Hi all! I'm taking over knightwarrioroffire, she didn't want her profile anymore and e-mail, so I just said I'd have it. Anyways…

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Air Bender or any other characters in the series. I also do not own the series InuYasha, I use that as one of the dogs' names. I do own my character though, Hikaru Shidou. I did read that she was known as Japan's Fire Goddess and thought it would be a good match.

Chapter I

Beggars Can't Be Choosers

Walking along the path to my house, I noticed it was going to rain. Maybe that's why my nickname is kitten? Either that or my eyes…or my reflexes…or my fascination of tiny objects that scurry…OR my fascination for strings…I don't know. But that's what I'm most commonly called; even my family calls me that, "Kitten". My name doesn't even have anything that might lead to the name, "kitten".

My name is Hikaru Shidou. Yes, I am named after the famous Fire Goddess. Rei Shidou Coumas, my mother, is a famous painter. Once she went to a fire shrine and listened as someone described the fire goddess to her, and painted her. My mom showed me the photo; she's really good at painting! She said that I looked just like her, and so she named me after her.

If you think about it though, that is pretty call-being named after a Fire Goddess, I mean. Think about, some other people's name mean, "Fish of the Sea" or "Bunny of the Moon". Who gets to be named after a fire goddess?

Though, I learned recently that the Fire Goddess never married. Me? I don't have that much of good looks, so the Volley ball girls like to pick on me because if it. Especially Kauri Kinoshita, ugh! She gets on my last nerves, if she can't pick on my oddly colored hair, then it's my eyes! If she can't pick on my oddly colored eyes, it's my clothes! You know what; excuse me for not wanting to dress up like a slut to school like every other girl in school. Instead, I always wear something comfortable, jeans two tank tops and I always have my sweat shirt with me incase it rains.

Like I said, I'm not much to look at. Sure, I got B-sized boobs and nice curves because of how I eat and I love to run every morning with Ms. Nakamura's Shiba Inu, InuYasha (yes he's named after the manga, ha-ha! Read the Disclaimer!). Then I have very strong, toned, man-legs. I look at every other girl's with pure envy; their slim and smooth legs…mine, pointy like a man's no slim at all! HOW DID THIS WORK OUT?! Beggars can't be Choosers…Anyways, I have big dark-and I mean dark-crimson eyes that are almost black. Then I have blonde hair but with black streaks running through it, that are natural. Even my roots are black! I've asked my mom dozens of times if she bleached my hair when she was a child, but she says she hasn't.

Some people have it good and don't even know it.

Walking through the forest, I spotted a meadow. So I decided to stop and see what it looked like. The meadow was huge and big with rolling green hills, I loved it here! A smile crossed upon my lips as I looked around, then big fat rain drops started to come down. I groaned as I put on my sweatshirt and started to run to the forest when suddenly, I felt something in my chest. Clutching onto my chest, I fell to my knees. What was going on?' I thought in fear, I wasn't an asthmatic and I didn't have a fear for open spaces. The feeling became stronger to the point where I was dizzy and I heard a ringing in my ears. Please make it stop…just make it go away…I begged in my head and then, darkness.

--

Wind whistled past me, I didn't recognize where I was, until I saw a cloud. I looked around me and saw that I was falling from the sky! I was glowing too, my whole body was white. I turned and saw I was going to crash into the sea! I hated water! I can't even swim!! I didn't know what to do!

There was no stopping myself, I crashed into the deep blue darkness and tried to move around. Moving my arms around, trying to push me up, kicking and kicking, my result was me just moving forward not up! My lungs started to ache and scream for pain, my muscles started getting weaker with the more effort that I gave. Everyone said that the worst way to die would be to drown, that's when you have time to think. That's when you think about finally giving up, and there's no hope. I thought these things as I still struggled to be free.

Before I could let go of my breath, something grabbed me and started pulling me. I freaked out and hit the thing in the stomach and then punched them in the eye. There was a growl, a monster was attacking me! I squirmed more; I didn't want to get eaten! I still had to finish up my sophomore year in high school! I'm too young to-oh crap.

Yeah the "thing" that grabbed me, turned out to be a person. A PERSON! Not just any person either, a guy that looked really pissed! I would be too if I was just trying to save someone and that someone started attacking you. But you know he kind of brought it upon himself, why would he come from behind, huh? Answer me that! Why didn't he come from the front, I would've gladly held on to him for dear life as he swam.

As I was thinking all of this, I was coughing and sputtering up salt water, which is never fun. Then he grabbed a rope and we were pulled up to the boat where he set me down.

"Who are you," he asked, "Are you an Air Bender?"

"I'm Hikaru Shidou," I said, and bowed to him, "Thank you very much for saving me…and I'm sad to say I'm not quite sure what an 'Air Bender' is."

He gave me a weird look, "How can you not know what an Air Bender is?"

"Well…um…" I am really smart so I decided to try and break up the word, "I know that air is something that we breath and is what's usually in the wind and is on the Earth…and…umm…a bender, if I remember correctly, is someone who bends something to their will, or take control. So I guess an Air Bender is someone who controls air? If not, there's also the slang term for it at baseball games that means drinking spree."

"……" Everyone was looking at me funny so I broke the silence, "What?"

"Are you to tell us you've never heard of a Bender," questioned one of the people.

"That does make since, look at the way she's dressed," commented another.

"And her hair, what uncommon colors," said another.

Ah! It's just like high school, but worse! Everyone's dressed in red, weird outfits like warriors! What is this place? Where am I? Finally the one that saved me put up a hand and silenced everyone. He must be their leader…wait…a 16 year old is their leaders? But they're older then him! Some, much older, I think I better respect this guy if these older men that look very strong are scared of him. I should keep my guard up too…

"I save you," he growled, "And ignore the way you're dressed, and you play dumb?!"

"I'm not playing dumb," I growled.

"Prince Zuko," came an old, almost raspy voice, "Maybe we should treat are guest with kindness? I since something about her that's unfamiliar in our time, I don't think she's from around here or anywhere close by for that matter. Let's try to see if we can learn from here and find out where she's from, eh?"

Who ever this 'Prince Zuko' was, seemed to, even if he didn't want to, respect this elder. I sensed right away that he was very wise, like most elders are, at least where I come from. His eyes were almost distant, too, and held much knowledge and a slight twinkle in them, as though he loved to enjoy games and was very kind. Prince Zuko nodded and motioned for me to follow, which I did, and we entered a door.

"Tea," question the elder, "You must want something to get rid of that bad taste of salt water."

"No thank you," I said, it could be poisoned, even if they saved my life, I didn't know these people or their customs to guests. I only knew the one's of my home town, Tenri, Japan. That doesn't mean that they would follow them.

"Zuko," questioned the father.

"No," he simply said, he seemed to be looking at me intently. This made me nervous; he acts like he's never seen a girl his age before…What if he hasn't? What if this place is only inhabited by men and everyone is gay? Well…gay guys are usually nice…and he's not…hmm…

"So where have you come from," he asked.

"Tenri-Kyoko, Japan," I said, "Hopefully you've heard of us, we are the only city in Japan that has been named after a religion."

"I'm sorry, I haven't," he said, his eyes showed me that he hadn't.

"I should be apologizing, sorry," I said bowing my head, and then sitting back up straight, "I really just want to get home…"

"Do you know how you got here," he questioned.

Should I tell him about the pain in my chest? I'll keep it simple.

"I was walking home and suddenly I blacked out," I explained, "And when I woke up, I noticed I was falling from the sky…and…"

"You were glowing," Zuko cut in, "Do you know how or why? Do you have powers?"

I chuckled and he looked at me darkly. My eyes bugged out and I felt bad.

"Sorry," I apologized, "My family doesn't believe in any kind of powers, except for the spiritual. No fire power or air power…"

Zoo's eyes turned to slits and I quickly asked, "Sorry! Did I say something wrong?"

"No," the grand father said with a smile, "You look tired, would you like to rest?"

Before I could answer a guard came in and took me. I decided the nicest thing to do, at least in my culture, would be to follow. So I did, and they led me to a small room. I thanked them for leading me here and then entered and shut my door. I noticed there was a lock, but locking my door at someone else's home-or ship for this matter-would be very rude. I left it open, but then I thought…that would just keep me vulnerable for any attacks. I locked the door; hopefully I could trust this guy and he would understand my rudeness…