Rai Utsuro had always looked different. Her hair was black and her skin pale, very much unlike her siblings, who all had auburn hair and naturally tanned. She looked at herself in the mirror, those bright, amber eyes stared back at her. Her definition, the thing that marked her as different.
"Rai?"
She turned around, letting her hair fall down her back again. Her sister, Sayu, stood in the doorway. Rai sighed, ashamed that she still couldn't do her own hair yet.
"You want some help?" Sayu asked, smiling.
"Don't you need to get ready?" She looked out from under her fringe.
Her sister laughed, "I'm always there to help my one and only sister."
Rai handed over her comb, watching the elegant hands work a pattern, one that she had never been able to do herself. Another difference.
The knife up her sleeve was cold. She slipped it into the palm of her hand, placed it onto her table, aware of Sayu's questioning sighs. Yet another difference. She looked again at herself, then at her sister's reflection. Her own narrow face and serious expression contrasted with her sister's general soft kindness. Her hair bubbling prettily over her shoulders, instead of hanging like a sheet of black iron.
"Thank you," Rai stood up, she turned to leave, trying to stop tears from falling.
"Rai," Sayu sounded like she would cry, "I know you don't feel pretty, but you are."
"Thank you for your concern, Sayu, but it isn't that."
It was Sayu's betrothal celebration that day, and, as a celebration, Rai's class was to perform their earthbending forms. Only the forms though, since many of them could not actually bend.
There was Sayu, looking happy, sitting next to her fiancé.
Rai breathed in, glad that they were not going to bend, remembering that she was the only one of her siblings that could not. She brought her right arm forwards, like the others. Keeping in with the rhythm. Considering it a dance. Then came the end, the final movement. Both hands pushed in front of her, it had finished, relief flooded her.
Until she saw the boy in front of her.
His hair was on fire, as were his clothes. He was staring in horror at her, she reached for him, trying to stop the flames. But only more fire came out of her hand.
It was her.
She was firebending.
Everything was wrong.
She was a lie.
Anger burned inside her, it filled her whole being, heating the fire within her. Allowing that fire to become a reality.
Her whole being was on fire, her rage enveloped her. People screamed. Her mother cried out. She saw her friends back away from her, afraid of what she was.
"Rai! Rai, calm down! Please! For me!" Sayu shouted, ignoring her fiancé's desperate attempts to lead her away.
Rai heard her. Rai saw herself. Her anger subsided.
And she allowed a tear to creep out of her eye.
The fire went out, the guests stopped screaming and she pulled the comb out of her hair.
"Why am I so different?"
"I don't know Rai."
"Why am I so different?!" She screamed.
"My love, I don't know!" Sayu tried to hold her.
"Don't touch me! Don't come near me!"
Sayu stepped back, her eyes tearing up at Rai's harsh words. Her bottom lip trembled and she wrung her hands, looking round at the crowd, her parents, her fiancé, trying to make eye contact. But they all avoided her gaze.
Rai, on the other hand, had started to walk backwards, her eyes wide. Her clothes smoking from the fire, her hair, loose and displaced, hung wildly over her face. The fire had blackened her hands, which scared her, for a firebender burning themselves was unheard of.
You should leave.
She heard the voice in her head.
Leave. You're not them.
And she listened to it.
Rai had never been this far from home before, the forest was intimidating and her instincts told her not to go in, but couldn't go back home. No. Never.
She squeezed her eyes to stop the tears from falling, she was strong, she must not cry, crying was for the weak. Her feet were bleeding and her legs cold. But she ignored the pain, continuing deeper into the forest, unaware of the noise up ahead. Unaware of the jovial singing and campfire. She ran right into a clearing, looking up, noticing the fire. She froze. A cold fear was bubbling inside her stomach, making it's way to her chest in the form of a scream, and then getting stuck in her throat.
For Rai had just run straight into a Fire Nation Army encampment.
All the soldiers looked at her in surprise, some of them halfway through their dinner, putting spoons in their mouths. Others were peering out of tents, looking surprised, and some, not many though, were holding weapons and practicing firebending.
What are you going to do?
There was that voice again.
A few of the soldiers had stood up, fire already in their hands. Rai's breathing was shallow, her heart beating ridiculously fast, sweat beaded on her forehead.
You can firebend...
'I don't know how,' she said to herself.
You do know a form of bending though.
The voice was right, she knew earthbending forms, she could apply her knowledge of earthbending to her firebending ability... Yes, that was what she could do.
She clenched her hands into fists, the soldiers flinched at the aggressive movement. She stamped her foot on the ground, pushing her fists up, keeping her elbows close to her body. The soldiers leapt up, obviously thinking that she was an earthbender. That was, until, she produced a wall of fire.
They all laughed, letting their guard down. So she stamped her foots and kicked out, shooting a jet of fire at them. Then they stopped laughing. She kept herself tight, wound up like a spring, ready to be released whenever she wanted.
"Relax your stance, girl," one of them said.
"No," she muttered, just loud enough for him to hear.
"My name is Captain Ito, we're not going to hurt you."
"Why?" Rai blurted out, her fear was tense and in her muscles.
"You're a firebender, you're not an enemy," Ito explained.
"My name is Rai Utsuro of the Earth Kingdom!"
"No, you are clearly Fire Nation."
"NO!" she screamed, "No, no, no!
Several of the soldiers tried to grab hold of her, but she ran between them, unfortunately slipping up over the slick ground. She tumbled sideways, landing facedown in between a short rack of daggers. They cut the skin around her face, almost digging into her temples. Rai could feel the blood beading and falling in long trains down her face, into her eyes and mouth, it hurt so much she was numb.
Ito picked her up, she did not fight him, she could not even cry. The pain and heat building up inside her was becoming unbearable.
She burned, again. It was becoming worse than the cuts, it was like a fire was growing within her, burning her up and destroying her from the inside. Ito must have noticed her skin getting hotter, for her sat her down by the fire a looked at her inquiringly.
"We need to get her back to the Fire Nation, I'm sure one of my brothers will take her in," she heard him said.
Panic and pain and fire were building in her, she could not control it any longer, the fire was overwhelming her. It exploding around her again, burning the ground around her as she lashed out. She could not really see what she was doing, only her anger and wild flames danced in front of her eyes.
The screams of burning people filled her ears, the shouts of Captain Ito as he tried to rally his men, attempting save them, telling them that they would be treated as soon as they reached the nearest colony. Then as he cried out to her, trying to get her to calm down. But she was beyond help. She was lost deep inside her fear and anger. Scared by herself and yet so unable to stop this fiery monster inside her.
Now there was a different noise, the sounds of men being cut down. She lashed out one last time, trying to get them away from her, then the fire died down. Around her were the bodies of the soldiers, some burned but most of them had been killed by some other form. The wounds looked like sword wounds, some had been shot.
Then she looked up. A band of ragtag children stood at the entrance to the clearing, they looked at her, their eyes filled with distrust and fear. Except the tallest boy, the one with twin tiger hook swords., he had a look of curious interest about him, like he wanted to know her better and see what she could do.
She swayed, a breeze pushed her hair across her face, stinging her wounds and calming the sparks on her destroyed clothing. They moved forward, she could do nothing to stop them, and she fell to the ground, blacking out.
