Avatar: Mage of All Elements

We soon entered the forest and came to an altar. On this altar, a rather large fire was burning.

«This is an old fire», he pointed to the fire and I raised an eyebrow in surprise. Zuko looked at me and twitched. I wonder why that would be? «We Warriors of the Sun have maintained it for a thousand years», and that's respectable. «Now take a piece of it and bring it to the altar», he took a handful and began to pass it around, «If you cannot hold it, you will die», he said seriously, «The essence of this test is balance. Now follow me.»

And he went further into the forest, there was a small path. But you had to be careful, for the forest is not at rest, and there were many roots on the path.

«Am I the only one who thought it was strange that we were going to the altar like animals to be sacrificed?» I asked to lighten the mood.

Only the opposite happened and everyone became more nervous. Yes, I didn't want that.

Soon we came to two mountains connected by a bridge, from the middle of which a ladder went down. And at the foot of the stairs was a circle, on the outline of which the savages began to stand, and we were brought to the center.

«Now two of you will go up and meet the masters Shu and Weng», all the Sun Warriors lined up in a circle and handed the ancient fire to each member «If they find you worthy, then they will train you», with these words, they all turned their small flame into a ring of fire «If not, then they will kill you.»

«Call them», Aang said seriously.

The fire warriors set up their drums and began to play a melody on them.

«Who will go first?» Azula asked venomously.

«We will», I said. Everyone looked at me in confusion, «You will be watching from here. If our actions are wrong, you will know what not to do. If you run», I looked seriously at Aang, «I can't risk you, because if you die, the world will go up in flames. Let's go», I said the last thing to Azula.

«The gods have sent me an idiot master», Azula muttered and followed. I didn't say anything.

It was high enough to walk. But the time flew. And now we were at the top. In a moment, the melody from below faded and we were in silence. We stood back to back, ready to fight to the end or run away.

Soon there was a vibration. It grew, and when it was almost at its peak, a dragon flew out of the cave and extinguished my flames with a blast of air. I looked at Azula. She was in the same situation. I didn't know what to do, but I realized that our time was limited. Already desperate and thinking of escaping, I noticed that the dragons were not moving normally. Looking closer, I realized.

«Remember I showed you the dragon dance moves?» I asked her, looking over her shoulder. She nodded, that was good, «Let's do it.»

«Are you serious now?»

«Yes!» I yelled at her «On three! One! Two! Three!»

And we began to do the stances.

The first one and the dragons flew into the air. Freeze and wait for them to come back. They didn't just fly back and forth.

Second one, same effect. They showed us the rest of the moves and we watched with all our eyes.

Third and again we wait for the dragons. Every turn they made is etched in my memory.

Fourth, and we'd already made half a circle. Their every move was filled with wisdom and centuries of experience.

Fifth, and we're almost done. The dragons return and my fire magic core starts to go crazy.

Sixth and we make contact with our hands. I can barely stand from the pain, but I continue to memorize the positions and movements.

A moment and the dragons hover in front of us, studying us with their gaze. My core glowed, melting the crust that had previously prevented it from growing. It took me a monstrous effort to contain it and not spit it out. I couldn't stand the pain anymore and covered my eyes, groaning. How I didn't fall, I don't know.

The dragons roared and made it clear what they wanted. I closed my mouth and opened my eyes. I clenched my fists until they were bloody, but I endured. Right now, I was not only responsible for myself, but also for Azula. So I endured and watched. It didn't take long for the dragons to release a stream of fire above us.

It was beautiful. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. All different colors, infinitely different depths, density, brightness, purity. It all blended together in that stream and just gave me a tremendous understanding of the elements. I jumped several orders of magnitude and even now my understanding is probably stronger than that of water.

It was worth it. But when the flames died down and the dragons flew into the cave, I couldn't stand it anymore. I fell to the ground and curled up into a ball, howling in pain. With the last of my strength, I held on to my core. I realized why it hurt. When I touched the ancient fire, my core had some unknown reaction with it, and my core began to grow abnormally fast.

Also, there was a non-zero chance that if I let go of the core, I would be torn from within. And the pressure inside is enormous, so you can't even open it a little bit.

When I was almost out of strength, somebody started to help me. Someone used their fire magic to channel my flames through me and lower the pressure in the core. It wasn't fast, but because of the pain I couldn't tell time properly, so it took about an hour for me. It was only after this interminable hour that I was able to relax and finally breathe.