it's Already Over <Shai City, North Pole>

[hotaru]

It was so hard to open her eyes, they were puffy and they stung. Her vision was fuzzy, tilting her head left and right she was disappointed, if this was the spirit world it was nothing like she imagined it to be. But she knew well enough that she was in the healing huts, how she got their though was a mystery. Her entire body felt numb as she recalled everything, she was alone, firebenders burned her parents ship, killed them, she was a fire bender, by proxy she was a killer. Hunger gnawed away at her innards but she couldn't find the strength to get up and forrige for something to eat. She couldn't find the strength to focus on anything. She couldn't find the strength to think, perhaps she could but she didn't want to, every time she tried it hurt. She just repeated 'alone', over and over in her mind.

Suicide was harder than it seemed, by the time her pale skin began to tint blue a soldier on rounds had found her and brought her to the healing huts. She didn't know how her lips were nearly frozen over, that her eyes were starring blankly into space as she shivered close enough to death. A healer no doubt worked to make she she didn't loose any fingers or toes. She didn't know that she swiped her hand at her with flames, they then decided to leave her in this room, a guard at the door waiting for her to wake up. She didn't want to wake up.

Laying on her back starring at the ceiling distant and lost she thought about her mother, how she'd hug her, tell her that she loved her. The wave of pain was over whelming causing her entire body to wrack, her eyes to just stream tears that stung like knives. This prompted the girls body to twitch, her face flushed and her head pounding. She felt broken, so very broken, so lost and alone. Before she knew it she'd curled herself into a ball, clenching her head between her hands screaming bloody murder.

Sitting up she closed her eyes tightly and shot fire in all different directions, it burned the bed she was in. Hotaru simply got up and huddled in the corner of the room watching blankly as the bed burned, she didn't care, she didn't care anymore. There was nothing left. A guard came in, bent water on the flames and hauled the girl up by her arm, he was screaming something at her, she didn't do anything. limply she hung by the arm he had his vice like grip on, she wasn't looking at him, she wasn't sobbing though her tears were falling without rest. Something inside her broke, she just couldn't take it so her mind shut it's self down.

[taartoq]

To say the least, it was quite a spectacle...

Taartoq had observed the entire mishap since guards rushed into the healing hut, a bit of smoke emerged, and the silhouette of a ragdoll-like young girl was carried by the arm. Even from afar, her slipshod appearance suggested illness, or perhaps a weakened state of being, and her lack of movement hinted at many other things. Therefore, cautiously entering the building from the street as did a few others, Taartoq watched with curiosity. Healers within the hut watched without a word, either horrified at what they had seen, or confused at what they weren't told. Taartoq himself could conclude the girl had maybe gotten a bit too friendly with a fireplace for her own good. It was a mistake plenty of children made, unfortunately. Oddly enough, from that angle, her clothes weren't badly affected by fire at all. Something was amiss.

"She's calmed down," proclaimed a guard as he lowered the limp young thing downward slowly. She didn't show a single sign of restraint against the man, neither a desire to run away in fear. The girl, hair hanging over her pale face, was as still as a sea sponge. It was almost alarming, but surely she hadn't...

No, it was unthinkable. The guard would have known if she had ceased to be alive, surely. However, that wasn't the highest of Taartoq's concerns. A rather sharp movement moved a stray lock of hair from the girl's features, allowing Taartoq to recognize her right away. He never forgot a face, and hers was unmistakeable. That night on the empty street, she was there. Also at the shelters during the siege, her relative birthing a child in front of them all. He was certain, but not sure of why she was alone and what had happened. Taartoq had to know, lest his curiosity eat him away inside. He careened his way around a few people slowly, moving with grace around each figure with careful precision. Almost like a choreographed dance, he came to the front of the crowd and took a step forward. Her reaction would be gauged.

[hotaru]

Hotaru felt empty in a way she'd never felt before, she simply stared at the floor distant and disoriented. Why wouldn't the past few days just vanish from her mind. Her wild brown hair tickled her face but there was no desire to move it at all. Her warm tears were beginning to sting her face and hunger wore at her stomach. She did little more than emitt a small whimper.

Even distraught as she was she knew enough to behave. It would be best for her to remain quiet and shut off from everyone else. She was a fire bender after all, she was scary, soon more guards would come and she'd be killed or drowned or something. She knew that firebenders were not looked down on favorably. From personal experience to boot, she hated them. A wave of loneness wiped across her in a wave and she let out a broken sob closing her eyes tightly

She wanted to be held by her mother, she wanted her hair stroked and to be told it was alright but sadly both her mother and her father were no longer here. Her tears welled up again and she turned her head away from the group of people starring at her. Some expressions were shocked, some with aura's of pity, but she didn't want to see them.

Why couldn't she rot away in a cell on her own, that would make everything so much simpler. The guard was forced to hold her upright seeing as Hotaru was wavering too far to the left about to topple over. Hotaru didn't have the strength to stand on her own. Silently the guard let out a small sigh, she was just a little girl, at the same time he had a bit of fear that she would burn him.

How in the world did such an abomination come to be in the North Pole. She couldn't possibly be a spy, she was too young for such a thing. " I don't know what to do here...." He mumbled keeping her close, though not close enough to have himself in the fires path should she freak out again.

[taartoq]

Except for hurried breaths and the infrequently speaking guard, the healing huts were flush with silence. At the front of the corridor looking in, Taartoq stepped closer toward the girl and the guard, not moving his eyes for a second. His breath careful, movements poised, his goal not to bring alarm to the girl was fairly obvious. What was much more uncertain was the girl herself. Again he wondered why she was alone in the healing hut. Wouldn't her family be by her side in this trying circumstance? Familial love and union was the cornerstone of their tribe! It was very odd.

Taking yet another vigilant step, his hands grasped at the small of his back, the starlit night before the siege came to his mind. Darkness prevented him from knowing fully whether she was that same girl, but he had every right to believe so. Possibilities buzzed around his mind, though he never settled on just one. He did, however, hear the guard's words spoken, and peered over toward the man slowly. By personal experience, Taartoq could relate that being held by the arm would not help him cope with problems. As the guard appeared to be in a bind, Taartoq's eyelids drifted shut for a moment, calculating everything that could go wrong. Then, he reached the most viable solution he could find. "Let her down."

[hotaru]

The guard looked at the seemingly noble water tribes man, taking in his cautious approach and his generally collected appearance, simply nodding the man let the girl go allowing her to stand on her own. He was a bit hesitant, she was still potentially dangerous as the burned furs demonstrated, he didn't know what was wrong with her though, she didn't look like anything out of the ordinary aside from her extraordinarily pale skin. Hotaru wobbled slightly on her own feet her eyes still shut willing the nightmarish days away from her mind. None of it worked at all. She trembled like a small field mouse cornered by a larger animal, her little chest heaved with her sobs and once more she dropped to the ground like a load of bricks.

Her hands covered her face and she sat weakly on the floor willing the end to come quickly. Though there was little ill intent in the sudden movement it caused a few of the assembled group to flinch or look shocked, like she was a trained fire bender poised to strike. The guard held his hands out to stop the girl from falling but per the request of the noble he let the girl be and turned his attention on the group. " Nothing to see here." Hotaru's mind faded in and out of darkness, even when she opened her eyes to stare blankly in front of her tears obscured her vision. Even for adults the death of a parent was hard.

[taartoq]

"Please tell me," he said calmly, in moments settling his eyes on - other than every detail of the room where he stood - the guard himself. From his viewpoint, Taartoq couldn't imagine the guard had any idea what do, yet understood fully. If the girl had been hysterical and rolled through a fireplace, he wasn't sure what he'd do either. It struck him as odd how thoroughly the uppermost layer of the bed was burned, enough so for him to observe the location of the fireplace, the fact that there were no charred footprints and the floor only around the bed had taken a glossed appearance due to heat and refreezing. Again, he also pointed out to himself that her clothes weren't as badly effected as the bed. What was going on?

"...What has happened here?" Taartoq was curious indeed. The girl clearly wasn't well, either her body or mind suffering some affliction without her family at her side. There were many things wrong with the picture. Idly looking over to the singed bed, his voice rose in a manner reflecting three qualities; certainty, inquiry, and hesitance. "There was fire involved..."

[hotaru]

The guard watched the noble with a little bit of hesitation. He thought it seemed rather obvious at this point, surely gossip would be traveling all over the north pole by now, a woman was sent to tell the chief and it wasn't like anything of this nature had really happened before. It seemed implpausable, the girls own mental health aside no one was sure what to make of it. What could one do with a girl in this state? Even taking that out of the equation the matter was still complex beyond his extent. He'd nearly cleared the immediate area when he cleared his throat picking his words very carefully. " The girl..." He started, he could say she's a fire bender but was that an accurate term? It might make people panic, that wouldn't be best at the moment. " .. she can bend... Fire."

Hotaru still quivering on the floor managed to choke out another sob, who cared anymore? Fire bender, water bender? What did that matter now? She was too tired and too far beyond pain to think about it. " I'm a monster..." She muttered to herself starring vacantly at the ground. It was hardly audible, she had convinced herself of it, and as far as she was concerned being kin in some way to those who destroyed her city and took her parents, it was the same.

[taartoq]

"I see..."

Whether he wore them on his metaphorical sleeve or not, Taartoq felt an influx of many feelings invade his personal space. A firebender was in his midst, yet he wasn't sure how to perceive her. But still, some things made sense. That night on the street, the melted fragments of that bridge he now knew to be a product of firebending rather than misused waterbending by the girl. To think, she was there with them the entire time they were safe from other firebenders dropping explosives on them. It was almost ironic.

Yet, she was still a child in her innocent. Not yet a teenager even, there was no chance she'd developed the ideals of the Fire Nation itself. She was surrounded by her 'people', speaking in relative terms, and despite her ghastly pale skin still appeared to be Water Tribe to some extent. A conundrum indeed.

Walking up to the girl slowly, he felt a pressing need to reassure her. It was no fault of her own that she was born with the horrific ability to shoot flames from her hands. "No, you are not. None of us can choose our fate."

[hotaru]

He was right, she knew it, her bending alone decided nothing, a parent couldn't hope to guess if their child would be a bender, a non-bender or something else. There was no way to predict and no manner of decision on the part of the child. For all her aunt and uncle knew their baby boy could be an earth bender even though his mothers family had no earth benders. It was chance, partial genetics, partial something no one could exactly pin point. The underlying truth was that it wasn't her fault, still with her word crumbling down around her there was little direction to turn to.

Hotaru sobbed, the true under lying problem was something more personal than being a firebender in the north. Sniffling the little girl futally rubbed her fists into her watering eyes eliminating the moisture they held only to be replaced with more. Her eyes had been red and puffy but now they were being worn raw.

Her little lungs pulled in a deep breath, the resistance in her throat making it raspy with a choking sob following it. Her blue eyes finally focused somewhat as she looked up at the pretty man, she recognized him somewhat, from where she didn't know. " I miss my mommy....."

[taartoq]

Looking straight at the girl, Taartoq's still face and statuesque posture belied the anxiety he was beginning to feel. The girl was honestly causing him to wish nothing more than to disappear in a flash of light and a puff of smoke - fabulously, of course. But this...this ordeal was rending his nerves to tension, almost to the point of shaking. He wasn't keen on seeing this girl start to suffer. Yet what she said, trembling, voice strained, made him wonder. Could that be the problem all along? Quietly, he muttered, silently expecting someone to explain. "Your mother..."

But there was nothing else to say. She lay there, looking at him, probably expecting him to say something profound, when all he felt was a keen urge to turn around and walk away. After much thought, all he did was sigh and close his eyes. Taartoq knew it wasn't generally in his power to comfort people with words, nor did people hear it from him on a great basis. He spoke how he felt, no matter how abrasive his words were. Now wouldn't be a good time to say anything...

[hotaru]

The guard looked at the girl, surely they couldn't let a wild firebender live in the north pole, there were no masters to teach her control. And yet she was just a child, there was no way most people could live with simply shipping the girl off somewhere else or killing her, that seemed more than cruel and unusual. The people of the northern water tribe were most certainly not murderers leaving execution out of the question, All he was entrusted with was guarding her for now, as much as he didn't want this job.

" Her name is Hotaru Uokomi, whatever was left of her parents vessel was recovered yesterday by a fishing boat, the ship it's self looked like it had been set on fire, Mister and Mrs. Uokomi were identified. Deceased. We suspect the child was adopted in the earth kingdom, the blue eyes confuse us a bit, neighbors say they saw the childs birth." He only quoted what information was given to him. A little bit or searching matched the nobles face with his occupation, he'd only want the facts. Hotaru on the other hand closed her eyes again and hid her face against her chest with her arms over her head. It wasn't comforting to have your life put in such impersonal terms...

[taartoq]

It was a disheartening tale, it was. The girl was orphaned, no mention of other family, and now destined to be treated like an outsider simply because of the way she was made. Remembering sordid years past, Taartoq could relate. However, did he even want to get involved? Quite assuredly not. If only he had kept to himself like usual, not entered the healing hut, he wouldn't be caught in the mess. The guard, of course, would be her main caretaker for the time being, but what after that? Taartoq was inclined to forget about it, if only his mind would let him. If he mentioned it to Padma, even, it would be all over.

It explained why he was so quiet...

Taking a step back, Taartoq kept on watching, thinking, and waiting. What could most be construed as a response, acknowledging the guard and the young girl, was a slight nod of his head. Nothing less, nothing more. Could it possibly be out of his hands? Surely one of the healers, caring women, would be a better surrogate parent than he, not to mention the new arrival in only about six months' time.

Yet again, he recalled the foreigner woman who bore a child and the father, a waterbender, within the shelter. Nearby the girl, interacting so often, would they not be her relatives? Where were they? Could they not care for her? Before anything else could even be considered, he had to know. No one in the tribe was unfortunate enough so as not to have any family, were they? "Where is the rest of her family?"

[hotaru]

The guard looked between the girl and the man, the girl didn't seem to be paying attention at all so it might be alright to continue with the rest of it. He cleared his throat and watched the archivist carefully. " She has an uncle, we tried to talk to him but he doesn't want anything to do with this, can't say that I blame him. It's hard enough with a new baby let alone an orphaned niece who can burn your family in your sleep." He shook his head a bit, knowing that to be true. While he didn't have any children at home he wouldn't want any harm to befall them from some orphan with a taste for burning things.

All this was news to Hotaru, she froze. It hurt being right, it hurt like hell and there was little she could do about this now, fire took everything from her, it didn't seem fair and it didn't seem right. What did she do to deserve this, how did she annoy the spirits so much that it seemed the entire world was against her. She was a freak, despite multiple attempts she remained alive, her mother would never come back and wrap her arms around her, burrow her face into her hair and breath ' my lovely little 'taru' as she drifted off to sleep.

There were no more tears she could cry, simply because she might have become dehydrated or because it became too painful for the tears. Her heart quivered madly in her chest making the girl think it might explode at any moment. " What can I do?" She croaked between sobs, her hand knotted into her hair against her skull to keep herself from lashing out with flames. " I don't want to do this! make it stop!" The guard grimaced watching the girl with little he could do, did she want them to strip her of her bending? No one could do that, whatever the chief decides will be the course of action, the guard didn't see many options.

[taartoq]

Explaining more, delving deeper into her story, Taartoq was feeling quite apprehensive of prying more into her personal life. Then like clockwork, he began to wonder why he was even there, and had asked that first fateful question. Curiosity was in his nature, but this was getting out of hand. Taartoq knew he had to leave, or else. For a while had he wanted nothing to do with this entire mishap. If he turned around and left, who could blame him? That was his next choice, really.

There was no reason for him to be there, inquiring, prodding, asking what happened to the girl and more about her life. He was more than content to leave and forget all about it. In the grand scheme of things, he was confident that the Northern Water Tribe justice system would know exactly what to do. It was against the very foundation of the tribe to execute any fellow tribesman, much less a little girl, but this was a different story. A firebender in the Northern Water Tribe. Before he could disappear past the onlookers, the corridor, and into the streets, he stopped in his tracks and snuck one final look. He knew the girl's fate was still up in the air, though he wanted no part of it.

Taartoq has apparently left this thread

[hotaru]

The guard was about to shuffle Hotaru back to the room when Chief Arnook, he stopped with enough time to bow to the man, the chief nodded his eyes hooded and somewhat unreadable as he watched the little sobbing girl pull herself to her feet. No doubt the couple of months that came after his daughters eventual passing were hard for him, the second siege, the rebuilding, everything grated on him. The man simply nodded his head to the guard, choosing to address him instead of the girl with pale skin and blue eyes that reminded him too much of his own departed Yue.

Of course some of his own guards had followed him, those remaining in the healing huts went about their business acting as if they hadn't noticed a thing still they were listening intently for anything that may transpire. Arnook took a breath and looked away at the occupants of the healing hut. " She'll stay here until a suitable foster home can be found, I've spoken to a few water bending teachers who will attempt to instruct her for the time being. If it seems that the strain is too much we will send her to the Earth Kingdom, hopefully someone there will have better luck..."

Hotaru sorely wished there was someone, anyone for her to lean on but she knew she was alone now... Grudgingly the guard led Hotaru to the back room, some healers had set to fixing the marred bed, replacing sheets in the like. Hopefully she wouldn't become a hazard to her self again. The door closed and Hotaru went back to the corner, at least she was getting something she'd always wanted, to be trained like the kids her age in bending, though it wasn't the same victory she'd once covoted.