38. Abandoned
Her parents had all but
abandoned her when they realized that she would never be a stunning
beauty like her sisters; they did abandon her when she started
playing with daggers instead of dolls.
8. Innocence
She had long ago lost
the innocence of a child, when her whole life had shattered around
her, when her parents had tried to sell her to a brothel, simply
because she had stood up against her brothers.
79. Starvation
She was starving, when
she met them, the one with the bow and the one with the swords. Her
ribs were easily visible under her skin, and even her stomach seemed
determined to bulge from its confines.
74. Are You Challenging
Me?
The question was almost
funny, coming from such a scrawny looking kid. Jet laughed openly,
but I was glad that I had kept my mouth shut, when the girl knocked
Jet to the ground and put her knife at his throat. I had to pull her
off of him, but Jet stopped laughing.
1. Introduction
She
had thought that Jetof
all people would know what she was right off the bat, even if she had
managed to startle him with her initial attack, but when he
introduced her as "the new kid" she realized that he really had
no clue.
92. All That I Have
Her dagger and her
pride, they were all that she had, until she met them. She didn't
count the flame symbol branded onto the back of her left shoulder;
she had never wanted it anyway.
9. Drive
Different things drive
different people. He is driven by the need to make up for the lives
that he hadn't been able to save at his own village; she is driven
by the need to live the life that she had been denied.
69. Annoyance
She had been an
annoyance at first, a pesky girl that always wanted to tag along, be
it to train or to fight Fire Nation. None of them really thought that
she would be of any real use to them until she took down twelve
soldiers during the course of one of their larger battles, more than
any of the other Fighters, except for Longshot and Jet, of course.
41. Teamwork
Their teamwork was
legendary amongst the group, but they still couldn't get it to work
the same way outside of battle.
51. Sport
It seemed to be a sort
of sport, to annoy her to the breaking point and then see if they
were fast enough to get away before she inflicted severe pain upon
their poor bodies. There were only two problems with the game: they
had to make sure Longshot was nowhere nearby, since he usually pulled
her off to the side and calmed her down (exactly how, they weren't
quite sure…) and they never really were fast enough to escape her
notice, and she was a master at revenge.
81. Pen and Paper
He only realized that
he should teach the seven year old girl to read when she almost
ingested a small tub of blasting jelly, thinking it was slightly
gelatinous honey.
91. Drowning
She only realized that
she should teach the older boy to swim after he got caught in the
river's current and swept under, unable to get back up for breath.
5. Seeking Solace
There was no real
reason for her to go to him when she needed solace from the
nightmares that she told no one else about, but she always did; and
eventually, he did the same.
96. In the Storm
She had never liked
thunderstorms. At first he thought it was just a girl thing, but that
first winter, when she shared his bed pallet simply because it was
too cold not to, he found out that it was simply because they
brought back the worst of her horrible memories.
22. Mother Nature
Sometimes, she couldn't
quite believe the power nature had, and she found it near impossible
to accept that the forest around her had been there long before her,
and would be there long after she was gone.
99. Solitude
The nine year old girl
respected his need for solitude, and would leave him to his own
devices more often than she wanted to because of it; but he also
respected her fear of being left alone and sometimes he would seek
her out, just to help keep her demons at bay.
4. Dark
Most people would only
see his hair as black or brown, but she would see the intricacies
within that darkness, the reds and golds that made it unique.
93. Give Up
She had never been one
to give up, and that went doubly as far as gaining his friendship
went. She didn't really understand why she cared; just that it was
something that had to be done, just as much as breathing.
14. Smile
The small smile that he
had was a comfort, one rarely shown, given only when it was deserved;
she treasured every single one.
23. Cat
As he watched her
movements, he couldn't stop himself from conjuring the image of the
small foxcat he had owned as a young child, graceful and clumsy, all
at once.
19. Gray
He didn't know why,
but her gray eyes rarely reminded him of the storms that everyone
said they resembled.
84. Out Cold
He hadn't even
realized that he liked the little she-creature until a Fire
Nation soldier had hit her over the head with the hilt of his
broadsword, and his heart had frozen with fear when she didn't get
back up; before the soldier could do anything else though, he went
down with an arrow in his throat.
97. Safety First
When they got a bit
older, he had been on watch, that night that she had slipped out to
see him. She had surprised him, and he'd turned, ready to shoot
whoever the intruder was. He dropped his bow when he realized that it
was her, hugging her tightly to him and berating her quietly for
trying to sneak up on him when it was peak Fire Nation raiding
season.
25. Trouble Lurking
He came to realize that
the particular gleam in her eye, the one that she had now, eyeing the
Fire Nation solider, her dagger concealed up her sleeve, was trouble
waiting to happen.
64. Multitasking
She was not a
multi-tasker by nature. She preferred to take her enemies down one by
one, though sometimes she would kill two at once, just to prove she
could.
72. Mischief Managed
She always tried to
pull pranks on him without him realizing that it was her doing it. He
always found out though, except for the time when she had pegged him
with a leechi nut. He always seemed to blame the Duke for that one,
though perhaps it had something to do with her horrible aim in
archery.
15. Silence
His silence was warm,
and full of his unspoken thoughts, the ones that only she could
understand; but now, the silence was a cold one as he walked away
from her, his hat firmly clutched in his hand.
16. Questioning
Later, she'd asked
him why he was so mad, that it was just a stupid hat; sighing, he had
finally told her the story of his village, and the man to whom the
hat had belonged.
17. Blood
It was just a bit of
blood, nothing more, nothing less, just a bit of blood… so why did
she suddenly feel so much older?
13. Misfortune
He grinned as he helped
her from the ground as she grumbled about the invisible tree root
that had tripped her up; he stopped grinning when he saw the flash of
metal and a dangerous gleam in her eye.
12. Insanity
The tree was his haven,
the one place he could escape the day to day insanity of the camp.
21. Vacation
When ever they had
needed a vacation from the general chaos that the Freedom Fighters
created whenever they didn't have an imminent battle to plan, they
had simply gone to his tree, to his haven; he didn't even really
mind sharing it with her.
3. Light
He was the only one
that would see her like this, completely relaxed and basking in the
golden light of a summer day, radiating the illusion of endless
patience.
10. Breathe Again
She could only breathe
again when she saw him take one for himself; the wound already
staining his blue clothing red, the solider that had attacked him
already down with her dagger in his back.
30. Under the Rain
It somehow managed to
rain every single night that they had watch, but sitting under the
rain wasn't as bad as it could've been, especially since it gave
them an excuse to huddle together under his hat.
27. Foreign
It was sad, that a
simple smile was something so foreign, that it had to be startled out
of her.
61. Fairy Tale
She wasn't a normal
girl in any respect, but she still had her own fairy tale. One where
he would smile just for her, and treat her like she had seen other
boys treat the normal girls.
90. Triangle
He kept his mouth shut,
only because the triangle was already confusing enough, especially
since he seemed to be the only one aware of it. He loved her, she
loved Jet, and Jet loved hate.
60. Rejection
She stared long and
hard into her friend's eyes, wishing that the archer would say
something different than the rest… that he would be different. But
he only backed away from her, shaking his head. She ran so he
wouldn't see the tears.
She blinked the dream away and laughed bitterly "I'd never tell him anyway."
82. Can You Hear Me?
Hearing had never been
a problem, both were alert for the slightest sound that might give
away an enemy ambush, it was seeing what was right in front of their
noses that gave them the most trouble.
