A Demon of Fire

Chapter 1:

The contest

Arrows were flying through the air. Shouts and cries were heard. Ships were docking and people running to and fro. No, this wasn't a battle, but a competition, an archery competition. Admiral Zhao had practically won, as his U Yin archer was entered, but some hope remained. As an old general walked up to the seating area with his nephew people made a clearing for them to pass through. Admiral Zhao walked up to them and began boasting to the old general of the prizes to be awarded. He didn't seem to notice his babbling was going unheard for a new disturbance had arisen.

People were turning and gawking at the odd sight. Finally Zhao noticed his talk was going unnoticed and turned to see this odd sight before him.

A contest entry was being filled out by a rider atop a great red elk. The elk's smooth horns bore no branches, but a long smooth point. The rider was very mysterious. Their face was hidden by a long green cloak hood, although they had a very odd position on the elk. It was soon realized that they rode with no saddle or even bridle.

The mysterious rider swung down from the elk. The crowd closest gasped as the rider's skirt was revealed. This was a woman entering the competition. She pulled off her hood to reveal a very large amount of dark, almost blood red in color, hair topped with a green hat. Her face was still covered for the most part with hair, but those closest could see a pointed ear peaking its tip out of her hair and her face not covered was very elfish. But she didn't smile, or even look at all happy.

"Zuko, look! A new entry has arrived!" exclaimed the old general.

"I don't care. We're wasting our time here uncle. We should be looking for the avatar!" he replied harshly.

"There will be plenty of time for that later Zuko."

The rider walked over to her post in front of a target. The U Yin archer walked up next to her. She had left her cloak with her elk, who was currently grazing on some fresh grass.

"Contestants raise your bow!" announced the judge.

The girl pulled a long reddish bow and a stone tipped arrow from the quiver on her back. She fitted the arrow quickly and raised it. The U Yin raised his bow preparing to win this competition quickly.

"Aim" the judge called, "and fire!"

The U Yin fired and hit his target exactly. He looked over preparing to see a blank target. The rider was lowering her bow.

"And a perfect hit for both archers!"

The crowd cheered and Admiral Zhao looked bewildered.

"It seems your archer has tied" said the general.

There were many different tests given to decide which was the better archer, but nothing worked. Finally the judge decided on one more test, if there was no winner a tie would be declared.

The test was simple. There would be a moving target, the winning archer would have to successfully beat the loser to the target and hit it exactly.

"Ready, set, Fire!" called the judge.

Arrows flew and the target ran, it was simply a child with a block of wood, dangerous, yes, but the child thought it fun to dodge arrows.

After less then a second the target was hit. Tension was building as the judge walked to the block. He pulled the arrow from the block. It was...stone tipped. The girl's.

Cheers went up. The prize was a large sack of money. The girl didn't care much for it. She was bored, and heard that a competition was being held. She had no purpose for the money. She was walking back to her elk when Admiral Zhao approached her.

"Miss! You have beaten a U Yin archer! Congratulations! Would you like to earn more gold? Hm? Come with me, you can become the archer on my ship and help me search for the avatar." he said, clearly full of himself.

"No, I'm busy you see." she replied.

"Nonsense, what could be more important?"

"Well, a lot of things, such as eating a slug. Which would be heaven compared to working for you." she said as if simply talking to him was worse than eating a slug.

"Haha! You are funny too!" he replied as though having a common wench insult him was impossible.

"Right." she said rolling her eyes.

"Come now." he persisted.

"I told you once. No. I refused your offer." she said crossly.

"Fine. Your loss. You probably cheated in this contest anyway." he said as he stalked off.

"Come on uncle!" Zuko said to his uncle.

"Excuse me? Miss?" The old general said to the archer, "Would you be at all interested in working on my nephew's ship?"

The admiral, still within earshot, snorted at the old fools question to the wench.

"Sure. I'd love to work there. But my animals must be welcome there as well." she said casually.

"I'm sure we could accommodate your animals." the general said relieved.

Zuko turned toward his uncle to see the archer walk to her elk and throw on her cloak. He wondered who this girl was. But then decided he didn't care.

She would stay with the crew and not disturb him. How wrong he was.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Well, this is the very first chapter of my very long story. I'll wait until I get a comment or two before posting the next chapter, and to let you know, I change the perspective. Why I wrote this in this perspective I have no idea. Also, I thinkU Yin was supposed to be U Yan, but I'm to lazy to go fix it. So, comments?