Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the last Airbender, i don't even really own my OC...i'm pretty sure judging from my student debt thus far i don't even own myself. Read and review thank you!

It is a beautiful morning today. Well, not that other mornings weren't beautiful too I guess, the rainy ones bring all the pretty smells, the foggy ones bathe the land in a lovely blanket of white but days like these are the best! Thought the bubbly brunette as she regarded the forest around her during her morning walk, no matter where she was, she made sure to take early morning walks to see what the world had to offer her that day, after all seeing the world's beauty was a great way to keep her aura the lovely pink shade so loved.

Arriving in a small clearing she cartwheeled her way forward eventually landing in a sitting position as she watched the small rabbit-squirrels scurry about all the tree line with rapped interest. Her attention was soon caught by the flowers scattered about the clearing in various stages of opening up to the sun's rays colouring the grass in various shades of blue and yellow and with a contented sigh she fell backwards staring up at the early morning sky.

This was probably one of the nicest places the circus had taken her so far, some of the villages they passed through were so run down and miserable that she couldn't wait to leave but Nanjie, the village they had arrived in late yesterday, was one of the oldest and most cultivated of the colonies and was a true example of Fire Nation greatness being spread. Today would be their opening performance during an almost week-long festival and she was practically buzzing with excitement, they had a whole new act featuring panda-wolves that she found just adorable, some new additions to their troupe had an amazing sword juggling show and best of all today was the first time she would put on her new tightrope performance.

Her train of though was suddenly interrupted by a strange buzzing sound…or was it a whining sound? Maybe more of a hum? Yes, that was it, a humming! She concluded about a second before there was a flash from somewhere nearby, if she wasn't so close she wouldn't have seen it. Never one to put self-preservation ahead of her curiosity she decided to investigate.

Is that a man? It had taken her another quarter hour to locate the source of her curiosity and now here she crouched on the edge of a far smaller clearing staring at what she was certain was a man lying, partially hidden, in the long grass. With skill and agility built over years of practice she silently made her way closer to the strange figure but for all her attempts to maintain distance, she was practically standing over him by the time she got a clear look.

The face was younger than she expected, in fact, he couldn't be much older than she was which didn't make sense because the body lying before her was huge; he was one of the biggest people she'd seen…But then again that wasn't the only unusual thing about him. The most noticeable thing was his clothing, she had never seen anything like it before; he was wearing some sort of thin coat with shorts, what was the point of that? The next was his skin colour, she had only ever heard of Water Tribesmen being that dark and last but not least there was the fact he was lying in the middle of a forest after some weird light show in the early morning, normally these things would check all the boxes on a person's 'avoid at all costs' list but then again, Ty Lee was not a normal person and she opted instead to kneel down for a closer look.

Up closer she could see his face was not at all relaxed and having shed many tears in her life, she recognized the drying ones on his cheeks, what happened to you? Where are you fro- her inner dialogue was interrupted by a series of twitches on his face but true to her nature, instead of backing off she bent even closer. The twitches became more and more frequent then suddenly stopped leaving her to wonder if he had awoken or had fallen back asleep, her question was answered as she saw unopened eyes scrunch even further closed and his breathing became forced as if to stop it from shuddering. After a few seconds he stopped suddenly and held his breath causing her to cock her head curiously, one eye peeked open…followed quickly by the other and she found herself staring into a pair of golden eyes, the eyes seemed to regard her for a moment almost dreamily, then clarity shot through them and gave off a sharp, decidedly feminine squeal.

"GAAAH!"

"GAAAH!"

My manly battle cry issues forth as I scramble away from the strange girl hovering over me, where the hell am I? Who the hell is she? And what in the hell is she wearing? The pink clad girl in question still hadn't moved from her position and was still look at me in head tilted curiosity. I take a second to look at my surrounding, this doesn't look like the same clearing as last night, although I guess I wasn't really in an observant mood...oh shit, I hope I didn't just crash out on her property!

"Uhhh – Hi there?" I eventually decide to initiate conversation, after all I may just be trespassing here.

Suddenly she moves with all the speed and grace of a lifelong gymnast, jumping up and cartwheeling into a sitting position right in front of me with a giant grin, "Hi! I'm Ty Lee! What's your name? Where are you from? Your skin is soooo dark!"

Ah…what?

"Erm, I'm Hunter, I'm from just down the road a bit…and I'm a Maori/Samoan mix?" It's not exactly uncommon here…

I could see a bit of confusion in her eyes but her voice was no less jolly as she responded. "Down the road? Are you from Nanjie village? That's where I'm staying!"

Nanjie? What the- what's wrong with this gir-….oooh I see…the excessive happiness, imaginary villages…I'm in the middle of nowhere with a special-needs girl, greeeaaaat just what I need right now. "Ah…yeah, Nanjie, I sorta had a little uh…camp out yesterday? I should probably go back now, maybe we could walk back together?" if I can get her to take me to…uh..nanjie?...probably her day-care place… well at least then I'll know where I am.

"Oh yeah! I should probably go back too now, come on!" she says while rolling backwards and bouncing to her feet, leaving me to scramble up after her.

Today is going to be a long day…

The walk back gave me time to take stock of my situation, in all the confusion yesterday I didn't even take my school bag off, not that I had much in there but it still leaves me with my wallet, iPod, my boom speaker and a pad of refill… no pen, those never seem to make to through the day.

Another thing is that this…forest looks like none that I have ever seen before in Auckland, I can't recognize any of these trees or plants, oh and we have been walking way too long now, there is no way I ran THIS far out. Unfortunately I have not had an opportunity to verify our progress as my lovely guide has been talking non-stop since we left the clearing, she apparently thinks she's in a circus and she really loves something called a panda-wolf…

"So what's a MaoriSamoan?" She asks.

What's this? An opportunity to speak? "It's my mix of nationalities, Maori and Samoan, like different tribes from the pacific" I reply, "Are we getting close? I don't remember taking very long to get there".

"We're almost there, just up through those trees. Ooooh so you are Water Tribe, cool! I've never met a Water Tribe person before! Is the pacific tribe the north or south one? I thought water tribe eyes were blue!"

"I mean the pacific ocean! And what do you mean Water Tri-" What the actual fuck… is pretty much the only thought in my head as I break the tree line and find myself looking at an honest to god village complete with rustic wood and stone houses and, and…is that kart being pulled by an ostrich? Turning my head a little I can also see some giant circus tents surrounded by people in various stages of preparation because fuck me, I'm the crazy one here not little miss perky pink.

"I…This doesn't….what…where the hell am I?" I say, my voice barely above a whisper.

"This is Nanjie village", she replied, her brow furrowed in confusion. "Why? What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?! How can y- Am I still in Auckland?"

"What's an Awkland?" she stepped closer and frowned up at me. "Are you ok? Your aura is all…frizzy"

"What year is it?" I asked choosing to ignore her last question, this is crazy enough without bringing in metaphysics.

"The Year of the chicken-pig"

"I don't believe this…where exactly is this village?"

Now she's looking at me like I am crazy, what role reversal…

"It's a colony of the Fire Nation of course! On the western edge of the Earth kingdom."

Fire Nation? Earth kingdom? Where am I and who's naming these places? "This doesn't make sense…I shouldn't be here, how did I even-" I got that far before my last conscious moments last night came back to me. That voice, it was real? How did it bring me here-why did it bring me here?! Oh…I asked it to, didn't I? Oh god I am so fucked…

Suddenly I felt someone grab my hand, I look down and see Ty Lee has grabbed my hand and is looking at me with concern written all over her face, I guess I must be wearing my thoughts on my face. "Come on! You look like you need a drink!" She insists before tugging on my arm and leading me on towards the circus tents.

You've got that damn right, I've never understood before why people drink, I sure as hell do now.

"Soooo, what does Auckland look like?"

I couldn't help but stare at the pink clad enigma that sat cross legged before me. Seriously?! I just told her I'm from a far off land and was brought here by some magical voice because I asked politely and she believes me?! I don't believe it and I'm living it!

"Really? You believe me?" I asked incredulously.

"Well you're obviously not from here, with your clothes and well everything." She said gesturing at me with both hands, "maybe the spirits brought you here?"

"Uh…ok then… I'm not really sure how to describe it, it's really different. It's a city that keeps going further than you can see with lots of big buildings- oh wait, I can show you" I said, remembering I still had my iPod with me. I heard her gasp of surprise after I pulled it out and flicked my finger across the screen lock. Right, I should probably be careful about who sees this, it'll be another thousand odd years before they have these… Eventually I found the photos I was looking for of me, Joe and Sara into town the weekend of my 16th birthday, I feel my heart constrict as I think of them but shove the thoughts away.

I move to sit beside her and slowly began to flick through the photos explaining the various locations. "This is sort of the main road in the city, it's called Queen Street and it's where you find all the shops and street performers and stuff like that." I said, pausing of a picture with me and a coal miner mime. I flicked across to a picture of me and Sara standing in front of a veritable sea of white sails, "This is the waterfront, they call Auckland the city of sails because of how many boats we have packed in the harbour."

"Wow" she said, not for the first time. This must be to her what meeting and conversing with an alien would be for me. "What is this little thing?" she asked, pointing to the iPod. Right, should probably have explained the magical picture machine.

"This is called an iPod, lots of kids have these where I'm from, it's mostly for music but it also can save uh…images with this little camera here." I replied indicating the little glass circle on the back.

The questions kept coming strong for almost an hour while we half-hid along the tree line behind the circus, I had insisted that we move away from people for obvious reasons and to be honest I rather enjoyed her questioning, it helped me to forget that my life has completely been turned inside out-if only temporarily, It would also seem my first impression of Ty Lee was more than a little off, she was by no means crazy nor was she an air head, in fact some of her questions even had me stumped for answers; no, it seemed she just had this air of innocence around her.

Eventually the question I had been half pondering since we got the village was asked. "What are you going to do now?"

I Sighed, "What can I do? I've never been anywhere like this place before, I have no money, no home..." I sighed, "…what do I do? Join the army?"

She didn't seem to catch my sarcasm, "Oh no no, you don't want to join the army right now, it looks awful", suddenly her eyes widened and she beamed what I'm sure is her signature smile at me. "Oh I know! You can join the circus here!"

The circus?! Well...it's something, "Ty Lee I don't know if there is anything I can do in the circus like you, I'm not exactly the performing type." I say looking at her current position resting of forearms with her back twisted over leaving her legs to dangle down just above her face. This girl is making it very hard for me concentrate.

This didn't really seem to deter her. "There's always something silly! What are you good at?"

"I don't really…well, I can fight? And I can dance, but really only partner dances." I replied, memories of Sara's dance lesson after weeks of her insisting I learn something non-violent flashed by, of course Joe agreed saying it would be good for my training…and because that man was whipped with a capital 'W'. Yet again I shove painful thoughts aside.

"There! You see? There's lots of things you can do in the circus with skills like those! Especially if they're as exotic as you!" With that she rolled off the crate she was perched on and once again I found myself being tugged along by my hand towards the circus.

Oh this girls going to make me blush.

It was only another five minutes of being unceremoniously tugged around before we met the circus master, funnily enough nobody really seemed to give us a second glance; I suppose Ty Lee's antics are well known around here. The Master himself was a short man, barely 5 and half feet tall, which I was starting to think was the norm around here, nobody on the way here seemed normal sized.

"Hey Tze Wei!" she greeted enthusiastically, "this is my new friend Hunter! He wants to join our circus!"

"Uh, hey" I said uncertainly.

The man stopped and looked me up and down. "What's he wearing?" he asked her.

HEY!

"Oh he's just a little foreign, we were talking and I think he'd be just amazing in the wrestling bouts aaaand he can teach some of his native dances and we can have a whole never before seen act!" She fired off, never once dropping her smile… or my arm for that matter.

This girl should take up sales.

The man gave me another look over before stopping with his head arched up to look me in the eye. "Well you would certainly bring in a crowd my friend, where are you from? You look Water Tribe."

"Ah no, I get it all the time though, maybe I had ancestors from there?" I said, it was easier than trying to explain inter-whatever travel.

"Seems likely, alright, we've got a big week starting later today and we can use all the help we can get around here, welcome to the Lǚyóu dài circus my new friend! Ty Lee can explain to you how things work around here and introduce you to the rest." He turned to my now beaming companion, "Ty Lee, when you've both finished up take him to Ming and the boys, they'll show him the routines and show him the ropes."

I soon lost myself in a sea of new faces and strange animals and I couldn't help but wonder just what I have gotten myself into.

A/N

Hey Everyone! really happy with the warm reception :)

So i'm not 100% sure what the etiquette is regarding replying to reviews so unless someone specifies otherwise ill just cover them as a group at the end of chapter.

The original story i had written up years ago was a Ty Lee x OC pairing, i just felt there would be a bit more wiggle room in writing her, however since the story was poorly written and i am re-writing large chunks of it i'm not entirely sure right now as to exactly what will happen, so feel free to pitch in ideas if y'all want :)

I was pretty surprised when I was doing a bit of research and found out how small everyone's supposed to be with zuko being like 5'4 or something like that, although if i think about it, they are a bunch of kids set in a medieval Asian type background so it could make sense...i am a bit ignorant as to the Asian histories.

As for my OC not being familiar with AtLA, i wanted a different story showing the "bad" side and i can't think of another way for him to 'side' with the Fire Nation unless he's completely ignorant and really only experiences the so called "evils" the Earth kingdom and such people will throw his way.

Don't worry, as of next chapter things will finally start up, just had to make sure i was happy with setting it all up.