Author's Note!
Hey people! This is my first fic in this fandom so I'm gonna try my best at this so yeah :P BTW I use a lot of OC's so if you despise that on any or all levels, LEAVE NOW :P just sayin'. pairings undecided, I'll figure that out as we get farther into the story, k? I do not own Avatar; The last Airbender, but i do own Mira :P On with the story!
I inhale and then exhale slowly. Once more. With my eyes still close I stand up and roll my shoulders, trying to relax. I hear a few screams, more like squeaks actually and then a bellow from some sort of creature. My feet take off as though they have their own mind. I know this abandoned air temple better than I know my own home-village. I don't need my eyes open to navigate this old place. My bare feet fly over the rough stone, weathered by years of abandonment. I open my eyes when I get close enough to the noises where I need to assess the new comers; friend or foe? My eyes flit over the makeshift camp in the clearing below my perch. There's a bald headed boy that looks like he jumped out of one of the murals on the walls, two tan teens in blue, and a small, irritable looking little girl in green. An enormous, real-life sky-bison bumbles over from around the corner. That must be who made the bellowing. I smile at the big, furry beast. He looks kindhearted.
The kids seem to be used to traveling on their own and waste no time in setting up their camp. By mid-afternoon the blue girl is making a sort of stew.
I get up and stretch my legs and arms just as a pale teenager walks around the corner, he's got a huge, angry scar covering half of his face and his gold eyes betray that he's a fire bender. He's actually rather handsome, scar or not.
He awkwardly approaches the oblivious group, until the green girl shouts out a warning without turning her back. The entire group bristles and is suddenly on guard. The fire bender puts his hands up and starts a ridiculous and poorly articulated speech. The girl in blue, who reveals her water bending, immediately kicks him out of camp without a second thought. Most likely old enemies. The boy in blue calls the fire bender a "jerk bender" What the crap does THAT mean?
Suddenly, the fire bender looks up, his eye focus in on me, and I tense. He shakes his head as though to clear something out of his mind before looking up again. I'm gone by the second glance. Just a trick of the light. He leaves and I drop down from my perch and turn around heading back to my home.
A shrill voice calls out, "There's someone else here!"
I break into a run; the kids follow as fast as they can. The temple begins to shift under my feet. Of course! The little girl in green is an earth bender! I think to myself.
I skid around a tight corner. And run right into the fire bender. Why's he even over here? I scrambleoff my butt and keep running, pushing past the fire bender. Suddenly, stonewalls surround me. Dang it! And then it goes to my hands and feet in a sort of binding, the little team walks up to me, angry. I don't resist, I'd rather not fight them until I know if they're a threat or not.
"Who are you!" the blue boy says, more of a statement then a question, "A fire nation spy?" he pokes me in the head with a boomerang. The green girl smirks. I keep my eyes down so they can't see them.
The monk-boy looks at me and asks who I am. I shrug. The blue girl is less patient, and begins to rant about me trying to destroy the world's last hope for peace. Do they really think I'm fire nation? I'm not THAT pale. Speaking of fire nation, where's that fire bender go? They interrogate me more, but they unwittingly give me information themselves. Their names, for one and that the monk-boy is the Avatar.
My wrists are starting to hurt, so I finally look up. "My name is Mira, I am a fire bender, but not fire nation. Why are you here?"
They're in shock. Well, most of them were, the one called Toph just sits back and laughs.
She stops when the others don't, "What's wrong?" She asks.
Katara glances at me warily, "Toph, She has one blue eye and one gold."
"So?"
"So?! That means she has fire nation and water tribe ancestors!"
"So?"
"UGH!"
Toph releases my hands from their rock prison, "So are you any good at firebending? Maybe you could teach twinkletoes!"
"Twinkletoes?" I ask, amused.
"Aang." She explains, I notice her pale eyes, she's blind, I realize in amazement.
I think this over for a second; teach the Avatar fire bending? Psh! Ridiculous. I'd lose my temper within ten minutes! That and I don't even know if I'm good compared to the average fire bender.
I shake my head, "I'm not a good teacher, and it wouldn't help."
"Why are you even here?" Katara asks.
" I've lived in the temple since my parents died," I shrug, "Five years maybe? I've been keeping my distance from the war, Too close to the enemy to get away, too far from the people who actually pose a threat to the power hungry fire nation to be of use."
"How do you survive?" Sokka asks suspiciously as he poked my head with a boomerang again.
I point towards the lush expanse of green that lines the temple sides, and the woods nearby. "The canyon goes down some way, but if you climb down far enough the river at the bottom is more fish than water."
The group starts to walk back to their camp and I walk in the direction of mine. The Toph turns and calls out, "Hey Mira? Where ya goin'?" I turn and can't react other than blink. The entire team has turned around and is looking at me expectantly. Wait, they want me to come with them? Why? I jog back to them, signaling that I'll stay for the time being and we begin walking back to the camp.
When we return a few boys are at the camp looking worried. They immediately relax when they see the group returning but freak out when they see me.
The one with the mustache seems angry, and starts waving his hands all around but can't actually get words to come out of his mouth and I have to stifle a laugh.
Sokka rolls his eyes and says annoyed, "Relax Haru, Mira's not a bad guy."
The one in the wheelchair looks at me, confused and gawks when he sees my different colored eyes but doesn't bother me.
Teo (wheelchair) asks questions a lot and like a smart kid, "So how good are you at firebending?" He asks eventually.
I shrug, "I'm not sure, I don't know how I stack up against regular fire benders."
But I've trained with the sun warriors so I can't be too far behind, though I doubt I'm especially good.
"We've met too many fire benders." Aang says absentmindedly.
I raise an eyebrow, though I don't retort, considering that I doubt he meant to offend me.
Toph disappears at one point, though I'm sure she can take care of herself, if she's not back by midnight I'll go find her. I stay up until midnight, fully alert. Katara's awake too.
I stand up, "I'm going to go find Toph" She scrambles to stand up and I say, "relax, just keep guard okay? If I'm not back in an hour come looking ok?" she glares at me suspiciously but sits back down. I race off into the temple following the trail of small, shallow footprints in the dust.
I notice that larger footprints are also on this trail, though they were made much earlier, Toph must have been following someone. I continue to tread noiselessly. I see a fire through the trees, and notice Toph's footprints veer from the larger ones.
I follow the larger ones, and peer through the branches to see the fire bender talking to himself and pretending to be "Uncle" (?) I see Toph hiding behind a rock. She steps on a twig and it breaks, alerting the boy. He jumps up into a bending form. Toph stumbles out and he shoots flames from his hands. Toph brings up a rock barrier but my brain doesn't really register this. Without thinking I jump out in front of the blast and cross my arms, when I feel the heat I spread them out again, effectively extinguishing the fire. I drop down into a defensive pose and wait for him to strike again. He doesn't. Just stands there, dumbfounded. Toph comes out from behind her shield.
She curls her hands into fists and says, "Hey Sparky, What's the flames buddy! I just came to talk!"
He looks at her and then at me, "Then what's with the fire-bending girl?" He asks suspiciously.
"I didn't ask her to come!" She turns to me, "Why are you here anyway?"
"You disappeared. I gave you until midnight until I would come and get you. It's past midnight."
"You did not!" She storms.
"Whoops. I came after you anyways and if we're not back within an hour Katara's coming searching."
She crosses her arms and rolls her eyes, "Katara's gonna follow dust footprints?"
I get her point; Katara wouldn't be able to track us, she wouldn't even know where to start.
The fire bender boy looks annoyed and says, "What did you want to talk about, anyways?"
"What'd you do to piss off Katara so bad?"
Blood drains from his face, if he gets much paler he'd be transparent.
"I-I, It…" he face palms. "I'm just sorry!"
Toph and me both blink. That's it? That's all he has to say? Sheesh.
I look at him, "What's your name, anyways?" I ask.
He blinks, surprised, "Uh, Zuko."
I stifle a giggle, "Well, nice to meet you "Uh-Zuko."
He reddens. "Just Zuko."
I grin, happy because I haven't laughed in a little too long and he's just hilarious to mess with.
"Well, nice to meet you, Just Zuko"
He colors and doesn't respond anymore.
Smart Zuko it is then
The three of us go back to camp, a good mile away. Zuko keeps trying to lead the way, but Toph just pushes in front of him. I stay in the back, tense, feeling as though we're being watched. Something's not right; I've never felt so out of place in the temple, Someone's here that doesn't belong. They just haven't come out of the shadows yet. When they do, I'll be ready though.
We trek the mile at a fast pace for walking, though Zuko looks antsy, like he's itching for a fight.
Zuko's leading again and Toph cuts in front of him really fast, and Zuko skids to a stop real fast, and he falls on his butt. He colors and gets up faster then he fell. I roll my eyes at them. Crazy.
By the time we reach camp, the sun is peeking over the horizon. I already feel more energized from the few, faint rays of sunlight; even Zuko's looking less cranky.
Katara's at the campfire, cooking. She's fidgety and she's probably worried sick about Toph. When she hears us approach she whirls around and looks like she's about to explode. I'm not sure if she's relieved or angry. I'm not sure if she knows whether she's angry or relived.
Toph grins and strides up to the cooking pot and smells it. Katara glares at me then finally notices Zuko and goes into a rage.
"What is he doing here?!" She yells, her voice cracking and furious, she points a finger at me, "Why did you bring him here? Traitor!"
I quickly explain as Toph, as usual, sits back and snickers. I glare at the blind girl; though she has no way of knowing I'm giving her a death-glare. Oh well.
Zuko waves his arms frantically trying to explain himself while talking over me, Toph covers his mouth with rock after a minute of our "explaining".
Everyone's awake within seconds the screaming started, so now we have to vote. Katara has decided I don't count. I cross my arms and sit down, extremely irritated.
Eventually, Zuko's allowed to help and he's going to be Aang's firebending teacher. This is quite a patchwork quilt of a group, to say the least. I look around the clearing, looking for a place to meditate.
Eventually, I find a ledge that's solid enough and I hold my breath for a moment, letting my thoughts drain to the back of my consciousness, exhales. Why does the group hate Zuko? Inhale. Katara especially distrusts him. Exhale. Toph must use some sort of method to "see" she's too observant to just be blind…Inhale. She never wears shoes… swirl around in my brain until eventually; I have presented and pondered all of my restless questions. Excellent.
I open my eyes, not remembering closing them, when I see Zuko and Aang meditating. Zuko is in an erect meditation pose, whereas Aang is struggling to keep his posture, and keeps going back to the more relaxed positions air benders are taught for meditation. Poor Aang probably doesn't even know what to meditate on, as air benders have specific ways to meditate different things. I doubt Zuko knows or understands that, though. I make my way back down to the clearing, ready for whatever today brings with my strange new friends.
By the way, for those of you who don't know "Mira" is a giant red star some 424 light years away. It doesn't have any connection to the story but I thought it was cool. :P REVIEW I'd love to know what you think of Mira's character, good, bad, terrible etc. thank's for reading (And hopefully reviewing) I'm not going to post another chapter until I have 5 reviews, AT LEAST! :)
Thankyouthankyouthankyou,
BeingWhoIWishIWas :)
