Fall From Grace

[REN RUKURO]

The sun was sinking in the Earth Kingdom sky, casting a copper light into the semi arid mountain range. Though, the atmosphere held a tinge of red that flashed like a mirror into Ren’s eyes. The dusk seemed darker on this side of the kingdom. The smoke from the heavy artillery machines brought in by the Fire Nation claimed the fringes of this soil. So in some aspect, the blood gold light that touched the land was no longer in the hands of its crust bearing people, but by the strangers powered by magma that bubbled and hissed through the cracks.

In the town, the wide streets that used to accommodate the frenzy of day to day life were still. The store fronts and shacks were dark or boarded up on either side of the gaping cobble stone road. The smell of charred stone and wood wafted past as large funnels of smoke reached for the sky that birthed from important government buildings. Ren could almost smell the fear if not taste it in the ash that slowly drifted to the ground. Fittingly, the personality that had been sucked from this place was called “Sector 7”. Where were the people that knew the name of what the town was once called? As she paced forward to her destination she observed Fire Nation soldiers knocking on doors and escorting people out, women, children and men.

Ren kept moving forward. She had a mission, and luckily she had no taps on the shoulder or suspicious glances by the soldiers that ran the town. She was an Earth Kingdom native, but she never rooted for her own team, or anyone else’s for that matter. Therefore, dress wasn’t a problem because anyone that paid her for her work was where her loyalties lay most. Green wasn’t the only thing available in her wardrobe, her attire was rather neutral. It consisted of washed out olive military pants, a gray high collared tunic, and boots. The disguise also was within her ruby colored eyes not characteristic of any one nation, but rather a lucky mutation. No one questioned her business consequently to her confident forward gaze and purposeful gate despite the two twin hook swords strapped to her back, and parchment between her fingers. Not yet, at least. She had every reason for a chin held high, she had been on a roll this month, making every mission and payment a success.

As Ren approached the thick of a highly patrolled neighborhood, she made fleeting eye contact with a solider, like she was just asking to be confronted. As expected someone shouted in her direction and came jogging over.
“Sir! What is your business here?”
“My business?” she countered, taking her voice an octave lower.
“Are you a civilian?”
“No, I was hired by the General Azilo. I’m a pri—“
“Ah, I’m sorry. Please move right along then,” was the response from behind the masked soldier. Ren tried hard not to smirk, she wasn’t even given the time to explain herself. Doing her research had saved her.

She came to the estate that used to belong to one of the council men. She surveyed the layout of the seized home, everything looked unimposing except for maybe the garden that hadn’t been watered since. Inside there were documents that the rest of the Earth Kingdom wanted back, but couldn’t get back because of the Fire Nation base. She began mapping out the plan in her head. First she would ascend into the tree in front of the house and traverse over the roof to get to the back entrance. Her inference was that there were probably some measly number watch military dogs inside. The base had no reason to stock up on heavy security on one building because the base wasn’t experiencing any infiltration by the Earth Kingdom’s men at the moment since they were fighting too many fronts. Ren began by taking a starting leap into the tree and grasped the trunk with her arms and legs and shimmied up, until she reached branches. She climbed to the stop bough and unsheathed her hook swords and dropped herself form her perch. The ends of her swords caught the branch and used her weight and momentum to swing herself to the rooftop. Her back arched with form through the air. Then the female landed on her toes, knees bent and leaned forward her spine curving forward like a spring. She finished her landing and rolled to minimize the sound and impact. Ren stood and crept to the adjacent side of the roof, keeping herself low.

Ren gasped, her stomach lurching violently. The tiles beneath her crumbled and she shot through the roof like an anchor. It was a good dozen foot drop, narrowly missing a chandelier. Debris hit the ground, shattering across the echoing marble floor, her swords clattering loudly. Ren hit a desk feet first and her leg twisted and jerked under her unevenly distributed weight. She rolled to the floor and wrapped her knuckles around her ankle, writhing in agony. She rolled over, her forehead touching the cold floor, her brown hair spilling about her face. Weak ankles, like hell I’m going to go down this way…

Ren breathed through clenched teeth as she heard the hustle of men and hollers coming her way. “Shit…” The trace skipper pulled herself up with the entire pain threshold she could wrestle. She hobbled precariously bending over to pick up her weapons and head out. She hopped towards an open bed room door, before succumbing to the floor crawling to the nearest window. She got on her knees and punched out the glass with a whack of her sword and hauled herself up by her elbows through the tight space and wriggled out. A shard of glass still in place sliced her brow in the process.

She tumbled into the garden below behind a row of bushes and army crawled, eyes wide for any openings that led under the estate. Her eyes were wide, stricken with fear that this just might end her. A plume of flames vented from the window she had escaped from, the heat almost searing her skin. Ren had no chance of escaping at this speed, she forced herself up and stumbled forward and collapsed as her body detested the pain like stabbing needles. She stopped and turned to face her attackers that were spilling out in a line from the window. She reached for her belt and pulled out a flare and tossed it at the men. They jumped back in surprise backing up from the stick, but soon realized it was a bluff. In the time that she had stalled them, she gained a few more yards but still was only inches from death.

[EDO]

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[atrb=style, width: 10px]	[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][cs=3][atrb=style,border: 5px solid silver][atrb=background,http://i790.photobucket.com/albums/yy189/darkseraphim12/background/starbg2.png][atrb=style,padding: 20px][atrb=valign,top][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 250px; height: 220px] The metal glinted against the rays of the sun as Hagane raised his arm to inspect the 'equipment's' intricate joints and connections. It had been but a few weeks since the boy had noticed the arm's problem which meant he had to endure more than ten days with the nagging at the back of his mind that his right arm's reaction time was late by a full five seconds. The blond just couldn't stand that. And so it was with this as motivation that Hagane made the difficult decision of taking a short detour trip to the capital of the Earth Kingdom to seek out his arm's mechanic and get an upgrade while he was at it. He spent his days at the Northern Air Temple researching on the Earth Benders and the possibility of 'bending metal' in between the hours he spent training himself or teaching those 'brats' how to bend air properly. Obviously, his reputed short-temperedness had earned him the respect his young age failed to glean for him among the ranks of his students and the arbending teachers there. He was, after all, what they called a prodigy. "Oi oi, can't you go any faster Popo?", Hagane gently nudged the air bison he was riding with his flesh hand. It wasn't too hard to imagine how both were dismayed at the decision the boy had made on this little sidetrip he had to take on the journey to the West (lol I win the interwebz for the Saiyuki reference~). The blond didn't quite understand why, of all the available transports back there, the old coots at the Western Air Temple decided to lend him this one belonging to a female airbender named Ming. Popo was, by far, the laziest waste of space Hagane had ever encountered and the blond was actually contemplating whether it would have been easier to simply teach one of the bisons at the Northern Air Temple the way to the West than to wait for them to send him one that already knew the routes needed. It wasn't like he forgot the way there in just a short span of a few months anyway. The path was engraved in his mind as much as that day in his dark past was. "Geez, if only I could use a staff glider like the rest of the kids at the temple I'd bet my right arm I can outfly you, you sorry excuse for a flying carpe- WOAH!" A sudden flash of light from below (the furry thing chose to hover not too far from the ground for some strange reason) caused the beast to startle and toss the blond midget airbender off its shaggy back, where he had been busy lounging while waiting to arrive at his destination. He had but only a few moments to realize he wasn't going to be defying gravity any time soon (no thanks to certain attachments he had on his body) and the boy held out his flesh arm in panic to blast out a powerful gust of wind that would at least, cushion the fall. The plan worked as he landed on solid footing, like a fallen meteorite, with his red cloak billowing around his small (yes the character will murder this narrator in her sleep soon) form and a dramatic ring of wind emanating from the little dent on the earth where he had been gracelessly planted... -right in the middle of the fleeing Ren and her pursuing party. "Hope nobody minds if I drop in", he gave both sides his characteristic grin and scrubbed at an imaginary dirt spot on his face with his left thumb. Hey, why waste a perfectly good entrance when it was handed to him eh? Never mind that he had absolute zero idea what was happening, all he had going for him now was the opportunity to look cool and so try to look cool, he did.

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Word Count:660
Tagged: Ren
Music: Poker Face - Lady Gaga
Notes: Yes Ed is going to murder me in my sleep. Also, virtual cookies are awarded to me for managing to squeeze a reference of my old FM character Ming in there. XD

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[REN RUKURO]

((Feel free to manipulate the Fire Nation men if you like. I'm not sure how a simple reply turned to be this long. >< ))

The crowd of six men bolted forward as the stick merely sparkled at them in their paths. She would be a fool to hope she could out run them. She stared meekly at her pursuers, a faint breath leaving her lips before putting on her most intimidating face to fight till she couldn’t budge. Their palms were raised, poised to have fire leap from their hands, but no sparks. They could have burnt her to crisp by now, but her suspicions that she was target for interrogation. Good grief, she had heard stories.

The two leading men were ahead of the others and Ren brought herself to stand one more time, tenderly minding her left ankle. It hurt, but not as much as facing whatever methods they would use to try to squeeze information out of her. The first man ran straight at her, fists ready to beat her to the ground. Although his plans were cut short as she abruptly stuck out her hooked sword and plugged him in the face with the steel implement. One down five to go—or rather an army in her condition. The man following threw a short blast of flame to knock her back down, but Ren was already primed for her next attack, and dropped her weight to the ground balancing on her hand and swiped her good leg around in a circular motion knocking the soldier off his feet.

She hadn’t noticed the immense shadow that had passed overhead that loomed over the squabbling group. Back on the ground again, she bought herself time and started hauling herself away from the men. It was a hopeless getaway, but instinct had driven her to desperation. The tendons in her foot were shredded, and it was a dragging weight. Ren’s body flinched in surprise as a gust of wind whipped her face, and the presence of another person suddenly appeared in front of her. The golden yellow eyes and the smile that only a Fire Nation child could give appeared on the male’s lips.

Two different notions had pulsated through the two kinds of people here. The soldiers saw the braided-boy who seemed to be connected with Ren’s mission because of their similarity in age and the timing that could be the bounty hunter’s getaway telling by the size of the bison that was big enough for two meddling teens. In Ren’s mind, the kid was another Fire Nation bastard in her way. Someone who’s height wasn’t as tall as their ego.

Ren glared at the boy that dared look down on her like that, ready to wipe that grin clean off his face. The curved ends of her swords grazed the top of the grass and caught the stranger’s ankles and pulled back on the hilts of her swords to knock him to his feet. Hopefully he wouldn’t mind seeing eye to eye again(more or less), since he was probably used to it.

Though, her actions were questionable when men ran past her and towards blonde whilst sending flames in his direction. Alright…so Ren and the boy did have something in common—they were both not supposed to be here. The soldiers were now honed in on the air-bender who posed more of a threat now. Out for herself as always, Ren broke away limping towards the woods that surrounded the estate. The self-proclaimed idiot had done her a favor already after all.

“Hey! The intruder is getting away! After him!” One of the men caught up, and kicked Ren down with a foot to her back, and held her there with his foot and with one hand grabbed a handful of hair and pulled back, revealing the outline of an artery in her neck where a knife hovered over. “Drop your weapons.” Remi did as she was told, releasing her grip from her swords, reluctantly so. The bridge of her nose wrinkled, gulping hard. Regret flashed through her mind, wishing she hadn’t shown aggression to the cloaked male.

[EDO]

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[atrb=style, width: 10px]	[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][cs=3][atrb=style,border: 5px solid silver][atrb=background,http://i790.photobucket.com/albums/yy189/darkseraphim12/background/starbg2.png][atrb=style,padding: 20px][atrb=valign,top][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 250px; height: 220px] The smile was completely melted right off Hagane's face when an unknown force swept him off of his feet and forced him to do a backflip in order to regain his balance. Oh so the other boy wanted to roughhouse a bit did he? The blond poised his arm for a quick counter attack using the move's momentum when the other group decided to bring their own cards to the table. The tongues of the flames they shot from their palms licked on Hagane's cloak sleeves and the boy's widened eyes reflected the scorching heat blazing in them. The playful flow of his stance long forgotten, the enemy they may have all initially perceived as a mere insolent brat suddenly turned out to be much more than they could handle. The rude realization of the allegiance of the men he was facing had awoken in the blond the most savage wrath that he had to show by far. Where, they wondered in dismay, had that insolent little pipsqueak they thought would've been an easy match go? "Ch, Fire Nation scum!, he spat their name out of his mouth like acid, his words adapting the sharp edge of the blade he sorely lacked. Not that he wasn't doing a fine job of thrashing them without one. Hagane no longer seemed concerned about appearances or looking cool as he ducked and rolled out of the way of the bursts of fire the enemy hurled at him, running circles around their group and striking their men down one by one with the sickening crack of metal against bare flesh. Contrary to what these soldiers had learned about the air nomads, this boy seemed to be far more ready to hurt them in this encounter. In fact, he even seemed more determined to do more than just that after finding out who they really were. Red, the color red, it was everywhere and all he wanted was to do away with all of it. Trample every single one to the ground and bury them there until there was no more. His eyes were no longer seeing the foes that stood before him here, but those dark menacing shadows that took away everything he had valued three long years ago. With increasing panic, the group of soldiers realized they were no match for this boy turned monster on a rampage as their flame shots would barely even come close to a strand of his hair before being whisked away with a wave of his left hand. "FOOLS!", he bellowed, "YOU THINK YOUR FLAMES COULD TOUCH ME?! FIRE NEEDS OXYGEN TO BURN, AND YOU'RE NOT GONNA FIND ANY OF THAT HERE!", Hagane rent another violent streak through the air surrounding himself to avoid the stream of heat sent his way. A few short minutes later he was standing over the men who dared engage him in combat, glaring menacingly at their prone forms as if wanting to do more than just flatten them to the ground. Not too far away, he saw that one had somehow managed to escape his wrath and vaguely remembered their leader's commands to pursue the fleeing boy the soldier was holding captive. “Drop your weapons.” Hagane watched the boy do as he was told and frowned as the soldier sneered and turned to call over to him, "If you don't want your friend over here to suddenly find it hard to breathe, I suggest you surrender now airbender." The blond in question didn't respond, merely shifting his gaze from the offending sight of the soldier's face to meet the boy's crimson eyes. Was that regret he saw in them? The prolonged silence seemed to irk the hostage-taker even more. "I SAID GIVE UP BOY!" A soft breeze passed by the area as Hagane released an exasperated sigh, his shoulders relaxing with the motion. The soldier waited impatiently, his grip on the other boy's hair tightening as he watched the blond bring both palms together in front of him, eyes closed as if praying to some obscure deity. He saw the blond's lips slowly begin to move though he couldn't make out just exactly what was said as a terrible whistling had erupted the moment those golden orbs had drifted back open and the air around them begun to change with every step he took closer to the pair. "You moron", the voice finally reached the man's ears though it was too late for him to react when something had knocked the blade out of his grip and pushed him backwards into a torrent of violent wind currents. Somehow, Hagane had managed to get between them and, seemingly in the blink of an eye, unleashed a tornado the size of a small closed room. "WHAT THE FUC-", the only remaining fire soldier was literally blown away with the rest of his team as the blond stood steadfastly in one spot, his right hand gripping the other boy's slim wrist in a vice like grip. "Hold on", he ordered the other before increasing the ferocity of his tiny man-made calamity.

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Word Count: 820-ish
Tagged: Ren
Music: Hatsune Miku no Geki Shou - Hatsune Miku
Notes: Angry Ed is angry. Hopefully he doesn't seem overpowered. This would be the first IC appearance of his experimental attack, the Mini Torn-ED-o though it's up to you how Ren should be affected by it. Just know that Ed's weight is acting as the anchor that's keeping the both of them from lifting off the ground right now. 8Dd

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[REN RUKURO]

Ren was getting a little impatient too as the soldier that had her pinned was yelling at the top of his lungs at her mistaken accomplice. Twice, now she heard no answer from the boy. The blade was teasing at her skin that was now moist with sweat that dribbled down the sides of her face. She had virtually gone limp, trying to breathe in short shallow breathes to avoid the angled blade. The girl’s teeth clenched tighter as the grip on her hair tightened even more. A canine protruded over her lower lip squeezing down on the tissue. Her scarlet eyes strained to her left to get a glimpse of the braided male that was sure taking his precious time depicting whether she would be history. It was hard to keep her jaw from swinging open, when the boy’s gloved hands came together as if praying…Great, her life depended on some good God fearing, holy lunatic. “Amen,” she hissed under breath, waiting for the seas to part or the river to run red. She mind as well pray with the fellow.

The individual almost chuckled to herself when the breeze began to pick up, ominously shifting the leaves about the yard, and whistled through the tree tops like a protective spirit. Her imagination was trying to do all sorts of things now to give her a reason to think she might escape the gate. As the boots came closer into view, the gentle currents began to howl into vicious winds. The invisible forces increased exponentially in velocity. Though, it took Ren a moment she realized the young male was linked to the atmospheric disturbances. She was in the vicinity of a very unhappy airbender.

The dagger was then snapped from his hand and blew like a metallic feather into the distance. Then like a manic puppet master the Fire Nation soldiers were blown clear as if tugged mercilessly by invisible strings. Ren’s eyes widened as the gravity that once bound her faithfully to the earth was rapidly dissipating. She felt incredibly light, her heels barely keeping in contact with the grass as if she were briefly levitating.

“Gah!” was Ren’s reaction to the iron python grip that held her wrist. “You don’t need to tell me twice,” she whimpered. Her other hand came around and half heartedly tried to pry the fingers off, or at least loosen the hold. Her efforts were interrupted by a final gust of wind. She shielded her eyes with her free arm, feeling her eyes water as bits of sand debris spayed any open skin, inflicting a stinging sensation. A deafening roar, numbed her by overriding the rest of her senses with intensity. For a split second she would have felt sorry for anyone around them, because this was just the eye of the storm. Finally both feet were effectively air born just before the whirlwind had stopped.

As the low pressure around them equalized, Ren came back down again quickly returning to favoring her right leg. The androgynous individual stared incredulously at him. “You must have an iron leg—not to mention an iron grip,” she said rubbing her wrist in a demonstrating manner. “Sorry about your arse, thanks for saving mine. Hate to be the damsel in distress,” she said blowing air up at her bangs. Her hair was embellished with twigs and leaves. She reached up to pull the various souvenirs out.

Ren hobbled over to her swords that had been strewn about picking them up one by one, refusing any assistance with a swat of her hand. She had been treated like a princess enough today…by her standards anyway. She slipped the swords back in their sheathes hoping she wouldn’t need them for the rest of the day. She looked from the braided male and back to the estate, looking rather torn but with a twitch of one corner of her lip and the dismay turn of her head she had made a decision. “I’m not going to push my luck, my job’s done here. We better clear out if we don’t want more company, they’ll be back. “You got a name kiddo?” she queried beginning to make progress towards the shroud provided by the woods. She was ready to grant the airbender her name because of her debt to him. But she wasn’t exactly keen on shaking hands. “Mine’s Ren.”

[EDO]

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[atrb=style, width: 10px]	[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][cs=3][atrb=style,border: 5px solid silver][atrb=background,http://i790.photobucket.com/albums/yy189/darkseraphim12/background/starbg2.png][atrb=style,padding: 20px][atrb=valign,top][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 250px; height: 220px] The place was a wreck, quite frankly, not something anyone would expect should they even believe that an airbender had somehow managed to get in a fight with fire nation troops (nowadays, not too farfetched an idea especially if one took the current state of the war torn nations into consideration) and emerged victorious. Hagane's smile took on a bitter undertone at the boy's comment though the blond chose to keep silent, still not quite trusting himself to keep calm, this fresh after a flood of overwhelming emotions- emotions he thought he had managed to get over at least a year ago. Perhaps these kinds of wounds did take much more time to heal, even for someone like him. At least a small part of Hagane, the child he wasn't given the chance to be, still wished to believe in the spiritual bullshit he got from the monks at the Northern Air Temple. It was getting much harder to segregate the plausible facts from the wishful thinking nowadays... "You're welcome, he replied curtly. Wait, did the guy just refer to himself as a 'damsel in distress'? Woah, must be one of those types then, the blond, ever observant, noted. Well, now that he got a better look at him, the boy did look a bit girly... A loud long moan came from overhead as a great shadow was cast over the only two remaining individuals in the area. The sparse trees skirting the military base they were leaving weren't enough to provide them with the cover they needed although the airbender wasn't too concerned with that at the moment as he already had a means of transport out of there. But what of the effeminate boy? How was he supposed to know saving the little git's ass was gonna make him feel this responsible for him? Hagane raised his right arm only to find, in dismay, that the reaction time had gone from merely being five seconds to a full ten seconds late. All the more reason for his trip to see his Earth Kingdom 'friend'. Another low rumble signaled that the beast he had in mind for his escape was finally expressing some semblance of an intention to make itself useful to it's disgruntled rider. "How nice of you to conveniently come back now Popo, I was just about to knock you right out of the sky myself!", he sarcastically called out to the lethargic air bison obviously miffed that it had been the cause of him getting involved in this mess in the first place (never mind that an airbender falling off his own air bison was more the result of his own carelessness than the beast's doing) "Y'know, since you've been such a great help to us, not doing anything back there", the blond pointed to the rows of misaligned bricks and stone that made up a portion of the totaled base's wall. Hagane turned to the other boy to ask if he wanted a ride out when, “You got a name kiddo?” Popo was wise to choose to land just a few steps well away from the blond who stood with his eye twitching. It had enough of being rudely yelled at for today, thank you very much. "My name,", he gritted out, luckily choosing to hold his temper back just a bit more, "is Hagane Doure-", he stopped. His job? His job?! This boy came all the way out here, to face those fire nation bastards alone and dared to chalk it up to simply his line of work? Hagane snorted out in indignation. And the geezers back home called him an arrogant brat. "Y'know what?! Just call me Ed. I've had enough of dealing with idiots for this day and I don't want to waste any more of my time hanging around here", the impatience in the blond's words rang out loud and clear. Without even bothering to climb aboard the normal way, Hagane shot forward with a running leap on to the air bison's back and turned to give the other a sideways glance. "And I don't need to tell you that whatever it was you were trying pull off back there was incredibly stupid. Hell, I'd bother trying to remember your name, but if your actions today would foretell of your future then I'm afraid I won't be knowing you long anyway... Ren", the blond didn't even bother to sugarcoat his blunt observations but held out a hand to the boy anyway, in a gesture of offering the other a ride. Hagane wasn't blind. He noticed the slight limp in the other's gait and knew the boy was probably hurt. Royally pissed off or not, the blond wasn't completely heartless and he was headed for civilization anyway. Besides, Popo could afford to lose some weight. "Now do you wanna ride to the Capital or can I trust you to stay alive until we do meet again Spirits know where 'coz frankly I've got a meeting I'm already running really late for today."

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Word Count: 840
Tagged: Ren
Music: Identity Remix - SHK
Notes: Ah, mai Edo's back to his snarky, cocky little bastard self I see. Try not to kill him for that dear. He can't help it if he's just too short ill-tempered that way. ^^;

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[REN RUKURO]

Ren observed the sky bison that had finally made an appearance. The curious number of legs, the smooth curved horns and the distinct arrow shaped pattern along its coat was striking. The animal was impressively large, easily a couple tons with a leathery dragging tail like a bridge. It was a wonder that such a beast could fly. It was no surprise she had never met a sky bison or even an air bender in fact. The people normally kept to themselves, and kept to their own business as well.

“Well Hagane, it—“ Ren paused as the other cut himself off to correct the last words he spoke. She frowned lightly, arms crossing casually over her chest wondering what he was going to get worked up about. He could tell Hagane’s level of hysteria was exponentially increasing, but she didn’t have the energy to compete with his anger. She was merely thankful. As far as she cared, horns could be growing out of his head. “Pleasant meeting you Ed,” she added flatly, the sincerity in her voice taking a genuine drop. “...It was a long name for a shorty anyway,” she muttered half under her breath, rather off handedly. She didn’t think much of it.

The bounty hunter’s eyes followed Ed upwards as he landed smoothly in the saddle thanks to a jet stream of air and a soft landing. Taking a moment to decide she walked around and cautiously climbed aboard the tail, scrambling up onto the bison’s back, pulling herself up into the saddle with a small grunt.

“You must be their favorite pupil. You walk like a monk and quack like a monk. I’m not an idiot, I’m a professional…” she stated shaking her head. Although her argument may have sounded a little…far fetched after the evidence Hagane had experienced today. “If my missions always turned out like this, I’d be dead already. I could have never planned ahead for what had happened to me today. I guess there’s a first time for everything, and congratulations for being the first spectator,” she explained with a brisk sigh, leaning back in the saddle. She took off her boot and rolled down her sock examining her ankle with a wince. The flesh around it was severely swollen evidence of a sprain.

“I’m actually a wanted woman. I’m quite the celebrity in the Fire Nation. Perhaps you’ve seen me on a few posters. You must travel quite a bit,” she said taking out a roll of gauze from a pouch and tore of a piece with her teeth. She quickly wrapped the area tightly and pulled back on her boot.

“I’ll tag along for the ride, thanks. I guess I can do some shopping while I’m there. I need to pick up a few supplies,” she answered. The female smiled at Hagane. “It’s refreshing to meet someone who’s kind, but still has as grip on reality.”

Ren settled herself, awaiting lift off. She wasn’t looking forward to telling her boss she had failed. But that was hardly a trifle right now. Her harvest moon eyes were still aimed at the horizon, still seeing, still living to see the end. She had a perfect stranger to thank for that.

As they soared into the dimming skies a few lonely stars appeared in the blue-violet atmosphere. Below the city that was trapped by the sea was dwarfed by the clouds that stretched for miles and the mountains that loomed above. The small red flickering points against the darkness of land that were pressed up against the steady lights of the surviving cities could hardly seem to be the source of war. Around them was beauty. If people could look up into the skies and remember what it means to be alive, and recognize the peacefulness that still thrived at such great heights, would they crave for nostalgia?

Ren closed her eyes. Sides of the war had always been unimportant to her. None the less she knew war was killing people, tearing families apart and was ravaging the land. She opened her eyes again, casting a silent glance at Ed. He seemed like a level headed individual with good intentions, a motivation for peace. What if he knew, if she fed off people like him…it was obvious there had been a great loss in his life time. If it weren’t for the war between nations and the avatar she would be out of a job, out of a way of life to survive. Ren scavenged for people with desire for revenge, for those that perpetrated blood shed, and those that wanted to get things back. People would be forced to rest with their losses if it weren’t for people like her that promised to get it back at the expense of others.

“How long to the capital?”

[EDO]

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[atrb=style, width: 10px]	[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][cs=3][atrb=style,border: 5px solid silver][atrb=background,http://i790.photobucket.com/albums/yy189/darkseraphim12/background/starbg2.png][atrb=style,padding: 20px][atrb=valign,top][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 250px; height: 220px] A fang had been poking out from between the pursed lips of the irritated blond by the time their 'pleasant' introductions were over. The stupid nickname, he wanted to tell the other, was for idiots whom he deemed inept enough to mess up the greatness that was his 'too long' given name however the blond deemed it counterproductive to start yet another argument just then. Hagane had half a mind to just have the air bison take off before the other was even settled next to him though the thought was soon dismissed as soon as he caught sight of the boy's swollen ankle. The damage didn't look that nasty, surely nothing to shed tears over unless one felt like being labeled a crybaby, but the airbender had to wince at the thought of having to run on a foot that looked like that. Hopefully his experimental technique back there didn't do too much to add to what was already done to it. " I get around yes but the Fire Nation's the last place anyone'd expect to find this airbender so I'm afraid I wouldn't know", he replied before realizing exactly what his companion just told him and doing a double take. "Wait wha- y-you're a girl?!", Hagane had to catch himself before he fell off Popo's back again (dang, being unable to fly really sucked right now). The boy ogled the other like she had just grown a second head though she didn't seem to notice as she was busy wrapping gauze around her bad leg, chattering on about shopping of all things. “How long to the capital?”, she finally spoke after unconsciously ignoring Hagane's confusion which only caused the airbender's frown to deepen. "Depends on whether or not Popo feels like being cooperative today," he gestured to the lazy flying beast of burden under them and shrugged, finally deciding to let the surprise of the discovery go. "I'd say we've got about half an hour to kill."

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Word Count: 322
Tagged: Ren
Music: Gives You Hell - Glee Cast
Notes: Sorry that I took so long to reply only to post so short. ^^; Work's been a damn right bitch and just before the Christmas holidays too. >__<

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