How To Tame a Wild Cat
Summary: A wild cat will claw or bite if you get too close. They are feral beasts. But every domesticated animal starts out feral. It's all a matter of taming them. This girl named Ket is no exception. Will eventually be Ming/OC.
Warnings: Character death in this chapter, in future may go up to an M rating for violence etc. Nothing too terribly awful to start with though.
Disclaimer: I do not own Korra or Aang. It would be glorious if I did.
A/N: Alright, another story. I will admit, this may not be the best of ideas, considering my track record for the completion of my stories, but I really don't care. After reading MANY terrible OC/self-insert/Mary-Sue fictions in both this fandom and others, I felt the need to try and write a story of an OC that has decent plot and is NOT a Mary Sue - so please tell me if I'm failing here. I DID do a Mary Sue Litmus Test for Ket, and I got a 10 for her, which is good. While I tried to be as brutally honest about her as possible with this test, I can't be sure how accurate this is. Owell. I'm sure I'll be flamed if she does Sue-up.
I will endevour to tie in this story with the plot line for The Legend of Korra, though I fear I may need to change a few things. Feedback is greatly appreciated.
Chapter One
"Get out of here, you little demon!"
A small girl with wild poofball hair ran from a bakery as fast as her pudgy legs would carry her. She wasn't more than four or five years of age and was clutching a still warm loaf of bread to her chest while an angry woman screeched at her from the doorway of said bakery.
It was just leaving the season of Winter on Kyoshi Island, and the trees were just starting to bloom again. The ground was still a bit cold, but comfortable enough to walk on barefoot - as the little girl was doing. Thanks to the mild weather, it was never quite cold enough to require footwear, which was good when you wanted to squirm your toes in the earth. She skipped though the smaller deserted streets, making her way to a somewhat shabby looking building, slipping inside. The inside was slightly worn, much like the outside, though the front room was open though filled with wooden chairs, tables, bowls and a multitude of other things.
"Papa, look what I got!" she exclaimed proudly to a man with the same puffball hair, though his was greying rather than dark brown. He looked up from working on a carving of some sort, smiling softly as he fixed his murky green eyes on the identical ones of his daughter.
"And where did you get that, Ket?" he asked gently, though there was a slight tone of disapproval in his voice.
"I found it. Honest," she replied in a voice full of false innocence that only young children can muster.
He gave her a bemused look. "Oh really. So if I go and ask Ms Bayani at the bakery, what will she say?"
Ket pouted, dropping her head and stubbing her toe against the dirt floor. "...She'd say I stole it..." she admitted reluctantly.
Jopa - that was the carpenter's name - sighed, rubbing his temples. He knew his daughter had the best of intentions and that her heart was in the right place, though her methods were wrong. Unbeknownst to Ket, he'd had many of the locals - and occasionally even some of the visitors - complaining about her. "Ket, I've told you about this stealing. It needs to stop."
"But-!"
"NO buts," he said firmly, raising his voice slightly. "Money or not, it's not acceptable to steal. I sold a couple of chairs today, so we have money for a while." He went to a pouch, pulling out four copper pieces and pressing them into his daughter hand. "I want you to go and give Ms Bayani these coins and tell her sorry and that Jopa has given her two extra for your bad behaviour. Alright?"
Ket pouted, nodding and closing her fist tightly around the precious few coins. "Alright... I'm sorry Papa. I didn't mean to cause trouble."
"I know you didn't... " he kissed her forehead softly then turning her to the door and patting her bad. "Go on then. And remember to apologise," he said as she ran off out of the door.
Ket skipped through the streets, the coins clutched tightly in her hand. After giving the coins to Bayani, apologising and getting a filthy look in return, she wandered off again, finding a group of the other children her age laughing and playing together in the town centre. As she wandered up to them, one of the older girls pointed at her, putting her tiny fist on her hip, stopping her dance around the edge of the fountain.
"I heard you got in trouble again for steeeeeealing," she laughed.
Ket scowled. "Shut up Hana. you don't know anything," she retorted to the six year old.
Hana flipped her straight brown hair back, giggling and making sure she had the entire groups attention before speaking again. "I know LOTS of things. I know my Mummy says you're a bad girl. She says you're WILD because you don't have a Mummy to love you and you probably don't deserve one. You're a BAD girl, Ket!"
"I DO SO!" Ket shouted back, stomping her foot, glaring as ferociously as she could.
"Where is she then?" chipped in Kiku, one of Hana's friends. "I've never seen your Mummy before."
"I... My Papa says she lives in Republic City! And she does so love me!"
Hana laughed again. "If she does then how come she isn't here? You're just a demon child that no Mummy would love!"
Ket bit her lip, taking a step back. "I... It's not true...!"
"Demon child, demon child, all alone, unloved and wild!" Hana chanted scathingly, levelling her finger at her.
"Sh-shut up Hana!" Ket yelled, holding back the angry tears that threatened to spill down her chubby cheeks. The other children started joining in the chant, all of them pointing at her.
"Demon child, demon child, all alone, unloved and wild! Demon child, demon child-!"
"SHUT UP!" Ket shrieked, slamming her foot into the ground, the stone of the fountain jerking up sharply, tossing Hana into the water before Ket ran back to her home, sobbing. "Papa!" She bolted into the carpentry shop, flinging herself into the arms of her bewildered father. "Ket? What's wrong sweetie?" Jopa asked, cuddling her to his chest.
"I-it's the other kids... They said I'm a demon child and that Mummy didn't love me... " she sniffled, rubbing her pudgy fists into her eyes.
Jopa sighed, cuddling his daughter tightly. "Your Mummy loved you very much, Ket. But we both agreed that you should stay here with me and when you're old enough we would go and visit her." He smiled softly. "And you aren't a demon child. You're my special little wild child," he laughed, ruffling her hair.
Smiling back, Ket cuddled into him, clinging to his vest. "I love you too Papa."
Two Years Later...
"Papa, Papa, look what I did!" a now seven year old Ket shouted, running into the ramshackle carpentry shop, which had only deteriorated over the course of the past two years, though it was still filled with all manner of wooden things. "Papa, I made a-" she paused, glancing around. "... Papa? Papa, where are you?" she asked, wandering into the back room where they lived.
Collapsed on the floor in an untidy heap was Jopa. Biting her lip, Ket ran over to him and dropped to her knees beside him, pressing her hand to his forehead carefully.
He was cold.
The rest of the day passed in a blur. A team of medics came around and said Jopa had died from a weak heart, no foul play involved. Ket was shoved to the corner as people came to take away everything in her home.
"What are we going to do about his girl?" murmured one of the medical examiners to an authority. "She doesn't have any family left and we don't have an orphanage here."
The policeman shrugged. "Ask one of the villagers if they'll take her in then. She's not my problem."
"Not likely," the medic snorted in reply. "She's nothing but trouble. No one here wants her."
"Then she'll end up on the streets, like every other orphan with no place to go," snapped the other. "She's not MY problem."
Biting her lip hard, Ket allowed a few tears to spill down her cheeks. Now she supposed the other children were right with their stupid rhyme. Her Papa was dead and she didn't know who her Mama was. Only that she was in Republic City. Ket finally really was all alone and unloved. Stifling a sob and wiping her eyes furiously, Ket promised herself that this was the last time she would cry because of those mean kids. This was the last time she would cry because of ANYONE. If they didn't want her, then she didn't want them either!
With that thought firmly at the front of her mind, Ket sprinted from the only place she had ever felt wanted or loved, barging past a bewildered man on his way in, running from the village which was the only place she had ever known, the only goal in her head being to find her mother and prove those other people wrong.
Somewhere out there was someone who would love her.
A/N: There we go. First chapter. What do we think thusly? Hopefully you like it and such. Drop me a line and tell me if you'd like to see more.