The Return of the Avatar

Learning To Bend

Mr. West leads me to a black mat that sits on top of dirt.

"Sit down." He says standing on the dirt ground. Why do they have dirt ground?

I do as he asks and sit down on the black mat criss-cross. What's this about?

Is Mr. West married? I think randomly.  I try to see if he has a ring but he hides his hands behind his back. He stares at me like I'm supposed to do something.

"What now?" I say trying to stop the awkwardness. 

"Close your eyes and stick your palms out vertically." I do what he asks not asking any questions. I've been waiting all day to do some cool fire moves.  "Now I want you to picture fire coming from your palms. I want you to feel the heat around you and have it come out through your palms."

I picture a ball of fire between my palms. I feel the air around me close and fire ignite from my palms. I keep my eyes closed, afraid I will loose the concentration I have at the moment. I feel exhilarated and powerful. I don't know what I'm doing, but it feels right.

Mr. West laughs and claps his hands. I open my eyes and look at my hands in front of me. There's a huge ball of fire circles around my palms in midair. 

It's beautiful.

"Now I want you to bring your hands together forcing yourself to extinguish the fire." I did exactly what he asks and it surprisingly came easy.

"Wow Sky! I am surprised! I've never seen someone get that so quickly. I see great potential in you. I mean I've never seen anyone get it on their first time like that. Congratulations!"

I smile. I can't even remember the last time someone felt proud of me like that. My self-esteems skyrockets through the glass roof. I feel extremely confident because of his praise. 

With sincerity I answer back, "Thank you." 

"Let's working on striking using fire. Usually when I teach someone, they work on what you just did all class. I think your ready to learn how to aim and attack." He leads me towards an area with a bunch of metal dummies. They stand shoved into the ground with a target painted on their chests, about 20 of them lined up perfectly next to each other.

I feel suddenly nervous. What if I mess this up? I want to be really good, I just need to focus. That's the key. 

"You can do this several ways. Anyway you feel comfortable. You can bring you palm out and bend forward that way. You could bring your hand in a fist, punch and have fire come out that way. You could also cup your hands you create a fire ball and attack like that. So like I said before, anyway you feel most comfortable. I don't want you to relate fire bending with anger, okay. It must come within you calm and collected. Never lose control and have fire come out in anger."

I soak up his words like a sponge and decide to ask a question of my own. "Can people fire bend using their feet?" That sounded like a stupid question aloud.

"Yes, of course. I'll give you a demonstration." Fire easily erupts from Mr. West's palms and he strikes at a metal dummy. He brings his foot up and fire comes out in a smooth line hitting one of the metal dummies right in the center of the target like a pro.

 The fire hits the metal figure and smooths past it vanishing in the air.

I open my mouth in amazement. That is so cool! Thinking back to Drew I wonder what he can do. Well duh, I already know that answer! The bastard attacked me. Remembering how I ended up  in the infirmary brings cold memories. He never said sorry about that. He doesn't say sorry about anything, heartless jerk.