Lost in the North [open]

[Jojen]

The Northern Air Temple was far behind the Air Nomad. Seeming to be so quiet and peaceful in the distance. And Jojen was not going to turn back. Not now, or any time soon. He had made his way down the mountain paths himself, steep as they were at some points. Walking with a glider in hand that he couldn't yet use...

Maybe he shouldn't have left the temple before learning how to glide with the thing, but it was his hope that he would be able to pick up the skill himself eventually, just by trying over and over again... Otherwise that too would just be another one of his failures.

Some Air Nomad he was, the boy didn't even have a Sky Bison companion. He was on his own. Somewhere in the far north of the Earth Kingdom, lost, for the most part. When Jojen realized that it was almost time for the sun to set, he was pleased to find he was nearing upon a village. A port town, by the looks of it. The realization that he was really on his own and traveling the world hit the airbender as he set foot into the village. It was an awesome feeling, Jojen couldn't fathom why he had not done this sooner.

[Jiang Lun]

Jaing was in a very good mood.

The sun was shining, the air was cool, and best of all, he was near the sea. His eyes were directed towards all the different markets located in this district. Harbor Town was quite the village; not only did it have all types of ships come in and out of the docks, it also had a very strong commerce. Jiang’s stride was calm and easy as he made his way through the entranceway. That is until he suddenly slammed into a little figure that seemed to be just standing in the middle of the area.

Jiang had not been paying complete attention to where he was going, though in his defense, he had no anticipated that someone would just be standing in the middle of the entrance! Jiang tripped over his own feet during the question and hit the ground…hard. The Earth Bender attempted to shake it off as be pulled back to his feet. He looked over the man who he’d tripped over and recognized him (from his markings) to be an Air Nomad. What was he doing here? Jiang heard of Earth Citizens visiting the Northen Air Temples, but very rarely did the other way around occur.

“Hey, air-head! Watch wear you’re going!” He yelled, getting back on his feet.

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[Jojen]

Something big slammed into Jojen's body from behind, shoving him forward into the village. The ground came upon him quickly, and soon the airbender's stomach was colliding into it. The air let loose from his lungs as a result of the forceful blow.

Jojen turned over as he regained his breath, turning to see what had hit him. Until his eyes settled upon another figure, a teenager taller than himself who was also getting to his feet. Immediately he believed this whole mess had been his own fault, the truth of it soon enforced by the older male's accusations. "Sorry! I didn't realize I was standing in anyone's way," he apologized quickly and pushed himself back onto his feet. The dirt that had found its way to his clothes was easily cleaned off with a few swipes of his hands.

[Jiang Lun]

Jaing gazed at the young man, surprised that he was the one to fall. It felt as though he had been hit by a puff of air that disappeared in a moment’s time. The young man was not only young, but very small. Jiang had lived within the Earth Kingdom for most of his life; everyone around him was sturdy and strong-headed. Air Benders on the other are very passive and light on their feet.

“Hey…um…it’s no problem.” Jiang was open to helping the young man up and brushed himself off a bit. He had been angry, but decided to sympathize after seeing how young and small the boy was. In fact, he nearly wanted to take back that air-head comment, but decided to move on. “What’s an Air Bender doing in these parts anyhow?” He asked politely.


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[Jojen]

"Exploring, I think. Until now, I had only ever seen the temple I came from," Jojen tried to explain. The older male seemed a little less aggravated since he'd apologized, which made the airbender feel better. After only a day or so of being away from the Northern Temple, he had been upset by the fact that he'd upset the first non Air Nomad he'd ever encountered. Not a good first impression.

Jojen clasped one hand around his his other hand, the second having been tightened into a fist in front of his chest. Doing this, he bowed respectfully to his new acquaintance. "My name is Jojen, though, not 'air-head'..." the air nomad moved his hands back to his side and glanced up at the older male once again. "Are you from around here? Or, are you traveling too?"

[Jiang Lun]

“Born and raised my friend...Born and raised.” Jiang answered cooly and looked roundabout. “Actually, I’ve lived in Omashu for most of my life…” The earth bender shrugged casually, but there nothing casual about what had happened in Omashu. A lot of...difficulties....had occured in his life there and he would not be surprised if there was a bounty on his here in the Earth Kingdom. However, that was another story so he said “Well hey, since you’re new and all how about present you with a guided tour of Harbor Town. Haven’t been here long, but certainly longer than you.” Jiang winked and awaited the Air Bender’s answer.


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[Jojen]

Jojen was pleasantly surprised at the offer. Already the older Earth Kingdom teen seemed to be a lot nicer than most of the teenagers he had known at this point. "That'd be great," the boy grinned. Maybe this Harbor Town had some interesting sites to offer. Granted, the Air Nomad would likely find anything he set his eyes upon to be interesting... after all, he'd never seen anything else aside from the temple where he was born and raised!

"If this is Harbor Town, where's the place where you came from... umm... Omashu?" Jojen was curious about that as well. The earthbender would quickly learn that his new acquaintance found a way to ask questions about just about everything... And with a new world around him, there were plenty of questions for him to ask. Besides, it was a good way to learn.

[Jiang Lun]

“Eh…Omashu’s a ways off, but you don’t wanna go there.” Jiang answered stubbornly. In fact, he was not the least bit interested in talking about that place. He hated Omashu; it was not the place he remembered from when he was a child. Maybe there was something going on with the land…something that had drove them to up the security and make like more difficult for everyone. But it did not matter. Jiang explained “Everyone’s way too uptight!” before quickly changing the subject.

“So..you’ve seen the ‘Harbor’ of Harbor Town,” Jiang teased and then thought for a moment about what other places within the immediate area he could show the boy and then smiled, saying “But you haven’t seen the Harbor Town’s Super-Slide!” The smile grew into a big grin. Jiang ran in the direction of ‘The Super Slide’ and ushered Jojen to follow.

“C’mon. You’ll love it!” Jiang yelled from behind and continued running.


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[Jojen]

Omashu sounded like the Air Temples... the monks could be really 'uptight' about things too. Jojen didn't entirely mind that too much, to be honest, by now he was used that sort of thing. For now though, the Omashu place was apparently far away, as the boy told him, so it didn't matter very much for the time being.

The harbor? Oh, right! "Yep!" the airbender nodded and took in a final glimpse of the immediate area. He could see the edge of the Earth Kingdom where this town was built upon, and where the waters met the shore, the boy knew that in that Northern distance a person could sail toward the Northern Water Tribe. "Super slide? What's--" Jojen reached a hand out, but the pink-haired teenager was already running away from him.

Well... the only thing he could really do was follow along and find out. So, he chased after the teenager, as quickly as his feet would carry him.

[Jiang Lun]

The two of them ran through the streets of Harbor Town. They remained near the water; for what is a Super Water Slide without water. In fact, the Water Slide could be anywhere so long as no one was around so Jiang turned a corner a reached an area of water where no one was around. More importantly, Jiang had to make sure it was in shallow water.

“Welcome to the Super Water Slide!” He presented what appeared to be nothingness. However, Jiang could feel the ground beneath the shallow water and prepared his creation. “Alright, I gotta focus.” Jiang planted his feet firm into the ground. After some time, the young man began raising slope-shape pillars of earth.

After a deep breath, he finished the slide and raised it to the point that it was level to where the two not stood. Without saying a word, Jiang jump onto the tube-structure and slid down slide. His body was rugged enough ( from working with rock so much ) that the grain did not affect him. The Earth Bender landed into the water with a resounding splash!

“Pretty cool huh?” Jiang smiled while wading water.

“My name’s Jiang by the way.” He informed the boy.


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[Jojen]

Yeah, they'd arrived! ... But Jojen saw... nothing. Flatness. Just earth. A plain old ground, by the looks of it. "Hmm..." the airbender hummed, not making any effort to hide his skepticism. Had it been a joke? Maybe the guy he had bumped into just wanted to see if the air head would fall for a silly idea like a super slide or something.

Until Jojen realized what was truly happening... At that point, he was glad he had not voiced his skeptical thoughts. "Oh, you're an earthbender!" That made the monk grin happily. Until now, he had never physically met an earthbender, but it had become clear enough once the pink-haired teen had begun creating a bunch of slopes out of the earth in front of them.

The airbender followed suit soon after Jiang, placing his staff down onto the ground before zipping down the slide after him. It was somewhat rugged, being made from earth and all, but he used his airbending to slide down even faster. All the way until the final splash down into the water of the bay. Jojen quickly sprung back up from beneath the water, shaking his hair out briefly. "It's nice to meet you, Jiang... When I left the temple, I thought people from the Earth Kingdom would be different. Mean and against having fun... or something."

[Jiang Lun]

"Well I always thought you monks from the Air Temple were bald." Jiang winked. "There's a lot of things you really can't tell about people of a Nation until you experience it yourself." He explained, saying "Like people talk about how the Fire Nation is angry and dangerous and how the Water Tribes are boring and quite." Jiang continued to stroke his arms back and forth. "I've met a lot of Fire Nation and they're actually really nice...They are passionate in their abilities and that is sometimes mistaken with hate or anger." After explaining how a lot of Fire Benders were, Jiang moved on to the Water Tribe. "There isn't much that I know about the Water Tribe, but their bending requires a peaceful and serene attitude and perhaps that is boring to some people, but that does not mean they don't know how to have fun."

"Then the Earth Kingdom." He raised a pillar from underneath the water so they might both have a place to sit. "We have the least amount of Benders, but the largest populace...so what does that tell you?" Jiang asked, pulling himself up onto the rock slab. "It means that all sorts of people from all over the world come here-for protection, for freedom, some just to sell at a thriving market." The Earth Bender smiled. "What it boils down to is everyone's different in each nation, most of all the Earth Kingdom." He winked again and his speech was over.
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[BAO-LIEN]

Bao-lien had just finished a little tour of the Fire Nation. Sadly, her tour included a small-scale fight with a Fire Nation citizen. He had white hair with a red pattern and he had a hog companion. Either way, the ungrateful brat was left behind and she traveled on to the Earth Kingdom. The kingdom really was nice. It was large, grand, beautiful, and very... err... earth-oriented. Then again, what was she to expect? A pond in the center of their village? Please. Either way, Bao had been wandering around, Manchu in arms. Her little polar bear-leopard stayed with her wherever she went. She sighed softly and reached a large pond.

She hadn't realized that people were there. She was simply secluded behind some trees and, quite frankly, she couldn't see past them. Putting Manchu on the ground, she ordered him to stay beside her. The little cub obeyed, but grudgingly so. The girl concentrated on creating a strong, long water whip. However, moments in, her concentration faltered and the water splashed into the large pond. Sighing, she began again. It was better, but she didn't have enough control, and it, too, splashed back into the pond. For a third time, Bao-Lien began to create a water whip. However, this time, she somewhat succeeded. That is, until a heavy shaking of the ground frightened her, and Manchu, to the point that she dropped the water and jumped out of the pond.

By the time she had a good grip of her bearings, Manchu was tearing through the bushes. Gasping, the waterbender fled in the same direction, intent on finding her cub. Gasping for breath, she finally found Manchu growling at two boys. One of which was bending a... slide? The rumbles of the earth were too loud, so Manchu's growls were easily drowned out. Snatching up the polar bear-leopard, Bao cautiously walked up to the slide. The boys were talking about something... something... som--oh! Benders! They were talking about benders! Blinking, the girl listened in, interested in their conversation. Wait a second. Waterbenders were boring? What was that?

Raising one brow, she placed her free hand on her hip and spoke clearly, "Last I checked, we weren't boring!" The girl retorted, a smirk playing on her lips. Her deep blue eyes stared at each of them, her irises looking much like the sea itself. Amusement was clearly written on her face, and she bended a small whip, though it was more or less a blob of water. Throwing it at them, she giggled before running behind a tree and putting Manchu down. The little polar bear-leopard quickly fled from his owner and over to where the boys were. "Ah, Manchu! Silly little boy!" She said softly before scooping him up.