AN: Sorry, we've taken FOREVER to update. We've been super-busy lately! Swim team and band and school musicals and all that nonsense. However, enjoy the chapter!
Also, if anybody is a fan of fairy tales like "Cinderella", "Beauty and the Beast", and "Rapunzel", I (Teresa) have a new story out called The Kingdoms. You can find it on my profile. So far it's received some good feedback, so check it out! :)

Chapter Fifteen

Min liked the forest at night.

It was quiet. Not the dead silence of a town at night, but the lively kind of silence. Quiet movements through the canopies and along the ground, rapid and often deadly.

Her feet were bare, and she held her gold slippers under her arm. One of her hands was in Hiryu's, and another was holding a pair of red flowers that she couldn't remember the name of.

"The clearing should be right up here, if I remember," she said, more to herself than to him.

He didn't say anything, just watching.

"It's strange," she said. "I mean, I only visited this place once in my whole life. But I feel like I know it."

"Maybe that just means we're lost," Hiryu said.

She rolled her eyes. "We aren't lost. The forest isn't even that thick anyway."

Hiryu looked around. "Yeah. We're lost."

"No, we're not. Look, the clearing is right over here." Min led him through the trees and brought it to him. "It's just like I remember."

"This is where..."

"This is where I met them. The group of refugees." She looked around. "I can almost see it. Their campfire and little tents and everything..."

"It's beautiful, Min."

She nodded, taking in the scene. It was dusk, and the blue-orange light illuminated the trees and plants in a way that looked magical.

"This place is wonderful," she whispered.

He didn't say anything.

He just leaned down to kiss her.

Her golden hair whipped the air behind her as she skipped down the streets of the Fire Nation. The sky was clear, without a cloud in sight.

Sweet spring! Aurora thought happily, turning left towards a fountain.

She couldn't wait to tell Min everything. She was so excited and happy, yet she wasn't quite sure why. The entire world just seemed so utterly perfect at that moment! Aurora turned another corner and smiled at some children who ran past her, laughing and kicking a ball as they went. She sighed and continued her walk.

It was only a short while later when she turned a corner and saw a group of men sitting around a table, playing Ma Jong. One of them seemed oddly familiar to the girl.

He had amber eyes and dark brown hair that had begun to gray in places, like most Fire Nation men. The man seemed very concentrated on the game as his friends laughed and drank. The sight of him ran a very unwelcome chill through Aurora's slender frame. This man... Something told her that what she remembered of him wasn't good.

Aurora pondered this, tilted her head slightly as she looked at him. She could almost touch it... A memory that she had forced herself to forget... It was at the edge of her mind when the man sat back, looking satisfied with his move. His eyes met hers only for a moment before Aurora had turned, sprinting the other way in her red attire.

The golden-haired girl only stopped to catch her breath a few minutes later when she was back in front of the fountain. She gulped air into her lungs and looked back, afraid she had been followed. No mysterious man with graying hair appeared. With that, Aurora sat down on the edge of the fountain.

The water behind her seemed to give off a soothing aura that calmed her. It was her primary element. Being near it made her feel... Safe. Protected. That is, until she saw the poster.

It was attached to the building across from her, a picture taking up most of the paper. Slowly, she got up and walked over to it. The image slowly became clearer. Dark hair, even darker eyes. The tan parchment revealed a reward at the bottom. One that even Aurora had to admit bordered on the obscene. Except for this person. As she looked at the name, the girl thought that the price seemed all too low. Aurora would give any amount of money to the person who found her.

Azula, after all, nearly killed the Avatar.