Chapter 1. - "Burned"

"Wake up son it's your 18th birthday." Taro opened his one red eye and looked on his dad. He just stood there with a big smile on his face.

"Yeah, I know." Replied Taro, closing his eye and turning on the other side. "Give me five more minutes."

"No way." Said Taros dad. He approached his son and picked him up with just one hand.

"I am not a little boy anymore, you can't just pick me up like this."

Dad looked at him and smirked. "I guess I can." Said and hit Taro into a shoulder. He smiled back at his father while rubbing the hurt shoulder. "That hurt dad." Said Taro while getting dressed into classic green clothes of the earth kingdom.

"You have five minutes before the tea is ready." Taros eyes got wider and started shining. He just loves tea, it's his favorite beverage.

"Ok dad, I'll be there in a minute."

Taros dad left the room and shut the door. The young firebender then grabbed a bowl with water and heated it by firebending. Taro splashed some water on his face, brushed his teeth and poured the dirty water out of the window. "My cabbages!" Came from the street.

Taro sat on his bed for a minute admiring the wall in front of him. He wasn't looking at the wall because he likes the look of walls. He was staring at the wall because of what is on it. Taro was looking at his poster collection. There is the poster of Fire Ferrets with Mako, Bolin and of course the young and beautiful Avatar Korra. Taro sighed and blushed. Right next to the Fire Ferrets poster is a poster of Bolin as Nuktuk and under those two posters are wanted-posters of the entire team avatar. Taro stole them from a pub two streets away from his home.

Then he looked into his small mirror one red and one brown eye met his sight right away. Yeah one red and one brown eye, one of many reasons kids in the school called me a freak, the other one is of course my firebending. Earth kingdom people kinda hate firebenders and who could blame them, especially after what happened during the 100 years war. Taro then tried to do something with his spiky brown hair and after this attempt to do Bolin styled haircut failed, he just gave up.

"Ok, time to go." Taro got up and entered the living room.

His mom and dad were sitting side by side at the table in the middle of a room. Taros mom got up and hugged her son. "Happy birthday sweety."

"Thanks mom." Taro sat down at the table. He picked up a cup of tea that was in front of him. Taro took a sip of the tea with both of his parents staring at him and then it hit him. The tea was amazing, it was the best cup of tea he ever had.

"Oh my goddess, the tea is amazing. Where did you get it?"

"Do you remember the Jasmine Dragon tea shop that was closed couple years ago?" His mother said.

"Yes of course, I heard about it from a lot of people. They kept saying that the place had the best tea in the city. Are you trying to tell me that this is the tea from The Jasmine Dragon?"
His father nodded.

"I know some people who are trading with the looters of Ba Sing Se's Upper Ring and few days ago I found a guy who looted some secret stash in The Jasmine Dragon. It cost me a lot of Yuans, but seeing your face now pays it off." Mom and Dad laughed when Taro realized that he has his mouth wide open. Taros dad, Mikhail, handed over a small wooden box to his son with Jasmine Dragons sign burned on it.

"Really?"

"Yeah really, just take it already." Taros smile got wider when he laid his hands on the wooden box.

"Thank you."

"But that's not everything, I have one more gift for you." Taro looked up from his wooden box looking at father and started to tremble with excitement. Although what could be better than a tea from The Jasmine Dragon?

"Come with me." Said Mikhail. Young firebender finished his cup of tea and followed his father into the fathers and mothers room. Mikhail then opened a small chest which was hidden under the bed. The thing his dad showed to him was absolutely beautiful. It was a mask made of an a bone. The mask was shaped into a head of a dragon. The mask is white with some red stripes and ornaments.

"Wow, I never knew we have something like this in the house."

"Yeah I kept it a secret, since we live in the Lower ring and almost everybody would kill for owning something like this. It is a mask made of dragon bone, that my grandfather killed. My father gave it to me when I was 18 years old and it is the only thing that I took with me when I left home."

"If your father gave it to you when you were 18, why didn't you gave it to my older brother Rin when he turned 18?" Mikhail sighed and frowned.

"You know Rin and how he is. I just had this feeling that he would sell it and use the money for something bad."

"Yeah," said Taro sadly, "I'm glad that you believe in me." Taro smiled at his father and gave him a big hug.

Taros family lives in a two floored house which is really big for a house in the Lower Ring, although their house is tall it is also narrow. They use the upper floor as an apartment and the bottom floor as a canteen. They cook soups and sell them for just four copper Yuan. Even after the death of the earth monarch and the riots, people are still coming. Because of the chaos the Ba Sing Se is in Taro is selling vegetables in a little stall in front of their house. It is the only stall that is still working. Most of the vendors stopped selling their goods after the riots started, mostly because their suppliers stopped importing the goods into the city. Luckily Taro has his own supplier.

Taro stands by his stall. It almost looks like nothing has changed after the assassination, people are still walking around the streets, they are buying food, kids are playing with a ball and old people are looking out of their windows yelling at them.

But still a lot has changed after the now famous Zaheer killed the Emperor and tried to kill the Avatar. The city was thrown into a chaos, inner wall was taken down yet some parts of it are still standing. Riots ended as quickly as they started and streets were taken over by gangs and some so-called clans, they then created their own territories and after that the civil war, or gang war or just a war started. City was torn apart and since then streets are flooded by opposing armies fighting over their territories. Even the Middle and Upper Rings are divided by those gangs. They are mostly fighting over the palace and the stuff that's been left there.
Two gangsters disturbed Taro from his thinking.

"Hey Taro, how is it going?" Said one of them.

"What do you want Akio?"

"Oh you know... some free stuff." One of the gangsters, Akio, reached for an apple with really disturbing smile on his face. Taro immediately reacted and slapped his hand.

"You know you can't take free stuff from my stall, my brother being your boss doesn't mean you can take whatever you want from MY stall."

"Oh so you are bringing your brother into this, you know he can't protect you everywhere."

"I don't need my brothers protection."

"And I don't need your blessing to take whatever I want. I will just take it and you can't tell me not to." Akio took the apple he was reaching before he turned his back and both of the gangsters started laughing. You just made a big mistake. Thought Taro.

The young firebender jumped over his stall while spinning in the air. That gave him power to his firebending and the second he was over his stall while still in the air, he send one fireblast with his left leg on Akios head, one fireblast with his right leg on his back and when he landed he send two other fireblasts on the other gangster by his hands clutched into a fist.
Akios face said hi to the ground in a brief of a second and the other gangsters smile disappeared as his mustache did, due to the fireblast that hit his face.
Akio stood up with dirt on his face and a big angry frown his eyes were almost on fire, figuratively.

"You're going to pay for that."

"No Akio, YOU are going to pay for that... apple."

Taro made a fire-ring around himself. Akio seemed afraid for a moment, but he shook it off and with one stomp he and his co-gangster lifted two boulders into the air. There was a moment of hesitation which was broken right after both launched the boulders. Taro elegantly dodged both boulders with couple steps to the side. While he was dodging the attack he was spinning and with that enhancing the fire, he was quickly launching fireblasts by punching the fire-ring around him. Five fireblasts hit Akio and other four blasts hit his friend. Both of them were sitting on the ground with smaller burns all over their bodies resting and breathing heavily. Taro was still firmly standing in the fighting position with a much smaller ring of fire around him.

Akio looked at him and the half broken stall. "There are all of my Yuans, just don't hurt us anymore."

He threw a little bag full of Yuans on the ground under Taro and then covered his face expecting another fireblast but only thing that hit his face was the little bag with Yuans. Akio looked up and saw Taro with two copper Yuans in his hands.

"Thanks for buying my apple, have a nice day gentlemen." Akio and his co-gangster stood up and ran away.

Taro looked around full of fear, expecting police to show up but that never happened. It took him a while before he realized where and when he is. It is true that all the police forces fell apart few days after the assassination and those who didn't joined the quickly forming gangs just left the city. Truthfully even the army fell apart, part of the soldiers went home into their villages scattered all over the country and part of them joined the gangs and clans just because of the promise of becoming rich in this broken city.

Then the clapping happened, Taro turned at the sound and saw a big guy, his best friend Dan. Dan is a non-bender and somehow he is so much into Taros firebending even though his grandparents were killed by the Firenation.

"That was some amazing firebending. Pew Pew Pew Pew." While he did the Pew sounds he was punching air all around him impersonating Taro.

"I just wish I knew how to do some bending." Added Dan.

"Hi Dan, what are you doing here so early?"

"And the 'YOU are going to pay for that... apple' I almost started crying from laughter. Yeah hi Taro. Early? It's almost time for lunch."

"Lunch? Well I have been here for a long time, but it didn't felt like it."

"Guess it's because of your daydreaming." Said Dan reaching for apple in a basket and taking a huge bite out of it.

"I'm not daydreaming."

"Yeah you are. Hi Poppy." Dan greeted little girl approaching them. Taro turned to her and greeted her.

"Hi Poppy, you here for lunch?"

"Hi guys, yep and I'm here also because of business." Poppy is 14 years old girl that works for Taro as his supplier.

"Any problems?" Asked Taro.

"No, just one shipment is coming earlier then normally and I need you to remove some boxes in your basement so my people can use the underground tunnel."

"Yeah of course, right after the lunch I will move the boxes."

"Great, the kids will be there about an hour after the lunch." Said Poppy.

"Wow you two are so shady when talking about your work." Threw there Dan while almost choking on the rest of his apple. Taro looked creepy on Dan and said.

"I would have to kill you if you tell anyone."

"Yeah yeah mister creepy guy, can we eat already I'm starving." Said Poppy and stormed into the canteen.

"What about your stall?" Dan looked at the mess.

"It's nothing. I have a lot of baskets in the basement." Answered Taro and both went into the house.

After the lunch Taro repaired his stall and moved the box in the basement. Shipment that two kids at the age of 10 brought was consisted of three full bags of vegetables and some seasoning for the soups. Poppy and her group worked for Taro even before the riots. Her group is full of kids that steal food from the Middle and Upper rings. Because of the old Ba Sing Se that is buried underground the present Ba Sing Se, Poppy and her group can move freely all over the city and easily steel from the rich. After his work was done he hang out with Dan. They were having fun walking through streets looking at women, drinking some alcohol and telling jokes.

It was late night when Taro got home, this time he didn't get drunk, mostly because he wanted to read something when he gets home and partly because he forgot to take his little bag of Yuans. Taro got into the house and went upstairs, he reached for the key but in the middle of his move he saw that main door to their apartment are opened and that there isn't any light. Taro came in and with his firebending lit up all the candles. The horrific scenery that showed up left him speechless.
The whole place was turned upside down, everything was broken and his parents they...
His mom was covered in so much blood that he couldn't see how many times she was cut. His dad sat there on the ground pinned by three ice spikes to the wall, you could see a lot of black places where his fathers fireblasts landed, his father took a breath.
Taro ran to him and sat right beside him.

"Taro." Said Mikhail softly.

"It's me dad, I'm here. Who did this to you?"

"Some waterbender, I didn't saw his freaking face." Taro started to cry.

"You are going to be okay dad, I promise you that."

"No son, I won't... I know it." Mikhail started to cough out blood.

"Dad, you can't do this to me." Every word was followed by little cry.

"They took grandfathers mask son... Please find it... and don't rush into any danger..." Mikhail coughed up more of his blood. "You are the best thing that ever happened to me son and I want you to..." Cough. "I want..." Cough. "I want you..." Cough. "I want you to be safe."

"Dad no."

When his father breathe his last breath Taro cried out loud. All of the candles started to produce bigger and bigger flames and than the upper floor exploded. Flames consumed everything in the apartment except Taro.

Taro sat there in the middle of a room where their table used to be, he put the flames down and sat there with nothing but silence surrounding him.

This is my first attempt to write shortstories in english so please keep it in mind. Also I would love to see some reviews :-)
Thanks for reading and look forward to another chapter.