The first day of training went pretty close to what I expected out of Zuko. Despite his compromise to listen, he continues to question my hidden motives, even though Iroh gave his stamp of approval the night before. I imagine the two fought once Iroh returned, though I was not awake to hear the argument.
We set sail some time in the night, and I awake to Zuko's bursting into my room. "You aren't already awake?" he almost shouts, aghast at my groggy state.
"Why would I be?"
"Sun's up. Time to train."
He rises with the sun. I groan, throwing my blanket aside.
"I didn't know we planned to start right away," I say, moving toward the clean stack of clothes on my small dresser. Well, technically, I already started. With the dance. And the wind. Without caring if Zuko is looking or not, I change into loose fitting clothes, tying them with the cloth from my old clothes.
"If it was up to you, I don't think we ever would have started." His voice is pointed away from me, toward the wall. He turned away. I almost laugh.
"I don't think that's true. I just wasn't ready, is all. Hadn't thought it through."
Shoes on, hair back. All accounted for.
Except for what to do. How to train. I haven't trained someone in over a hundred years, though that's not the main point. The main point is that I never thought through how I would train this head-strong teenager.
We are both silent on the way to the deck, and I come to reason that I'll allow Zuko to choose what we do. See what he wants to do and go from there.
Zuko does not have the same mindset.
He wants to fight. Probably because of his pent up anger. I shrug, not caring either way. The best way for him to learn is through his mistakes, and I know that he has made a lot of those in his days.
"A fundamental part in airbending," I say, hands held in front of me, one up toward my face and the other closer to my body, "is to keep moving. You can use the circle walking technique, which is most common."
"What is that?" Zuko asks, not bothering to mirror my pose.
"Just start. You'll see."
He does start. I didn't put any restrictions on bending, but I see no tale-tell sign of flames. Maybe he just wants to go hand-to-hand, which is fine with me. When he takes a step forward to kick me with his left foot, I move around him in a circle, turning as he fights and attempts to land a punch or a kick. My palm always faces him, steps drawn in an imaginary circle around him.
Once, I feint left and actually spin to the right, and he fumbles with a curse light on his lips. I pull close to him, jabbing him in the rib, spinning around him in a dance. I try harder to keep the smile off my lips than to fight him.
After he sputters out in anger, he stops trying to hit me. Instead, I see his eyes more on my feet and hands, my movements out of his grasp, than on anything else. The lieutenant joins us, watching with a small group of soldiers. I don't know if his eyes are on me or on Zuko, but they all take Zuko's training seriously on a regular day. Today seems to be no exception.
Except when the ship takes a tight turn, a full 180 degrees back the way we came from. Zuko falls to his back, and the lieutenant catches himself from falling. I roll, following through with the turn of the ship to land on my feet. The wind moves with me, and I feel, almost, like it is in my control.
"Someone's changing our course," he says, looking up at the tower. He storms off, some of the soldiers following him.
Instead of following Zuko, the lieutenant approaches me. He smiles, and says, "We've never had a moment to be introduced. I'm Lieutenant Jee."
"Zia," I reply, moving to lean against the railing, to look down at the sea below us, and for a place to feel more of the salty air.
"Your style is different from what Zuko knows."
"I know. I told him that it would be hard. Airbending is all about evasive action. Taking your opponent's moves and using them toward your benefit. The circle technique is all about flowing, moving one way and then turning, following the wind."
Jee stays silent for a long time, finding his own spot against the railing, looking out toward the empty deck. "If you're an Air Nomad, why are you helping him?"
I had expected this question, though not directly. I don't want to share the goodness within Zuko's heart, not yet. What if Jee tells him, and then Zuko no longer wants my assistance? "I think the spiritual part of airbending will rub off on him." Even though I am lacking in that area.
Jee chuckles, and I can feel his gaze on me. Hot. Intense. Does he really know?
"I want it to rub off on him. I don't want him to go down the wrong path, you know," I add, waiting.
"I hope it will," Jee whispers, and I feel like another has joined Iroh's group leading Zuko toward the correct path. The best path for him.
Jee leaves me alone, and I wait for Zuko to come back down or for us to dock. A plan forms in my head, that I could ask for my staff back, and use it like an actual bo staff in training. But the question dies on my lips when Zuko storms back to me.
"Iroh lost some dumb lotus tile!" Zuko shouts, hands up. Steam sprouts from his nose, and I fight to keep from smiling. "We're turning around!"
"Do you still want to train?" I ask, choosing my words carefully.
"Of course!" he yells, gesturing back to where we stood earlier.
"You said you would listen last night, so if I explained what I did, would you understand?" I get up to him and sit in front of him, grabbing his arm and pulling him down. "It's as important as mirroring my moves." Zuko sighs, and I smile up at him. "Good. Sit."
I take a deep breath, trying to think of a way to say what I'm about to say without irritating him. "You're good at staying in movement, but you have this root. Iroh told me about the root. It's important, but sometimes, you need to flow. Airbending is all about evasive movements, about staying in motion, with freedom, almost letting the wind make your next moves for you.
"The circle walking technique utilizes that. Did you see me stop moving? I saw you watching my body toward the end. The foot placements and the hand placements and the twists are not as important as individuals, but, together, they allow me to move around objects and obstacles with ease. No bending required.
"If you had any chalk, I can make a circle for you. That helped when I was first learning. A guideline." I stand, offering a hand to help him up. He ignores it. "Can you do the circle walking against me?"
"Of course." His stand closely mirrors the one I started off using.
Being an instructor, as he starts moving, I watch him closely. We are the only two people on the deck now, and the wind rushes around us. "Good. Keep your palm facing me. Try and get directly behind me so I can't see what you're doing. You want to draw your power from the abdomen, the core. You can place your root there, instead of your feet."
He twists and turns, and I make a few jabs that land. I fight hard to circle him circling me, and force my eyes on his feet, his hands, on the way he tries desperately to best me. I allow the smile to overwhelm my face. He places less weight on his feet when he steps, but his movements toward turning around my punches are full of stutter.s He wants to punch back, especially when I land a glancing blow back on his ribs.
It takes him the whole way back to port for him to get behind me, and not for long. As the crew drops anchor and ties us against the dock, he comes up to me. "If it's circle walking, why did you come into my space when you were circling?"
"You yourself are a circle, aren't you?"
"That doesn't make sense."
"Just think about it, Zuko."
To my surprise, Zuko actually thinks about it.
Before dinner, while Iroh is still out making a lot of frivolous purposes, Zuko knocks lightly on my door. I had been sketching still, a crude drawing of a dolphin-salmon that I had seen cresting the waves earlier in the week. Part of me wants to color it, to catch the colors of the scales and the changing colors of the ocean. Alas, there are no colors on this ship. Only black ink and some red wax for letters.
"What you said earlier didn't make sense," he starts, not looking down at my sketch. He holds something in his hand, a parcel wrapped in paper. He does not hand it to me, but Zuko's eyes meet mine intensely. "Circles are filled in, so moving into the circle is allowed. The opponent is part of the circle, aren't they?"
I shrug, leaning back onto my hands. "It can mean anything you want, honestly." Zuko's face tightens up into a grimace. I sigh, adding, "You're right. The main thing is that you stay in movement, because it's harder to hit someone that's moving. The opponent can exhaust themselves by trying to punch someone that's always moving."
"What if my opponent is also circling? This won't help me fight the Avatar!"
"You asked for me to show you the techniques, not how to fight the Avatar," I add, waving away his thoughts. "You can still use this technique against Aang, if you want. Now you know that this is one style in which he fights. In motion. It couldn't hurt you either, especially if you go against any other benders. Knowing is important too, because now you can use your knowledge how you see fit."
Zuko stays quiet for some time, and I fill in the silence void. "Plus, two circles is still a circle. Here. Look." I flip my drawing over, drawing two circles. Zuko stomps over to my table. "It just means the circles are moving too. That they are in a more complicated motion. Still works. The major goal is to get behind the opponent, so if both of us are circling, you have to work a little harder."
This time, I don't fill the silence. Zuko is staring intensely at my drawing, as if these two circles are his life. Him trying to get behind the Avatar and the Avatar trying to get behind him. A lump forms back in my throat, and I breathe deeply to keep it from overwhelming me.
After some time, Zuko places the parcel on the table. "This is for you. Iroh needs a wind player for music night." The door shuts quietly behind him, and I wait a moment before opening the gift.
Painted in colors of red and orange, a xun - ocarina - falls into my hands. I almost laugh. I know next to nothing about music, let alone how to play a xun. A wind instrument with a useless airbender. What a pair.
I place the mouth opening to my lips, and allow my fingers to cover a few of the holes. The notes that come out are simple. I let the air flow from within me to without me. To a place that only requires noise. Holding the notes makes for a mesmerizing sound, and I think of the echo chambers of the Western Air Temple. The simple noise fills my room and flows out my window, joining the noises of the wind.