Hello, faithful followers (and new recruits,) I'm pleased to announce a new story that has been bouncing around in my head for days. This story is set before season one of Legend of Korra. I tried to follow Fire Nation culture as closely as possible in this piece. As we don't get a close look in the series of the FN in LOK, I'm taking a few creative liberties. You'll recognize names, locations, and ideas. I hope you enjoy!

Enjoy,

LCB

Chapter 1: Gold Tea Set

A lot could change in seventy years. Mostly, it was the size of a certain military. Feelings were still being mended, pride was being pushed back into the minds of millions, and worlds were being put back together. A new Avatar was finishing her training and relocating to the United Republic to master Airbending, even. Quite a bit of change in anyone's opinion.

Unfortunately, the Fire Nation really hadn't changed all that much. There was still a hierarchy of military and nobility. Those who were once allied with Fire Lord Ozai were considered traitorous, while those who were descendants of traitors were watched fiercely. I was one of those people.

My family was practically exiled after the One Hundred Year War. Traitors to our people, we lived on the outskirts of the Fire Nation. According to hierarchy, those who lived further away from the capital were worth less than those living therein. We were scum, poor, who were punished for being close to the then-ruler of the Fire Nation.

Not that I really knew what life had been like before. I'd been born in Jang Hui, one of the farthest outlying villages in the Fire Nation. We were based over water, our pathways being mostly made of wood and stone. Things had apparently been better after the old factory had closed down, but it was still a small trading center. Most people were poor and didn't have much money. We had some, but not enough to support the old lifestyle that I'd never had.

Great-Grandfather knew what the old life was like and he cursed Fire Lord Zuko and his children for taking that lifestyle everyday. He used to be one of Ozai's right-hand men...he'd been the one to send Fire Lord Zuko to the Agni Kai against his father, which gave him his famous scar. He would tell us the stories of the 'impetuous, young, fool-hearted' youth and never in gentle terms. He needed to be careful, though, as his words were treasonous and any surrounding military police would be sure to teach him a lesson for his old-fashioned hatred.

Father had just gotten back from his tower watchmen duties. While our family would never be allowed to join the military in any fashion, he was a Firebender, which was rare in Jang Hui. He'd been given an experimental turn at defending the village...which, considering there wasn't a war going on, meant that he hadn't had to do anything other than gain weight and sit in the watchtower, the highest point in the entire village.

"How was work?" I asked with a smile, taking his coat off of his back and hanging it up in the small doorway that led into our living room.

"Boring," he replied with a weary sigh. Guard shifts usually lasted twelve hours or so, depending on the change of the guard and how many Firebenders were healthy. Dad had been pulling sixteen-hour shifts for the past two weeks. "Maro's still out with a broken leg and Jama is on pregnancy leave. Not many of us left, little one." He ruffled my hair as he walked by.

I blew the stray hairs out of my eyes and followed him into the kitchen, which was about as small as our entryway. He sat down at the crude-but-effective bamboo table and took off his hat, laying it in its ceremonial spot in the middle of the table. I insisted to him, "I'm not little anymore, Papa."

"That's right," he said with a laugh. "Not little. But big, adult women don't like to go and listen to the pro-bending match on the town radio, do they?"

I slapped him on the arm with a towel. He knew how much I loved to listen to pro-bending! While the town radio was only supposed to be used for emergency Fire Nation reports, once a week it was turned over for entertainment. No one could afford their own personal radio and electricity? Out of the question. "Yes, we do! When can we leave?"

My excitement was quickly doused.

"You are an insolent, carefree child," came a raspy voice from the corner where the teapot was boiling. A hunched figure in faded Fire Nation robes was standing there, eyeing me with tan eyes that I'd inherited. The robes were worshiped and washed with the utmost care but obviously still dozens of years old. The man's face was creased like a map—so many lines and hills that he looked ancient and angry almost all the time. "You are immature and take no responsibility."

He had two thin strips of mustache that fell down to the length of his long white goatee. A thinning white topknot sat above his pale head. His cruel tan eyes peered out at me.

"Yes, Great-Grandfather Bujing," I sighed, bowing my head down. It was useless to argue with the old war general...nothing was ever accomplished by doing so. "Whatever you say."

"Don't be sarcastic with me, Huo," he growled, waving a wooden spoon at me like a sword. Not that the old man could wield one anymore. How old is he, anyway? He had to have been over one-hundred years old! He was old when Fire Lord Zuko was young... His son, my grandfather, had died before I'd been born—but this cranky bastard was still kicking. "I am your elder and you will respect me!"

I got this speech every day that I stayed at home. I usually tried to avoid the old man by doing chores, tending the garden, or practicing Firebending, but he was my father's grandfather and he lived in the same hut that I did. Avoiding him was like avoiding the stove. "Understood."

Great-Grandfather shuffled over with the tea, as slow as a slug in his old age. "Set the table, girl. Be useful for once in your life."

I held my tongue, which wanted to lash out, and went to get the ceremonial tea set that Grandfather had brought back from the Capital. It was so regal and important; it was strange to see it in our rural kitchen. It was made out of what appeared to be pure gold, if I knew anything. I didn't, but I could imagine that I knew what pure gold was. It made me wonder...what had life been like when the Bujing family was rich?

I didn't regret my upbringing, but sometimes...I wondered what it would be like to own rich fabrics like Grandfather obviously used to wear. What would it be like to wear makeup like the women in the books that I'd read. Like the others in poverty, even in a trading town like ours, I wondered how things could have been different. I didn't go hungry most nights and I had warmth. I should have been thankful. It was more than most families in our town had.

Setting the table in the traditional way I'd learned, I waited until both my father and my Grandfather had taken their first sip before I served myself and sat down. I wasn't willing to endure the wrath of General Bujing Gao for messing up his evening tea with my insolence.

"Hmph," he grumbled, "that was almost perfect. You may make some pitiful trader a decent wife someday."

There was that word again—wife. He'd been using it a lot recently. He kept telling me that he was training me to be like my great-grandmother, like my grandmother...training me to be an obedient, noble housewife. I gripped my cup tighter and gritted my teeth. "What if I don't want to be a wife?"

He laughed into his teacup, his gnarled hands grasping weakly. "What else would you be? Women belong by a man's side, bearing boys and keeping the house."

"Grandfather," my father said, "enough. You know that women have more opportunities nowadays." His kind brown eyes were serious under his salt-and-pepper hair. I didn't see much resemblance between us. "Besides, there is no one worthy of my daughter in this pisshole."

So, Father has been thinking along the same lines. I kind of understood, in a way—I was going on nineteen years old. But, between training sessions, taking care of the house and the animals, and working the shop, I didn't have time to look for a man, let alone get married!

"What do you want to do, Huo?" he asked simply, staring at me with those deep brown eyes. He didn't look too much like his grandfather—more sincere, more fatherly.

I sipped on my tea and thought about it. I'd imagined myself a million places—at the Capitol, in the Fire Nation Navy, or even going to Republic City and joining the United Forces. And there was only one way I would be able to do all of those things. "I want to join the military."

My great-grandfather practically spit his tea all over the table. He started coughing, that is, until he started laughing. Blush covered my face and I looked down onto the table in humiliation. "Ha! You're funny, girl. First of all, even if we had been nobility, most women don't join the military anymore. There simply aren't enough positions. Secondly, we are commoners now. Common women aren't allowed to join the military."

"In the Fire Nation," I said under my breath.

Great-Grandfather warily eyed me after I said that. "So, you want to join the United Forces, do you? Don't even think about it! A Bujing would never be allowed there. And besides, no one of our lineage would ever be caught with the drabble on those boats. Earthbenders, Waterbenders... NON-Benders!"

I knew that my great-grandfather was racist, but hearing it just hurt. Our town had plenty of other benders, especially since we were on the outskirts of the Fire Nation. I was even friends with a a few of them, not that General Bujing would need to know that. "I could join if I wanted. They can't hold my lineage accountable. Besides, I'm a Firebender!"

My father sighed, running a hand over his thinning brown hair. "That's unusual here, Huo. But not in other parts of the Fire Nation. One out of three people in bigger cities can bend fire."

I wanted to believe that I was special. I wanted to master Firebending! I'd been teaching myself in private, considering Great-Grandfather was too old to teach me, (and would do so with the same demeanor he used to talk to me,) and Father worked all the time. "Well, the Fire Days Festival is coming up and I want to see what I can do."

Father sighed an laid his head on the table. "I'll be working extra that week. Dock Xu put all of us on guard duty. We're being paid by the government, so the extra income will be nice, but you both will have to fend for yourself those days. I don't want you out every night, Huo."

"It's something I want to do," I begged, fingers tightly curled around my teacup. "I've never been outside this village or seen the things I think will be at the festival. I—"

"She can go," Bujing Gao, Great-Grandfather, said suddenly, taking a gentle sip of his tea.

I wanted to instantly take back everything I said. If he wanted me to do something then it wasn't good. He was never on my side and he was always patronizing me. I raised an eyebrow and decided to tread carefully. "Why do you want me to, exactly?"

He stared at me blankly over the rim of his cup. "With the Fire Days Festival comes the Golden Dragon of Unity. An eligible woman is able to show her worth and honor by performing the tasks of marriage. And then she is united with the man that best suits her...above her station sometimes, as it happens."

"No!" I snapped, slamming my hand on the table. "I don't need unity! As an adult woman, I have decided that I am going to go to the Festival and see about applying for the military."

"That outburst was extremely childish, Huo," Bujing Lu, Father, said softly, not meeting my eyes. I gasped and stared at him, trying to make him look at me. He refused. "In fact, I may even agree with your great-grandfather."

I didn't realize that hot tea was bubbling out of my cup until it scalded my hand. I cursed and flung the ancient china away, standing up and clutching the burned hand to my chest. The cup had broken against the wall, leaving Bujing Gao glaring daggers at me. Tears were forming in my eyes—I wasn't sure if it was because of the burn or because my father had hurt me with his words. Either way, I left the kitchen and ran out back where we kept the barn.

Inside, I found my one and only friend next to the two hippo cows that we owned. His name was Tagon and he was the most beautiful dragon moose you would find in the Fire Nation. His head was topped by a pair of long back-curving horns, while his neck and shoulders were covered by a black, silky mane. He had ears that looked like the wings of a bat and long barbels at the corners of his mouth. His coat, a dull maroon, was only marred by the row of dorsal spines extending from the nape of his neck to the tufted tip of his tail.

Tagon wagged his large tail as I came near and nudged me as soon as I got close enough to touch. I wrapped my arms around his large head and pulled his forehead to mine. He gave a mixture between a whinny and a growl of smoke against my face.

"I'm not going to get married," I said against his scaly hide. The hippo cows mooed at me but I ignored them and ran my fingers through Tagon's black mane. "I'll get out of here and find my own way. I'm not defined by my family's actions."

He gave off that strange sound again and bucked his head against me. I decided to let out my rage by combing through his fur and washing his scales. When that didn't work, I snuck out from behind the barn and made my way through the small throngs of forest outside our land. The mud and dirt felt amazing between my toes. The path, while overgrown and dank, was obvious to those who lived in the area. It led to a small clearing that was used for many things—mainly for a small getaway for me, but also teenagers would sneak out there to have fun with each other. I never used it for that. There weren't that many attractive men in that area...and besides, I didn't want to get stuck in that village with a husband and family.

Sitting cross-legged, I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. I let the energy of the area flow through me...I let it flow through my chi and every bone in my body. I remembered what my mother had taught me about controlling my anger and releasing it with every outward breath.

I wasn't going to marry some nobleman. I would run before then. I made a plan to pack my things and hide them in that clearing. I would never let them take control of my life. When I opened my eyes, a small flame had formed in my hand. I manipulated it in ways that I'd been practicing, lengthening it and shrinking it. Forming small shapes and large. I couldn't fight with it yet, but one day, I would. I would change my fate, just as I changed the shape of the flames in my hands.