CHAPTER 1: TROUBLE IN THE FIRE PALACE
Royal Palace of the Fire Nation
Crash. Then there was an ear-piercing cry. I scrambled out of my room and into the hallway.
"Zhu?" I called frantically. I didn't like the sound of that noise. Especially coming from my little twin sisters' room.
My sixteen-year-old brother, Zhu came out of his room. "What happened, Huméi?" he asked, grabbing hold of my arm.
"I don't know," I said, frowned, "It came from the twins' room."
We both ran to Sui and Jin's (the twins) room quickly but nothing could prepare us for what happened. Jin's leg had caught on an old bookshelf that had fallen. Zhu and I ran to push the bookshelf off. It was difficult but between the both us of, we got it off. After I ripped my skirt, that is. Mom wasn't going to be happy.
"What happened?" Zhu asked. Both he and I were panting from our efforts and I was examining my red silk skirt. Both Sui and Jin were crying.
Between tears Sui answered, "Jin was going to pick up a book and it suddenly fell on her."
"I'm going to get Mom and Dad, stay here with Sui and Jin," Zhu instructed me. I nodded and he ran off. I sat there, hugging my sisters until my parents came running in.
My mom immediately scooped up Jin and hugged her so tight, I was sure that Mom would knock the breath out of poor little Jin. My mom is like that sometimes.
My dad was different. He looked at the bookshelf and then pulled something out of bookshelf's wooden back that took my breath away. A dagger.
Mom saw it and gasped. Her face was suddenly pale. She put Jin on the bed and she and Dad went out of the room to talk.
After making sure that the twins weren't watching, Zhu and I put our ears against the door to listen. Here is what we heard that I could make out, "Mai's dagger… Azula's…. movement… dangerous… keep children under... supervision… Aang… Sokka and Suki… kids…"
Zhu and I exchanged glances. My parents had tried to keep us from knowing as little as possible but we still knew some things. Such as my dad's sister, Azula, running a movement to overthrow him and Mom called the Lanxiba Movement. Mai was my Aunt Azula's friend, a non-bender with daggers hidden up her sleeves. Creepy, right? Aunt Azula also has a friend called Ty Lee who can touch you and your Bending goes away. Or if you are a non-bender, she can paralyze you. That's creepy. My mother is still scared of her after I think it was twenty-two years.
Mom and Dad soon came back in with huge fake smiles on their faces. Zhu and I exchanged annoyed glances.
"Who wants to come to Uncle Sokka and Aunt Suki's with me?" Mom asked optimistically. Okay, so Mom was always optimistic but now it was sickening. I have very little patience with optimistic people.
"Us!" the twins shouted as they high-fived each other. Mom looked pleadingly at Zhu and me.
"Uh, sure we'll come," Zhu said. He didn't sound enthusiastic and only someone really desperate would really believe that he wanted to come.
"I would like to see Aunt Suki and Minshi," I said at the same time as my brother.
My mom sighed with relief. Apparently, she was pretty desperate to believe Zhu.
"Okay, so who don't the twins come with me to go get Nai and Kuhéi and then Zhu and Huméi can meet us in front of the palace. We all need a good walk and Uncle Sokka and Aunt Suki's is only half a mile up the road," she said. She picked up Jin and they left with Sui following.
Zhu and I looked at our father expectantly. "Why are you two looking at me like that?" Dad asked.
"What's going on? Are we going to stay with Aunt Suki and Uncle Sokka until this whole thing with Mai's dagger blows off?" Zhu asked in a rush.
"No, your mother feels like it's too dangerous with your aunt and uncle's kids running around when my sister could be plotting to kill or capture them. Your mom wants to ask them to move in with us for a while. In addition, you'll be getting Uncle Aang and Aunt Toph plus all of their kids. I think it'll be safer with all of us," Dad answered, "Wait, how do you two know about Mai?"
"Yes! Minshi and Mei get to live here?" I asked, jumping for joy.
My dad looked at us sternly. "Don't try to change the subject," he said sternly.
"Okay, so we have listened outside your room every night for the past eight years, so what?" Zhu asked calmly. We learned long ago that the calmer we are when we tell our parents shocking news, the calmer they react.
My father's jaw dropped. "Eight years?!" he said. Okay, most of the time they're calm.
"Well, yeah," I said, "why did you keep it a secret?"
"We didn't want to scare you, sweetie. Look, this is our first time parenting, we have no idea what we're doing. You mother's mother died when she was eight and her father left soon after; the closest thing she had for a parent when she was your age is her brother. I was ignored and despised my father and sister and my mother disappeared when I was ten. We didn't have good examples. We're trying, okay?" my dad said.
I hadn't meant to get him all worked up. "Okay," I said, "But Minshi and Mei are coming, right?"
"Don't you mean Minshi, Mei, and Tanshi?" my father asked, raising an eyebrow. I could tell he was anxious to change the subject.
I made a face. "Tanshi and I don't get along. She's weird," I said.
"Be nice," Dad ordered sternly. I pouted but didn't say anything.
Who are all these people we're talking about? Well, Nai is my six-year-old sister and Kuhéi is my two-year old brother. Uncle Sokka is my mother's brother, Aunt Suki is his wife, Uncle Aang isn't really my uncle, we just call him that. Aunt Toph is his wife. Of course, she is not really my aunt either. Minshi is Sokka and Suki's eldest daughter. She's fourteen like me. She has two little sisters, Arusha-nine and Jina who is four. Tanshi and Mei are the fourteen and thirteen year old daughters of Aang and Toph. Mei is the thirteen year old and a good friend of mine. Tanshi is miss perfect and I can't stand her. They have two brothers, Chen who is fifteen and Moshu who is three.
"You better go meet your mother," my father said. Zhu and I left the room and went outside to meet Mom.
Uncle Sokka and Aunt Suki's house; half mile from Palace
"Hi, Suki," my mom said cheerfully. Her optimistic attitude hadn't died away since she and Dad had talked. I had been wondering what she'd do when Dad told her we had listened at their door and knew practically everything they didn't want us to know.
My aunt Suki had just opened the door. "Hi, Katara," she answered. She must have noticed Mom's attitude because she immediately picked up on it.
We all went inside and I hugged Minshi. "Hi, Minshi," I said, smiling. I couldn't believe that I was being like Mom and Aunt Suki, but oh well.
"Good morning, Huméi," Minshi smiled. I think my mother's optimistic attitude dropped on everyone.
"Suki is Sokka home?" my mom asked.
Suki nodded, "Yes, he's out back."
"I need to talk to you two alone," my mom, glaring at Zhu and me. I wondered if Dad had somehow talked to her about it already.
A few moments after she and Aunt Suki left, Zhu, Minshi, and I followed. This is what we heard, "Hi Sokka… Katara…. What's wrong… Azula attacked Jin and Sui… Why… Dangerous… Come live with us… All right…"
Minshi, Zhu, and I thought that was the end of the conversation and left the door so we wouldn't be caught. However, we could have stayed for they didn't come in with their huge fake smiles for five more minutes.
"Girls, your Aunt Katara wants all of us to come over to stay with her, Uncle Zuko, and your cousins," Suki said brightly.
"Won't that be fun?" Uncle Sokka asked just as brightly. Zhu and I rolled our eyes.
"Yes!" exclaimed Arusha. Jina just grinned and clapped her hands.
"We'll be over within fifteen minutes," Suki said.
Mom, Zhu, Sui, Jin, Nai, Kuhéi, and I walked off to go ask Uncle Aang and Aunt Toph the same question.
One hill away from Uncle Aang and Aunt Toph's
"I can't believe that our cousins get to come live with us!" bubbled Sui. She and Jin were skipping hand in hand. Apparently, Jin's ankle was better. You can always count on those two to make a big deal out of something and then it was nothing the next minute.
"How much longer?" whined Nai.
"Longer!" Kuhéi clapped his chubby hands. Kuhéi often just repeated what another person said-he's only three after all.
"Just over this hill and…" my mom's sentence trailed off. I looked over the hill and my heart stopped.
Uncle Aang and Aunt Toph's house was burning-and not just from the sun. Someone had set the house to flames.