Chapter 0

Prologue

I am Jasmine, Sokka's younger sister and Katara's twin. Sokka is one year older than us and tomorrow is Katara's and my 16th birthday. That's not good. Really. Well, Katara is kind of excited, what I do not understand at all.

There is this kind of tradition in our tribe where girls, when they turn 16, must be prepared for their life in marriage. The so-called 'pre-adult-years'. Then, after these wonderful three years, when the girls are 19 years old, they have to marry and do what a housewife does, for the rest of their lives. Pretty exciting, right? No.

Since the beginning, I've been different, be it from my tribe or my family. Sometimes I even think I was adopted or found. We are nothing alike. While Katara and Sokka have olive-toned skin, ice-blue eyes, and brown hair, I have pale skin, dark, almost black, eyes and raven black hair. Honestly, I think I could be from the Fire-Nation, but I don't say that out loud. Not only my appearance differs from the others but also my personality. Katara is a more kind-hearted, caring, and motherly person while I am a more sarcastic, and cold person. Showing emotions is not so my thing, I rather put on a 'I am tough and strong don't mess with me' mask, except around Sokka and Katara, with them I am a bit more relaxed. Well, most of the time I have a blank expression on my face, so the emotion thing is settled.

One of my problems is that I say what's on my mind and I really don't care and think before I talk. Katara always warns me about thinking before talking because she thinks it's disrespectful to speak up whenever and to whoever I want. No one said a thing about me disrespecting anyone, until now, but I'm sure that big mouth of mine is going to get me in a lot of trouble one day.

The most problematic thing is me being able to bend fire and water. Nobody knows that and I'd like to keep it this way, not even Katara and she knows my entire life. I like to keep my bending as my own little secret. I haven't told anyone the fire part because literally no one likes the Fire-Nation and me being able to bend fire wouldn't be best news. Yeah, the water part is also secret but that's because I want Katara to feel special, she deserves having something that only she has. So, Katara is the only water bender in the whole south pole.

I discovered my bending when I was six years old; on the morning, our mother died. Fate surely loves me. Just before our tribe was attacked mom and I were in our tent. I was painting something when mom accidentally spilled her glass of water. My instincts kicked in and little me stopped the water from spilling on the ground. The water was stopped in the air for a few seconds before it spilled all over the ground and my painting. I was so shocked that I wasn't even sad about my painting. Mom had a small smile on her face, and she looked proud. And because fate really loves me, the moment didn't last long. Before mom or I could react to my sudden water bending ability, we heard people shouting, "We're under attack", "Fire-Nation". Then all hell broke loose.

Mother told me to hide under the bed and as soon as I crawled under it a Fire-Soldier entered the tent. "Where is the water bender?" he asked and looked around for any hint. I froze when the man locked eyes with me and an evil grin started to play on his lips, "And who are you? Maybe a little water bender?" the question sounded more like a statement. He stepped forward, probably to get to me, but mom interrupted, "Wait", she shouted and threw her hands up to stop the man from coming nearer. "If I tell you, will you let her go?" mom asked him, and the man nodded briefly as a reply. Then Katara entered because she was looking for us. Unfortunately, she only found mom and a Fire-Soldier, she didn't see me under the bed. The man turned to look at her and looked ready to kill because he needed the information as soon as possible and he didn't want to spend more time here than necessary. And Katara was an unnecessary interruption at that moment. Mom wanted us all save so she sent Katara away. As soon as my twin left the tent the man turned to mom again, "the information. Now." he demanded. Mom turned to look at me, "I love you all. Please forgive me." she whispered and turned back to face the man, "I am the water bender." she announced stretching her arms out, ready to be taken as prisoner. Well, life had other plans...

Everything happened to fast, the only thing I can clearly remember is mom hitting the floor. Motionless. I didn't even get the time to process what happened as another Fire-Soldier entered. "Commander." Mom's murderer greeted the man with a nod. The Commander took off his helmet and examined mother's dead body. He turned his head to the other man, "Have you lost your mind?!" he yelled throwing his arms up and down, "The order was to keep her alive and not to bring him a dead body you idiot. You'll be a pile of ash." the Commander continued. Fear covering the other man's face. He told him everything what happened a few minutes ago. His superior wasn't happy at all, "Even if she was the last bender here, we weren't supposed to kill her." the Commander sighed and rand his hand over his face. He went up and down the tent, a hand on his chin like he was thinking. The other man gave up hope and was about to accept his soon death, when his superior stopped and looked at him, "Listen, we leave her here," he began pointing at my mom, "Then we say that she wasn't here and she probably escaped." He finished his sentence. The terrified man nodded and mumbled a quite 'Thank you Sir' relieved that he wasn't going to end up as a pile of ash.

After the two men left the tent, I let out a sigh of relieve that the one man forgot about me. Then I remembered mom. I crawled out of my hiding spot and reached my mom. I grabbed her shoulders and tried to shake her awake, "Mom... say something... please wake up, it's not the right time to sleep, we're under attack... please... Mom" I pleaded still trying to wake her up with tears in my eyes. Little me didn't want to accept the fact that my mom had died only a couple of minutes ago. When she didn't wake up, I got up, left the tent, and looked for my dad. 6-year-old me thought that my dad would be able to wake her up. What a naïve and hopeful girl I was, but not anymore...

I left the tent to go look for my dad but what I saw was not pleasant. I can still remember it clearly. My village was completely destroyed. The tents were burnt down, a few still on fire, people kneeling in front of their once alive loved ones crying. Other people were treating the injured ones and a few people have already began to collect things to build up the village again. Not the best sight for a scared 6-year-old girl but that's when realization hit me: our village was attacked by the Fire-Nation; and they murdered my mother.

I walked through my burnt village and looked around in search for my dad and siblings. When I couldn't find them, I began to panic and think about the worst things that could have happened to my family. But I dismissed these thoughts when I saw my dad helping uncle Bato with his injuries. Uncle Bato isn't really our uncle but a good friend of dad. I ran up to them and saw my siblings there too. Dad saw me running up to him and immediately let go of uncle Bato to embrace my little figure. "Thank the spirits you are okay," he said taking my face in his hands to look for any injuries, "Where is your mother, dear?" he asked me after he made sure I was really okay. "Dad, she is sleeping," my voice cracked, and tears started to stream down my face, "I tried to wake her up, bu-but..." I started sobbing and of course dad immediately understood what I was talking about. He hugged me and my siblings, "I'm sorry kids, I can't do anything this time." he whispered while he also cried, along with us. This time dad, my childhood hero, wasn't able to save the day.

Dad pulled out of the group hug the four of us shared and told us to go look for our grandma. He turned around to help treat uncle Bato's injuries and my siblings and I went to look for gran-gran. We split up to find her faster but instead of looking for her I went out of the village to sort out my thoughts. I have always been a thinker but I needed to be alone to think and at that moment it wasn't possible in our village, so I searched for a perfect place to be alone where nobody would find me. After a bit walking, I found the perfect place; there was a huge iceberg with circle-shaped holes in it and a few metres away was a little lake. I decided to climb up the iceberg and sat down in the highest hole, my feet dangling down. I've always wanted to go travel through the world and get to know people from other kingdoms but since it's war at the moment, travelling through the world was never an option. Even if it was, gran-gran would never allow me to travel through the world, especially not alone. My mom, however, would have supported me. My mom. I would never see her again.

I wiped away the tears that were rolling down my cheeks. I was sad but mostly angry at myself because I couldn't protect my mother from these fire benders. I wiped away the rest of my tears and put my hands on my head, I let out a loud scream of anger and sadness and threw my hands down. While my hands were flying through the air, they grew hot and fire started to come out of them. I was beyond scared and shocked; the fire which came out of my hands looked like a mixture of lightning and fire. When I realized that my hands were basically on fire, fear took over my body and I started to shake my hands hysterically in hope the fire would go out. It didn't. Then I jumped up, still screaming and shook my hands along with my whole body and finally the fire went out.

A breath of relieve escaped my lips and I sat down again. I thought about what happened, and immediately fire bending came to my mind. I shook my head to dismiss that thought. That's impossible. But the longer I thought about it the more realistic it got. So, I gave it a try; I opened my hand and concentrated on producing fire. It worked on first try, a small blue flame appeared in my palm. Wasn't fire orange? Well, seems like I am weird. I shrugged my shoulders and let the flame go out.

What about the water bending this morning? To make sure it wasn't a daydream or something like that I got up and sat down by the lake. I water bent a little water bubble out of the water but not for long. It popped open and all the water fell back into the lake. Okay, my water bending wasn't a daydream, and neither was the fire bending. What's happening to me? Oh my Elements, what if I'm the Avatar. No, I couldn't be, unless I'm over 100 years old and an Air Nomad. No, definitely not. Besides, people say that the Avatar cycle is broken, and he will never return. Okay, now the Fire-Nation's intentions make sense to me; let's search for someone who will never return to the world. The Fire-Nation. Wonderful, now I'm one of them. I am one of our enemies. One of the people who killed my mother.

After I discovered my bending, I trained myself. I needed to control my emotions, that's also a reason why I don't like emotions, too much of them and my hands get hot; the second reason is I feel weak when I show emotions to other people, I get my emotions out when I'm alone. Whenever I got the chance to slip out of the village, I would come to my secret place to relax and train. The years passed and I got better in bending both elements, however, I prefer fire bending because I'm better at it and I can produce lightning, besides, fire is more fun. Before I leave to go back to the village I climb up to the highest hole and talk to my mother about how life in the village is, how the people have changed, how my days are going, what I achieved, how much I want to go out and travel and go on adventures and about how much I miss her.

Four years ago, dad had to leave to fight in the war, since then gran-gran is looking after us. After we said goodbye to dad, I got into my tent and cried a bit on my own because I felt like I lost another family member. When I changed into my pyjamas, I found a book which I never saw before in my closet, it belonged to my mom. I still wonder who put that book into my closet that day. It is about a strong girl who stands up and fights for what is right, but she is frown upon because she is a girl and not a man. That doesn't stop her, and she continues and surprisingly she is very successful in what she is doing. She meets a very arrogant and cruel man, and they hate each other in the beginning. But when she gets to know him, she finds out that he isn't as bad as she thought he is and soon she falls in love with him. I've probably read this book six times and it's still my favourite, and I've read many books because I love reading. However, the book's most interesting part isn't the bool itself, it's what is written down on the last few pages. On these pages are bending techniques for fire, water, lightning, and blood bending. I have a feeling this book was put in my closet on purpose, it's like especially made for me.

I took the book with me every time I went training and over time, I managed to do all the techniques except for the blood bending one. Blood bending requires a full moon night but the 13-year-old me wanted to try it so badly that I decided to give it a try at day without a full moon. What a stupid decision that was. Decision making isn't a talent of mine most of the time. For the technique I needed something living like an animal or plant. Since we don't have any plants here, I chose to take an animal instead. I went to my secret place and sat down by the lake to look for a fish. I spotted a big one and stretched out one arm, took a deep breath and tried to concentrate on the blood in the fish's veins. It didn't work and I were only able to bend the water around the fish. I wanted to give up and go back to the village but decided to give it one last try. Again, bad decision. This time it worked. As soon as I felt the blood running through its veins, I closed my hand and the animal stopped in its tracks. Honestly, I was surprised that it worked without a full moon. Yes, I'm definitely weird. The fish did what I wanted it to do, it swam in the direction I wanted; I could let it do whatever I wanted to with a flick of my hand. Little me realized later that day how wrong and scary blood bending actually is and I swore to myself that I would never use it again, except in matters of life and death.

Now, since tomorrow is my 16th birthday, I'm totally screwed, unless I die or get kidnapped. I don't want to learn all the cooking and cleaning stuff or how to treat my partner right. It shouldn't be only the woman to learn this. I mean, men should also learn how to treat their partner right. Well, we all should treat each other with respect. Besides, I think we shouldn't force people into marriage or relationships, these are things you should do out of love and not because some stupid tradition says so. Yesterday, I told gran-gran these 'pre-adult-years' were nonsense and that you shouldn't force girls to marriage as soon as they turn 19 and I told her that I definitely wouldn't marry someone I don't love or hardly know. Of course she wasn't happy that I said that but she told me that I would get to know someone I will like and love. I knew she only said that to change my mind but I am not brainless; so I said that all the men, ready for marriage, are going to have to fight in the war, so no men left to get to know. She tried to persuade me again, but I stormed out of the tent and went to train a bit.

How brainless is it that the people of our tribe and especially gran-gran like to celebrate girl's 16th birthdays, what are they thinking? Yeah, let's party because my granddaughters have to marry in three years because of some stupid tradition. But we are in war and all the men have to go to fight, so no men left to marry, but hey, let's party anyways. Yeah,so far about my past. Let's go back to the present day now.