A Beautiful Flame: A New Way of Living

Chapter 1

~~~A New Way Of Living~~~

Days...

Maybe even weeks have passed since escaping from the fate of a possible death sentence. Though it was a risky choice, she was glad she ran away, but it meant that she has to keep running. Bounty hunters and any greedy civilians would do anything to capture her and turn her into that so-called "justice" which, by the way, wouldn't offer her any protection and would sentence her straight to death, since by law, a slave who can bend is a threat to anyone.

But right now there's also another thing to worry about; survival. She was still a mere child without any proper education, she couldn't read nor write! far worse knowing about surviving in a big forest! At night She walked with caution using her fire bending to light the way, hoping that no dangerous animal would be lurking nearby. The forest was much more bigger and scary at night, she felt as if eyes from the distance were watching her and jumped at anything that rustled in the darkness.

One cold night, when she was trying to warm herself by a small fire, a crack was heard in the Blackened forest. Terror grew, as an armadillo bear came into view, snarling at her. She frozed pale white as the humongous beast confronted her . Nervously, she grabbed a piece of fire wood and waved frantically at the bear, it growled loudly and started to smack the fire away from its face.

"Get back!" Omi grunted, The bear hit Omi with his paw, causing her to fall onto the ground with her sleeve ripped, she rapidly stumbled onto her feet and ran. The bear cried a loud roar and went chasing after her. Looking over her shoulder, the bear was gaining incredible speed, surely it was hungry, and she was dinner.

Omi panted heavily as she ran frantically for her life. Until she fell onto a deep and narrow ditch, The fall hit her head and her eyesight got blurry, she looked up and saw the shadow of the bear getting closer, it growled and dangerously reached his claws towards her head, jerking back into a corner, she held her knees tightly and sat still. Watching in horror as the bear dangerously tried to clawed her only a few inches away. Thankfully, It wasn't long until the bear gave up and left.

Omi trembled, she was this close to being eaten, she whimpered silently through the night, feeling the pain in her head, and losing hope of survival.

After that incident, she began to teach herself how to climb trees, hopefully spending the night in higher places would keep her out of harm's way.

After a few slips and falls, she finally was able to climb as high as she liked.

If there was any luck she would find an empty log to spend the night or a small cave to crawl in if there was any chance of rain; it was also another method to stay out of harm's way. Her best chance is that she'd find lychee nuts in the woods for food.

More countless weeks had passed, somehow she'd manage to keep herself alive, although the continuous lack of food made her feel weak and her clothing became a wider fit then it was.

Alas, the desperation for food was hard to bear. But an opportunity arrived when she spotted a nearby camp, (probably travelers). That same night, when everyone was asleep, she sneaked in quietly, taking most of their food and supplies.

Then climbed a tree far from the camp and slept there until dawn. At the following morning, she ate most of the food until her hunger finally dissapeared.

That Morning, one of the campers came out of their tent. He groaned as he stretched out his arms,

"What a night," He exclaimed,

"What do you mean? You slept like a log," His fellow companion added,

"Agh! don't bother me, you know I'm not the morning type," He said as he headed a direction towards the woods. His companion stayed to light a fire again for breakfast, while it was slowly gaining life, he took out his bag and search to find any food he could cook.

"Uh... Meng, Do you have any spare food?"

"It has to be in my bag!" Meng responded from behind a bush.

The Camper looked through Meng's bag.

"There's nothing in here!"

"What? Look inside my tent for my other one!"

He did as he was told, he look through the tent but no bag was even there!

"It's not in here, everything's gone!" The camper scratched his head, how could this be? Two men sleeping in their own tents with their own stuff, it's not like some creature came in and took everything. They were miles away from any sign of civilization so there couldn't be another human...

"Meng, I think we've been robbed!" He exclaimed,

"Oh no!..." Meng said as he panicked

" uh... could you see if we still have any paper!"

His fellow camper face-palmed himself in defeat.

Farther away, Omi happily stretched her limbs and climbed down with caution, she walked with a skip to her step, her stomach didn't ache nor rumble anymore, since her dinner last night was quite an appetizing meal. She decided that the best way she could survive was continuously robbing from travelers at night.