Disclaimer: I do not own the avatar or his friends. Nothing. Nada. Nicht. Naught but my OC and any others that I might add. Anywhoo enjoy.

Prologue: Nightmares

The village of Ga'mi was ablaze. Fire roared in every direction burning everything in its path. The heat was intense and smoke billowed out from every roof, rising into the night sky till it covered the stars like a dark veil. The screams and cries of the villagers could be heard above anything else, by now most of the livestock had been either burned to a crisp or were escaping into the woods along with the women and children. Most of the men had stayed behind to fight off the fire benders in a hope to give the others a chance to escape. It didn't matter whether they were warriors or not, if you had a knife and an able body you used it. But still we were no match.

The onslaught of the fire nation soldiers was causing the men to move back towards the village square. That meant I had to work fast to get everyone out of here safely.

A piercing scream brought me back to reality and I looked up to see one of the washerwomen stumbling forward, a bundle of cloth in her arms. A fire nation soldier who had got past our defence was advancing on her, his spear raised ready to strike.

"No!" I shouted, and in the next moment my arrow was quivering in his neck, in the gap between the collar of his armour and his helmet, and his spear clattered to the ground alongside its owner.

The woman half ran half crawled towards the safety behind my bow. Strands of singed hair which had came undone from her high bun now framed her soot covered face. Tear tracks covered her cheeks and a gash across her forehead was seeping blood. As she got closer I could see the bundle in her arms was actually a baby.

"Get to the woods" I commanded her, my voice coming out all raspy and horse due to all the smoke and screaming I had done. "Find Je-Sung and the others, stick with them. Forget provisions, go NOW!" I shouted at her, pulling her to her feet, pushing her in the right direction. "Quil! Quil!"

The woman hurried away dodging past fallen pieces of burning debris, heading north to the surrounding woods. The shouts of the men tell me that the battle is getting closer. I look around again checking in the broken down buildings for any stragglers, checking and double checking that I wasn't leaving anyone behind.

I could see the men now hurrying towards me, many were wounded and bloody, great balls of fire chasing them. Some of the injured I recognised, though others were too bruised and bloodied for me to distinguish. One of the men spotted me, his was the baker, a big man usually calm and tranquil, now barbaric and feral. His eyes locked with mine for a moment, and he let out a strangled cry and pointed behind me.

I turned around just in time to see a ball of fire heading my way. Immediately my training kicked in and I dropped straight to the ground, laying flat on my back as the inferno flew over my head. I was allowed a seconds rest before another attack was sent my way. Rolling out the way, I got up on my knees, my hand reaching for an arrow behind me. Notching it in my bow, my chest arched into the night as I pulled back the string and took aim at the fire bender before me. He was large and brutish, his armour held the symbol of the fire nation. His hands were fiery fists as he sent another wave of the burning element my way.

I dove out of the way, my body curling up into a protective ball. The fire bender started to laugh maniacally, watching as I was forced to move and dodge his fire, my body bending into ridiculous shapes in an attempt to not get hit. His laughter struck me deep down and I came up with a new unrelenting hatred for him and his kind. The fire nation had taken everything from me and now one of its soldiers was standing laughing at me, finding the destruction of my life amusing. I wanted him to pay for what he had done to me, to pay for his laughter.

My arms acted instinctively drawing the bow up in front of me, I took the time of a heart beat to aim before letting the arrow go. It soared high through the air missing him by a mile. Cursing under my breath I drew another arrow as quickly as I could and took aim again this time taking longer to make sure I didn't miss. The soldier was mocking me making no move to get out of the way probably thinking I was no threat. Gritting my teeth I let the arrow go and this time it hit its mark, piercing his armour, straight into his heart.

I didn't have time to congratulate myself as I was up and running through the streets up to where I knew Je-Sung and the others were.

All the buildings were on fire now, leaving a narrow gap in the middle of street where there was nothing to burn. The air was thick and heavy with smoke causing my asthma to strike up again. I could hardly breathe; the flames were licking at my bear arms making the skin angry and red. At some point my bow caught fire and with a cry I threw it to the ground trying in vain to stop the flames from eating it up but with no success. The fumes had made my eyes water and my vision became blurry, that and the intense heat forced me to move on and leave my beloved weapon behind.

I soon got lost among the roads and avenues, the streets that I would walk everyday had been turned into an unrecognisable maze. Tears were streaming down my face and my only thought was that I was going to die here alone in this tortuous hell. A loud cracking sound came from besides me. I didn't even have the energy to move or cry out as I watched the house fall on top of me...

Okay, this is just a taster to get a feel of the story, I'll upload the proper chapters soon. As I mentioned in the summary Ga'mi is a gypsy city, or I guess it was... I don't know if the avatar universe even had gypsies, we know there were pirates because Katara stole that water bending scroll form them, but gypsies? No I don't think they're mentioned. The gypsies in my story are gonna be very cultural and quite frankly are the 'vermin' of the avatar world, I guess like in a 'hunch back of notre dame' sort of way. And yes I know Asia didn't have gypsies, but hey this is my story alright?

I only used one word in this chapter thing which was 'Quil' So you know Quil means go. It is pronounced 'queel'. Long sounding 'E'. Also the city's name Ga'mi is pronounced 'Gar-mee'. The word Ga'mi originates from the gypsy word for home which is 'Gamani'

This is a made up language and has no references with any others as far as I know. But hey maybe in some part of the world Quil does mean go. Also I'm not gonna do like masses of conversation in the language just the odd word which you won't really need to follow the story with any way.

This story will be an eventual romance at the moment with Zuko though that may change to Sokka. I don't think I'm gonna end up writing a romance with Aang, though if I did then I can guarantee now that there will be a side pairing of zutara. Who knows maybe there will be, with oc with sokka and then toph and anng. But at the moment I'm planning for a zuko/Oc pairing.

Anyway I really hoped you enjoyed reading the taster and a review of what you thought would be nice xx