Jasmine was woken up from her peaceful sleep by a violent banging on her door. "What in the Avatar's name?" she mumbled and rubbed her eyes while getting up to answer the door.
"Yes?" She looked up with squinted eyes still having to adjust to the corridor's bright light.
Zuko was standing in front of her with crossed arms, tapping his foot on the floor impatiently. He let out a huff when he saw Jasmine rubbing her eyes. He gulped when his eyes travelled down her bare legs.
She blushed when her mind woke up fully and she saw him looking at her legs. The girl only got some shorts and an oversized t-shirt to sleep in.
Zuko cleared his throat and immediately looked away. "Get ready, my uncle wants to see you."
Jasmine glared at his retreating figure. "Get ready," she mimicked him angrily and closed her door with a huff before getting ready quickly, not wanting to let Iroh wait for too long.
When she looked presentable enough, she left her room and looked left and right, still not sure about where exactly to go. A defeated sigh left her lips and she just decided to go with the flow until she got to the deck.
It didn't take Jasmine as long as it did the other day to find her way around and when she reached the deck, she was hit with fresh and cold air. A few guards were carrying around boxes and doing other tasks while the girl looked for Iroh.
Iroh was nowhere to be seen and Jasmine pressed her lips together. When a guard passed her, she turned around in a flash and tapped him on his shoulder.
He turned around and took off his helmet and the girl immediately recognised him and his warm brown eyes. He was the one she saw right before they reached Zhao's port the other day. Smiling, she put her hands behind her back, "excuse me, where can I find General Iroh?"
He smiled back, revealing his dimples. "He should be here in a few minutes, miss." He bowed his head before quickly going back to his tasks.
Jasmine knitted her eyebrows and watched him leave. "Did he just call me miss?" she whispered to herself.
"Good morning, Jasmine dear," Iroh said, having her turn around in a flash, "would you care for a cup of tea?"
She nodded and quickly followed the man to a little table on the other side of the deck. Iroh took a seat and gestured to the other seat and nodded at her.
Jasmine hesitantly sat down and bit the inside of her cheek. What does he want to talk about?
Iroh calmly poured some tea into two cups before setting down one cup in front of Jasmine. He slowly took a sip, letting the hot liquid warm him up from the inside. The old man noticed that she nervously shifted in her seat and decided not to let her wait any longer. "I want to talk about your firebending. I thought about letting you train with Zuko but I first need to know at which level you are."
Jasmine gulped and shot him a nervous smile. "Well, I secretly trained by myself since I found out about my bending."
The tea-loving man hummed, "I want you to show me your firebending." He looked over his shoulder and waved over the all too familiar guard. The young guard came to a halt in front of Iroh and bowed.
"Kano, I want you to fight Jasmine here but only as far as she can defend herself. I only want to evaluate her bending abilities."
Kano gulped, his eyes briefly flickering to Jasmine. He hesitantly nodded and straightened his posture. "Of course, sir."
He wants me to fight?! Jasmine's shoulders tensed and her wide eyes snapped to Iroh. Her bending was okay for someone who taught themselves but it was in no way in a Fire Navy soldier's league. The girl searched Iroh's eyes in hope of finding a hint of humour, or rather of finding anything that could hint at him joking. But he was serious.
Jasmine hesitantly stood up as Kano walked to the middle of the deck. She briefly looked at Iroh from over her shoulder but instead of telling her to sit back down, he only nodded reassuringly. With a heavy breath, she followed Kano and stopped across from him. I'm gonna die here.
Kano got into a fighting stance and Jasmine focused on mimicking him, not noticing that Iroh gestured Kano to start. The first fire punch took her off guard. She dodged it a second too late as the fire grazed her upper arm.
A hiss escaped her lips and she briefly glanced at the burn. Shaking her head, Jasmine gave the wound no further attention. The girl concentrated on her inner energy and sent two fire punches Kano's way.
The guard knitted his eyebrows, not having expected blue flames coming his way. Kano redirected the flames in the nick of time and stumbled back before looking at Jasmine with curiosity. He only knew of one person other than Jasmine whose fire was blue; and that was none other than Fire Princess Azula, Zuko's little sister.
Jasmine immediately noticed the confusion and hesitation and used that to her advantage. Before Kano could recover from the shock, she sent various attacks his way.
At first, the young guard struggled to dodge or to keep up with all of the flames that came his way. However, when Jasmine needed a brief moment to catch her breath, Kano immediately changed to offence.
This time, he decided to use more force as she had been able to deal with his attacks so far. Everytime she redirected an attack and defended herself, Jasmine had to take a step back and it didn't take her long to reach the end of the deck.
The teenager gulped and briefly looked over her shoulder, down the ship and at the water. Taking a quick breath, her head snapped back to Kano. Jasmine knew that she would definitely fall down if she didn't turn the tables right there and then.
Intuitively, Jasmine raised both of her arms into the air, clasping her hands together. Focusing her energy on her hands, she swung her arm down in a swift movement until her hands made contact with the floor.
When the girl looked up, she froze in her place. A massive blue stream of fire sped up to Kano. The guard's eyes widened and he raised his arm to cover his face while the force of the attack sent him flying over board.
Iroh raised his eyebrows in shock as all the other guards quickly stepped back, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire. From Iroh's point of view, her attack looked like a blue fire wall, passing him by. And when the blue flames disappeared, he could still see a burnt line on the floor, leading from Jasmine's position all the way back to the other side of the ship, where Kano fell overboard.
Jasmine slowly looked at her shaking hands with wide eyes before her eyes followed the burnt trail on the floor. She took a shaky breath and gulped as she watched a few guards gathering together and throwing a rope overboard before pulling up Kano. They immediately handed him a blanket before one of them accompanied him inside the ship.
Iroh stood up from his seat and approached Jasmine. "I guess this is enough, come sit down, dear," he put a hand on her shoulder, having her look at him with big eyes.
She nodded and followed Iroh before sitting down, playing with her fingers. What did I just do? They're so gonna kick me out. Where even am I supposed to go now?
"You said you've trained by yourself, right?"
Jasmine nodded and bit the inside of her cheek. "Yes," she whispered and looked at her lap.
"You're quite talented for someone who taught themselves, even if you still need to learn how to control your bending," Iroh smiled and nodded. "You may start training whenever you want to."
Jasmine nodded and gulped. The moment she had found out about her firebending, the then little girl decided to never bend fire ever. After all it was the element that her mother had died of. However, when young Jasmine had found a book between her deceased mother's stuff, her mindset changed. At first glance, the book seemed like a normal one, telling the story of a princess who fell in love with the prince of the enemy's nation. But parts of firebending scrolls were glued onto the very last pages. Jasmine never found out how the book ended but instead decided that this was a sign and started her own firebending training.
"Is there anything else you'd like to tell me?" Iroh slowly asked when he saw her deep in thought and scrunched up face.
Jasmine's eyes snapped up and she quickly shook her head. A nervous smile played on her lips, "no, nothing."
When Iroh nodded and turned back to his tea, a relieved breath left her lungs. Despite finding Iroh the most trust-worthy person around her at the moment, she reminded herself that he was still the fire lord's brother. So she decided against the idea of telling him about her mother's book and also about her water bending; even though he seemed very wise and could know something about this dual-bending.
A guard approached them and he bowed to Iroh briefly. "Sir, we have news about the Avatar."
Jasmine's shoulders tensed and she eyed the guard carefully.
"Unfortunately we have no idea about the Avatar's whereabouts. There have been various sightings of him, each of them at random places. It is impossible to track him down."
Iroh nodded and thanked the guard as Jasmine let out a relieved breath. Thank the spirits.
A/N - hey hey hey! i hope you like the story so far :) if you do, please don't forget to comment and/or to vote, thank youu <3
i'm pretty proud of myself because i managed to finish the fourth episode in time, haha *pats own shoulder*. this episode will have four chapters (i decided to make the new chapters a bit shorter than the others). they will also be updated every other week on thursday (i need time to finish the next episode which i haven't even started rewriting.)
also, i know i'm a bit too late but what do you think of the avatar netflix adaptation? it has its bad and good sides but overall i think it's actually pretty neat. i enjoyed watching it :)
thank you and stay safe and healthy <3