Chance Encounter
I opened my eyes to see the bright sunlight leaching into my cave, warming me up. This cave was one of the nicer ones. I hadn't been this lucky in a long time. Out of habit, I reached towards the rock beside me, before remembering I did not need to. I hadn't worn my mask in a long time. After seeing his scar, my pain with mine almost seemed trivial compared to the effect his had given him. So now I wore my scar out for all to see. It seemed fair. But I did lean over my other side, to get my gloves. After my encounter with the Avatar in Ba Sing Se, I was almost certain he had noticed my tattoo. And, realising that it was perhaps a greater example of my Fire Nation status than my appearance, I now took great care to cover it up. It seems that once you've embraced one scar, you discover another, greater one. Putting on my gloves, I stood up, retrieved my bag, and walked out the cave. I would be sad to leave it. Knowing that I wouldn't find another cave as nice as this one, I stared at it for a few minutes, before I finally left. At this kind of time, you wonder what you've come to. I mean, living out of caves for three years? How depressing. Even those times were better than this, because I had him…
After walking aimlessly for the whole day, I was about to give up and find a place to sleep among the trees when I noticed that they were thinning up ahead. That means there must be a clearing, I rushed towards it, reaching the open air when…
Oh, so that's why the trees were thinning. Great. There was a giant cliff in front of me. No clearing, just a cliff. Well that's just perfect. Why are there no caves around here? I was just about to turn around, when I heard laughing coming from below. Curious, I creeped slowly to the edge of the cliff, and leaned carefully forwards. Gasping, I took in the sight of the tiniest bit of ground. Ground that looked touched by the hands of men. The laughing continued as I leaned forward even more to see if I could see where it was coming from. Leaning forwards even more, I was so close to seeing them, so close…
"Woah," a voice behind me said, grabbing my arm.
"Geez!" I screeched, jumping backwards and falling onto the ground.
"Sorry," the stranger mumbled, "Didn't mean to scare you,"
I stared down at my gloved hands, hesitant to look up at the stranger.
"It just looked like you might fall off to be honest," the voice chuckled.
I sighed, putting my hands down and standing up, "It's okay," I murmured.
"I think I might have met you before!" the stranger cried, "In Ba Sing Se! How weird."
"Huh? What do you mean?" I said, looking up.
"Oh yeah, you were the girl that my Uncle brought in to the tea shop for a second," he stated, "You ran off so quickly, it was weird." He looked off into the distance, before looking back at me. "Hey, what are you doing here, this place is - " He stopped and stared at me. "Are you okay there?"
Frozen, I stayed silent, staring at his face. So many thoughts were running through my head. Why is he here, does he recognise me, what is he like now? I had no answers. All I could do was stare at him, drinking in his appearance. What else could I do?
"Look, I'm going down there," he sighed, "To try and meet some people who probably don't want to see me at all, to join them." He walked towards the side of the cliff, before turning back to me. "Are you coming?"
I wondered whether it would be easier to just leave him right then and there, next to the cliff. I would never have to see him again. I could escape the pain of him being here next to me. But did I want that? How would I feel if I never got to see him again? It was that which finally changed my mind.
"Yes." I said.