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"Most people don't throw others into a wall when they sneeze," Rue replied.

"'Most people' aren't Airbenders," Setsuko retorted simply with a small shrug. "My brother 'n' sister do it when they sneeze, too, and even my dad, sometimes."

Rue decided it was best if she didn't reply. "So what are we going to do about food?" she asked, deliberately changing the subject.

"I dunno," Setsuko admitted. "I suppose if we find a lake or river or something, which we're gonna need because we need water, then we could always try fishing. My brother goes fishing a lot and he's showed me some tricks, and Blue Lions like Jaci are a-naturals!" She flashed a toothy grin in Jaci's direction as the Blue Lion meowed a proud agreement.

Rue wasn't a big fan of fish, but they were better than rats at least. And skinning them would be easy too, thanks to her mom's handy instruction. "Okay. But I would like to find a way to hunt in the forest. I doubt dumpster diving is a possibility here," she said.

Setsuko shrugged. "By all means, go ahead. Food is food, after all, fish or forest."

Rue nodded. "Okay. And I found some blankets. They have a few holes, but they're better than nothing if you want one," she said, offering one to Setsuko.

"Thanks," said Setsuko, accepting a blanket. "We might wanna shake them out, though. They're awfully dusty, and well, you don't seem to like my natural reaction to dust!" She laughed lightly. "But anyhow. I suppose we can worry about that in the morning, huh?"

Rue smiled. "Yeah. I can go shake them out now if you want, though," she offered.

"Need help?" responded Setsuko. She was quite sure that Airbending would come in handy when it came to dusting old blankets.

"Sure," Rue smiled. She headed for the sagging, creaking door, and held it open for Setsuko. "After you," she said.

"Thanks!" said Setsuko, bounding out the door with her blanket. Standing in the open clearing in front of the cabin, being sure that she was facing away from Rue, Setsuko began to shake the blankets, gusts of air pulsing off with clouds of brownish dust.

Rue shook her blankets to get the outer coating of dust off. Holding in a sneeze as dust filled the air around her, it seemed like the blankets were slowly getting better, since they were no longer quite as brown as before. Glancing around, she spotted a low tree branch.

Draping the blanket across that, she then found a stick on the ground, and began hitting the blanket with that instead of shaking it.It turned out to be more effective, so Rue continued, whacking the blanket firmly while dust flew out of the ragged fabric.

Once all the dust was out of the blanket and into the air, Setsuko took a deep breath and exhaled explosively, sending the dusty particles quickly flying away into the forest.

"Ok, Rue!" she called. "I think I've got this one done! Y'know, other than being old 'n' holey, they don't look too bad once the dust is gone."

Which was true. Though faded, the blankets retained bits of a color that was probably once a rich navy blue, and a few remains of what might have been fuzz lingered in a few patches, leaving some soft spots amongst an otherwise rather scratchy surface.

"I think this one is almost done too," Rue said, whacking it one more time with the handy stick. GLancing at it critically, she pulled it down from the branch and folded it across her arm. Setsuko was right about them not looking that bad when the dust was gone, though. They were a faded navy color that once could've been pretty. A few soft spots dotted the scratchy fabric, remnants of what it originally felt like.

"You're right," Rue agreed. "They don't look that bad."