Quoted By:
It’s just your luck that the ferry for Air Temple Island is both close to the pier your ship offloaded at and is departing in a little over an hour. You trust that the porters will bring what luggage you did bring from Kyoshi Island to the little apartment rented for your stay in the city, so you’re in no particular rush to get to your new home.
Surprisingly, the (rather small) queue waiting for the guided tour of the United Federation’s resident Air Temple seem to be tourists from the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation, and the ones wearing the mixed and muted colors of the fifth nation are mostly carrying boxy, handheld cameras, telling you that they’re tourists as well, likely not from Union City itself.
You’re the last one to get there and remain the last one in line when the ferry arrives, and you pay for a ticket at what you think is a markup, based on the raised eyebrow the ferry conductor guy gives you when you get on. The ferry is flat and slow, meaning the breeze launches sea spray in your face from your chosen spot near the railing. You don’t really mind though, it lets you watch as the central spire of Air Temple Island grows on the horizon. You also pass by the giant statue of Avatar Aang atop its museum plinth. You can’t help but think it’s gaudy, and rather unfitting, based on the stories you’ve heard of Avatar Aang, but you also know that it was dedicated and constructed at the insistence of the United Federation’s inaugural government.
“Hey!” You’re shaken out of your contemplation of this more intimate view of Yue Bay by a kid from one of the groups of tourists running up to you.
“Yeah?” You’re used to dealing with younger kids, you have three younger siblings and a bunch of younger cousins, so you know just the right about of snark to answer with as you snap your head in his direction.
The boy is younger, dressed in a loose green tunic and pants with a tan cap on top of his head and covering his ears, is probably around seven. Your reaction to him froze his gap-toothed grin on his face, but he quickly recovers. “Are you from the Water Tribes? You really like blue!”
Looking down at your outfit, you notice just how much your long, light blue tunic stands out amidst the seas of greens and reds you’ve seen around Union City’s docks and on board the ships you’ve taken. Maybe there were dockworkers from the Water Tribes that you just didn’t see. The blue of your top doesn’t make your pants any less tan though. “Nope, I’m from the Earth Kingdom,” you assert, “just like you.”
At that, the kid sticks his tongue out at you, “Wrong, idiot!” He says with a chortle.
>(1/4)