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Description
The air was calm, not shattered by the world uses or sounds of machines. The Air Nomads life was not connected to worldly objects, but by separating themselves from them, they could calmly react to anything. Bison flied through the air making a sort of a tuba sound as they ate the grassy bushes off the side of the mountain. Air Nomad children played around while blasting each other with air, some played with flying lemurs while others practiced their air bending. The older adults, the Monks who were head of the Air Temple, walked around keeping the peace while discussing about the training sessions the kids have. When suddenly a faint scent of ash hung in the air. Rumbling came next as though the mountain was going to break apart and collapse. Suddenly fire benders and soldiers started climbing the mountain trying to reach the top of the temple where the monks and air benders were. The air was now tense as they had no idea what to do, once reaching the top, soldiers and fire benders started attacking everyone, leaving the temple floor shining from red liquid. The children started running away, yelling and screaming, pleading for someone to save them or for them to go away. By now the sky was red as if a sunset was going down. The air benders were no match and powerless against the fire benders. The Temple was up in flames, as what little was left of life was a small leaf burning up in flames.

Waking up from the horrible nightmare, the girl sat quickly up in her bed and started panting from shock. She looked down at her hands and placed her head in them. It was nighttime and the little light that shown through the room was from the moon. The red drapes appeared black during the nighttime, they flapped as the wind picked up. The girl went over to the window and closed them, calming herself of uneasiness. She gave a sigh of some sort of relief "Get a hold of yourself, Rin." She calmly went over to her dresser and looked herself in the mirror, her hair went straightly over one eye and she had a bad bed head. She combed her hair and straightened it out, her black hair seemed to glow with the moons light. She gave a forced smile at the mirror and walked out of her room. The long hallways looked eerie with the wind howling and the red drapes flapped more. She walked out to a small garden that her family had, a small pond was in the middle surround by cherry blossoms and lily pads. She sat down, crossed her legs and closed her eyes, she breathed some air. "What are you doing?" She quickly reopened them and turned around, a young man about her age stood behind her. He had a red tunic on with red baggy pants, his hair was spiked up in the front of his hair, his brown hair seemed to look darker in the moonlight, he had his hands crossed in front of his chest and his expression seemed emotionless. "Hey Zang...." She softly said, acting like she wasn't suspicious of anything "I was just uhhhhh... Looking at the pond... Heh." She nervously laughed and scratched the back of her head. Zang sighed and sat next to her looking down at the pond, "You worried about the finals tomorrow?" "..... No." "You hesitated." "So?" "Which means you are worried." Rin looked down at the pond and stared at the reflection of the moon, "You want to be captain don't you? Your pretty skilled in firebending, and your famous among the Royal family, so what's wrong?" Zang put his hand on her shoulder. Rin seemed to stare down at the pond without blinking, her face seemed to show fear and sadness. "Rin?" Her brother spoke, he shook her lightly, Rin shook her head and looked at him "Wha-!? Huh?!" His face went from worried to plain annoyed "You weren't responding to me." She blinked once "Oh... Sorry..." "You sure your ok?" "Hmph, yeah." She gave a forced smile and stood up, her brother as well getting up. "You know, your the weirdest sister ever." He commented. Rin gave a laugh and punch him lightly on the shoulder "Whatever! Shouldn't you be going to bed?" "Shouldn't you?" "Hmm, your right, but I'm gonna stay up, practice for tomorrow." "Don't stay up too long, mom and dad will get angry." "Thanks for the tip, but I'm sure I can handle it" Zang gave a smirk before going back to the house and out of the garden. Rin watched him go back before turning around, she clapped her hands together, closed her eyes and breathed in the fresh air. Suddenly she reopened her eyes, they seemed to gleam even more gold, she then swung her right arm forward, as fire flashed out.

Rin's fist had almost hit the other firebenders left cheek, with the her fire emitting from her fist, it just added more fear to the young man she was fighting. Rin was dueling against another skilled firebender in the outer court yard of the Royal Palace of the Firelord. Many had come to see the duel against both firebenders, Royals, families, friends. The place was decorative with red dark banners and confetti was on the floor from the start of the match, people cheered and shouts were heard from the crowd.

Fire Lord Azulon sat at his throne with his wife and children sitting next to him, he seemed to enjoy the violent battle. Rin took a quick look at the Fire Lord to see if he was watching her, both of their eyes met for a split second before her opponent thrust his fist forward making fire burst out of his knuckles, realizing she was distracted she quickly ducked down, barely missing his blow. She made a quick spin around and tripped him making him fall backward, she then made an attempt to knee kick him in the stomach, but he rolled backward and got to his feet. She cursed the air and stood her ground

"Damn, this battle has gone for three hours! I have to knock him out before I get exhausted." She looked towards the crowd to see if her family was around. She spotted them, just to the right, her brother, father and mother were watching her. She suddenly remembered a time when she was training with her brother "Boys will always try to look tough, find a weakness" she smirked, not realizing she even did, the other firebender called out to her "What's that look on your face?!" She stopped smirking and looked up at him "Oh! Your still there?" She gave a laugh, she was bad at jokes. The boy grew irritated, charged at her and thrusted his left leg toward her gut. She simply dodged it, ducked down, mustered up all her strengthened and forward flipped. His chin ate boot and he fell backwards, his body skidded a few feet away from her. She ran over to him, and stood her ground.

The Fire Lord stood up and put his hands behind his back "Finish him." Hearing the Fire Lord talk to her, she turned her head over to him. Her eyes quickly turned to the young firebender at her feet "But sir.... If anymore he..." "I said do it." His quiet posture and straight face spread fear through Rin's body, sweat starting going down her brow, even though she stood her ground, her fist shook. She wanted this position so badly

"Finish him"

"You want to be captain don't you? Your pretty skilled in firebending, and your famous among the Royal family, so what's wrong?"

"Thanks for the tip, but I'm sure I can handle it."

"You worried about the finals tomorrow?"

Rin's head started hurting from the memories in her head, she wanted this position! But at the cost of another's life... "Finish him, Rin." The Fire Lord said her name, she clenched her fist even tighter, making it turn red. "What do I do?! What am I doing?! DO IT NOW RIN!!!" She slowly jerked her arm back.

"RAAAAAWWWWRRRR!!!! With a hurtful yell she swung her arm forward and down at the young man beneath her. Fire erupted on the arena, so great the crowd around had to stand back from the fire. As it all went down, Fire Lord Azulon had a smile on his face, as he watched her being slowly corrupted. Once the fire had died down, everyone stared at the arena, no words could describe what had happened, if you had asked one of them, they might have said the girl was in excruciating pain. Rin's chest heaved up and down, sweat fell down her cheek, she seemed to still be in her fire bending stance, staring down at the now burned corpse.

The Fire Lord simply smiled and raised his hand "Rin, come over here." She looked over to him and back at the dead corpse, she slowly walked over him. Her shoulder seemed to hurt, maybe she had sprained it? Using her other arm, she laid her hand on her shoulder to ease the pain. As she made her way through the crowd, they seemed to let her through and stare at her, as if she was some freak of nature. She looked back and forth at the crowd, some of the kids that were in the crowd seemed to hug their mom whenever she looked at them, which made her seem even worse, as if killing someone wasn't worse. As soon as she got to the Fire Lord she bowed in front of him and he nodded he then went to the crowd to speak, she turned around and stood next to him "Now this is what we need! A fresh new and fierce captain! Everyone..." He looked over at Rin, she stared at the crowd "Meet your new Captain of the Royal Guard!" Everyone then cheered Rin's name, some of the children started messing with the confetti and adults cheered. But the cheers sounded more forced, no one was really cheering for her, they had to, they had to please the Fire Lord.

The Fire Lord went over to some servants and grabbed what seemed to be a royal chest plate, one that only a captain or someone important would wear. It was red-black, gold outer lined it, and a small fire nation sign was in the front. He went over to Rin with it and put it over her head and on her shoulders, it fit. As if it was made for her. She bowed to him "Thank you." He put a hand on her shoulder, the bad shoulder, and squeezed it, she flinched a little. "Make me proud." To Rin's ears his words seemed like a threat but she put those thoughts into the back of her mind. Rin and the Fire Lord turned around towards the crowd to get more cheers, she looked down and frowned, guilt building up on the inside.

Afterwards some of the crowd had gone and she rejoined with her family. Her brother was the first to see her along with both her parents. Rin's parents were both middle aged, her father was a chubby man, jolly too, he loved to drink tea, which was his passion. Her mother was a short women, not as chubby as her father but fairly some what. Her brother slapped her on the bad shoulder and laughed "You just had to.." She frowned at him, very annoyed "Yeah." He admitted. Her father put his hand on her good shoulder and smiled "You made us proud out there." She looked down and smiled "Thanks dad.." Her mother gave her a hug "Tonight to celebrate we will have roast duck." "Sounds delicious." Her father commented. They all started to laugh. "Am I interrupting?" The family all turned around to see a young women, about Rin's age, she wore the normal Fire Nation robe, her hair in a bun, and her eyes were like daggers. Rin rolled her eyes "Agni, kill me now." She thought to herself, "I saw that roll of the eyes, weasel." She looked over to her "Stop calling me weasel, Meili!" She shouted at her. Zang walked over to her and put a shoulder around Meili and kissed her cheek, Rin stuck her tongue out and pretended to gag. Her father slapped Rin on the back making her jump "Some day you'll find someone too." "I would rather die first." Meili smiled "That might happen." Rin turned her head over to her, already irritated by her presence "Was that a threat?!" "Maybe." Zang jumped in between them, "Now, now... We should probably get home, the sun is setting quickly." Zang was right, the sun was setting, the sky seemed red as if it was on fire. "Fine..." Rin turned around and led the way home.

After everyone had finished eating Rin went to her room and put the chest plate above her dresser. She smiled a little and sat down on the floor, she just stared at the plate and smirked "Ya did it Rin..." But then she remembered what she did to the young firebender who had suffered to her blow. She gave a sigh, layed down and closed her eyes. She tried thinking of happy thoughts until she heard a knock at the front house door. She heard her mom go to get the door, an old mans raspy voice was heard "Is this Rin's home?" She grunted and got up, must be another fan or something, she heard her mom talk to him but nothing important popped up. She went other to her mom and looked out the door "Yes?" The man outside was one of the Fire Sages, this was rare, not everyday do you see a Fire Sage at your door step. "I didn't even do anything... Yet." she thought to herself "I have come with urgent news." The man spoke, "Is Rin in trouble?" Her mother asked, quickly looking at Rin then back at the Sage "No," the man chuckled "quite the opposite." Rin crossed her arms, soon her brother, Meili, and her father came behind her. "I have come to tell you that Avatar Roku has visited me in a dream..." "What does this have to do with me?" Rin asked "Well, he has told me that he wants you and some others to stop the coming war, he wants you to stop the Fire Lord." Rin's face showed confusion and everyone in the house seemed the same "Wait... What?"

Description
The air was calm, not shattered by the world uses or sounds of machines. The Air Nomads life was not connected to worldly objects, but by separating themselves from them, they could calmly react to anything. Bison flied through the air making a sort of a tuba sound as they ate the grassy bushes off the side of the mountain. Air Nomad children played around while blasting each other with air, some played with flying lemurs while others practiced their air bending. The older adults, the Monks who were head of the Air Temple, walked around keeping the peace while discussing about the training sessions the kids have. When suddenly a faint scent of ash hung in the air. Rumbling came next as though the mountain was going to break apart and collapse. Suddenly fire benders and soldiers started climbing the mountain trying to reach the top of the temple where the monks and air benders were. The air was now tense as they had no idea what to do, once reaching the top, soldiers and fire benders started attacking everyone, leaving the temple floor shining from red liquid. The children started running away, yelling and screaming, pleading for someone to save them or for them to go away. By now the sky was red as if a sunset was going down. The air benders were no match and powerless against the fire benders. The Temple was up in flames, as what little was left of life was a small leaf burning up in flames.

Waking up from the horrible nightmare, the girl sat quickly up in her bed and started panting from shock. She looked down at her hands and placed her head in them. It was nighttime and the little light that shown through the room was from the moon. The red drapes appeared black during the nighttime, they flapped as the wind picked up. The girl went over to the window and closed them, calming herself of uneasiness. She gave a sigh of some sort of relief "Get a hold of yourself, Rin." She calmly went over to her dresser and looked herself in the mirror, her hair went straightly over one eye and she had a bad bed head. She combed her hair and straightened it out, her black hair seemed to glow with the moons light. She gave a forced smile at the mirror and walked out of her room. The long hallways looked eerie with the wind howling and the red drapes flapped more. She walked out to a small garden that her family had, a small pond was in the middle surround by cherry blossoms and lily pads. She sat down, crossed her legs and closed her eyes, she breathed some air. "What are you doing?" She quickly reopened them and turned around, a young man about her age stood behind her. He had a red tunic on with red baggy pants, his hair was spiked up in the front of his hair, his brown hair seemed to look darker in the moonlight, he had his hands crossed in front of his chest and his expression seemed emotionless. "Hey Zang...." She softly said, acting like she wasn't suspicious of anything "I was just uhhhhh... Looking at the pond... Heh." She nervously laughed and scratched the back of her head. Zang sighed and sat next to her looking down at the pond, "You worried about the finals tomorrow?" "..... No." "You hesitated." "So?" "Which means you are worried." Rin looked down at the pond and stared at the reflection of the moon, "You want to be captain don't you? Your pretty skilled in firebending, and your famous among the Royal family, so what's wrong?" Zang put his hand on her shoulder. Rin seemed to stare down at the pond without blinking, her face seemed to show fear and sadness. "Rin?" Her brother spoke, he shook her lightly, Rin shook her head and looked at him "Wha-!? Huh?!" His face went from worried to plain annoyed "You weren't responding to me." She blinked once "Oh... Sorry..." "You sure your ok?" "Hmph, yeah." She gave a forced smile and stood up, her brother as well getting up. "You know, your the weirdest sister ever." He commented. Rin gave a laugh and punch him lightly on the shoulder "Whatever! Shouldn't you be going to bed?" "Shouldn't you?" "Hmm, your right, but I'm gonna stay up, practice for tomorrow." "Don't stay up too long, mom and dad will get angry." "Thanks for the tip, but I'm sure I can handle it" Zang gave a smirk before going back to the house and out of the garden. Rin watched him go back before turning around, she clapped her hands together, closed her eyes and breathed in the fresh air. Suddenly she reopened her eyes, they seemed to gleam even more gold, she then swung her right arm forward, as fire flashed out.

Rin's fist had almost hit the other firebenders left cheek, with the her fire emitting from her fist, it just added more fear to the young man she was fighting. Rin was dueling against another skilled firebender in the outer court yard of the Royal Palace of the Firelord. Many had come to see the duel against both firebenders, Royals, families, friends. The place was decorative with red dark banners and confetti was on the floor from the start of the match, people cheered and shouts were heard from the crowd.

Fire Lord Azulon sat at his throne with his wife and children sitting next to him, he seemed to enjoy the violent battle. Rin took a quick look at the Fire Lord to see if he was watching her, both of their eyes met for a split second before her opponent thrust his fist forward making fire burst out of his knuckles, realizing she was distracted she quickly ducked down, barely missing his blow. She made a quick spin around and tripped him making him fall backward, she then made an attempt to knee kick him in the stomach, but he rolled backward and got to his feet. She cursed the air and stood her ground

"Damn, this battle has gone for three hours! I have to knock him out before I get exhausted." She looked towards the crowd to see if her family was around. She spotted them, just to the right, her brother, father and mother were watching her. She suddenly remembered a time when she was training with her brother "Boys will always try to look tough, find a weakness" she smirked, not realizing she even did, the other firebender called out to her "What's that look on your face?!" She stopped smirking and looked up at him "Oh! Your still there?" She gave a laugh, she was bad at jokes. The boy grew irritated, charged at her and thrusted his left leg toward her gut. She simply dodged it, ducked down, mustered up all her strengthened and forward flipped. His chin ate boot and he fell backwards, his body skidded a few feet away from her. She ran over to him, and stood her ground.

The Fire Lord stood up and put his hands behind his back "Finish him." Hearing the Fire Lord talk to her, she turned her head over to him. Her eyes quickly turned to the young firebender at her feet "But sir.... If anymore he..." "I said do it." His quiet posture and straight face spread fear through Rin's body, sweat starting going down her brow, even though she stood her ground, her fist shook. She wanted this position so badly

"Finish him"

"You want to be captain don't you? Your pretty skilled in firebending, and your famous among the Royal family, so what's wrong?"

"Thanks for the tip, but I'm sure I can handle it."

"You worried about the finals tomorrow?"

Rin's head started hurting from the memories in her head, she wanted this position! But at the cost of another's life... "Finish him, Rin." The Fire Lord said her name, she clenched her fist even tighter, making it turn red. "What do I do?! What am I doing?! DO IT NOW RIN!!!" She slowly jerked her arm back.

"RAAAAAWWWWRRRR!!!! With a hurtful yell she swung her arm forward and down at the young man beneath her. Fire erupted on the arena, so great the crowd around had to stand back from the fire. As it all went down, Fire Lord Azulon had a smile on his face, as he watched her being slowly corrupted. Once the fire had died down, everyone stared at the arena, no words could describe what had happened, if you had asked one of them, they might have said the girl was in excruciating pain. Rin's chest heaved up and down, sweat fell down her cheek, she seemed to still be in her fire bending stance, staring down at the now burned corpse.

The Fire Lord simply smiled and raised his hand "Rin, come over here." She looked over to him and back at the dead corpse, she slowly walked over him. Her shoulder seemed to hurt, maybe she had sprained it? Using her other arm, she laid her hand on her shoulder to ease the pain. As she made her way through the crowd, they seemed to let her through and stare at her, as if she was some freak of nature. She looked back and forth at the crowd, some of the kids that were in the crowd seemed to hug their mom whenever she looked at them, which made her seem even worse, as if killing someone wasn't worse. As soon as she got to the Fire Lord she bowed in front of him and he nodded he then went to the crowd to speak, she turned around and stood next to him "Now this is what we need! A fresh new and fierce captain! Everyone..." He looked over at Rin, she stared at the crowd "Meet your new Captain of the Royal Guard!" Everyone then cheered Rin's name, some of the children started messing with the confetti and adults cheered. But the cheers sounded more forced, no one was really cheering for her, they had to, they had to please the Fire Lord.

The Fire Lord went over to some servants and grabbed what seemed to be a royal chest plate, one that only a captain or someone important would wear. It was red-black, gold outer lined it, and a small fire nation sign was in the front. He went over to Rin with it and put it over her head and on her shoulders, it fit. As if it was made for her. She bowed to him "Thank you." He put a hand on her shoulder, the bad shoulder, and squeezed it, she flinched a little. "Make me proud." To Rin's ears his words seemed like a threat but she put those thoughts into the back of her mind. Rin and the Fire Lord turned around towards the crowd to get more cheers, she looked down and frowned, guilt building up on the inside.

Afterwards some of the crowd had gone and she rejoined with her family. Her brother was the first to see her along with both her parents. Rin's parents were both middle aged, her father was a chubby man, jolly too, he loved to drink tea, which was his passion. Her mother was a short women, not as chubby as her father but fairly some what. Her brother slapped her on the bad shoulder and laughed "You just had to.." She frowned at him, very annoyed "Yeah." He admitted. Her father put his hand on her good shoulder and smiled "You made us proud out there." She looked down and smiled "Thanks dad.." Her mother gave her a hug "Tonight to celebrate we will have roast duck." "Sounds delicious." Her father commented. They all started to laugh. "Am I interrupting?" The family all turned around to see a young women, about Rin's age, she wore the normal Fire Nation robe, her hair in a bun, and her eyes were like daggers. Rin rolled her eyes "Agni, kill me now." She thought to herself, "I saw that roll of the eyes, weasel." She looked over to her "Stop calling me weasel, Meili!" She shouted at her. Zang walked over to her and put a shoulder around Meili and kissed her cheek, Rin stuck her tongue out and pretended to gag. Her father slapped Rin on the back making her jump "Some day you'll find someone too." "I would rather die first." Meili smiled "That might happen." Rin turned her head over to her, already irritated by her presence "Was that a threat?!" "Maybe." Zang jumped in between them, "Now, now... We should probably get home, the sun is setting quickly." Zang was right, the sun was setting, the sky seemed red as if it was on fire. "Fine..." Rin turned around and led the way home.

After everyone had finished eating Rin went to her room and put the chest plate above her dresser. She smiled a little and sat down on the floor, she just stared at the plate and smirked "Ya did it Rin..." But then she remembered what she did to the young firebender who had suffered to her blow. She gave a sigh, layed down and closed her eyes. She tried thinking of happy thoughts until she heard a knock at the front house door. She heard her mom go to get the door, an old mans raspy voice was heard "Is this Rin's home?" She grunted and got up, must be another fan or something, she heard her mom talk to him but nothing important popped up. She went other to her mom and looked out the door "Yes?" The man outside was one of the Fire Sages, this was rare, not everyday do you see a Fire Sage at your door step. "I didn't even do anything... Yet." she thought to herself "I have come with urgent news." The man spoke, "Is Rin in trouble?" Her mother asked, quickly looking at Rin then back at the Sage "No," the man chuckled "quite the opposite." Rin crossed her arms, soon her brother, Meili, and her father came behind her. "I have come to tell you that Avatar Roku has visited me in a dream..." "What does this have to do with me?" Rin asked "Well, he has told me that he wants you and some others to stop the coming war, he wants you to stop the Fire Lord." Rin's face showed confusion and everyone in the house seemed the same "Wait... What?"