The first thing she was supposed to remember was her third birthday. She remembered her obnoxious cousin, zipping around popping the purple balloons in the living room. She remembered the cake, round and flat and purple, certainly not enough to feed the crowd gathered in the small Republic City apartment. She remembered most, if not all, of the details of her third birthday.
To think it had been almost 9 years ago now.
But there was something else, too. Something she couldn't have possibly seen.
She remembered standing in a tall tower, staring out the window at an airship soaring through the sky. She remembered recognizing the airship as the retired Fire Nation One, the royal (though somewhat primitive) airship. The airship hadn't flown in years, so she couldn't have possibly seen it in her lifetime.
It could have been a dream, but something about it made it seem more real than any other dream she had ever had. It almost blended in with the rest of her uneventful memories.
That was the first sign.
She was different.
—-—-
CRRAK!
The earth rumbled under Hope's feet. Sweat streamed down her back as she sidestepped her sparring partner's fire blast. She shook the earth under her harder, in an attempt to distract her partner. She stomped her foot hard, and the ground under her partner suddenly became unstable. He sank in the earth floor up to his chin. The teacher, who was busy examining the footwork of a pair on the other side of the arena, rushed over. The teacher quickly earthbended Hope's sparring partner out of the ground and declared Hope the winner. Hope wasn't surprised. She always won.
"Hope, come over here." The sparring teacher, Mr. Grayson, didn't look angry, but Hope still felt butterflies in her stomach. Had she been too rough on the last student?
"Mr. Grayson, what did I do wrong this time?" Her voice carried more than a hint of sarcasm. Hope never did anything wrong in class- though she was far from being a goody two shoes.
"Nothing, I'm just curious. Darius, the last kid you sparred, was the second best in the class. How have you defeated everyone, even my star pupil?" Even though Hope knew she wasn't in trouble, she felt even more nervous now. She didn't have a good answer to the teacher's question.
"I don't know, instinct?" She replied to the teacher's question casually, even though her hands were clearly shaking.
Before the teacher could ask her another question, she left. Even though her encounter with the teacher had been brief, she carried around a feeling of dread.
Little did she know her life was about to change.
—- —-
As Hope trudged home, she noticed some movement in an alley. She ignored the motion as it was probably just a triad. She ignored the motion until suddenly, the motion was right in front of her. The thief grabbed her arm, trying to wrench away Hope's watch. She pulled off his arm, but the man scratched her and simply held back on. She tried to run and stumbled, just a few feet away from the advancing man. She felt excruciating pain in her ankle. Hope was helpless. There was no one nearby, and her earthbending was useless in a city paved with asphalt. She was struggling to her feet when a fire blast landed near the man's feet. The thief fled, leaving Hope seemingly alone and hurt.