Chapter One

I do not own Avatar the Last air bender; I did not make the characters, settings, or any other thing that pisses people off.

These are my own ideas and I would respect it if no one flames it too harshly, though I will NOT attack you for not liking it. But if you don't like it, please tell me why, so I can improve, or point me in the direction of someone who can help me with this… Please and thank you.

Thanks to anyone willing to read this, on a side note, I took a litmus test for this and she didn't come out sue-ish, but if she did, SORRY.

Mei looked into the sunrise already beads of sweat were working their way down her forehead. Her hazel colored eyes glittered as a tear went down her cheek, the unusual melancholy of the day startled her but she refused to show it to the awakening soil. The gritty earth around her stuck to the soles of her feet as she moved amongst the vegetables pulling weeds from taking the sunlight from her crop. Her thin, cracked lips hid the yellow teeth, which she was gritting with the effort.

Blood trickled down his pale, scarred skin falling in puddles on the sand. His legs were weary and he could barely breathe, more scars had appeared on him, caused by fire. His breath was becoming more labored by the second and his sight was leaving him. He was drifting in and out of passing out and staying awake; trying to flee from his sister.

Zuko's chest throbbed uncomfortably, while his arms ached fiercely. Was he going to die? He thought to himself. "No… not… this way…" he managed to utter as he fell to the ground with a loud thud.

Mei searched into the setting sun; her skin was red from the long hours of work and toil. Her arms ached something fierce and her chest hurt for some unknown reason. She hurriedly grabbed the bucket from behind a large tree and made her way to the well where she got her water from. As she approached through the grassy clearing and unto the rocky soil of a path her eyes seemed to follow a trail of blood along the path.

It was unknown why she walked on instead of running to her house or stop to think about what she was getting herself into, maybe it was the heat of the sun, maybe because she was tired. But regardless of the reason, and the strong feeling in her gut she continued on towards the well.

A corpse of a young man was on the ground. His black hair was shaved off and scars were all over the visible parts of his body. His skin was pale and he looked nothing like the people she had seen before. Is he… Is he dead? Mei thought, her mind racing…

She pushed a rough hand through her hair and blushed, what am I doing just standing here, this man needs help… she thought, now noticing the puddle of blood growing around him. She reached for him and knelt down; her hand touched his neck looking for some sign of life at all. "You're… alive… What the hell kind of person are you, to survive a beating like?" Mei said to herself aloud, for she had grown accustomed to talking to herself over the years.

After a grueling time of dragging him to the small shack on the far outskirts of her village she managed to get him onto the straw mattress she had used as a bed for all the years she had lived there. What was she to do now?