(I see...okay...^^'

Also, you don't suck at either!)

-Sorin-

Oh great, I thought to myself. I was awful at coming up with excuses.

But, wait. Why did I have to lie? What was she going to do? I mean, Summer was already mad at me, how much worse could it get?

"Well...the Fire Nation, I guess," I said, glancing over at Summer. She didn't seem to notice me say that, so I continued.

"My parents were captured by the Fire Nation, and I'm trying to find them. Summer's...helping."

(Why thank ya, M'Lady! )

---

-Star-

At first, Sorin seemed hesitant to answer my question. But he told me that his parents were captured by the Fire Nation, and that he was looking for them.

"If I'm lucky, I'm going to look for my parents, too," I said, reffering to 'being lucky' as 'if they're still alive'. I had no idea what the Fire Nation did to my parents that night. They could have taken them to a prison, or they could have killed them on the spot. Who honeslty knows?

"Actually, I'm headed to Ba Sing Se, like I mentioned before," I continued. "I can look for my parents while I'm there, although that isn't my sole purpose for going," I said, laughing nervously. Basically, I was just rambling. I wanted to try to keep a friendly conversation going, so I could get them to trust me. It was sort of obvious that they had issues trusing me, as I had issues trusting them.

-Sorin-


Star told me that her parents had also been captured. She was going to Ba Sing Se, partly to look for them. I wondered what her other reason was.

I nodded my head after she finished talking, kind of just as an acknowledgment or something.

"Yeah...I have no idea where my parents might be. We just figured the Fire Nation might be a good place to look."

(Sorry for not posting here sooner! I forgot it was my turn to post. '^^)

--Star--

"Same here, basically," I answered, looking straight ahead.

There really wasn't much more to say about that topic. So it seemed to close itself, and the three of us walked through the forest in silence.


I looked around at the surroundings. There were trees all around, of course. The sky was blue, with a few puffy white clouds scattered here and there. The grass seemed plush and soft under my feet. There was a slight breeze, but nothing too extreme.
The scene was vaugly familiar. I laughed quietly, under my breath, as it stirred up memories. They were happy memories. And happy memories were a wonderful relief to me. This past week or two, only the negative was floating around in my head.
But knowing that there was still some positive inside was a wonderful promise, to me at least.

So I meditated on this happy memory, this wonderful feeling. I couldn't help but let a small smile crawl onto my lips, and I almost felt frivolous.

But I was soon broken out of this string of thoughts by a distraction.

---

(Hmm, what'll the distraction be? Hmmmm....I shall let you decide. >=] () )

(EVIL! And that's okay. ^^ I've forgotten lots of times.)

-Summer-

That moron. Telling some girl we'd barely just met our plans? UGH! I know he's new at this whole " not trusting anyone" thing, but come on. I thought it was common sense to at least get to know someone before trusting them with your plans.

Okay, my rant is over. We'd been walking through this forest for maybe seven minutes, me walking ahead of Sorin and his new best friend--who could very well turn out to be a murderer, and after she killed us, I'd get to tell him 'Told ya so!'. ...Yes, I'm paranoid.

Anyway, suddenly, I heard a rustling somewhere in the woods nearby. My first instinct was to reach for my swords, which I did, not before holding up my hand as a signal to Sorin and the girl to tell them to stop. I scanned the bushes, and that's when I saw it; a Fire Nation soldier, dressed completely in green and black. A scout. Most likely sent ahead by his squad--who had probably made camp nearby--to check for any sign of life. A small village hidden in the woods, maybe a lone cabin. Anything they could destroy.

I stared at him, and he stared at me. Then he did what I least expected him to do: He ran. After a moment of standing there in shock and disbelief, I realized what he was doing: getting back-up. Why? Because he probably couldn't fight worth a darn. I'd seen it before. A Fire Nation squad picks out some random kid from a town they've taken over, someone they don't care about. They make them into a scout, because contrary to popular belief, it's actually a pretty dangerous job. They get caught, or if they're seen, they could be captured and killed, because whoever saw them thinks they're Fire Nation.

Now, if this kid's squad was nearby, I estimated we had about two minutes to get away from there. Although we were just three kids, traveling and minding our own business(Right.), this squad didn't know that, nor did they really care, probably. They'd kill us in the time it took them to blink.

I turned to Sorin and the girl.

"We have to get out of here," I said, as urgently as possible. I didn't have time to explain everything.


(Dang! O.O That was long!)

(Yes! Yay! )

--Star--

I stopped and looked over at Summer. She seemed...urgent.

"Why?" I asked, confused. "What's going on?"

I looked around, trying to find any sort of danger, or any reason she would sound so rushed. I didn't see anything. But, just by the tone of her voice alone, I knew something was wrong.

---

(Sorry it was so short. I couldn't think of much else. '^^)

-Summer-

"The Fire Nation's here. And we're wasting time talking. We need to get away from here. Now." I explained as quickly as possible.

I noticed their confused stares, and sighed. I hurriedly tried to explain.

"I guess you guys didn't see. There was a scout watching us, not too far away. He saw me looking at him and took off running. Most likely to go and get his squad. So, we need to go."