The Painted Desert

[Kidate]

As far as the eye can see extends the painted desert, an endless sea of red sand with the occasional cliff extending into the sky. A few plants thrive here, as well as reptiles and the occasional beast. Sandbenders seem to steer clear of here, as the sands are thicker and more like clay than actual sand, leaving the land somewhat desolate and abandoned feeling. It is a beautiful sight to see though, and travelers sometimes come to enjoy the view.

(Credit to MukLuk)

[MukLuk™]

Her bright eyes watched the passing red desert below, and her heart soared. Higher than she was already soaring on Hayabusa. She loved the desert. The heat seemed to flow through her, feeling every fiber of her with energy, calling to the white fires of her soul. Hayabusa seemed to enjoy it as well, soaring on thermals and updrafts, over cliffs that resembled the native Gryphon aeries that Hayabusa-sensei had described to her.

Issun, however, was not the least bit pleased.

Drooped around MukLuk’s neck, his tongue hung out, his eyes closed, limp and panted. MukLuk so far hadn’t taken notice, but when Issun gave a displeased grumble, her orange eyes turned to him. Picking him up gingerly between two fingers, he still hung, but now glared at her with eyes that said, ‘Why do you do this to me?’. MukLuk wasn’t sympathetic and rolled her eyes.

“You were born in a volcano! This shouldn’t be anything to you!” Hayabusa’s long bird neck twisted around to fix Issun with a gaze that clearly threatened Issun’s livelihood.

MukLuk sighed. “You’re killing my buzz, Issun. I love this place! This’ll be the perfect place to train and learn more techniques! I bet we could hire some sand benders or something and get ‘em to build us a nice little house. And eventually, you’ll get used to the heat!” Hayabusa snorted. “Well, if you don’t, Hayabusa will eat you.” Hayabusa’s eyes returned to his path. Issun let out a weak gurgle and MukLuk rolled her eyes again.

“Hayabusa, take care of my pack. I’m gonna make a jump.”
He let out a confirmative squawk and the Firebender tossed the pack off her back, which the Gryphon effortlessly caught in his beak. She returned Issun to his position hanging around her neck and, rising to her feet, held out her arms, observing the desert for a moment more before letting herself fall off the Gryphon’s back.

The rushing of wind was all she heard. Her hair was streaming behind her head like black ribbons, and for a moment she caught the shrieks of Issun, thrashing about in fear for his life. He detached from her neck and fell above the girl, thrashing in mid air, his eyes wide.

With a laugh, MukLuk flipped over and detached her ‘parachute’ of sorts, actually a hot air balloon, and a hand alight with white fire gave it the hot air it needed. MukLuk’s plummet came to an abrupt stop, and with casual ease, she caught Issun as he fell by, his shrieks turning to growls as he clung to MukLuk.

Hayabusa circled them until she alighted upon the ground and tied the balloon to her back and retrieved her pack from the Gryphon’s beak. The sand was soft and she smiled. Time to start exploring.
Jumping upon Hayabusa as if he were a horse, Issun wrapped firmly around her neck, the Gryphon started running and so began their exploration.

And absently, she wondered if she might encounter another person here.
‘Nah’ She dismissed it. ‘No one comes out here.’

[/blockquote]

[Kidate]

Kidate wiped sweat from her brow, frowning grumpily at the sun. She loved the desert, she really did. All that wonderful sand, just waiting for her call. Her shoes were off and grasped lightly in her hand, toes digging into the dunes with every step. It brought a smile to her face. Or, would have if it wasn't for the heat!

As she continued her disapproving glare, a small black shadow caught her eye. Kidate shifted her attention, and caught sight of some...creature. Was that a Gryphon?! Amazing! Heat forgotten, the redhead stared in open awe at the silouette. Then, part of the shadow detached itself and began plummeted at a startling rate. Kidate's stomach flipped in sympathy, and she began running through the sand towards where the shape was falling.

Even when some odd paracute like contraption deployed, Kidate kept up her frantic run, sand kicking up at every step. As it got closer, it became aparent that it was actually a she. The Gryphon was also landing nearby, which was no deterent.

Somewhere, in the back of her mind, a tiny little voice was screaming that one does NOT run towards the possibly dangerous rare animal, nor the people who work with them. But, the voice was firmly ignored, as a more pressing problem began to show. They were getting away!

"Heeeeey!" Kidate called out, waving a hand furiously at the tiny group (as she could now see the lizard around her neck. Who the hell was this girl, and why hadn't she meet her yet?). "Wait up!"

[MukLuk™]

MukLuk was just taking off her shoes and enjoying the feel of the nice soft sand beneath her feet, not even noticing the heat, when she heard a voice calling. Turning towards the general direction of the voice, she spotted a girl running towards her, her hand waving in a spastic manner above her. MukLuk blinked.
Was her hair red? "Oh, man, that's awesome!"

MukLuk started running towards this red haired girl, perhaps to make it a little easier on her. She just didn't feel like waiting for her to get there. She came to a stop when the girl was a few feet, smiling, happy to actually find someone out here. Hayabusa came up behind her, curious to meet this new girl but not detecting a threat.

Issun, however, was not nearly as happy as his counterparts seemed to be, and threw a rage of hissing and spitting twisting himself off of MukLuk's neck, sliding into an undignified heap on the ground before rising up and scolding the newcomer with his vocabulary of hissing and spitting. Hayabusa, after a moment of watching his antics curiously, leaned down and Issun dissappeared. MukLuk rolled her eyes. "Hayabusa, spit him out. He'll burn a hole through your stomach." Hayabusa, with a muffled squawk, spat the lizard out, who rolled to a halt, covered in Gryphon spit and motionless for a minute. But his skin turn a shade of pink and he furiously hissed at the Gryphon for a minute before shaking himself off and crawling his way to his place on MukLuk's shoulders.

MukLuk sighed but shook it off and smiled. "Hiya! I'm MukLuk! This is Issun." She pointed to the lizard, who grumbled and turned his head away. "And this is Hayabusa." When she pointed to the Gryphon, he bowed his head in a sort of respectful manner. "So..." MukLuk cocked her head to one side, indicating that the girl should provide her name.

'Guess I was wrong...'

[Kidate]

Kidate grinned like an idiot, continuing to ignore that damned voice. Annoying, that's what it was. "I'm Kidate," She said, giving a slight bow (more out of absent minded habit, than anything. Plus, it had a bit of a joking edge to it. Weird as the situation was, why not.)

She watched the lizard amusedly, grin only growing at the antics of the three. With a sudden twist, Kidate pulled a bag out of one of her pockets and retreved a bit of dried meat. Holding it out gently, holding it just with her pointer and thumb, she held it towards the lizard- Issun, absolutely adorable- and asked MukLuk, "Do you mind if I feed him?"

The girl was odd, and if the orange eyes were any indication, she was a Firebender. But, whatever. Other than bein' kinda weird (and, let's face it, so's Kidate. It's genetics, she swears. Not her fault at all.), MukLuk hadn't done a thing to make the Earthbender suspicous, so why should she be unfriendly? She was on guard, after all. Kidate never wasn't.

[MukLuk™]

MukLuk smiled. Kidate. That was a nice name.

When she offered Issun the meat, MukLuk didn't have time to say anything before one of Issun's 'hands' had reached out, snatched it from Kidate's hands, and sniffed it curiously. Satisfied that it was edible, he took a bite and chewed slowly, as if being thoughtful.

He suddenly let out a cry of joy and devoured the piece of meat whole and was suddenly on Kidate and searching for some sort of pocket that might contain more of the meat. MukLuk blinked. "Um, Issun, that's bad manners..." Hayabusa snorted and came forward, causing Issun to climb upon Kidate's shoulder while hiding behind one red pigtail. MukLuk let out a laugh at the antics and gave a nervous glance at Kidate, making sure she didn't mind Issun.

"So, what brings you to the Painted Desert?" With a sigh, she flopped to the desert sands, taking a look at the setting sun. 'If everything wasn't already so red, I'm sure that desert sun would make this place look like a blood bath...' Hayabusa dropped to the ground behind her, allowing her to lean back against him. She patted the sand next to her, inviting Kidate to sit.

She had a feeling she and this girl, obviously an Earthbender, had a potential to be friends. Just the atmosphere here, without the normal tension she would get from the average Earth Bender, hating anything with ties to the Fire Nation, was enough to tell her that they had a lot in common. There were some stories to be told here, she was sure.

Issun had already accepted Kidate, munching on another piece of meat he had retrieved, giving a little happy squeal every once in awhile.

[Ack, no muse...][/size]

[Kidate]

(No, no, twas good. Issun = love)

Kidate only laughed as the lizzard scurred around, half from amusment and half because it tickled. She opened the top left pocket, allowing Issun access to the meat, pleased that he liked it. She hadn't been sure...

Grinning at MukLuk, Kidate waited for Issun to make his way to her braid, before flopping down in the sand next to the girl. A hand absently went up to rub the head of the Gryphon (and hoping against hope that it wouldn't snap or something. Who knows where a Gryphon want's to be rubbed or not?), as Kidate turned her head to look at the Firebender. "Ah, you know. Training, easing the wanderlust, making sand castles. The usual. You?"

It was one of those rare moments in life. Where chance and fate come together in a rare moment of kindness and let you run into someone whom you click with straight away. Even Kidate's hard trained guard was slowly being let go, as everything in MukLuk's manner screamed 'fun and carefree'. And, c'mon, she had the coolest pets ever! It made her miss Uncle's goatrabbit all the more. Which only made her miss Uncle. Shaking these thoughts out her head, Kidate focused her attention more strongly on MukLuk. That sort of stuff was only depressing, and maybe she could go visit Uncle soon?

[MukLuk™]

Issun grumbled happily, clearly pleased with Kidate's offerings, and Hayabusa let out something relative of a purr at Kidate's short head rub. MukLuk smiled, pleased that her friends got along with Kidate just as well as she seemed to be.

"Sand castles... I wish I was good at them." Her eyes sparkled as she remembered the children at the Syndicate Home, Sand Bending castles for fun. She had envied them. And they had been scared of her... but that was all past now. She shook off the darker thoughts. "Mostly just traveling. Seeing the world. Even though this peace is balancing on the edge of a knife, it at least leaves me free to travel everywhere I want. And a little bit of training every now and then." She crossed her arms behind her head, closing her eyes. "And Hayabusa wasn't happy being cooped up all the time. I can't imagine Issun was happy in that volcano of his." She gave the lizard in question a quick scratch and he only grumbled between bites of meat.

"I think he likes you." She laughed. "So, have you walked through the desert the whole time? That's a bit dangerous." She cocked her head, curiosity peaking. She was interested to know where this girl came from. And how she had red hair, which Issun, lacking any more meat, was now nibbling on. He then started to cough, causing MukLuk to start and quickly pull him away from Kidate and hold him out to the side. Issun coughed once, twice... and then a small patch of sand was ashes and MukLuk returned him to Kidate's shoulder.

"Issun spits acid. I, eh... don't really know why." She scratched the back of her head for a moment, looking sort of sheepish, whilst Hayabusa snorted and eyed Issun, deciding whether or not to set him straight.

"So... any set destination?" MukLuk herself was thinking of taking a trip to see Omashu. She's heard King Bumi was something to see. He'd saved his city single handedly. And he was labeled an 'eccentric'. The politically correct version of 'insane fun to be around'.

Maybe Kidate herself had some sort of interest in Omashu. Then they could travel together! The thought made MukLuk smile. That would be fun. Have someone else besides a acid spitting lizard and a gryphon with odd ways of expressing wisdom.

She was already considering the possibilities.

[/blockquote]

[Kidate]

"But, a firebender is a cruicial part of sandcastle-building, I always thought. Not that, you know, I've had a lot of chances to try it out. But, you can heat up the sand until it becomes glass, right? So, a waterbender makes the sand wet, an earthbender to make the castle (with help from the others, the building is no fun alone), and a firebender to make it last forever." Kidate's grin faltered a bit. "It seems kinda like a kid's dream, all of that working together..."

Then Kidate did a quick pat down of all her pockets, and saw that no meat was left. "Sorry, buddy." She apologized to the lizard. "No more for now." The she turned towards MukLuk. "Seeing the world, eh? Sounds nice." A quick sigh. "Never been outside of the Earth Kingdom, which has been okay so far, given how big it is. But I really wanna visit the other countries- tentative peace or no. Especially the Air Nomad temples. So cool... But, poor Hayabusa. A big guy like you's not meant to be cooped up." She rubbed his head. "And Issun really seems to like people, so I'm surprised he was at a volcano to begin with." She listened to MukLuk, and blushed a bit, grinning. "Aww, I'm honored, Issun-chan."

Kidate shook her head, amused. "Naw, not really dangerous. I always have shade- I really love sandbending, it's so fluid, and I've been keeping careful track of where the edge of the desert is- I memorized the map back in Omashu." Then, Issun started to cough, and MukLuk's sudden movement caused her to jump. "I-is he chocki- Woah!" The lizard was returned to her shoulder. "That's...AMAZING! Acid...could Issun get any cooler?"

"Well, for the most part I've been just wandering about, but I'm thinking about going back to Omashu- my Uncle lives there, and he's really the only family I like, and I think you'd like him too. He's a bit crazy, and an awesome bender. Plus, ya know, I can get you on the slides and stuff. It'll probably pale in comparison to riding a Gryphon, but I'd bet you'd enjoy it. Plus, they have this huge library!" Kidate quickly went stary-eyed, thinking about the place. "But, that probably just interests me." She sounded like a brocure, blech. MukLuk had probably already seen Omashu, if she was traveling all over (being such a Firebender friendly place, it was likely). 'Sides, who even said the girl wanted to travel with her? Sure, Kidate thought it would be the funnest thing ever, especially with Issun and Hayabusa, but MukLuk had no reason to follow around a crazy earthbender.

[MukLuk™]

MukLuk shook her head. "Naw, it's not a kid's dream. I never really thought about making glass, though. I normally thought it took lightning to make glass, though, and I haven't worked that out yet." She huffed. Sure, she had tried lightning about a billion times, but it always just came out as her white fire. She adjusted her blue cap over her head of black hair and sighed.

Hayabusa nodded, a very human gesture, and gazed toward the open sky. "He belongs in the sky." MukLuk agreed and Hayabusa let out another one of his odd but contented purrs.

Issun, at Kidate's statement of there being no more meat, sighed and climbed upon her head of red hair, curling up. MukLuk rolled her eyes and reached for him, but he reared up his head and let out a hiss, which lead the firebender to produce a box of raisins. Issun let out another cry of joy and leapt atop MukLuk's head, perched and munching happily on raisins.

"Issun's not much of a people person. He sorta does like he did with you. Only it includes spitting out acid in fits of rage." She rolled her eyes. "He's a drama queen."

"Ooh, Omashu! I was thinking about going there too! I wanted to meet King Bumi. He saved his city by himself, and from what I hear he's quite the 'eccentric'." She scoffed. "Which is how boring people describe those that like to have their fun without caring what other people think." This caused a giggle. The people of Chin Village would never forget her, she was sure.

"I love Libraries!" She smiled. "My family owned a library when I was growing up and I spent half my time there. Then I moved to the Earth Kingdom and there wasn't a book for miles." The Syndicate was short on books, or good ones anyways. All they had were histories of the Earth Kingdom, which she already knew back and forth. But she loved the tale of Oma and Shu, which caused her initial interest in the city.

"You know, I actually heard about this giant library in the Si Wong desert, but someone told me it was buried by... an owl." Her mouth twitched. "How a library was buried by an owl is beyond me! Honestly..." She shook her head at the shame of it.

"So, eh..." Her head cocked to one side. "Since we're both headed the same way, wanna travel together?" Her eyes turned pleading. "It would be lots of fun, and I'm sure Issun would miss you if you left~! And Hayabusa can carry two!" The Gryphon was twice as big as a warhorse, he ought to be able to.

"And since you know the city, you can show me around. Your uncle sounds awesome and I bet we could see King Bumi at some point." She let out a bright smile at the prospect. She and Kidate were just instantly friends. She'd never met anyone who was as easy going around her as Kidate was, or so great to be around. Instant friends, they just clicked naturally. And Issun seemed to be in love with the girl, she swore.

[/blockquote]

[Kidate]

"Naw, it really is a kid's dream." She gave a rueful grin. "Peace among benders is one thing, but using it to make sandcastles? Pfft. But, if firebending can get hot enough to melt metal, it should be enough to make sand glass, right? Bah." Kidate flopped her hand, rejecting the thought as unimportant. She could read up on it later.

Kidate gave Hayabasa another rub on the head, enjoying the purr and feeling her heart swell a bit with awe. The Gryphon was obviously so intellegent, and she couldn't help but feel that her intellect would never quite reach Hayabasa's wisdom (which was kinda expected, since she went for book smarts rather than common sense, but that was besides the point).

"Pah, Uncle's crazy, plain and simple. Eccentric is a dirty word to him- he'll tell you himself how completely off his rocker he is. But, he is a pretty amazing earthbender, I'll give him that. Just wish he wouldn't make my training out to be something crazy." Kidate paused to repress some memories before continuing. "But, I'm sure he'd like you! Uncle likes anyone who's not afraid to speak their mind, even that annoying Cabbage guy."

Kidate smiled as Issun left her head for MukLuk, momentarily sad at the loss of lizard. But, raisins over her, whatever. Couldn't blame him, really. Raisins are delicious. "I have a hard time believing that. He's such a sweetie."

"The owl was really, really big from what I heard." And since Avatar Aang had told Uncle himself, it was a pretty good sorce. "A spirit or something, apparently. Crazy bird, that thing. Burring a perfectly good library." Kidate sulked for a moment, before runing the grinning. "But, I know what you mean. Some people around here are complete dunderheads. How can they not love reading?" She shook her head ruefully, a bit defense over the general block-headedness that seemed to pervade her country. What can you do? "And, lucky! Uncle has a library, but it's tiny and mostly has 'how to' stuffs from when he gets a stupid idea in his head." More repression. "So not much interesting stuff."

Head bobbing enthusiasticly, Kidate agreed. "Yeah, that'd be great! I've always wanted a travel buddy, but no one was interesting enough or, ya know, no creepy enough, for me to want to spent extended time with them. And I wouldn't wanna make Issun sad! That'd be horrible." She grinned like a maniac. Travel buddy! She hadn't had a good one in ages. This was awesome. And MukLuk was really cool. One of those people you just had to like. Awesome.