-AU Interlude- [Action] .027

[markofthebrave]

[...sometime this morning, Katara wakes up slowly, prodded too it by the pain in her back and the nagging sensation that something is different. The air isn't salty. She's not cold. The ship isn't moving

Comments

[offallingsnow]

[Well, here, you can at least have someone wearing blue. She sees you in the shadows there, child, but she came into this forest to get out of the village and practice. ...And practice she will, this time specifically with water artes.]

[southernsquirt]

[Katara has never actually seen waterbending before. So she doesn't know what it is, or isn't supposed to look like. She's unaware that she's been spotted, and so will just stay in that shadow, watching.]

[offallingsnow]

[After a short while, Nephry takes a break, wiping her forehead with the back of one glove.]

You can come out now. I won't do anything to you.

[southernsquirt]

[Nooo, she doesn't think she'll do that. Spotted, Katara is going to edge away. You're not someone she knows. You're wearing blue, and working with water, but you have wings too and this place is not home and she's not sure she can trust anybody.]

[offallingsnow]

I presume you're running from something. I can leave, if you think this is where you should hide. Or I can find you somewhere better.

[southernsquirt]

[She pauses, at what she feels is a safe distance away.]

I'm not looking to hide. I'm looking for the way home.

[offallingsnow]

Well, that is an entirely different problem. Where is home?

[southernsquirt]

The South Pole.. [A week or two, before she'd been taken, if Katara had found herself in this situation she would have taken a hopeful step or two forward.

Not anymore.] I don't know where I am.

[offallingsnow]

The South Pole. [said in a 'hmm' sort of tone. Nephry can't recall meeting anyone from a south pole before...but it must be cold. That one she can relate to.]

Well, I know where you are. I can tell you, if you want to know.

[southernsquirt]

[Mute, she nods - again with less enthusiasm than she would have normally shown, and a healthy amount of caution.]

[offallingsnow]

I would prefer not to shout it across the clearing at you.

[And though it goes against her soldier training, Nephry has a well-hidden soft spot for children in certain circumstances, and she takes off her fighting gauntlets and sits down on the remains of a tree]

[southernsquirt]

[...well, she's sitting down. And has wings. And was using water, so that means she can't be Fire Nation.

So Katara takes a few steps forward. Hesitates. And then takes two more. She's now within about five feet of Nephry.]

[offallingsnow]

Have you talked to anyone else today?

[southernsquirt]

[Since the mun has no idea how the previous thread will turn out, Katara shakes her head no.

She has been trying to avoid people since they are all obviously strange and she doesn't want get sent back.

...this distance should, btw, clearly reveal the area of her hair which has been burned off, especially on display since she shakes her head.]

[offallingsnow]

Then the one who hurt you must not have said anything?

[But no. Nephry frowns, absently folding her hands together in her lap and leaning forward a little, to get a better look]

No, those burns are old. Despicable, doing that to a child. Did you see the village, or have you been in the forest all day?

[aside from the 'despicable' part, her voice has remained uncommitted, conversational.]

[southernsquirt]

[There is something reassuring about that 'despicable.']

I saw it. It wasn't home, so I thought I'd go look for how to get back.