It's been a long time since the world was peaceful. In a way, it was. Our cities were always quiet, making sure that the Fire Lord wouldn't punish us for being too loud. He liked his kingdom being quiet, peaceful, and serene. But we were all tired of being quiet. We were prisoners in our own home. Wherever we went, there were firebending guards. The Avatar was said to be in hiding, and he (or she) was no where to be found. No, the Avatar hasn't been discovered. But I wouldn't blame him or her for hiding from the cruel reality of their destiny: fighting the fire lord and his entire kingdom.
On the other side of the world, it's peaceful. Such as, the air benders and the water benders. They were more than happy on their side of the globe. But, here, the fire and earth benders were under the control of the fire lord, Lord Zi. Our people avoided them. The guards and the fire lord, I mean. Especially my family. Like a chunk of the nation, my family was homeless. We occasionally house-hopped, or found a cave somewhere near the park and slept there until the next day. Today was the worst, coldest day that I could ever remember. My little brothers, little sister and parents were all so very cold. Dad couldn't walk due to him breaking his leg from a fall he had a week ago. And as for Mom, she was taking care of my siblings. Making sure they stayed out of trouble, made sure they were warm and fed. But, today, no one ate. And I was more than frustrated by this mess. I got up, slung my sack-of-a-backpack over my shoulders and walked off. Only saying to my parents, "I'll be back soon."
I walked to the market, where everyone was wearing a fur coat of the same color: dark, maroon red with black fur on the cuffs of the sleeves and hood. This was normal. As swiftly as I could, I snuck behind the crowd, slipped my backpack down towards my right arm, and waited for the right chance. When no one was looking, I took a steak wrapped in plastic wrap and stuck it in my bag. This was normal. Then, I grabbed apples, and stuck them in there. I started to walk away, happy with the food I'd stolen. Sure, it might not be enough for a family of six, but it's the corner of my eye, I saw a little boy with jet-black hair taking a chunk of meat, and running away with it. Normal. He ran so fast. That's when I heard, "GET HIM!" and saw guards running towards the little boy, their fists were clenched and on fire. I've seen this happen before when I was younger. They'd beaten up a boy no older than thirteen years of age for taking a banana. This boy took a steak. This is worse.
Automatically, I took off towards the boy. I swore, I'd lost him. But then I heard him scream, so I followed his pained shrieks. There he was, his shirt taken off, while two guards held his arms. A third guard was holding a whip, whipping the little boy's back raw. "THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR STEALING FROM THE FIRE LORD!" the guard with the whip exclaimed as he cracked the whip onto the little boy's back. The boy was screaming and crying so hard, that I don't think he had a chance to catch his breath. I ran to the little boy and pulled him with all of my force onto me.
"STOP IT!" I screamed. "He's just a little boy!"
"He stole from the Fire Lord!"
"I don't give a damn! You could just give him the meat. His family is probably starving! What kind of Fire Lord do you serve? What kind of king would let his people starve?"
Another guard grabbed my arm - my bag - and opened it. He laughed. "Looks like we have another thief, general." General? Ah, yes. I knew I recognized his face. His name is General Long (Daniel Myrick Long to be exact) and he has been the fire lord's right-hand man for twenty six years. General Long went to the guard and looked inside the bag. He looked up at me.
"What're we going to do with them, General Long?" the guard said.
Without taking his eyes off me, General Long said, "Let the boy go. Give him the meat. But let's take her with us."
My eyes widened. "NO!" I swung a fist of fire in there face. "I'm not going to jail!" I got in my stance that I was well familiar with. Dad taught had been teaching me how to fight and physically defend myself since I could walk. He's done this to all of his children.
"You like to fight?" Long said. "That's good. Because I just came up with a better form of discipline for you. We'll let Princess Karina deal with you." The two guards held my arms back while Long jabbed his fingers into the corners of my neck. I tried to scream, to fight back, but my vision went blotchy and I passed out.
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