I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender

Her first years with the Freedom Fighters had been an interesting one. One where she had to learn the ropes- quite literally- around their tree top village, and had to learn how to fight enemies more formidable than her big brothers. One where she acquired many scraps, bruises, and pains, but also found a sort of makeshift family to fill the hole created by the loss of her real one.

Everyone that came into the Freedom Fighters' group had lost something dear to them, whether it had been a home, family, or even an entire village, so feelings ran deep here in their trees. But, they had learned to cope with their own and each other's. It's kind of what united them, she guessed, beside all of them having lost something important. They all had pains in their hearts from the destruction of former lives and were learning how the pain and the circumstances of their new lives were changing them into new people.

But, not completely new. She was a little of who she was before she came to the treetop village. That stuff was kind of like a stone foundation, and everything else about her was like the house built on top, and then that house got burnt down. Some things were salvageable, other things needed to be repaired, and still others were completely replaced. But, she made sure that once she rebuilt herself that she could never be burned down the same way again.

Some of members in their group had a whole lot burned down in their lives. But, her? She had enough tuned into ashes to feel the sharp ache of the loss of her first family, but what happened to her that day wasn't as tragic a story since she didn't see all of the destruction firsthand as some in the group had, although not many actually told everyone what happened to them before they appeared around the dinner table. From the haunted look that never left some of their eyes, a part of her was kind of glad her father sent her away that day the Fire Nation showed up.

She didn't want to leave. She told him so. She was a fighter just like her four, big brothers. With no mother around, she grew up just like them, wrestling in the dirt and working the farm.

Her father seemed to forget how tough she was and how she could help defend her home too when her eldest brother ran home from town that evening with the dreaded, heart stopping news on his lips. He had ordered her run into the woods.

"Go to the woods! Ran as far away as you can, and don't come near this place if the soldiers are still here."

She heard her father's booming command still ringing through her head. She fought him, wanting to stay with them, not to turn her back on her family in their time of need. But her father wouldn't listen.

"Did you hear want I said?" He bellowed, while pulling his sword from his days as a commander in the Earth Kingdom army from the mount on the wall and buckling the sword belt around his waist, before dropping down to take her face in his large gentle hands. "This is an order, little soldier. This is what I need from you. You are not letting us down by going, but are giving us the sweet reward of reuniting to look forward too. Now promise me that you will go through the back and run far from here and hide."

She lifted a hand to her cheek almost feeling the warmth of where his gentle, leathery hand had been. His words about reuniting were indeed sweet, but if she had been able to read his eyes then she would have known what she now saw in her mind.

His eyes were giving her a silent goodbye.

The forlorn gaze of a man who knew what was about to happen and could do precious little to stop it- except for setting her free from the path of destruction.

However, her ten year old self didn't register what those eyes said at first. She just heard the words and took them to heart. Nodding, she embraced him for the last time. As she raced out of the crowded house, she saw her brothers rush around readying themselves for the looming battle. She continued into the forest out back which grew darker and darker the more she ran because the giant red trees and their massive leaf laden limbs did much to block the setting sun's light from hitting the forest floor.

She remember how dark it was that evening in the forest, as her arms pumped by her side, breath heaving, feet racing over the hard ground. Neither the dark woods nor all the scary stories she heard about the forest were as terrifying as the sound of the many pounding feet that echoed in the silent forest.

They were coming.

She wanted to cry out Stop!This is my family, my home! You can't take it from me. She wanted to turn back to stand and protect everything she had ever known from those who had the power to take it all away.

It hit her then, what her father's eyes had really said.

The sound of so many feet marching towards the front side of the house as well as the faint smell of smoke from the burning town behind her alerted her of the real message.

Goodbye.

She gasped, faltering in her step, reaching out her hands to keep her from stumbling into a nearby tree. She gripped it, feeling the tug of the rough bark on her skin and weight of her world crashing on her shoulders.

A war cry floated on the breeze through the trees from the direction of her house. She took a step towards it. The desire to ran to her father's side and make sure the goodbye wasn't for forever rushed through her again. However, the promise she had made to him held her back. If it really was the end, was it better to honor her father's last wish or see if she could make a difference in the bleak outcome?

Two more things hit her at that moment. She was a little ten year old who knew more about pitching hay and plowing fields than she did fighting or defending herself. And the forces coming against her family were not some neighborhood bullies that could be chased away with a few harsh threats and a couple of fists to the face. No, they were a large group of hardened, war-loving Fire Nation soldiers who would probably not think twice of cutting her down if she stood in the way of their goal- if all the stories she heard about them were true...

No other time before had she felt so useless, so weak and so powerless to change the crashing tide. She could be of no help to her father or brothers; she could only run.

So that's what she did. She ran, hiding under a fallen tree or in deep underbrush to rest when her legs felt like they were going to give out. Still onward she ran despite the ache in her legs and in her heart.

After that she couldn't remember exactly what she felt or thought the rest of that night. She didn't allow herself to dwell on her broken heart because she placed all her focus on her desperate attempt to escape the thundering sound of boots that never seemed too far away that evening as she pushed herself to go farther into the heart of the forest and further from all she once loved.

Author's Note: She might not sound like the tough, determined Smellerbee we all know just yet, but just wait a chapter or two because the story right now goes into the circumstances that makes her into the Smellerbee we know and love.