A week zoomed by. The weather was changing rather quickly. Just a week ago, the sky looked full and somewhat warm. However, as of now, the sky was clear and atmosphere cold.

At the moment, his bending was mounting to frustration. His goals still weren't met. Time had past, but he still hasn't been able to execute firebending through the fingertips perfectly. During the day, he practiced patiently, and at night he pondered his techniques. What had he lacked? Was his mind a factor here? Or was his determination swindling? Sometimes he could shoot fire through his fingertips as though it was an everyday habit, but those were just times of luck. A few factors that he noticed was his fire; its volume was increasing. His breathing also improved and his agility gained. Something was missing though, he thought.

This early morning at 4:00am, he decided to employ weights over his body, as a resistance for him to move quicker and perform moves with more efficiency. After he finished thoroughly stretching his body to prevent strains, he made rocks for the resistance he needed and eventually had them on. His movement was heavy; his slow movements made him look as though he was seriously overweight. He stumbled with the new weight on.

He spent the morning walking with the weights on, trying to get accustomed to his new bulk. It again was a frustrating time period; he felt sluggish and weak. His body wasn't responding the way he had expected. The new weights were also depriving him of his usual intake of oxygen, and at times he felt dizzy. 60 lbs, 2/5 of his body weight, had gave him a new challenge. After an hour past, he sat down and looked at the sky full of thoughts.

He would usually relish new challenges but he supposed real strenuous training had started to force him into a new mentality, toughness. He dug into his past and thought of merging it with his present.

While he was a Yu Yan Archer, endurance and dexterity were the main factors, not power and speed; they were minimal requirements. This new training was forcing him into a state of a warrior, something he had not been born to be with. This thought was a new revelation; the reason why this training had been so hard to him was because of the change: from a meticulous and somewhat weak archer, to a powering and strong warrior.

With newly brimmed energy after realizing the piece to his puzzle, he stood up, still with his weight and this time energetically, and started walking again, going up the mountains for a hike.

Yuyan hiked up the mountains, sweating and breathing lightly. The weight affected him and his body was being tested. This time, his conciousness didn't give up; the newfound realization in him fueled him with the energy he needed to do this hard hiking. As he dragged himself up the mountains, the air thinned and the weather chilled furthermore. His breathing heavied and the sweat on his skin chilled as the cold air made contact and cooled them. Haze shrouded his view as the altitude increased and the ground became slippery as the condensed water wetted the grass and earth. A few hours ago, this condition would force him to give up. However, he now actually loved these conditions; they strengthened his will and gave him more power to overcome obstacles. He grinned as the hike spiked to higher heights and worsening conditions soon impeding his push toward the top.

Finally, after many hours, he made it to the top, a new plain, only thing it had no grass but just a flat, wet, slippery and rocky surface.

He stood among the clouds now and on his face appeared a happy and accomplished grin. His body was worn out and past his limits, his arms weak and straining to control, and legs wanting to collapse; however the great feeling of accomplishing something gave him joy. This was the training he wanted, this was how it was supposed to be. Just this morning, he felt as though he learned and gained as much as the first entire week combined. He looked at the adjacent mountains and cherished the moment as the sun came up. The weight didn't affect him as it had before, just about an extra 10% of his weight instead of the 40% he threw upon him. Attitude, he thought. This is the key. Maybe he had found out what he needed to finally nail that move.

After relishing the moment for a few more minutes, his focus came back again and he started walking back down the mountains. This time, focus wasn't that much of a problem, even with the tiring factor kicking in at a prime.

The walk down was even more dangerous with him. His body exhausted itself just climbing up here with the weight was still on him. His feet were shaking weakly and now, the only thing keeping him through all this was pure guts. This must be the moment, where the weak were separated from the tough. When the body is weak and only the insides count. Tough training started right now.

He walked down slowly but steadily, looking down at his feet frequently to prevent himself from walking onto hard or horribly slippery objects that could make him roll down hill. His shoes were worn off now and wet, furthering the difficulty of his walk. Comfort thoughts ran through his mind but were replaced quickly with concentration. No matter what, he needed to get down. Nice thoughts should be left for later.

The haze and mist gave his vision a hard time, even with his perfect eyes. As he looked forward to guage his path, he didn't realized he had just stepped on a slippery rock. He knees buckled from the weight and he slid down the mountain, hitting a few sharp rocks and garnering some hard cuts through his whole body. As his momentum gained downhill, he grabbed hard onto everything he could see, slowing down after every grab. Eventually he stopped, but not before he was dangling over a cliff-life hanger. A red substance dripped from his hand down to his face. It was sore and painful. This struggling wasn't welcoming. His body screamed and the weight was dragging him down further. Right now, he had a choice: dropped the heavy weight and climb back up, or climb up with the weights with the possibility of dying. His resolve took over and he climbed up with the heavy rocks on him, mustering every single bit of strength he had left and finally got back up. His breathing was disturbed now and he struggled with oxygen from the high altitude.

He got up and walked back down, now sustaining some deep cuts from the rocks. Eventually he made it to the bottom toward his original camp place. He walked to his bag and took off 60lbs worth of weights. He fell down weakly on his knees and took a long nap; the results of hard training. The sun now fully rised and over his head, he snored peacefully, with his body thanking his mind for the rest and recovery period.

After hours of sleep, Yuyan woke up. He sat up and took in the sun, a firebender's energy source. The weather was pleasant now. Winds were getting harder and faster, but the sun now stood a little bit past his head, thus producing a warm and windy environ for him. Ideal conditions. He looked over at his wounds and cuts and immediately took out an aid kit. He dislodged the shards of rocks that were stuck a little bit in his body and disinfected all of his injuries. At the end, he covered the disinfected injuries with wraps. Looking through his bag, he saw that most of his food was gone, except a few cans of meat and some apples. He took them all out and munched on them hungrily. Again, he was fast asleep from the mingling exhaustion

As a few more hours passed, as his body recovered and his wounds became less sore, he stood up. What a fantastic feeling! His body was a little lighter now and somewhat he felt angelic. He jumped and realized that they were a little higher than before. He kicked and punched and found them a bit faster. Small, gradual improvements were starting to come out.

But even though with all this excitement, he still couldn't ignore the pain in his injuries. His hard training this morning placed an enormous strain on him mentally and he knew his body deserved a rest. He lied down again and looked up at the sky, in which the sun was slowly lowering and in its place appeared the moon. He dozed off again as the night crawled by.

Morning came again, giving out its fresh air and tranquil qualities. Yuyan woke up with a hungry stomach. He looked into his bag but he found nothing left but a few apples and his clothing. Knowing that it isn't enough, he saw the open lake and plentiful fish jumping on the water surface and decided to catch some fish today. He took off his shirt and carefully put it on a dry area to prevent it from getting wet; he didn't have many shirts left from all the training.

He stretched himself ignoring the little stings from his wounds and warmed himself up greatly to prepare for a cold swim. After he finished his warm up, he ran straight into the water and dived deep, letting the cold water soak up to his skin and fully awaken him. He saw a few big fish and thought of catching them. Eventually he caught the fish with relative ease, even though he obtained a few slaps in the face because of its tail.

Dragging the fish out of the waters onto shore, he lit up a fire and cooked it up. The smoke made his nose swell; it was well made. After he fully cooked it with the fire, he chomped on it hungrily, throwing the bones aside and eating all the rest of the meat. He finished and layed down for about 15 minutes, relaxing and looking at the clouds, trying to form figures.

Now full and rested, Yuyan stood up and started stretching again. He went over to the rocks and put the full 60lbs on his back. It was still heavy to him but was considerably lighter than yesterday. He moved a little bit quicker with them on today and even jogged for about 15 minutes with the bulk on. After the jogging session, he started doing push ups with the weight over him and found difficulty. More weight meant that more strain was put over his body and especially his arms. Being so, he could only do 10 pushups today when he collapsed. He thought that he needed to buy specialized training tools to practice since this rock was placed much on his back.

Wanting to see how progressive he was from this training, he took off the 60 lbs bulk and felt the result almost instantaneously. His body was like a feather now and it felt even better than yesterday since his wounds were feeling much better. He ran around lightly and kicked and punch swiftly against the trees. He performed a few routine firebending moves with ease and grace and his form looked better overall due to his ability to control his movement better now. Grinning with confidence now and knowing his key, he stood standing against a huge boulder in front of him. He slightly lowered his stance and looked at the boulder with unseen concentration and focus.

Yuyan had a straight-forward goal this time: to shoot fire out of his fingertips at that boulder. He guessed that what he needed this time was attitude. Attitude, he thought, and toughness as well. Positive attitude and a will to do this. He looked at the boulder which looked rough and had a single "X" in the middle of it, signifying his target. In his stance, fully concentrated and very swiftly, he shot a compact burst of fire at the boulder from his fingertips. It came out nicely but it missed his target by a few feet.
He finally had the mind to complete this move. His fire was just like hers. Now all he needed was accuracy and to tone the fire down a little bit more.
"Breathing must be the proper factor here," Yuyan muttered to himself as he again lowered his stance and looked at the boulder.
Breathing slightly, he focused again and started shooting fire from his fingertips again, every time getting his fire smaller and smaller while being more accurate and gaining close in to that X. He continued this for some time, just persistently shooting fire from his fingertips at it.

After a while, he realized that his bending was getting smaller and more accurate, but the power behind the fire was lacking. Did he need to breath a little bit more efficient to produce a more stronger flame but still maintain its small volume and accurate nature? He experimented and each time breathed differently to find out the best possible solution. At the end, breathing heavily at using extensive motions with his finger and bending controlled amounts of fire, he stopped to assess his bending.

He sat down and thought of what he did so far. It was great that he can now shoot fire from his fingertips quite efficiently and at different volumes of fire. A large fire from his fingertips was attainable, and so were small bursts of fire that hit targets accurately. However, he couldn't produce such a flame that was powerful, small, and accurate. If he had 2 of the 3, the last one would be lacking. He wondered what he needed...

After a certain amount of time, he realized the noises he had been hearing were grumbling noises from his stomach. Wow, he even neglected his poor tummy. Wanting to feast for his stomach, he took up most of his items and went back to the local town he found near the this plains. He sprinted over there as part of his training. He needed a clean shower and more food, and going over there certainly wouldn't be too bad; he needed a break from all this thinking.

Yuyan walked into the town. It was quaint and peace filling, part of the Earth Kingdom's few peaceful areas in the entire kingdom. Solid earth surrounded the small and rural town and a moderate defense provided a safe haven for its inhabitants. In the middle of the town laid 12 pillars placed around a medium sized circle. A large water fountain was somewhere west of the circle and he could see people playing in it as though it was a pool. Stores placed next to each other, selling their goods such as food, drinks, toys, etc. to the people who came to buy. The locals spoke friendly to each other and kids could be seen playing earth ball. The atmosphere wasn't rowdy or chaotic, but it wasn't silent or monotonic either. Everything was just right. Overall he felt that this place harbored a good environ for him to stay for awhile. He wanted to talk to people too; his training left him lonely and at times depressed. He missed his wife, sister and friends. Hopefully a stroke of luck will call someone to this place.

Quickly Yuyan booked a hotel room to stay in during this time. Such luck that he still had money. After taking a lengthy and relaxin shower and putting on new plain clothing, he walked out of the room and outside to the town. Yuyan walked around, basking in the calm but fun energy. This was probably what he needed. He went to the restaurant aisle and saw a variety of stores. He stood outside pondering which one he should go in first.

Fire was walking along the streets of the town, holding Haruko in her arms and a pack of food on her back. Haruko squirmed to get down and walk, but with the amount of people, Fire was afraid he'd get lost. Haruko began to whine, and Fire reluctantly placed him down and took his little hand in hers. That morning the two had set out to bring new supplies to Yu. When they came to the site Fire had assumed Yu would be traingin at, there was nothing but traces of someone camping there. Through deductive resoning, Fire decided the best place Yu would be at was the nearby town.
"Mama," Haruko said and pulled on Fire's skirt.
"Yes bebito?" Fire asked and looked down to see Haruko holding his arms out to her,wanting to be carried again. Fire smiled, picked her son up, and held him tightly.

A few minutes later, Fire found a sign pointing to the area she was looking for.
"I bet you daddy is in the resturant aisle," Fire said to Haruko. At the mention of "daddy" Haruko's eyes began scanning the crowd.
"Daddy!" Haruko called out.
"We'll find him," Fire said lovingly. Haruko still looked around,and suddenly squeled in excitement. Fire saw Yu standing outside, obviously trying to decide what resturant to go in. She laughed at how predictable today was.
"Daddy!" Haruko screamed louder, causing a few people to look over.
"Shh," Fire laughed and walked over to Yu.

Yuyan stared at the vast amount of restaurants, each with unusual foods. "Urgh, what to choose? Man I wish Fire was here. Her food... heaven..." Yuyan said mesmerizingly. Her food was always full of flavor and the spiciness intensified his taste buds. Nostalgia surrounded him again. He dearly missed Fire and his little boy Haruko; they signified his joyous moments of his life. Training hard but without the comforts of the both of them at times depressed him.
He heard a familiar voice... Haruko's voice... ring through his ear. "Wow, I knew hunger could do things, but not even causing hallucinations." Yuyan said amazed while looking down at his tummy, which grumbled loudly again. Man, for the past 2 days, his stomach acted oddly, as though it was an endless trash can, absorbing everything and at the end still feeling empty. He moaned at all the things happening around him... hunger and hallucinations.

Fire heard Yu's stomach rumble and held back a giggle. Haruko wiggled impatentaly in Fire's arms, and after her practically threw himself on the ground, Fire placed Haruko down and watched him sprint over and grab Yu's leg. Wow, that little boy is going to be a runnerFire thought to herself while she took the pack of her now sore back.
"Goodness Yu, did you go through all your food already?" Fire called out to her husband.

Yuyan felt a little person grab a hold of his leg and looked down. The moment he saw Haruko, his eyes widened as though he just won the jackpot.
"Haruko!!!!!" Yuyan exclaimed exhuberantly as he squeezed the little boy in a fatherly way. He missed the little guy so much.

"Daddy!" Haruko screamed and hugged him back, giving Yuyan a deaf ear. But now, knowing that Haruko was here, someone else had to be here as well.

Just when he thought about it, that sexi voice he heard that allured him to ask her out in the first place ran through his ears. He turned around to see his wife, with her long white hair and bright green eyes, her extremely cute figure standing over there and calling to him.
"I've gotta be in heaven." Yuyan thought out loud. Speechless, he ran over to her and hugged her tightly along with Haruko.
"I missed you two so much!!" Yuyan said happily. His two favorite people were here; this was a dream.

Fire smiled up at Yu.
"How did the training go?" Fire asked. "Never mind, I can see," She stoked Yu's arm and looked at the larger bicepts. She also noticed the scabs from old scratches and scraps and frowned a little, but she didn't say anything else. "Well Yu, are you going to stand her all day, or are you going to take your family out for lunch?" Fire asked playfully, and Haruko responded with an excited giggle.

"Um sure Fire," Yuyan said as he smiled at both of them, his insides dreading. He had just been in this place for half an hour. He decided to play with it and go for luck; he has been lucky these past two days, so why not take a few more chances? He laughed inside.

"Well Fire, this nice town here has a variety of well-cooked stores. He said with an all knowledgable voice, showing how much he thought he knew about the town. Haruko giggled at his new voice and Yuyan played with Haruko's hair, which now started to resemble his own in some way. Inside his mind, he played a little game of random chance and finally picked the middle store.

"Well this is a good store for lunch." He said to both Fire and Haruko as he pointed to it. The nice store had plenty of people, a good indicator of good food. He picked up the bag and put it over his back. Taking Fire's hand and holding Haruko with the other, he walked into the store...

Fire raised an eyebrow at Yu as she walked into the crowded store.
"You seem to know a lot about this place," Fire said with a sly grin. "What should I get?"

"Um, um, um... the special?" Yuyan said.

"Yes the special, the specialty of the store of course." Yuyan said half-assured. He was as clueless about this store as the next person. He let Fire take a seat at a center table and took a seat next to her with Haruko in his lap; he missed the little buddy alot. He frequently saw men looking at Fire and scowled at them, giving them a glare; most of them gave in and went back to their food. However, some huge men scoffed at him. He looked annoyed at them. Public, yup, bad side toward it. A young waitress came over to them and smiled genially.

"How may I help you three?" She asked cordially, giving everyone a smile and patting Haruko's head. He giggles at looking at the girl.

"We'll have the special please miss. For drinks, Chai teas and milk. Also could you brew up something nice and edible for a small little fella here?" Yuyan said smiling as he poked Haruko's nose, who giggled.

"Coming right up everyone!" She responded with a smile and went off to the counter, muttering some things while looking at either him or Haruko to the girls over there, he didn't know.

He turns to Fire. "So what brings you two here?" He said as he kissed Fire on the cheek and again poked Haruko's nose. Haruko took a hold of his finger and bit it. "Ouch little chomper, be careful there. I"m not your food!" Yuyan laughed. He looked in Fire's eyes and smiled at her, with his insides happy and light.

"Well," Fire started,"knowing you, I figured that you'd be running pretty low on food by now, so Haruko and I decided to bring you some," Fire pointed to the bag.
"But you're always one step ahead of us," Fire finished and kissed Yu as the waitress brought the drinks out.

After a few minutes of waiting, Fire smelt something horrid comming from the kitchen
"I feel bad for the people who ordered that," Fire said pinching her nose. As soon as the words left her mouth the waitress came back with 2 bowls of thick, black soup.
"The special," she said as she placed the bowl in front of Fire and Yu. The waitress then placed a bowl of apple sauce and a plate of animal crakers in front of Haruko and walked back into the kitchen. Fire looked up at Yu in shock. Haruko wrinkled his nose and covered his face with his arms at the smell.

Yuyan blinked in horror. This was the special? He'd rather have drunk the sewer and eaten the drain instead of chewing on... this. It was atrocious! The noxious fumes piled up in his nose and he felt as though throwing up here wasn't an option; it was mandatory. He didn't care if all the people in this place loved it; he was leaving. Probably this was Earth Kingdom food, or possibly it was just a little trick. He looked at the waitress and she grinned coyingly at him. What the heck? He thought.

Glancing over at Fire, he apologized. "Uh, bad luck?" He laughed uneasily as he looked at poor Haruko. He was starting to cry after looking at the apple sauce and crackers. Yuyan's face saddened as he tried to comfort him. He sighed.

Fire wanted to laugh, but she was afraid that if she opened her mouth...well, she didn't want to think about it. Fire picked up her pack and Haruko before she set some money on the table to cover whatever Yu had ordered. Haruko burried his face in Fire's arm.
"Let's get something edible," Fire said and walked outside. As soon as Fire was in the fresh air, she let the laughter come.
"I wonder what that was made out of.. wait, no I don't," Fire said in between giggles. Haruko looked at Fire and laughed too. "Here Chomper," Fire pulled out a cookie and handed it to Haruko, who began to munch on it happily.

Yuyan sighed and rolled his eyes.
"I have horrible luck Fire, why don't you randomly pick a store from whats left?" Yuyan asked as he took the bag from Fire and threw it over his shoulder sighing. Bad impression, he thought. How ironic, once Fire came, his luck vanished for some odd reason. Maybe wishing for her and Haruko to come used up all his luck. He laughed for no reason.

He looked over at her. "Sorry Fire, will do better next time." He grinned and tried to laugh off the embarrassment. Next time, he should be a little more honest.

Again, he stood looking at the stores. Which one to choose? He had no clue. Might as well let his super wife do it instead. "You pick Fire," He said apprehensively and overexaggertingly hid behind her back in fear. Haruko saw him and laughed.

Well that was one of those unlucky days. Always happens. Bad food, bad times, bad days, everyday occurrences. Typical.

After meeting up with his wife and son, Yuyan felt very happy and always sported that confidence that every bender needed to get maximum effects from his/her training. His routine workout in the morning included the running and swimming to further improve his breathing for his bending. At noon, he would practice firebending, where his fire was most augmented by the sun. While finally at night, he went to the village and ate and slept there. He wore weights every time of the day now. Having got rid of his hand-made weights, he bought professional ankle, wrists, and body weights to wear. As of now, his body could quite comfortably hold on 70 lbs while looking normal in his walks and not giving the impression that he was drunk. It was 4 weeks into his training by now.

Day 1... Month 2...

It was a misty day in the very early mornings. It was extremely humid and the air felt as though it wasn't cold but wasn't hot; it just felt like extreme discomfort. A figure was running through the thick haze and appeared as he went forward. He wore torn clothing and looked dirty. He had heavy weights on his wrists, ankles and his chest. His hair looked as unruly as ever, since he hasn't had a haircut in a long time. Sweat covered his entire body and the moon shined upon him, revealing it. His body physique had changed substantially; he wasn't a normal looking person anymore but now looked solid and physically imposing. Yuyan came at his training spot in the early morning looking alert and untired. This happened everyday. Now, through the constant routine, his mind wasn't as foggy as it was in the beginning but in its place stood a cautious and strong-willed mind. Hard training was finally coming to a fruition.

He stopped, breathed for awhile, and started stretching his body thoroughly.

After Yuyan finished his stretching, he stood up, avoiding inhaling the air that just seemed to fill with moisture and water. Today he thought of changing his training and as of now, started practicing firebending in the early morning at the presence of the moon, all in hopes of maybe it will give him the psychological impression of his fire becoming stronger if he bended in the noon times.

He sat down and started meditating, carefully monitoring his breathing and silently producing images of an inner fire in his body burning accordingly to his breaths. His goal was to let this inner fire burn constantly, without any fluctuations or changes in the intensity of the flames. Being able to look at that constant flame meant that his control over the fire was doing well.

The fire wasn't constant, it was moving excitedly. Today the fire was different. The morning without the brilliant sun supplying him the energy caused a disbalance. Now his fire wasn't responding the way it usually stayed as in the other days. Calmly trying to focus his breathing, he let his mind loose and breathed quitely. Slowly, very slowly, his flame went under control. He opened his eyes after his flame stood constant. His first part of training had just ended. Now comes the fun part...

Yuyan now fully started to firebend. His bending was intense, sending red flames through the still-dark morning, and at times causing some of the thick haze and mist to dissipate. After warming up, he started to drill intensively on his basics, performing kicks and punches with a little drag from his weights on. He still hasn't adapted fully to the 70lbs yet. He felt some pain in his legs from the kicking but kept plowing on anyway. Pain has been part of his training, and he thought that enduring all the pain was a sign of improvement and toughness, his new motto.

Wrapping up his basics and now sweating profusely from the basics, techniques came. Yuyan spent much time shooting fire from his fingertips at made-up X's in his mind at the air. Now his fire shooting was accurate at its best now, with more power being added every time he further practiced. In fact, now he could produce huge amounts of fire through his fingertips, something he felt was so useful. However, firebending at the tips required more control, and thus fatigued him a little bit quicker than normal bending. Getting used to this bending will make him adapt to it and employ it better and efficiently, he thought. So now this was his primary way of fighting. Using the fingers. Also the weights were serving him a purpose, to increase his speed and stamina. His fighting style had developed: agile and efficient.

After exhausting his fingers and feeling his whole body tired from the constant bending, he took a long break and drank lots of fluids while relaxing from his morning work. The sun now shined and the mist and haze were starting to evaporate.

After having a long relaxation time while recovering, Yuyan stood up and held his stomach. He was extremely hungry. "Oh man, I neeeeeeeeed food!" He moaned. Disciplined as he was, he still had those lax moments where he just let it go.

Excitedly, he decided to have some fish today; he hasn't chomped on one for days. Taking off his shirt, all his weights, and shoes, he jumped into the sparkling blue water with a splash and searched eagerly for some good breakfast. As he looked through the water while diving, he saw a huge variety of fish, from huge to small, from fat to skinny, a wide selection. In Yuyan's mind, he imagined grabbing all these fish and feast on them. However, everything crashed back to reality when a humongous fish slapped him in the face with its tail while he swam casually through it.

"Ack ack ack ack!!" Yuyan choked as his face got a few scratches from its tail; it had a few spikes from it. It looked like a hybrid between a porcupine and a..... shark? He said that in his mind as the porcupine/shark flashed its razor sharp teeth. Oh boy, looks like he's not gonna feast on a fish; it was gonna be a fish that was gonna feast on him. Quickly, he tried to swim away but the fish cut his path with its speed. It smirked at him maliciously. So much for an easy breakfast, he thought. He tried to firebend at it and even though his bending had improved by leaps and bounds, it extinguished in the presence of a water body. The fish saw him doing things with his arms and feet and took it as trying to attack it. Its reaction was a full lunge at him opening its abnormally huge mouth. Its mouth ripped the lower part of his pants and Yuyan's flesh barely dodged it. He looked at it wide-eyed from behind. What a freak!! Its eyes were bright red now and it gave off the feeling of wanting to gnaw on his bones. Urgh...

Yuyan tried hard to avoid his rising inner fear. In his mind, he imagined as though this was just another training session, with that porcupine/shark as an ugly and dumb opponent. Slowly, he calmed down and looked at the monster warily now. It plunged at him at full speed now; however, this time Yuyan expected it and quickly got a held on its back and now swam at fast speed with it. Was that a wise decision? Kinda…

He held on to it, but little did he know that it had small sharp quills just like a land porcupine. Ouch. His hand now full of bitter pain from its quills, he thought of giving up and let go. But the sight of the monster glaring at him maliciously trying to take a bite out of him looked even scarier, so he decided to give it a burn. He pushed his hand down further, ignoring the pain, to touch the monster’s skin. Now fully feeling its skin, he bended as much heat as possible from his palm and the result was a bright red flame coming out of his hand and onto the shark’s skin. Although the skin of sharks were as thick as steel, it relented and started trying to flail him off, instead of chasing its tail to grab him. Now feeling his pain seep in further, he pushed his hand out of the quills and now floated freely as the shark swam away quickly in fear. Whew… what a fish, Yuyan thought in relief, now looking torn and tired again.

Yuyan dragged himself out of the waters. He looked back at the clear blue water body; the lake looked as though it was mocking him, giving off that fake image of peacefulness. He learned a lesson: never judge any object from its looks. Exhausted and injured, he collapsed down onto the ground and went into a deep sleep. He snored slightly, unaware of the happenings of the world as time passed.

A tall dark figure of about 6'0 walked silently up the plains. His tan face looked mature, with many prominient features showing out. He had short brown hair and it blew against the wind as he continued silently to Yuyan. Slowly he took out his bow and an arrow he had from behind his arrow pouch and aimed it at the sleeping figure on the ground.

Bingo, I found you.

Yuyan continued snoring lightly having some weird dreams. First, he dreamed about teddy bears, then about Fire, then about food, then fighting. All of his dreams were pleasant. Then a sudden image popped in. His parents...

He squirmed, struggling in his mind trying to break out of this horrid dream. He moved left, right, rolled, kicked, punched, everything. All in the hopes of getting out of this problem. Fire shot out of his hands and feet at times...

His eyes stared coldly at the strugging person on the ground. His arms stretched the arrow back and was now ready to release and let the arrow do the job. He stood still there, his form looking like a person who has shot the arrow billions of times, as though it was his job. The small blue square circle sign on his forehead shined a little as the sun flashed over it. Feet stilled, he let go of what he held, as the arrow, now released, zoomed past the plain at his target; a malevolent grin showed up. Three more words escaped his mouth shortly.

Goodbye, little buddy.

Yuyan wasn't aware of what was going on. He just struggled hard in his dream. Nowhere was he aware of what was going on. Just as the arrow was about to hit him, he moved aside, so that just the lightest of his skin on his left arm got pierced. The small tinge was enough to snap himself out of his dream though, and he awoke with a jolt, sweating.
"Man, that was a relie-" Yuyan said being cutted short as he felt some blood trickling down his arm and an arrow next to him. The arrow wasn't the normal everyday arrows sold at the weaponry stores; they had the small Fire Nation insignia embedding on them, a sign of the royal archery of the Fire Nation. Yuyan's eyes widened slightly as he realized what was going on. He stood up suddenly and looked around warily, waiting for signs of any movement to attack. No sound though...

Konachiro hid behind the large stone field taking out another arrow. He examined it vainfully and cleaned it up. After, this time he lit it in flames and peeked up from behind his prey's back. He recoiled the arrow and released it, aiming at Yuyan's back.

Alert, Yuyan twirled around and snapped the arrow cleanly with his hand. Now sensing some movement behind one of the large rocks, he sends out a barrage of mini flames from his fingers to the rock, causing cracks and broken chunks of rocks to fling everywhere as the fire made contact with the rocks.

"Who are you!?" Yuyan yelled at its general direction. He approached the rock cautiously not knowing who was behind it.

Aimee was looking for Yu. She hadn't seen him in days and was starting to worry. It had been several hours of walking before she spotted her tall, thin, friend practicing some moves. He seemed to be in a distressed state when she found him.

Hello Yu! She said happily.