The stone discs shattered and cracked as they were thrown from one side of the courtyard to the other. A raven-haired (black hair) boy threw a stone at his opponent but he dodged it and returned at flying disc which hit the boy and sent him across the courtyard. This training exercise was being watched by a few other students and a couple adults. One adult paid close attention to the black haired boy. The smaller one got back up and charged another stone disc at his opponent. The other boy, who was obviously more skilled than him hit the stone with another disc and fired two different ones at him, which of course hit him. He was sent flying, farther than before and hit the ground with much force. This caused the boy to start panting. The older boy proudly strutted over to his fallen partner and started to laugh. He then started to laugh.
"Looks like you need more practice junior." The smaller boy bit his lip and fired more stones at him. But, he then dodged them. The two continued until the so called "junior" was exhausted. His partner made a confident laugh and looked to their teacher.
"Hey, I think he's had enough." Though, he didn't give up. The earthbender then made his stance to fire but this time he was full of anger. And he, of course, fired. But to his surprise, in fact to everyone's surprise, a bright orange fire spit from his hand. He jumps back at the sight and so does his partner. Everyone stares at him with wide eyes and open mouths. He was just as shocked as the rest of them.
"Tsurei...!" Yells his father who stands from his chair. Everyone's attention turns to the man as he spoke in his burly voice. He still sounded confused. His son looks towards him then to the floor. He bits his lip before he precedes to run away from the crowd, leaving everyone confused and without an answer.
A few hours later, the boy was sitting on his front porch, rotating small rocks in his hand. After sitting there, staring at the rocks, he dropped the rocks on the ground and began to walk into his mansion. He opened the door but before it was open completely he heard his parents talking. Though, he could only make out a little of what they were saying "This is the third time it happened this week..." More mumbles were heard from his mother."You don't mean... No, he can't..."
After hearing that from his father, the raven-haired ran from his house. He stopped running when he reached a small park, just outside his families' district. The earthbender walked up to a bench and put his hands on his face. He breathed loudly. Standing still for a few seconds before sitting on the stone bench that was placed on the side of a pond. He stared into his hand.
'The heat, it's so strong. It's like fire. No one should be able to do this.' He clenched his fist until he breathed out a long sigh. He closed his eyes and still held out his palm. Suddenly, he could see light through his eye lids. He opened his eyes and his palm was on fire.
"What the-!" He yelled as a single orange flame fluttered in his hand. He stared into it and he suddenly got more excited. The flame grew larger and larger but his concentration was interrupted when a man made a loud gasp. A fellow man was staring at him, he had a terrified look on his face and his arms were pulled back. They stared at each other until the flame went out and turned to ash.
"Uh..." escaped his lips. The other man's eyes went wide.
"You're the Kyoji kid... You... You..." The boy stood up and put his hands up to calm the man down. But, the man took this as a threat and ran off screaming about a fire bender, and a word that was new to him. He ran to the gate of the park where the man was standing and stared at him as he ran off with his arms above his head.
"Uhm..." He said with a dumbstruck look on his cold face. The sun had almost started going down. This is when he went back to his house and as he opened the wooden carved door he saw his mother standing by the doorway at the end of the hall looking in.
"Mother?" He called out to her. She immediately turned her head and looked at him. She ran up to him and gestured for him to be quiet.
"Tsurei, my dear..." She said with worry in her eyes.
An hour or two passed by, but the time went by so fast that the boy could not tell the time. He was running through a dark tunnel, having only a few cracks and barred windows as light. The muddy water splashed at his feet as he ran. Staining his boots. The tunnel was covered with water for it connected to the sewers. Water dripped down from the walls and filled small puddles. Sweat beamed down his cheeks. He then thought about the news he had heard from his mother.
' "My dear, something has happened. You must be quiet..." She took him outside to their garden. "What is it?" He whispered. "These men are looking for you." She went wide eyed. "Wha- Why?!" She shushed him again. "There is something you must know...- She paused- haven't you wondered why you've been having those incident's lately? It is impossible for a Earthbender such as yourself to be able to do that, to fire bend." "What? Firebend? How...?" She looked behind her and then pushed him father into the garden. That is when they started to hear people coming into the house and other people muttering amongst themselves outside their house. "Wait, are you saying... No... No, it's just..." She sighed. "You've shown this before, when you were very young. Too young to remember. Your father and I did all we could to keep it a secret... But it wasn't enough." He broke from his daze and stared at her. "Keep what a secret? What are you hiding." She gulped and put her hands on his shoulders. "You are the Avatar... The only person in the world that can master all four elements. And, sadly. The only person in the world that people want dead so much." A man started to come out of the house but it was too dark to see them. "You must go, run. If they catch you they will kill you, do you understand." He nodded. "This is all too confusing. Why me." She shook her head. "Use the tunnels below Omashu. It will lead you out of here. Your father and I will protect you and we'll take your secret to the grave. Now go." She pushed him away. "But." She tried to protest. "Go!" She yelled and pointed to the garden. With that he ran off and his mother entered their house.'
He continued running but stopped as he heard footsteps. He quickly hid behind a pillar and tried to be a quiet as possible. Though, to his surprise a familiar animal came out instead of a mob of angry men. A brown badger mole, twice the size of the boy came out and ran at him. He ran up to his pet and it pounced at him.
"Zushi." He called the animal's name with a smile. It sniffed his face and licked him with his giant tongue. They froze when sounds came from the entrance of the tunnel and he quickly climbed up onto it's back and held onto its fur. It suddenly started to speed down the tunnel. Even though it wasn't all that fast, they still made progress.
