Light Of A New Hope

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Chapter 1 - The New Bender

'Get back here peasant!' a large fire bender said, chasing after a girl of around 13.

'Not on your life freak-face,' the girl said, 'you'll have to catch me first.'

Effortlessly, she bounced off the ground into a back flip off the fire benders shoulders, forcing him forward onto the dusty ground. 'One point for Hikari, zero for the freak-faces.'

Hikari had spoken too soon for just then, extremely strong arms grabbed her own. 'Now it's one all.'

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'AANG!!!' Katara, a waterbender from the South Pole village, yelled at the last air bender.

'What is it this time?' Aang asked the young, but older, yelling girl.

'Nothing. It was just too quiet.' Katara said with a giggle.

Katara's brother, Sokka, and Toph, the earthbending of the group, just laughed. Even Appa and Momo, Aang's flying bison and Winged Lemur, had a slight laugh. Aang just gave a great big sigh and regained the reins of the large, six-legged beast. After the joke was over, Sokka went back to flipping his dagger, up and down into the air, Toph went back to resting against the edge of Appa's saddle, and Katara went back to looking at the ground in search of fire nation troops. It was then that she saw at least ten men, dressed in fire nation amour, surrounding a girl.

'Aang, that girl down there. She's in trouble.' Katara pointed out.

'Gotcha,' Aang replied, pulling on the reins to make the bison go towards the ground, 'Going down.'

Appa grounded a couple of feet away from the circle of firebenders. Aang, Katara, Sokka and Toph all hopped down onto the ground and was ready to start bending in their own elements, except for Sokka who had his 2 daggers out ready for a fight. Then they heard a strong, but feminine, voice from inside the circle. 'Don't come any closer Avatar. It goes for you too Waterbender, Earthbender and warrior of the southern water tribe. I've got to do this alone.'

The others were just stunned. How did she know who they were without even seeing them? Aang however stepped forward, setting off a trap. A wall of black cut off view from he ten men and the un-seen girl in the middle, thought they could hear the action on the other side. Aang and the others tried to walk through the wall, but with no success. Sokka walked around to the other side but saw no entry. There was no way to access the surrounded area.

'Toph, can you feel any vibrations through the earth of what's going on in there?' Katara asked the blind Earthbender.

'No. It's like she has cut me off or something from my feelings.' Toph exclaimed, amazed that the vibrations from inside the encircled were, basically, cut off.

'Is that even possible?!?!' Aang shouted in his own disbelief.

'Up until now, no,' Toph exclaimed, 'even Aang wouldn't be able to block someone's element, and he's the avatar.'

All three Benders used their elements to try and break through the shield, but with no success. All they could do was sit and wait for the wall of darkness to fall. However, Sokka wasn't going to give up. He kept thrashing at the wall with all his might.

'Sokka, there's no use. If Aang can't get through, what makes you think you can?' Katara said, sighing slightly at her older brothers attempts of breaking through the invincible wall.

'You're probably right Katara,' Sokka agreed, 'but we have to tr-AHHH!'

Just then an opening in the wall appeared and Sokka fell through. He was the first to see the amazing sight. All the firebenders were on the ground, unconscious. Standing in the middle was a girl. That was it. A girl had defeated all ten firebenders single handedly. She didn't even have a scratch or burn on her by the looks of it. Eventually, she let the entire wall down for the others.

'I told you not to, didn't I avatar Aang?' the girl said, looking down.

'Who are you?' asked Aang.

'My name is,' she began to say when there was a great, crashing sound nearby, 'oh no. They are coming for me. Avatar, you must come with me. I need to show you something.'

The girl grabbed his hand and told the others to grab his other hand. The sensation that followed was nothing they had felt before.

'Avatar, you must, at no costs, let go of my hand. If you do, they will see you,' Artymis whispered to the four people, 'we will be capable to see each other but aim not to make any noisy sounds or tap something.'

Lightly, the girl guided the others back to a nearby mountain cave.

'Please come in,' she said pushing some undergrowth out of the way of the opening, 'Hoshi, I'm back.'

Aang, Katara, Sokka and Toph didn't detect anyone else in the cave. They soon saw whom she was talking to. A great, silvery dragon was gradually edging forward out of the gloom of the cave.

'Waaaaaaa! What is that thing?!?!' Sokka yelled.

'How DARE you call Hoshi a thing?!?!' the girl screamed back. 'She is the nicest person I have ever met.'

Then the weirdest thing happened. The dark cave suddenly became so light that everyone had to cover their eyes, except Toph for obvious reasons, as to not be blinded. They soon realized the light was coming off the young woman.

'Please stop,' Katara pleaded to the young woman, 'my dumb brother intended no harm. Its just we have on no account seen a dragon before.'

Slowly but surely, the light gradually stopped. As the light died down, so did the girls strength. When the light had fully stopped she collapsed, only to be caught by Sokka, who ran to catch her in time.

'You alright?' Sokka asked the fainting girl.

'Yeah,' she replied, 'I just need some rest.'

And with that, she fell asleep in his arms.

TO BE CONTINUED ...