Ran and Shaw

"fire"

- If you wish to learn the ways of the Sun... You must learn from the Masters, Ran and Shaw.

Ran and Shaw are two ancient dragons, revered by the Sun Warriors as the original masters of Firebending. One of them is red and the other is blue, although it is not clear which is which. They appeared together in "The Firebending Masters".

Abilities and History
Ran and Shaw practice a form of Firebending that emphasizes the life-giving qualities of fire, unlike the aggressive and hatred-fueled methods employed by most modern benders from the Fire Nation. They are able to communicate the true meaning of Firebending, apparently through their breath, which appears as multi-colored flame. Zuko described the experience as feeling as though there was a Sun inside him, a feeling which is shared by the Sun Warriors themselves. Ran and Shaw reveal this secret knowledge to Firebenders that prove themselves worthy. Many people have presented themselves to Ran and Shaw over the years, but the dragons deemed worthy only a few people including Iroh, Aang and Zuko.

They are the last surviving dragons. The rest of the species was hunted almost to extinction by Firebenders after Fire Lord Sozin advocated killing dragons for glory. After Iroh encountered Ran and Shaw and was deemed worthy, he claimed that he had fought and slain the last surviving dragon, in order to preserve the secret of Ran and Shaw's existence from the rest of the world.

Trivia

 * Ran (燃, rán) means "burn" or "combustion" in Chinese. Shaw is similar to shao, which (燒, shāo) means "to burn" or "to cook" as well as to "barbecue," and "fever". The characters can also be used together to mean "combustion", "flaming", or "kindle".
 * Combined together, Ran and Shaw produce the first part of Ránshāo zhōng, 燃燒中, which means "aflame" in traditional Chinese.
 * Two similar dragons appear in Zuko's visions while he endured his sickness in "The Earth King". The blue dragon, representing Azula was on Zuko's left, and the red dragon representing Iroh was on his right.