Chapter One

The firebender stood in front of the leader of the band of rebels.

The leader leaned forward and stared hard at the firebender.

"The charges against you are not as severe as some. You have showed good fight in the battle, without cruelty. The only charge that we need to bring now is that of consorting with our enemy. What do you plead?"

"I am, was, a member of the army fighting against you, but I didn't want to be."

"Then you would like to be tried by a civilians judge and not in a court of war?"

"Yes."

"Very well then."

The leader motioned to one of the warriors along the wall. He came and took the firebender away.

"Who's next?" The leader asked.

The boy at the door glanced through it. When he looked back he looked shaken.

"I-it's the General of the army that attacked our town."

The leader took in a deep breath.

"Send him in."

The general was laden with chains, and there were several guards escorting him in. The guards looked scared.

"The main charge against you is intentionally killing both men and women after the battle was over and you had possession of their city. The count now is 537. What do you plead?"

"Yes. I killed them. And if I could I would kill each of you in this room."

"Then you are sentenced to death."

Several men from along the walls came forward to help the guards take him away.

The next to be brought in was younger than most of the others. He was an officer of low rank, and carried himself with an air of dignity.

"You fought hard against us, and killed many of our men, but such is war. We have no reports of you abusing your bending outside of the battlefield. I would like to let you go, but I cannot have you use your abilities against us any longer. Will you join us?"

"No."

"Then will you swear that you will never again use your bending against anyone except in true self-defense, and that you will not rejoin the fire nation army?"

"Those are fair terms, but if my nation has need of me I will rejoin the army."

"What shall I do with you then? My only other course is to keep you in prison."

"If that is your only course then you must take it."

The leader nodded, and guards came to take the young man away.

Next was brought in a boy. He couldn't have even been sixteen. For the first time the leader looked confused.

"Who is he?"

"As best as we can tell, he stowed away with the army." One of the men answered.

"What's your name, boy?"

"Marin."

"And what is your ranking?"

Marin tried to look confused.

"Don't try to play stupid. I know that everyone in your nation is tested at age twelve for firebending. What was your ranking?"

"7E."

The leader sat silently and thoughtfully for a few minutes.

"I will need more time to decide your case. Your age and ability make it a difficult one. Bring the next one in, and put Marin at the end of the line."

The day passed slowly for Marin, but finally his turn came again. He had heard that the leader of the rebels was as just and honorable off of the battlefield as he was fierce and strong on it. He hoped that those rumors were true, because otherwise he was as good as dead.

He was led in. The rebel leader looked tired.

"Oh yes, Marin. I've found someone who will take in. You won't be allowed to leave them until after the war is over, but they will ensure that no angry people try to get revenge on you for being fire nation."

Marin thought that it was fair enough. They had captured him fairly, and he could always escape whenever he liked.

"I'll warn you though, this person is instructed to take away your ability to firebend if you cause her any trouble."

"That's impossible."

"Not for her."

The leader nodded to the man behind Marin, and he led him out. The same man took Marin along the road to the house. They walked the entire journey that night, starting an hour before dusk, and stopping just as the sun was rising.

The house wasn't very large, and it was situated in a clearing a few miles from the last city they had passed through, but the path leading to the city was very well packed down, as if there were many people who used it. The front looked fancy, and there were flowers all over the place. There was an ornate front door, but the man leading Marin did not use it. He walked to the low side of the clearing, waved his hand, and opened a small hole. He dropped Marin into it before jumping in himself. Then he closed off the top of the hole again.

Marin was pushed forward, and he found that there was a small tunnel leading from the hole toward where he assumed the house must be. But the tunnel went way too far. Finally they reached some steps. The man had to open the top of the tunnel, and they came up inside a house. It was a bit larger than the other, but the inside was very sparse. There were a few stools, and a messy pile of blankets in the corner, but nothing else.

The man knocked on the wall. A tousled head raised itself from the pile of blankets. A girl rubbed her eyes and stood up.

"Morning," she yawned. "Are you Marin?"

Marin nodded, confused. The girl didn't even look to be as old as he was. Why had he been sent here?

The man who had brought Marin looked at the girl curiously, as if he was just as confused as Marin was.

"Do you want me to stay and help you out for a while?"

"No. I'm good. Go on back to Linar, he needs every man he get."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. Go."

The man walked back down into the tunnel and closed off the top again.

The girl sat down on one of the little stools, stretched, and looked up at Marin.

"My name's Asha. Do you want to... do anything?"

Marin shook his head. He didn't move from where he had been put, and just stared at her, trying to figure out what she would do if he tried to escape. She got up, as if she had forgotten that he was even there, and walked over to a bare wall. She slid open part of the wall and pulled out some food.

Marin was confused. If she was an earthbender, then how could she take away bending? It might have just been a bluff. He kindled a small flame in his hand.

Asha's head swung around to watch him.

"Doesn't it hurt your hand?"

"No. Not if I don't let it."

"Could you make it look like something was on fire, but really you weren't letting it get burnt?"

"Like what?"

She handed him a piece of bread. Marin didn't know if he could; he had never tried before. He tried, but burnt the bread.

"Oh well." Asha said, genuinely disappointed.

Then she tossed him another piece of bread and began to eat hers while earthbending another wall pocket open. Marin looked over her shoulder, inside the pocket was a small well. Asha pulled up a bucket of water, and set it on the floor. Then she closed the pocket and opened another. This one had a variety of jugs and cups. She pulled out a jug and two cups, set them by the bucket, closed the pocket, and filled the jug. Then she opened yet another pocket, and struggled to drag out a sled-like thing with a giant mound of clay on it.

Ashe pulled a hunk off the top of the pile, wet her hands, and began kneading it. After a few minutes she looked up at Marin. He was still standing in the exact place.

"Do you need something to do?"

"No."

"Then, go... sit in the blanket nest or something. You just standing there is distracting."

Marin did, and he was soon asleep.

When he woke, he saw that Asha hadn't moved much since he fell asleep, and that the clay that she had been working on was now shaped into a jar. She was carving designs into the side of it with her fingernails, and likely using earthbending in some fashion as well. She had a vine, curling around the edge of the jar, and coming towards the middle. When she had gotten it to the middle, she took a lump of clay the size of a pea, and spread it with her thumb to make an oblong petal. Then she stuck it to the jar. She put on several more, and Marin realized that she was making a rose. She built half of it onto the jar, and carved the other half into it. It really did look good.

Marin watched her and plotted his escape. He didn't particularly hate this place, but he wanted to get back to the army. Then he realized something; there was no door. There weren't even any windows. There were small holes in the walls and ceiling for ventilation and light, but none of them were big enough to fit his hand through, much less his whole body. He would have to get Asha to let him out.

Marin kindled another flame in his hand. Asha didn't turn her head, but he could see that her attention had shifted from the pot to him.

"I'd like to leave now." Marin said, keeping his voice low.

"So long as I go with you, you can. But I wouldn't advise it."

Asha stood up, rinsed her hands in the bucket of water, and wiped them on her shirt. Marin was surprised by her answer and he let his fire go out.

"So I can just go back to the fire nation army? As long as you come with me?"

"No, that's the one place you can't go. I'll go with you pretty much anywhere else, but Linar told me to keep you out of battles and armies."

"What about meeting with someone from the army?"

"I-I don't know. I would have to ask Linar."

"But you could open a door and let me out of the house now?"

"Sure. Do you want me to?"

"Yes."

Asha slid up a panel of rock, revealing a short tunnel, the opening of which could clearly be seen. Marin ran out into the open air. Asha followed him, more slowly, and shut the door to her house behind her. Marin began letting off jets of fire, and Asha became worried. She opened the door again and ran in to get the bucket of muddy water that she had been using. She bent the earth in the bucket, letting it take some of the water with it, and tried to put the fires.

"Stop it!" she shouted at Marin.

He let off another spout of fire. She bent the earth at his feet and he sank up to his chin. She left him there while she put out the fires, and still a bit longer while she took a break and ate lunch.

Lunch was bread, again. There had been little else in her area of the country. There was rice, but that wasn't much better.

When she was done she stood over Marin and asked, "Can you control yourself now?"

"Mmhm."

Asha loosened the dirt around him enough that he could get his arm out, then she took his hand and pulled. Getting him out was much more difficult than getting him in had been. When he was out, and had shaken off most of the dirt covering him, he looked at her curiously.

"Did you just waterbend?"

"No. I bent wet earth."

"But that looked like no earthbending I've ever seen."

"My father had a friend that was a waterbender. He taught my father how to earthbend in such a way that the most water stayed in with the earth. My father taught me before he left to fight in the war."

"Cool. Can we go now?"

"You want to leave without supplies?"

"No. What have you got?"

"I've got plenty. What are you going to bring to eat?"

"I'm your prisoner, you're obliged to feed me."

Asha was irritated. "Only if you are my prisoner. Meaning I get to choose where you go and when."

Marin thought about this for a few minutes, but conceded the point.

"True. But if I'm a prisoner... then I get to try to escape."

The last phrase was spoken very quickly, and he fired a blast of fire straight at Asha.

Asha ducked, but the fire badly burned her shoulder. She fell to the ground, clutching her shoulder and shouting with pain. Through her blurred vision she could see Marin running away. She screamed at him, a wordless cry, and a wave of earth rushed from her to him. It was soft, but heavy. It knocked him to his knees, and hardened around him, holding him immobile, with only his head showing. It was a greater feat of earthbending than any she had done before. Asha couldn't remember consciously making the wave, but she wasn't about to unmake it.

She tried to get up, and found out that she could hardly move her right arm. She made it to her knees, but the movement jostled her arm, and she passed out from the pain.

She woke up half an hour later. One of the neighbor's little boys was standing over her and nearly hyperventilating.

When he saw her eyes open he began shouting. "You're alive! I thought you were dead. I'm going to tell Linar." Then he ran away.

Asha slowly dragged herself to the house, and bathed her shoulder with what little was left of the bucket of water. The water had been a bit cold, and gave great relief to the pain, but it was gone much too soon. She tried to open the door to her house with her left hand, but all she did was knock it crooked. Her arm started throbbing horribly, pain coursing down it with each heartbeat. She wished that she could pass out again, but she didn't.

She lay there for a quite a while, and eventually fell into a fitful sleep. She remembered flashes of seeing her neighbor, and Linar, and a few other people, but she didn't comprehend much of anything other than pain.

So I found this, that I had made a long, long time ago, and I figured that I would upload it. If I get some good reviews, or if I have any more inspiration, I may write more, but that may or may not happen.