Hi Iroh!

Hi I'm new and I thought I'd talk to you first! How are you?

I am honored! Welcome. I am sure that you will enjoy it here.

Would you like some tea? I think there are some tea leaves and a cup hidden behind a brick in my abandoned cell... *thinks* ...yes, I believe it is the 34 brick up from the back left corner of my cell. Mint leaves are there, I believe, or is it Orange-Mandarin? Hm, I can't seem to remember which, but they are both delicious. Oh dear, I hope I did not hurt them when I...uh....you know, escaped *blushes*. I should have been more careful, I suppose.

So, do you live in the Fire Nation?

Oh yes please!

Yes, I do live in the Fire Nation, beautiful place don't you think?

I think that there is beauty everywhere. Though I must admit, in some areas of the fire nation, we must work hard to find that beauty.

Where did you learn your firebending? You must be careful...if the Fire Nation army finds out that you are a firebender, you will be forced to join and fight for your nation...

Here is a tip that I learned when I was at the palace, eavesdropping with my son on the Royal Fire Army Recruiters' meeting.
"We must be sneaky, careful," they said, "there is a growing sense of disloyalty in this nation. Useful firebenders are slipping away from us, avoiding us. But if we want to win this war, it is our duty to gather all of the firebenders in this nation for the army."
We learned that each spring, they go to each house and ask for a cup of tea.
"When you get really good," the leader said, "You can taste the difference between water boiled using spark rocks and water boiled using pure fire energy."
"How?" A young Recruiter wanted to know. "
"Well, we are all firebenders here, foolish boy. When we drink a cup of tea heated using pure firebending energy, we should be able to recognize that immediately, as we are so familiar with our own energy."
"So...why wouldn't everyone just heat the tea using the spark rocks, even if they are firebenders?" the boy pointed out. The leader rolled his eyes.
"Everyone knows that it is so much easier to simply heat it using firebending. Have YOU ever heated YOUR tea with stinky old spark rocks, fool?"
This memory has never left me. Only I rare occasions do I firebend my tea...you never know who is watching....

So...when the Recruiters come to your house, heat the tea using spark rocks! Give them my famous spicy chilly pepper tea. Then their taste buds will be so out of whack, they will never be able to tell the difference between tea heated using spark rocks and tea heated using pure firebending energy again!

Wow that realy (Sorry! I have no vocabulary skills!), so what they automaticaly draft anyone who is a fire bender into the army. Well that's stupid, I am so glad i don't live there besides, Ozai is a major jerk.

I can't say that I disagree.

I have to admit, No one has ever taught me. I actually discovered my talent when I accidently burned a part of my wall (rough day, don't ask lol). When my parent's found out, they ratted me out

Eavesdropping....great idea, best way is to pretend to tie your shoe so, if you get caught, they just think that you stopped to tie your shoe.

I confess, I do firebend my tea, but before I do i raide my voice saying "I know your'e there, come out now." So, If there really is somone watching, they will come out. Although, it is smarter to use spark rocks!

Oh dear! Yes, fire can be a rather...destructive element when is not controlled.

Interesting tip to pretend to be tying your shoes...I must admit, I never have thought of that. Though it would not work in all circumstances. When my brother and I were very young, we used to sneak behind the curtain in the fire lord's war room and eavesdrop on meetings.

However, fire lords have very little patience and they show very little mercy. If we ever had been caught, I doubt that we could protect ourselves by pretending to be tying our shoes.

But that is an extreme case. I do not recommend eavesdropping on my brother.

Just ask my nephew.

Actually, do not ask my nephew. He probably wouldn't appreciate it.

Eavesdropping can be a dangerous game. It can bring forth valuable information, but if I was telling an important secret, I certainly would not be very happy to find an unexpected guest listening in. Sometimes it is out of our place. And also sometimes, the information is quite boring, useless, as it was not meant for us. So why did we even take the time to eavesdrop in the first place?

I know that feeling. I often found myself bored eavesdropping on the fire lord with my brother (even though powerful people came and went, most of their conversations ended up being about "the price of Komodo chicken in the village these days" or something...), so I would leave, but my brother would stay, and afterwards would come out with a strange glint in his eye.

"You missed the good parts." He always said.

Looking at how his eavesdropping affected him, I don't think that I really missed anything.

I somtimes forget that I'm not wearing shoes with shoelaces! but, I have heard terrible conversations, and useful ones!

Hmmm eavestropping on war meetings you say? Dangerous but clever!

*Contemplates what I could do with such important information"

What are you planning to do now that you have giant muscles? Haha...

Somthing terrible happened today! I accidently broke a glass jar, The worst part is that the jar had tea bags in it! *cries* why does glass have to be so meltable?!?! (oops... I just gave away how i broke it didn't I?)

Why does everything I have to touch break......? *stares out into space*

Annyway, I don't know how (or why) but some tea bags survived the umm.....burning, *Hands Iroh five tea bags* I'm sorry, I was going to give you a whole jar of them but...you know the rest...

Hope you enjoy the tea annyway

Kiki: Oh, you know, try my best to restore some peace and balance in the world ^^;
firebender: Oh dear! There, there, it's okay. Fire can be so hard to control sometimes. You must be careful, and you should work on trying to control the energy in your body. It seems to be releasing itself at times when you don't exactly want it to. Fire comes from the breath, not the muscles. The breath becomes energy in the body, and then extends past the limbs to become fire.
So try some breathing exercises. Meditate with a couple of candles in the room. I tried this technique with my very emotional nephew , he was having a similiar problem, and it worked very well. Try only a few candles in the room at first, and gradually add more. Your breath releases the energy, but instead of this energy just going crazy and rabid once it is outside the body, the energy is tamed, controlled, because it is drawn to the candles.
Good luck to you! And be careful!

Thank you Iroh, that is a great idea! (candles do calm me) and I wish you good luck in whatever you're planning, maybe you will run into Aangs' group sometime I bet you miss your nephew very much.