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 Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 1:05 pm
Just to be cross, Esen had befriended a beggar. He was old, but he had interesting stories to tell about his old life. A lot of the time, Esen guessed that the tales the old man was feeding her were mostly untrue. She was probably right, but it was still a fun way to pass the time, and it was a new way to upset her parents, now that her father was personally escorting her to her bending lessons every day.
Not that that was a bad thing. Her teacher was young and attractive. She could distract herself from being a failure by watching a bead of sweat drip down her teacher's forehead, or the way his muscles moved as he forced the earth up out of the ground.
Earthbending was ugly, but he was not.
And so, as she sat in the dusty streets of Ba Sing Se with her friend the old beggar, who was talking about some sort of military history that Esen had no interest in, she daydreamed about her bending teacher.
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Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 9:21 am
Tracing the curves of her tutor's muscles with her mind's eye was a very absorbing way to spend the afternoon, an so, she did not notice the odd young Airbender until he was practically standing on top of her. He stood with his hands on his hips, and he cast a long, dark shadow.
"Is everything all right here?"
His voice was low and flat. His face was harsh and craggy. Though he could not have been much older than Esen, his shock of hair was a bizarre shade of grey. Strangest of all, he dressed like a revolutionary or a radical, with his torn clothing and glossy nail polish and barbed tattoos, but he conducted himself as though he were a member of the city guard rousting loiterers.
Esen might have thought that the Airbender was concerned about her - she was, after all, a wealthy, pretty young woman, and filthy beggars were often dangerous to delicate maidens - but the way he ignored her in favor of the old man swiftly disabused her of that notion.
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Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 8:10 pm
"Eh?" His story suddenly interrupted, the old man squinted up at the airbender, "Yeah. I was just telling Mongoose here about The War."
"I don't know why he calls me Mongoose." Esen commented as the old man finished talking. Her tone was calm and level, she had no reason to be worried about getting in trouble for sitting in some dirt; rather, the odd appearance of the young man looming over her was kind of unsettling. She had seen an airbender before, but the entirely bald, mischievous monk she mad met before, Namkha, had looked nothing like this.
The old man had been momentarily distracted by a young couple dropping some coins into his cup, and seemed disinterested in anything but counting the money he had accumulated so far. So, Esen spoke instead, "You, uh, some kind of new civil protection worker... or something?"
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Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 5:51 am
"Not exactly. I'm an Airbender."
In another life, Sonam might have been capable of a disarming smile. This, however, was not that life. It was the form his karma had chosen to give him, the lesson the universe had decided he must learn.
So, in spite of his most earnest efforts, his face twisted and his lips stretched into a vicious-looking grin. The red gash of his lips only emphasized his sharp, white teeth. He looked like a racoon-dog baring fangs, ready to sink his muzzle into the soft flesh of his prey.
"We're supposed to make sure the poor are... taken care of."
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Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2007 4:47 pm
"Is that so?" Esen wrinkled her nose. She was trying to hide the grimace she was making at the rather startling "smile" on Sonam's face by making it look like she was squinting because of the sun.
She ran her hand over the top of her head, pushing her fingers through her hair. She felt kind of awkward, and decided maybe the creepy-looking foreign bender would be less scary if she explained herself. "Well, I'm not hurting him or anything. This guy's my pal - he keeps me out of trouble." Esen grinned up at Sonam.
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Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 6:11 am
"I see."
The smile disappeared, and for better or for worse, Sonam seemed to have come to a resolution.
He wouldn't think about the way that the, er, Mongoose had flinched away from him. In these situations, which he knew all too well, it was best to mentally recite his mantra.
Om shantith shantith shantith.
"Sir," he earnestly addressed the beggar. "You look like you're in need of shelter and necessities."
Necessities that the very well-appointed Sandbender girl did not appear to be providing him with, in spite of their 'friendship'. Sonam tried very hard not to scowl disapprovingly at her grinning face. These were not his people, and being judgmental was against the teachings.
"If you'd like, sir, I can direct you to a free kitchen being run by a group of months in the next district."
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