Disclaimer: Don't own anything!

A/N: Well this is my first fanfic, so I hope you enjoy it. I would love your reviews and to hear what you thought. I don't care whether they are good or bad, but I have to say I LOVE CC! It helps me better my writing for you, the readers. Again I hope you like it, and here's chapter one of this story! :)

EDIT 11/6/10: I edited this chapter, mostly the end. Thanks to the WritingSchizo101, you were really a big help. I'll probably be editing the other's eventually. haha. And to all my reader's who have reached Chapter four and are somehow back to chapter one :) Chapter five is currently being written, and I hope to have it up soon. I'm really sorry for the delay. Oh, and to my newer readers. . . HI!

Long ago the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the fire nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four of the elements, only he had the power to stop the fire nation's reign of tyranny on the world. But when the world needed him most he just...disappeared.

One hundred years have passed and still there is no sign of the Avatar's existence. But still, young Prince Zuko went on around the world, hoping to find the Avatar and to regain nothing more than his honor. With him on his journey were Uncle Iroh, a wise and pleasant old man, and the one who was teaching Zuko in the art of firebending , Miya, Zuko's thirteen year old sister, who has also been by his side for many years, and his loyal crew.

But when things finally seem to brighten up, Miya begins to question who she really wants to win this war...

A Meadow

of Burnt Firelillies

Book One:

Winter

Chapter One:

A Sister's Betrayal

She let out an exasperated sigh as she sat on the mechanized ship's deck. The cold South Pole winds nipped at her causing her to shiver constantly and wrap her blankets more tightly around her. Looking down at her card game, she picked up a piece and examined it absentmindedly. Her mind was clouded with too many different thoughts, and it was driving her mad. She slowly dropped the piece to the table and rested her head in her hands. She rubbed her eyes no apparent reason, she was bored.

She twiddled her thumbs, played with her bow and arrow, and even drank about five cups of tea, but nothing got this thing off her mind, nothing got this feeling from her heart. Eventually she began to hum a song to herself, a lullaby from a memory of her mother. "A Serenade of Embers", she believed it was called.

As she remembered a high-pitched note toward the middle of the song, she opened her mouth to imitate it, only to hear a noise nothing which she's ever heard before. The sound she heard was ear-piercing; almost like anextremely high shrill. It was joined by a bright light, which could only mean it was a flare.

Miya dashed for the edge of the ship. She leaned over it and strained her muscles so hard to get a good look, that she almost fell overboard.

"The last airbender, quite agile for his old age." Miya looked at her brother, Zuko, inquisitively, wondering if he was talking to her or himself. "Wake my Uncle! Tell him, I found the Avatar . . . as well as his hiding place."

As Zuko stalked off in anticipation to get equipped in the proper gear, Miya took a chance to look into the telescope that her brother had just used to find in the distance what the eye could not. Standing on tip-toes, she closed one eye and tried to mentally track down the Avatar. She saw him running across the snowy terrain, carrying something like a cobalt smudge. A loud creaking sound could be heard as Miya turned the telescope to see where they were headed.

A small Water Tribe village came into view and Miya's eyes went wide. "Zuko's going to attack the village!"

The village became larger as they approached, but still it was pretty small. Worryingly, the young princess sprinted to go find Zuko, who was, in fact, in his soldiers uniform. "I'm coming with you."

He walked to the part of the ship at which they would get off. "No, you're not."

"Yes, I am, Zuko."

"No, you will stay here where it's safe; it's too dangerous."

"Dangerous? I'm thirteen years old; I think I am perfectly capable of protecting myself." Miya was getting aggravated now and she could tell Zuko was too.

"You're just going to get in the way." His voice was now stern and bitter; it stung to hear him say that.

That's when she began to shout, "Zuko! Get in the way? That is always your excuse! It's things like this that make me wonder who really is getting in the way. Ever since you were banished..."

"Silence!" Miya flinched, Zuko had never yelled at her like that. His voice was filled with so much rage and anger, but why? "When we dock, you are not to get off this ship, understand?"

She was shaking now, frightened like a hermit crab retreating to itsshell. There was a long moment of silence before either of them spoke. "Just, please don't hurt any of them." Miya's voice was low and hoarse, as if trying to fight back tears. But she wouldn't cry, she just couldn't. She had learned that crying and whimpering was a sign of weakness, and she had seen it fixed the hard way in the past.

The ship had docked and jolted everyone forward from the impact. That's when Zuko finally turned to look at her; only his scar was in Miya's view. He didn't look at her long though. "They are holding the Avatar. I will do what's necessary." He walked off the ship, leaving a fear-stricken and confused Miya to her own thoughts.

It's settled then.

Miya rose from her sitting position after having made one of the biggest decisions of her life. She was still torn, but she knew this is what she would have to do. It was the only way- or just the easiest.

Slowly, Miya brought the hood of her cloak over her head and picked up her bow and her satchel full of arrows.

She had to leave, or so she thought. There was no longer a purpose for her to be with Zuko. Each day he would grow angrier and angrier, and Miya would get the brute of it. She was no use to him or even the Fire Nation. Although being the princess, she wasn't next in line to be Firelord, Zuko was, and she hadn't been to the Fire Nation in years.

She was taken by surprise when the door of her room was opened. She spun around quickly and let out an audible gasp. She tried to get a good look at who had intruded on her, but the dim candle-light made it difficult for her to see. Silently, she hoped it wasn't Zuko.

But when her eyes finally adjusted a bit, Miya didn't know who she saw. It wasn't Zuko because the figure seemed to be too short to be him. It wasn't Iroh, because the figure seemed to be less round than her tea-loving Uncle. It wasn't any of the crew, since Miya knew by now that none of the crew was bald.

Relief washed over her, but then it was replaced with curiosity. She figured that it was a boy, but again because of the candle-light, she couldn't make out his features.

She raised an eye-brow at him. "Uh, hello?"

He looked at her with what seemed to be uncertainty and confusion and Miya didn't know why. "Uh, hi. You don't know where my staff is by any chance, do you?" His voice was not very deep and it didn't squeak at times like Zuko's did when he had turned fourteen, so Miya had figured that the boy was around her age range.

Miya slowly removed the hood from her head, revealing her face. "Your, what?"

Who is this guy, she thought to herself.

The sound of the pounding of foot-steps echoed throughout the hallway and the boy left as fast as he had showed up. Miya jogged over to her door and looked out into the hallway. Her room was at the very end, which made the exit fairly hard and far to run to, but she didn't see him anywhere. All she saw was everything in that very hallway was turned over, as if by the wind. But when Miya had arrived at the ship's deck, she realized thatthere wasn't enough wind to do that.

It didn't take long for her to put two and two together. He was an airbender!

At that moment something came to Miya's mind.

"The last airbender, quite agile for his old age," Miya looked at her brother, Zuko, inquisitively, wondering if he was talking to her or himself, "Wake my Uncle! Tell him, I found the Avatar...as well as his hiding place."

"Avatar. Him! But, he's just... I. He. What's going on?" Miya was thinking out loud, until she heard the loud bang of a door. She followed the sounds she had heard and the one's that followed, and they had brought her to her new destination: Zuko's room. She could now hear the sounds perfectly; it was a fuming Zuko and a defenseless airbender.

She pounded the door with her fist and started to kick it. "Zuko! Open this door! Zuko!"

He had no idea.

Miya needed to find a way in that room, before it was too late. She had gotten back on to the deck and put her hands on her hips and looked around, searching for a way in. Suddenly, she was knocked to the ground by the airbender, as if he had fallen from the sky, and Zuko fell too.

Miya slid herself out from under him and got on her knees. She began shaking him lightly, attempting to wake him up. Zuko began to arise and Miya knew this kid would be toast if she didn't get him up soon. Zuko may have been her brother, and she may have not known the boy, but she was sick of seeing people get hurt.

"Come on, wake up. Wake up," she whispered harshly.

His eyes opened drowsily, until where he had been was apparent. His eyes were a stormy gray, which intrigued the young Fire Nation girl; she had never seen someone else with gray eyes, or someone this young with tattoos. It must have been an airbender thing.

The airbender's gaze fell upon Miya, as she smiled down on him, and he weakly smiled back, but that moment was abruptly shattered when Zuko threw a fire ball. Luckily, it missed.

The airbender got up and continued to fight Zuko, dispersing his flames each time he tried to strike him. Miya stood at the side, watching intently, for she had never seen airbending before.

Miya's eyes widened when she realized that Zuko was going to coax the boy overboard, which would most likely result in him drowning.

"Zuko, stop! You know what will happen if you kill him! Everything you have been trying to do, it won't matter if he's dead!"

"I'm not trying to kill him!" Zuko let out loud cries of anger as each one of his attacks failed.

As if what his sister said didn't even phase him, Zuko continued to fight. The Avatar paused, and screamed, "Appa!"

Miya and Zuko pondered the random choice of words spoken by the boy. They looked up only to find a giant fluffy creature flying in the air.

"What is that thing?" the siblings questioned aloud at the same time. Miya furrowed her eyebrow, but her attention was brought back to Zuko, who shot another blast at the boy knocking his staff out of his hands. It only took one more deadly fire blast at him to send him over.

"You really have no idea what you just did, do you? Zuko, you just ruined..." Miya's rant was stopped mid-sentence when she heard someone screaming from above. The voice had belonged to a woman and she kept repeating a name: Aang. That must've been him.

The water soon began to illuminate and then Aang ascended up from the ocean in a giant water vortex. His eyes and tattoos were glowing fiercely.

This day couldn't get any weirder, she thought.

When he had landed on the deck, Aang used the water to his advantage and shot it in all directions to knock anyone on the ship over.

Miya screamed as she was shot backwards and to the floor with most of the other soldiers. The glowing of the Avatar ceased and he collapsed to the ground. The flying beast landed on to the ship and off jumped two siblings from where Miya believed was the Water Tribe.

Miya squeezed the water out of her hair and walked over to Aang. "Are you o..."

"Not a step closer!" A sharp boomerang was pointed towards her and Miya stopped obediently.

"Hey Katara, Hey Sokka, I dropped my staff," Aang managed to say weakly.

The boy, Sokka, hesitantly ran over to retrieve the staff, and as he did so, the guards came over to get the Avatar. Miya stepped in between them. "Stop, let the Avatar leave."

"With all due respect, Princess Miyana, but you do not command us," replied one of the soldiers.

The Water Tribe girl got up and began to bend the water at the soldiers. The first attempt failed and she managed to freeze the other Water Tribe boy instead. He grumbled some things and tried to get his feet out of their ice casing. But when the girl had thought of a new way to freeze the guards, Miya swiftly moved out of her way. She did pretty well for someone her age and probably with a lack of a teacher.

All the guards were completely covered in ice and bound to the ground. The waterbender helped Aang up onto the bison and then her brother followed. Miya grasped her wrist before she climbed up. "Please, let me come with you."

"No, you're from the Fire Nation." Miya could hear the slight confusion in the waterbender's voice as she spoke. But truthfully, Miya was confused too. What was the real reason for Miya's desire to get onto the bison? The waterbender tried to get her wrist free but couldn't because of Miya's tight grip.

"Please."

"Uh, Katara, we have company," shouted Sokka when he noticed Zuko getting back onto the ship.

Katara looked over at Aang and he nodded to give her approval. Miya knew the only reason they let her on was because of the approaching threat, but she didn't care.

With a little assistance from Aang, Miya made her way up the bison. Its thick fur itched and tickled her at the same time. She never was a great climber, occasionally slipping on her travel up. Once on top of the bison, Miya realized the height they were at, now vexing her fear of heights. As long as she didn't look down, she could be fine. The bison gave one mighty slap of his tail, and sent the newly formed group sailing upwards, making Miya's stomach drop.

She settled herself as they soared away. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, until she heard a loud and all too familiar voice. "Shoot them down!"

A long and hot blast of fire was shot towards the bison, and Miya knew that it would hit. But Aang took charge and batted away the shot with his own line of air. The blast redirected into a mountain side, and an avalanche pummeled onto the ship.

Everyone laughed mockingly at what the wreckage and Miya looked straight down to Zuko. She did not acknowledge the height they were at now. All she focused on was him. Words could not describe how Zuko looked when he saw his baby sister on that bison with the Avatar. Miya mouthed "I'm sorry", but knew because of the distance that he couldn't see it.

She did what she had to do. She didn't want to chase the Avatar around for the rest of her life. She didn't want to capture him. She would gain nothing from it. Sure she missed home sometimes, but she was sick of being someone's puppet, the perfect princess. Although she was sad to leave her brother and uncle, she knew it was time she abandoned them. Her destiny was not what Zuko had led her to believe, it had now changed. Everything that she knew would change.

And as the cold South Pole winds nipped at her one last time, Miya's clouded thoughts were now clear.

Special thanks to Sun Daughter! :) . . . and the WritingSchizo101! :)

Again, I would love to hear your reviews, and am happy you read my story. :)

Stay Flammin'!

*Aire*