "Not all of them".
Jin and Li turned once they heard the mighty roar. They summoned earthen columns that launched them over a thick wall, landing a few moments later. They saw Sokka trapped inside a crevice, while Aang battled a fearsome sabretooth moose lion that was many times his size. The beast charged the Airbender, who responded by blowing a gust of air that lifted it over him and Sokka.
The twins started to come to their friends' aid, but Toph suddenly said "Wait". They turned to see her sitting cross-legged on a rock. The Earthbending boys gave her questioning expressions, and she explained "He needs to face this head-on".
Jin and Li exchanged a glance, willing to wait and watch for now. The sabretooth moose lion charged once more, and Aang got into his stance. The twins nervously watched as the bald boy thrust his arms forward, creating a powerful gust of air that blew the fierce predator back. It then retreated back into the forest, and the twins smirked.
As the dust cleared, Toph started clapping, and Sokka asked "What are you doing here?"
"Just enjoying the show" the blind girl replied conversationally.
"What?" Aang asked incredulously. "You guys were there the whole time?"
Jin and Li shrugged, motioning over to Toph. "Pretty much" she replied.
"Why didn't you do something?!" the Airbender demanded. "Sokka was in trouble! I was in trouble! You could have gotten him out and helped us get away!"
"I guess it just didn't occur to me" Toph said. She then tossed a nut onto the ground before moving to crush it with the end of Aang's staff.
The Airbender, however, wasn't in the mood. He grabbed it and said "Enough. I want my staff back".
Toph let it go, and as she stood up, she said "Do it now".
"What?"
"Earthbend, Twinkle-Toes" she elaborated. "You just stood your ground against a crazy beast. And even more impressive, you stood your ground against me. You've got the stuff".
"But…" Aang started to protest.
"Do it!" Toph cut him off. A few minutes later, the bald boy punched a boulder into a wall. Jin and Li patted him on the back as Toph said "You did it! You're an Earthbender".
"I can't believe it" Aang said breathlessly.
"Aw. This is really a wonderful, touching moment" Sokka said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "So could you get me out of here so I can give you both a big snuggly hug?"
"No problem, Sokka" Aang said as he started walking towards the Water Tribe boy. Jin stopped him with a hand to the chest.
"Actually, you should probably let me do that" Toph suggested. "You're still a little new at this. You might accidentally crush him".
Li nodded to Aang as Sokka said "Yeah, no crushing, please". Toph then got him out of the crevice with laughable ease.
The twins then walked alongside the others as they helped Sokka to walk. Katara came running up to them. "You found him!"
After a warm hug, Sokka said "The whole time I was in that hole, not knowing if I would live or die, it makes a man think about what's really important. I realized…"
"Hey Katara, look what I can do!" Aang interrupted, proceeding to throw a sizeable boulder into a rock wall.
"You did it!" Katara exclaimed. "I knew you would". She then whispered to Toph "You tried the positive reinforcement, didn't you?"
"Yep" Toph replied. "It worked wonders". Jin and Li exchanged a smirk; Aang was shaping up to be a fine Avatar.
Well, everyone had a little to learn in this chapter. I borrowed several of Iroh's lines and gave them to Shan We on purpose, but not so that he could have lines, but because he and Iroh are very similar, personality-wise: they're both two of the most powerful Firebenders in the world, they both love tea, they both have had complicated relationships with their families, and Shan We is the only person in the world who truly understands Iroh's pain because of what had happened back at Ba Sing Se all those years ago.
As always, please review and favourite! I'd love to hear from more of my readers.