DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN, NOR HAVE I EVER OWNED ATLA. I DO NOT OWN, NOR HAVE I EVER OWNED THE CHARACTERS IN ATLA. I DO NOT OWN, NOR HAVE I EVER OWNED NICKELODEON. HAVE NO AFFILIATION, NOR HAVE I EVER HAD ANY AFFILIATION WITH THE WRITERS OR ANIMATORS OF ATLA. I HAVE NO AFFILIATION, NOR HAVE I EVER HAD ANY AFFILIATION WITH NICKELODEON.

I DO NOT NOR HAVE I EVER HAD ANY AFFILIATION TO DISNEY.

A/N: This story serves as my Round 5 entry for season 2 of the Pro-bending Circuit Competition.

My Main Prompt: Write a story influenced by 'Aladdin'

Additional Prompts: (color) Cerulean... (smell) sented candles... (quote) "A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work" - Colin Powell, (element) air

Word Count: 1840

A young man, age 16, ran through the marketplace. "Stop him!" A man carrying a sword yelled. "He's a thief!"

"Come on Momo this way!" He said as he turned a corner; he jumped on a pile of creates then, using airbending he jumped to the roof of the closest building, then one more jump and he was on top of the next. And finally he slowly drifted back to the ground in a dirty alley way. He took the loaf of bread he had stolen and broke it in half. "Here you go little buddy." He told his pet flying lemur.

The animal chirped thanks then took his half of the loaf. Aang looked up and saw two children digging through the trash cans just a little way down. Aang remembered being alone, a 'Street rat' at their age; he sighed and offered his piece of bread to the children. "Thank you so much!" The girl said as she accepted the bread.

"Momo…" Aang said. The lemur looked angry and took a bite of his bread. Aang scowled the animal; the animal handed his food over to the children. The girl gave the bigger half to her tiny brother and gratefully ate the bread, she offered a piece to the animal that no longer had anything to eat.

Just outside the alley horns began to play, Aang jumped to the top of the building to take a look at what was going on. There was a young man sitting atop an Ostrich-horse heading to the palace. "Another suitor for the princess." An old woman said.

Aang saw the two children run out of the alley laughing. The little boy accidentally ran in front o the prince and spooked the animal he was riding on. "How Dare you!" The golden eyed young man said as he bent a fire whip and lashed out at the children. Aang quickly jumped in between the prince and the children; blocking and dissipating the fire with the staff glider the Airbender always carried. "Look at that Momo, It's not every day that you see an animal with two asses!" Laughter exploded around them infuriating the Prince.

"If I see you again, peasant I will have a trophy to take to my father!" The golden-eyed prince said.

…

"What did you do to Prince Zuko?" Hakoda asked his daughter

"He was a self-centered, egotistical jerk!" The blue-eyed princess told her father. "How could you expect me to fall in love whit him?"

"Love?" Her father asked. "What makes you think a marriage is about love? You are a princess and you have to marry a prince! You must be married before your next birthday."

"But…" Katara started.

"No buts." Her father cut her off. "Your birthday is only a couple months away."

"I want to love the man I marry." Katara told him.

"Love is a luxury royals cannot afford." He told her. "And that's final!"

That night Katara snuck out into the garden, "All the men that come to the palace treat me like I'm some sort of prize to be won! I'm not a prize and I refuse to act like some kind trophy, a doll to be put into some kind of case on display." Katara told her pet goat-rabbit Sokka. "I'm sorry I can't stay." The creature helped her over the wall and whimpered as she disappeared onto the other side of the tall wall.

…

"What looks good for breakfast, Momo?" Aang asked. The pair of misfits were perched on the edge of a building looking down at the marketplace. "The melons look ripe today, what do you think?" The animal happily chirped his response. As the pair was busy stealing their breakfast a young woman caught Aang's attention, he was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He watched as she wandered down the long street full of venders.

Katara looked at all the different kiosks, some had beautiful jewelry, others had wares; she inhaled deeply, the smell of scented candles filled her lungs as she passed an incense cart. Merchants called out trying to catch the shopper's attention. Katara noticed a small girl, maybe three or four years old, standing on her toes trying to reach a piece of fruit. Katara walked over to the fruit stand and handed the tiny girl a piece of fruit.

"You have to pay for that!" A fat smelly man said to her.

"Oh, I…" Katara started, "I don't have any money."

"Nobody steals from me!" He yelled as he grabbed her wrist. "I will cut off your hand!"

"Please, I'm sorry, just let me go to the palace, I know the sultan! I will bring you money right now!" She said trying hard to pull her hand free from the man's iron grasp.

"There you are! I've been looking all over for you!" Katara heard a guy say, she was both relived and afraid at the same time; someone from the palace had found her. When she turned she expected to see one of the soldiers her father would have ordered to find her, instead she found a young man dressed in ragged clothes. "I'm so sorry sir, my sister is a little off if you know what I mean." Aang told the man.

"She said she knows the sultan." The man told Aang.

"She thinks the Lemur is the sultan." Aang said.

"Oh wise and great Sultan." Katara bowed to the animal, playing along.

"Come along sister, we need to get you back home; you know you're not supposed to go outside." He scolded her. "You are supposed to see the doctor today."

"Hello doctor!" Katara said to a nearby ostrich-horse.

"No, no… Not that doctor." Aang told her as he steered her away from the market place.

They turned down a side street and Katara stopped, she gave her rescuer a long look. "Thank you." She told him.

"It was… it was nothing." Aang stammered as he stared into her mesmerizing cerulean blue eyes.

"No really, thank you… I don't know what I would have done without you." She blushed a bit.

"Where do you live? I want to make sure you get home without you getting into too much trouble." Aang told her.

"I… I don't have a home right now" She told him. "I ran away from home and I'm not going back!"

"I could show you where I live… if you want, you can stay there with Momo and me" Aang told her.

"Oh, that's… that's nice of you." She told him.

"Come on then. I'm Aang!" He told her.

"I'm… I'm June." She told him.

"Come on June." Aang said as he led her to his home. Aang lived in a room at the top of a very tall condemned building. They had a lot of climbing and jumping to get there, which made it a great place for them to hide for as long as they wished.

"This is it!" Aang told her as they entered his small but cozy room. "Check this out!" He told her as he pulled open a curtain revealing a large window with a beautiful view of the palace. "Beautiful isn't it?"

"Yeah." Katara said dryly, the palace was the last thing he wanted to see.

"Living there would be so wonderful." Aang said, "All the food I could eat. Servants to do anything I wanted them to do."

"People always telling you what to do." Katara said.

"I dream about what it would be like to live there every night." Aang told her as he stared dreamily at the tall walls and spires. "If I had magic that's where I want to live."

"There you are!" The soldier that was chasing him the previous day yelled. "You're going to prison for theft!"

"RUN!" Aang yelled and the three of them took off, unfortunately there were more soldiers waiting outside and caught them.

"Look at this! The Street rat found himself a street mouse. Hahaha!" The soldier laughed as he softly stroked Katara's bronze cheek.

"Don't touch me!" She yelled.

"Look men we caught a feisty one!" The soldier said.

"Unhand me, by order of the Princess!" Katara yelled as she pulled her hood off revealing her tiara.

"Oh!" The men dropped to their knee, "I'm so sorry Princess Katara! Please forgive me."

"Unhand him too!" Katara told the soldier.

"We can't we have been ordered to arrest him." He told her.

"By whom?" She asked.

"Long Feng ordered us to arrest him. You have to talk to him." The man said.

…

"Why did you arrest him?" Katara stomped into the throne room. Long Feng was greedily eyeing the throne.

"Why did you have him arrested?" Katara demanded.

"Have who arrested?" Long Feng asked her.

"The boy from the marketplace!" Katara yelled.

"For kidnapping the princess." He told her.

"He didn't kidnap me, I ran away!" Katara was growing more and more furious as the moments passed. "Now release him!"

"I… I can't! He was sentenced to death, the punishment was already executed." He told her.

"How… how could you?!" Katara said as she ran out of the room.

…

"Momo!" Aang said as his pet flying lemur chirped from the high barred window. "Come get me out of here." Aang's wrists were chained to the wall. Momo chirped an angry chirp.

"I'm sorry okay, it's not like it matters anyways, she's the Princess and I'm just a street rat." Aang told him as Momo worked his lock-picking skills on the shekels that restrained him. After a few more second later they heard a loud click and his wrists fell free. "Thank you!" Aang said as he rubbed a wrists.

"Did I hear you say you liked the princess?" An old crooked man said as he hobbled out of the shadows.

"It doesn't matter." Aang said.

"Have you ever heard of the golden rule? He who has the gold makes the rules. I know of a cave… The cave of wonders. There are piles and piles of gold and riches beyond your wildest dreams." The old man told Aang.

"Why would you share with me?" Aang asked.

"Because I'm not as young as I use to be. You have strong legs and a sturdy back." The old man said as he tapped Aang's legs with his rickety cane.

"But we're stuck in here." Aang told him.

"There is always a way to get what you want!" The man said as he hobbled over to the far wall, he pushed a couple of bricks and a secret door slid open.

"There is a lamp that I want." The old man told him.

"What? Is it magic?" Aang laughed,

"Oh, no not magic at all just something I have always dreamed of having." The old man tried to cover up the truth.

"Magic isn't real. "A dream doesn't become reality through magic; It takes sweat, determination, and hard work." Aang said as he followed the old man deep into the Si Wong desert.

(Done compleately from memory)