Arrendi: hehe, I'm still confused at how you can react that much to any story… Except for Elizabeth Kerner's books… THOSE ROCK!
Black Triforce: Now will you tell me what you REALLY think?
b.ofors: Cryptic… wonderful, and I really hope that I can live up to your standards.
ChipmunksUnite: Thank you! I'm glad you do
dancingirl3: This fast enough for you?
TheSilverChakra: Thanks for your help, here's the next chappie.
Well, I tried to make this longer, that's a hard thing for me, to fit enough into a chapter without stopping to early or to late and dragging it on. Hope you guys don't mind too much!
The alluring scent of freshly baked bread filled her thoughts, as she carried her bag of stolen goods. A woolen blanket and several days' worth of clothing lay within. As she slunk through the rows of the markets, when a woman was looked away she reached carefully for a loaf of bread near the edge. She was stopped by the woman grabbing her wrist a mere inch from the bread.
"What do you think you're doing missy?" The older woman asked sternly, a kitchen knife held firmly in her hand. The girl was still wearing her water soaked clothes. She looked down at the ground.
"Please lady, I didn't want to harm nobody, but I haven't eaten in three days and I have no money." She said, her stomach proving her point further.
"I don't appreciate thieves, but I haven't done any good deeds lately, so I'll give you some bread for nothing, but I won't stand for this a second time." The woman said smiling ever so slightly "Besides, I used to be dirt poor, I was lucky to get a meal a day." She laughed as she handed bread to the poor girl in front of her.
"Thank you mistress, I won't forget your kindness." She said bobbing her head excitedly as she gripped the still warm bread for her life and ran off. The old woman smiling watched her all the way.
"She's got a special destiny that one." She muttered turning back around and gathering some more loaves.
"Excuse me, ma'am? How much bread can we get for two copper pieces?" a young girl's voice asked behind her. The woman turned around.
"Two loaves." She said looking over her new customers. There were two water tribesmen, both dressed still in the fashion of their people, and a bald monk looking boy.
"We'll take two loaves then." The girl sighed "Sorry guys, we're going to have to go on rations, I was hoping we could get three." She told her companions as she handed over the money.
"Here you go, thank you for the business." She said, handing over a bag with the bread in it before going back inside.
"Ma'am! Ma'am! You gave us three loaves!" the girl, called Katara, shouted behind the woman, as she looked inside. They waited for a few moments before walking away.
"I think she meant to give us three loaves Katara," the monk boy told the girl "Don't worry about it, she would've come back if she hadn't." he said.
"I just hope that she doesn't lose too much money for it Aang." Katara sighed "What do you think Sokka?" she asked, turning to her brother.
"Honestly, I'm just glad we got some more food. Why couldn't you just use the medal the king gave us? He said it would get us free food and board in the entire earth kingdom." Sokka told his younger sister.
"I didn't want to force her to give us anything Sokka. People don't always have enough to live by." Katara told her brother sternly.
"She is right you know," Aang said smirking ever so slightly, as Momo crawled over his shoulders, hopping from one to the other "But right now I'm more worried about finding someone to teach me firebending, the comet is only a few weeks away and I have to learn it by then." Aang said sadly "I don't think I can do this."
"Of course you can Aang. You're the Avatar, you'll figure it out. I mean, look how quickly you learned waterbending!" Katara said, attempting to cheer him up "look, why don't you and Sokka go and get Appa, I'm going to look around for a few more things we'll need." She pushed them off and waved good bye as she wandered back through the streets, keeping an eye out for anything they might need for the next week or so. She was glancing around at a vegetable stand when she spotted a girl in torn dirty clothes with chestnut hair that was hunched over in a nearby alley. She was slowly eating a bit of bread, shivering when the wind came. Katara walked up to her and knelt down.
"Are you okay?" She asked the girl curiosity streaming her features.
"Yes, and I didn't steal the bread if that's what you meant to ask." She said turning away and eating the food bit by bit.
"I wasn't going to. I'm Katara, what's your name?" She asked gently.
"I'm not a child Katara, but my name is Fiam." She told the girl eating through the bread slowly.
"You're all wet!" Katara suddenly realized "You weren't out in that storm last night were you!" She asked shocked.
"That and every other storm for the past week thank you very much." Fiam replied, obviously annoyed.
"Come on, I might have some dry clothes you could have. They'll be back at camp." Katara said offering the girl a hand. She took it carefully and when she stood up, she was a full head over Katara.
"I can see why you were annoyed when I treated you like a child. How old are you anyway?"
"16." Fiam answered as she followed Katara through the village, past the many colored shops and stalls. They were almost out of the village when a voice rang out over the crowd, causing many to run from it, some people screaming in alarm.
"There's the firebender! Get her!" Katara and Fiam turned almost simultaneously to see the source of the shout. A group of three village men and seven earthbenders were standing at the top of the rise that the two girls had just come down from. Katara snapped her head around wildly searching for the firebender, expecting someone in full armor. She was surprised when she looked next to her to find that her companion had disappeared. A flash of chestnut hair in the alleyway caught her attention and she turned to look as the men came running towards her, but they ran past her. Looking at each other, and yelling angrily.
"She was just here! People do not disappear into thin air!" Who appeared to be the captain shouted at the others, two of them suddenly noticed Katara, who was looking at them curiously.
"What are you looking at?" They demanded angrily.
"I'm sorry; I didn't realize looking was against the law!" Katara said angrily turning to walk away, one of the guards grabbed her arm.
"Stat your business." The taller one stated.
"My friends and I came here to pick up some supplies." Katara said restraining herself from forcing him to let go of her.
"A likely story. I bet you're here to help the firebender, you were talking to her. I saw." The shorter one said.
"I swear! It's the truth!" Katara said exasperatedly, she didn't have time for this "Now would you please let me go? My friends and I are leaving soon."
"Where are your friends?" The tall guard asked her.
"They're at our camp, it's a little ways out of town in the forest, we needed to buy some supplies. They should be packing up to leave right now." She told them, calming herself down, telling her mind over and over that this was just a safety precaution.
"Why didn't you just stay at the inn?" The short guard asked, was he still suspicious?
"We don't have enough money; we just had enough to get some food, that's all." Katara told them. Their captain signaled them to let her go as they walked back to their group, which was now heading back up the rise. Katara sighed and walked away thinking about how rude they had been. It was only when she was out of the village that she heard a rustling in the bushes that caused her to turn abruptly.
"Who's there?" She asked surprised at the sudden noise.
"Katara?" Fiam asked as she crawled out of the bushes, her wet clothes stained with mud, the sack that hung off of her shoulders has several leaves, still wet from the storms, stuck to it.
"Fiam, what were you doing in there?" Katara asked, forgetting that her friend had run away when the guards had spotted the firebender, and told her that she had been talking to the firebender too.
"Hiding," came her simple reply, as the poor girl stood up to her full height.
"You're the firebender?" Katara suddenly shouted in surprise, realizing what her friend was, by putting together the clues around her (normally, Katara wasn't this slow to figure things out, but she had been distracted by anger at the guards and the fact that she had to carry back a lot of supplies by herself.).
"Umm…yeah?" She squeaked, shrinking back down to go back under the bushes.
"You don't support the Fire Nation do you?" Katara asked, suddenly fearing her friend ever so slightly.
"Heck no, I washed up on shore here about 3 years ago after six months out at sea. Can't remember much before that, just vague images really, must have hit my head. Didn't really ever support the Fire Nation, if I did, I don't now. Why do you ask?" Fiam asked as she stood back up. Please don't realize I'm lying, she thought urgently.
"Would you want to help stop them?" Katara asked, suddenly feeling braver.
"How?" Fiam asked shrugging it off as impossible.
"Train the Avatar." Katara whispered to her new friend.
"The Avatar?" Fiam said disbelievingly "The only way I'll believe he's back is if he comes swooping down right no-"
"Hey Katara! Who's your friend?" The monk boy called out as he landed on the ground "Are you ready to go yet? Sokka's waiting with Appa." Aang said as he walked toward them.
"Okay, I'll teach him." Fiam said raising her hands in defeat.
"Teach who what?" Aang asked curiously leaning on his staff happily.
"You Firebending." Katara told him.
"She doesn't look like a firebender." Aang said cocking his head and squinting his eyes at Fiam who glared at him.
"Do you want to learn or not?" She asked angrily, boring holes into the young Avatar.
"I do, it's just, all the firebenders I've seen wear full armor." Aang said, looking Fiam in the eyes.
"Ok then, my name is Fiam. I shall teach you all I know about firebending. Just to warn you, I will not go easy on you."
"I don't expect you to," Aang said grinning widely "I just need to learn this."
"Then we should leave and find a quiet place to train." She told him as the three walked to meet Sokka.
"Who's she?" Sokka asked when he saw Fiam.
"She's Aang's teacher for firebending." Katara told Sokka as they climbed onto Appa who took off as soon as they were all situated.
"She doesn't look like a firebender…" Sokka said cocking his head and squinting his eyes. Fiam giggled at first but then it became full blown laughter, and as she laughed, Katara and Aang joined her and poor Sokka was left in the dark.