Ryoko looked up at the sky. It was a perfect day to hang out with friends, if she had any. She sat there, face up, thinking up a way to escape boredom. How could she have survived fourteen years of ennui? She though of life outside the boundaries of this wretched, concealed island. Why was she there? She had no clue. There was nothing to do and nothing to see. She turned around and closed her eyes.
"Ryo, Ryo!" boomed a voice.
Ryoko sighed, and opened her eyes. It was her little brother, Keiji.
"Ryo, wanna pay airbau wid me?" Keiji asked, panting, and with a huge smile on his face. He was holding a ball and levitated it from one hand to the other with his airbending.
"Kei, you know that you always lose.", she seemed very annoyed, but kept a smile on for her brother. He seemed happy, and she thought that was a blessing for anyone on that island. "We always play airball. Don't you at least know some other games?"
"Airbau's my favowit!" Keiji said, jumping up and down.
"But, aren't you bored of it?"
"Nope! I wanna pay wid my big sistwer!"
"Fine. I'll play. But only one game, right?"
"Yup!" Keiji said, smiling even more, and jumping even higher.
"Please stop, you're making me dizzy." said Ryoko, and lightly jumped up, softly floating to her feet.
"Common, Ryo!" shouted Keiji, racing down the hill, and tumbling over at times, just to catch himself, and float to safety.
Ryoko slowly walked down the steep hill. She followed her brother to the makeshift airball court she had made out of logs. There were still branches on them, so the ball would always bounce off in a strange direction.
Both of them jumped up on a log, and got ready to play.
"Kei, you know I will beat you! Why play?"
"Because I wanna! It's fun!"
"I guess it is, if you play it once a week! But really, playing it every day, at least twice, tends to get just a tad bit boring."
"Den lets stawt!" Keiji said, throwing the ball up, and smacking it towards a log. Ryoko caught it with her bending, and threw it back in with twice the speed of Keiji's. The ball whizzed past Keiji, and went right into the goal.
"One point for me." Ryoko exclaimed, with no expression on her face.
"I'll go get it!" Keiji said, levitating the ball into his hand. He kicked it, and it ricocheted of one of the logs into his face.
"Ouchies!" He cried, stumbling off the log he was on.
"Are you okay?" Ryoko asked, looking rather concerned.
"Yup, I'm good!" Keiji hit it once more after positioning himself and rubbing his aching head. The ball made its way across the field. Ryoko yawned and closed her eyes. She didn't need to worry. The ball would go right back at him. She sat there, thinking of food, as her stomach grumbled.
"Kei, I think its lun-" She began to say, before she felt something hit her stomach hard, launching her through the goal post onto the dirt.
She groaned, clenching her stomach, as she got up off the floor. Keiji floated down next to her, spitting out excuses.
"Pwease don't tewl mommy!" He cried. "Pwety, pwety, pwease!"
"Don't worry," Ryoko said holding in tears of pain, "I won't. I'm fine."
"Gweat! Now we can pay mow!"
"I was going to say, before you actually scored a goal, that it was lunch time."
"Yay! Wunch!" Keiji said hopping towards the village.
"Yay, wunch." Ryoko mimicked, mockingly. She dragged on towards the village, where the fifteen inhabitants of the island "feasted" each day. Almost everyone in that village, which was the only one on the island, was vegetarian. Ryoko wasn't. She was the rebel among her people, if she could actually rebel against anything. She was allowed meat, if she could get it. She had learned how to hunt birds with a bow and arrow from her father. The only problem was that birds only came to that island once a year, and this wasn't that time.
The island wasn't very big, maybe one or two miles in diameter. It was a valley, surrounded by mountains on all sides. Ryoko was good a fishing, but couldn't cross the mountains. The people on that island were isolated from everyone. No one could cross that huge wall because those were the rules. They couldn't let the Fire Nation know that there were still Air Nomads around, especially two airbenders. Aside from the great Avatar, Ryoko and Keiji were the only airbenders around. Ryoko had numerous disputes with her parents on letting her go outside the island's boundaries, but her parents would always say that the future of the Air Nomads rested on Ryoko and her brother.
Ryoko always imagined going to the Fire Nation and helping win this war. She wanted to meet the Avatar. She wanted to leave this island.
Ryoko stomped to the door of her parent's hut and knocked on it.
"Ryo!" Keiji shouted opening the door and jumping up and down. "Mommy, Ryo's here! Now we can start eating!"
"Clam down Keiji." Ryoko's mother, Kohana, said as she came to the door, drying a plate off with a towel. "My! What have you been up to?" She added, looking at the dirt all over Ryoko from the airball game.
"Nothing, I tripped." Ryoko lied with a glare at Keiji. He backed off, with a scared look in his eyes.
"Well, go clean yourself up!" Kohana said, pointing to a bucket of water.
"I will." Ryoko dragged herself to the bucket and splashed water on her face. She thought of meeting a waterbender, or even an earthbender. At this rate, she wouldn't see anyone except the people from this village.
After Ryoko cleaned up, the family sat at the table and ate some vegetables and rice. Ryoko didn't say a word, whereas Keiji was talking about how he scored in airball, leaving the part with hurting Ryoko out.
After dinner Ryoko went to get some food from the neighbors, who had a garden that supplied the whole village.
"Hello, Ryoko." Ayame, her neighbor said. "Did you come to pick up the vegetables?"
Ayame, as well as everyone on this island except Ryoko and Keiji were all in their twenties or thirties, or even older.
"Yes, we need more cabbages too."
"I'm sorry, but we're all out."
"Oh, that's okay. My mom said we don't really need them."
Ayame handed over the food with a smile and waved as Ryoko stomped off to her hut.
"Ah! There you are!" came a voice booming from behind her just as she reached the door to her hut. It was Dai, the third youngest person on that island. "Bored?"
"Very." Ryoko replied, sighing.
"Well, guess what?"
"What?"
"I'm going to be lookout in the morning for the whole next week!"
"Great! I'm really glad." Ryoko said, with a plain look on her face. The island had four lookouts that alternated throughout the day, just in case there was an enemy ship near. Dai left, and Ryoko when into the hut.
"Did you get the groceries?" Asked her father, Raidon.
"Yes, I did." Ryoko said, throwing them on the table.
"What's the matter?" Asked her father, looking a bit angry.
"This place is the matter! It's so boring. I want to go fight the Fire Nation. I want to help!"
"Ryo, you know you can't. It's dangerous and you can get killed."
"I'd rather die trying than not try at all."
"You need to understand-"
"What I understand is that I need to help. What good is it to stay in hiding. We're all cowards if we don't fight."
Raidon looked at his daughter and sighed. "You need to understand. We can't let the Air Nomads disappear."
Ryoko stormed off. She had no comeback. She had tried the best she could to try to get her father to understand, but if was no use. She went to her room, a small chamber separated from the rest of the hut by a blanket. She threw herself on the pillows that made her bed and muttered to herself. She planned a way to escape this wretched island. As thoughts filled her head, she slowly fell asleep.
The hours of the afternoon passed by and when dinner was ready, Kohana peaked into Ryoko's room. When she saw her sleeping, she just pulled the blanket back. Ryoko's mother didn't want to wake her up; another fight might arise. She left some food on the table, if Ryoko wanted some when she would wake up, and then left the hut. Ryoko and Keiji's rooms were in the main hut, and their parents' were in a hut a little farther off.
The hours passed.
When Ryoko woke up is was nearly midnight. Her plans were fresh in her head, and she couldn't wait for any other time to fulfill them. She got up, and seeing the food on the table, packed it up for her journey. She would need some weapons and water, too. She quickly filled five canteens with water and took her bow and arrow. She also grabbed a dagger and her long sword. She wasn't good at using swords, but it was a gift from her father, and it was important to her. She knew it would come in handy some day.
In their village there was only one type of transportation; Pebbles, a 100-year old flying bison, who was the only one left there. He was considered sacred and had his own pile of hay, complete with a tent-like structure over it in the center of the village. Ryoko never got to close to him, because of an incident concerning curiosity and a young and mischievous Dai. Ryoko had been scared to death of Pebbles since.
She snuck into the tent were Pebbles was snoring, and yanked on his fur.
"Pebs, I know you don't really know me, but I need your help."
The bison got up with a huge yawn, and shook itself off.
"Shhhh! Be quiet! Come on now!" Ryoko said, pulling on him.
She lead him to a clearing away from the village and packed up the food. She then went back to get some sleeping bags and other supplies, like a fishing pole. She had to be very quiet when she went back to the main hut, so as not to disturb Keiji, who was snoring loudly.
She went back to Pebbles and climbed up on his back. She put everything away, and was ready, just as she heard a voice behind her.
"Ryo, what's up?" Said a sleepy, yet loud Keiji.
Ryoko sighed and hit her head on Pebble's saddle in annoyance.
"Kei! What are you doing here?"
"I was scawed in the hut aw by mysewf! Where are you going with Pebows?"
"Nowhere." She lied.
"I know you aw cuz you don't always ike Pebows."
"Fine, I am going somewhere."
"Wewr? Wewr? I wanna go!"
"You can't. It's too dangerous."
"I'll tew mommy!"
"Fine, fine, you can come." Ryoko said, feeling guilty and annoyed.
"Yay! Wait a sec!" Keiji ran off to the hut, jumping along on the way. He came back in a few minuted with a staff, about as tall as Ryoko.
"What's that?"
"A special stawf!"
"Where did you get it?"
"Monk Hiroshi gave it to me before he went away. Are we going where he is?"
Monk Hiroshi was the last Monk on that island, and he had died a couple of years ago. Of course, Keiji didn't know that he had actually died, but rather that he went on a trip. When he asked if they were going where he was, Ryoko jumped a bit, at the thought of dying, but knew what her brother really meant.
"No, we are going some place better. Now let's go."
It was a good thing Keiji came, because Ryoko had no idea how to make Pebbles fly. Keiji uttered a "Yip, yip!" and Pebbles was off. Now all they had to do was figure out where they were going.