Discovering Air and Fire [Jiang]

Gen walked along the newly west bridge, examining the higher pagodas from beneath. They'd suffered some damage in the storm that tore through the area several nights earlier and there was concern amongst the elders that they were under threat of collapse. Gen had been contracted by the council to survey the damage. So far, it wasn't much. They'd been lucky.

The more immediate concern of the council, Gen guessed, was the Fire Nation forces massing near the southern fire islands. There weren't many reasons why the Fire Nation would assemble a force like that. He guessed that the reason the council had chosen him of all people to have a look at the damage was that they were hoping he'd point out any tactical weaknesses the Fire Nation was likely to take advantage of. The Air Nomads might not be the warring type, but they were certainly not foolish enough to believe they wouldn't be forced into a war by others. And the Air Nomads had become wary over the past hundred and eighty years of any actions taken by the Fire Nation. Gen didn't blame them. Were it not for a few dozen lucky souls, the Nomads would have been wiped out completely...

CRASH!

Gen looked around, surprised at the sound. It had come from the far end of the bridge. Or rather, it had come from somewhere inside the pagoda at the far end of the bridge. Suddenly, a great cloud of dust burst out of the doors leading into the pagoda and a great many tiny trinkets and scrolls came pouring out. A couple promptly rolled clean off the edge of the pagoda and into the depths below.

"Knock, knock." Gen said aloud, having made his way along the remainder of the bridge and over to the doors. He had instantly been greeted with a very familiar smell -- gunpowder.

"C-Come in!" Koy waved at whoever it was through the haze of dust and chemical powders and gunpowder as she tried to seize all the things that had come down off the shelves. She chased a rolling scroll across the floor, a dozen others at least cradled in her arms already, until she ran headfirst into something, or rather someone... literally.

"UGH!" Gen groaned as he was hit by someone crouch-walking across the room at full speed. He was thrown off his feet, clutching his stomach where he'd been hit. The cloud inside the pagoda had blinded him to the oncoming individual, though he had to confess to himself that he probably would have been a little too stunned to move anyway...

Koy, meanwhile, jumped back, surprised, and proceeded to knock over just about everything else that was still standing in the room... including a pair of liquid chemicals which, while separate were stable, together had a way of... igniting. They flowed into each other, and...

BANG!

The entire place erupted into a fireball that scorched the pagoda and sent an echo across the entire temple that shook the dust from the ceilings. Thankfully, the explosion was mostly superficial, but that didn't stop it from leaving one hell of a mark.

Jiang had finally made to the western air temple, his coat and hair flowing in the wind. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before. It looks as if it was turned upside down. He took the long trek to find an airbending teacher, even though he couldn't bend.

Crash!

Jiang heard a crash, even though it was faint, as he was far away. What was that? He thought. He was tired, but he started to run to it. He ended up in a pagoda, and found two people, a man and a woman. The woman looked like she was an airbender. He was about to say something when...

BANG!

Jiang's trench coat and sword flew out if his hand, and he was knocked to the floor "What the.." He said, dazed by the sudden explosion.

Gen coughed, waving the smoke away from his face. It had been a long time since he'd been blown up by anyone. It wasn't exactly the most enjoyable experience in the world, but he'd developed the reflexes to survive it a long time ago. He'd bent most of the flames away from himself. As the smoke cleared, he found he had not one, but two fellow explodees.

Pushing himself to his feet, he walked over to the young woman who was laying on the floor, spluttering and coughing. She'd had the worst of the blast, but you wouldn't know it to look at her. She was almost completely unmarked. Her ponytail hadn't even been singed.

"You okay?" he asked her, pulling her to her feet.

"WAIT!" the girl said loudly, making him jump. "What day is it?!"

"Wh--?" Gen began, but she turned and ran back into the room without another word. A great deal of clattering and banging came from within. Gen looked after her for a moment, but gave up pretty quickly. She was obviously in something of her own little world...

Shaking his head, he turned his attention to the other individual who had been caught up in it all. This one was a young man.

"How about you?" he asked, helping the young man to his feet...

The woman left, and Jiang started to get up and go after her when the man asked "How about you?" "Well I'm not dead, I hope" Jiang said, with a grin plastered on his face. "Name's Jiang, I came here to find a bending master."

He was about to ask the man's name when he realized his trench coat was missing, as was his sword. He started to scramble around the room, looking for them. "There you are!" He said a little to loud, retrieving his sword and putting on his coat. "So anyway, what's your name?" He asked, he smile turning a bit awkward. He noticed the man wasn't from the air temple, he didn't look the part. "Why are you here? You don't seem to be from the Air Temples. You look more...Fire Nation."

"Good guess." Gen nodded. "And you... Earth Kingdom?"

"Kyoshi Island, actually." said a voice from inside the room, the airbender woman emerging again with a bizarre little contraption in hand. She was tinkering with a number of small gears inside the device. "There's a slight elongation of his Fs and a roll to the Rs that are typical of the island's inhabitants..."

Gen looked around at her tinkering with the device, his brow furrowed.

"That was... impressive." he said. "You know your accents."

"Mhm." the young woman whispered almost like she wasn't even there. She seemed to have lost herself in thought the moment she was finished with what she was saying. She wandered off around the corner, still tinkering with that odd device of hers.

"My, my." Gen said, shaking his head again. "She is a spacey one, isn't she?" He looked back around at Jiang. "In any case, my name is Gen Zhou. And you're correct. I am from the Fire Nation."

"Yes, and... exactly..." Jiang said. That woman was good. "...Anyway, I am from the Island. I came all the way here to learn airbending." He neglected to mention that he couldn't bend air, or at least he never could before. He thought it might hurt his chances to find a teacher.

"She is a spacey one, isn't she?" Gen Zho said to Jiang. "Yes, that she is..." Jiang looked over to Aquoia, who was tinkering with a device she seemed to be working on.

Looking at the arrow peaking out of her hair, I could infer that she an airbender, and good enough to earn the arrows as well. He wondered if she would be willing to teach him.

"Excuse me miss, but I've been traveling very far to learn airbending, and I've noticed that... well, that you are one, so... would you be willing to train me?"