in the morning everything seemed to be normal again. i was sitting next to the water, watching katara practice her waterbending. i wonder what it feels like to bend water. does it feel calm, maybe the complete opposite?
in front of the cottage, aang stood there, bendy legged, on a flat stone in the river, while jeong jeong stood a foot or two away from him. i could hear aang getting scolded every minute and it was kinda funny.
"widen your stance. wider! bend your knees. now, concentrate" aang really tried to give his best, "good, good!
"wait, what do i do now??"
"silence! talking is not concentrating! look at your friend, is she talking?" he first pointed at katara, then sokka, "even that oaf knows to concentrate on what he's doing!"
"hey!"
"he called you an oaf" i laughed at him.
"but what am i concentrating on?" aang asked.
"feel the heat of the sun. it is the greatest source of fire. yet, it is in complete balance with nature!"
"so when do i get to make some fire?" aang asked, getting a glare from jeong jeong.
"concentrate!"
we all watched aang, trying our best not to laugh but that wasn't possible. it was a very funny sight. he turned around to look at us so we stopped immediately. no need to get caught laughing at him.
aang spent a few days on doing exercises with jeong jeong on a mountain, well let's say, he did some breathing on the mountain. meanwhile my siblings and me, we just talked things out again. it was really freeing, having someone to talk about this stuff. i even showed them some tricks. it was really awesome. i wish things would be always this good, but all good things must come to an end eventually, right?
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i sat down next to a tree, just watching the calm flow of the water. the sunset blossoms upon the horizon as if a million scarlet blooms ignited, giving the water an orange tone with its reflection. i looked at aang, coming down the path where jeong jeong came from a while ago.
"back already?" i asked with no answer in return, he just stomped into jeong jeong's hut. alright then
aang came out of the hut not too long after entering, sitting down to meditate on the rock in front of the hut. better not disturb him
jeong jeong came out of the hut, standing still infront of aang, "we're going to work with fire now"
"oh yeah!" aang got excited and airbends himself into the air. he quickly got serious again, which made me laugh a bit "i mean, let us begin"
jeong jeong grabbed a falling leaf and burned the center, "concentrate on the fire. i want you to keep the flame from reaching the edges of the leaf for as long as you can"
suddenly a tribal man came out of nowhere telling jeong jeong that there's trouble.
aang was obviously curious "what's going on?"
"concentrate on your leaf!"
aang definitely started to get annoyed by now "this is the worst firebending instruction ever! all he does is leave me for hours to concentrate or breathe!"
"i'm sure there's a good reason" i smiled at him.
"but i'm ready to do so much more" aang breathed in, getting into a stance. moments later, the leaf was on fire.
"i did it! i made fire!" he said excitedly.
"aang, that's great, but you should take it slow" i told him, feeling like something is gonna happen if he won't play it safe.
aang started playing with it by tossing it back and forth from in front to behind himself. then he made a blast go in the opposite direction.
"now that's some firebending!"
"aang, you'll hurt yourself" or someone else.
"i wonder how that juggler did it" he started to circle around, and then suddenly he spreads his arms out, making the fire spread too. right onto my hands. it burned like hell.
i shrieked in pain, shaking with my hands.
"kazumi! i'm so sorry!" aang tried to apologize.
sokka and katara came rushing to my side, pushing aang away, "kazumi, what happened? what did you do?!"
"it was an accident! i was, uh... katara, i'm so-"
sokka tackled aang to the ground, being absolutely enraged, "i told you we shouldn't mess around with this! look what you did! you burned my little sister!"
i couldn't take this anymore, this screaming, this pain. so i just ran. my hands feel like they're being ripped apart. i looked to my left, seeing a small lake.
"kazumi!" i looked behind me, seeing katara, "let's try to cool them down in the water"
she grabbed my arm, taking me to the water. i let out a small sigh before putting them into the water. it felt better, much better. katara put her hands into the water as well, taking my hands into hers. suddenly, her hands started to glow white, making us both widen our eyes. the pain in my hands faded more and more.
i pulled my hands out of the water, seeing them completely healed and feeling no pain.
"wha- how?"
"you have healing abilities" jeong jeong came up from behind us, sitting down next to us "the great benders of the water tribe sometimes have this ability, i've always wished i were blessed like you - free from this burning curse"
"but you're a great master. you have powers that i will never know" katara told him. i just nodded.
"water brings healing and life. but fire brings only destruction and pain. it forces those of us burdened with its care to walk a razor's edge between humanity and savagery. eventually, we are torn apart."
as soon as he stopped talking, fire appeared on the water right in front of us, making us flinch a bit. he bended some fire away that was being shot at us.
"go get your friends and flee" he shouted to us. i grabbed katara's hand, "do not come back here or you will all be destroyed. hurry!"
"hold on tight" i told her, making her put her arms around my ways. i took a deep breath, and started to jump. that's way faster. we got where sokka and appa were pretty fast.
"kazumi, are you alright?" he shouted slightly, stopping whatever he was doing.
"i'm fine, thanks to katara. we've gotta get out of here. where's aang?" i asked, looking around trying to find him. he pointed to the hut.
i ran to the hut, opening the curtain, seeing aang on the floor, sulking, "jeong jeong tried to tell me that i wasn't ready. i wouldn't listen. i'm never going to firebend again."
"you'll have to eventually" i approached him.
"no. never again"
"it's okay aang. i'm healed" i smiled, hoping he would turn around now.
"what? how?"
"i'll explain later. but right now, we have to get out here. zhao and his soldiers are attacking!"
"where?" he jumped up.
"by the river. they captured jeong jeong" i pointed into the direction of the river.
"i have to help him!" he ran out of the hut as fast as he could. i shook my head slightly before running after him.
"woah woah, where do you think you're going?" sokka put his arm in front of me, stopping me.
"going after aang, what else?"
"let him handle it, he got this" katara put a hand on my shoulder.
"alright, let's go get him" i jumped onto appa.
"i'll never get used to you doing that" sokka said while climbing up onto appa's saddle.
we walked a bit with appa until we saw the river where aang was in. he onto appa's head, taking the reigns, "yip yip!"
"wait where's jeong jeong?" he asked, while looking back at us.
"he disappeared. they all did" sokka looked down, making us all look down too. no people in sight. not a single one.
we all sat down in the saddle after some time of flying.
"aang you're burned! let me help you" she opened her satchel and took out the water, putting it on aang's arm to heal him.
"woah! that's some good water" he smiled at her.
"when did you learn to do that??" sokka asked, raising one eyebrow.
she shrugged with her shoulders, "i guess i always knew"
"oh... well then thanks for all the first aid over the years. like when i fell into the greaseberry bramble. or that time i had two fishhooks in my thumb!" he crossed his arms, being absolutely sarcastic.
"two?" aang asked.
"he tried to get the first fishhook out with another fishhook, it was disgusting but also hilarious. you should've seen his face" i started to laugh at this memory.
"oh, and the time that mink snake bit me! thanks for healing that up. that was great. really helpful."
"this guy.." i closed my eyes, falling onto my back.
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a/n: jeong jeong was so fine 💔💔 got me twirling my hair