Lamenting (Sort of) {Open}

[YiAn]

YiAn was sitting out infront of her home. The twelve year old began thinking about her sister. She was usually thinking about her sister these days. Chu had been sort of the only one who had ever cared for her. YiAn's sister had been the one to raise her and everything. Her mother had died when she was three and her father didn't give a copper about her, as obvious as he made it. The girl shivered slightly; if it wasn't for Malo, Chu would still be here. Oh well, falling in love was a strange thought to the waterbender, but it had happened with her sister. It was sort of weird to think that Malo had been one of her best friends' brother. She didn't know that until ChuDana had told her that.

For a few mintues she felt really angry. She felt like she did right after ChuDana had told YiAn that she was moving. ChuDana was on the opposite pole with Malo by now. A random thought entered her mind as she was fusing at Monkey. The day that her sister announced that she was leaving, was the same day YiAn had discovered that she was a Waterbender. Of course, the only reason she had found that out was becuase she had half thrown a fit. That did not happen often; if YiAn was honest with herself, she had even scared herself. It really hurt to have another person dissapear on her. Especially since ChuDana had been way more than a sister to her. YiAn took a deep breath and calmed down. ChuDana wouldn't want her to be this upset. Neither would Meitiao or Jietiao; maybe she should just calm the heck down and just face things the way they were. It could be worse.

Now she needed to get her mind off this. She'd forgive Banana Brain eventually. She looked at the newly added watersack to her waist. The black haired girl had added it after she found out that she was a bender. Not that it would matter; they wouldn't teach her until she was sixteen; YiAn half rolled her eyes, she hated to wait for four years. Hang on, ChuDana had taught her dagger and staff... hadn't she? And that was against custom as well! YiAn took out the dagger out of her pouch and looked at it. Chu had made her a belt for her tenth birthday. It would hold her dagger and staff; it also had a pouch for a sharpening stone and spear heads. She had learned weapons against the rules, so why not waterbending? Oh, right. She also wanted to keep up the healing classes as well. This woud be quite the life style. She did have a chance of getting kicked out of the Tribe for this, but right now, half of her didn't really care.

[Kasumi]

Kasumi yawned and stretched her arms out wide. That had to be the longest training ever. It was like the Master was seriously trying to drown her. Then again, if he did, no real harm done save a new kid born into the Earth Kingdom. Wow, weird feeling. Not that she was exactly ready to just let her rear end get handed to her on a platter during simple practices. Actually, she was rather pleased with the fact that she’s knocked the old man off his feet at least once. Shouldn’t have been that satisfying, perhaps, but it was! After all, she was ready to leave this place, if just for a little while, right? Then again, that meant more training, and harder training. Shoot. Well, keep at it, right? You can only break an iceberg one chip at a time.

She let out a sigh, folding her hands behind her head as she walked through the familiar streets of the Northern Water Tribe. She had no particular desire to return home, where her brother would no doubt still give her the cold shoulder, her mother and grandmother would ask endlessly how everything was going, and her father would likely ask why she wasn’t practicing more. Being at home could get a little crazy to put it lightly.

Lost in her thoughts, Kas only stopped short when she noticed something out of the ordinary. Where a slightly younger girl sitting outside one of the houses was perfectly normal, a slightly younger girl randomly pulling out a dagger was not so much. She took a step back, ready to defend herself, when she noticed also that the girl wasn’t being aggressive at all. In fact, she seemed to have not even noticed her. There was a soft fump and Kasumi realized, a little embarrassed, that it was a small bunch of snow, which she had instinctively lifted a bit out of shear reaction, falling back to the ground.

[YiAn]

YiAn began to fiddle with her dagger. Leave or stay? her mind was racing. Stay and get kicked out or leave on your own accord and have no where to go? YiAn flipped the dagger in her hand. She wanted to keep learning and improving on weapons. Even though she only had staff and dagger right now, she was pretty good with them. Perhaps she could improve them and learn new ones, but it'd all have to be in secret. That, plus waterbending; YiAn bit her tongue, starting to feel slightly anxious. Maybe running away was a better option now.

Sorry, Chu, YiAn thought sadly. ChuDana had told her never to run away from her problems. She had always told YiAn to try and talk it out, or work to make it better. YiAn was rather stuck; she had no one to talk to anymore and she had a slim chance of changing tradition. She looked at the dagger again. ChuDana had broke tradition, but in a form, she ran away when she married Malo. Dang Monkey, if it wasn't for him, YiAn would still have her guardian. It wasn't like her mother or father was ever coming back either. That was it, YiAn would wait until nightfall, then she was out of here.

First, she'd need supplies. She had money, all she needed to do was use it wisely to get supplies and then she'd leave. As she was about to go into the house for a sack there was a light sound infront of her. Instinctively, YiAn tensed and shot upward, ready to defend herself. She spotted Kasumi. If the young Water tribe girl remembered, she was the new avatar. YiAn started to feel heat rush to her face, then looked at her dagger. Shoot, I'm not even supposed to have this! The younger girl sheathed it and gave a respectful bow. "I-I'm sorry..." she muttered, looking down, her face turning red.

[Kasumi]

Okay, so the girl definitely looked younger. Then again, that was saying all of nothing whatsoever because guessing ages really wasn’t Kasumi’s forte. But if she was younger, she technically shouldn’t have that weapon… Then again, Kas had done a lot of things that weren’t exactly par with tribe traditions. So she really couldn’t talk.

It was the knowledge that she wasn’t exactly the best example in the tribe either that made her feel all the worse for startling the other girl. Really badly too, apparently. Kasumi bowed back, though it was immensely awkward. It had only been, what, four weeks tops since she was a normal run-of-the-mill person here? Being looked at weird all a sudden could really take some getting used to. Kas held her hands up to show she had no ill will. “It’s okay. Really. I’m not going to like, turn you in or something.” She paused and glanced around. “To be perfectly honest, between you and I, I used to sneak in and watch the advanced water bending lessons when I was younger. So I definitely can’t talk about sticking to traditions.” She smiled, hoping she seemed friendly enough.

She fell silent, a bit awkwardly. What do you even say in a situation like this? Eloquency… another of her not-so-fortes. “Oh, um, I’m Kasumi.” She held out her hand to shake the other girl’s, figuring an introduction was always a good way to go when in doubt. “Sorry if I interrupted.”

[YiAn]

YiAn shuffled her feet in the snow, still quite embarrassed being caught with a knife. She chanced a glance at the girl standing in front of her. The opposite girl was a few years older than her. Surely she was; the Avatar was told with he or she was sixteen, right? As YiAn remembered the feast for her had only been a few weeks ago. She smiled, YiAn would of never been able to be the Avatar, she was way to shy, then got way to hyper sometimes.

As other girl bowed back to her, YiAn was slightly confused but went with it. She straightened, a smile starting to light up this face. She was beginning to like this girl. The twelve year old began to wonder what it must of felt like to be the Avatar. It must of been good and bad she supposed. YiAn would sort of take it as bad if she was in that position. As the girl began to talk to her, YiAn's shyness snapped. "Really?!" she asked in a squeak of excitement. Her eyes lit up happily. She grinned. "Oh, that's so cool!" she said excitedly. She knocked her voice down a few notches. "To be honest with you, my sister taught me staff and dagger," she said, starting to become a bit red again.

The water tribe girl grinned. "Nihao Kasumi!" she said, grinning. "Nice to meet you!" she said happily and shook her hand. It was so easy to forget that she was the Avatar, when YiAn looked at her, Kasumi just looked... well, normal to her. "My name's YiAn," she said, grinning. "Or Yi... or YiYi..." she said, laughing. As the Kasumi finished, YiAn suddenly remembered what she had been doing. "Oh, no problem," she said with a slight smile. "I.." YiAn paused a second. Should she tell her this as well? Probably, she'd just go missing from the Tribe in a few days anyway. Not that anyone would really care. "I... I was just going to... er, buy some stuff, to um... leave," she finished in a mutter.