First off, this is a story of my own creation, using some characters from and set in the Avatar: The Last Airbender World. I do not own A: TLA, but I do own what I have written. NO COPYCATS!! Secondly, I would like to thank my wonderful sister Chibi for giving me her name in some form or another for my story. Love you Chibi-san!!
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The Rebellion's First Strike
It was a peaceful evening at the Yum Soon Hahn estate. Their only daughter, Jae Din, was standing under an apple tree playing a childish game catching the apple blossoms that drifted in the air. She was only eight years old and hadn't seen much of the world. Her best friend was a rock she kept at all times on her person, called "Mizu". Being an earthbender, she bent it into unusual shapes all the time, but her favorite was a perfect sphere, so she could throw it in the air and catch it with her earthbending.
She was mute, and did not speak at all. Actually, no one was sure if she even could speak. All that was known was that she did not speak, and that was that.
But that didn't matter at this moment, because as she collected the last of the plush petals for a necklace she wanted to make, she heard an unusual CRASH!! from her house. Her mother screamed, and Jae Din dropped all of her petals, picked up Mizu, who was seated comfortably a couple feet away, and ran toward the house.
As she entered the house, she saw her mother laying on the floor, chained to one of their stone chairs. She had a small stream of blood trickling from her mouth. Jae Din got into an earthbending stance to free her mother, but her mother quickly stopped her.
"Honey, no! Stop, stop! Go, run! Go warn the Chiangs! Quickly!" Her mother finally sputtered, as metal clanged upstairs. A man shouted. "Jae Din! Go! We'll be fine, sweetie." She heard feet coming down the large staircase. "Don't let them know you are here." Her mother whispered.
Jae Din earthbended Mizu into the symbol for "Be safe" and kissed her on the cheek. With that, she turned and ran, out the front door and down the three-quarter-mile long road which led to their front gate. She paused, and heard the sound of men shouting behind her. She opened the gate and slipped out, running as fast as her bare feet would take her down the gravel road to ward the Chiang estate.
*****
La Chiang was standing on her front porch, swirling the small pebble round and round and round. She was bored out of her wits. Her parents had left town on a "business trip" and left her and the guards to fend for themselves. She had to admit, however, being in total control of the estate did make her feel powerful; bossing guards around all day was pretty fun. She smashed the pebble to smithereens and retreated inside to get a glass of blueberry juice.
La was the only child born to Yun and Humhum Chiang, the family of the Mooselion. Her father had once visited the North Pole and named her after one of the moon spirits. She had heard many times the story of how the Waterbenders had saw hoe the moon had pushed and pulled the tides and learned how to do it themselves. Oh, and how many times she had been cradled to sleep being told the story of Princess Yue, and how she gave her life to be the Moon Spirit. She vowed to someday see a Water Tribe.
Her family was of a small group of rich nobles set by the Earth King, a group which consisted of the Yum Soon Hahn, Bei Fong, Songsang, Chiang, and Ntantan families. They were very close to the Earth King, and received a very hefty profit. However, they had to live by a precise and strict rulebook: Each family was to have only one child, train them to take their places when the parents died, and to never ever let their bloodline end. Any rule braking would result in an immeadiate invitation to Lake Laogai.
A servant entered the room.
"Mistress La, you have a visitor, ma'am. It appears to be Miss Jae Din Yum Soon Hahn, and it also appears urgent. She is panting and running and making quite rude remarks with that rock, and-"
"Thank you Phou, send her in." She smiled. She had known Jae Din for some time now and was delighted to see her, of course, but why would Mr and Mrs Yum Soon Hahn send an eight year old six miles across town alone? Something wasn't right.
La had expected to see a bright, smiling little mute girl enter calmly. Instead, she saw a distressed, tired, dirty eight year old hasten in on bleeding bare feet.
"Oh you poor dear, what happened to your feet?" La asked, and Jae Din got out Mizu and started to write out what had happened. She wrote about how she had run out of her house, about the men in metal that clanked through her house and hurt her mother, how she had run all night to get here and her feet painfully blistered from the running and dirt.
When she finished her story, the tired girl could no longer keep her eyes open and plodded off to sleep right there in the chair. La called for the guards, and told them to keep this girl safe and to put her in her bedroom. She told them that no matter what, keep her surrounded by guards at all times, and to explain to her where she was when she awoke.
As for me, La thought, I must warn the Bei Fongs of this, I have heard rumors of the Fire Nation Resistance taking Earth Kingdom nobles captive. I had just hoped they would not have enough supplies to get them across the sea.
She put on her dark slippers and button-up cream robe, and then her dark gray cloak and headed out the door, and down the road, toward the Bei Fong estate.
****
It was almost daylight as La marched up to the gate of the Bei Fong estate, showed the guards who she was, and made it into their house. She rubbed some sleepiness from her eyes and sat up straight.
"Sir, and Madam, I am sorry of my late hour appearance and my not being announced, but I assure you this is of grave importance." She bowed ceremoniously to the Bei Fongs.
"Well, what is it then? Is it Toph? Are your parents okay? Is-"
"No, no, no. Sir, the Yum Soon Hahn elders have been kidnapped by the Fire Nation Rebellion. Their daughter, Jae Din, came to my home yesterday and explained the whole thing. It must have been real because she was crying and she had to walk all that way..." She trailed off as her eyes filled with tears at the thought of the poor girl running for her life at such a young age. Even she, who was fourteen, couldn't have been so determined to follow orders, and with her feet in that condition...she shuddered at the thought.
Mr Bei Fong's eyes opened wide as he looked at his wife, and then at La.
"Oh, no. I had hope this wouldn't have happened." He said, holding his face in his hands.
Mrs Bei Fong rose her hands to her face as well. After a minute or so, she spoke.
"With the decline of Fire Lord Ozai, a small group of people remained loyal to the Phoenix King, and tried everything from sabotaging Fire Lord Zuko's supplies to attempted murder. There were rumors flying around that they were going to take captives from the Earth Kingdom, but everyone just suggested that they were a small group of commoners, but it turns out they were more than that."
Mr Bei Fong removed his hands.
"This makes perfect sense. They know that Fire Lord Zuko cares about people of other nations, so they take an Earth Kingdom family, maybe two, and use Zuko's bleeding heart against him. We know what they're up to, but this also means that we are in grave danger. All of us." The last three words echoed in his head as he looked at his wife and gave her a rather pained look. All of us... we have a secret that is dangerous. Only one other person knows, and he lives in the Fire Nation! He might be part of the Rebellion, maybe not. But is it worth it?
"We have to tell her. For Nu's safety. I'd rather be brainwashed a thousand times than see her killed." He motioned for La to sit down, and the proceeded to him self.
"We broke a rule. A very, very important rule. We have a second daughter."