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"The girl with golden eyes"

Chapter 3/Thieves:

What if you get replaced?

There he is. A little boy with short, light, brown hair, a wide smile, and an arrow on his head. He is smiling at his mother, your mother. He is the son of both water and air… an agreeable combination. Like light, refreshing rain on a hot summer's day. But Water and fire are as different as day and night. They can not combine together without destroying each other.

Your parents don't love you anymore. You don't exist. Could this be the future?

Rei winced in her sleep. Her dreams were no longer filled with happy thoughts, instead only dark foreboding nightmares.

Suddenly an enormous racket pierced the silence of the campsite and awoke everyone from a deep sleep.

"I didn't do it!" Sokka said springing up from his cozy sleeping bag. "What's happening?"

Rei rubbed her tiresome eyes and looked around the still dark campsite. When her vision came to focus again, she saw a husky group of over twenty men surrounding the camp.

"All of you, get up!" One of the dark strangers roared most likely the leader.

"We are the Infamous Black Dagger Thieves of this here forest! Give us all yer money and we won't have to kill you." A skinny guy with a pointy black beard spoke this time. " Correction! We won't have to kill all of you!"

Suddenly a gust of powerful wind blew the thieves a few yards away from the camp.

"Correction! You won't be getting near any of us!" the Avatar yelled while readying Appa for take off. "Come on guys! Let's get out of here."

The group of thieves got back on their feet and ran towards the campsite with their black daggers in hand. Aang blew a few of them back with an air ball while Katara, Rei, Momo and Sokka hastily got on the giant bison. The skinny guy dodged Aang's air attack and snuck up on Sokka and grabbed his feet before he could get on Appa.

"AAAAHHH! HELP!" Sokka screamed frantically as he was pulled down.

Katara quickly opened her canteen and water whipped the skinny guy off. Sokka clumsily crawled back on Appa just before the giant bison took off for the sky. With one last Air blast, they got away before the thieves got any closer. Just as Appa was ten feet in the air, a thrown sharp dagger flew past one of his legs slicing making a tiny cut. The pain made Appa twist and turn in the air, knocking Katara off.

"Katara!" Aang yelled while trying to gain control of the pain filled bison.

"Aang!" The falling girl screamed as she fell ten feet to the ground among the Black Dagger group.

'Oh No!

Without thinking, Rei jumped down on the ground beside Katara and kicked one of the approaching men in the head. The impact caused him to fall over knocking another thief down. Then she twisted to her left and side kicked another man in chest. Sensing a dagger fly towards her from the right, she ducked backwards and caught the knife in mid air and threw it back, pinning her opponent's sleeve to a tree.

"Whoa!" Sokka, Aang and Katara said in unison.

"Get that girl!" The Black Dagger leader shouted at his men.

The whole group charged towards her and Katara, trying to slice them with their sharp weapons. Rei turned and grabbed Katara's hand, then they jumped up and Appa swooped down, catching them before any of the thieves were able to grab a hold of them. As Appa flew back high into the air, they could hear the leader cursing behind them.

Note: Surprised? Well don't be. Rei sounds too nice and timid to fight back? Wrong!

Because Rei is the princess of the fire nation, she has to protect herself from any type of possible danger. Bodyguards were too slow for her energy and she couldn't bend an element, so the next option was martial arts. A martial arts master trained with her for many hours each day, which would explain her skills. It sounds cool but there's a slight problem. Being half fire, her power is controlled by emotion. If her emotions were strong (meaning if she was really happy, angry or determined), then her physical power was strong. But if Rei was depressed or saddened then her physical power is drained and she loses the will to fight. Now back to the story.

"That was amazing!" Aang threw his hands up, while still grabbing Appa's rein. "Sorry Appa! So where did you learn to do that?"

"Well, you know… around…" Rei said sheepishly "Look, It's nothing."

"Yes it was something, Riana! You saved my life!" Katara smiled. "Thank you."

"Oh…you're welcome."

The sun was rising towards the east now and the orange red rays made Rei's eyes glow.

"Hey, Riana, you said you were from an Earth kingdom, right?" Sokka asked, giving Rei a weird look.

"Yes?" Rei's voice shook a little. 'Uh Oh. This can't be good'

"Well, It's just that I have never seen an Earth kingdom girl who has golden eyes and that wears blue and red." Sokka said suspiciously. "And trust me, I know Earth girls."

"Sokka, Suki's just one girl." Aang said.

Sokka crossed his arms. "Hey, I don't miss her! Who said I did? What gave you a crazy idea like that!" (Sniffle)"

"But I didn't say you did"

"Oops…"

Katara placed her hand on Rei's shoulder. "Well, I think it's unique. I have never seen a blue dress with pinkish red sleeves. It's quite fashionable, I like it."

'Hey, you're the one who made this dress.' Rei thought, remembering how happy she was when her mother handed her the new dress to show off on the streets.

"But the colors are sort of fading though…" Katara said, grabbing the silky fabric.

Rei didn't hear Katara. Instead, she was remembering her nightmare.

'I hope it's not true… but Aang's a close friend and well…my father's the enemy. Things aren't looking too good.'

"LOOK! It's Ditenshu! One of the Earth Kingdom's most beautiful cities! Oh isn't it amazing?" Katara's blue eyes grew bigger as they neared the city entrance.

"Yeah, yeah, wake me up when we get there." Sokka dosed off. "ZZZZZZZZZZZ"

Ditenshu was in fact a very beautiful city by the sea filled with tall green buildings that touch the sky. It was also filled with many shops, restaurants, houses and impressive architecture. But the thing that made this city wonderful was that it was full of earth benders which was exactly what Aang was looking for, a good earth bending teacher.

"Cool! I can't wait till we get there! Let's find an Earth bender who can teach me and then we can look in the market for interesting 'curios' and bending scrolls!" Aang said excitedly.

"We can't stay too long, we still have a mission." Katara said in a serious tone.

"Huh?" Rei asked.

"Oh, we have to get Aang to the North Pole and he also needs to master all four elements before summer so we can bring peace back to this land."

'Oh yeah… that thing!'

"But we would be going faster if that stupid prince didn't chase us all the time." Sokka sat up from his sleep. "Man, you guys talk too loud. Are we at that city yet?"

"Yes! We're here!"

Appa flew near the city gates and dropped them off.

"See you later, buddy!" Aang waved to Appa as he flew away towards a small meadow on the outside of the meadow.

The four of them entered the city and was amazed at the beautiful city filled with people, animals and buildings.

"WOW!" They all gasped "Its magnificent!"

"FISH HERE! Get YER FISH!"

"CORN! SWEET WHOLESOME CORN! 2 COPPER PIECES!

The streets were already bumbling with activity and pizzazz and crazy venders. It was amazing that it all started before noon.

"Man! I am soooo hungry! I need FOOD!" Sokka complained. "It's okay stomach, I understand your pain! Hey, can we buy some food?"

Aang took out their money pouch but noticed that there was only one copper piece inside.

"Uh guys, I have some bad news. We only have one copper piece left and we still have to buy all of our supplies back."

"Oh man. I totally forgot we abandoned our supplies when those thieves were chasing us." Katara said with all of the happiness drained out of her.

"Does this mean no food!" Sokka yelled frantically. "We're going to starve!"

"Um, I have some money." Rei said as she took out a red satchel from her pocket. "It's not a lot but it'll help."

"Not a lot! There's like five silver pieces and two gold pieces in here!" Sokka said while examining Rei's satchel. "Where did you get all this money?"

Rei couldn't say it was Great Uncle Iroh's tea money and how could a regular peasant girl get her hands on so much money so…

"Uh, I took it from the thieves when they weren't looking." Rei lied.

"Hey, didn't Katara do something like that before?" Aang asked.

"Oh yeah I remember! That was funny, but you got us in sooo much trouble with those pirates!" Sokka laughed while crossing the street. "I'm going to get some food!"

"Whatever." Katara said annoyed by Aang and Sokka. "Look Riana, why don't you keep some of this money for your family and yourself. We'll manage… somehow. Speaking of family, we have to return you to your home."

'Oh jeez, what have you gotten yourself into! See, lying never solves anything but you can't really tell them the truth.'

"Katara, there is something I have to tell you." Rei said as she grabbed Katara's arm. "I...I...really don't have a family. I'm an orphan. I only said that I had a family in Ditenshu because I thought lying to myself about them being alive would make me feel better, but I was wrong. Now I'm all alone in this world."

"I stink at lying and it always makes things so complicated!" Rei thought, frustrated.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Katara said sympathetically and hugged Rei. "Sokka and I lost our mother. You can stay with us for now…if you want."

"Thank you"

'Hey, maybe lying isn't so bad.'

"Hey look! I got Pie!" Sokka yelled as he walked across the street towards Katara and Rei. "Hey, where's Aang? Is he wasting our money again?"

Actually, Aang was standing a few yards away talking to a cabbage salesman.

"Look baldy, are you going to buy some of my cabbages or not?"

"I dunno… Are you sure its fresh?" Aang asked trying to look like a professional customer.

"Best cabbages around! I travel the world with my famous cabbage cart. Just ask the people at Omashu."

"Gee…"

"Hey Aang!" Rei was running towards him. "Katara says we have to go!"

"Ah! Little girl! Would you like to buy some cabbages?" the cabbage man said eagerly.

"Um, no"

"Come on! They're fresh!"

"No"

"It's cabbagey!"

"No thank you."

"Please! I beg you! Buy some cabbages! I'm having a bad business day!"

"Uh, no thanks"

"PLEASE! BUY A CABBAGE!" The salesman desperately yelled, holding a cabbage up t Rei's face.

Suddenly Rei's crankiness from not getting enough sleep and the thief attack caught up with her.

"I SAID NOOO! I DON'T WANT ONE OF YOUR CABBAGES SO LEAVE ME ALONE!"

The vibration from Rei's angered voice made one of the bottom cabbages to fall off the cart, which eventually caused the other cabbages on top of it to fall off too. (All of those poor, helpless, green and innocent vegetables.)

"AAAHH! MY CABBAGES! You Crazy girl!" The cabbage guy had steam coming out his ear.

"Oops, let's get out of here!' Aang said running towards Katara and Sokka.

As Aang and Rei caught up with the other two, they turned a sharp corner and wounded up in a peaceful part of the market in front of a curio store.

"Hey! Maybe there's something interesting in there!" Katara said pointing at the sign. 'World Magic Items.'

"Yeah! Let's go in!" Aang rushed in excitedly. "This has to be better than dealing with the wrath of the Cabbage man."

"I'm going to ask if they have a bathroom! Too many pies!" Sokka said rushing in after Aang.

"You don't mind if we have a look inside do you, Riana?" Katara asked nicely.

"Oh, It's okay. I'll wait outside." Rei said.

"We won't take too long. Be careful and don't wonder off."

Rei watched as Katara walked into the store.

'Whew, that weird cabbage man. I hope I never see another cabbage in my life'

Perhaps Rei had spoken too soon when a voice behind her said: "Hey, you!"

Annoyed by the fact that it could be the cabbage seller trying to sell her more veggies, Rei turned around and shouted at him.

"LOOK Cabbage MAN! I'M SORRY ABOUT YOUR CABBAGE CART BUT YOU HAVE TO STOP BUGGING ME AND GO AWAY! I DON'T WANT TO BUY ANY OF YOUR CAB-

Rei froze when she found out whom she was yelling at.

It wasn't the cabbage seller, it was prince Zuko.