Disclaimer: I do not own the Avatar. It belongs to some millionaire somewhere in the world.
The next day Ryoko prepared her self to leave, once again it was raining, but she didn't care. She had planned to leave today and so she would.
Ryoko held a bag in her hands, in which she was placing clothing and blankets. Her plan was to run away, and become a refugee in the earth kingdom. Though she had only told Shang that she was leaving the village.
She want over to a small table in the corner of the room and picked up her sack of money and roughly put it in her bag. Looking up into the mirror above the table for a second she saw her reflection staring back at her. "What are you looking at? I know what I'm doing," she mumbled to her reflection, reassuring herself.
Turning back around she grabbed a black cloak that was lying on her bed, and pulled it on around her shoulders. She didn't know why but she felt like she needed to leave as soon as possible.
She through her bag over her shoulder before giving her room one last look, then she turned away and walked out the door for the last time. She stopped again when she reached the kitchen. Part of her was screaming for her to stay. But a stronger part was telling her to go. Her eyes were gleaming as she turned the handle of the front door and stepped outside into the rain.
She pulled her cloak titer around her neck as the cold began to nip at her cheeks. The cold was strange, it was hardly ever cold where she was but it did not stop her, the feeling of needing to go quickly growing.
She turned and quickly began to walk into the forest. She could hear voices coming from behind her and she stopped and looked around. She stared for a moment, her shaggy black hair, that was now completely wet, flying at her sudden movement. The voices stopped and there was no one there.
She turned back around and her steady walk began to turn into a run. The voices from behind her came again. "Leaving are you?" She finally understood something the voices said, and this time when she turned around there were people behind her. It was, Kaage, and Lea. She glared at them. "Yes I am!" she said turning back to the forest. "Thank god, she's finally going." Said Sachi with a smirk. "I don't care what you think now leave me alone." She said running off into the forest.
"Wait we want to give you a goodbye present!" said Kaage the three running after her.
Ryoko ran as fast as should into the forest. She knew they wouldn't follow her once she was in there. There were rumors that the forest was haunted but she new it wasn't. Her and Shang had played together countless times in this forest when they were younger.
But that fact did not make her stop running. She couldn't, she didn't know why, she just couldn't. Her legs where burning, but she refused to stop.
She dodged low hanging tree branches and continually whipped water from her eyes. She was completely soaked now and her wet hair was sticking to her cheeks and flying in great gobs around her face.
After what seemed like hours she collapsed to her knees breathing hard from the effort of running so hard for so long. She buried her face in her hands trying to regain some strength. A strand of hair was hanging in her face, which she swatted away.
She was still breathing hard but Ryoko had to keep going. It was growing dark outside and in the tree covered forest was even harder to see. Ryoko lit a fire in her hands and continued her long walk through the forest. She knew on the other side of the forest was the port, and it would take her another day or so to get there, and that's without the rain slowing her down.
It took a lot of her energy to keep the flame going in the damp and rainy forest. She kept her breathing steady and trudged slowly through the dead leaves and mud. Her cloak was splattered with mud all the way up to her waist, and fraying at the bottom, there were several tears in the soft cloth and small cuts on her face as well.
Ryoko yawned and stared out into the dark that was only 6 feet away from her. The small fire in her hand could only light up so much of her path. Her breathing was becoming raspy and her eyelids were beginning to droop. She was growing weaker by the second, the things that happened to her that day making it even worse.
Suddenly the flame in her hand went out. Her eye's closed and she collapsed to the ground.
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A/N - All right, all right! I know this is an incredibly small chapter but it's short and sweet! Okay well it's not exactly sweet but it's her escape. Something for you to read while I figure out how I'm going to get Iroh and Zuko into the story!