Chapter 1 – Chaos

Disclaimer: I'm making zilch profit!

Mr. Lee the fruit vendor was walking down the street of Omashu when he felt the fine hair on the back of his neck sticking out. He turned around as the instinct that had been ingrained into any human's DNA told him that he was being watched. He saw nothing.

Shrugging, blaming the occurrence to a flowing breeze of autumn, Mr. Li the fruit vendor resumed his march home. Whistling to calm his nerve, for the cold still lingered stubbornly under his skin and knees were struggling against a mighty shiver, he took a swig off the clay booze bottle he held in his hand. Nothing beats Omashu sour-peach wine.

The street was abandoned in the dead of night; dark and cold.

The shadow under the low roof of a hut he was passing by came alive; a pair of bright amber eyes peered through the darkness as the dark figure stepped out of the shadow. Moonlight reflected a blindingly silver glint on his dagger of black ivory handle and ornately engraved blade; flames ran along the two sides just behind the cutting edge, framing the fuller that traced to the tip like a pillar.

Mr. Lee walked still, not knowing that it was his last night out, not knowing that the sip he took was his last.

Not knowing that the Brotherhood had been sent on him.

Ah, he was but a simple fruit vendor, you say. What would the Shadow Brotherhood, the deadliest assassin guild in the Four Nations, want with him, a simple fruit vendor?

Well, as they say in the Brotherhood: kill and know that your blade always strikes true.

And the blade struck true that night.

Mr. Lee lay on the steps through the public garden terrace that he always walked on his way home from his night at the tavern every Saturday, twitching as life and blood poured out from his slit throat, his brown eyes wide opened in horror and still clutched in his hand was a clay bottle of spilt Omashu sour-peach wine.

When the authority arrived the next morning and had the body taken to the coroner, they found single nightshade blossom in his pocket.

The girl was trudging through the empty stone hallway; bright almond-shaped amber eyes trained on the prize ahead, petite but deceptively strong arms were holding up a large round shield she had picked up somewhere protectively in front of her. Her rather small stature was nearly hidden behind the seemingly oversized round metal shield. Only her knees down and the upper part of her face were visible as she gingerly stepped forward.

Cold unearthly breeze flew through from between the cracks on the ancient wall, sending cobweb fluttering about around the corner of the hallway of the ancient ruined temple she was in. She felt none of it.

Stopping just a shy step away from the old looking, metal-reinforced wooden chest, lowering the shield as nothing happened, she grunted lightly as she shrugged and put her heavy shield aside. Putting her hands to her waist, she tapped one foot absentmindedly on the stone floor below, thinking and scrutinizing. She closed her eyes and raked her brain, forehead frowning and delicate brows furrowing. She brought one hand to her heart-shaped jaw, tapping a dainty long-nailed finger on her chin.

Ruby red lips curled up into a sly smile as she formulated her next step.

Flicking one of her two bangs that veiled the side of her face –the only part of her silky smooth raven hair that was not secured in her top-knot-, she pondered upon how stupid the Ancients must be. A tripwire of thin brown hemp rope tied to the side of the lid surrounded by the cobweb was standing up like a thread of gold amongst silken strings. Also, the notch in the wall where the chest was stored was surrounded by numerous holes etched perfectly round, around twenty five of them and they were all pointing at her direction.

It would seem like the Ancients were more interested in protecting their treasure agaisnt the hasty and the foolish; heh, talk about a foolproof security system.

The girl sighed and crossed her arms on her chest, feeling the silk of her red and black robe rubbing, slippery on top of each other. She tapped her foot again, waiting impatiently this time, for her companions to arrive. When the boy and the other two girls finally arrived, the amber-eyed girl was in the middle of sketching something that resembled a taiji circle on the dusty floor with the tip of her pointy Fire Nation boots.

"Took you guys long enough", the girl said icily. "I'm bored."

"You ran away while we were fighting those terra-cotta!" the scarred bot snapped; amber eyes identical to the girl's, skin also of the same creamy white complexion, hair that was also the same color but, unlike the girl's silky smooth and straight hair, as indicated by her twin bangs, the boy's hair was saggy. On the left side of his otherwise flawlessly handsome face was a horrible angry and deep-red burn scar that covered the most part of his left face and his left ear that looked shriveled and small.

"Correction: I did not run away", the first girl stood straight, crossing her arms, smirking. "I ran ahead. After all, I have all the faith in the world in the might of my beloved older brother and you two. The stones weren't much of a challenge for you three, were they, Zuzu?"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!"

A rumble shook the whole place; while 'Zuzu' and the other two girls suddenly dropped into weary stance, the first girl with the twin bangs and amber eyes stayed as relaxed as ever.

"Kindly keep your voice down, Brother", she said with a teasing admonishment. "We don't want to wake the dead any more than we already have."

"This place gives me the creeps", one of the other two girls, the one with a slightly ivory skin, thick brown hair tied into a long braid, and a pair of big gray eyes that adorned her round, rather childish but no less attractive face, shivered, hugging herself that was clad in a simple tunic that exposed her midriff, forearms, and shins, unlike the other three that wore full robe. "Don't you feel it, Azula? This place has a really bad aura."

The girl with twin bangs, Azula, openly rolled her eyes.

"Is that the amulet?" the boy asked, walking past Azula towards the chest.

"It's the only thing that looks of value around here, Zuko", Azula changed not her tone but she covertly raced back a few healthy steps behind her older brother with her shield raised; Ty Lee and the other girl, the one with a pale expressionless face and long black hair tied into a twin bun, quickly sought safety behind Azula and her study shield. "I was about to open it myself but… oh, what a little girl like me to do without that big… strong… muscle of yours?" the lilt of a temptress in her voice made her smirk, Ty Lee giggle, the other girl sigh, and Zuko bristle. Zuko dared not turn around to face his sister which just what Azula wanted.

The boy leaned down and tugged the lid of the chest open; Azula and the other two girls cowered behind the shield as sharp sound of spring loaded devices and grinding of metals sang through the air succeeding the snap of the rope. It was followed by the sickening sound of fleshy meaty ripping. The trio Fire Nation girls waited until no sound was heard before they lowered their guard.

Zuko was standing upright now, impaled from all sides by almost twenty of the twenty five spears that were aimed at him. One of the metal-tipped spears, the girls noticed, went through his skull, impaling his from the cheek to the throat. Thick red blood dripped from his wounds, pooling below his feet.

Azula took a tentative step and was about to poke her brother's back when Zuko jerked. His hands caught the nearest spears that stabbed his head and neck and snapped them with his grip alone. He turned to Azula, bloody mangled face hideous due to the wound and the scowl… and the broken spear sticking out his face.

"Very funny, Azula", the boy barked after he pulled the broken spear off his face.

"Well, look at the bright side", Azula said lazily as she threw her heavy shield to Ty Lee and broke the spears on Zuko's left with one axe kick. "You just moved up to my favorite brother list."

"You only have one brother", Zuko snarled, working the rest of the spears as Azula showed more interest in the chest now that her way was unobstructed.

"No competition", Azula shrugged as she bent down and scrutinized the lock; her heightened hearing caught a distinct click when Zuko dropped the lid upon him being turned into a pincushion by the trap. "Hmm", she muttered, tapping her chin. She turned around to Zuko, grabbed one of the three spears that stick out of his gut, and pulled it free, eliciting a yelp from her older brother.

"Hey! That one got me right on the belly. It tickled!"

"Oh, you're so ticklish", Azula cooed as she playfully scratched the boy's bloody punctured gut, making Zuko yelp some more.

"You're crazy, you know that?!" Zuko snapped angrily, stepping back still with numerous broken spears sticking out of him, making him look like some weird impression of a boar-q-pine or a victim of the war. "Thanks, Mai", he muttered as the pale-faced girl with hair buns moved to him and helped him remove the remaining spears.

"I prefer to call myself…" Azula stuck the spearhead into the rusted lock and kicked forwards; the lock was busted in with a loud crack. "…intellectually unique."

"You ripped that off from Lu Ten", Zuko pulled the last of the spears from his right chest; he glared still at Azula as he walked towards the opened chest as Azula gestured him way with a flourish. Ruby red mist escaped from Zuko's numerous wound and it seeped back in, pulling severed skin closed, drawing the blood back through the surface of his skin. He was as good as new as he arrived at the chest, peering over the content, minus his bloody and ruined clothes.

"Did I, now? And how could you call your baby sister crazy? I'm telling Dad", Azula's fake sad face did not hold against the golden amulet Zuko extracted from the myriad of other golden trinkets. "That's not it", Azula said finally.

Zuko narrowed his eye, the unscarred one, sharply at Azula and Azula knew she would never get used to it no matter how many centuries it had been.

"What?" Azula asked innocently. "It really is not it", she pulled out a piece of leather scroll and unrolled it in front of Zuko. "The one we're looking for has—"

Cutting Azula midsentence was an explosion so loud and powerful it shook the whole hallway; Azula toppled and caught Zuko's arm for balance, Mai slumped against the wall, and a layer of cobweb fell on Ty Lee's hair and she screamed.

Coming from the other end of the cramped hallway were a group of three men and two women; rough looking with soot and grime on their faces and arms, big and burly the men were and the women, one of them were rough and hardy, well-muscled, while the other looked rather meek but graceful like a noble-born her red robe suggested. Unlike the meek small lady, the others were wearing a mix of various mismatched leather and metal armors and protectors and were armed with blades and axes. One of the big men was also wearing a bandolier of exploding jelly stick across his chest.

"They're just a bunch of kids!" one of the rough man said, sneering at the robed meek-looking lady as she muttered. "Told you there's someone here."

"These people didn't trigger any Ancient magic?" Mai voiced her opinion. "They're not exactly subtle. What kind of idiots brings explosives to explore a ruin?"

"Now, kids!" the rough man from before boomed; the kids, especially Zuko who was busy rummaging the chest, were unfazed. "Hand over the treasure or we gonna have some real problem here!"

"Who are these people?" Ty Lee asked the other two girls; Mai and Azula replied with, "Treasure hunters" and "Dinner", respectively.

Not even the treasure hunters/dinner's screaming and the chaotic noise of their feeble resistance disturb Zuko from his task; he was born with that assertive driven nature. When he got his head out of the chest, grinning as he held a golden locket with a ruby centerpiece, he turned and announced his triumph. "Hey, I found— What the…?"

"The Unnatural are the embodiment of evil", the Air Monk droned on, walking through the class of twenty eight acolytes, each was seated on the floor, at a stone desk that was set, carved almost, into the stone floor below. Large windows on the three sides of the classroom made the whole establishment looked like a terrace with pillars and a roof. "The duty of the Air Nomads is to bring enlightenment to the Unnatural."

The Air Monk continued, eyes closed as he let himself feel the words that were the sacred foundation of his Order. Wind flowed in, fluttering his flowing yellow and orange monk robe and his long thin beard. His hand counted the small prayers beads as he counted the Precepts of the Air Nomads; ten like the number of the grape-sized beads.

"The World is in darkness", the Air Monk recited. "The duty of the Air Nomads is to bring light to dark places."

"Master", a young boy of five or six raised his hand; the elderly Air Monk scowled at the interruption. "Master, what is the Unnatural?"

A vein popped in the Air Monk's bald temple as he was being interrupted yet again by another boy, a twelve-year-old with big gray eyes and a huge grin. "The Unnatural are monsters, of course. You know, like the Water Tribe werewolves and the Fire Nation vampires."

"Pupil Aang!" the Air Monk snapped; the way the twelve-year-old sounded so cheery was so… wrong. This is serious stuff here. "You…" he stopped short; Aang looked up to him with a shocked big doe-eyes. "…forgot… to mention the others. Trolls, goblins, ghosts."

Aang grin made a return. "And the kappa, and the oni, and the—"

The Air Monk sighed; he was not sure if kindness was really a virtue.

"So", Aang continued his lecture as he and a group of boys his age were walking down the steps to the lemur courtyard after the class was over. "Basically, all the creatures that harm human on purpose."

"What about regular carnivores? Or the giant creatures like the unagi and the sea serpent?" a small stout boy asked.

"Well, they might be monsters", Aang explained kindly. "But, they're not Unnatural. For one, they don't actively seek out to harm human; the unagi protects the Kyoshi Island and is revered as a guardian while the sea serpent protects the sea from pollution and intruders. I think, to be considered Unnatural, non-human creatures must be like a kappa or an oni; they actually attack villages and snatch human. They won't even go for the cattle."

"Aang?"

"Yes, Matu?" Aang turned to the youngest of the group.

"What are vam-pie-errs?"

"Vampires", Aang chuckled fondly. "They're cursed humans. They must drink blood in order to survive."

"Why? What's wrong with their own blood?"

"They don't have any. They can't make their own blood, so they kill human and drink their blood."

The group went. "Ewwww!"

"Hey, Aang, will you be joining us for airbending ball later?" another kid asked.

"No, sorry, Teeka", Aang rubbed his bald head. "I have to go gather some herbs for Gyatso."

So, after bidding his 'see you later', Aang did exactly that.

The Southern Air Temple was literally carved into and out of a mountain; it was the way of the Air Element. Harmony with Nature.

Hopping down the rocky hill leading to the meadow and woodland at the foot of the gigantic mountain, Aang employed his airbending to great effect. He leaped down tens of feet to the ground and halted midair as he instinctively bent a layer of moving air around him, and he hovered down soundlessly to the grassy patch below.

He took a big sniff of the crisp autumn air; the smell of weed, moist ground, and trees entered his system. A lemur flew to his shoulder and he giggled at it. "Hi, Momo", he said, stroking the small creature's head. "How's your day?"

The lemur chirped incoherently.

"Yeah, mine's great too", Aang replied. He leaped forwards with the air of his bending, covering around three feet per step easily.

Aang entered the forest as he would any other place; almost reckless was his easygoing nature as he trotted through the woods. The young acolyte summoned his chi on his feet and spun; a whirling breeze carried him up to the tall thin pine tree. Aang caught the thick branch and was greeted by the merry chirping of three sparrowkeet hatchlings.

"Oh, hey", Aang beamed. "Your siblings have hatched", he said to the one in the middle. "Congrats, buddy!"

Laughing, dangling from the branch precariously, he reached into his tunic and emptied a pouch of bread crumb into the nest. "See you around!" he said before leaping down harmlessly.

The young Air Acolyte continued his trek through the forest; Momo jumped down from his shoulder and began scrounging around for wild berries and fruit while still keeping within distance.

Aang halted as his ear picked up the rustling from the bush nearby. He turned to it and a small pup peeked out of the foliage. It tentatively stepped out and sniffed the air; once it noticed Aang's boots, it showed more confidence as it raced towards the young airbender with wagging tongue and tail.

"Hey, buddy", Aang greeted as he crouched down and picked the pup up. A half-wolf.

"Here", he placed the pup on his arm like a baby; his free hand dug though his tunic. "I brought something for you."

The boy pulled out a small pie with bright yellow filling, pristinely kept in his chest pocket though only the spirits know how. "It's egg custard", he said, holding it to the pup's nose. The creature sniffed it briefly before taking it into its mouth whole. "I knew you'd like it", Aang giggled, an innocent kind of sound. "It's my favorite too. Sorry I can't get you any meat. The monks are all vegetarians."

He picked up the crumbs on the pup's chest and fed it to the creature. "You know", Aang began again. "They said the wolves of the Water Tribe are evil, that they are Unnatural and they are the enemy of humankind", Aang lifted the pup up by the chest under its front legs; its adorable face looked back to him as it licked the aftertaste of custard in its mouth. "But, you're not evil, are you? You're not my enemy, right?"

The pup's answer was the way it licked the tip of Aang's nose, making him chuckle. "I knew you're not", he said.

His glee was interrupted by the pup suddenly squirming, asking to be let down. Aang lowered it down and it jumped to the ground and started running away.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Aang asked as he hurried after the pup; Momo's ears twitched up and he abandoned his berries as he leaped and flew after Aang.

The half-wolf pup led the airbender and the winged lemur though tight woods to a low ledge that it leaped over in ease; Aang leaped down after it and found a fallen and rotted tree trunk that had been hollowed out in the middle by a large mountain wolf that was now dead and surrounded by five of its pups, including the one that Aang had befriended.

"Oh", the airbender said, face turning sad; even Momo lowered his ears and crouched low, as if showing condolence. "I'm sorry, buddy", Aang said quietly as he stepped closer, bowing in reference with a hand gesture of knuckles pressing against each other; the most formal form of Air Nomad bow.

The pups howled.

The large black wolf opened its eyes; icy blue, alert and sharp. Its large ear twitched at the sound of the distance howling. It grunted; vapor escaped it's large snout. Dark was the ice cave he was holing up in. Only the numerous pairs of icy blue eyes like his were visible from the outside. It raced out first, patting away on the icy tundra, leading a herd of misshapen gigantic wolves like itself.

Their heads were almost too big, their shoulders were almost too broad, and their front legs were almost too thick for their slim waist and they were disproportionate to their supple rear legs. And the way they raced through the tundra, the movement of their bodies, the way the weight shifted and limbs moved; it was more simian than canine.

They covered great distance in a short moment of time for their speed was legendary. The pack raced through the ice plain and down the hill, down to the settlement of igloos; round ice buildings flocking around a square where numerous women and children were living out their daily lives.

The alpha wolf roared terribly; rough guttural sound that chilled blood and froze the soul. The women and children froze instantly as the flock of giant wolves twice the size of an adult man flooded in the settlement. All fifty of them.

The wolves skidded to stop at the two females in the square; an old wrinkled woman carrying a basket of dried fish and a young teenager of thirteen, turning fourteen, carrying similar basket. Both were tan-skinned and blue-eyed and were wearing their hair in the Water Tribe hair-loopies. They both looked surprised.

They should be. Even more so when the wolves, starting from the leader of the pack, stood. Yes, stood.

The front legs were lifted up; they were not legs. They were arms, with hands that looked primate with four bulky fingers and an opposable thumb and arms that were muscular with biceps and triceps that resembled human arms. Chests and guts covered with finer fur than the rest of their bodies showed off well-toned muscles that were also more human than beast. The feet of their legs were long and clawed with talons of wickedly sharp and dark like the ones crowning each of their fingers.

The werewolves howled long and solemn, showing reverence to the twilight sky above.

They settled. The leader stared down the two smaller human females in front of him. He twitched, muscle flexing hard, tremors setting in his system. The rest of his pack followed suit.

They shrank gradually. Fingers, arms, and legs shrinking; fur disappearing into their tan skin; snouts being sucked in, shrinking and reshaping into human face.

Hakoda grunted as the transformation was completed. He stood straighter and cracked his neck. The werewolf transformation was a pure physical exercise. Bare-chested, he grinned widely at his mother and daughter in front of him. He let out a low chuckle, mimicked by the group of bare-chested and bare-footed men behind him; all were naked safe for their baggy shorts.

"Eww, Sokka!" the teenaged girl screamed, averting her no-longer-virgin eyes away quickly and shielding them with her hand. "Put on some pants!"

"Sorry!" a red-faced skinny boy shouted back, racing quickly into a nearby igloo butt-naked, accompanied by the laughter of the whole village.

The young teenaged earthbender heard the footsteps tapping away at the rooftop tiles. They were too closely sequenced to be caused by any bipedal creature. Quadrupedal, obviously. It was night and dark in Tianshui. The alleyway on the dwelling area was especially dark despite the full moon shining over his head. The wind blew mightily strong that night; the city guards had undergone the safety protocol where they doused off street torches and lanterns to minimize fire accident.

It was most disadvantageous for the boy.

Long brown hair fluttered to the front as a strong wind blew on his back. He pushed his long hair back, two long bangs on the side of his face, spilling from his headband and hair bun fluttered wildly in front of him. Shiver ran down his slightly tan skin, his fists curling and uncurling slightly, loosening the muscle of his arms beneath the sleeves of his yellowish-brown shirt and beige outer vest. The toes of his bare feet gripped hard on the earth, feeling the security in his Element's presence.

The thin, mangy, but agile werewolf jumped down from the roof and would have pounced at him from the side had a large boulder not came flying and hit the beast in time. The boy was taken aback.

"Look alive, Haru!" an elderly but sturdy, tall, and strong-looking man arrived. The man was tall and his shoulder was broad. He wore similar outfit as the boy, Haru. The top of his head was bald, though his hair that clung to the back of his head was long and bushy; gray like his bushy beard that reached down to his collarbone. He was also barefooted and was in the middle of sending another chunk of rock at the werewolf.

The creature whined as it was knocked to the wall of the narrow alleyway and quickly scrambled to its feet and hands and began scurrying away like a wounded dog. The large man led the chase but the beast of such kind was known for its speed. They quickly lost track of it as they reached the vast and deserted market square.

The two males halted in the middle of the square, heaving a little to regulate their breaths.

"Do you see it, Dad?" Haru whispered, eyes scanning their surrounding of many vendor carts and stands.

"No", the old earthbender replied, looking down for some print on the muddy ground.

"Where did it go?" Haru hissed gravely; his nerves tingled with anticipation as if the beast would jump at him at anytime, which it would.

"Tyro!" a booming voice drew their attention to their left. A group of six men emerged. Most of them were armed with weapons, mostly from the pole-arm category.

Before they joined Tyro and Haru though, a shadow lunged at them, dispersing them and pinning one below its massive figure. Roaring, the beast's claws mangled the unfortunate man, leaving him writhing and bleeding on the ground. Dodging the sudden attack from the remaining men, who regained their composure and tried to impale the creature with their spears and halberd, the werewolf lashed out at them. The werewolf swung its emaciated looking but swift and strong arms, deflecting the blows but suffered one spear thrust to its side.

Whining like a wounded dog it was, the werewolf snapped the shaft of the spear with one swing of its arm and, with another backhand swing, sent the spearmen flying and crashing at an empty vendor stand five meters away. One more backhand swing deflected a series of spears and halberd thrust, so strong half of the men toppled. Another swing sent the rest but one flying.

The last standing man dropped his cumbersome halberd; long weapons are great for keeping werewolves at bay but when one was standing a breath away you can smell its stink of wet dog hair and unwashed body, it would be wiser to opt for a shorter and bladed weapon. The man drew his dagger but before he could plunge it at the werewolf's heart, the beast seized his arm. Grunting, the man endured a breathy snort the beast's snout blew to his face; foul viscous saliva dripped down its snarling fangs. The beast's long-fingered and sharp-taloned claw twisted slowly and the man screamed as his arm was crushed. His dagger dropped in a wet thump on the mushy ground below.

A particularly hard round boulder came flying to the beast; the werewolf was ready this time. Its free thin hand caught the condensed rock before the mass of earth hit its head; he turned its ugly beastly snarl at Tyro and Haru who was stunned in their identical stances. The werewolf grunted roughly as it crushed the man's arm and the rock at the same time. It turned completely at the duo father-and-son and, with a sharp swing, threw the captured man by his limp arm to the side like he was a ragdoll.

Tyro and Haru stomped the earth below them and a pile of moist earth erupted between them; the father and son compressed the moist and soft earth into a smaller but denser earth ball but had to abandon the compressed earth ball as the werewolf jumped on it, forcing the two unarmed benders to leap away to a safe distance.

The werewolf turned and growled at Haru; the boy could feel his heart thumping hard against his ribs it hurt him as he willed his body to move. Tyro stomped the ground and the very earth sank beneath the werewolf's very feet, trapping him knee deep under the earth. Tyro screamed as he pounced at the beast's back and stabbed a dagger at its back. The werewolf let out a roar of pain and reached up for Tyro; it gripped the man's back and threw him towards Haru.

They crashed into a pile of bodies at the foot of a wooden vendor stand that shook mightily at the collision. Pushing itself up, the werewolf freed itself but the ground broke into an earthen shockwave that swoop it off its feet. The grunt it made as it slammed its back hard on the ground was almost human.

The werewolf leaped up quickly and dashed towards the sneak attacker; a small short girl with dark hair tied into a large bun, with fringe of her dark hair barring her forehead and eyes, her blind eyes that was the color of green porcelain. She was clad in some sort of black metal armor and dragged one of her bare feet forward, channeling her unique bending skill to sense the vibration the stampeding werewolf made.

The girl stomped forward and brought her arms together like a pair of shutting doors in front of her; the two emerging slabs of earth that was supposed to clamp the werewolf at its right and left broke into rubble as the beast lashed out at them with its powerful arms without slowing down.

The girl barely had time to move a muscle when the beast lunged at her, pinning her by the forearm; it had scratched its razor sharp talons at her chest, leaving dent and scratch lines on the black metal armor. The armor stood but the force made her chest sore and she was sure it would leave a bruise at least.

Next, the girl had the unfortunate experience of having a giant beastly canine mouth breathing inches away from her face. The stench of the werewolf breath was unbearable, the moist of its hot breath was simply disgusting as it hit the whole of her face.

Suddenly, the beast whined and was thrown to the side as a pair of men speared the side of its gut and pushed it away from the girl.

"Toph, are you okay?!" Haru arrived by the girl's side, clutching his side. He offered a hand but Toph, the blind girl, simply rammed her fists down; the earth vibrated and propelled herself up.

"Yech!" the girl spat a mouthful to the ground, wiping her tongue with her hand roughly. "I swallowed some wolf's breath!"

Haru grinned at her despite the flaring pain at his ribs.

"It's almost dawn", Haru said, looking up to the golden streak of on the sky above. "The sun's coming up."

"Oh, yeah", Toph said with a sarcastic tone. "What a beautiful view."

Haru grinned again but in pain. Toph stomped away to the trapped werewolf. Tyro and the survivor pinned the whining and growling beast down on the ground with the two spears that pierced its side, twisting and pushing harder whenever the beast made any movement other than the heavy rising up and down of its bony heaving chest.

The beast glared at them.

It was a pitiful sight.

More and more men from their hunting party came to the market square as they located the source of the commotion. Tyro slumped down on a nearby cart as ten more spearmen and benders joined them. He was wounded too and with this many men, he felt more secure.

"Tyro, do we kill it now?" one of the newcomers from the party asked the elderly bender.

"It's helpless now", Tyro sighed, wincing in pain from his cracked ribs and the stinging on his clawed back. "Tend to the wounded first. We can finish this one off later", the man stood up and glared back at the beast's icy blue eyes. "The sun is rising. When the full moon passes, it will be nothing but a man. We can kill it more easily then."

The man nodded and nodded at the group; three of them dashed along with him to the wounded while the rest readied their weapons and pointed it at the werewolf.

The beast glared at them still, heaving from pain and exhaustion. But, the first ray of sunshine emerged and shed a soft and gentle golden light on the square. The werewolf's eyes grew wide and it froze. It scrambled up to its feet quickly, almost like it was caused by an electric shock; the two spears tore its flesh and were dislodged by the sudden movement.

The men screamed and shouted, stepping back with their pole-arms ready but the beast made no move to attack. It growled and snarled, snapping its fanged jaws at them but it did not bite. The whole action was painfully defensive. The werewolf gripped its chest, staggering and roaring; the similarities of its mannerism were growing more and more towards the human side.

The beast let out a long high howl as its limbs, ears, and snout contorted and shrunk, its dark mangy fur shrunk back to its skin, and its skin lost its ghostly and sickly bluish-pale tone and it was replaced by the color of Earth Kingdom light tan. Its icy blue irises dissolved like a layer of frost and revealed a hue of dark brown.

The crescendo of its canine howl was smoothly overtaken by the screaming of a sixteen year old boy.

It surprised everyone when the naked male fell to a curling and bloody heap on the ground, writhing and grunting in pain from his numerous bloody wounds.

"What…?" Tyro breathed at the sight of the teenager not much older than his own son, Haru. "You're just a kid…"

"NOOO! JEEEETT!" a husky faraway scream of a female reached their ears.

Three arrows flew towards the hunters.

The woman gasped as her full lips parted.

A nightmare…

She had fallen asleep in the lounge chair in her porch; the gentle early phase of sunrise fell upon her. Her thick green cotton garb shielded her from the autumn and the cold wet morning air it carried but she shivered. The chill was too much for her.

The sense of foreboding was strong and sickening; she felt her organs growing cold, chilling her uncomfortably from inside out.

Fear…

It had become foreign to her.

The woman stood and she was huge. Tall and broadly muscular, the woman stood two or three heads taller than a regular man. Her countenance was stern and solid, rigid, as she stared deeply at the streaks of sunlight at the horizon above the ocean her moss-colored eyes gazed into from the humble hut she lived in with her young daughter on top of the hill.

The woman sighed deeply but subtly for she was the Earth itself before she turned around and walked into her house. It was a humble hut, really; a traditional one room hut. The wooden floor had a square hole in the middle where it left an impression of smoothen earth. The earthen part had a pile of waning fire pit below a cooking pot suspended above the fire pit by wooden cooking rig.

A simple futon was set on each side of the small hut; one of them was occupied by a young girl of eight-year-old. Well, seven and three quarter, the woman reminded herself with a smile. A small rigid smile that was nonetheless sincere and true. She stepped carefully towards her daughter, trying not to cause too much noise on the creaking floorboards. She knelt down and tugged the girl in her thrown blanket and, in a show of motherly affection she rarely showed in front of people, she leaned down and kissed the small girl on the forehead.

Her gaze lasted long on the little girl's round face; the girl was her daughter, after all.

When she finally got up, her legs were almost numb from kneeling too long. The woman walked toward the bathroom and washed her face. She prepared herself for the early morning as quietly as possible, not wanting to disturb her daughter's restful sleep; children need to sleep a lot, she often said.

When she was dressed fifteen minutes later in heavy grass-green silk kimono and light armor, with a line running on the length of her sleeves and a golden circle pattern on each of the gloved armguard and the upper arm of the sleeves, she sat down on a chair in front of a small vanity mirror and applied a white base of her makeup on the entirety of her face. She wiped a deep-red lipstick on her full lips and red powder of the same hue above her eyes, making the shade fanned out below her thick brows and up to her temples.

She tied her thick voluminous brown hair next with a simple headband and put on her golden headdress last; the shape of twin golden fans fixed on her forehead looked like a half circle.

She reached for her weapons, her twin and tasseled golden war-fans, and tugged them on her sash behind her back. She stood up and was ready for another day in her life.

The woman allow herself one last long and longing gaze on her sleeping daughter before she exited the hut, closing the door as silently as she could.

Her heavy boots left a deep impression on the moist ground below, she noticed. The constant rain in the autumn might have escalated the risk of avalanche and she made a mental note to check this out. She took long heavy stride down the earthen steps down the hill that led to the clearing where a group of young female had congregated and was in the middle of their early morning meditation.

The large woman arrived and made no effort to mask her heavy footsteps. The group of young females opened their eyes and concluded their meditation. They bowed and greeted, each was clad in outfit similar to the large woman's and wore makeup like hers; the only difference was that the younger females wore less ornate headdress.

"Suki", the large woman nodded her greeting at the oldest of the group; a sixteen-year-old girl with shoulder-length auburn hair and big violet eyes. "Begin the training."

The violet-eyed youth bowed once more. "Right away, Master Kyoshi."

The Four Nations: the Great Earth Kingdom, the ever-evolving Fire Nation, the close-knitted Water Tribe, and the Monastic Order of the Air Nomads.

Peace is an illusion.

The sporadic warring periods between the neighboring Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom had left many scars in the land and in the people. The Fire Nation was smaller but its military was mighty.

Thousands of years ago, Fire Lord Sozin started yet another campaign against the Earth Kingdom. The surprise attack of numerous wave of the Fire Nation's mighty navy had conquered a large part of the Earth Kingdom western territories almost in a single night, froming what now was known as the Colonies.

Battles and skirmishes were fought for years to come, truces and treaties were agreed upon and broken on spirits-know-how-many-occasions.

They said the millennia of war, suffering, intrigue, and betrayal had angered the spirits and thrown the world off balance. The once peaceful world was now crawling with creatures and beasts from the dark corner of human nightmare.

The worst of which was those born into, or from, human hosts: vampires and were-beasts.

The most prominent were the Fire Nation Royal Vampires, blood-suckers that had taken control of Sozin's line completely and been reigning the great Nation since as long as any Fire National could remember; and the Water Tribe lycans, male hunter-warrior werewolves who, according to legend, were descended from an unholy union between a woman and a wolf spirit.

The Monastic Order of the Air Nomad had taken a neutral stance in the war but had made it their sacred duty to protect the good people of the Four Nations from the Unnatural, a blanket term that covered from the most human vampires and were-beasts to the lowest kind of flesh-eating imps and blood-sucking hellfire spider-flies; any creatures or human-hybrid that harm the helpless on purpose.

The Earth Kingdom had been plagued by its own problem for the Kingdom's lust forest and mountains hosts the most terrifying menagerie of Unnatural beasts and the curse of vampirism and lycanthropy had long since caught her people and spread among the populace due to the war and the intermingling of the people it caused.

It was a chaotic time to live in, indeed.

Death was common and the regular folks lived in fear of the war and the Unnatural.

It was the era of chaos.

The era of legends…