"I just wanted to be there for Suki." The girl said quietly, "I'm sorry Aunt."

The old woman sighed. "I'm just relieved you weren't hurt. One of the villagers just stopped by and told me that intruders were found on the South beach, they'd gotten past the Unagi but not past the Kyoshi warriors."

"I was at the beach with the Kyoshi warriors!" Yuri said excitedly. "They're Water tibe, one of the girls said they could be spies from a southern tribe raid, but they could be the real thing!"

Hanna looked surprised for a moment, then her face hardened. "I know what you're thinking, and the answer is no."

Yuri was shocked. "But why? They're my people, if they turn out not to be spies, even if they're from the southern tribe--"

"I said no!" The old woman exclaimed. "There is nothing proving that they aren't spies, and if they're from the northern tribe, then they could hurt you! We are fugitives, criminals on the run, sentenced to death by your own—our chief."

"That all happened years ago! I don't expect them to welcome us back with open arms, but I seriously doubt they'd even remember something that happened sixteen years ago!"

"I said no!" Yuri had never seen her Aunt look so angry, and yet there was a hint of great fear in her eyes. "You will stay in the house for the rest of the day, and I will watch you clean the house. This is your punishment for lying, and I won't let you sneak out from under my nose again."

The girl nodded solemnly. She wasn't one to disobey so easily, and did feel rather ashamed of lying to her Aunt; she would take the punishment quietly.

About an hour later Suka stopped by, and told Hanna that the Avatar was on the island. Yuri had been sweeping the kitchen, and listened intently to the two women talk, and almost dropped her broom when she heard the news. The Avatar is alive. She thought. Then that must have been him on the beach. And the others had to be water tribe, they couldn't be spies! She began to sweep vigorously, ready to ask her Aunt permission to see the him.

She heard the door close and Hanna called for her. "I want you to come out to the back yard with me. You can finish sweeping later."

Yuri thought this was as good a time as ever, "Aunt, I—"

"I said no before, and I still mean it now. There are more important things to worry about than the two from the southern tribe. You will practise your bending now." Her face was stone, but just behind the hardness there was that same fear in her eyes, but Yuri didn't feel like it was for the same reason as before.

"I can't, I can't do it." Yuri said, resting her broom against the wall. "I can't make a ripple in a bucket, there's no point in trying, I give up."

"I'm not talking about waterbending."

Her eyes went wide. "Aunt, why—how—no." She said defiantly. "I won't do that, not even on another cricket mouse. There is no use to that power except violence."

"You must learn how to fight."

Yuri stood her ground. She had never defied her Aunt in any way before, and the two had never argued before. This was their second argument in one day, and Yuri felt out of place in a conflict where she was standing against conflict.

"Why should I learn how to fight? What reason do I have to learn?"

Hanna sighed. "We live in times of war, Yuri—"

"On an island uninvolved with the war. We are protected by the Unagi and by the Kyoshi warriors. Not only that but the Avatar has returned and will soon defeat the Fire Nation and bring the world to peace."

"There are things you do not understand Yuri. You didn't listen to all that Suka had to say. The Avatar has been frozen in an iceberg for a hundred years. He is only a child, and hasn't even mastered waterbending yet." The woman sighed heavily. "The villagers do not see what he has brought with him, but once the rest of the world finds out—once the Fire Nation finds out—that the Avatar has returned, this was will get harsher than it ever has. We will lose our Kyoshi Warriors."

Yuri couldn't believe what Hanna was saying. "You can't say that they'll be killed?"

"I don't think that they will die in an attack on the island. That's not what I meant when I said we would lose them. You are Suki's best friend; what do you think she will do when she realises that the entire Earth Kingdom is in more danger than ever because of this war?"

The girl thought, and then she felt faint. Leaning against the wall, she mumbled. "She will leave to the mainland, to help the innocent and do everything she can."

"You know her better than she knows herself. She hasn't yet made the decision because she doesn't know of the danger the rest of the world is in. And she stays for you."

"For me?" Yuri asked, confused.

Hanna nodded. "You are her best friend, and the one who she thinks needs protecting most of all. But you have a great power, enough so that even once the Guardians of Kyoshi Island are gone you will be able to protect us all. It has to be you to convince Suki to leave."

"Why? Why do I have to tell her to do something I don't even want her to do?" Tears had started to pour down the girl's cheeks, but she didn't care. "I don't want Suki to leave me, and I don't want to fight! I just want to be a normal girl, I'd even be all right if I couldn't bend at all, instead of having this curse!" She fell to her knees, tears falling in her lap. "Why did it have to be now? Why did it have to be me? Sometimes I wish you had left me to die, instead of saving my life. I know you did it because you loved my mother and you love me but it's so hard sometimes, I don't want to live with this curse any more."

Hanna knelt next to the girl, putting an arm around her comfortingly. "These are times when we all must do things we wish we didn't have to. You are more important than you could imagine, and I think it's about time I told you about your mother." She stood up and held a hand out to Yuri. "Follow me."

The girl followed, sniffing. She had no idea what Hanna was talking about, but the woman had never spoken of Yuri's mother before except to say that she had died. At least this meant Hanna wouldn't force her to bloodbend.

"You will probably hate me for the things I'm about to tell you, you will hate me for lying about so much, and I do not blame you at all for it. I will say that I did what I thought was best for you, so that you would not grow up resenting your people and your mother and father." Hanna led her into the woman's bedroom, a place that had always been off-limits to Yuri, who had never questioned her Aunt's authority.

"A-are they alive, my parents?" Yuri asked shakily, almost fearing the answer.

"Your mother probably died shortly after you were born, she was much too weak to survive, but your father is alive, though he doesn't know you exist." Hanna pulled out a small chest from her dresser, and handed it to Yuri, setting a small key on top of it.

"What do you mean they don't know about me? If my mother was pregnant with me, wouldn't they have expected me being born? What are you trying to say?" The girl's head was swimming, she stared down on the chest, and then opened it cautiously. Inside was an old cloth, navy blue with a silver crescent moon stitched into it with crystal chips that looked like ice.

"That was the blanket you I wrapped you in when you were born. Your mother was too weak to even push after delivering your sister, who was wrapped in one with the same symbol on it. Your father took your sister to be healed for she was very close to death's door. No one was around to even notice you being born except me, and your mother was delirious from grief, thinking she had lost her only daughter."

Yuri said nothing, just stared at Hanna in disbelief. "Aunt—" She finally managed to say, then she was interrupted.

"I must also tell you this; I am not your aunt. Though it is true I loved your mother very much, and I was as close to her as a sister, which I would have been if her brother had not died before we got a chance to be married. But when you were born, I was only the head healer of our tribe, assisting the Chief's wife as she gave birth to the Princesses, Yue, named for the moon spirit that saved her life, and Yuri, named for the princess' mother, who had passed away."

"I-I'm a princess?" Yuri shook her head. "I have a sister?" She knew repeating Hanna would do no good, but all the other questions she could have asked weren't making themselves clear enough to be spoken out loud.

"I did what I had to. While you might have been born to royalty, the chief would have had no choice but to sentence your death for the safety of his tribe. Love for you might have swayed him if his wife survived, but you would have been hidden forever in the shadows and shunned for your whole life. You would never have had the chance to marry or make friends like you have here. I do not blame you if you hate me, but know I did what I thought was best for your happiness." Then Hanna stood and left the room, leaving Yuri to think about her words.

The old woman went to the kitchen and worked on finishing the sweeping. A few minutes later Yuri walked in, holding the old blanket in her hands. "So this is the royal symbol of the Water Tribe." She said quietly. "I always said that I never wanted to be different, and it looks like I'm even more different than I thought I was." She looked up at Hanna. "I wish I could hate you for the lies you told me, but I also wish you don't ever think that I resent our life here. You are still my aunt, by blood or marriage or whatever, and you have cared for me and saved me from a life that I would have hated even more than now, because I would have been trapped."

"Yuri, my sweet Yuri." Hanna said gently, as the girl threw herself into her arms, hugging her tightly.

"I love you Aunt Hanna."

When they released each other, Hanna looked into the girl's eyes. "I'm sorry I scared you so badly, but I need you to know that things will not be easy for you from now on. You will need to learn to be stronger than any princess of our people has ever had to be. Your line is one of powerful benders, but the women of your line never learned how to use their power. Women are forbidden from learning how to fight, and the princesses never enter the healing areas for any reason." She held the girls arms firmly. "You may not want to be different, you might not want to be special, but you are incredibly powerful and with great power comes great responsibility."

Hanna noticed that something had changed in the girl's eyes. She could see the potential for her power and strength beginning to open just a crack. Eventually Yuri would be able to control that flood of power that would pour out of her, and when that day came she would do things that no one would ever expect.

"When Suki leaves, I'll be able to take over guarding the Island. And when this war is over, I'm going back to the North Pole to meet my sister."

The woman looked at the sky towards the north. "I can only hope that they do not tear you apart, perhaps Yue can protect you from the wrath of our people."