Chapter Four! Never realised how much I like to waste time but after seeing that I've wasted three hours scrolling through sites filled with nothing educational, it's safe to assume I'll probably never pass any exams. But that's ok, because I'll still have fanfiction. Sorry if you think it gets a bit boring with all of Anala's inner turmoil or fast or whatever but things happen in my head and I just write them down. This actually took me a while to figure out how I was going to start it XD And the meeting between Anala and Kai is coming soon, I promise. Also, thank you to all those people who have reviewed/favourited/alerted Book 1 and 2, it makes me happy and excited that people are reading this and like it :) Anyway! Onto the chapter! :D
I don't own Avatar, just Anala and other characters in this story that aren't in the series (since I seem to keep forgetting to mention this)

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She pulled on the dress with her back turned to the mirror. She hesitated for a moment and turned around, looking at how much she'd changed. She'd stacked on some weight making her look less like a skeleton and more like an actual human being. A woman, Ming would tease sometimes after making some snide comment about how she had men already lining up. Anala had glared at her when she said things like that, the events of her past flashing vividly in her mind as if it had happened just the day before. She'd changed mentally and physically but the memories of that night haunted her forever.

She put the red dress on, shaking the memories out of her head and ran her fingers through her soft, shiny hair. She was extremely glad her hair was long again and shining like new. She exited her tent and headed over to Meili's tent, ready for her first lesson. She didn't bother calling out. She'd stopped doing that once Meili had told her several times that she was allowed to just enter. Though on the day, she wished she had called out first.

She stopped short as she entered the tent to see General Lanzo and Meili having a very heated argument. The General's face was red from rage while Meili stood right in front of him, undeterred. What shocked Anala more was the fact that Lanzo's hand was raised high in the air, ready to strike Meili down. The two broke their hard stare and looked at Anala. "Glad you here Kaina," the General said, moving away from Meili. She looked to Meili for a clue on what was going on but the woman just looked down in shame. "I was just discussing with Meili here that from now on she'll be training you how to actually firebend."

"May I ask why, sir?" her eye twitched.

"I wish to have you fight in battle and you'd be pretty useless in my army if you didn't know how to bend. You're training will begin immediately, won't it Meili?" the old General looked at the old woman in a challenging manner. The woman sighed and nodded. "Excellent," he headed towards the door without explaining any further, leaving Anala to stare at him in shock and fear. "And Meili, if you fail to teach her bending I'll have to ask my dear son to teach her. I'm sure Loesan will be more than happy to teach the girl if you aren't." He smirked and disappeared from their sight.

"What is going on?" Anala hissed in fear, looking to the woman who'd become somewhat of a mother-figure to her.

"I'm so sorry Anala, I tried to talk him out of it but he insists. He believes you'd make a great addition to his army. He's seen you bend, he saw while we were out in that meadow one time. He believes if you're trained hard enough, you could be unstoppable." The woman sat in her chair and looked sadly at the girl.

"But I'm just a child; I can't fight in a war. I'm not unstoppable... I'm just me..." she trailed off, hugging her sides. She hated herself for looking so weak at that moment. Meili sighed and walked over to the girl, giving her a big hug.

"I promise I will train you in every way I can, to help you become stronger. You will survive, I'm sure of it," Meili said into her hair. Anala rolled her eyes almost laughing at how little the woman actually knew her. She the hope that had disappeared moments ago was slowly returning. It's survival that has got me this far, she thought. If she hadn't died before she certainly wasn't going to give up, not when she had a few people she'd like to... talk to.

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She grunted as she fell to the ground. The flames swirled around her, threatening to burn her alive but she wasn't going to give in. She breathed in and moved the flames around her, making a sphere around herself to protect her from any further intrusion. "Enough," she heard her teacher say. She extinguished the flames around her and looked to Meili who seemed very tired. The woman wandered over to the rock near the stream and leaned against it. Anala's eyebrows furrowed with worry and she wandered over. "Are you ok?" she asked.

"I'm fine dear. I keep forgetting I'm not as young as I used to be," the woman laughed, patting Anala on the head. "Excellent form might I add, if you ran through it a few more times I'm sure you'd master it perfectly. I just don't think I can do it." Anala went to reply to assure the woman that it was ok and they could just try again the next day but a voice cut her off.

"Maybe I can help." Anala was shocked to see Lamon step from the shadows and smile at them. It was real, genuine smile, not one of the smirks he flashed her frequently. Anala blushed and turned away from him, keeping her eyes in the opposite direction.

"Lamon you are a saint. How do you like that idea Kaina?" Meili smiled at Anala mischievously who blushed even more. Without even waiting for a response, Meili moved from the rock she leaned upon and ruffled Lamon's hair. "Thank you, I'll see you two later." Anala turned to protest but the woman had disappeared into thin air, leaving Anala in the meadow blushing furiously and alone with Lamon.

She wouldn't say she was hopelessly and undeniably in love with Lamon. She did, however, have a very big crush on him. It was something about him that appealed to her but then she wondered whether it was the fact that maybe she was surrounded by middle-aged men most of the time and he was the only one close to her age. Or maybe it was the fact her only other option was Loesan, and she really didn't want to go there. She cringed just thinking about it.

"Are we going fight or what?" she heard Lamon joke. He'd moved into the centre of the meadow and was throwing balls of fire about. She smirked and ran towards him, her thoughts leaving her mind, and bended fire towards him which he barely managed to block in time.

They spent the rest of the afternoon throwing flames back and forth to one another, trying to get a hit in or to create some burns here or there. He'd eventually ran towards her, flames bursting from his hands. They were laughing up until the point where one of the flames had nearly burned her back. She usually wouldn't have been upset about it but the flame had passed so close to the scarred word that was etched on her back, it was way too close for comfort.

As the flame passed, she gasped and flew forward to escape contact. "Hey are you alright?" Lamon asked, approaching her.

"Stay there," she said; her voice full of panic. She couldn't help but overreact. If she had been burned she would have needed medical treatment which would lead to Ming discovering the burn and that damn word. What would people assume? They knew nothing about her. She could imagine them killing her instantly due to the word, assuming that the word was there for a reason.

"Kaina, talk to me," he said, moving closer to her but she backed away, glaring at him. She turned and ran from him and headed back towards camp. She didn't look back and she didn't really want to. She wanted to escape under her covers and hide from the world, but hiding from the world wasn't enough. She wanted to hide from her past.

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There was little oxygen under her blankets but she didn't care. If I'm lucky it'll kill me, Anala thought bitterly. She was in complete darkness. She'd ignored everyone upon her return and went straight to bed like she wanted. Meili had respected this silence and left her alone, an action which made Anala respect the woman even more than she already had. Though, some people didn't seem to get the message.

She knew it was him the moment the tent was opened. She curled inwards, hoping her wouldn't notice her under the sheets but instead he sat on the bed, missing her legs by an inch. "I can still see you, you know," he said matter-of-factly.

Anala dared to poke her head from under the blankets and look at him. He stared at her more like a concerned friend more than a judgmental stranger. He patted the spot beside him and she slowly rose into a sitting position, facing him but with her eyes to her hands which were in her lap. She fiddled with her nails, picking at them nervously. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked gently, his voice barely above a whisper.

She pondered it a moment. Was she ready to talk about her past? Was she ready to reveal all of her darkest secrets to a boy she hardly knew? Was she ready to get the load of her chest? She opened her mouth to say something but quickly shut it. She wasn't ready, and she thought she may never be. "No... no I don't," she said softly.

Instead of hearing a sigh of annoyance he cupped her chin in his hand and forced her to look at him. She blushed furiously, wanting nothing more than to pull away in embarrassment and hide her red face that would have matched the colour of her dress. "That's ok," he said softly, smiling at her. "Just remember though, I'll always be there if you need to talk. I will listen." They stared into each other's eyes a moment longer before Anala broke the contact and looked down at her hands once more, nodding slowly.

"Goodnight," Lamon said, exiting the tent as quickly as he had come. She grabbed at her sheets and pulled them to her chest as she lay back down. She smiled softly and closed her eyes, still wondering whether she should tell him anything or not. She didn't want to get too comfortable with him around, however, remembering how many people had "cared" about her that she had trusted. She grew bitter at the thought of her uncle who was quick in making the decision to end her life and Kai's decision to leave her to the mercy of the soldiers to save her own neck.

Anala was very familiar with people saying things they didn't mean. It was easy for someone to begin an overemotional speech about love and friendship even though, deep down, the feelings of love and friendship were never there to begin with. It was every person for themselves and she was unfortunate enough to have to learn it the hard way and she was not going to let herself fall victim to it again.