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Rue gave an easy grin. "It's alright," she responded, "The whole reason I was on the ground when we found each other was because I ran head first into a tree while flying." It had hurt, too...stupid tree. She glanced up at the sky, withdrawing quickly as cold water splashed against her face. "So...you're an airbender, right? Can you guess how much longer this storm will last?" she asked.

Setsuko shook her head. "If I could, I would yell you," she promised. "But I can't control or understand the weather any more than the next guy." she sighed, leaning back against the slightly damp wall. "Though if I were to guess, it might be a while. It's starting to look pretty intense out there."

On a side note, she though thought, it was good to know that her new avian friend had klutzy moments of her own.

"Well, darn it," Rue sighed. She wasn't exactly the most patient of people, and sitting on cold hard rocks certainly didn't help that. It wouldn't be long before boredom overwhelmed her. A few moments passed in silence, the hybrid fidgeting with the pebbles on the ground. "Wanna play," she began, then frowned, "well, we can't really play a good game of Truth or Dare when it's raining...not safely, anyway, but we can at least do the Truth part."

She glanced up at Setsuko with questioning brown eyes. "You wanna play?" she asked.

"Sure," agreed Setsuko, who also had a bit of an impatience streak. "Truth or truth?" She cracked a bit of a toothy grin at her own lame joke.


OOC--Sorry for any recent and/or coming typos; I'm typing from my iPod.

Rue returned the grin. "Hmmm, that's a tough one. I guess I'll go with truth," she said, returning the lame joke with an even cornier one.

"Ok," mused Setsuko, rolling back her stormy gray eyes--no pun intended-- as she tried to cone up with a good question. "Oh! I got one! What was the not awkward flying situation you've err been in?"

Ok, so maybe she was drawing the crash thing out too far. But a little reassurance never hurt anyone, right? Right!

"Believe it or not, it wasn't crashing into a tree," Rue admitted. "I was flying with Lark, and he dared me to stick a lightbulb in my mouth. I wasn't about to back down from a dare, so I did...where he got the lightbulb from while flying, I have no idea. Sadly, he was probably carrying it with him. Well, once that lightbulb was in, it didn't want to come out. We were already pretty far from home, so I had to fly all the way back with a lightbulb sticking out of my mouth until mom could get it out."

She gave a sheepish grin at that memory; Lark had gotten a scolding for that one, and that was only after Rue had been berated for ever agreeing to such a stupid thing in the first place. Sadly, that wasn't the first time it had happened either. Don't ask...she had been a weird little kid. "Okay, my turn. Uh..." She wracked her brain, trying to come up with a question. Shrugging, she basically repeated what Setsuko had asked. "What's the most awkward airbending accident you've ever been in?"

"Hmmm," mused Setsuko, tapping her chin with a light finger as she tired to recall a specific incident. "Most awkward? That would probably have to be the time that I was practicing outside when I was seven, and then my mom came out and I accidentally gusted her dress up and I could see her underwear!" She blushed at the recollection, but grinned awkwardly nonetheless.

"That was awkward," she continued. "I'm just glad no one else saw, or she would have really been mad at me!"

Rue laughed, glad that she wasn't the only one who made mistakes...then again, at least Setsuko's had been a mistake. Her own awkward moment had just been a stupid decision. Lightning flashed in the distance, thunder booming only a few seconds later. Rue jumped at the sudden noise, wincing as her head hit the hard rock overhead. Rubbing the sore spot, she frowned before glancing back at Setsuko. "It's your turn to ask a question," she prompted.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm thinking," Setsuko brushed off, searching her brain for an interesting question. Rain poured harder outside, the pattering intensifying against the rocky cliff. She subconsciously scooted away from the craggy opening, though there wasn't much of a place to go in the tiny cavern, hoping that Jaci was back in the cabin by now. It would take his thick pelt forever to dry after a downpour like this, even though it is partially waterproof.

"Ummmmm," she said, drawing out the word. "Let's see...what's the longest time you've ever gone without bathing?" The young airbender struggled to keep a straight face as she stared directly into Rue's russet eyes with her own gray. It worked for the first ten seconds, but then got harder and harder. She stifled a giggle. The question was serious, sort of, but it still struck her as funny. Haha...forgot to bathe!

Rue frowned, giving the question some serious thought. It was sad that she had to, but she was often on the run and all, and, well...that meant not bathing often. "Hmmm, not sure. If I had to guess, I would say...close to two months?" she responded.

Setsuko gaped at the answer. "Wow, two whole months?" she gasped. "My mom would never let me get away with that! That's insane!" she said, a smile cracking at her lips. She leaned back against the wall--not that it was very far, in this small cavern--and exhaled, gray eyes still widened as she stifled a giggle.

Rue shrugged. "I would've taken one sooner, but we were on the run for a month, then I was kidnapped for two weeks, and then we were on the run for another two weeks before I could get a shower," she said, pushing away a few of those memories; things that had happened at the School weren't things she wanted to relive...ever. She grinned at Setsuko. "My turn," she announced. "Hmm...how did you get Jaci?" she asked, curiousity sparking.

"Ah--that's a long story," Setsuko began. "It was several years ago, when I was about five. I was outside playing with my friend, Kuilak--in fact, I'd just creamed him pretty good with a snowball!--when suddenly, my mom called me to come inside. Well, I came in, but I was kinda upset, 'cuz I was having fun, so I asked her why I had to come in. She said there was a big snowstorm coming.

"Well, I thought that was a pretty dumb reason to bring me in, 'cuz we get snow all the freaking time in the Southern Water Tribe, so I begged Mom to let me go back out. Eventually, with Dad's help, she let me go, but told me to come back in when the snow started coming down, so I went back out, but unfortunately, Kuilak had also gone inside, so he wasn't there anymore. So I decided to explore a while and wound up wandering out of the village. I didn't even notice that the snow had started falling.

"Before I knew it, I was caught in a blizzard. It was cold and even in my thick parka, I was starting to feel numb and very, very scared. I kept wandering, but the snow was really thick and I couldn't see where I was going. Then suddenly, I tripped over something and heard a faint mewl over the roar of the winds. I looked back and realized that the thing I'd tripped over was a baby Blue Lion!

"I knew that Blue Lions were really dangerous, but this one was only a cub and he was so small and weak and cute. He must have accidentally been left behind when his clan moved on, or something. So I picked him up and cuddled him for a while. He was probably as scared as I was.

"Not long after that, my parents made it through the blizzard and found me. They took me straight back home, but they didn't notice the cub until we were all the way there. I wanted to keep him, but at first, my mom was against it. She didn't like the idea of keeping such a dangerous animal in the house, especially since we already had two other pets. But my dad loved animals, so he let me keep him. And now, here he is!"

Setsuko took a deep breath, recovering from the quickly-told tale.

"So that," the young Airbender concluded, "is how I got Jaci."

Rue took in the story with interest, a grin tugging at the corner of her lips as she imagined Jaci as a kitten. "Wait, two other pets?" Rue asked, tilting her head to the side. "What did you have besides Jaci?"