Handcuffs

Chapter 1- Where it all began

"Lily! Get out of here! Run! Get as far away as you can and don't come back!" the little girl heard her mother's cries. She felt hot tears streaming down her face. "No! I can't! Mom, I'm not leaving you or dad!" She exclaimed as the flames engulfing the house got larger. A man walked up behind the mother. "Please! Let us go!" her mother's voice cracked. The man cruelly laughed and looked up at the child. "You should go. Or you might end up just like your mother!" As the words uttered out of his mouth he shot multiple fistfuls of fire at her mother, killing her, piercing screams echoing throughout the burning house.

"Mom!!!" Lily exclaimed. She ran towards the man, two balls of fire, small but still enough to burn, in each hand. He was quicker to attack her and shot a stream of flames, burning the left side of her neck from the bottom of her ear to her shoulder's end. She felt immense amounts of pain flurrying through her neck area. The disturbing scent of burning flesh filled the air as she heard nothing but her screams and fell to the ground. The man laughed and ran out of the house before the flames got worse and she was left among them. She ran out of the house before she got injured further and boarded a ship as a stowaway, tears still stinging her eyes. The ship sailed near the Southern Water Tribe. The members of the crew found her after a short while as she hid behind a few barrels. She was thrown overboard after they had found out about her being there. The last things she could remember were the sounds of the crashing waves and feeling the icy cold water.

The next thing she knew, her head started pounding. She could hear a distant voice saying, "Mom! Dad! I see someone on the shoreline!" The voice sounded like it belonged to a boy, somewhat around her age. "We're coming, Sokka!" a man's voice, much older seemingly, echoed. She started coming into consciousness and felt freezing cold. She felt piercing shivers running down her spine and saw 4 people in the distance, a woman and a man along with a young girl and a young boy coming in her direction. She felt herself slipping out of consciousness again.

She woke up, feeling warmer than before, then opened her eyes to see the young boy staring at her. "Mom! Dad! She's awake!" he yelled, seemingly excited. She sat up, pain filling every limb of her body as she moved. A woman came up to her and sat down. "Do you remember who you are?" she asked. All of the flashbacks of things that had happened that concluded with her ending up here, her mother's screams, the pain she'd felt when she was struck with fire, every detail ran through her head. Her hand shot up to the scar left by the man's fire blast. The skin felt rougher than the rest, she assumed that she had a horrified or scared face since the boy hugged her. He then held her at arm's length and asked, "Where did you get that scar!? It looks like it hurts! Did you have an encounter with a firebender!?" "Sokka! Give her some space. Are you alright?" the young girl laughed. The boy, Sokka, let her go and sat down next to the young girl. She heard him say, "Alright, Katara." "Yes, I'm okay. I'm Lily by the way," Lily responded.

"Where are you from? Maybe we can help you get home," the young girl, Katara, spoke up. Lily hesitated to tell them, the fire nation had done many bad things to people. They may have hated her if she'd told them that she was a firebender.

"I should go. I need to find somewhere else to go. I'm from the fire nation. I'm a firebender," she blurted. As soon as the words left her mouth, she saw all of them tense up. "My family was attacked by the fire lord's troops and my parents died. I shouldn't be here. Thank you for saving me, but I should get going," she said, her voice barely audible but they all still heard. "She's a firebender!?" Sokka exclaimed. He stood up from his spot on the ground where he was sitting next to his sister and stood protectively in front of her. Lily stood up and backed away. The woman and young girl had both stood up as well. "Sokka, take your sister back," a man, the father, walked in and heard her.