Chapter 1- My Beginning
The village where I grew up was small and was not known to many in the world. The people here were great at hunting and fishing. Being the eldest of my family I guess I've got a lot to live up to. My father was the greatest hunter there was. He hunted seals and giant fish. So we have been living a decent life. My family has been the line that is known for water benders. My grandfather and my uncle were benders. I can only hope that I too will become one like them. Only reason is that in my village, the only thing that a girl is good for is sewing and marrying for wealth. If I were to become a water bender, it would make no difference. I would still be the same old village girl whose father is a hunter. The only reason people eyed me was that they would get married into this family. Too bad I was going to decline them in the end.
My aunt would come up to me after seeing that I had declined many boys offers of marriage at the well saying to pick one for a husband and finally settle down. But, then again, maybe it was just the restlessness in me that says no to settling down. I didn't want to marry. Not yet. I want to find someone who loves me for me. Not just some boy who lives in the next tent that thinks he's better than all the rest. Not to live my life as the mother of six like most women in this village. I was an oddball.
One day my little siblings, Jin Won (second eldest) and Liu (youngest of the family) ran into the kitchen while I was cooking dinner.
"Reina, Reina!" They would call to me unison as they always would. "There's an earth bender in the village!"
"That's nice." I only half listened to their important news that they would always report to me every single day. 'Big deal, an earth bender! It was not like anything exciting ever happened. It would just still be a boring old day after they left just like the days before they came.'
But I didn't know that I would have to lose my father to this visit.
