Avatar: Scorching Earth // Not Accepting!

Kyori's feet confidently carried her through a thin forest path worn down by her many trips out of camp. In hand, she carried several logs that she or someone else could use for kindling to build a fire. Being in the Pangbu refugee camp for a couple months now, Kyori tried to help out the others in any way she could. Many were elders, pregnant women, or children, and all were suffering in some way or another. Kyori figured she may as well put herself to good use while she was there. Either way, it kept herself busy and her mind from straying to troublesome things.
Finally coming to a break in the trees, Kyori came out to the very edge of the refugee camp where she had claimed space for herself. When she arrived at this camp two months ago, Ky had used her earthbending skills to construct herself a small, dome-shaped shelter out of stone. Now that she was back in camp, she carefully placed her sword and sheath safely under the blankets in her stone "tent" and set off towards the center of camp with the fresh kindling in search of someone who needed it.

Kesuk wandered through the mess of tents, glancing around with disinterest at the many busy people rushing about. In one hand he gripped his weapon of choice, a staff. In his other hand he held a bag full of his lunch and dinner, simple things he’d gathered or trapped in the forest. He wasn’t much of a hunter- at least, not in this area. Set him loose in the snowy ice fields of the South Pole and he could catch you a tiger seal in no time. In the woods, though? No. But foraging was better than going out to one of the markets in the little settlements on Pangbu. Not that he had any money to buy food with; few of the refugees did. Speaking of refugees, there were so many more of them now. He had been here when the camp had been small, almost new, but it was getting crowded and rapidly expanding. There must be over thirty people here now. This made Kesuk uneasy for several different reasons. First, large crowds made him uncomfortable. Second, it meant that the Fire Nation was moving forward, attacking more nations, more cities, more people. The thought revolted him.

Suddenly a pair of playing children ran out in front of him, breaking him out of his train of thought; in his attempt to avoid them, he nearly collided with an Earthbender (at least, he assumed so from the colors of her clothing and her bare feet) carrying an armful of wood. He sidestepped at the last moment with a muttered, “Sorry.”

(And we have our first interaction, peoples! Here we go, places everyone, we're getting this thing started. Woohoo!)

As Kyori walked through the camp with her arms full of kindling, she admired two children as they ran past, screaming and seeming to enjoy themselves on this fine, sunshiny morning. The sight of them almost caused a half-smile to appear on her face -- at least until another refugee, a male waterbender, almost collided into her and her carefully stacked handful of wood. "Excuse you!" she snapped, giving him a slight "stink eye."

Kesuk stepped back from the snappy Earthbender, putting a bit of distance between them. He disliked people like this, people who were always overreacting (or at least, overreacting in his opinion). Even so, he didn't show this on his face. It would do no good to snap back, and he wasn't much of a snapper in the first place. He would have crossed his arms, but he had his hands full with his staff and bag. "I already said I was sorry," he repeated. Not like it was his fault, anyway. Would she rather he stepped on the children? But whatever.

(OMG I know how you feel. I feel like I ALWAYS use excessive commas. I have no idea where I got that. It is perhaps my only flaw in English writing. Or maybe I'm right and no one else knows what they're doing, lol.)

Lì wandered back into the Pangbu camp with three rabbit-squirrels slung over his shoulder, the product of a successful morning's hunt. He placed two of them in his earthen dome dwelling that he had constructed when he arrived a few days earlier. Taking the last rabbit-squirrel with him, he headed back out to find some firewood for cooking. If Lì found someone with some leftover wood, he could trade the last rabbit-squirrel, and if not, he could go out and find his own wood, saving some food for tomorrow!

Kohaku hiked through the forest, wincing slightly as the sores on his feet complained. He slung the small pack of what belongings he had over his other shoulder and sighed, stopping to stare at what seemed like the endless thick of trees. Although he tried to stick to the path, he had gotten lost several times and had to double back to find his way and sometimes the path disappeared altogether, leaving him with only faith that he was going the right way. Kohaku stared at his feet, squinting. The packed down earth told him that he was going the right way but he hadn't seen another living soul for ages. Normally that would have been to his delight but he was running low on supplies and needed to meet anyone to ask for help.

Leon had arrived only a few days before to the island of Pangbu. He had departed the small boat early in the morning that day, spoken briefly with the man who had taken them there. Along the way Leon was thrown off by the amount of work it took to get this far. He was certain he would never have made it without the child to cover who he was. Each time someone tried to look too deep into him, the small child would distract them, it was enough often. Other times Leon had to do something to help to get where he needed to. Finally they were here and with directions to the settlements, he took the child by the hand and led him through the forest. He had found the family after half a day of searching and they had thanked him over and over as he explained what happened. From what he could tell they were cousins, and aunts and uncle of the child. They invited Leon to share a meal with them though he could tell they didn't have enough to spare, he turned it down at the time.

Now and then he saw the family and waved to them. They always told him he should take off his helmet, he only did at night when he slept outside the settlements or wherever he could find a private place to do so. If there was a chance anyone still had a wanted poster of him, even out here, his cover would be blown in seconds. The fear and anger could lead to his death in a second without any questions. As such as he moved through the settlements he wore the helmet, he kept moving, kept his head down, anything so no one got a good look at his face. Most of the time the markings on the helmet meant people didn't ask. The black markings of being hit with a direct fire blast to the side meant people though he could have scars that he wanted to keep hidden. It was one of the bright sides of having a helmet that had seen such a hit and survived.

Leon had stopped outside of a settlement at one of the few fresh water sources that people rarely visited. He took the helmet off, setting it beside him and cupped his hand into the water, bringing it up to cool himself off a bit, running his wet hand through his hair and over the back of his neck. His stomach growled unhappily after a moment.