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 Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 4:39 pm
She still hadn't decided weither or not to live on Tsai Shen's family estate, but she had taken the job he'd given her (or rather, had gotten his parents to give her). She fed and looked after the elephant Koi everyday and it paid her well enough to buy decent food for herself and her father.
Now she was on her way home, talking her sweet time, as what awaited her there wasn't nearly as plesant as the city could provide. She stopped at a small park and sat down, watching some nearby earthbenders practice their skills. She laughed, taking a fistfull of dirt and throwing it in front of her, pretending she had done it all on her own.
The young girl had never been jealous of her older sister's gifts, having seen what grief it had brought her at home, but she sometimes secretly wished she knew how it felt.
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Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 4:59 pm
At first, Lei had no reason to pay attention to the rustling in the underbrush. The wind was high that day, even within the shelter of the great walls, and Ba Sing Se was full of stray animals. Padding pathercats and slithering squirrelsnakes were so common that vendors from the outermost rings caught them in traps and sold the meat to hungry laborers.
But the noise grew louder and more insistent, until a sudden, sharp blast of air blew away part of hydrangea bush near her bench.
"Maaaaaaaf," the creature within bleated sadly.
This time one of the traplines had caught a tiny Air Bison!
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Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 5:32 pm
Lei's eyes grew wide as she gasped softly. She didn't even recognize what it was, but it's eyes were so big she knew that it couldn't be too dangerous.
"What are you doing out here, little one?" she asked, cautiously approching it. She held on small hand up to the bison's nose and reached the other slowly to pet him on the head. The young girl giggled. His fur was soft.
"Let's try to get you out of here, ok?" Feebily she pulled on the lines, but it didn't do anything. She wasn't as sick as she used to be, but she was still weak enough from years of no physical activity that she couldn't undo the trap.
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Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 3:12 pm
"Maaaaaf."
The little bison looked up at Lei with big, teary eyes. A big barb was stuck through his tail and he couldn't get out! A thin trickle of blood ran down his thick, wiry fur, and pooled in the mud.
Ah, but maybe he was carrying something that would help him out? Where other, bigger bison would have a large wooden saddle strapped to their backs, this little fellow had a soft hemp rucksack packed full of odds and ends. Cheerful, fluffy clouds had been embroidered into the top flap by someone's unsteady hand. The tie that held it shut would not be hard to work open.
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Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 11:21 am
Lei shuddered slightly at the sight of blood. She was a little queesy around things like that, so she turned away, and noticed the sack on his back.
"Oh? What's this?" She tugged at the tie that held it closed and pushed open the flap. After a moment of guilt, she decided that snooping was alright in this particular situation.
Digging for a bit, she found a small knife, nothing too dangerous, and she guessed it was used for food preperation. She cut away at the ropes, hoping none of the locals saw her destroying their traps.
"Do you think I should try to pull the barb out?" she asked the little bison curiously, then blinked as he stared up at her. "Why am I asking you...?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 5:56 am
As soon as the traps were snapped, the little Sky Bison sprung right up into the air with the barb still trailing from his tail. He flew in circles around Lei with his little legs churning as though he were treading air. A scroll and a chop-stick case spilled from his pack, but whomever had loaded it for him didn't seem to have much in the way of interesting possessions.
Then a shadow fell across Lei's figure. A tall figure in a heavy wool cloak was staring down at her knife, and the bison, and the ropes. And he did not seem impressed at all.
"What do you think you're doing?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 8:40 pm
The young girl watched him circles around her and laughed at the tiny little creature.
When a shadow fell over her she looked up, never guessing what she'd be looking up to.
Lei had never screamed in her life. Now, at possibly the most approriate time ever, she found that all the air had rushed out of her lungs.
"I...I..." she mouthed soundlessly.
She swallowed hard and tried to start over. "He was trapt...and I was...helping him..." Lei answered, in small voice. She looked down, made a small 'eep' noise and dropped the knife in her hand.
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Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 4:59 pm
The man lowered his hood, revealing a shock of strange grey hair and a face that was weathered beyond its years. He looked like an Air Nomad, but Air Nomads were supposed to be jolly, free-spirited people, not scarred, scruffy boys with tattoos that curled inward like barbs.
"Right." He rasped, picking up the knife and pocketing it. "Please stay here and out of sight. Or else there'll be trouble, understand? I'll be back."
With that onimous statement, the creepy young man marched back off into the park.
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Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:12 pm
Lei jumped as he lowered his hood. He was even more frightening that way!
She narrowed her dark eyes and frowned. Stay HERE? Who did he think he was, telling her what to do!
The young girl crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out to the strangers back, then looked up, searching the air above her for the little creature.
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Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 12:46 pm
Pabu was lowing pitifully, and drifting back and forth amongst the low branches, blood and puss flowing freely down his tail. The barb from the trap seemed ot keep him from bending himself up too high.
By the time that the Air Nomad returned, he had drifted back down to bury his face in Lei's lap.
"Here."
The frightening stranger shoved a cone full of mango-flvored shaved ice at her in the most threatening way possible. He was carrying a bad of ice and what looked like a pair of pliers in his othe
Coming from him, please sounded a whole lot like or else.
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Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 8:27 pm
Startled, Lei took the shaved ice in one hand, while the other rested on Pabu's head. She stroked the arrow on the little air bison and looked up at the air nomad.
"W-what are you going to do with that?" she asked. "You're not...but, he's so little!" Lei looked up at him angrily, hoping she looked even slightly intimidating.
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