An Air Nomad does not do attachments. They are free like the wind is free; they value their spirits over their physical bodies because spirits are eternal. A body will decay, water evaporates, fire extinguishes, and earth crumbles; but the air—the air and the wind flow continuously, powerfully, and undoubtedly across both land and sea. Through the intense heat of barren deserts, over white artic lands, following cool ocean currents, creating sounds in the forest; air is limitless and expansive, air is exhilarating, air is impartial—air is free.

Aureole had always been a very serious girl. She loved sense and order; her trains of thought were always on track. Her bending was affected by this; she was continuously perfect in her form and stance, but her air bending lacked certain potency. She would watch as the other air nuns effortlessly glided in the air, they danced with the wind; for all of Aureole's discipline she only ever has awkward conversations with it.

"Have you ever tried smiling?" Ling lightly suggested to Aureole as she watched her struggling with an air technique. Ling was an air bending master, her hair was shaved back to show her arrow.

"Why would I smile while I'm failing, it wouldn't portray the correct emotion, I'm not happy, I'm frustrated." She grumbled, putting her feet back into the correct position before taking a deep breath and trying to regain her focus. This only made Ling laugh.

"I have never encountered such a serious child. Perhaps you should look to the wind for inspiration." There she goes again, speaking in riddles, this being a more obvious riddle, but still. Understanding that Ling wished to speak to her and she should listen and maybe gain wisdom to solve her problem, Aureole gave her teacher a defeated look and slumped to the floor.

"I just don't understand what I'm doing wrong Sister Ling..."

"Well...you're kind of a stick in the mud." She said laughing loudly at her own joke at her.

"I am not!" Aureole pouted, stomping her foot and kicking up the mud from the damp dirt below her feet. This only made Sister Ling's grin wider.

"Let go of your frustration, child. You will see yourself improving in your skills if you would just relax, don't let the air get to your head."

"I can't relax, I'll become lazy."

"Try meditation more often," The sister's advice was offered easily, "It will clear your mind and allow you to become more attentive."

"...Lately I haven't been able to meditate," Aureole cringed, "I had a nightmare a few days ago, rabid sky lemurs clawed out my eyes, and I've been having paranoid delusions of them hiding behind rocks waiting for me to be caught off guard."

"How disturbing and strange. Your eyes are rather large and shiny; perhaps they thought you had fruit on your face." Ling said in passing, like commenting on the weather, before she came beside her student and tried to correct her sloppy stance.

"Now, close your eyes and attempt your steps again, only this time keep your movements circular and loose, and keep your knees bent."

Aureole's teacher was the closest thing that she had to a mother...well, a family in general.

The air nation wasn't really a nation at all. There were four temples, two house men and two house women. Children were raised by the community, not a mother and father. Most parents kept their children until they were four or five and then left them to the monks and nuns that lived year-round at the temples to train with the other air benders and learn the ways of the nomads. But some children were given up earlier and didn't know of their parents; some parents would make a point to visit their own children and form some sort of relationship...it really depended on the people. It never seemed to bother any of the other monks or nuns, not that Aureole could see.

But it bothered her. She longed for something she could never really have...she longed for a family. Sister Ling was the closest she would ever get. Having children amongst the monks and sisters was a strangely uncomplicated matter.

Love is acceptable, love is beautiful, and it makes the universe a wonderful place. But attachment is different, being an air nomad is about being spiritually enlightened, and if your spirit is bound to the physical plane of existence then it is not free to be a part of a metaphysical spirit world. And so love becomes detached, love no one person above another, let love help to free your spirit, not render it bound to another. So families are communal, it takes a temple to raise a child and there is never a lack of love or attention. Being good natured is part of the air nomad persona; air can be forceful and destructive, but for the most part it just flows.

For Aureole attachment had been a problem, because she became attached so easily. As a child, she would go on outings with the other children and they were taken to see villages of the Earth Kingdom because it was so near to their island. She saw families. A mother and father smiling and laughing with their children, they all seemed so bound to each other; they gravitated towards their mother and father. It was like the whole world disappeared for them and all they could see was their family. She thought it was beautiful, she wanted that. To be special to someone, to belong to someone's heart, she yearned for a family that was her own.

"Pay attention, Aureole!" Ling said sharply enough to cause Aureole to jump. Snapping out of her thoughts she began her smooth movements; she felt the air surge from around her and concentrate between her palms and the energy was exhilarating, the unity she felt with the wind brought her inner peace. She breathed in the energy and slowly let out her breath as she began to form the wind into a ring around her body and then surging her fist forward to push the powerful wind in to a dart of air that cut through the trees of the forest that grew at the base of the mountain where the Eastern Air Temple was.

Seeing that she had actually accomplished flawlessly what she had been so desperately trying to do for what felt like weeks now Aureole let of a squeal of delight, bouncing off the ground in a surge of air, clapping her hands,

"Weeee! Yes! That was awesome! Did you see that, sister?! The air was like,'shuuuuuu', and I was like 'whoooosh,' and then the trees were like 'craaack,' and, ahhh, it was just brilliant." She continued to giggle in her moment of unrestrained excitement. As Sister Ling began to congratulate her exuberant student, a rustle came from the bushes and an orange robed girl of twelve came tumbling out followed by her similarly dressed counterpart.

"Oh, wow, is that Aureole? Showing an emotion other than apathy out in the public? With witnesses?" Dechen was a young air bender who had taken a liking to Aureole, often thinking of her as an older sister that she enjoyed bothering. But where ever Dechen went her partner in crime Lhe-mi was sure to follow. Both girls grinned sheepishly down at the two practicing women and gently flew down, bowing respectfully towards Sister Ling and jumping happily on Aureole, throwing off her balance.

"Alright, alright, enough with the touching and the hugging." Aureole began pushing the girls off of her and her serious attitude came back in full force.

"But we're just so happy to see you happy, Aurie!" Lhe-mi bounced in place, using up whatever natural energy that seemed to keep hyperactive children in trouble.

"Yeah, usually you're either..ermm blank face, serious face, or bossy face. Happy face is a rare occasion." Dechen and Lhe-mi nodded seriously in sync.

"I'm happy." Aureole said sharply, "I'm always happy." She finished with a frown. One of Aureole's biggest problems was that she took herself entirely too seriously. She was the stick in the mud; her problem with becoming attached to people easily as a child led her to distance herself from people as she grew older. Aureole was pleasant enough to be around, but many of her peers found her oddly obsessive compulsive and a bit of a brat. She had an obscure sense of order and an neurotic need to control the actions of people around her. She often wondered why the spirits chose her to be born an air bender...air is the element of freedom and she was far from free.

"The sun is setting, children. Perhaps you should speak to pessimistic Pema of her behavior in the safety of the temple."

The girls followed sister Ling up the side of the mountain and parted ways to the room that Aureole shared with Dechan, Lhe-mi, and a few other girls her age.

"Ya know what's kinda funny?" Dechan smiled up at Aureole.

"What?" Aureole frowned?

"When you talk to other people." Lhe-mi said giggling.

"W-what?"

"Yeah," Dechan continued, "You're just so uncomfortable and awkward."

"And you stutter!"

"I, ju-, I do not!" Aureole defended indignantly.

"Whoa, someone's defensive." Dechan spun around with her hands behind her back, walking backwards and facing Aureole. "You're very pretty."

Turning bright red at the compliment from flattery, embarrassment, and anger Aureole drew her lips into a straight line,

"Go piss off a sky bison!" This only caused the two girls to fall over themselves laughing. They ran after their annoyed friend gleefully excited to cause her to become more frustrated.

"Wait, don't leave before we get you really angry!" Lhe-mi called after the older girl who had begun to storm away.

"Aren't you two little monsters supposed to respect your elders?" Aureole muttered darkly. Getting into her room just couldn't seem to happen soon enough.

"You're only five years older than we are." Dechan said as she caught up.

"That's still five years, air head. It constitutes as older."

"Whao-ho-ho then, our sincerest apologies elder Aurie." Lhe-mi bowed.

"Yes, your beauty and fortitude blind us and lead us to act foolishly!" Dechan exaggerated in fain dramatic sorrow. Aurie attempted to continue frowning, but it was too much for her and she cracked a smile.

"Foolish mortals, bow down to my infinite and vast knowledge." She finished forebodingly. Her lack of sleep and harsh weeks of training had been catching up with her and Aureole could not help but to feel drained a lethargic. As the three girls entered their rooms Aureole decided to skip food and go straight to bed, relaxing into her cool sheets and pillowed mat and she drifted into dark dreams that had been haunting her as of late.


She was in her dream, she was sure of it. Aureole was floating in a blue glowing dome. It was cold and time seemed to have no power or prominence, just the enigma of the glowing blue light and cold air that never seemed to settle into her skin. But outside of the ice she could tell the world was burning, the sensitive balance of the elements was altered and there was no wind or rain, only scorched earth outside of the safety of the dome.

She brought her hands to her face and she could see the tattoos of an air bending master on them and an excited feeling bubbled into her stomach, it was her ultimate goal to be an air master, but her tattoos were glowing white, it was unnerving. Not only because of the unnatural glow, but because her hands were not her own...they were a young boys, she lifted her face up to see her reflection from the shining ice but a loud noise erupted from outside and the dome was cracked and her face was indistinguishable.

Aurie woke with a start as her two favorite sisters bounded into her room jumping up and down with huge painted across their rosy cheeks. Still in a whirl of emotions from her rather confusing and scary dream, Aureole didn't know whether to hug her friends or knock them over and yell at them, but before she could reach a final decision Dechan let out a rush of words,

"We have visitors!"

"Monk visitors!" Lhe-mi continued.

"From the Southern Temple!"

"They're so handsome!" They gushed together dreamily.

Wiping off the cold sweat from her forehead Aureole cringed at their girlish squeals and quickly pushed her sisters away from her.

"This is why you woke me up screaming? Not because the Temple was burning down or the sky bison's were eating the flying lemurs, you two woke me up screaming because you find objectifying monks based upon their appearance exciting," Her eyes narrowed, "Get out." She said pointing at the door. The girls continued to speak of how cute the monks were, not fazed at all by Aureole's mood, as Aurie got out of bed and gathered her clothing. She headed towards the bathroom, Dechan and Lhe-mi trailing diligently behind her.

"They just got back from coming across the Earth Kingdom, Auire! Isn't that amazing?"

"I wanna travel across the Earth Kingdom." Lhe-mi sighed.

"And the Fire Nation! I wanna see fire bending, that would be so cool!" Dechan became animated, pretending to fire bend with Lhe-mi.

Dark circles cultivated beneath Aureole's eyes as she looked up at her disheveled state. Her light brown hair was pointing in every direction, the length was getting out of control and quite frankly a hindrance to her bending, she begrudgingly thought of cutting it all off and she grabbed a brush and attempted to detangle her hair. Dechan offered to braid it as Aurie washed her face. Two braids at the crown of her head met in the back to create one long braid that swayed behind her as she walked. Her stomach began to rumble.

"My tummy is talking," Aurie poked her midsection, "I need food." She walked past her sisters who wore matching raised eye brows. Silly moments were few and far between for Aureole and as they hopped along after her they hoped to come across one of the better looking monks on their way to the kitchens.

When they arrived at the kitchens the smell of bread and hot tea lingered in the air and Aureole's mouth began to water. She grabbed to rolls of bread and a large cup of banana guava juice and the girls followed close to her as she sat down under a tree outside in a court yard full of monks and sisters. As the girls chattered on about which monk was cutest or whatever it is they spoke about when Aureole wasn't paying attention, Aurie let her mind wander between large bites of bread about what her dreams could mean. She was certain that they couldn't be prophetic...she wasn't an adolescent boy...and she definitely didn't have her arrows yet. Maybe it was telling her that traveling in the Fire Nation would be scary...but being in the south pole would be...safer?

Because she was so lost in thought, Aureole didn't happen to notice that she had caught the attention of a young monk, Meelo, who had come through with his traveling party. He had become one the youngest air benders in the nomad's history to be given the title of Master Air bender, mastering all 35 bending levels by the time he was seventeen. He found himself traveling the world immediately after he had his tattoos, in the past two years he'd been two three of the four great nations (including his own) with his air bison, Kumo.

Meelo had seen many beautiful places and people on his travels; most notably he'd seen beautiful women. The girls in the fire nation were stunning with pale skin, dark hair, and bright eyes, they were confident and nearly all of them could dance for hours. Ladies from the Earth kingdom were much more refined; they kept every hair in place and enjoyed poetry and soft music. Unfortunately no matter how beautiful Earth kingdom girls were, the neutral color pallet of their clothing reflected directly upon their personalities: boring and repetitive. And of course he, the air nomad, women he'd seen were always pretty and care free, but he'd never seen any one more beautiful...breath taking even then the girl with the lost look on her face he saw across the court yard from him.

When he saw her he couldn't help the huge grin that grew on his face, Meelo had never been so entranced by anyone or anything ever before. Noticing his friends attention being drawn away from any conversation, Meelo's traveling companion and dear friend Nawang quirked an eye brow and followed his enchanted friends gaze. Smiling smugly at the object of Meelo's dreamy focus, Nawang poked at his friend,

"I talked to that girl earlier man, she's totally in to me." Meelo snapped out of his day dream and his eyes widened,

"What? Ahh man, no way!"

"Yeah, she's was like 'Oooh, you're so handsome Monk Nawang, please ,it would be my honor to have babies with you! We're soooooul mates!'" His voice had a raised several octaves to mimic a woman's voice. Looking at his friend incredulously, Meelo playfully glared at Nawang,

"I have this feeling that you're joking around with me, but I know you would never lie."

"It's not in my nature. But pretty girls defiantly are, man, that girl is sooo good looking. She's hotter than that one chick we met from the fire nation, th-"

"The one with annoying laugh?"

"Yeah," Nawang brought his hands above his chest, "and HUGE-"

"Gentelmen," Sister Jamyang interrupted. Nawang immediately dropped his hands and brought them behind his head.

"H-hello Sister, what might we help you with?" Meelo asked pleasantly. The nun narrowed her eyes at the two suspicious looking monks but continued to prattle on cheerily,

"The students here would benefit from a demonstration of your skills and we would be most appreciative of your assessments of some of our more advanced students."

"Oh, really? That would be great, we'd love to." Meelo said quickly, thinking that maybe one of the more advanced students would be the pretty girl from the courtyard. Nawang's eyes rolled in annoyance,

"We would love to?" He commented lowly.

"Wonderful," Said the sister as she began to walk towards a group of laughing children. Meelo quickly called out a question to her and she turned back towards the two monks,

"What was that Monk Meelo?"

"Oh, um, I was just asking about that girl over there under the tree?" The sister peered behind him to where he was pointing and raised an eye brow and smiled,

"There is nothing under the tree, Monk Meelo. Only grass...and air."

"Wait—what?" Turning around and finding that the most beautiful girl in the world had vanished into thin air, "Well, she was there earlier...literally a second ago; I wonder where she went..."

"Or if she even existed," Sister Lang muttered skeptically, "Perhaps she was a trick of the light." She turned to leave again and the group of little girls giggled running towards her all of them speaking at once.

"She really was there! You saw her!" Meelo grabbed his friend and shook him by the shoulders exasperated. Shrugging his shoulders and walking away, Nawang followed after the sister, saying something about feeding his air bison. Left alone to his own devices Meelo decided it was a good time to investigate his mystery girl. His focus had never been so captured before, he felt this fuzzy feeling in his chest and his heart began to flutter, and he couldn't help but smile. He didn't even know her name...heck he hadn't even spoken to the girl, but he had this feeling that he known her before. He pondered for a moment if she even knew that he existed or if she had even seen him in the courtyard—but he quickly disregarded these thoughts because of course she noticed him...he was devilishly good looking and charismatic. And amazing.

He just had to find her, he thought to himself as he walked down one of the temples tall and open hallways. Meelo had always been very proud of what his people could accomplish in the physical realm, the beauty and peace humans could create never ceased to amaze him. Meelo was a man content with his life, he had a bright outlook on his future, and he felt his spirit as light and air as a floating feather. And this girl...this girl that he didn't even know yet made his spirit feel even lighter, he just knew it had to be love at first sight...and he knew she would feel the same way. If only he could find her. Further up the hallway he heard laughing and felt the cooling breezes of manipulated air currents, he saw the two young girls that were with the pretty mystery nun earlier. They both had dark hair and eyes and were currently pushing each other up into the air, pretending to fly.

"Dechaaaaan," The one with long hair whined to the girl in the air with two ponytails, "It's my turn to be in the air!"

"It is not." Dechan giggled from up in the air, Lhe-mi frowned and stomped her foot, cutting off the air current and crossing her arms without thinking. The surprised scream that came from the tumbling girl was enough to scare Meelo into diving up in to the air and catching the child mid-fall. Lhe-mi ran over to see her friend safe and immediately began apologizing,

"Oh my spirits, I am so, so, so, so, so, so, sooooo sorry, Dechan! I didn't mean to do that! I promise I'm not trying to kill you." She was close to tears. Rolling her eyes and patting her sister's head Dechan comforted Lhe-mi,

"It's alright, jeeze. Don't cry about it you baby." She blinked her doe eyes up at the monk who caught her, smiling sweetly, "Besides, at least we had someone to catch me."

"Oh yeah." Lhe-mi followed her sister's actions and they both stared up at Meelo and he laughed sheepishly,

"Oh, well, it was no problem, ladies." He thought the girls were funny and that they must be the students that Sister Lang was talking to him and Nawang about. Recalling his original purpose for seeking them out, he ended the awkward silence between them with an awkward question,

"So, I saw you guys earlier, in the courtyard..." He couldn't exactly get his next words out correctly so he continued to mouth and stumble over could be sentences.

"That's nice..." Lhe-mi said slowly, this monk was cute but not very bright.

"Yeah," Dechan said, thinking along that same lines as Lhe-mi, "Well, thank you for catching me before I fell on the floor and split my head open."

"That would've been gross," Lhe-mi smiled.

"Yeah, but kinda cool. Like 'BOOM' and then 'SMACK' and then blood would everywhere."

"Yeah, but not as cool because I woulda been responsible for killing you and stuff." Meelo nodded in agreement, trying to get back on track with his line of questioning,

"Yeah, totally cool. Anyways, I was wondering—"

"Our names?" Lhe-mi interrupted. Dechan nodded in agreement,

"Yeah because you haven't asked for them yet and we've been having a conversation for a few minutes now, not to mention you caught me from falling to my death."

"It's only manners, you know?" Lhe-mi ended matter-o-factly.

Meelo smacked his forehead and dropped the ponytail girl out of his arms, realizing how difficult getting these to trouble makers to help him at all he decided to just play along,

"Umm, sorry, what are those beautiful names of yours?" He asked enthusiastically.

"This is Dechan."

"And this is Lhe-mi." They pointed respectively at one another.

"And who are you?" They asked at once.

"My name is Monk Meelo, and may I say it is a pleasure to meet the fine young ladies of the Eastern Air Temple." He said winking and the little girls giggled. "So listen, I was wondering if I could ask you guys a couple of questions."

"About what?" Dechan asked.

"Yeah—about whaaaaaat?" Lhe-mi pushed. Meelo decided to speak quickly before he was interrupted again,

"Yeah, well, umm, earlier today, when I saw you, you were with another girl...umm she was older then you...?"Dechan smiled mischievously,

"What about her?"

"Well, I was wondering what her name was?"

"Oh, that's Aur—hmmmf," Lhe-mi's mouth was covered by Dechan's.

"Why do you wanna knowww?" She said in a sing-song voice. Lhe-mi caught on immediately going along in the same fashion,

"Yeeaahhh, why do you wanna know?"

"Well—ermm, she's uhh, I was...asked to help tutor some of the more advanced students and..."

"How do you know she's one of the more advanced students?," Interrupted one of the girls.

"Yeah, you don't even know her name." The other finished.

"Well, I ermm, I mean that I—uh..." Meelo tried to save some face, think of some excuse, all he wanted to know was her name; this was a lot of work.

"You think she's pretty, don't you?" Smiled Lhe-mi.

"W-what? No! I mean—yeah, but that's not—gah." He said as the girls fell to the floor laughing, he turned to walk away, but one the girls grabbed him telling him to wait. They seemed to come over to his side, they told him that his mystery girl's name was Aureole and that she liked to practice at the base of the mountain on the northern side of the temple close by the forest. This brought on a whole new set of intimidating questions, should he go down there and say hello? Or would that be weird? Or should he just happen upon her, help her with her bending...all kinds of bending. At this point he was sitting cross legged in a circle with his two new friends who were giving him advice on how to impress Aureole.

"She loooves surprises." Said Dechan,

"Yeah, totally loves them, so don't be afraid to just jump in on her and say 'Hey.'"

"And she's really a touchy feely person,"

"So don't be afraid to slightly invade her personal space, she has noooo bubble." She has bubbles, Meelo thought, two very nice bubbles...he needed more guy friends. Meelo looked to the two gushing twelve year old girls in front of him and he didn't like the look of cunning mischief he saw twinkling in their large dark eyes.

"Really? You think I should do that?" Said Meelo skeptically.

"Yes."

"Really."

"Go for it."

With a last push from the girls Meelo was lead to a path way that would take him to where Aureole practiced her air bending. She was on her 25th of the 36 levels of bending that air nomads needed to gain her tattoos, which is very impressive given that she was only seventeen. Of course, Meelo couldn't help but think, not nearly as impressive as him. Meelo became one of the youngest air bending master's in nomad history at the age of seventeen and at nineteen he was a well-known, skilled, and traveled air bender. He thought very highly of himself and in turn people tended to think highly of him as well...not that he asked, he sort of just assumed people thought he was wonderful.

He began hearing the wooshing noises of wind and foot movements as he approached the base of the mountain and then he saw her just as attractive as he remembered her being earlier. She had pretty long hair, it was a soft brown color and she had large grey eyes framed by dark thick lashes; she had a concentrated look in her eyes, she was about to perform a technique, he took another step towards the bottom of the path but came tumbling down. Aureole was so startled by the noise and intrusion, she shot the gust of air defensively at the figure that fell, knocking Meelo harshly into the stone wall of the mountain.

His vision went black, then cloudy, and then he saw her face hovering over his, the light shined from behind her head, framing her face with a golden light that filtered through her hair turning pieces of it bronze. Her cheeks were flushed from her training and she was biting her full bottom lip,

"A-are you alright?"