DISCLAIMER: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender, nor am I in any way affiliated with Michael Dante DiMartino or Bryan Konietzko. This story is purely fan-made.
My Little Bird Part I
Chapter One
Alimah sits high in the saddle of her camel-goat, eyes gazing with anticipation towards the horizon. The strong winter winds blow her crimson headveil behind her, and her long golden earrings clink musically in the breeze.
"Iyutyut!" she cries, digging her heals into the wooly flank of her mount, her beloved Baqir. Urging him forward, she soon catches up with her younger sisters Fatimah and Farimah, who sit together upon their own large camel-goat. Her sisters, twins in appearance and heart, perch quietly in the saddle, but their eyes are dancing excitedly. Alimah knows her eyes are just as wild, dancing like her headveil in the wind. She longs to shout and sing with joy, for their clan's caravan is approaching the Kum Wadi, the gathering place for the clans of Air Nomads who wander Bunmaki. Though they now pass silently through the Aymen, a sacred stretch of desert, Alimah knows that soon the air will be filled with jubilant song and the musical words of the reunited.
The sun is slowly sliding down the sky, and the clouds are fiery and glowing. The white desert sand glows quietly in the sunset, reflecting the blazing colors of the heavens. Alimah shakes her bangles impatiently, for she is growing tired of the endless reverent silence as they pass through the Aymen, where the first swallowtail was born. Her two sisters shake their bangles back at her, and soon they three girls are engaged in a full bangle-jangling war. They stifle giggles and hide their smiling, pearl teeth behind their chocolate hands. Soon, soon, Alimah thinks. Soon, soon, the gusty winds seem to whisper into her ears. Soon, soon, they will arrive at the camp, and the merry festivities will begin. Soon, soon, she will be able to dance in the wind and create the melodies that beat in her heart.
Just as the first silver star creeps into the sapphire sky, Alimah and her clan spot the burning bonfires of the encampment. Now beyond the sacred silence of the Aymen, Alimah gives a whoop of delight and boots Baqir's flanks wildly. All around her, camel-goats are beginning to gallop towards the camp, their nostrils flaring in the chilly night air. The older Nomads, all Airbenders, throw lotus petals into the air, and send them soaring towards the camp on gusts of wind. All around her, perfumed breezes swirl, and Alimah feels her heart swell with bliss.
Seated around a great bonfire, the air is quiet at last. After hours of unpacking and setting up their tents, of searching for friends and distant relatives, of the embraces and happy tears, of hearty laughter ringing out into the night, the Air Nomads are hushed. Standing on a raised platform in the middle of the bonfire is a male Airbender, the blue arrow running through his long hair and down his bare back. Everyone sits in the meditation pose; hands poised together, eyes closed, as the man chants the slow, rhythmic mantras of the Airbenders. Tonight is the celebration of Avatar Yangchen, an Airbender who gave many blessings to the Air Nomads, even those who lived the Fire Nation. On the night of the winter solstice, all Air Nomads gather in honor of her great name, to revere her power and beauty.
Kalden, the ancient language of the Airbenders pervades the sweet clouds of smoke that hover above the Nomads. Alimah picks up bits and pieces of the guttural, ancient tongue, but she cannot speak it fluently. On the Fire Nation province-island of Bunmaki, the Air Nomads speak a patois of Kalden and Kotoba, the dialect of the Fire Nation language found in the southern province-islands. Kurukulla, a tongue of beautiful rolling r's, smooth vowels, and high-pitched i's, unites the Air Nomads of Bunmaki, despite the fact that they rarely come together.
The steady, profound mantra soon begins to murmur down, and as the last word of the prayer slips from the lips of the Airbender, he draws several multicolored ribbons from inside his draping sleeve. Into the dark air the ribbons spring, and the man uses his bending to make them twist and turn, leaping like the flames of the fire below. The ribbons dive over the heads of the nomads sitting on the ground below and swirl back into the sky. As the Airbender raises his arms and curves his hand in a descending gesture, the vivid ribbons fall gracefully into the bonfire below. As the ribbons slowly begin to shrivel and smolder in the white ashes, the silence surrounding the bonfire is broken; the Air Nomads stand and talk softly amongst themselves.
Alimah groans softly at her sore backside, made no better from the long hour of prayer in honor of Avatar Yangchen. The pointless droning of the ancient Airbenders, she thinks to herself with aversion, as she ambles over to one of her friends from another clan.
"Safiyyah!" she shouts over the now loud purr of conversation. A tall, lithe girl, hair trickling down to her knees, turns at the sound of her name. Both girls run to embrace each other; it has been a year since the last celebration of Avatar Yangchen, the last time they have seen each other.
"Oh, Alimah! You've grown so much taller!" declares Safiyyah, amber eyes glittering with joy at seeing her good friend.
"And you, dear Safiyyah, are now of marriageable age?!" exclaims Alimah, in a mockingly scandalous voice. Her eyes brush over the swirling pattern of dye painted onto Safiyyah's cheeks and the orange shade her lips had been tinted, the signs of a woman who could be courted. Though most Air Nomads living in the Fire Nation waited until they were fifteen or sixteen years of age to begin courtship, some clans had different rituals. I wonder, mused Alimah, if Safiyyah's lack of Airbending skill has anything to do with her early introduction to the world of women. Most girls spent their teenage years before marriage perfecting their Airbending, but if someone didn't have the talent or desire to continue with her studies…
Alimah's reverie was interrupted as Safiyyah nudged her in the side with a bony elbow.
"My father's already gotten a marriage proposal from a certain young man of my clan. His name's Kahil; he's sitting over there with the old Benders," said Safiyyah coyly, a joyful, demure smile on her ginger lips.
"He's ever so handsome!" exclaimed Alimah, excited for her friend and this new life she had begun. "But why is he sitting with those old safwans? All they ever do is contemplate the teachings of the Temple Benders."
The Temple Benders: Airbenders who live in one of the four Air temples, one in each quarter of the world. For eons, Airbenders had been residing in these holy shrines and practicing the ancient Airbending practices. Alimah had heard that many Airbender children traveled to the Air temples to receive training. As if their own clans could not teach them as well, she thought with contempt. She knew that they ways of the Air Nomads wandering through the Fire Nation islands were different than those of the Temple Benders, and from comments muttered under breath, from oaths sworn as her clan trekked in the deserts, from heated conversations held round the campfires, that there was a certain enmity between the holy Temple Benders and the Air Nomads of the Fire Nation, whose ways were wild as the desert birds. It was this hostility that she had inherited from her parents and clan members, that she carried lightly with her, and unsheathed as she spoke with Safiyyah.
