Chapitre 5: Firebending Prodigy
*Zukos Pov*
Walking off I headed towards my room to think. 'How?' was the biggest question I had right now. My cute Granddaughter bent blue fire, just like my sister Azula could.
Despite her looking more like Izumi as a kid, she still has her similarities with Azula. She's prideful, strong, and now she's going to be a Firebending Prodigy. What surprises me even more is how easily she summoned forth her fire.
'It took me 4 days to even summon fire like that...' I grumbled at my own lack of talent as I nodded towards two royal guards and entered my room.
Upon entering my room I smiled proudly at a portrait of my wife Mai holding Izumi. Looking at it I began to walk towards a couch which was placed directly in front of it.
'Mai, what would you do?' I questioned as I looked at the portrait of Mai holding Izumi.
I just simply couldn't get the thoughts and images of Azula out of my head after seeing Homura bending blue fire. Even now I don't know what happened to Azula, after she acted like a spirit and was caught she just vanished.
I sent out numerous search parties and hundreds of soldiers scoured the Fire Nation for Azula, but it was as if she never existed. Except for the group she was working with, nothing was left of her.
Shaking my head grimly I laid back further onto the couch. "What do I do? I don't want Homura ending up like Azula, but if I teach her she might become too prideful... I've seen that pride in her eyes... If I allow it to grow, it might get out of hand."
Scratching my beard I thought I noticed the main issue with the problem. 'If I don't teach Homura she might hate me and end up like Azula, but if I do teach her she might become too prideful and dangerous. I can't just teach her a few moves and stop, I must go the full way or it would be disrespectful and dangerous to her...'
Shaking my head I mumbled "Why can she just stay as my cute great grand-daughter... It would be so much easier to protect her then from the forces of evil." I thought back to the recent attempted kidnapping on Korra.
Questioning what to do I sat up from the couch and decided to meditate on it. Uncle Iroh would often do so when he didn't know what to do, and I myself began to copy it after him.
Humming to myself I walked outside my room and motioned for one of the royal guards who were stationed outside. Almost immediately one of the guards walked up to me and performed a firebender salute.
"Yes Lord Zuko?" The royal guard voiced out as he looked down avoiding my eyes.
"I will be meditating for the rest of the day in the garden and will be done later. Please make sure no one bothers me. "
"Of course Lord Zuko, it shall be done." The guard did another salute and then walked away to take care of the mission I gave him.
'Hmm, well there is no time like the present.' I thought as I left my room and headed towards the garden to think and meditate on the issue at hand.
*With Homura*
I watched as my family left me with the devil Soro. Making a futile attempt at escaping I succumbed to my fate of doing Princess things.
'Oh boy time to do more body training, then etiquette, then history training, and ughhh' I groaned in my mind as I followed Soro back into the palace.
"We will continue with body training, but this time we will train endurance and stamina." Soro spoke as she guided me towards my room.
Raising my eyebrow at that I asked "Wait why endurance? Don't we usually train strength right now?" I asked as Soro continued to guide me until we walked through the palace up to the door of my room. Upon entering Soro motioned me to go to the closet.
"No, now that we know you are a firebender, endurance and stamina is going to be your most important training regime. Firebending requires you to be able to move quickly and not run out of breath so that you can continue to bend fire." Soro pointed towards again towards the closet.
"Get changed into your exercise garb and meet me at the front of the palace. I will give you 5 minutes, and if I don't see you there..." Soro spoke to me sternly giving off a dangerous vibe.
Getting the message I quickly nodded and began to strip as quickly as I could. Changing my shirt and pants out for a tighter type of cloth that hugged me firmly, I then searched for my exercising robe. Spotting the same kind of robe people use in martial arts I put it on over my other clothes.
Running over to the mirror I checked myself and nodded. Tying my hair up into a tight ponytail I took off my accessory's and then put on my training shoes, which were more breathable than my previous ones.
Double checking my appearance one more time I began to run for the entrance of the palace. It took about 2 more minutes to make it to the entrance due to the vastness of the palace.
Upon reaching my destination I spotted Soro waiting for me while tapping her foot on the ground. She was waiting in front of the large wall which surrounded and protected the palace.
"You are 2 minutes late..." Soro grimly said to me causing a tingle to travel up my spine. 'Oh no... Please its just 2 minutes.' I frowned as I hoped that she would just ignore my tardiness.
Soro sighed and just motioned for me to come closer. Following her directions I walked close enough to be standing in front of her.
"Alright, I will let it slide this time, but lets get back on topic. As you have now become a Firebender, the most important part of being one is stamina. As such..." Soro motioned at the wall causing me to look at it.
"You will be running around the palace and you will follow this wall. If I catch you walking for any part of it I will increase your training. Now that your exercise is explained... Get running." Soro slapped my back jolting me forward slightly.
"What do you mean running around the whole palace?!" I shouted in disdain as I calculated how large the palace was.
Soro looked less than amused and shot a small fireball at my feet making me jump back. "Hey! What was that for!?" I yelled in fear.
"I said, get running. Now!" Soro sternly yelled at me making me run away from her as she shot small fireballs at my feet.
'THIS SUCKS! I didn't even know she could firebend, and the first time I'm seeing it is her shooting fire at my feet!' I angrily thought as I began to run next to the impressive wall.
(A/N: Just imagine she did one of those Rocky Running scenes, I don't think you all want to see me write about her running.)
*Timeskip of her running*
Slowing down and gasping for air I stopped about 20 feet from Soro. "Oh... spirits... I-I hate... this." I tiredly muttered out as I gasped for air.
'How am I this out of shape? I am 5?!' I questioned my own lack of physique. Slowly recovering from my 80s montage of a running scene I watched Soro approach me with a pitcher.
"Princess, have some water." Soro kindly said to me causing me to look at her in disbelief. The once raging secretary shooting fire at me was now handing me water?
Soro noticing my suspicious stare just smiled and tilted her head like a puppy. Breathing in deeply I straightened my back and motioned for her to give me some.
The secretary pulled a cup out from behind her back? Yes, lets just go with that, and then poured me some. Shrugging my shoulders as I questioned where the cup came from I noticed her grin while pouring the water into the glass.
"Here lady Homura. It will help you lose the fatigue of all that running that you just did." Soro practically pushed the glass into my hands.
'Why is she so suspicious with this? The hell?' I was lost in thought as I wondered if I passed out while running and that this was all a dream. Shaking my head at the unlikelihood of that, I pushed the cup to my lips and took a deep gulp of whatever drink it was only to taste something that wasn't water.
Stopping my gulp for a second I looked at the cup to gauge what I just drank. It was sweet, burning, and irresistibly good. Probably one of the best drinks I have had in a long time. Wanting more I began to earnestly drink everything in my cup.
Not even paying attention to how Soro's face morphed from an evil look, into surprise, and then worry, I continued to drink everything that I had.
'This is great! What is this, a mix between an energy drink and something else? No it's too good to be an energy drink. It feels like I am gaining energy by just drinking it.'
Finishing the cup off I noticed that the cup was empty. Still wanting more I tried to get every last drop out of it and finally stopped noticing that there was nothing left.
"Soro! What was that drink?! It was great, it was like all burning, but really sweet, and can I have some more?" I energetically asked Soro a rapid fire of questions.
Finally noticing Soro's look of fear I raised my eyebrow at her. She took a second of opening her mouth and then closing it again only to sigh and shake her head, putting on her serious look again.
"That drink was a medicinal drink formed from a multi-mix of different herbs. And it is supposed to be unbearably disgusting, to the point of people spitting it out." Soro slowly spoke out as if she was trying to confirm to herself about what I just did.
Soro then scrunched her eyebrows and sniffed the pitcher and pulled her face back. "How can you drink this with a straight face and like it?"
"Well... I don't know but I want more. Pleeease give me some?" I was already imagining the indescribable feeling that the drink gave me.
Soro sighed and poured me the rest of the pitcher with a look of disgust on her face. "Princess, I know you probably don't care now, but that drink is quite valuable. The only reason people even force that down is that is can revitalize the person and fill their Sea of Chi helping it grow."
Stopping myself from drinking the cup of medicinal liquid I looked questioningly towards Soro. "So wait, this will help my Chi center to grow? And give me more energy?" I was in disbelief at this miracle blend.
'No way! So wait, that means not only will I be able to have the best drink in the world, but I can grow stronger from it?!' I looked at the cup full of the liquid in my hands and quickly began to drink everything in it.
While drinking I heard two guards on the wall stop and gasp as I drank everything again. Looking up at them I waved happily as I felt revitalized from the drink. I could also just barely feel a small warmth pooling together in my stomach.
"Princess, are you sure you are okay after drinking that? Even Lord Zuko can't stomach that. Do you need me to take you to the doctors?" Soro worriedly asked me as her stern façade broke at the sight of me gulping another cup of medicinal herb cocktail.
Grinning at Soro I thought for a second about the drink. 'If this can help me grow my Chi, is there something else that can also help?'
"I'm fine Soro, but I have a question. If this drink can help me increase my Chi, what else can?"
"Well, Princess, that is not my expertise... but we do have a medicinal hall in the palace. In it the Chief Healer can most certainly tell you more about what can increase your Chi." Soro uncomfortably said as I handed her my empty cup.
"Hah! Well Soro, we are changing my schedule! Our next stop is to the medicinal hall to gather everything that can help me increase my Chi!" I shouted cheerfully as I pulled a grumbling Soro on my adventure to increase my Chi.
Sadly, much later that day I would find out the hard way that there is no quick way to increase my Chi by eating every medicinal herb in sight. My stupidity led to me being forced to vomit out all of the herbs that I stuffed myself with that I gathered from the medicinal hall.
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Hay your Lazy Author here! Sorry for delay in chapters and stuff. Been unmotivated and busy, but I pushed through and made this... well introduction chapter for the next chapter.
Might seem boring as barely anything happened in this chapter, but I'm playing the long game. This chapter has opened up the world of herbs and Chi growth for the MC, and has also given a little bit of Zuko grumbling to himself about what to teach Homura.
I wonder if anyone got the hint I put in the chapter about upcoming adventures? If not then I will say its something to do with Zuko and blue fire.
Anyways, next chapter will be MC's first lesson in Firebending with our favorite Grumpy Firebender.
Cya next time, also sorry for errors in the work if there are any.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone