You've arrived at a nice quiet village at the base of aa mountain chain. This is your final destination, a big town with a nonexistent violent past. In the mountains up above, there is a temple where Air nomads live. They are also called air monks or just airbenders, and the temples are like homes to them.

You are quite delighted to be living right next to people of peace, and wish to gain some invaluable knowledge about the afterlife and the spirit world. It must be fascinating! The journey was tiresome, so this day you rest without exploring anything. Next day though, you set out first thing in the morning to tour the place. The streets are very clean and there are lots of parks. What a beautiful place to live in! The trees are blooming so the plants are a gift to the eyesight. There is a nice big park on the edge of town, where some children are playing with, and feeding, curious little animals. You approach, and ask one of the boys what are these creatures. "Winged lemurs". He grins and offers you a handful of nuts. "They love to eat". You thank him and try to get near the critters, but they're pretty shy. You get an idea and sit down on the floor and leave the nuts in front of you, and try to keep perfectly still. Soon enough, a small lemur comes forward. It has huge ears, white long thin paws, and a long ringed tail. It has round, green eyes and thin fur-covered membranes that attach their arms to their torso, and they use them to fly. It advances on four paws slowly, looking at you interestedly. When it's two elbow lengths away, it sits up and chitters questioningly. It's a curious sound, like a quick flute trilling or something of the sort. It tentatively reaches out to grab a nut. It looks at you distrustfully, but then starts slamming it on the ground to crack it open. The boy who gave you the nuts comes over and says "It's a female. See the marks on her ears and belly?" He points. The little lemur chirps and scrambles away as fast as it can while still holding her armful of nuts. "Aaw, they're so cuuute! Do they come here often?"

"Yes, every day. You can come here to feed them, and maybe you can adopt one. Mine is that one over there, with the green ribbon. He's called Mihou, and his mate is expecting babies"

"That is unbelievably cute! Well thank you for the nuts, I will definitely be visiting!"

Next day, you eat breakfast zippity-quick and set out to explore more. You find a lovely tea shop, and after a short visit you determine that chai-strawberry is your favorite. You pass a woodshop, where men are craving furniture. There is a young boy there, about seventeen or eighteen, sitting in a corner with a figurine in his hands. You approach him and the heady smells of scented wood fill your nose. You inhale the sweet aroma of pine, pear wood, and cedar. A little shyly, you greet the boy. He lifts his head and looks at you. His eyes are almond-shaped and dark brown, like yours. His nose is straight and broad, and his face is tanned. His hair is ebony black and curvy. Glossy curls drop on his forehead, as if he were hiding behind them. He smiles and greets you back. "What are you carving?" you ask.

"Animals, toys for small children"

"Yours?"

"Oh, no. I don't have kids. I'm still too young to marry. But you're from the Water Tribe, right? You marry early, don't you?"

"Yes, actually. We get engaged soon, then spend time building our homes, and then we marry, about a year or so after betrothal."

"Are you… " He nods at your necklace.

"Oh! Uh, this? No, I'm not engaged. My mother embroidered it for me"

"It's nice"

"Thank you". There is a moment of uncomfortable silence. "Um, that's a nice lemur" No nod at the figurine he is carving.

"Thanks. So, I'll be seeing you around, I guess?"

"Um, yeah, I suppose. Well, uh, goodbye". Oh God that was so embarrassing.

"Goodbye" . Why can't you just have a normal conversation with guys? Why is always so damn awkward to talk to boys?!

As you walk away, some of the men laugh but you don't turn around. Whatever. You just wanted to talk.

In this section of the city, there are pastry shops, basket shops, stylist shops, just about everything! You don't have a house just yet, so you live at an inn, but you will soon move smack in the middle of town, on the edge of the market and next to the fashion district, for your father's job as pelt-seller.

One of your favorite district is the scribe's. Bookshops everywhere, streets smelling of ink and parchment. Imagine, such a gem a scroll is, having a whole library full of them! You see workshops where parchment is stamped out and hung out to dry. You see shops where bucketfuls of ink are stirred, a mix of charcoal powder and water. You see young men sitting with old men, asking questions and writing down the answers. A whole store for paintbrushes, fine and thick. Horse-hair or cat-hair, reed stem or gleaming mahogany. A small forgery for making official seals and the shop names. There are schools, too, but apparently only the rich go there. Perhaps there will be a chance later on... There is also a post office, where you will be recieving all of your letters from now on.

You stop by a pastry shop and take a good look at all the treats. There are small lacy cookies, chunky grain cookies, mooncakes (with filling from peanut to lotus paste), rice cakes, tang yuan (juicy rice paste-and-black bean-balls), and sponge-cakes with fruit filling.

You choose the "almond drop" cookies, which are blobs of sweet dough baked to a crunchy point. As you walk from the shop with a cheerful "thank you!", a smile, and the clink of Water Tribe coins, you emerge into the sunlight and remember the lemurs that you saw in the park the other day. Why not visit them? You could give them some cookies. They weren't exactly expensive, at five silvers and a bronce piece a measure, which got you like three dosen treats. So you head to the park, but you haven't walked far down the street when one of those same little animals flies right up to you and stays in flight, flapping its "wings". It looks at you and then chitters and lands. It paws at your bag of sweets and talks to you again. You understand and give it a cookie. It all but snatches it out of your hand and munches it avidly. You hand it another, and it eats the treat more slowly. You lean down to scratch its head, and it sniffs your hand distrustfully before allowing you to pet it. Happy with this small interaction, you walk away. Suddenly you feel a tug on your bag and it's gone. The bag! You whirl, looking for the pickpocket or beggar-boy with your shoppint, but instead spot the lemur, clutching the bag with its hind feet and trying to fly away with the prize. However, the bag is much too heavy for it, and only manages to fly a littlenabove head level. You run to it with an indignant "Hey!" and catch it halfway down the street. Gingerly, you pluck it out of the air and untangle the bag from its paws.

Setting it down, you hold the mischief-maker at face level and stare at it. It stares back, and then raises a paw to its mouth and stuffs another cookie inside. Seeing this gesture, you burst out laughing, and have a hard time holding the little thif. Your arms are shaking so bad you can barely keep a good grip on the lemur, and it seems to knoe and tries to escape. "You thieving little brat! You would bite the hand that fed you?" You giggle and set the animal on the floor. It dares a lunge at the bag but you manage to snatch it out of its grasp, and wave a finger in a no-no fashion. "Bad lemur-bat". It proceeds to chitter rapidly, gesticulating and emitting various squeaks and shrill sequences, no doubt deftly insulting you in lemur language.

When you arrive, the park is quite full of people, either palying with the lemurd or staring intently at the sky. You approach an old lady with an elaborate bun on her head and ask, "Excuse me, ma'am, what are we looking at?"

"Looking for, dearie. We're looking for the Aar Nomads. Monk gyatso is supposed to come down from the mountains today. And he always brings cakes! They make them themselves, the nomads do. Sponge-cakes with fruit fillings" That rings a bell.

"I've seen those cakes! They're sold in most every shop in town, it seems. So the monks sell those? And who is Monk Gyatso?"

"One thing at a time, dearie. Yes, the monks make those cakes up in the mountains and trade or sell them for provisions they cannot grow themselves. Monk Gyatso is a very kind, old man. He's usually the one who comes to trade. Sometimes they take small children up to the temples and shows them the life of a monk. If they so choose, they may stay and live with them, preaching kindness and such. A peaceful lifestyle- and one without meat!"

Suddenly, from the front of the crowds, a commotion starts. Peolpe point to the sky and smile. Loonimg shapes move through tha gauzy clouds adorning the sky, big shadows of… something flying through the air. Those clouds couldn't possibly be the airbenders… of course! The flying bison! You will get to see a flying bison!

A huge, furry head with an arrow and two horns break the clouds, followed by six legs thick as pillars. And a flat beaver-like tail covered in fur. And sitting atop the beast's head is a figure clad in orange and yellow. "The monks are here!" a voice shouts. Three more bison come, loaded with cakes, rice, bolts of cloth, scrolls… Up close, the monks look rather queer. They are bald except for mustaches, eyebrows and the occasional beard. They have big blue arrows on their foreheads and one of them has a necklace made of wooden beads. The other three are much younger, in their late twenties or early thirties, give or take a few years. You're not very good at calculating age. A shared trait among them is that they have gray eyes, like storm clouds. At this moment, very cheerful storm clouds. They are using yellow long shirts, red pants, orange sleeveless shirts and a red draping over their shoulders. The old monk is wearing a full-body orange tunic with only a yellow belt as decoration. They also seem to carry some sort of walking stick with them.

A few men step forward to help them unload, and there is some hustle while the boys emerge from the crowds. When the boxes are unloaded, the monks make them levitate, to transport them easily. The first airbending you've ever seen! It is a little weird looking at a bunch of crates swirl around slowly in the air, but it's still awesome. One monk, the eldest, has with him a big crate with some sort of swirly lock on it, and is carefully levitating it without letting it spin. He's the one with the droopy mustache, droopy eyelids and slightly thick eyebrows. He's also the one with the wooden necklace, and he looks frail. You bow respectfully. "Hello, sir. May I help you?" He smiles softly and says in an equally soft voice, "No need, child. I am not quite so breakable as I look. Beside, this is much too heavy for you."

"All right, then. May I walk you to your destination?"

"You may". There is laughter in his voice, and when he walks he seems to glide. "Tell me, girl, what's your name?"

"Ailimek, sir"

"Water Tribe native, aren't we? Northerner?"

"From the south. How could you tell I'm from one of the Tribes?"

"The name characteristics. A's and K's are typical. Are you a waterbender?"
"Yes, sir, and I take pride in my skill. If I were a northerner, I would hardly know bending out of the healing context. As it is, it was hard to convince the local master to teach me."

"Are you a fighter?" You walk into a wide street.

"With all due respect, do I look like one?" You chuckle. Blue skirt and white top, dangly bracelets, beaded braids, embroidered necklace… the old man chuckles. "No, I guess not. A healer then?"

"Yes, and with my travels my knowledge of herbal medicine has grown. I am grateful to my mother for making such an effort to train me in curing sickness"

"Do you prefer healing to fighting?"

"Hmm… well, in a way, yes. But I like using Waterbending as much as I like healing, if not more. I like to make crafts with water, manipulating ice to make small figures which I occasionally sell or give away. But mostly I just like playing with it, really."

"How pleasant that sounds. I wouldn't be able to make a living out of my bending abilities. No one would believe me if I told them I wanted to sell them an air sculpture!" You giggle. This old monk is very nice to be around. "I forgot to ask… What's you name sir?"

"Gyatso. Monk Gyatso"

"The Monk Gyatso? You are rather popular around here. How come no one helped you with your crate?"

"Oh, I don't like to cause much ruckus. Besides, as soon as I get here…" A fat man down the street says in a booming voice "Mister Gyatso! So glad you could come!" As if on cue, about half a dozen doors on the street open and heads pop out. The cries of 'Monk Gyatso is here' carry out and you soon have a gaggle of people surrounding you and carefully lowering the box onto their shoulders. He glances at you, laughter in his owlish eyes. "You were saying?"

Right uh um

UPDATED CHAPTER

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