Chapter One – A Rude Awakening

I sat in the middle of a small room, lit with four torches that hung on each wall, which cast a bright orange and red glow about the room. The room had no windows, and only a small bed to sleep. Such was the extent of the Fire Nation's hospitality, and I enjoyed all the comforts of a prisoner.

I had been captured by a small Fire Nation ship; captured while I slept in my boat, a small sailboat, and hauled on board only to be thrown in his cell. You can be sure I put up a fight; I managed to knock one of the crew in the ocean. But they outnumbered me and overpowered me, as the Fire Nation does so very well with anyone who gets in their way.

The thing that irks me most is that the man commanding the ship, or at least the one in charge when I was captured was a young man. He couldn't have been more than 15 and yet he commanded the crew like he was the Fire Lord himself.

Haru sat cross-legged in the middle of the floor, his hands palm up on his knees and his eyes closed. He was trying to meditate, but he found himself unable to relax his mind; he was still emotionally charged from his capture. He had been confined to this cell for at least six hours and the entire time was spent trying to calm his mind. "Where's the Avatar now? Isn't he supposed to free innocent prisoners like me?" Haru said softly to himself.

The door creaked open and one of the crew members stood in the doorway, a tray with bread and tea in his hands. Without stepping past the threshold of the cell he placed the tray on the floor a few feet from Haru. "What time is it?" Haru asked as the man set the tray down.

"It's dusk," the man answered simply. Haru, without warning and in one fluid motion, waved his left hand above his head and brought it down as if he was trying to break something. As he made these motions the tea that the crew member had given him rose out of the cup and formed a whip, which as Haru brought his hand down, hit the guard on the back of the neck.

Haru was up in a flash and leapt over of the guard who was now sprawled out on the floor. He kept his hands at his stomach where the small sphere of liquid was suspended. He ran down the hallway, not knowing where they led, but knowing that eventually he'd end up on the top deck.

He encountered a pair of crew members as he turned a corner, both of whom where garbed in armor. Haru waved his left hand in an arc in front of his body before the guards could react and in an instant one of them was on the ground and clutched the spot on his chest where the water had hammered his armor. The second guard punched fiercely, which launched a ball of fire toward Haru, who gracefully sidestepped the blast and sent the tendril of water beneath the guard's feat and pulled back, which caused him to fall backwards as the water pulled his legs out from beneath him.

There was no pause as he passed over the guards and continued to run through hallways, all of which were eerily deserted. After minutes of endless running Haru found a stair case and ran towards it. He could hear, as he drew closer, the sound of waves breaking and murmuring voices. A smile broke free from his lips as he jumped up the steps three at a time.

He reached the top and ran through an open doorway that led on to the main deck. He realized why there had been no guards in the hallways; they were all up here, but for what reason was unknown to him. The deck was lit by torches along the edge of the boat and with their light Haru found himself the focus of nearly 100 pairs of eyes.

"The prisoner's escaped!" someone yelled after a few long seconds of silence. "Capture him!" As the crew mobilized Haru glanced up at the moon; it was a crescent moon, though only a sliver remained. Haru grinned in spite of himself and raised his hands to his mouth. He took a small drink from the orb of tea he had used to break out of his cell, and when he was done with it he froze it and promptly hurled it at the nearest Firebender.