The Performance! <Zhy, Earth Kingdom>

[kavik]

He turned his head to find none one watching him. He looked around his paranoia getting to him. He took a few more cabbages and began skulking around the area for more boxes he could quickly raid. Part of him accually hated this. But Kavik knew if he didn't find food soon. He and Denali would both perish.

Walking past slit in a tent he caught sight of the performance taking place. Kavik eyes watched a water bender twist and dance with her element as the other preformers joined her. Kavik cheeks grew warm at the though of preforming like her. But on his skates. Shaking his head. The fisherman's son scraped around for anything else that he could steal. While quietly hating himself as he did so.

Kavik found bushel of carrots which he stole. As well eggs and some cured meat. Gathering decent amount of food. Kavik begins to sneek off.

[whitecrow]

Bai would be the one doing the fire dance tonight, a substitute for Sahara who was out with an injured ankle. Over his Agni Kai outfit, he had to don a few more layers. An open vest, sleeveless was worn over his build torso, decorated with golden tassels and glass gemstones sewn all over. He had only a few minutes when one of the girls grabbed his scruffy hair and quickly pulled it up in a fluffy ponytail with one of their own hair.. thingies. It was made of layers of sheer loose fabric and decorated with bells and other sparklily things. It was girly.. but they insisted it was better than his bandanna. Bai LIKED his bandanna.
Off to the side, the ladies shoved more bracelets onto his wrists before shoving him onto the dirt stage just as his cue started.

The young man nearly fell forward, but not willing to risk a fall in front of this crowd who was enjoying the dance of the four elements. He managed to shift his weight, managing to slip into a leap from one foot to another, his waist bent forward, and his back to the crowd. As he landed on his foot, he rotated his torso, following through with his feet and he lifted his hands up. With that Cheshire grin as the drums built to a crescendo, he thrusted his palms downward, a wave of flames arching out over the crowd. The crowd awed and gasped, a few even screamed at the fires.
Bai whipped away, his arms outspread as he twirled in a circle moving around the rectangle of cleared land, and a vortex of fire startled to swirl around him. He continued to spin in a circle as the fire covered his body from sight. After a moment, the vortex dissipated into glowing embers, revealing the twin spinning on his head, his legs spread out. He leapt out, his arm strength enough to propel his body back onto his feet. Skipping around the set, he swung his arms through wide arches, fire following him in a trail as he made his way off to the side. Now was the little boys turn.. their "air bender."

[gijoespouse]

Holding the horse stance for so long would've been torture for most folks, bender or no. For Auina? It was nothing. It was the least strenous of the movements she could be doing at that very moment. Years upon years of training had built up enough muscle tone that she could hold herself there for quite awhile, without so much as twitching as she froze there. Her position on the stage allowed her view of both Pamuy and Bai as they arrived on the scene, demonstrating their bending arts. Even as the heat of Bai's firebending came dangerously close a couple of times during his routine, Auina stayed put...

Offstage waterbenders once again created a thick fog that lingered about the stage. It swirled around the trio of benders, and the crowd applauded at what seemed to be the end of their performance. The fog served to mask the movements of a group of offstage earthbenders. The benders brought their right arms up in a strong armed motion.

In the midst of the applause, a young boy, probably just barely in his 10th year, rose into the air, twirling a bamboo staff in his hand. The boy was garbed in the best the caravan's seamstresses could get to authentic air nomad clothing, in shades of mustard yellow and rust. The offstage benders worked together to allow the boy to land safely at center stage and the water benders immediately dispersed the fog, making it appear the boy was the one who had caused it to dissipate.

This...was the Flame Dancer's "airbender". In actuality? It was the costume, plus the efforts of the water benders swirling mist about, that made it look as if the Akiyama boy was actually air bending.

The minute the child landed at center stage, Auina broke her freeze pose. While the offstange earth benders were providing the actual motions, it was the acrobat's onstage movements that would stabilize the boy, keeping him from flying off or otherwise getting injured. The earthbender passed behind the 'air bender', twirling as she did so...

[ritika]

Ritika pulled on her performing outfit hastily. She had been meddling around caravan affairs again and nearly missed the opening act. Not that it mattered. She was putting the last, finishing touches on her elaborate eye make-up when the sound of a shooting firework illuminated the otherwise monotone stream of chatter.

Before exiting her caravan, she stopped by the door to admire the effect of meticulously applied eyeliner and hopped down. The opening act was a mildly intense show that introduced the four elements. She watched, impressed as the Akiyama boy was pulled and flipped this way and that. The earthbenders had done a very impressive job on him, she concluded.

She wandered over to a centered tree where the list of performances was tacked. Ritika satisfied herself with the thought that she need not perform until much later and went to hunt for some pre-performance munchies.

[whitecrow]

Bai-Wu stood off to the side, his eye flickering to the hidden Earth benders as the crowd roared with approval at the young, dark haired boy soaring through the air. The Akiyama boy was just 10 years old, and his body was thin and wryly.. perfectly light to be lifted but just barely off the ground. The Earth benders kept him low to the ground, often with his feet touching initially, sending him soaring upward into a spiral or into a loop only at certain moments in the song. By the look on the kid's face, which was initially stiff and immobilizing terror at the beginning had become elation and pure happiness. A wide smile spread across his face as he began to run about the dirt stage, swinging his make-shift staff, which was far from accurate, around and over his head.

He was dressed in orange and saffron robes, his long hair pulled back and tucked into the collar. A arrow of dark blue dye, probably from blue-berries had been painted on his forehead. The clothes had a collar of bright yellow, the undershirt the same color and a sash of crimson had been wrapped around his shoulders, similar to the Fire Nation-esque double collars. His split sleeves were long and billowy, nearly reaching his ankles. A leather belt was tied around his waist, the light colored shirt having been split from the hem to the waist, giving him a cape-like shirt tail. The boy wore loose fitting shorts, his bare feet covered in dirt and mud.

He laughed as the Earth benders stomped the ground, sending him soring upward into the sky, as he felt the stones that were stitched into a harness wrapped around his torso, lifting his body upward. He threw his body to the side, inducing a spin as he had been practicing . He swept his staff around, as the water benders drew a bit of water from the air again, throwing out a mist that traveled swiftly across the stage and the audience, mimicking an air bending move. The earth benders then settled the boy down to the ground, who spun his staff above his head before slamming the butt of it into the ground, his dance finished.

[The Lion Turtle]

Loneliness begets bitterness, a rather uncharacteristic emotion for the young woman. For any young woman of her class - former class - and certainly not a young mother.

Though, there she was, in the middle of the crowd holding her young babe on her hip, drowning the in wave of loneliness and the aftershock of bitterness following. And the maddening part of it was it's unknown origins of the emotions. Juning told her that often new mothers would have bouts of the blues and not to worry about them, but Xia Feng couldn't help but let the feeling over take her. Not even the preformance, the Dance of the Elements she was told, could raise her spirits.

She glanced darkly at Bai-Wu, one half of the so-called Princes of the Flame Dancers, and immediately looked away, watching the other performers instead. Whether real or imagined, Xia would swear in her heart that since they and Li had rejoined the caravan, he had spoken to her less and less. She resented this, especially considering upon their return, it came into sharp relief just how much of a womanizer he was. For the time she had spent with the Twins, she had been the only female around. For the briefest moment, she had the attention -- in varing levels -- from two handsome men.

She sighed. She had no one but herself to blame. She had read too deeply into their affection, not of attraction, but of kindness, and perhaps pity. A new widow and a new mother, who wouldn't feel at least a little pity? Not to mention the level of loneliness she had -- she may have not loved Jing, but he was her compainion and husband, and that was hard to push away -- and the tiniest butterfly of hope in her heart for a new love. A dangereous combination, she noted, as she shifted Tarak to her other hip and still refused to look at Bai.

All of this led to that loneliness and bitterness that swirled around in her. Her father would call it unbecoming, and her mother would call it insolent and a shame to the female sex. But none of that mattered, and Xia Feng could not prevent it. Turning from the stage, she made her way from the crowd and back to the Flame Dancer's camp. She just didn't have the heart to watch anymore.

She kept her eyes on the ground, a typical habit of hers, as she weaved through the crowd. She was dressed in some of the spares the Flame Dancers had, and matched the colors the donned for the performance in Zhy. The tunic was patched in different colors and frayed, and it spit on either hip and reached her knees. A sash of satin clung to her waist, and trousers of cotton tied off at mid-calf, though they were not skin tight but snug. Simple flat slippers and straw chinaman hat completed her outfit, making her look nothing more than a gypsy woman - just like her new family.

It didn't take her long to reach the camp at the outskirts of the performance area, where a few of the elders watched the children too young to do anything useful for the caravan yet. She let Tarak down to play with his new cousins and arranged herself with some darning Juning gave her to do while everyone else was busy with the preformance. Tarak giggled as the older kids entertained him, and Xia allowed herself a smile that did not reach her eyes or heart.

[revanluv]

Shizuka approached Xia cautiously. The woman didn't really look like she wanted to talk to anyone but sometimes just having someone around helped immeasurably. The contortionist couldn't really tell if she was upset or not, but she just seemed so... melancholy.

"Hi!" called Shizuka from a few feet away, not wanting to startle the older woman by sneaking up on her. When she was sure that she had her attention she practically bounded over, grimacing slightly as the strained muscle in her back reminded her exactly why she wasn't performing tonight. She slowed to a walk wrapping a hand across the offending muscle, it wasn't really hurt just very tender. A combination of youthful exuberance and over stretching had rendered her useless for at least another week.

"Your son is adorable." The contortionist grinned when she stopped next to the Earth Kingdom woman. Shizuka rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet, unable to keep still even just standing there. She finally raised her hands above her head, stretching out her shoulders so that she could keep moving. "How old is he?"

[whitecrow]

The opening "Dance of the Four Nations" had been a rousing sucess. As the Earthbenders made sure to lower the boy to the ground gently, the other preformers.. Bai, Auina and Pamuy would be allowed to come out onto the stage and take their bows. Their bright, colorful and vibrant clothing that expressed each nation's diversity was like a rainbow. Bai particullary hammed it up, throwing his arms into the air while grinning like a fool. He bowed swiftly, bouncing around and grabbing each girl's hand and gesturing for the cheering crowd to cheer for the Ladies.

He stepped to the little boy who had played their airbender, stones sewn into his clothes to allow the earthbenders to send him flying. Bai-Wu hefted the boy up onto his shoulders, balacing him on his shoulders while the little boy took his well deserved bows. This was his frist preformance as an Offical Flame Dancer Preformer and he had done just fine! What a wonderful opening. In the crowd, Juning and Haung clapped, though Juning was a little bit more wild than her husband. The dance of the four elements was always a good choice when they were in a town that wasn't exactly welcoming to them. It seemed that they had won over the majority of Zhy for now once it became apparent that they were not here to raise Fire Nation propaganda.

Now came the core of the performance festival. The various performers would split into small groups or by themselves and preform around the town square. There could be as many as three to four people preforming around the square at once, while many of the singluar preformers would wander about the town's festival area. Many of them had the goal of gathering "donations" that would help the Flame Dancers continue to travel around the Earth Kingdom. Possibly even finance a trip to return back to the Fire Nation.

The twins rejoined eachother and happily doned matching vests over their agni-kai clothes while they wandered about. Li had his various pellets of crushed minerals hidden into his vest and pants. He used the pellets in his firebending to create various colored flames such as white, blue, green, bright red and violet. Firebenders naturally could create the orange flames, and very skilled firebenders, usually some sort of nobility, could create the rare blue fires. It was rumored the Fire Lord's flames were so hot they appeared white! Neither twin could do that, but Li-wu faked it.

They hung out in one corner of the town sqaure, Bai was charged with keeping the crowd back while Li-Wu went through a routine. His was almost like a dance of lights, creating interesting patterns and designs on the walls that flanked two sides of him. Since he couldn't maintaine a flame in the air while generating another, the boys had various sticks, hoops, and other interesting objects that were covered with cloth and soaked in flammable substances. Li would arrange these around him, creating almost a dancing fountain of flames which he colored with the various pellets thrown into the flames.

[kavik]

Kavik ignored the sound of the festivies, he munched on the food he stole and gave some to Denali as he rubbed his tired back down. "It's gonna be ok Den, we'll make it through." Kavik was accualy telling himself that.

Fire was going to attract attention so he wrapped himself in a blanket. He thought about going home. But he knew that was going to be harder than Ba Sing Sei.

Kavik leaned aganist Denali thinking about his family and the fact he stupidly ran from them. Wallowing in his self-pity he shivered and shook in the cold night air. Going home? Forget it. There was no way he can get home now. He sighed at his foolishness and tried to comfort Denali. The buffaloyak nuzzles his hand, Kavik enjoyed his mount's company. He was prone to lonelyness and unfortunatly he was in a state of constant lonelyness.

Trying not to fall asleep, he saddled Denali and trotted off.

((KAVIK HAS LEFT THE RP))

[pamuy]

After the groups split into their different rings, Pamuy hurried back behind a wagon. With her solo performance coming quickly, she decided to stay in the shadows until then. The crowd's applause felt wonderful, but she couldn't allow that to distract her and rouse any sort of anxiety in her mind. If she led herself to overthink things, then the entire crowd could forget about seeing her act, period.

Now, she was seated on one of the caravan's wagons, sipping clean water from a wooden cup. Bare feet dangling over the edge, she let out a sigh. She was fully aware of the patience and focus demanded by her act, but she tried her hardest not to slip out of the proper mindset. Out of the small window in the wagon, she could see the twins with their act, one of them producing flames in brilliant colors while the other held back the excited patrons. And so she watched patiently, knowing it would soon be her turn.

[whitecrow]

The two twins stayed active throughout the night as the performances went on well into the late hours. There were so many performers in the troupe now that they all couldn't share the main stage. A performance took strategic planning now to pull it off successfully and considering they were preforming for a Earth Kingdom town that was Fire Nation occupied.. well things were touch and go all night.
As the night wound down, the Twins took to retreating a bit from the lime light, donning their robes once more as they wandered the crowds, watching the other acts they had seen hundreds of times before in practice and whatnot.

"So..What do you think?" One asked as they walked. No explanation was needed for the other.
"I'm not sure yet. It's hard to maintain a balance..." The other spoke, continuing softly. "What is this war about?"
"Why do these people need civilized?"
The two twins looked at each other. For their entire lives they had been together, mirror images of each other. When one was seperated, they felt disjointed and unconnected. The two brothers linked their arms. They were getting older.. they were 25 years old.. and still acting like teenagers.

"...what about Miss Feng?" Li-Wu would ask, knowing his brother.

[The Lion Turtle]

Xia Feng looked blankly at the girl beside her for a moment. What was her name again...? Shinta? Shiza? Shizuka? There were a lot of people to keep track of in the caravan, and she had certainly not met them all before, but she had seen this girl doing various things in camp before. Juning didn't bother to directly introduce Xia to the extended gypsy family, more letting her get to know them by acciotiation. But Xia Feng nodded and smiled at the girl, thanking her for the compliment on her little son. Her eyes turned back to Tarak, who was examining a leaf in his chubby little hands so intently one would have thought he had never seen one before, though Xia had played Leaf with him many times before.

Tarak let the leaf drop from his hand and reached for his wooden cow toy once more, shoving it in his mouth and cooing at it. He was laying on his belly on a roughly woven blanket of sheep wool dyed a sepia color and slowly trying to pull his little body along the way while keeping his round head up to look where he was going. Sometimes he got so frustrated that he would cry until Xia picked him up and coddled him, but more often than not he simply rested and played with a toy before trying to resume scooting.

Just the same, Xia Feng went to pick the babe up, saying nontocheerfully, "It's nearly time for dinner, Tarak."

[pamuy]

The time had now come for Pamuy to perform, and her devotion to the act was visible in her every stride. Brimming with confidence and clad in her long cloak, the waterbender strode to the edge of the stage, though she tried to stay out of the audience's view. While the glow of torches shone onto the stage, Pamuy would make her grand entrance on the main ring.

After a deep breath escaped her nostrils, the waterbending careened onto the stage. Urns of her natal bending element placed about the stage - each colored with a few drops of dye, Pamuy had plenty of resources for her dance. And as her bare feet hit the ground, it would be time. Moving to the rythm and beat of the drums and flutes playing, the waterbender glided over to each and every pot.

Each time she would draw water from the vessel, gracefully bending streams and orbs of mist-laden water around herself in intricate trails, all while she danced and spun about the stage. At times she would stop in mid-dance, as did the instruments playing, taking that moment to keep her pose. But her bending abilities ever ceased.

Those moments of silence granted her time to make the watery orbs glow, infused with the aura of healing chi. Each orb alit in a difference sequence, causing the spheres to glow with faint tints of red, gold, green, violet, or a plain blue. Coupled with the swirling of her cloak, it was definitely a sight to behold.

Soon, it ended. Applause filling the air, Pamuy lowered her hood and smiled, bowing to the audience. For her, it was such a wonderful feeling, even if she didn't let it go to her head. And such a relief it was to no longer suffer any nervousness attached to anticipation. No, it was over for that night. Her act had gone off without a hitch, and it left the audience satisfied. And she was glad.

[whitecrow]

"Do we really need to discuss her?" The other twin retorted in a rather flat monotone, his golden eyes glancing over to the man with the smug grin.
"Alright, if you don't want to.. that's fine." He said, closing his eyes as the walk, that smirk on his face.

The two twins were inseparable and to many, in distinguishable. Their long hair flowed so easily and loosely, cut straight across their backs and to the same length. Their faces identical as if looking into a mirror. Narrow golden eyes, sharp like a hawks, were set into their long, pretty boy faces. They walked arm in arm, linked together by bonds of brotherhood and friendship. It was them against the world half the time.
The sangria wine colored robes flowed over their forms, thick golden trim around the shoulder collar and also down the front where the robe spit. Under the robes, the twins wore very little. Now no peeking ladies! The traditional Agni-Kai outfits, what with their wide belts and baggy pants, traditional wraps and what not. Not exactly exciting unless abs was what you were looking for.

Things were winding down for the festival, the hours were growing late and already some were gathering up their things and heading home. It would be up to the Caravan members to take down all the decorations and the makeshift stages and stash them under the wagons and in the carts. That would keep them out until at least 4 am or so... and Juning had no mercy on the Morning after Performances...

[gijoespouse]

The mahogany haired acrobat had left the stage immediately after the Dance of the Four nations...and had to exercise a lot of effort to disguise a limp. Her joints were killing her, and for some reason the dance had set them off. It had taken her out of performing, as one of the older water benders set about treating the aching joints. She could've turned to Pamuy perhaps, because of the women in the Caravan, the woman could be counted on the most for her discretion. The acrobat didn't wish to bother the bender though...she had to perform, and Auina felt it unfair to break into what little free time the woman would have between performances.

The healer urged the acrobat...as she did everytime the earthbender came to her...to take the rest of the night off. Auina wouldn't have it though. There was still the faux bender fight with herself and Li-Wu, one of the bigger attractions of the festival. The troupe needed the crowd draw...and Auina wasn't about to be the one to ruin the nights profits. Not over aching joints. Not over anything.

Auina was returning from resting and had caught the tail end of Pamuy's performance. As she passed the bender, her hand rose to touch her on the shoulder.

"Pamuy, that was great," was all she said, before heading to where the crowds were gathered.

Auina slipped in with the other Flame Dancers as they watched the Twins prepare their Agni Kai act. While the performance often unsettled many of the citizens of the Earth Kingdom...it didn't bother the acrobat in the least. Perhaps it was because she'd been raised among other fire benders. The spectacle was no less than...spectacular. Her cappucino eyes were settled on only one twin though.

Li.