Emerald Dragon chapter 58

Chapter 58 -

"Excellent, Princess Azula!" Iroh beamed with pride as Azula's lightning bolt pierced through the sky with a loud crack that was probably heard a mile away. The pair were standing together on top of the ship as Iroh trained her.

Azula stepped out of her stance with a smirk, barely noticing the single hair that had come undone. She pushed it back without a thought and turned to Uncle Iroh who was smiling at her. Azula preened a little at the obvious pride coming from her uncle, pride that she had rarely gotten from anyone besides a certain green-eyed firebender that she was trying not to think about.

"You are getting better and better each day, Princess," Iroh said as he walked over to her. "It's a shame that Harry is not currently with us, I'm sure he would enjoy watching you. Perhaps he could have you work with him on those lightning moves he had talked about."

"Lightning moves?" Azula perked up. "What lightning moves?"

"Just as Harry has developed several firebending techniques, he had also planned to make several lightning-based techniques," Uncle Iroh explained patiently. "I have no idea if he had ever gotten around to making them work."

"Techniques like what?" Azula asked with a frown.

"I trust that you're aware of the fire whip technique," He said, Azula nodded impatiently to signal that 'yes, as one of the most advanced firebenders in the nation, I am obviously aware of the bloody fire whip'. "He wanted to make a lightning version of that?"

"A lightning whip?!" Azula gaped.

"That was the only idea he mentioned to me," Uncle Iroh shrugged. "I am sure he probably had more ideas that he never told me about,"

"And you didn't think to mention this before?!" Azula demanded.

"What difference would it make?" Her uncle asked in a calm tone that did not help Azula's mood. "All of those moves are lethal ones that will most likely end up killing his opponents. He's not even going to consider using those moves on you and he'd hardly need them for common Fire Nation soldiers so it's a moot point,"

"I...that's fair enough, but still," She frowned, knowing that her uncle was right. Azula doubted many things in her life, but she didn't for a moment think that Harry would ever hurt her on purpose.

"Now, Princess Azula, we will move on to the next stage of your training," Uncle Iroh told her, causing her to perk up once more.

"The next stage?" She asked with a smile. "And what does that involve?" She asked with a hint of excitement.

"Why, one of the most satisfying and enjoyable personal experiences one may ever have," He told her with a bright smile, causing her excitement to build up even more. "Teaching!" He announced.

"What?" She asked flatly, her excitement dropping faster than a boulder falling off a cliff. "I have to teach?"

"There are few things in life that give you a better understanding of something than teaching," He explained patiently just before the door behind them opened and Zuko walked out.

'Oh, you've got to be kidding me,' Azula said with a mental groan.

"You summoned me, Uncle?" Zuko asked slowly, staring between his grinning uncle and his obviously annoyed sister, wondering just what was going on.

"Indeed I have," Uncle Iroh nodded. "I believe it is time for the next part of your training,"

"Really?" Zuko perked up.

"Yes, it is time for you to learn how to bend lightning,"

"Lightning?" Zuko asked with a grin.

"Don't get too excited," Azula said immediately.

"Your sister will be the one to teach you," Iroh told Zuko.

"I'm sorry, what?" Zuko frowned. "Why not you?" He asked his uncle, though it was his sister that answered.

"Because it's part of my training, apparently," She said, crossing her arms and giving her uncle a look that said plainly that she was not amused.

"I will explain the concept to him, and you will take it from there," Iroh told her before turning to Zuko. "Lightning is a pure expression of firebending, without aggression. It is not fueled by rage or emotion the way other firebending is. Some call lightning the cold-blooded fire. It is precise and deadly...like most of your family, to be honest."

"True," Azula hummed.

"To perform the technique requires peace of mind," Uncle Iroh continued. "There is energy all around us. The energy is both yin and yang, positive energy and negative energy. Only a select few firebenders can separate these energies. This creates an imbalance. The energy wants to restore balance, and in a moment the positive and negative energy come crashing back together, you provide release and guidance, creating lightning."

"So, I separate the energies, let them come back together and then release them?" Zuko asked questioningly.

"You don't let them come back together," Azula scoffed. "If you keep them apart for too long then the consequences would be disastrous, they'll come back together either way, no matter what you do. It's better for you to not fight it when it does."

"See?" Uncle Iroh asked brightly. "You're already teaching," He told Azula before walking off, whistling a merry tune as he did so. "I'll be making some tea, call if you need me." He said over his shoulder before he continued whistling. The two Fire Nation siblings watched him leave with narrowed eyes before turning to each other.

"Has he always been like that?" Azula couldn't help but ask.

"Yes," Zuko said bluntly.

"..."

"..."

"This is going to be rough," She sighed.

"Let's just get it over with and potentially kill each other afterwards," Zuko suggested in a business-like manner. "Deal?"

"Deal,"

(.)

"This time we're going to try something a little different," Toph announced to Harry and Aang, both of whom were standing in front of her without any footwear. "Instead of moving a rock, you're going to stop a rock. Get in your horse stance! I'm going to roll a boulder down at you both. If you have the attitude of an earthbender, you'll stay in your stance and stop the rock. Like this!" She said before showing the stance to the pair of them.

"Um...Toph," Katara spoke up hesitantly. "Are you sure that this is the best way to teach them earthbending?"

"Actually," Toph said thoughtfully. "I think you're right, Katara. The two should be blindfolded!"

"Thanks, Katara," Aang said sarcastically to Katara who gave him an awkward and apologetic look.

A minute later, a blindfolded Harry was stood in a horse stance, waiting patiently for the inevitable boulder that would be coming at him. He had seen the boulder that Toph had wanted to use, it was a few feet taller than him and was on top of a very tall, sloped canyon, it was clearly in his best interest to get this right as he had no intention of being taken out by a giant rock during a training session of all things. He waited.

And waited.

And waited.

He heard the rock rolling down, he could feel the winds around him changing, and he heard it getting closer, Toph's seismic technique gave him an even better idea of where it was. He could feel the vibrations in the ground and maintained his stance. The rock crashed against him, he grunted and maintained his stance still, barely getting pushed back an inch.

"Nicely done!" Toph called as she slid down the slope and landed next to him. "You stopped it!" She grinned and raised her fist to Harry who fist-bumped her without taking off the blindfold. "You're getting it," She praised him before yanking the blindfold off and tossing it to Aang who had been watching from the side. "Your turn, Twinkle-Toes," She told him, she turned to the rock and prepared to bend it back up the slope when Harry stepped in and did it for her. "Thanks," She gave him a thumbs up.

"Not a problem," He gave her a thumb up in return.

"Time to give it a try, I guess," Aang said, walking forward and blindfolding himself. He was still nervous, every instinct in his body told him that he needed to move when something was being thrown at him, but he also knew that if he wanted to master earthbending then he needed to know when to stand his ground. 'Listening and waiting for the right moments' were the key parts of earthbending and what he needed to do.

Seeing Harry perform the technique first had helped him a bit as it helped give him a better idea of what he was supposed to do, not to mention it reinforced the fact that it would work in his head. But it also helped remind him why he was doing this, he needed to be strong, he needed to be strong enough to not only stop the war but also to help protect his friends, including Harry.

"Yep, don't mess it up," She said before she and Harry both took several steps back. "Get ready," She told him before raising her hand, causing the boulder to once more roll down the slope and towards Aang. It got closer and closer to the young airbender who maintained his stance, the rock crashed into Aang who managed to stop it but ended up falling on his butt. "Not bad, Twinkle-Toes," Toph said critically with a small smile on her face. "We got to practise a bit more, but you've been listening to me at least." She told Aang who smiled widely as he removed his blindfold and responded in a genuinely cheery voice.

"Kind of hard not to do that when you yell everything,"

(.)

"Sokka, you everlasting dumbass, what in the name of all that is mildly tolerable are you doing?" Harry asked in a half-amused and half-curious voice as he stared at Sokka who had somehow ended up stuck shoulders deep in a crack in the ground.

"Hunting," Sokka answered in an overly dry voice.

"For what? Rat-moles?" Harry snorted as he stared down at Sokka who had lost his hair band, leaving his hair in a wild mess. He also had somehow developed a twitch in his left eye and his boomerang was a short distance in front of him.

"I was hunting for meat, it got away, barely," Sokka said as he stared up at Harry with an annoyed look on his face. "What are you doing?" He asked in a rather obvious attempt to change the subject.

"Toph wanted to focus on training Aang so she let me have the rest of the day to myself," Harry answered. "I decided to go for a walk and I found your chronically stupid self in the ground," He raised his hand and Sokka's boomerang flew into his hand. "Why is this here?"

"It's hard to throw from in the ground, believe it or not," Sokka huffed. "And it wouldn't come back to me,"

"Maybe it doesn't like you anymore," Harry suggested in a serious voice before raising his foot and stomping it hard into the ground, causing Sokka to be spat out. The Water Tribe boy barely managed to land on his feet in front of Harry.

"Thanks," Sokka said, taking a deep breath before he went to work on trying to fix his hair. "I'm starving. Do you want to go hunting with me?" He asked Harry.

"Hmm," Harry hummed thoughtfully. "Sure, there might be some more cracks along the way, you'd probably need me,"

"Ha-ha," Sokka said, giving Harry an obviously fake laugh after finally getting his hair back into a ponytail again. "Boomerang please," He asked, holding his hand out.

"You know," Harry stared at the boomerang for a few seconds before looking back at Sokka. "I could try some magic with this if you want,"

"Magic?" Sokka asked, giving Harry a curious look.

"With the right runes, I could make it so it always comes back to you,"

"But it does always come back to me,"

"I mean I could make it so that you could summon it back to you, like I do with my weapons," Harry offered.

"Oh, hell yes! That sounds badass!" Sokka grinned brightly.

"Agreed," Harry nodded. "Anyway, let's go hunting and then we'll work on this," He said with a small thoughtful look on his face. The process would undoubtedly be harder for Sokka as the boy wasn't considered to be magical by the standards of either of his worlds, but still...he was sure he could make it work.

"How about we go eat Mr Foo Foo Cuddlypoops?!" Sokka grinned excitedly.

"I'm sorry, who?" Harry blinked, staring at Sokka like he had just burst into song.

"That guy!" Sokka yelled as he pointed past Harry towards a small furry creature that had walked up to Harry and started rubbing its head against Harry's leg.

"A saber-tooth moose lion cub?" Harry frowned before turning back to Sokka. "You named a flipping saber-tooth moose lion cub as 'Foo Foo Cuddlypoops'?" He asked with disbelief.

"Really? He looks nothing like a saber-tooth moose-lion." Sokka pointed out.

"You can't tell when they're that young," Harry shrugged. "You got to wait for the teeth and horns to grow in,"

"Oh, fair enough. Let's kill it," He suggested, clapping his hands together.

"Nope," Harry replied. "I don't want to,"

"What? Why?!"

"It's too adorable to kill," Harry said unapologetically.

"Fine," Sokka grunted. "Let's find a different one, an older one,"

"You mean like that one?" Harry pointed past the creature to another one which looked exactly like it, except much, much larger. It was at least ten feet high, with brown fur, a long muzzle, and a pair of palm-shaped antlers on its head. Its body and tail appear feline, and its two enlarged upper fangs extend past its lower jaw. It also has large clawed paws that didn't make it look any friendlier.

"Uh...yeah, like that," Sokka gulped as the now enraged adult saber-tooth moose glared at the pair before charging towards them. "Shit! It must think we're a threat to its cub!" Sokka realised.

"You are a threat to its cub, you wanted to eat it!"

"That's beside the point, can you kill it?" Sokka asked hopefully.

"If I wanted to," Harry nodded in confirmation.

"That's great, I...wait! If you wanted to?!"

"Yep," Harry nodded once more.

"You mean you're not going to?!" Sokka demanded.

"Hey, it's baby is right there," Harry down to the cub which was now smelling Sokka's shoe. "I'm not killing a mother in front of her child,"

"How is someone as fussy as you the world's most dangerous killer?!" Sokka groaned just before a large wall of earth came up in front of the giant saber-tooth moose lion, causing it to stop.

"Off you go, little one," Harry said, gently tapping the cub with his foot. It whined in a disappointed manner but trotted off just as the earth wall retracted back down into the ground. The adult looked ready to charge again, only to stop when it noticed its unharmed cub walking towards it. One happy reunion later and the pair walked off.

"Thanks," Sokka told Harry with a small sigh.

"Wasn't me," Harry shook his head before gesturing behind him.

"Hi guys!" Aang ran over with a grin. "Did you see the cool wall I made?!"

"It was kind of hard not to," Sokka said bluntly. "So...you're getting the hand of this earthbending thing then?"

"I think so," Aang said brightly. "It's easy enough when you have the right teacher,"

(.)

"Whoa!" Zuko gasped, falling on his butt after watching a bolt of lightning shoot out of his very fingertips. "Amazing!" He said, staring down at his two fingers with awe and disbelief.

"Ah, little Zu-ZU just popped his lightning cherry, how cute," Azula said in an overly sweet voice, though there was a genuine smile on her face.

"Thanks," Zuko said with a small chuckle as he got up. "I never thought I'd be able to do that, those mind techniques you showed me helped a lot."

"Not my techniques, they were Harry's, he said it was 'occlumency', whatever that is," Azula explained. "They've helped me out a lot, over the years, I admit, but they aren't perfect You'll still need focus and a lot of hard work before you can truly master lightning."

"Still, I'm at least better than I was before," Zuko stood up and stared at Azula for several seconds. "Thank you, Azula,"

"You're welcome," She said after a moment, crossing her arms and staring him. "So I suppose we're not going to kill each other then?"

"Not today," Zuko shrugged. "Maybe tomorrow?"

"No, I'm booked for a massage that day and I'll simply just die if I miss it," She said with a straight face.

"Is that not the point of me killing you?"

"..."

"..."

"Harry was the only one who understood my jokes," Azula complained.