Bolin saw the darkness of the park as the sun slowly descended from the Earth. He saw everything was pitch black but as his eyes adjusted, he saw the tree he was supposed to meet Lin at. And, if he really looked, he could see her. He moved towards her and couldn't help but be happy to learn metalbending. He always wanted to learn ever since he heard of Toph. Now, he got the opportunity to learn from her own daughter.

He made it to the top of the tree and immediately kneeled and bowed in front of Lin.

"Thank you for having me, oh great daughter of Toph."

"Get up and stop embarrassing yourself, we've got work to do."

Lin reached into her front pocket and took out a small chunk of glistening rock. Upon further realization, Bolin saw that it was metal. She handed it to him.

"Bend it."

Bolin looked at the rock and back at Lin like he didn't know what he was doing.

"I can't just bend it, I need-"

"What you need to do is bend it. You bent my armor, if you can do that, you can bend that tiny little bit of metal."

Bolin placed a hand over the metal and exerted as much force as possible on it. He felt his face get red, his arms flailed left and right but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't bend the piece of rock for the life of him.

He saw Lin rub her eyes.

"Okay kid, you're not supposed to just go through it like its earth. You're supposed to feel the small amounts of rock within the metal and use those to move the metal around."

Bolin concentrated as hard as he could, he looked at the piece of metal and tried envisioning the earth within. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and concentrated on every little detail and every edge of the metal. But no matter what, he couldn't sense anything. He looked down.

"Maybe I'm just not cut out to be a metalbender…"

"See, that's what's wrong with you kid, you give up too easily and no matter how much force you exert, you give up when you about to hit the finish line. You need to stop focusing on the things you can't do and start focusing of the things that you can. Because you can do anything as long as you believe. When I was learning to metalbend, my mother told me about when she started her academy. In that academy she had the lily livers – I mean students try and try only to fail each and every time. But one day, when they were about to give up, they overheard her say that she expected them to be something they're not. And you know what? They did, the next day they demonstrated amazing metalbending skills and proved that they could be something other than what people told them. Now tell me Bolin, are you going to give up, or are you going to become something you're not and build through the pressure and pain?"

Bolin thought about this for a long while, he didn't know what to think. He didn't know what she meant by being something you're not. All his life he was Bolin, the son of an earth kingdom father and a fire nation mother, and he was the younger brother of Mako. That's when it hit him, he was always second place, always behind a shadow, always the younger brother and never just Bolin. He realized what Lin was trying to tell him. He had to become someone he's not, he had to take the responsibilities of taking care of his family when times got tough, he had to be the one to look out for those that couldn't protect themselves, he had to be that older brother he lost but help those in need instead of abandon.

Bolin looked at the metal, but this time he didn't look at it with his eyes, he looked at it with his hands and feet. He could feel the earth and the park behind him, he could see a spider rat being attacked by a lizard crow. He could sense the ants moving from one part of the park to the other underground. He saw things even while his eyes were closed. He saw Lin standing over him with her arms crossed, and he could see little fragments in the metal that he held. He saw that these were the unrefined bits of earth Lin was talking about.

Bolin didn't second guess himself. He bent the little fragments and could feel the metal morphing into his own image. He shaped it into a star, a cube, a prism, and a sphere. He opened his eyes and continued to bend the metal into the shapes he wanted.

"Good job." Said Lin "You're a metalbender."

Bolin grinned in delight seeing he managed to do something as amazing as metalbending.

"Lin, I don't know how to thank you. I never usually believe in myself unless I'm forced to but you just showed me that I didn't need to be forced, I could do it on my own."

"Don't mention it kid, just remember that you can do whatever you want as long as you give it some thought."

Lin was walking down the steps from the tree. Bolin couldn't let her leave.

"Lin, could I ask for a favor?"

Lin looked back.

Bolin took a deep breath "Is it okay if I can join the Republic City Police Force?"

Lin stood there for what felt like hours.

"Come by tomorrow in the afternoon and I'll get you signed up."

Bolin got up from the ground. "I won't let you down, I swear!"

Lin walked down the stairs and slowly moved out of the park. Yet, Bolin could still sense her, it seemed that he would have to learn how to control this new found ability if he was to truly understand metalbending.

It's short I know but I have school to worry about right now. When I can, I'll upload as many as I possibly can, until then, I can't say when the next chapter will be released.