"Stop!" I heard his voice call from the sidelines.
I landed from the kick I had been in the middle of and resisted the urge to continue the form, watching the flame whither away in front of me. I checked my feet to make sure I had kept the correct form. My arms were right where they should have been, in an offensive stance, ready for the next move. The flame had been more than adequate. I could feel the heat and it had been much better than other flames that he stopped me for so that couldn't be it. Why did I stop?
I turned my head towards him and he was holding a small notepad, doing what appeared to be checking boxes until he looked up to me.
I shrugged my elbows begging him to explain what in hell I was doing wrong. He didn't seem to catch my meaning, or he did, but chose to ignore it, and went back to his notes.
"Hey!" I called.
He looked up.
"Can you tell me what I did wrong?"
"Your form is sloppy?"
"What?"
"Your form. It's sloppy. If this were a fight, you'd be dead, lying in a puddle of your own blood, your head caved in by an earthbender's rock. Now try it again."
I shook my head, annoyed. I had done it right. I knew that much, but once again, I ran through it again. I was being kept late again. It didn't bother me too much aside from the fact I was starving. Made lessons a lot more desperate as the better I did, the sooner I ate, and slept. Definitely slept.
The Firebenders that had checked my room, as I had expected, blew it up trying to get into the room next door. When I went back to check on it, my room was littered in ashes, and there was just a large scorch mark where the door was, still locked. It hadn't even worked. Now I was bunking with Danev. I didn't dare bring the journal to his room. I kept it stashed under the floor of the library and checked on it every week at midnight following my longer lessons. I had more or less been homeless for the last week. I had no idea why the Fire Nation had become so interested in this journal and hell, I didn't even know if that was it, I was just guessing. But it seems to convenient. I go through all that bullshit with Raava and Vaatu or whatever their names are, using that damn room as my nightly commute, and then having the Fire Nation barge in and-
A blast of fire hit me square in the chest, knocking me to the ground, panting for breath.
"You're distracted!" he yelled. I saw him winding for the second shot and I scrambled to my feet as quickly as I could.
I managed to get out of the way of the second shot, but it had been close. Too close. I could feel the heat against my face and the sparks against my bare hands. I had barely gotten to my feet when I had decided I was done.
"What the hell!?"
"You're unprepared. You're sloppy. If they were to put you on a battlefield, you'd be dead within a day! Is that what you want?!"
"Well what the hell do you expect?! I'm eleven. I'm a kid. Not a soldier. I'm still fucking training and I'm not exactly expecting to be put on a battlefield against the entire fucking Earth Kingdom army any time soon."
"Yes. You're right. You are a kid. You're immature, slow, and sloppy. And the day you get put on the frontlines is a lot closer than you may want to think."
No. I know exactly how it is. I've seen the child soldiers. 14, hell, 12 years old. I can handle that. I have time. I knew more than he thought I knew, and I intended to show him just that.
"You're one to talk." I braved. "Look at you. You're a soldier far past his prime. You've outlived your usefulness and I haven't yet reached it. We're both useless people in soldiers' armor. We're both slow. We're both sloppy. We're not soldiers. Not yet and not anymore!"
He glared at me. He glared at me so hard I was expecting another blast of fire at any moment. I was ready for it. I saw the opening to my left where I could dodge and throw at him what I had to offer in return. Instead, he set down his quill and paper and walked up to me, up to the center of the dojo, motioning for me to stand aside.
I stood my ground, confused as to what he was doing. When he turned to me once more, I got the message and backstepped to the sidelines, waiting for him to do whatever he was he had in mind.
At the center of the room he stood, straightened his back, keeping his hands an inch in front of his torso, raising them as he breathed them, and lowering them once again as he exhaled. He repeated this process a few times. The last time, I could fire escaping through his nose and some through his mouth as he exhaled. Then, he began.
The motions he proceeded were a blur to me. I could only catch a single move here and there out of hundreds I was too close to comprehend. Of the ones I could see, I saw bring a flame up from his foot, kicking it up to chest level as though it were a kid's ball, catching it with his hands, nurturing the flame to a size greater than his chest before raising it above his own head as head crouched, creating a ring of fire that grew around him. It was no normal ring either where everything past the wall of fire was safe, no, everything within was fire as well, all elevated at, say, 5 feet. I had to duck to avoid being burnt by the ever-expanding ring that only dissipated when it reached the wall.
He raised himself, calling in the flame he had just created to himself, forming a ball of fire around his body, constantly moving the flames in distinct patterns that kept me mesmerized from where I was still crouched on the ground. He sent over 30 balls of fire from his shield, only slightly diminishing its size, sending them spinning around him in an unpassable barrier before sending them off equally from where they were around the room to the straw targets that lined the walls, setting each and every one of them ablaze.
And then as though he were still in possession of the fire within each and every one of these targets, he raised his arms, his body still protected by the surrounding shield of fire and clenched his fists. All at once, the targets around the room, burst into flame with rather large explosions, sending straw across the room. The straw that made it far enough to reach his shield disintegrated in mid-air, sending only ashes to reach him.
That was the only thing he did that I was able to comprehend. The rest was all, beautiful. Flame surrounded the room, half of it now ablaze, me having taken cover behind a non-straw training dummy until he was done. The rest of the fire in the room, he soon summoned back to himself, absorbing it back into his body, extinguishing the fire that was the room.
I didn't know what to say. I was still mesmerized by what I had seen occur directly in front of me.
He turned to me and said "You're right on many parts. I am too old, and you are too young, but we are still soldiers. Now more than ever, our Nation has need of us and you still don't understand what the element you possess is. You don not play with it as though some toy. You possess death, destruction, hate. Out there, only that will keep you alive. That is the curse of fire. You will not be seeing me anymore. I've prepared you as best as I could. I leave tonight to guide the 15th armored division to this city. They will bring you to war and unless you learn to defend yourself, you will die."
"You said I won't be seeing you again. Aren't you coming back here? Or going to Ba-Sing-Se to fight?"
He frowned. "No. I am done fighting. I had bestowed the power of destruction onto too many. First my apprentice, and now you. I can only hope you don't turn out as he did. I am going away after I find the 15th. Where? I cannot say. Maybe West. I hear the colonies are nice this time of the year."
He started for the exit until I stopped him and asked "Wait. You never told me your name. After all the shit you put me through, it's the least you can do."
He turned to me and smiled. "My name, is Jeong Jeong." Goodbye, Luke. And good luck."