Bend My Life *Legend of Korra*

(4) Boiling Over

Chapter four- 

It was like they were waiting for me to notice that. As soon as I took a deep breath in I heard feet run across the other side of the room. I tried to catch up to them with the flame on my fingers but it seemed like whenever I went they were on the opposite side of this pitch black room. 

All of a sudden, there were quick footsteps and a face was right in front of me. The face was heavily aged with wrinkles in every space. His eyes were light. I jumped back and hit my head on the wall and crumpled to the floor. He was holding a fire in the palm of his hand. My immediate thought was that this was a trap and I was going to die, then I felt the pounding in my head. 

He threw his fire to several spots over the room, lighting lamps. The room suddenly became visible. It wasn't actually that large. There was no furniture but the tea cup and a pot on one side of the room. There were tapestries lining every wall, they had each of the four elements on them along with various solid colored ones. The man looked disappointed in me and turned away. "You have failed your first test." He walked to his tea cup and picked it up, holding it in his hand. I slowly stood up as I examined the man. He wasn't very tall, but he looked fit. His hair was white and pushed back. He was wearing the generic firebending outfit, the kind that people would typically wear in my town, the towns with a mainly firebending population. The outfit gave me a sort of comfort, knowing that our past homes may have been similar. 

"Are you my instructor?" I said, cautiously taking a few steps towards him. 

He chuckled, "No, I'm the janitor," he said sarcastically. "What do you think?" 

I looked down, feeling stupid, "My name is Hikari Akiyama, and I am honored to be your firebending student." 

"Names aren't important to me," he spat. He walked to the wall across from me and slid a closet door open. He pulled out a few cushions and began to drag out a table before I went over to him. 

"I got it," I said picking up the wooden table. He stared at me for a split second while his eyebrows furrowed. Then I asked, "Where do you want it?" 

He pointed to the rug in the center of the room. I carried the table over and placed it down, it was a little heavy, but it wasn't that bad. He walked over and placed down the cushions. I sat across from him and he brought over two cups of tea. One cup was steaming and the other one was cold by the sweat on the side of the glass cup. He placed the cold cup down in front of me.

"Where did you get another cup of tea?" I asked. 

He ignored my question and put a tea infuser in my cup of water. "Well, aren't you going to make yourself some tea?" 

I raised an eyebrow and I looked down at the water and then back up at him to see if he was serious or not. "I'm not a waterbender, you must be confusing me with my brother." 

"Waterbenders can't heat up tea, go on now. Make some tea." I bit my lip and put my hands on the cup of water. I tried to focus my firebending to heat and I could feel the cup get warmer. Then a few bubbles came up. "You'll need more than that to make it hot." 

I nodded and tried harder, but I couldn't hold the heat long enough for more bubbles to form. I got frustrated and pulled away from the cup. "I can't do it, I don't know how, I'm not strong enough."

"You know enough, you can do that fire finger thing. I bet you can light a cigar with that," he teased. Then he looked me in the eye, "Never say you're not strong enough." 

I got frustrated very quickly, "Well what am I supposed to do? You're the instructor aren't you?" 

"I'm Sifu Chang, nobody has ever called me an instructor. I'm not here to teach you, you're hear to learn," he said and took another sip of his tea. 

That didn't make any sense. "What's that supposed to mean?" 

He looked up at the ceiling and then back at me. "Whatever you want it to mean." 

I groaned and put my hands on the cup again. I started to feel more frustration and anger. I was mad that I didn't know firebending, and that no one bothered to each me when my father left. I was mad no one stepped up when I lived in a town that was dominated by other firebenders. Why was my father leaving us the end of my training? I got frustrated that Sifu Chang wasn't just cutting to the chase and he was making this some kind of metaphor. I tried to focus all of the rage into my body on that cup. All of a sudden, the cup exploded and pieces flew all around the room. 

Sifu Chang wiped the water off of his face dusted the glass off the table. "I wouldn't have said anything if I thought you were going to blow it up. Great job," he said sarcastically as he finished his tea. I stared at him for a few moments as I tried to understand what he was trying to get across. "Enough with the theatrics. Now, I'll show you how you actually do it." He said as he held out his palms with a large blue flame in each. My eyes widened as I felt their heat. "You ready?" 

A/N Sorry it's been like two weeks since I last updated. Since I live more north, I don't get out of school until June 20th. I have two big projects in my honors classes too, so I don't think I'll be updating as often as I was. I'll still try to get one in every 2-3 weeks. :) Love you guys :D