Chapter 1

Kira

"Kira! Kira! Time for dinner!"Kira heard Tib calling for her.

"Coming!" Kira ran along the dirt path until finally she got to their little cottage. She walked into the front room and smelled the heavenly scent of stew.

"How was your walk honey?" Tib said.

"Fine, like always." She said cheerfully.They sat down at the table, "So what's going on with the war these days?" Kira asked. It felt funny talking about a war that barely effected them. Sure, troops walked through the town everyday but harm never came to anyone. The townspeople said they were looking for benders, but there were none except... no one knew it, but really she, Kira, was a water bender. "Thanks for dinner"

"Kira how many times have I told you, you don't have to thank me for dinner."

Kira smiled as she cleared the table. "Goodnight!" Kira climbed up the ladder into the attic. Her bed was in the corner. Kira lay down on it. As she waited for her dad to go to sleep she thought about what she was about to do. Now, she did this every night, but it was always a rush. She was going to sneak out of the house and make her way over to the creek, then under the moonlight she would practice her bending, it was the only time she could. Creak, creak slam! She waited only but a moment. Quietly she got up and snuck down the ladder and out the door. As silent as a deer in the forest she glided through the trees. Finally, she got to the creek, but before she could bend she heard some men across it, quickly she hid behind a bush.

"Yeah I heard that too!" said the one man

"Man, I bet that water bender has a giantbounty on its head! Har har har har har!" said another man.

WATERBENDER! Why...?

"A stream is the perfect place to start looking!" said the first man.She heard them walking up and down the steam.

"Maybe on the other side?" said the second.Oh no they were going to find her! Kira started to panic.

"Hey what's that? I think I heard something!"

"Yeah, coming from that bush!"

Kira knew she had to do something but what? Well, what better way to prevent someone from kidnapping you then to fight back?

Mika

A young girl awoke to an elderly woman and a younger woman huddled over her.

"She should be awake soon," the young woman said, running his hand through his silver hair.

"Wonderful, it's a shame we don't know who she is though…"

"With the state she was in when we found her, she may have amnesia and not even remember."

"Poor thing," the old woman said as the girl finally mustered enough strength to sit up, only to feel a piercing pain in her abdomen and have to lie back down again.

"Ah, you're awake. How do you feel?" The young woman greeted with a warm smile, masking the serious face he had just a second ago.

"Fine, thanks…"

"Do you remember anything?" She questioned, trying not to sound too pushy or demanding.

"My name is Mika… I… I can't remember anything else other than my name…"

"That's fine, Mika. You're in the Southern Water Tribe," the young woman said, motioning to the wall of ice that surrounded them.

"I gave you some of my granddaughter's old clothing if that's alright. She wants to travel the world… with Aang, we believe he might be the Avatar. He's here to protect our village from the Fire Nation" the old woman said.

"That's wonderful for her… I wish I had control of my life. I don't even know who I am or how I ended up here, but a girl around my age probably has her destiny all planned out." Mika laughed, self-pity in her slightly raspy voice.

"You're still young; you don't need to have your life planned out…"

"Thank you… I would like to meet your granddaughter though…"

"Maybe you will, once our healer here fixes you up…" the woman glared at the young woman.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," she playfully jeered, "Mika, tell us if you remember anything okay? Also, do you know what this tattoo on your back is?"

"Tattoo?" Mika said, trying to crane her neck so she could see, only to realize two things; she was wearing a big, bulky coat and even if she wasn't she wouldn't be able to get her neck in the right position to see without breaking it, which she wasn't planning on doing..

"Don't worry about it; you have plenty of time to figure out who you are. Just focus on recovering."

"Okay,... Thanks for everything… if it's alright I'd like to rest," Mika said, smiling a small smile.

"Oh, that's fine. Call me if you need anything."

"Alright, Thanks."

"What?" the elderly woman said in awe, looking at something in the distance. Mika managed to get up from her bed and join her, looking at the scene in front of her.

"Wait; if I let you take me will you leave this village alone?" A young boy pleaded. The boy had an arrow on his head. Only airbenders had those arrows. Mika gasped, that had to be the avatar…

"I have to go, thank you for everything," Mika rushed out the door, not waiting for a reply. She knew what she was going to do, she would save the avatar...Aang was it? She then ran towards the ship the avatar was being brought on to and jumped on, "This better work," Mika said, rushing to hide when two guards came around a corner. A little while later she knew she had to figure out something quickly, she came up with a plan to free Aang, so just as the guards walked away, she ran up to the deck… and there they were; the people helping Aang, on a flying bison. She was too late. She couldn't say what happened next; a blur of events with water and shocked faces, but she could remember no more than that. She woke up from her daze shackled to a wall somewhere in the ship. A teen boy with a scar over his left eye came over to her, coming no more than two inches away from her.

"You seem to be Fire Nation,... even though you were helping the avatar. Traitor, humph. Maybe dropping you off will restore some of my honor… then I will be welcomed home and given my place on the throne," this was the moment you'd expect him to burst out in insane laughter, though no such thing happened. The teen just stared intently at Mika, and Mika stared straight back into his amber eyes.

"Zuko, tea?" A heavy man asked cheerfully, raising a porcelain cup up in the air.

"No, uncle, I don't want any tea…" Zuko replied, a stubborn look on his rugged features.

"Fine then," the man left grudgingly, "more for me". The two teens continued their 'staring contest' and Mika saw something in the eyes she was looking at… fear? Guilt? No… it was something else… something different. She was about to figure it out, but he looked away and stared out a porthole.

"Hey listen to that," the teen said, accompanied by the horn of another boat, "there's your next boat. Have fun in prison."