Chapter 3

I lost of track of how long I'd been chained up. The lack of windows made keeping track of days impossible. I knew that it had been less than three because I had seen neither hide nor hair of anyone since the Prince had left.

After what felt like six hours, the pain in my back had started to numb. After about twenty-four hours, my mouth was so dry that my tongue felt like sandpaper on my lips when I licked them in a futile attempt to keep them wet. After about thirty hours, my stomach was so empty that it felt as if it were digesting itself. I did not have the energy to lift my head from where it hung between my weak shoulders.

I felt like I was dying.

I began to count to pass the time, estimating the cadence of a second.

One… Two… Three…

The ship rocked. I felt dizzy.

Four… Five… Six…

I longed to see the sun, but I feared I would never feel its rays again. The room was so damn cold. I tried to use my bending to send a wave of heat through my body, but to no avail. I could scarcely breath, I was so weak. Bending was out of the question.

Seven… Eight… Nine…

I was nine when my family disappeared. About a month or two after my father had joined the Fire Nation's armed forces my mother and sister vanished while I was sleeping. I remembered that I ran away from home because I was angry with my mother. I could not remember the reason, only that it was selfish and childish. I slept in the bushes on the other side of town that night and when I reached home the next morning to apologize, they were gone. The house was a mess of rocks that didn't look like they had moved naturally. Even at nine years old I knew that my family had been captured in an Earth Kingdom attack. I had never seen my family again. After seven years, I knew that they were dead.

Ten… Eleven… Twelve…

I thought I heard someone yell from above deck. I had no desire to know who or what was the problem.

Thirteen… Fourteen…

My little sister was fourteen months old when she disappeared. She'd be about eight by now and I longed to see how she would have grown.

Fifteen… Sixteen…

My sixteenth birthday was four months ago. I celebrated by imagining my family was there with me while I traveled from place to place.

Seventeen… Eighteen… Nineteen…

I tugged at my restraints. Maybe if I could just pull them a little to the right…

Twenty

The door to the hallway opened and I stilled myself, pretending that I was unconscious, letting all of my muscles go limp.

As the person entered the room and walked slowly towards me, I felt the room's temperature rise from uncomfortably cold to a sultry warm. It was the kind of heat that would be almost uncomfortable to anyone who wasn't a firebender, though because I was, it was a welcome change and I enjoyed it. I heard their steps trace a deliberate circle around me and I felt their eyes burning holes in me. I tried to tell from the sound of the footsteps who it was that was examining my pathetic condition. The sounds were too light to be a crew member; their uniforms were too heavy to walk quietly. They were also too light to be that of the Prince's Uncle; he was too fat to make such soft noises. That left one person.

"Please stop staring at me." I said.

"So you are awake." He replied, unsurprised, "I was beginning to think you were dead."

"Aww, were you worried?" I mocked him.

He didn't answer, instead he circled behind me again. "That's quite the scar you've got there. It looks new, just barely healed. Where did you get it?"

"Like I'd tell you…" I said sardonically.

"Would you like to know what I think? I think that only a master firebender could have given you that. Only one that could strike to scar and scare, not to kill."

"Really? How do you know that it wasn't an accident? For all you know, I could have burned myself in a training session gone terribly wrong."

"Yes but your too good for that aren't you? I've heard a lot about you. You see, I've been doing some homework. You're a mercenary, a firebender, and native to the Fire Nation, judging by your appearance. The straight black hair, pale skin, and amber eyes tell me that your blood is untainted by the mixing that occurs in the colonies. Yes there are plenty of firebending mercenaries out there, but not too many females. Especially not ones that anyone would have asked to kill me. Now Allamei, tell me, who sent you? Because I can be just as deliberate as the one who gave you this…" I felt him reach from behind me and stroke my scar, through my under shirt, heating up his fingers and adding pressure as he moved downward from my neck. I cried out in agony and he kept going until he reached the end of the burn, at which time he slipped his hand under my shirt and grabbed a patch of unburned skin and heated up his hand even more, causing my vision to blur with pain.

"Now, tell me who sent you to kill me."

"Not a chance." I managed to say through my uneven breathing.

"RRRRAAAHHHH!" He pulled his hand away, but before I could enjoy the relief, he hurled fire at my back. It burned, oh did it burn, and I shrieked in pain. I felt the back of my undershirt burn open, pieces of the flaming fabric falling to the backs of my legs and burning me there too.

"It's a shame really, to ruin you. I can imagine you were quite beautiful before all of this, but you've chosen your fate. Continue to rot in this hell hole of a place. Eventually you'll either die or break. See you in three days…" He exited the room with a mocking wave of his hand; the closing metal door vibrated within my bones. My back was alight with new pain and my sobs echoed inside the chamber.

After he left I realized what I'd done. Not only am I going to starve in here, but he's going to make sure I'm alive as my stomach eats itself and conscious as he burns every piece of me that he can touch. I'm going to die in this room, and it's going to be slow unless I do something about it. The question is, what can I do?