Chapter Nine: A Pastry
"No! No! Stop it! Ow! That hurts!" Li cried in pain. She was in a corner of the large playing area for the young air benders. She was crouched into a tiny ball, trying to block the blows that were being brought upon her. She was nine and short for her age.
Li was in a position that she'd been in for years. Hated and hurt. The other air benders that were slightly older than her were kicking and mocking her. One of them who seemed to be the leader was sneering evilly. Tears were rolling down Li's cheeks in her pain.
"You're not one of us!" the boy yelled at her.
Li's hands squeezed into fists. An eye went red with anger. She jumped up, giving him a strong blow in the face. He fell to the ground, not expecting it at all. In a few seconds Li was on him in the form of a jaguar. She roared into his face, scaring the living day lights out of him. She jumped off of him and started to run away.
The others started chasing after her, shouting mean things at her. The words stung her like needles. "You're just a dark bender and that's all you'll ever be!"
"You're just a dark bender and that's all you'll ever be!"
Li thrashed inside her sleeping bag before waking up. She pulled herself out and put a hand on her head. "Oh man… what a horrible dream." Li murmured.
Li stood up and started to walk out of her house. It was early morning, but the other kids were already a buzz. Li admired them as they were always busy- gathering food, repairing houses and building new ones, and training to fight the fire nation.
She held her arms behind her head as she walked, observing everything from a distance. Once again her stomach grumbled, she never ate anything last night. Since Jet and the others had probably eaten all her food, she'd probably have to find it her on her own. She was about to jump off the side of the bridge to get down to the ground when something hit the back of her head.
Li turned around to see what had hit her and saw that it was a pastry. She picked it up and looked at it. She didn't know if it would be safe to eat it so she started to tear it apart, searching for any sign that it was poisoned or anything. It looked fine, so she ate a small piece.
Another one was shot down at her and it hit her head hard. She grabbed it, going through it again. She found a small rock in it. She looked up to where it had come from, but saw nobody. She threw the rock to that spot, hoping she'd hit the criminal.
Li knew the rock hit somebody because she heard somebody go "Ow!" She knew that it was Jet by the sound of his voice.
"Jet!" Li called up at the bridge.
"Um, yeah?" she heard be called back down. Li saw Jet stand up, a b it embarrassed.
"And you did that, why?" Li asked him, her hands on her hips.
"Well, you never got to eat anything last night, so I figured you were hungry." Jet explained.
"And the rock?" Li asked him, her eyes squinted at him.
"There was a rock?" Jet asked her like he hadn't meant for it. He turned around and looked at something Li couldn't see. "Smellerbee!" he yelled at the object. Li figured it was a person.
"Sorry, Jet" somebody replied to Jet. That must've been this 'Smellerbee' person.
Jet turned back to Li. "That wasn't intended." He jumped off the bridge and landed in front of her. She stepped aback; she hadn't expected it. Jet held out a pastry to her. "I'm sorry for last night." He said.
Li took the pastry as if it was a token of friendship. She poked it to make sure there weren't any rocks in it before taking a bite of it. It tasted delicious. It was better than the first one. "Delicious!" she said after finishing it.
"It's from a fire nation supply route. They pamper themselves too much." Jet said to her.
Li nodded. She hated the fire nation just as much as Jet did. Or at least, as much as she thought he did. She hated them for killing all her friends, right in front of her. They could never be forgiven for that. Jet hated them for another reason, a reason Li did not know. Yet.
As Jet was about to walk away, Li asked "Jet, why do you hate the fire nation so much?"
"They killed my parents. I was only eight years old. That day changed me forever." Jet said, not looking back at her.
"When I was fifteen, they raided my home. I barely escaped." Li said, looking away at the trees.
Jet turned to face her. "You mean you're older than fifteen? How old are you?"
"Don't you know it's rude to ask a girl how old she is?" Li said with a frown. She walked off, heading in the direction of the village.
I'm SO SORRY for making you all wait so long. I have to say, I've gotten lazy.
