Snippet #2404020

It was a detour, or rather, a distraction, perhaps if he was feeling philosophical he could claim that the sparrow represented a compressed part of his personality and led him away from the choir of voices beyond the tress and back on the path he had created for himself. The temple, the suffocating, relaxing, agonizing, wonderful temple; he had more than a few conflicting feelings about it. It was better than being on the run, and everyone was safe there, so it was mostly positive, as long as he could escape here and there. Gao's eyes lingered on the bird that had taken his interest, the red feathers it adorned seemed nearly threatening, as if it was some type of omen. When he walked forward his steps were prudent, carefully flattening overgrown grass in his trek. His hands reached forward, extending, and grabbing onto air, the bird that had rested on a gangly branch gone with a few flaps of its wings.

Certainly creatures that breathed freedom wouldn't allow themselves to be captured so easily, he both admired and envied them, and continued on his way. It wasn't odd for people to be traveling in these parts, there were plenty of small groups that sought to hide away in the mountains, either because their severed heads were wanted for one reason or another or that they wished to live without the oppression, without the war. He couldn't argue against their wished, and no longer thinking much about the vague, muffled arguing he had heard earlier, Gao's legs brought him back to the temple in the shortest time possible. He had found a generous number of short cuts prior to this day, and they acted as tiny, magic portals to help allow him to sneak back into the building before anyone noticed that his presence was absent.

This time, he wasn't so lucky, and he spotted not just the guard but Akara as well, a girl that held an unsettling amount of bitter melancholy around her, so unlike her Sifu, Bo. He didn't quite understand her, the waterbender that was more often than not, firm, stubborn like the Earth, rather than fluid and enigmatic like the water. However, she was a person he learned to trust, to an extent, just because she had been hardened from what lied in her past didn't make him see the woman in a negative light, he had met people much worse than that.

With a smile tugging at his lips, and then a yawn, he made his appearance, stopping in front of the gate and beside the young girl, earning a perturbed, and slightly vexed, expression from the guard. "Good morning - it is still morning, isn't it?" In the middle of his greeting the man paused, arching his head back to the sky, a somnolent smile returning when he noticed the position of the sun. So it was still morning, he made good time after all. When Gao looked back to the guard he saw doubt, his thoughts must be along the lines of 'Is the Avatar truly traveling with such people?' although such judgment did nothing to his self-esteem, he only felt sympathy, with a dash of empathy, of those that lived with their spines as rigid as their schedule. "Akara-jī," He began, habitually implementing the use of old honorifics, and he walked forward, allowed through the gate by the familiar guard and turning to look at Akara peremptorily. "Lets return to our temporary home together." Gao finished, waiting patiently for the woman to pass through the gates as well, while the guard was still trusting his good judgment.

(Darn, posted in the wrong place. Is it a big deal? If it is I'll repost in the right place, but if not I'll just leave it as it is, and remember to put it in the right place next time.)