Okay, so in light of the internet completely failing to give me a definitive answer to the whole "female earthbender soldier" thing I went ahead and did a rewrite/tweaking/work-around of my character's history just in case. Actually, I kind of think I may be a little bit more partial to this new version, so I'm going to stick it in a hider at the end of this post so you can all tell me your opinions as to which one is best. I'm a huge fan of constructive criticism, so don't be afraid to lay it on me.

[hider=History, take two]History: Saili was born and raised in Taku, a coastal city in the northwestern region of the Earth Kingdom. The city was known as a hub for commerce, as its ports handled many of the imports and exports from other nations. Both of Saili’s parents worked in this industry, her father working on a cargo ship as a crewman, and her mother in the warehouse. While her father would be away for varying lengths of time, her mother was still a constant in her young life despite her working. Often Saili would find herself trailing after her mother all day until it was that she grew old enough to be left to her own devices. 

Saili and her own devices usually meant running amok through the crowded of streets of Taku, a pack of her friends around her. Like most kids their age, they often played at being heroes of great grandeur, or even the next Avatar knowing full well that the first was nigh impossible, and the second was completely so. Regardless, Saili grew up with the idea that she was meant to be something more than a what her parents had achieved especially when she had first learned that she was an earthbender. 

But life is not always dreams come true and walking off into the sunset, and there were no earthbending masters that came to sweep her away and teach her all their secrets. Instead, a young Saili decided to carve her own path, and began hanging around the docks owned by the company that employed her mother. A number of benders worked there, lifting cargo on and off the vessels on huge slabs of rock, and Saili pestered the most amiable people of the lot into teaching her anything they knew about earthbending. In return, she’d do as much of their work as she could handle, and soon came the day where she could lift more than any of them. The dock benders taught her strength and precise, controlled movement.

Saili wanted to know all the facets and all of limits of her earthbending, though, and that was something her friends at the port just couldn’t provide. So she moved on into two distinctive directions. In her late teens Saili gained employment at the military’s barracks as a cook, as a way to get her foot into the door, so to speak, and learn whatever she could manage to pick up. In tandem to this, Saili began avidly watching the underground earthbending fights that were active in some of the more morally ambiguous areas of Taku. She needed to learn the martial aspect of her bending and it was the best way she knew could figure out how to accomplish that goal short of throwing herself into fights blindly. 

So she observed and practiced the techniques she saw as much as she could without having an opponent, and [i]then[/i] she threw herself mostly blind into the thick of things. She started out easy, edging her way to the army’s practice fields and offhandedly challenging some of the big-headed new soldiers and became something of a mascot that provided some entertainment. But eventually her landslide victories over the younger soldiers caught the attention of the more seasoned earthbenders, and soon they wanted to pit themselves against this audacious cook to see just how far she stacked up. And at nights she’d go to the matches, blending her growing skills based on Earth Kingdom Army’s forms with those of the flashy, intricate ring-benders. The soldiers taught her the martial forms and techniques of their kingdom, and the art of utilizing neutral jing. The fighters taught her speed of mind and body, as well as bending creatively and adaptability of style. 

This went on for years and Saili made herself into a staple of the earthbending circles in her city until a new Captain transferred from Omashu and took command Taku’s military. A master earthbender and as stern and foreboding as any mountain, he wasn’t pleased to hear that his new unit had taken to sparring with one of the cooks. And surely he had every intention of firing Saili on the spot and ending this impedance to his soldiers’ order and discipline. But then he saw her fight and decided that maybe she wasn’t such a bad thing. 

He fired her as a cook and hired her as a sparring opponent for the earthbenders, reasoning that “soldiers need to be accustomed to fighting earthbenders that do not fight using standard techniques, as the combatants they’ll face in real situations will most likely not fight as such.” And maybe that was true, but Saili was convinced it wasn’t the main reason, especially when he himself began to spar with her; She wasn’t going to look a gift ostrich horse in the mouth, though. 

Whether intentional or not -and Saili could never really tell what the conniving man had rolling around in his mind- the Captain taught Saili many of the master earthbending techniques by way of having thoroughly pummeled her with them on a pretty regular basis. Everytime it seemed like he might be throwing her a bone, he’d end up yanking it right back and thwacking her over the head with it. But Saili couldn’t complain; she loved the physical and mental exertion of earthbending.

But everything changed once the Fire Nation attacked… (I’m sorry!)

After Sozin’s comet struck and obliterated the Air Nomads it was Taku that came under siege by the Fire Nation; the first Earth Kingdom city to be attacked. Saili had been at work that notorious day, and although she had not been near the port, she still remembers the exact moment the first explosion rocked the city to its core. Things after that became somewhat of a blur. She knew she had run to go meet the enemy threat, and that the Earth Kingdom soldiers and benders held onto the city for only a few days; only long enough for the civilians to flee from the inland gates and into the heart of the Empire. The Fire nation’s navy was too large and they decimated Taku’s port before barraging the rest of the city. Saili fought the entire four days before the city fell completely to the Fire Nation. She didn’t think she slept once, and that exhaustion probably resulted in her flighty memory of many of the times particulars.

After the last of the bystanders left Taku’s gates, the Earth Kingdom defenders abandoned the city to their enemy, Saili among the last groups of fighters to leave as a sort of rear guard. Most of the refugee groups scattered into the winds, going every which way to seek safety within the heart of the largest of the nations. Saili decided to remain in the outskirts of her hometown for some time, keeping watch on the enemy army from afar and scrounging together any lingering refugees and sending them onward towards Ba Sing Se or other settlements inland. 

After a while there was no more point to her presence, as there was nothing more she could do that would be productive so close to this new Fire Nation stronghold. So Saili left to wander the nearby settlements and villages, wanting to link up with the Earth Kingdom soldiers she known to create some semblance of a fighting force for the area, and hoping that she’d find her mother among the refugees there. Or to hear news of her father’s ship, which had been at sea at the start of the siege, had made it away safely. 

Now she fights the good fight, helping the effort against the Fire Nation by helping to establish guerilla forces and resistance fighters from among the willing civilians and scattered military, and teaching Earth Kingdom citizens how to stand against the Fire Nation’s advance. She’s only one woman, but she’ll do whatever she can.[/hider]