I swept my dark hair behind my ear and blew out through my lips, concentrating. I had to hit the target. I'd been practicing for so long it was nearly nerve-wracking now. I put my left leg behind me and bent my knees into fighting position. Three, two, one!
I lashed out with my fist and a burst of flames flew out, smashing into the tree, lighting it on fire. My left leg came up next, kicking a flame of fire as I twirled in midair and kicked more fire from my right foot, followed by two more punches, and I landed hard on my feet, breathing heavily. Perfect.
I tied my long dark Fire Nation hair into a ponytail and rolled my shoulders. I had to lay low, stay quiet.
Only a few people knew my secret. See, I lived in the Northern Water Tribe. But there was a slight problem.
I put my leather bag over my shoulder and straighted down my blue fur coat water tribe clothing and headed back to a more populated area.
There was something strange about me. People probably wouldn't understand If I told them straight on, so I usually explained my background a little bit.
My father was from the Fire Nation. He was a royal guard for the Fire Lord, but he somehow escaped after he learnt that Ozai had to kill his son, Prince Zuko, by the orders of Fire Lord Azulon. I never really understood what happened. No one ever explained the whole story.
So my father came here, undercover, and nobody knew he was from the Fire Nation for a long time.
Then he met my mother.
She was from the Water Tribe, of course, and she was a water bender. Beautiful; so they told me. But he never told her that he was a fire bender till they were married because he was afraid she'd leave him.
She didn't.
She said it never mattered; or that's what my grandmother told me at least.
And then I was born. Grandmother said I was all they could wish for, and they were happy for many more years.
Somehow word got out, that a soldier from the Fire Nation who worked for the Fire Lord had been living in the Water Tribe for years, unknown. And they figured out it was my father. He'd been the only newcomer for years, so they suspected it was him.
He was banished. Feeling betrayed by my mother, thinking she was the one who told, he left. When she found out, she was devastated, and left three- year-old me with my grandmother- her mothe-rwhile she went to find him. But what she didn't know was that there were fire benders sent from Fire Lord Ozai were awaiting her outside the walls of the peaceful, protected Nation of Water.
She was captured. The Water Tribe was furious because they thought they had been betrayed by my father, but as they went out to attack, they realized my father had been captured along with my mother.
They were sorry, realizing they'd made a grave mistake and my father was no traitor, but nothing could change what had happened.
I begged my grandmother to tell me their story but she refused many times, her eyes tearful and full of sorrow. Finally, she agreed to tell me on my birthday this year; twelve years after I was left with her, no one knowing that I would never see my parents again.
That's why I was here; taking all my anger out on the only frozen trees left in the water tribe, and now they were nothing but ashes.
I usually took out my anger by fire bending, and as you may have been able to tell later on, I fire bended a lot.
I continued my walk back to our little ice hut and smashed open the door, letting it shut with a loud bang. Gran didn't turn around, her back towards me, knowing I was in one of my moods again.
"How was your walk?" she asked calmly, washing dishes in a bucket.
"Great," I mumbled, throwing my knapsack onto an old, creaky chair and pulling off my giant fur coat. It was starting to snow outside.
"What did you do?" she asked casually, setting a plate down and picking another one up, scrubbing it with a towel.
"Oh, you know the usual, burn down some trees..." I said, strapping my boots on tighter. I wasn't going to stay at home.
Now this whole coversation might've been giving a person the wrong idea. I loved my Grandmother and she loved me a lot. But some days, the same for anyone else, we didn't get along. We usually did, but there were those few days every month we couldn't bear to stay under the same roof with each other.
Suddenly, the bucket Gran tried to lift up tipped over and spilled. My instant reflexes kicked in and I thrust my hands forward, the water freezing and spilling back inside, smoothly, like a water bubble.
Yeah, that was that strange thing about me.
I could bend two elements.
