Chapter 3 - Academy

There were three aristocratic teaching facilities in the Fire Nation. The Royal Academy for girls, the Royal University of Military and Political Sciences—and the Royal Academy for boys.

Where Tai lung would send the next four years learning.

Obviously the two Academies were segregated by gender for the younger students and taught up to what Tai Lung could say was equal to high school in administrative work—bending couldn't be counted on such a level; the latter of the schools was for those who wanted to further their education and wanted officer ranks in the military or high positions in research facilities or other programs.

When Tai Lung first attended the school, he was amazed at the architecture, these buildings were of heavily inspired from Asiatic culture mostly China yet the military seemed closer to that of Japan, including its history.

The main building where all the students learned was as tall as a modern-day skyscraper. It was made out of the finest woods and materials and had existed for hundreds of years and yet nowhere could be found the harsh corrosion of time on any of the detailed walls or statues of golden dragons.

And the other buildings that made up the academy were no less impressive.

Yet, it all paled in comparison to the Royal Palace.

Being of the Royal Family, Tai Lung had been given much more attention than the other students, even those of great lords and nobles, and with the rumors of Tai Lung being the prodigy he is—the Firebending Masters were all too keen to teach him everything they knew.

Weeks passed quickly as Tai Lung threw himself into his studies.

Most of his learning came at the feet of the Firebending Masters. There were group training sessions at the Academy, but they were few and far between. The weak and the slow could not be allowed to hold back the strong and ambitious.

Students learned at their own pace—driven by their desire and hunger for power. There were, however, nearly six students for every Master, though Prince Zuko and Tai Lung had their own.

The apprentices had to prove their worth before one of the Masters would spend valuable time teaching them the arts of firebending.

Tai Lung found it easy to garner the attention of the Masters, particularly Hou Ken, known to be the strongest of the Masters of the Academy. Tai Lung knew the attention would inevitably breed animosity in the other students, but he forced himself not to think about it.

When he wasn't learning from the Masters, he was in the library studying ancient records. The Fire Nation kept archives of its history for everyone to learn—though the more private scrolls were kept under tight security at the Royal Palace.

Tai Lung spent hours poring over scrolls, tomes and manuals left there for hundreds of years.

And because the collection was constantly being added to, the indexes and references were hopelessly out of date. Searching the archives was often an exercise in futility or frustration, and most of the students felt their time was better spent trying to learn from or impress the Masters.

Perhaps it was because Tai Lung was in truth, much older than most others his age, or maybe because the years of practicing katas with his father and older brother taught him patience—whatever the explanation, Tai Lung spent several hours each day studying the ancient records.

He found them fascinating.

Many of the scrolls were historical records recounting old battles or glorifying the deeds of ancient Fire Lords. By itself the information had little practice use, but he could see each individual work for what it actually represented: a tiny piece of a much larger puzzle, a clue to a much greater understanding of bending.

The archives supplemented what he learned from the Masters. It gave context to abstract lessons. Tai Lung knew that, in time, this knowledge would be key to something greater.

Chi, was a mystical and unexplained energy, yet it was also natural and essential: a fundamental energy binding the world and connecting all living this within it. This energy, this power could be harnessed and released through the form of bending. All through the teachings of the masters, he learned to seize hold of it. He practiced his meditations and exercises daily, often under the watchful eye of Hou Ken.

Tai Lung's power grew at astounding rates. In only a few months of training he had learned so much about the art of bending that he had surpassed even the older students who already spent years at the Academy.

Through the archives, Tai Lung was able to find techniques that had long been forgotten, one such techniques were a breathing technique that channel Chi in such a way that one could increase their maximum amount of oxygen within a specific breath pattern to raise their physical and mental prowess to their utmost limits. His reflexes were quicker, his mind and senses were sharper than he could possibly have imagined after that.

Another application of firebending that had to do with breathing, and in a similar way to a seismic sense, was the ability to feel the breath of life, every breath of living beings around the user, sensing their presence and some records say that when complete mastery is gained over the technique one could even feeling their intentions, vague impressions of their very thoughts.

Some of the forgotten firebending techniques had never been seen, let alone used for centuries.

There were many techniques kept secret and accessible only to the Royal Family and its retainers, lightning generation was one such technique. But forgotten knowledge, either disregarded due to his outdated moves or inability to perform such techniques because modern firebenders lacked the proper foundation to utilize or even learn these techniques were left unchecked and to rot in the back of a huge library.

One of the most powerful techniques Tai Lung had found was named the Majestic Destroyer Flame—the actual technique was not given as with most other techniques but the basic theory behind it as well as a description and recounts of the technique were given, and that was enough information for him.

It was a technique long forgotten and said to be created by some powerful firebender some ten thousand years ago.

It was described as a way to knead Chi and expel it through the mouth with the force of the bender's lungs to shape the flames into a sea of destructive power.

By that point—it clicked in Tai Lung's mind why these techniques were just sitting there in a library gathering dust. These grandiose techniques were most likely seen as exaggerations, just as he had thought of some.

Even when he had shown this scroll, this very technique that would be coveted by many firebenders to some of the Masters of the Academy—they scoffed and said these were merely exaggerations and that it was impossible to have a large enough lung capacity for such techniques.

Until he remembered and compared the foundational techniques of firebending from the ancient records and that of the Firebending Masters of the Academy. They can say all they want that they improved the techniques over time—but to Tai Lung, it was evidently clear that it was not true.

Piece by piece, the puzzle in Tai Lung's mind grew closer and closer to completion with the more he read and researched.

With each lesson, his power grew. It became easier and easier to command the flames and bend them to his will. And with each week, Tai Lung surpassed another student that had once been ahead of him.

Less time was spent in the archives studying the ancient scrolls. His initial fascination swept away by the intensity of advanced lessons he learned with alongside the much older students. Absorbing the knowledge of Masters long dead was a cold and sterile pleasure. Historical records were no competition for the feeling of exhilaration and power he felt when using fire bending.

He began to spend more time mingling with the other students. Already he could sense that some of them were jealous, though none dared to act against him. Competition among the students was encouraged, and the Masters allowed the rivalry to drift into the animosity and hatred that fueled firebending. But there were harsh penalties for any student caught interfering with or disrupting the training of another student.

Each morning the students would gather on the wide, open training yard of the Academy to practice their drills and routines under the watchful eye, struggling to learn the exotic manoeuvres that would bring them victory.

Perspiration was already running down the crown of Tai Lung's head and into his eyes as he put his body through its paces. He blinked away the stinging sweat and redoubled his exertions, carving the air before him again and again and again with sequences of forms.

All the other students around him were doing the same; each was struggling to conquer his own physical limitations, well, except for Zuko who seemed to struggle even with the first form of the traditional art.

Tai Lung had begun by learning the basic techniques common to all forms of firebending, though he already knew them by the grueling practice he did with his father. His first weeks had been spent in endless repetitions of defensive postures, overhand strikes, parries, and counter-strikes. By observing the natural tendencies of the students as they performed the basics, Hou Ken determined which form would the best match their style.

For Tai Lung, he chose the Leopard style.

The Leopard style relied on enormous upper body strength—something Tai Lung inherited from his father. The fighter crouches, remaining low to the ground and uses brute strength, speed and agility all ruled by a cunning mind to pinpoint and exploit the weaknesses of their opponents.

During summer breaks, Tai Lung would spend time with his relatives as Iroh spent most of the time away from the Fire Nation—taking with him Lu Ten to study under him, which left Tai Lung most often than not, to remain at the Palace with Prince Zuko and Princess Azula.

Princess Azula was a curious case—she hated him just as much as she hated Zuko because Ursa treated him like a second son—even better than Ursa treated her, yet Azula still respected Tai Lung in some way, due to his impressive firebending abilities. Though her envy was quite clear to anyone as she practiced countless of hours to catch up to him.

Tai Lung enjoyed spending time with Azula's two friends to which she most often than not, left them alone to go practice somewhere where she wouldn't be disturbed.

Of course, Mai and Ty Lee's parents would never allow them to go back home without spending time at the Palace as it would be seen as disrespectful. Thus, Ty Lee spent her time showing her acrobatics to Tai Lung who learned a lot for her while Zuko and Mai went off to sulk somewhere like the emo kids they were.

Once witnessing his first war meeting at the age of eleven, Tai lung started spending time learning about strategy, tactics, and politics.

He had a gift for politics, through the extensive practice of fire bending, Tai lung was extremely graceful and combined with the refined features of his aristocratic lineage, Tai Lung was the perfect embodiment of a Prince from Fairy Tales and could easily persuade people to his side.

Already marriage proposals were arriving—having Tai Lung to politely decline, for the time being.

Sometimes, Admirals and Generals would stay for some time at the Palace and Tai Lung would learn a thing or two from them, either with his father's favored method of drinking jasmine tea with strangers or learning fire bending from them.

Admiral Jeong Jeong was the latter, who taught him much about fire bending while Commander Zhao taught him more about politics and how the navy operated.

Having someone like Zhao in a mentor-student type of relationship would be beneficial for Tai Lung in the future. Many of the commanders, admirals and generals had taken a liking to Tai Lung, it was clear to them that Tai Lung would inevitably be one of the greatest firebenders and leaders of the Fire Nation will have in the future. And knowing they taught him would undoubtedly feed their ego and more likely side with Tai Lung.

And when his father would eventually come back to the Palace, he'd teach Tai Lung about everything he knew, from the water tribe's techniques to the Dancing Dragon. Lu Ten and Tai Lung would practice together as well. Tai Lung was leagues ahead of Lu Ten in terms of firebending though in actual fighting experience was far behind.

Lu Ten was a General in the military and had his own army at his command and would sometimes have Tai Lung accompany him through inspections and meetings of his army, the same went for his father. Through that, Tai Lung learned the inner workings of the military and how a soldier lived.

Iroh and Tai Lung had a good relationship—yet it sometimes felt mechanical. Tai Lung maybe reminded him to much of his brother or his late wife, no matter the reason Iroh seemed to have a sad look in his eyes when he spent time with Tai Lung these days.

Up until his early graduation shortly after his thirteenth birthday, Tai Lung had spent most of his time learning ancient techniques from the archives and the traditional forms from the Masters.

He didn't just graduate as top of his year—but as top of the Academy with some of the best results in the history of the Academy.

Prince Zuko remained at the academy, though.

The difference in skills created a rift between the two. At first, they were as close as brothers—but through the reminder of Tai lung's superior skills—even superior to Azula's, Zuko hadn't even had the courage to look at him in the eyes.

Zuko for all of his wisdom couldn't understand why such difference in skills existed.