Chapter 2-Escape

If I wasn't very comfortable in the palace, I was much more uncomfortable in a small ship. I usually tried to avoid Ozai, sometimes I don't see his displeased face for months, but now we are in a rather cramped trough, and not in a huge royal palace. One of the skills I developed as a child during meditation was the feeling of warmth. If I close my eyes, I switch to infrared circular vision, like a thermal imager, I can distinguish the slightest changes in temperature, and from this data I make a red-blue picture, where redder objects are hot, and bluer ones are cold. This skill allows me to avoid meeting my beloved father or beloved grandfather. While traveling on the ship, I have to see my beloved relatives several times a day every day. I had nothing against Ursa, I considered her my mother, but it was very unpleasant for me to see such a nice and beautiful girl living with such an asshole as Ozai. I liked Ozai as much as he liked me, which meant that we obviously didn't like each other at all. Azula was usually very bitchy to me, but I didn't pay much attention to her quirks, it was stupid of me to take offense at her, she was just a stupid little girl... who could throw fiery blue balls with a temperature of ten thousand degrees.

"Hey! Be careful! - I intercepted such a fireball with my hand, and redirected it to the sky.

Ozai decided not to waste any time, and on the deck of the ship to arrange a training session with his beloved daughter, while I was invited to see how real Fire Mages fight, and not such a nedomag as me.

"Oh, I'm sorry, ridiculous brother, I just happened. Azula replied, clearly throwing a fireball at me for a reason, judging by the devils dancing in her eyes.

"Look, you were able to redirect Azula's attack. Ozai said, and threw a fireball at me too ... oh, he's such a caring father.

Due to the training of my technique, I've learned quite well how to control the fire I've already created, and redirecting other people's fire magic is quite easy for me, which I did with Azula's fireball, and now with Ozai's fireball as well.

— He can only defend himself, but his brother is still a weakling!" Azula shouted, throwing her blue fireball at me again.

"But I can do it like this. - I intercepted and redirected Azula's attack, back to her, but slightly to the right, so as not to hit her.

— You may not be so hopeless, but you're still a long way from Azula. — my "adored" daddy "praised" me, and continued training Azula, he doesn't even plan to train me, why waste time on a notoriously weak heir, if the same time can be spent on Azula?

In principle, I do not deny that my sister is stronger in fire magic than I am, and she is more worthy to rule the Fire Nation... and I will rule the whole world ... probably. No matter how much I love power, but having power, it would be stupid not to remake the world to suit your tastes, but first of all you need to have power, and you don't have to rule yourself, you can transfer power to someone you trust, and you can only interfere sometimes.

Ozai is clearly drawn to power, and wants to rule alone, heirs are only a tool for him to gain power, because Azulon, being an old ruler, understands that power will have to be transferred to someone, and he wants to transfer power to someone who will also have a worthy strong receiver. Ozai and Iroh are both strong magicians, Iroh is older and more experienced, but Ozai is constantly training to surpass his brother, the only obstacle to power is a worthy heir, and I am completely unsuited to this role, which is why Ozai is not interested in the role of son and successor to the throne. However, even though Ozai is a powerful magician, I can still kill him, simply put poison in his food, and this ambitious turkey who wants to take the throne of the Fire Master will simply die, just like the most ordinary person.

The four days on the ship with my dad were very slow for me, and it felt like I'd been floating on this trough for a month. There wasn't much else to do except train, but I didn't want to spend my training under Ozai's eyes, so I mostly meditated on the roof of the control room in the sun, and tried to think of modifications to various spells, but I couldn't really think of anything with fire, unless I had some ideas for controlling lava or hot metal.

No, no, no metal, don't even think about it, I know what you're thinking — learn how to control metal to create weapons without a hammer or anvil, heat the metal itself with Fire Magic, and temper it with Cold Magic.≫

Even so, it would count as magic.

First you will master Fire and Cold to the level of a master, and then so be it, you can do Metal.≫

It seemed like a long time, but we still arrived at Coal Island, the whole island was mostly filled with beach houses, even we settled in a small house on the private beach of the imperial family.

I wasn't much of a swimmer, but as it turned out, my limb jet propulsion technique that I've been practicing lately helps me move underwater at a pretty decent speed, like I'm a living torpedo. I can't say for sure, but I can develop underwater speed for about three hundred kilometers, I'll move faster in the air, but I still need to learn how to fly in the air, it's not so easy. Yes, and the flight will be quite noticeable, both during the day and at night, but if you swim under water, then you can't distinguish me under the entire water column. So a plan is emerging for how to get away from relatives.

All the time we spent on the island, I tried to swim underwater on jet propulsion, improving this ability, and trying to learn how to hold my breath for as long as possible. I think jet swimming skills will help me master jet flight faster.

A couple of times, in the evenings, Ursa took us to the theater on the island, and both times to the same performance about the blue water dragon and the red fire dragon, about how they were enemies at first and fought all the time, but in the end their confrontation turned into love and they even got married. It wasn't a particularly interesting performance, but for some reason Ursa liked it, and on our previous visits to Coal Island, she had taken us to see it more than once.

Recently, when I was in Ursa's room, I noticed that one of the paintings on the wall was hanging crookedly, but it turned out that behind the picture there was a hiding place where theatrical masks hung, almost the same as those of the actors portraying dragons in this play. I don't know who Ursa was before she married Ozai, and I don't know my maternal grandparents either. If Ursa has masks from this play, most likely she was once an actress in the theater, and perhaps she even had a lover with whom she played two dragons that at the end had to declare their love and kiss each other. When Ursa took Azula and me to this performance for the third time this summer, I was sure that my guesses were at least close to the truth.

Of course, I didn't really want to leave Ursa and Azula, but I'll be honest, I wasn't very attached to them, and I knew that after I left they would be safe and sound, so I was free to go home. Perhaps, after a while, when my sister and I grew up, our family relations would improve, perhaps I would even have a normal relationship with my father and grandfather, however, in any case, I would have to hide my strength in Ice Magic from them, which I simply cannot train in the Fire Nation Palace. I want to go to a place where I can use Fire Magic, Ice Magic, or any other kind of magic without being hindered.

As you can see, these are not the lands of the Fire Nation, and not the lands of the Kingdom of Earth, which the Fire Nation is now actively seizing. The islands of the exterminated Air Nomads are mostly rocks, and where there are normal plains, the Fire People have established colonies there, one of the reasons for the outbreak of war is the seizure of territories to expand the Fire Country. However, even after almost destroying the Southern Water Tribe, the Fire Nation did not take over their territory, because this territory looks like an endless ice wasteland, where fire mages are very uncomfortable. There are no firebenders in the central regions of the South Pole, and the Southern Water Tribe is very small now, and lives mostly on the outskirts of the south pole. In general, in the center of the south pole, no one will definitely interfere with my magic, and the cold is a small problem for me, it will even be useful to me.

I was going to leave at night on the first day, after sailing, the ship will already be far out to sea, and by jumping into the water unnoticed, I will be able to reach the southern islands of the Air Nomads in a couple of days on jet propulsion. According to the map stolen from the captain's cabin, these islands are about four thousand kilometers away, and from there they are still about five thousand kilometers to the south pole. But the closer to the pole, the more different icebergs in the water, and there is not much to swim. But while I will be on the islands of the Air Nomads, I will be able to practice flying on jet propulsion, and already to the south pole not to swim, but to fly.

When I got out to the stern of the ship at night, I noticed a sea serpent floating not far away, and there are various rather large animals in the sea, among which there are also some kind of water dragons that spit streams of water instead of fire. Initially, I just wanted to swim away quietly from the ship, but when I saw the snake, I remembered the recent wish of my beloved sister Azula, I wished her a good night, and she in response wished that I was eaten by a sea snake at night... And since I was lucky enough to meet this snake next to me, I can slightly correct my plan. Instead of Prince Hyung mysteriously disappearing from a ship in the middle of the sea, there will be a tragic death of Prince Hyung from the teeth of a sea serpent.

I tore off a piece of my clothing, sprinkled it with my own blood, and threw it on the deck of the ship, after which I shot a small ball of fire at the sea serpent, drawing attention to myself. The snake didn't like being attacked, so it started looking for the attacker, but I once again sent a fireball at it to let it know where I was. The snake got its bearings and lunged at me, trying to devour me with its rather massive mouth.

I was able to evade the slow snake, and jumped into the water from the opposite side of the ship, after which I began to quickly swim away to the south on jet thrust. At the site of the snake's attack, there was a piece of bloody cloth from my clothes, as well as a noticeable trace of the snake's teeth, in general, here even a fool will understand that my loss from the ship is connected with the fact that I was eaten by a sea snake at night, as my beloved sister Azula wanted.

As I sailed away from my relatives, I didn't feel any sadness, only joy that I was finally completely free, and I didn't have to live under the same roof with people who were unpleasant to me, and who were unpleasant to me.

I could only be underwater for ten minutes in one breath-hold, and in those ten minutes I could cover a distance of sixty kilometers, so when I first surfaced, I was quite far away from the ships. The ships themselves were moving at a speed of forty-five kilometers per hour, which was a good result for their huge size and mass, but it turns out that I can cover the distance in ten minutes that a ship can cover in an hour and a half. So even if someone were to search for me in theory, which I doubt, they still won't be able to find me, because I can sail seven times faster than ships.

I wouldn't have had enough energy for constant jet swimming if I hadn't replenished it from the surrounding water. Along the way, the water temperature dropped by several degrees, but since I was moving quite fast, and the water around me was constantly changing, no ice appeared around me.

I didn't need to stop for a snack, but I could use a break after a few hours of jet swimming, so when I came across a small, apparently deserted island, I stopped on it to catch my breath. The constant flow of flame from my feet and hands causes my skin to get a little charred, but regeneration quickly repairs the damage.

This is probably one of the reasons why Fire Mages don't actively use the reactive fire technique, local mages don't have absolute resistance to their element, they can easily suffer from their own flames, and they don't have the same regeneration as me.

After relaxing by the sea, I decided to try flying. In the palace, I was able to get up a maximum of ten centimeters on jet thrust, just to train myself to keep myself in the air, but now I can fly at a sufficient height, and if anything happens, I will fall into the sea, and not on solid ground.

Well, I fly like a rocket... I mean, I fly high into the sky fast, and then I fall to the ground, trying to plan my flight somehow. In general, I rather get not flying, but jet jumps with a further weakly controlled fall. And it's clear to the fool that I need either some kind of wings to stabilize and control my flight, or just more practice to better learn how to fly with the four jets coming out of my limbs. As another option, you can try to create wings for yourself from magic, but I definitely don't have enough strength for them right now.

It was quite fun to feel like a live rocket, I definitely won't learn how to fly in one day, but you can try to learn how to land normally, and that's what I was doing all day on the island. After these training sessions, I was quite tired, during the day I managed to climb a couple of dozen times to a height of a couple of kilometers, and then fall from this height, trying to stabilize the flight. I fell into the water constantly, but by the end of the day I still learned to land more or less smoothly on the water, and then on the ground. Tired after the flights, I decided to spend the night on this island, and the next day continue sailing south, there may still meet some island, and also train there, and then maybe I will get to the islands of Air Nomads.

Now, when swimming, in order to get a breath of fresh air, I would come up out of the water at high speed, fly in an arc for several hundred meters, and sometimes a couple of kilometers, and then dive back into the water, and continue my swim until I ran out of oxygen again.

I don't know if Ursa and Azula are grieving there after my "death", but I personally had a lot of fun right now. There's something funny about magic, though, when you do things with your own hands that ordinary people use complicated devices to do... but I know how to make these very complicated devices, which is why I used to ignore magic. But I have to admit that it is very interesting to study it, although it is dangerous, without regeneration I would go with charred firebrands instead of limbs... but this is more likely the cost of fire magic, Earth, Water and Air Magic is much more difficult to injure yourself.

The next island that came across was clearly of volcanic origin, which was easily understood by the volcano that was currently erupting, and by the ubiquitous flowing lava flows. Here you can try to control the lava... and the fact that it is hot, did not help me to control it in any way. It's too static and unlike a flame ... although I haven't really learned how to control ice properly yet, so after I learn how to control static ice, you can try to control lava again, but now you need to swim away from this island, as the volcano began to actively erupt again, and red-hot pieces of lava and ash began to fly out of its vent.

The next day, I definitely reached the Air Nomad Islands, as I saw a Fire Nation settlement on the very first less rocky islands. The central island of the archipelago, which consisted entirely of high rocks and mountains, was where the Southern Temple of Air Mages used to be, and since all the air mages were exterminated by the Fire Nation, this temple should now be empty. That's where I went, and I still flew badly, but I jumped very well, and it was enough to get around the mountains and rocks.

Where the temple was located, I saw quite quickly, just flew up as high as possible and looking at the nearest territory found the temple, but to get to it, I had to jump noticeably among the rocks, at one time I did not dare to fly there, so as not to crash against these very rocks at great speed. The temple looked like a castle in the clouds, perched on the highest cliff, and Airbenders could fly, so it was quite easy for them to get here, but I knew how Firebenders got here during an attack from the chronicles of the Fire Nation.

Every hundred years, a Great Comet passes by the planet, which for a short time increases the power of fire mages tenfold. Using the power of this comet, Sozin destroyed all the Air Nomads. After this comet was named-Sozin's Comet, and when it is near the Earth, almost all fire mages could fly on jet jets, whereas in normal times, only the Avatar has enough strength for this. After the genocide of the Air Nomads, the war of the Fire Nation with the rest of the world began, and it is now customary to count the years from this event. It was now the ninety-second year since the war began.

Even with the boost from Sozin's Comet, the Firebenders still suffered some losses from the Airbenders, as can be seen from the bodies of the Fire Nation's military uniforms scattered around the temple, but the bodies of the Air Nomads were many times larger. The temple had already been looted a long time ago, there was nothing of value here, except for wall murals depicting some flying six-fingered bison, and Airbenders flying on some gliders.

I found several such gliders in the temple, these gliders were folding, when folded they looked like a monk's pole, but when activated by a simple mechanism, it opened two wings on the sides, and two tail flaps.

It seems that even Airbenders could not fly without such crutches, I decided to try out this glider myself, and it really helped me stay in the air for a very long time, however, I burned the rear flaps with jet fire jets, and the glider was made of wood and fabric, so I had to land on my own, and not very successfully, I still flew into a rock, and passed out.