The Northern Air Temple

The morning sun shone brilliantly on the Northern Air Temple. The light of the sun glistened on the morning dew that coated the towers of this majestic temple. It was still very early in the morning and despite the few early risers, the temple was quiet. The largest sign of life was taking place on the front gates of the temple where two figures stood as if they were about to leave on a long journey.

Renai obstinately had packed her gear the night before and was waiting for her teacher Ace by the gates. He had told her repeatedly that she was not allowed to come with him on his journey to Ba Sing Se. However, Renai was simply not going to give up. Ace was clearly upset with the small girl at having been repeatedly disobeyed and ignored and Renai's eyes were glistening with what could be tears. "Please Ace.... I want to go." Her voice carried for only a small distance, it's sound high and soft with rare use.

Renai met Ace's stern gaze trying desperately to get him to agree with taking her. "I'm strong enough Ace....Please..."

Renai has been trying to persuade Ace for a while now & no matter how many times he shook his head, she continued to ask. He has always been a patient person, but he now found it difficult to remain that way. The reason why he didn't want to take her with him was simply because he didn't want her to get hurt & he knew that she knew that very well. He was simply trying to protect her & anybody else for that matter. No one else was allowed to come & he was stern about that. After all, there were other students who also wanted to tag along. Some of them for the adventure, some of them to learn. What was Renai's reason?

"Come on, don't look at me like that. I can't take you with us. If I could, I would. You know that," the handsome Elder replied after exhaling a relaxing breath. He looked at her with a calm expression now, his blue-green eyes sincere. He had grown tired of playing such a game... if one could even call that a game. He didn't want to argue with her anymore.

"While I'm gone, you should practice. Okay?" Ace said with a smile as he took a step back. Part of him wondered if Renai was going to stay put or if she was going to cling after him again.

"Alikah may the goddess protect you on your journey", Alikah's mother put her arms around her daughter's neck, yesterday had been her 15'th birthday the beginning of the "Wind Wandering". She smiled she knew it was hard for her mother to see her go, ever since her father had died she had trouble caring for a young child by herself but now all the work she had done had come to fruition. "Mother don't worry I will be fine and when I find my destiny I will return", Ziki crawled out of her pack and up onto her shoulder he licked his eyeball and made a chirping noise. Alikah's mother smiled and petted the little lizard, "And I will miss you too Ziki", with one last hug Alikah was on her way. She decided that she would head to The Northern Air Temple. She had only seen it once in her life when she was a young child, when her father had taken her there to pay homage to the goddess. Even though the wind tribe had branched off from the Air benders many years ago the air temple were still revered as sacred places to the tribe. It had been one of the last times she had seen her father alive. He had gone out one day to hunt and had never returned. The tribe had lost it's leader that day and her uncles rein had began. It was a time of great hardship, her uncle is a cold and unloving person who cared for no one but himself. He had taken everything from her and her mother after her father's death. And left them to fend for themselves. But her mother was never bitter she just did what she could and always told Alikah that it was the way of the goddess and that she would provide. He of course had been happy to see Alikah go she had been the last thing to remind him of his elder brother.

When she got to the out skirts of the temple grounds she decided to make camp and get some rest.

It hurt Ace to see Renai's sad face. He didn't want her to be like that, but he couldn't do anything to make her feel better at the moment. Even if he decided to take her with them, the Head Elder would disapprove. Ace had a good amount of power because he was an Elder & he was young, but he certainly couldn't go against his word. They both knew the dangers of the situation, so there was no arguing about it.

Ace was surprised when the little cutie hugged him. He blinked & looked down at her, holding her gaze for a moment whilst he raised one hand to pat her head gently. "Don't worry, I'll be back in no time. I promise," he murmured the reply, his soft smile returning to his face. Suddenly, Renai backed up & ran away. He was left with no choice but to watch her leave silently. His mind was beginning to fill with many thoughts, but his Head Elder interrupted, "my, she's certainly fond of you, isn't she?"

Ace leaned back against a nearby pillar before shifting his gaze towards the older, but powerful, man. He ran his fingers through his blood hair & ruffled his locks. "Well, she is my student," he replied. Part of him knew what her feelings were--a flirtatious person like him would notice it instantly. However, the other part of him told him that she was his student & she was pretty young &… And?

The Head Elder smiled at Ace's answer before a small chuckle escaped him. He cleared his throat & spoke again, "are you all set to go, my boy?"

"Yes, I am," Ace replied a bit too quickly. Then, whilst the two of them made their way out of the air temple, the look of confusion returned to his face. He wasn't sure how he felt & despite being so wise, he was a bit confused. Normally, he would contemplate the situation for hours until he got the answer he needed but at the moment, he couldn't do so. So, he cut himself some slack & let the pieces of the puzzle fall into place with their time.

Alikah was packing up after spending the night there she started towards the temple. She noticed some air binders heading out on some sort of journey. "Good morning", she said waving and smiling to them as they came up to her, she noticed the handsome Blond, young man. Then it puzzled her for a moment, "Don't air nomads shave their heads and have air bending tattoos", she shook the thought away, "Maybe their not as strict anymore", she thought to herself.

Alikah shook her head she didn't even get a hello back from the Air Bender, "He must be very busy", she thought. She continued on her way to the Air Temple. Just outside of the entrance she sat and started to play her horn, the tune her father had taught her many years before. She had also been taught to to not enter the sacred ground because she was not worthy. Only Air Benders were aloud. She didn't know if that was so for the Air Benders but, the Wind Tribe had this rule. There was so much that Alikah didn't know about the world outside the more she say the more amazing, and exciting it became.

Ace only noticed Alikah when she'd shaken her head & walked away. It felt a bit bad about it & was about to say something since he wasn't raised to be a rude person but before he could, his elder began to speak again. He told the young man to not worry about it & simply walk. She looked like a wanderer, a beginner one too, so it would be unwise to befriend her at the moment. After all, they were busy at the moment & things could very easily get dangerous. Taking her with them would be a bad idea. At this, Ace nodded. He himself was extremely wise, but because his head had been so foggy, his reasoning had been out of place.

Ace & the Head Elder reached a clearing beside the road they were following, so they stopped & sat down. It had been about two hours since they'd started to walk & the old man was ready to do some warm-ups. His body wasn't as young as it used to be, but it wasn't at all bad either. On the other hand, Ace was young & athletic, so he didn't need to walk for two hours & then warm-up before using their air bending to make their trip shorter. However, he had the feeling that the Head Elder hadn't walked for two hours just for that. They had talked about Renai along the way, so he figured that had been the reason.

The handsome young man watched as his mentor & friend stretched against the soft, green grass. It was a sight to see since he was unbelievably limber & that, he hadn't known before. It brought a grin to his face once realizing that even the warm-ups were just a cover for talking. He listened as the old man spoke about love & how he had loved once. "She was so beautiful... Now that I think of it, I believe she was Renai's age & I was yours," the Elder murmured with a nonchalant face, "ah, how interesting."

"Mmhmm, that's very interesting. Are you done yet? Sitting here makes me want to have tea or something, but we're going to be running soon, so..."

"I've always wanted grandchildren."

"How nice," Ace replied quickly despite having a blush on his face. He got up & dusted himself off. "I want grandchildren, too. Little kids running around cutely & whatnot. Yes, yes, how nice. Come on, let's go!"

The Elder laughed at Ace's eagerness & got up as well. Then, with a glint in his eye, he took off. He swiftly decreased the air resistance around him whilst generating a wind current behind himself to propel forward. In no time, he was out of sight. However, Ace was good at that, too. So, he followed on afterwards--catching up in no time. Soon enough, they would reach their destination. However, what he liked the most was not talking anymore.

Alikah paused her song to listen to the world sing she often imagined that it was a sign for the goddess that she was pleased with her offering. She sighed and leaned up against they wall putting her arms behind her head, humming a little tune to her self, she closed her eyes and meditated.

Ziki heard the voice and crawled out of Alikah's pack she had fallen asleep and didn't here the quiet girl but Ziki had. He jumped off glided around the girls head couple of times and then landed on Alikah's shoulder. He licked his eyeball and then started making chirping noises in Alikah's ear. Her eyes slowly opened, "What is it Ziki?", she asked, the little lizard chirped again, "Someones talking to me". She looked and saw the young girl, she smiled "Hello", she hopped up and dusted her self off, "My name's Alikah whats yours oh and could you repeat what you said I was kind of asleep", (she doesn't have to repeat everything)

Ziki

"Oh yeah I sure did", she said wile smiling and rubbing the back of her head. She pointed in the direction that they had air bended, "They seemed to be in a real hurry though, are you an air bender as well?". Alikah had never met an actual air bender before well except for waving at the two elders as they went by. She liked this girl she seemed very nice, then the wind blew towards Renai and her hair blew it continued on in the directions that the elders went. Alikah took this as a sign from the goddess that she take this girl and go with her to where the elders were going.