"Rei…"

The faint, female voice resonated towards the teenage girl laying on the ground. Rei groaned and opened her eyes to see the canopy of a serene forest. The tall pines loomed over her, the atmosphere illuminated by vibrant solar rays. Rei leaned upwards into a sitting position, sending settled pine needles falling off her body, and scanned around for the source of the voice.

"Hello?" She called out. "Is anyone there?"

Rei gazed around her to see tall pines surrounding her. The sunlight poured in through holes in the canopy, giving the forest an ethereal feeling. The air seemed to be charged around her, but oddly quiet. There was no sounds of birds chirping, no insects nor any wind. It wasn't an ominous silence, but it established more of a peaceful aura. She then noticed a faint blue light emanating from a clearing to her left. The young girl got up to her feet and started slowly towards the pale blue light.

The clearing led to a small water fall emptying into a small pool of water, emanating a faint blue hue. Rei inched closer to the pool, feeling its drawing power pulling her closer. She could hear faint whispers in the air calling her name. She reached the pool's edge and peered in.

The image that reflected back to Rei was not herself, but the image of an unknown young woman. The woman's long, white hair tumbled down her shoulder in twirls, seemingly to blow in an absent breeze. Her ivory skin shone and twinkled, emanating a faint blue glow onto her wispy, white robe. Rei was mesmerized, unable to look away from the mysterious woman. The woman's eyes suddenly snapped open, revealing her bright, blue eyes.

"Rei…" The woman spoke softly.

"How…How do you know my name?" Rei stammered.

"You must unlock your inner strength." The woman rasped. The glow around her began to get brighter, replacing its blue hue with a bright white illumination.

"What do you mean?" Rei gasped, shielding her eyes from the blinding light.

"Look deep into yourself…" The woman whispered, her voice getting further and further away. "Use your inner strength…"

Rei did not have time to respond to the woman's mysterious message before her entire field of vision whited out.

The sun poured in through a hole in the tattered curtain on the small room's window, landing directly on the young girl's face. Letting out a low groan, Rei awoke and slowly opened her eyes. It was a bright, sunny day in the small earth kingdom village of Terra, but Rei was not ready to enjoy the day just yet. "Just five more minutes…"She groaned as she rolled over to her side. Her nap was cut short when she heard her bedroom door open.

"Rei, it's time to get up." A female voice called out. "We have to get a lot done today."

"Mother…Please just five more minutes." Rei complained.

The woman chuckled. "I've already given you enough time to lay in bed. You have a lot of chores to do before heading out to the market later today." The woman walked across the room and folded back the tattered curtains on the window, sending a flood of sunlight into the room.

Rei let out yet another groan as she reached for a pillow to block out the sun's rays.

"Now don't go back to sleep, young lady." The woman says sternly. "Your little sister is already outside doing her chores, so you should be out there too!"

"Mom, Mayu's six." She groaned underneath her pillow. "The only chore she does is chasing the turkeyducks."

"Well at least she's out doing something, unlike a certain 16 year-old I know." She scowled. "Now come on, let's get going."

When her mother finally exits the room, Rei slowly gets up from her bed. She stretches out her arms wide and lets out a big yawn. She sluggishly throws her blanket off of her legs and slings her legs over the side of the bed. She walks over to the wash basin and mirror in the corner of her room. Gazing up at the mirror, she could tell that today was going to be a bad hair day. Her long, brown hair was as puffed up as porkubear's spikes. Her dark blue eyes looked droopy and encrusted in sandman's dust, which she begins to rub instinctively. She knew that brushing her hair would do little to tame it today, so she decided to tie up a portion of her hair with her signature earth-kingdom ribbon to create a half-up, half-down style. She contemplated the mysterious message the woman from her dream told her, but brushed it off. It wasn't the first time that the young woman appeared to her in her dreams, stating riddles and other unclear messages. Nothing has come out of those dreams, so she figured that they were exhaustion-induced dreams. After washing her face, she instinctively put on her boulder opal necklace. She fingered the necklace gingerly, thinking back to the person who gave it to her. "I hope you're ok somewhere, father." She muttered.

It's been over two years since her father went off to join the war against the fire nation. He originally set off with a platoon of earth bender resistance members, but a messenger came by a few months past to notify us that he's been M.I.A. Rei remembers that day well, where her mother couldn't stop crying for days. It's been hard on the whole family, but even harder on her older brother, Lee.

Rei sighed. Being the only other earth bender in the family, her older brother always felt the urge to be the "responsible one", or the "protective one". To her, it only meant him running off to join the war efforts, following in their father's footsteps to disappear with him. Their mother begged him not to go, but he had made up his mind. He had to do everything he could to protect them and their country as well as search for their father, which apparently meant abandoning them. Rei shook her head. It wasn't the time to think about those things. Now SHE had to be the responsible one; doing chores and looking out for her sister, Mayu. She took one last look in the mirror and headed out of her room. She took a piece of fruit in passing by the kitchen, and sauntered out of the house.

The sun was blinding at first, but after a brief moment to adjust Rei could see that it was a beautiful day outside. Her house stood at the side of the main road, amongst other rows of houses. The village elder's hut is found at the top of the village, at the end of the road. It wasn't much more extravagant than the rest of the village, which reflected the elder's aim for equality for the entire village. The sun was shining, the turkeyducks were quacking and children were running around the village. It didn't take long before a group of children ran over to greet her, amongst them would be her little sister Mayu.

"Rei! Rei!" Mayu cried out, flinging out her arms for a hug.

Rei laughed and picked up the small child into her arms. "How's my little sister doing? Are you having fun?" She said, tucking a stay piece of the child's dark brown hair from her face.

"Yes! We played with Mr. Quabbles until he got really mad." Mr. Quabbles was the oldest turkeyduck in the village. He always seemed to sneer at people in passing. He's such a weird animal.

"Alright, well I need to do some chores now. Go run along." Rei said while placing Mayu back on the ground.

"Awe, but don't you wanna play sentry with us?" One of the children pipped up.

Rei turned her gaze to a young boy roughly 8 years old. His name was Ling, and always wanted to play sentry or soldier or anything else like it. He felt that by playing those games, he was pitching in on the war effort, or something like that. His father joined the resistance as well, but he died during one of the first battles. The poor boy was waiting at the village gate every day for months waiting for his father who never came home. Rei assumes that Ling plays sentry so much hoping that he would see his father marching back in the horizon. She tries to play with the kids as often as she can, but today it'll have to wait until after her chores.

"Sorry Ling, I can't today. Maybe later." She replied.

Rei set off to start her many chores. There were turkeyducks and ostrich horses to feed, eggs to collect, hay to roll up, and all sorts of tedious things. She toiled all day, all the while avoiding the path of Mr. Quabbles. Passerby's said hello throughout the day, all on their way to their respective chores or out to sell their wares in the market. The toiling sun rose higher and higher into the midday sky, bearing down on Rei as she worked. After a few hours, Rei was finally finished with her chores. Before she had the chance to even sit down, her mother was moving towards her with a list and the reins to the family ostrich horse in hand.

"Now that you finished those chores, here's the list of things we need at the market today." She said while handing the list and reins to Rei. "There's money in our ostrich horse's saddle, which is all ready for you. Now be sure not to dally or make a scene like last time!"

"Hey that jerk had it coming, taking all of the bread! And besides, it's me you're talking about," She smirked sarcastically. "I'll be a ghost."

Hi everybody! So this is my first story ever, and I've been a fan of Avatar since for-EVER. I hope that you all enjoyed the first chapter! Hopefully I set the scene efficiently enough. I'd love to hear your opinions and constructive criticism is always welcome! We're all here to develop our creative writing skills, right? XD I'll try to set up a weekly update for this, but P.S. I am a student here sooo, sorry in advance if I'm late. Love you all and plz review! :)