On the [Very] Open Road! [Open]

Dirt, sand, dust and more dirt. The earth kingdom had a lot of these open areas. Riri was no stranger to the vast wild open, but the dirt annoyed her. Though the clear blue sky comforted the small airbender she couldn't help pouting at the degrees of heat inside the desert as well as the ake she felt in her ankles. She'd sooner be walking on the grass either side of the road, but the bumps hurt her feet; Besides, she'd always been told it was dangerous to walk in tall grass, and the grass was getting very tall.

Both sides of the road were soon taller than little Riri's head. Though she didn't stand very tall the shadows of the grass unnerved her, the constant rustling bothered her too. What animals even inhabited the roads of the earth kingdom? Her heart went aflutter thinking of stories the monks used to tell her. Her eyes darted back and forth anticipating the oncoming attack from plattipusbears, or eelpanthers.

Sure enough, ahead of her something darted out of the thick grass! Scared witless Riri burst into uncontrolled flailing, kicking up a storm of as much air as she could possible muster. The assault send the unsuspecting rabbit-fox flying down the road, where it skidded to a halt on its back. The tiny predator stood up shaking, and ran back off into the grass.

Well at least she'd attacked a carnivorous animal, it could have perhaps bitten her a little, in her sleep. She blushed a violent red having obviously overreacted, a small nervous giggle escaping her mouth. She went to keep moving, taking one foot off the ground before being interrupted by the sound of a faint growl behind her. The slow tilt of her head gave her enough line of sight to see it was a large creature, with a bill for a mouth.

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The large spanning roads of the earth kingdom were not the easiest to sprint down even for an airbender. Somehow Riri managed to keep ahead of the angry bear for some time by using a strategy of flailing her fan backwards at the beast giving her slight boosts forwards. It would have been a good time to be able to fly.

Loki just happened to flying over the earth kingdom on his favorite pet bison Izzy. He had just woken up from a nap and let out a soft yawn. It felt they had been flying for days when in reality is was probably on a couple of hours since they took off from the temple. He stretched his arms real quick and then it was Izzy's turn to yawn. He loved when Izzy yawned because it resembled something more like a growling bear.

The one thing Loki hated about flying was that the scenery was always the same. One thing that was still fun though was watching the ground below as they flew. Something caught Loki's attention though. Far below them a random dust cloud decided to explode into existence. His curiosity got the best of him and decided to drop down even lower to investigate. The giant bison circled itself down farther and farther until they were close enough to see a little better.

Loki could just barely make out a person below them scurrying along which he thought he was quite funny until he noticed a much larger outline of what seemed to be a large animal. Being the great person that he was he made the decision to be the hero.

"Well Izzy im off to save the day!"

After saying that he grabbed his glider staff and then leaped out of Izzy's saddle and started hurdling for the ground. His speed picked up at a startling pace and soon he was close to make out the situation. There was a child being chased by a large bear. Using some of his airbending he pushed himself down even faster and then opened his glider and flew towards the kid. It didn't take much time before he could position himself in front of the bear and closed the glider and started dropping once more. He wasn't that far up into the ground this time and actually was part of the plan. Loki landed about five feet in front of the charging bear cratering into the ground and causing a 6 foot high and 6 foot long wall of earth to shoot up in front of him. The bear momentum brought him crashing right into the wall with a thud. Ha good thing I know to make earth bending look flashy He thought as turned back to see the girl that was running away. He flashed a quick smile before checking to if she was ok.

"Are you ok?"

Paw prints from an innocent Brown BearDog were pounded into the dirt and mud by it's large quantity of fat and pounds. The BearDog breathed heavily, as always, maybe pure sun pounding on it, along with a twenty-four year-old man sitting atop it were a bad combination. With a deep sigh, the man jumped up to give his big furry friend some time to relax. He looked around, something had disturbed the wind lately, the tall grass had been bent down.

"Hm..." He mumbled aloud, then a raspberry colored head shot out from the normally tall grass and growling could heard. With a squint, the head disappeared, the man said, "The wind keeps blowing the wind...what is that, Ursus?" He asked his furball of a pal. The BearDog just panted even more, lying down on the dirt and onto his back, bathing in the sun's rays. The man sighed, thenwent over to his friend, pulling out his water filled canteen. He began to shift and sway the water inside, pulling it out, gently, and quenching Ursus' thirst.

"Is that good, Ursus?" He asked, with a smile. Ursus nodded, paws at attention, folded on his chest. Then, the growling became more apparent, so Sui, the man, sheathed his canteen. "I'm going to check that out," He said to Ursus. "I'll call you for assistance when and [b]if[b] I need it." He began to approach the sound carefully, when a young man dropped down from the sky from what is known as a Sky Bison, he began to run over, only to see a  (PlatypusBear?) fighting the young man. He quickly, without breaking a sweat, without hesitation, pulled out water from his canteen. "Back away, Platy!" He warned, his eidetic/photographic memory remembering all information collected by the furry fiends. However, the young man had began to finish off the little bear. He asked the young girl, "Are you ok?". Sui smiled, it was nice to see another hero for a change. "I hope she is." He said, smiling as well, sheathing his bending.

Riri wasn't one for knowing all the little things of the world, but she knew earthbenders did not drop from sky bisen. At least not with gliders as well. Her eyes peered from the folded glider to the man wielding it. She opened her mouth to speak, but quickly closed it biting her lip in confusion. She'd heard someone could bend multiple elements but the stories and words escaped her.

Another figures voice reached her ears, she gave it a quick glance and a large eyed stare at the second figure in the area. After a short stare it occurred to her she was being questioned, but her words escaped her yet again and all she could manage was a nod of the head and a shy squeak of "Mhmmm" her eyes were drawn up to where the intruding hero had come from, and her mouth quickly dropped open seeing a sky bison for the first time. She remembered her father talking about them a long time ago. That was far more interesting than earthbending air nomads.

"Hey! Oh... U-uhm..." She suddenly went red trying to find the right words to ask about the beast, but found herself only getting redder, more embarrassed and shuffling her feet. Her eyes finally met the ground looking at her own feet unable to say anything about the situation or ask about the wonderful creature. What were the appropriate words to say? She finally managed to pull her head back up finally settling on the word. "Thanks..." Giving a very formal bow, one for each of her elders.

Sui smiled, seeing the young girl be shy reminded him of a young girl, around her age, when he was also her age. She got red the same way when Sui appeared, however, this was a "Shy-Red" the young raspberry-haired girl was having. With a whistle, his furry friend appeared, panting heavily. It yapped at Riri, wagging his tail. He prepared for a lick of her face, but Sui quickly stopped him. "Hey, no licking." He scolded. Ursus whimpered, but he knew Sui meant well.

"So, I'm Isan Sui, mostly known as Sui, but you can call whichever you'd like." He told the two, then shifted his gaze upon the Bison and it's owner. The tall grass waved 'hello' every time the bison blew from it's nose. "This is Ursus, my Brown BearDog. I've had him since I was 23--a year now." He said, patting Ursus' head. He smiled, then letting Ursus go play with the Bison, if it would let him. Ursus approached it, gazing into it's eyes. He began wagging his tail and lying his front half on his paws; signalling he was ready to play. He let out a yap, since he was only 2 years old, his bark/roar wasn't too loud or deep.

The sun pounded harder. Sui also wondered why the little girl was alone, and in the blistering heat. Her feet looked weary and her face a bit sweaty. Hopefully she loved the heat, or it would be an even hotter time for her later on.

Loki kept smiling and it didn't take long for Izzy to land next to him with a thud. There was a second voice that caught his attention. A younger man with long hair and he was followed by a beardog. Looking back to the girl he saw he admiring Izzy. Her gaze came back to the pair of adults and she started to look a little embarrassed. She started to shuffle a little and then bowed to the both of them.

The man named Isan Sui was the first to speak up. He also introduced his brown bear who was seeming to take a liking to Izzy. The beardog named Ursus let out a little yip in front of Izzy. Izzy's response was to cock his head to the side and then proceeded to give the beardog a lick. It would of looked normal if Izzy's giant tongue didn't cover the beardog's whole body. Izzy smacked his gums twice before laying down on his belly. Loki let out a soft chuckle before turning his attention back to the girl.

"You guys can call me Loki, and this is my Bison Izzy. He's a big softy... Ya know, you haven't thanked him yet sooo. You could go say thanks to him by giving him a belly rub?"

And as if on queue, Izzy rolled from his belly onto his side in anticipation of the belly rub. Loki turned back to Isan and was thinking about asking him a question when he also started wondering where that platypus bear ran off to.

"Hmmm I should probably not leave a giant wall in the middle of the road."

Loki stomped with a quick lunge and then wall receded back into the ground leaving the path clear for future travelers.

Riri eyed the slobbery bison with a little distrust before petting it incredibly awkwardly. Her eyes shifted to the Beardog and then back to the Bison. Her Pandamouse felt very small at the moment. Maybe she should find a big pet too, then she wouldn't have such a problem with giant wild animals. She muttered a "Thanks?" to the Bison before turning back to it's owner. "I... Uhh... I didn' think people in the Earthkingdom had skybison."

She tilted her head towards the other adult, Sui was it? She wondered where you could get beardog pets. They didn't seem easy to train, this one had tried to eat her, well lick her, but still. Questions wracked her brain but she ended up simply staring a little too long at the man without talking, finally just mustering up the will to speak "I.. I have a panda mouse."

Pandas were kind of similar to bears, so that was... kind of relevant. her expression turned embarrassed again. She tried to mimic the same kind of sentence pattern her elder had used. "I've had him... Uhh... Some years as well. She couldn't remember when she'd found him.

She should probably continue her little journey, . She took a step back and made an effort to clear her throat loudly. "Ahem!" She puffed loudly. "D-do either of you people, know the way to the western air temple? She hastily pointed down the road. "I mean I know it's... Somewhere this way. Right?" She made a nervous giggle to herself hoping she'd been traveling in the right direction.

Izzy let out a low pur like sound of gratitude as the girl pet him. Loki thought it was somewhat obvious but he wasn't as popular as he had hoped. Scratching his head a little in response to the girls question figured he would hide the face that he was the avatar until she figured it out.

"Well that's because they don't little one. I'm from the eastern air temple."

To prove it he showed her the back of his hand and wiggled his fingers. The arrow on the back of his was as plain as day in the sun. The girl then said she had a pet, A little panda mouse. Loki had never seen a panda mouse, the picture that popped into his head was a panda the size of a tiny mouse chewing on some bamboo. Oh my god I want one. He was about to ramble on in his head about the ideas of getting an attack panda mouse when the girl cleared her throat rather loudly. The girl proceeded to ask the two where the western air temple was. She pointed down the road which was right way but she was still a ways away from temple.

"The Western Temple is that way... But it's still a solid days walk from here. Hmmm If you'd like you could take the express Bison? We'd get there late tonight if we don't take too many stops. Oh and where might you be heading Isan? Theres plenty of room in Izzy's saddle for all of us, including Ursus."

I don't think so either... Isan agreed with the young girl, but Loki had answered, and proving so with a wiggle of his hand. So, if Loki wasn't from the Earth Kingdom, but also knew how to bend Earth and air, he had to be...The Avatar? The guess was a little far out on Isan's part, however, not too many people can learn more than one bending... Isan put his hands on his hips as the girl announced she had a Panda Mouse. The fauna must have been extrememly smal because he was out of sight. He's probably a cute little guy... Isan thought to himself.

His thoughts were interrupted by the young girls loud clearing of her throat. Isan's attention was on her. She asked where the Western Air Temple was, and Isan, actually, had the same question. He was startled by the things learned already, only a mile away from the Earth Kingdom. He didn't want to say anything about Loki, which was on the tip of his tongue. "Well," He began. "I'm actually headed to the same place. I'm learning about Air Bending, so I need all the knowledge I can receive." Isan said. "I also have two questions...about you, What is your name, and why are you out here, all alone?" Isan asked, smiling, concerned for the little girl.