Disclaimer: I do not own nor do I claim to own any of Avatar: The Last Air Bender. I do own my original creations and situations. I am not making any monetary gain and am doing this for pure entertainment purposes.
Prologue
I have always been 'different' from other people, but then in a way, I guess everyone is. No one person is exactly like another, there is always something that makes them standout, something about each and everyone person that is 'unique', 'special'. You may not always see it but it's there. There's alwaly some reason they don't belong. At least, that always been my opinion on things, and when you 'stand out' as much as I do you can't really afford to care that much about what others think, or else everyday life can become unbearable and and just glancing in the mirror can make you want to scream.
My 'difference,' the thing that makes me special and unique shouldn't have been noteworthy. I'm not skilled in any martial art, I can't sing or dance with as much grace as other girls and heavens know I can't bend. It's not like I chose my appearance, I was just lucky. Lucky to be the girl with an ugly protruding nose,the hair entwined with bronze threads and the oversized eyes. Lucky to be branded the stupid foreigner. Lucky to have people stare at me as I walk down the street, glare at me like I've done them some great misdeed, glance at me like I'm less than the dirt on their feet. Maybe that's why I'm constantly being chided for having a grimace on my face. Or maybe I was just lucky and born like that too.
I have lived with Mother since I was five years old and I can honestly say I don't remember my biological mother and father. I live with Mother and my Sisters in a house were we learn many things to help us in our future lives. I've been told I should be very grateful for Mother taking me when my foreign parents left me here, for not sending me away. Not sending me to the house with the lanterns that stay lit all night and the women with the sad, sad eyes. People on the street say we are no different from them, those women of the night, but Mother says we are. She says we are sophisticated, refined, learning the ways of our craft since we were very young, saving ourselves for our Only. Those women have no taste, she tells us, they will as quickly shed their clothes for a leper as for a prince, as long as his silver is the same. We live and work in Mother's house until we are chosen by our Only and then we will serve him until we die. We will live for our Only, sare for our Only, do more than even that of a wife.
At age 14 we are chosen by our Only and leave all our childish things behind. Our Only may change everything and anything about us, our name, our style of dress, even the way we walk down the street. Though once you have an Only you don't go out much, most Only like to hide their charge away, keep her for his eyes alone, don't let her get too friendly with anyone he believes she shouldn't associate with. It can be sad, losing a Sister, but we all know she is going to 'better' place. And we all dream of our time, when our Only will come, when we are called away for 'tea' with Mother and him, never to return, and we shall be the one our Sisters cry over, the one who receives the never ending stream of goodbyes. By the time I was 12, I knew I was ready.
But when I turned 14, no one came. Every day I'd wake, hoping that today would be my day, but that day never arrived. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and still nothing. I continued my lessons and it seemed every week one of my fellow bed mates would leave, leaving me alone, alone as I'd never felt before. The days till my 15th birthday seemed to be getting shorter and shorter and fear was building up inside me. Fear that I'd never be chosen. Fear I would live forever in Mother's house seeing hundreds of girls come and go and never be truly like them. Never have an Only.
I can remember my 15th birthday as clearly as if it were yesterday, I can feel my limbs stretch as I woke, hear the girls busily getting ready down the hall, feel the deep pit in my stomach. The feel as I pulled a comb through my mangled hair, the whoosh as I slid on my dress, I can feel it all know. I can tell you the exact number of steps I took as I entered Mother's office and learned out the worst possible news. My fate was not to work in Mother's house forever, to become an old maid. Mother had found someone for me, my Only. He was a solider, on a Fire Nation ship. I was to be sent like goods to the market, sent to some ghastly ship were none of my skills would aid me. I'd only have one purpose there and we both knew what it was. As I think back to that day, the day I began my journey, I laugh at just how mistaken I was.
A/N: This plot bunny was hopping around my head for a while, and I'm hppy to finally put in into a was a bit short, I know but look forward to chapters about three times this length. I'll be updating weekly so please review. It's the sure fire way to make my day.