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As we discussed, Windancer, you have the honors of starting. ;)

The light of the moon was momentarily blocked by a black figure. The cool white light highlighted Rue's tawny feathers, and each individual strand of her dark hair was thrown into sharp relief as well. Her wings worked powerfully, moving her easily through the night air.

She glanced behind her and saw a familiar form following. "Hello, Lark," she called out softly. Her brother moved closer in response. Lark looked the opposite of her, with Max's dirty-blonde hair color, Fang's dark eyes and dark wings. Rue, on the other hand, had Fang's dark hair, but Max's eyes and wings. And her freckles.

Lark had also gotten the "strong and silent" gene from his father, and didn't respond to her greeting verbally. Instead her just dipped his head. "Did anyone else follow you out?" Rue asked, lowering her voice further. The still, night silencendidn't need to be broken.

"No," he replied, his voice husky and low. "Just me." Three words, Rue thought. Impressive. Usually she didn't get that much of a reply without forcing it out of him. Silence filled the space in between them once more, interrupted only by the sound of their wings slicing through the chilly air. Lark hated the cold, which was also inherited from Max. "I'm going in," he said suddenly, rubbing his arms in hopes that friction would warm him.

"It isn't that cold," Rue replied. Lark shrugged, and made a huge turn, heading back. He was soon a small dot that disappeared as Rue flew farther ahead.

Lost in thought, she flew quite a while without paying attention to her surroundings. Pain exploded in her head suddenly, and in her surprise, her wings stopped flapping. Branches whipped her arms and face as she fell, and her wings flared open and caught her just before hitting the ground. Her head aching and her body incredibly sore as well, she collapsed against a nearby tree.

"Ouch," she muttered, rubbing her head. She glanced around, confusion flitting across her face. Where was she?

"Tag!" Setsuko shouted playfully, jabbing her 12-year-old brother, Tenzin, in the shoulder and darting off. "You're it!"

"Oh no you didn't! I'll get you!" Tenzin laughed back, chasing quickly after his older sister. Setsuko ran faster, zig-zagging all across the campsite, enjoying the feel of wind in her tawny-brown hair. She leaped over her 10-year-old sister, Mizu, on the way. Mizu felt a rush of wind just above her and turned to see Setsuko scampering off.

"Hey!" she shouted, "Watch where youOOOFFF!" Mizu's snap was cut as Tenzin, not having noticed her there, catapulted into his sister.

"Sorry," he apologized, smiling awkwardly. "But I guess that means you're it!"

"I don't wanna play!" Mizu whined. "You Airbenders always run to fast playing tag! That hurt!"

"Now, now, what's going on over here?" chided the children's mother, Katara, coming over to inspect the situation.

"Tenzin ran intome!" complained Mizu.

"It was an accident!" Tenzin defended.

At the same time, their father, Aang, made a shout to Setsuko, who was not aware that Tenzin had "tagged" Mizu and was still running. "Not to far, Setsuko!"

Jaci, Setsuko's growing Blue Lion cub, dashed after his partner in play, grabbing her glider and dragging it with him.

Setsuko didn't hear her father's shouts. She dashed further into the forest, using Airbending to slow her tiring, Jaci on her tail. But eventually, of course, she realized that Tenzin was no longer following her. She slowed, the stopped and turned. All she could see was unfamiliar forested terrain, and it was begging to get dark. How far had she run?

A rustling sound came from behind her. Setsuko turned quickly, surprised, but the her relief, it was only Jaci with her glider. She sighed, then smiled. "Thanks, Jaci," she said as she accepted the glider. Jaci purred his welcome.

"C'mon," Setsuko invited, "let's get back." And with that, she starting walking in the direction of the campsite...or, at least, what she thought was such.

Rue's enhanced eyes made out the blurry forms of two figures. One was humanoid...the other? Not so much. She absently pulled a twig out of her feathers, trying to ignore her throbbing head. "H-hello?" Rue called out hesitantly, then silently scolding herself after the words had left her mouth.

Her parents and her "aunts" and "uncles" had told her stories, and she had experienced the awful situation a few times herself. The figure, which was still shrouded by some shadows, could easily be a whitecoat, the creature beside it some new experiment used to track them down.

Rue stood, immediatly wary. Who was this mysterious person? As she waited for a response, she braced herself for a fight.

Setsuko jumped back at the sound, bringing her staff up to a defensive position. What was that? It sounded like...it almost wounded like a "hello". Hesitantly, she inched towards the sound, keeping her staff at the ready. Jaci trailed behind, his hackles raised.

"H...hello?" She murmured the response nervously.

Well, it certainly didn't sound like an evil whitecoat intent on kidnapping her. Rue still remained wary, her heart pulsing loudly in her ears. "Who's there?" she called out in a stronger voice, clenching and unclenching her hands nervously.

Setsuko blinked. Hearing the voice again, it sounded quite young. Close to her age, anyways. Nevertheless, she did not lower her staff. Voices could be deceiving...

"My name is Setsuko," she said as bravely as she could manage. Young or not, this voice could belong to someone dangerous. Jaci rumbled softly, just on edge of a growl, backing up his owner.

"Who are you?" she added after a slight pause.

"Rue," she replied hesitantly. What sounded similiar to a growl made her jump, and she winced away from whatever animal it was. She could make out a few features, and relaxed slightly when she saw that...Setsuko was close to her age. Though the animal - which seemed like a big cat - still put her on edge. "Wh-what kind of animal is that?" she asked carefully, staring warily at it.

Setsuko detected a waver in the girl's voice (at least, she assumed it was a girl, given the name and voice) and slightly lowered her staff, glancing sideways to her pet. Was this Rue afraid of Jaci? He did look rather menacing in the dark...at least, from what Setsuko could manage to see, which wasn't much. The sun had set fast.

"That's Jaci," she said slowly. "He's a Blue Lion."

"A Blue Lion?" Rue repeated. Maybe this girl was connected to the School somehow...a Blue Lion certainly sounded like an experiment. Her brown eyes narrowed in confusion and thought, she took another small step back, finding her back against a tree. She reached up to rub her aching head, keeping her wings carefully open as she did so.

"Have you ever heard of the School?" Rue asked suddenly, wanting to make sure. "Or whitecoats?"

"White coats?" Setsuko repeated, tilting her head slightly in confusion. "I've never seen anyone with just a plain white coat. They almost always have some sort of coloring or patterns. I don't go to school."

What Nation was this girl from, for her to have seen people with plain white coats. Certainly not Water Tribe, Setsuko thought. She'd lived there all her life and never seen anyone like that, as she had told Rue. For a moment, she considered that she may be a member of the Earth Kingdom or Fire Nation, but she'd been to both of those places at some point in her life, and she'd never seen people in white coats there, either. As for the Air Nomads...well. She wasn't about to get started on that, but she was certain that she would be quite aware if one of them owned a white coat.

Rue immediatly relaxed further. Judging by her confused tone, she most likely wasn't lying. "Good," she said satisfied. Though one comment did confuse her. "You've never seen anyone in a plain white coat before? Haven't you ever been to the doctor or something?"

"Doctor?" Setsuko echoed. She'd heard the term somewhere before...ah, yes! Isn't that what they called Healers in the Earth Kingdom? Perhaps that's where Rue was from. Just like Samiia! Setsuko thought, thinking of her Earthbending cousin. Aloud, she said, "Ah, like a healer. Of course I have. Their coats look the same as everyone else's, with blue and purple patterns an' stuff."

"Blue and purple?" Rue repeated, her confusion increasing visibly. "Uh, no. They just have white coats. No blue or...purple."

Setsuko stared, confused, at Rue...or, more accurately, into the darkness. The moon was thin, in she remembered correctly; a waning crescent, her mom had told her, therefore it did not give off much light, and the sliver of light it did provide was nearly completely swallowed up by the trees overhead.

"What are you talking about? ...Well, don't answer that. But for the record, I've never seen anyone with a plain white coat."

Jaci, sensing that the anxiety was over and all that was left was a bit of confusion, slowly began to cool off, his thick fur calming against his skin, his tail de-fluffing, his ears and eyes moving to an overall more relaxed setup. His night vision being much better than Setsuko's, he stared hard at the girl she was speaking with. She smelled funny, he thought. Not like Setsuko and her family.

Perhaps, he thought, it had something to do with the massive bird wings protruding from her back.