Traveling to Jules

Ah, sorry for taking so long to post again. I really must get more regular. Maybe I'll try to post every other day. Would you all read it? Hmm...

Well, still not much has happened that I find interesting...

Oh! How could I forget this?? The Fire Lord is going to pay a diplomatic visit (or something of the sort) to Jules! *Jules*! And that isn't the most exciting part. Are you ready? You'd best be sitting down.

He's going to take us kachinas with him!!

The Fire Lord hasn't really left Furier since we've come to be kachinas, so this is going to be our first time out of the city. I'm so excited! Of course, it is customary for a king (or a lord) to bring along his entertainers, but I hadn't really thought about it until Firefly reminded us at breakfast yesterday.

We'll be leaving in two days. The trip won't take more than a week, and then we'll all get to see Jules!

I don't think you understand how amazing this opportunity is. Most Furierite citizens never leave the city. Pretty much all slaves never do. Kachinas are the only slaves (besides guards and spies) that have any hope of seeing new cities. Anytime the Fire Lord travels to see another person of importance, he will bring us with him. It's odd, but royalty's success is sort of determined by how talented and elaborate one's kachinas are. At least it is when kings and lords meet each other.

Anyway, we have a lot of work to do in just two days. We have to practice our routines and get them absolutley perfect. Honestly, that won't be difficult. We must the most talented kachinas in the world. All our tecniques are impecible, we're always in perfect sync, our routines are exciting and difficult, and we all love to dance. The only things we'll need to work on is Sparkle's tecnique and Flicker's smiling. She doesn't always smile while she's dancing because she's concentrating so hard. But that's one of the biggest things about being a good kachina: you have to make it look fun and easy.

The only *real* problem is our costumes. They're getting a bit worn out and faded. We've had them for a long time, and we dance an awful lot. It's a lot of ask of one of the Palace seamstresses to make six elaborate kachina costumes in two days, but I wouldn't really have a problem with doing that.

The worrisome part is asking the Fire Lord for the material. He's been so tense lately. And it's always disrespectful to bother such an important sparker with triffles like costume material. But he'll be displeased also if we make a bad impression on the Emperor of Jules.

I want to tell you more about Jules as a city. Though I've never been there, I've heard very much about it. It's suposed to be one of the most beautiful and exotic cities in all of Jeolotoe. The people there are said to be pale with long, dark hair and black, slanted eyes. I can't imagine anyone with black eyes. I wonder if that's only a fable?

Jules, more than any other city in Jeolotoe, is exotic. A close second goes to Furier, of course, but Jules is said to surpass even it because while we kachinas and and people of high class and royalty in Furier dress exotically and elaborately with jewels and bangles, *everyone* in Jules does this.

In Jules, it is typically extremely hot, even hotter than Furier (hard to imagine), which is probably why the Julese dress as they do. They wear very little clothing in general, and the clothing they do wear is said to be mostly sheer and very light. Girls and women wear lots of jewels and men and boys almost always have multiple tattoos. Dancing is also a large part of Julese culture, which makes it doubly important that we kachinas not make any mistakes in front of the Julese Emperor.

I imagine we'll be staying at the Julese Palace. I've seen pictures of it, and it's very beautiful. It isn't gold and sort of rounded like the Palace of Furier, but made of white marble with lots of intricate gold and blue carvings.

I'm sorry; I know I must be boring you with all these details. I know these things only matter to me and the other kachinas. I just wanted to share with you what's about to happen. It's so exciting! I'll be posting more about it later.

If you've gotten this far, leave a comment so I'll know you did. *smiles* Thank you all!