Blaze

Sorry it's been a while again. I sort of stopped posting because no one reads this, and it's a pain to write down on here if no one is going to read it. Not complaining, just saying.

On the other hand, this is the one place I can put my thoughts that only the kachinas can read. Coal can't read this, Flame can't read this, Star Dancer can't read this, the Fire Lord can't read this. It's nice to have somewhere private.

Especially after what happened yesterday.

What happened yesterday, you ask? (Well, you didn't ask because you didn't read this, but I'll just pretend someone does.)

Blaze found my journal, and read it.

I'm so upset! That sneaky, coniving, no-good, nosey, SPY! (He actually is a spy.) He had no right to do that! There was no reason for him to! I hadn't been disrespecting the Fire Lord or plotting against him. Blaze had no right or reason to do what he did.

Of course he wouldn't be punished for it even if I went to the Fire Lord and told him. Blaze is a spy, which basically gives him free reign of everyone's everything (excepting the Fire Lord, of course).

All my secret thoughts (on everything from costumes to marriage), wishes, hopes, dreams, childhood crushes (including one on Coal), and bits of stories and poems I've written. He read it all! I can't even imagine why he would do that! Blaze isn't as good a friend to us kachinas as Coal is, but he's still our close friend and fellow Palace-dweller. What could his motives possibly be?

I found out when I caught him putting the journal back. I was shocked for two reasons.

Reason One: the Palace spies almost never get caught red-handed (unless they want to for some reason).

Reason Two: the obvious, he was holding my journal.

By look on his face when I cried out and flew for the journal made it clear that Blaze had not wanted to get caught.

"What are you doing?" I cried, lunging for the journal. I was surprised that I actually caught it, and snatched it from Blaze's fingers. I hugged the little scroll against my chest. "How could you? Did you read it?" Blaze blinked, then regained his composure.

"Of course I read it," he said indifferently. "It's my job to know what goes on in the Palace of Furier."

I scowled fiercely, my eyes glowing red. "That does not include prying into my personal affairs, Blaze! You had no right to do this!!" Blaze crossed his arms.

"I did have a right, kachina," he said, calling me by my occupation, something I hate. It's condescending the way he and the other sparkers say it when they're upset. "I have a right to look into anything I feel necessary. You know that."

"This was most certainly not necessary!" I shouted, stamping my foot. "What did you read? Tell me what you read this instant!" Blaze raised his eyebrows.

"I must tell you nothing," he said. "But since you asked so nicely, I'll tell you that I read it all. Every word, every inch."

Hot, angry tears filled my red eyes. I shouted all the insults I could think of, one after the other. Blaze actually seemed shocked at how angry I was, and it's hard to shock a spy. He just kind of shrugged and left the kachina keep. I slammed the door behind him and cried tears of pure rage for a while.

Maybe this doesn't seem like a big deal to you, but it was to me. My journal was my one sanctuary, my one private place.

I told Coal what had happened later yesterday, and he actually sided with me. He can be so wonderful like that. He went and scolded Blaze something awful about behaving with integrity and a few other things that I never thought I'd hear Coal say in my defense.

That made me feel a lot better, because something about having Coal on one's side makes the whole world brighter.

Furier

This is what the Palace of Furier looks like, only it's gold instead of...clay.

Bangles are very popular in Furier.

This is what the Fire Lord's throne looks like, only it's much bigger and more solidly gold.

This is what some of the inside of the Palace of Furier looks like: http://www.lynx-travel.com/Vacations/HAL%20Wester%20Aug05/St%20Petersburg/Gold-Gilded-Door-In-Catherines-Palace.jpg

Furier is a busy and slightly exotic city. It's located in the south-eastern part of Jeolotoe.

Weather: Furier is hot almost all the time. During the winter months, it gets to be a trifle chilly, chilly enough to wear long sleeves and shoes, but that's as cold as it gets. Rain doesn't happen terrible often, either, which is one reason why most fire fairies live here. You see, fire fairies can't be exposed to untreated water.

Culture: Furierite culture mostly centers around the Fire Lord. Everyone respects and fears him. More so the Palace inhabitants than just the peasants. The Fire Lord doesn't venture out into the city very much, so many peasants have never even seen him up close.

Furierite culture has a lot to do with dancing. Everyone dances. It's a big thing. Of course, only Palace kachinas are trained in the art, but everyone knows the traditional Furierite dancing.

I've been told that Furierite culture greatly resembles that of Persia.

Inhabitants: Primarily fire fairies, but there are plenty of humans living in Furier, too. I believe we have a couple of woodland elf families as well.

Government: I've been through this before. The Fire Lord is lord over everything.

Main export: Treated water. Our smokers ship it to all the cities that fire fairies live in.

Main import: Fish. Furier is land-locked.

If you have any questions, or if I was unclear about anything, let me know. I do love questions. *smiles*

The Inhabitants of Jeolotoe

Jeolotoe is the world in which I live. It's large, though not so large as Earth, I understand. Jeolotoe has a lot of water. It's mainland is where I live, and then there are many surrounding islands that are inhabited. No one has ever made it across the great Namarian Sea and returned, though, so no ones what's beyond that great body of water. Possibly more land, possibly nothing. No one knows.

I haven't the slightest idea how many creatures inhabit Jeolotoe. I honestly don't. But I can tell you of all the different races living here.

1. Fire fairies, of course! I don't know how familiar you are with us as a race, so let me tell you just a bit about us.

**Appearance: We are not tiny as many foolish pictures and stories say. We're just as big as any human; our shapes and sizes vary as much as anyone's. A fully grown fire fairy has wings that are a bit over four feet tall. I'm finished growing, so I'll use myself to explain things. My wings extend about a foot or so above my head, and go down to somewhere around my knees. My wings are red and orange in a swirled pattern.

A Furierite fire fairy's skin is peach colored, but rosier than a human's. All fire fairies have naturally rosy skin. The fire fairies living up near Brightwood have paler skin, but it's still rosy. The fire fairies living in and around Jules have darker, cinnamon-colored skin, but their cheeks still have a pink tint to them.

Our eyes are the feature that seem to fascinate humans the most. A fire fairy's eyes are like a mood ring. When we are happy or calm, our eyes are blue. When we are afraid, unhappy, or worried, our eyes are green. If we are angry or frustrated, our eyes turn red. If we are sick, our eyes turn clear.

Oh, and I almost forgot! We can't fly. I know, strange, isn't it? I don't know why. Our wings just aren't strong and sturdy enough to keep us up.

**Government: We are ruled by the Fire Lord. The title Lord is passed down through families. Most Lords have a royal family, but the Fire Lord has not married yet, and he has no immediate plans to change that. The Fire Lord makes all the rules and everyone in Furier and Brightwood is expected to follow them. If you don't, you are punished. The Fire Lord has guards that live in the Palace of Furier, outside of it, behind it in the Slave's Village, and in the city, all watching and acting like the police would on Earth.

**Religion: None. We worship only the Fire Lord, and *everyone* worships him.

2. Humans: You know about humans, you *are* human. *smiles* Humans in Jeolotoe are much the same as humans on Earth. I'll describe each group of humans when I talk about the different towns, cities, and kingdoms in Jeolotoe.

3. Woodland elves:

**Appearance: Woodland elves arae all very short, rosy-cheeked, freckle-faced, and typically redheaded. They are also inclined to be fat. They do love their food. Woodland elves are famous for their cooking and feasting.

**Government: The woodland elves live in a forest called Brightwood, which the Fire Lord rules, so their government is basically the same as ours. However, Brightwood is a little ways away from Furier, so their culture is quite different. Woodland elves are very peacful, though, so even though they could probably disobey the Fire Lord plenty and no one would ever find out, they don't.

**Religion: They're supposed to worship the Fire Lord, I guess, but they don't seem to do it much. They don't really seem to worship anyone or anything, except maybe nature itself. I've heard that they have all sorts of tributes to nature. They have a celebration for almost everything: Spring, summer, mid-summer, fall, end-fall, winter, the first snow, and probably more.

3. Faire elves: Fair elves are supposed to be the fairest race of all. Unfortunately, they left Jeolotoe a long time ago and no one has seen them since. They were supposed to be very tall, very beautiful, and very graceful. They could supposedly use magic and had unparalelled reflexes.

4. Merpeople: This is going to take longer than I thought, talking about all the races in Jeolotoe. I'm going to be brief from now on.

**Appearance: Beautiful, lovely voice. Their coloring is different depending on where they live.

**Government: Who knows? It's all underwater! The merpeople are rarely seen (I've never met anyone who's seen one) and they don't care a thing about us, so we don't care much about them. Especially us Furierites. Furier is completely land-locked.

**Religion: The same as for Government. We haven't any idea what the merpeople worship.

5. Dragons: Wise, old, huge, terrifying. Rarely seen, rarely told about. They keep to themselves mostly. We don't even know where they live. Somewhere far west, I suppose.

6. Dwarves: *sighs* Short, stocky, grumpy, bearded, mountain-dwelling.

**Government: They have a king, and some sort of commitee that decide the rules.

**Religion: The dwarves believe they were born out of the stone, and when they die, they will return to stone. They don't worship any god.

7. Pixies: The nasty little mini-things are nearly exstinct, thank the Fire Lord. Any that remain live in Brightwood. They're nasty little things that reek havoc and mischief on all around them. They're cute and their pixie dust can cure just about anything, but they bite something dreadful.

I guess that's about all the races. Some other time I'll tell about all the cities in Jeolotoe (there are eight in the mainland).

Pictures of Us (captions underneath photos)

Well, it isn't us, but these pictures are pictures that look very similar to me and my fellow kachinas:

This looks remarkably like Sparkle, who's twelve.

This looks like Comet probably would have at age eight. She's thirteen now. She's Sparkle's sparktressling.

This could be Firefly, only she's more practical-looking and not as stunning.

This looks sort of like me, I supposed, only I'm not so old-looking and my cheeks are rosier. Flare says I'm much prettier than this girl, but that's just Flare.

Wow, this really looks like Flicker. Only a bit younger.

This could be Flare, but she looks much younger in real life.

Thanks for looking!

How the Palace Works

Today I'll talk about the way the Palace opperates.

The Fire Lord is lord over everything. If he makes a law, you follow it. If he doesn't like your outfit, you change it. If he thinks you eat to much, go on a diet. That's the surest way to live to be an old sparktress (or sparker). At freshly fifteen, I think I'm going quite well. *smiles*

Next we have any royal family. The current Fire Lord is not married and doesn't have any sparklets. (At least none he's claimed. I have a sneaking suspicion that he has a few.) He has some distant relations, though that live in the area near the Palace, but outside the wall. They don't have an political standing, but they're rich and not taxed as heavily as the commoners are (which makes no sense to me).

The highest authority would be the military leaders. I really don't know much about this. The rankings of the military personal are beyond me. The Fire Lord's army isn't anything enormous, but no one has been foolish enough to attack. Yet.

Next we have the spies. The Fire Lord is quite proud of his spies, almost as proud as he is of his kachinas. *grins* The Fire Lord's pride in his spies is mostly because of Coal. Coal really is an exceptional spy. He's clever and sneaky and everyone likes him and he's the most amazing liar. He can trick you into saying something, charm you into giving something away, sneak into your house and find out what he needs to know, or just sneak up behind you and put a knife to your throat. He can do it all.

The guards are next. Actually, the guards probably tie with the spies in official rank. Flame is the head guard, and he's quite good. He knows the Palace and the Palace schedule like the back of his own hand, and he has the intimidation thing down to a science.

Kachinas are probably next. We have absolutely no royal standing whatsoever, but we're treated better than any of the other slaves or servants. The Fire Lord is proud of us and likes to show us off. We're quite good at what we do, but a lof people dislike us. That's mostly due the label put on kachinas. We're apparently supposed to be selfish and spoiled and sleezy. Well, we aren't. Especially not sleezy. Can we help it if we're talented and everyone else isn't?

Next we have the Fire Lord's personal slaves. They're treated fine, just not as highly praised as we kachinas.

Then come the cooks and kitchen staff. We Furierites do love a good feast.

Here are were the peasants, commoners, and household slaves/servants are put. They have no royal or political standing whatsoever and are treated like nothing.

Lastly, the outlaws, prisoners, and rebels. All are eventually executed, so their low standing doesn't stick around much anyway.

I guess this is the time to explain executions to you. Executions in Furier are conducted by burning at the stake. It's both extremely painful and extremely sad to us fire fairies to be killed by the element that we are so close to. Since our bodies are somewhat resistant to fire, it is a long death. Humans die quicker by burning than we do.

Rebels are perhaps killed in the worst ways. I can't really go into detail about that because I've never seen a rebel execution, but I hear they're something horrible. Coal's told us all about them, but who knows how much of it is true.

That's all for now, I guess! Thanks for reading!

A Fire Fairy Rant

My friend Andrew from Rant Page asked for a book about the Fire Lord and his "underlings". I told him that any such book would be in the Palace Library (and therefore unexcessible for a kachina like me), but I can do my best to construct something.

I'm not really sure where to begin, though. And I'm not sure if Andrew wants something more like history, or more like...military standings. I'll have to ask him.

For now, I guess I'll do a little of both. Maybe sometime I can elaborate.

As long as I can remember very well, I've lived here at the Palace. I had a home before this, of course, but after my parents died, Firefly and Flare and I were taken to live here, along with many other sparklets whose parents had died at the same time. I'm honestly not clear what happened there. No one talks about it, and every time we ask, we're shushed. It's one of those topics that you learn young not to mention.

I was always meant to be a kachina, ever since I was brought here when I was four years old. The Fire Lord saw potential in me along with about fifty other sparktresses that had been brought to the Palace with us. We were all put into kachina training, which was something like a extreme fitness hell. As old toddlers, we did of sit-ups and push-ups and endurance exercises and flexibility exercises and all kinds of other things. Little by little, the class of kachinas-in-training were weeded out.

By age six, if you couldn't pass the kachina test, you were taken out of the class and put...I don't know what happened to the ones that weren't good enough. All I know is that Firefly and Flare and I (and most of our friends) always made the cuts.

By age seven, I could do five hundred sit-ups without cramping up, do a hundred push-ups before I broke a sweat, and run around the entire Palace fifty times before I got tired. I was the perfect kachina in training. By this time, there were only about twenty sparktresses left in the kachina class. I, followed closely by Flare, was the best kachina in class.

At age seven also, we began learning some basic routines. Now, don't be fooled by the word "basic". It doesn't mean "not challenging", it just means "short". There were plenty of high kicks and splits and things to do in the routines.

Up until this point, I've only covered the "human" aspects of kachina training. Now I'm going to go over some fire fairy bits.

Kachinas not only dance with their bodies, but with fire. Let me tell you that creating the ideal fire streamer is no easy task. It has to be just the right width, length, and color. (The color is determined by how hot the flame is. To be able to make an ideal flame, which is blue and red, I had to practice for weeks.)

In case you were wondering, we fire fairies can create fireballs, fire strands, fire streamers, sparks, etc. with our hands. We just loosely cup our hand, and make a fireball. Fire streamers are made the same way. We position our fingers right and using muscles that I can't explain to a human, we shoot out a length of fire. Fire strands and ropes are the same, except a true master can shoot them from his fingertips as well as palms.

It's difficult to shoot fire from one's fingertips because that's where the fireshields are located. We can put up a shield with our fingertips. We just hold up our hands, fingertips toward the enemy or approaching fireball, and shoot out a blue, force-field-like shield that can block the ball. It can also be used to put out a fire or to cool a burn.

Ah, here I am, getting all side-tracked. I was supposed to be talking about Furierite history, but I ended up talking about kachina training. I was supposed to be talking about kachina training, and I ended up talking about how to create fire. I guess that's what you would call a rant. *smiles* I'm no good at posting. Thanks for reading (even though I know you didn't).

A Journey I'll Always Treasure

We just got back from Jules. What a long return journey. So tiring. So hot. So boring. So thirsty.

I'm quite angry at myself for not posting more than I did. Jules was the most fantastic city (besides my own). Well, alright, I guess I can't really say that since it's the only city besides Furier that I've visited.

Now that it's been a few days, I can't remember all the delicious details of the visit. What I do remember:

The food was delicious! The spices were odd, though; sweeter and not as hot as Furierite food. There was more fruit, too, and lots of ice.

The clothes the Julese wore was just amazing. Everyone dresses like a kachina there! Here's a picture of one of the dresses the Empress wore. This is my favorite: http://www.dancingrahana.com/images/products/detail/costume68.jpg Even though the Julese colors are blue and white, it's apparently customary for the royal family to wear the colors of their guests' city. It's a hospitality thing.

Princess Sadira was a darling. She was adorable and quite pretty for a nine year old and she learned kachina dancing remarkably quickly. You could tell she was just going crazy inside to learn. The Emperor never caught us showing the princess how to dance, which was a remarkable stroke of luck, especially considering what bad luck I usually have.

Oh, here's another thing I remeber well: the Emperor and his family went to the Julese temple on Saturday to worship their gods (remember, those seven I told you about?). We weren't required to go, but I wanted to. Unfortunately, to go I would have had to get persmission from the Fire Lord, Firefly didn't think that would be a good idea. I happened to agree with her. Still, I wish I could have seen the inside of the temple. The outside was so beautiful, so big and blue and white and intricate.

I think being a guest is more exhausting than being at home! Having to be unfailingly polite all the time, having to use Julese words for things, trying not to break any strange rules or customs, entertaining until the wee hours, and then still getting up at five. I'm so tired! And these past six days traveling through the desert have been anything but rejuvenating. I think the Fire Lord is tired, too, so I don't think he'll call us in to entertain him tonight. The second I'm finished with this post, I'm going straight to bed and having a glorious six-hour sleep.

However tired I might be, I'll never regret going to Jules. I'll remember it always and treasure it in my heart. Thanks for reading (if anyone even is...)! Goodbye!


P.S. I'll be fifteen tomorrow!! I had actually forgotten my own birthanniversary until Flare reminded me just a moment ago. It's her birthanniversary, too, you know. We're twins. We're going to be fifteen! I wonder if it will feel any different. Probably not. Fourteen didn't feel any different.

Deities of Jules

Sorry, it's been a while. Again. I'm sorry.

Besides the first two days, nothing extremely big has happened. It's the little things that have made this journey so memorable. Sparkle and Flare and I have been "teaching" Princess Sadira to dance like a kachina, and so far the Emperor hasn't found out.

We'll be leaving for home tomorrow, and although I'm glad I came to Jules, I'll still be glad to get home. As frightening as the Fire Lord is, the Emperor can be quite terrifying himself.

I got Princess Sadira to tell me some about the Julese culture, too. She's really a pleasant person to be talk to, especially for someone who's royal. She told me all about what different colors and patterns of fabric symbolized, which colors peasants were allowed to wear, the different castes, how different crimes were punished, and about the Julese gods and goddesses.

I really must go into detail about that last one. You probably aren't very interested about the other things the princess told me (although I might post about them later, just for documentation), but I for one found the Julese religion very interesting.

We Furieites don't believe in worsphiping anything or anyone but the current Fire Lord, but the Julese worship the same seven deities all the time! Isn't that a strange concept? Maybe it's just me.

The Julese believe in seven gods and goddesses. Three goddesses, three gods, and then the God of all Gods.

The God of all Gods is named Zanthor. He's supposed to be extremely powerful and fierce and pretty quick to deal out judgments, which is why it's good that he married Kaela, the goddess of love, beauty and charm. She's supposedly really good at pacifying him and keeping from destroying the whole world whenever someone forgets to sacrifice to him or something.

My personal favorite goddess was Siralla, goddess of wisdom. Of course, it's a goddess and not a god. Everyone knows sparktresses (and girls) have more sense than sparkers (and boys). *smirks* Anyway, Siralla isn't as beautiful and charming as the petite, blonde Kaela, but she always knows exactly what to do or say. I envy her that quality (at least, I would if she were real to envy).

Princess Sadira said her favorite deity was Siralla, also, but her second favorite was the god Darq, god of weather. Princess Sadira loves storms and thunder and lightning, so she prays to Darq often. I, being a fire fairy, cannot understand anyone loving rain, but I guess I can understand loving thunder and lightning. It's so powerful, you know? Darq is supposed to be wild and unpredictable with hair like thunder clouds and eyes like a raging waters. Princess Sadira said he's supposed to be quite handsome.

Tylindia is the goddess of health. She didn't sound very interesting. Princess Sadira said she's sometimes very white and clean looking, and sometimes a terrible black and yellow. It depends on whether she's doling out health or disease.

My favorite god is Takar, god of war. He's fearless, angry and clever with strategies. I don't know why, but he's my favorite.

There's only one left, Zanthor (God of God's)'s son: Zoran, god of riches and power. Everyone prays to him. The rich people want to stay rich by pleasing the god, and the poor people want to get rich by pleasing the god.

To me, having all those gods and goddesses to worry about would just be troublesome and irritating. Princess Sadira says it's nice to know there's a higher power watching over you, but I think having to follow the rules of seven different deities along with the Fire Lord's would be too much.

Well, that's all I have time for today. Thanks for reading (if you did...)! Goodbye!

Our First Full Day in Jules (long post)

The next morning, we awoke at the 5am morning bell. I'm usually not at all a morning person, but my eyes popped right open that day. I was too excited to stay in bed. I was surprisingly the first one to shoot out of bed and run to the giant window.

Most of the windows in the Palace of Furier are floor-to-ceiling and they have glass in them. The windows in the Julese Palace (that I had seen anyway) were all shaped like arches, and they were open, no glass. They were large, but they didn't go all the way from the ceiling to the floor. They started just below my shoulders (I'm fairly tall), and then arched up a good ten feet.

"Wow," I said, gazing out the window. "Look, the sun is rising." The red-golden rays soaked the Palace in a sunny glow. The window looked out to a piece of the courtyard garden, so we got to see the sun on all the flowers and sparkle in the fountains, too.

At home, all our windows face south, so wer never really get to see either the sunrise from there.

After a few minutes of taking in the beautfy, Firefly decided to be practical and said,

"Alright, we should be getting dressed now. You know we have to look perfect for the Emperor."

"And the Empress," Sparkle protested. "It's not all about the men, you know."

"You mean it shouldn't be," Firefly corrected indignantly. "Because it is whether it's right or not."

"What should we wear?" Flicker asked, frowning. "Our kachina costumes or our clothes?" Firefly frowned.

"I don't know," she admitted. "Why don't we put on some good clothes, and then see if we need to change. As long as we look like true kachinas, I don't think it matters what we wear."

"I think you're wrong about that," I put in. "But I still agree about what to wear."

We all got dressed in outfits that looked something like this: http://www.chowskates.com/images/a3ba_12.jpg with our tights, of course.

Then, we waited. Especially when one is a guest, it is proper not to do anything until called.

Shortly, someone came and led us to the dining room for the servants and slaves. The food was much like it is in Furier, only not quite as spicy and there was more fruit.

As we were finishing our breakfast, a well-dressed servant woman scurried up to us and whispered,

"If you would come with me, the Princess Sadira would like to see you." Of course, our first thought was, "What have we done wrong already?", but then the servant went on:

"And dress in your dancing clothes. She wants to see you dance."

That was odd, but not bad. We all wondered why she didn't just get her own kachinas to entertain her. Perhaps she was tired of their routines.

We hurried back to our room and changed into our costumes, and then the servant led us out into the coutyard.

"She's over there," she said, pointing. The princess was sitting on the edge of a fountain on the far side of the garden. I smiled. She couldn't have been more than eight years old. She was dressed strangly, though. Not like a princess. More like...a kachina.

The servant left us and we went over to the princess. She was dressed like a kachina, but not a Furierite one, a Julese one. The difference in style was obvious. (The skirts of Julese kachinas are much longer and more flowing.)

"Good morning, your majesty," Firefly spoke for us all as we curtsied, Furierite style.

"Good morning," the princess responded politely. She seemed kind, but almost nervous. She did not smile.

"We were told you wanted to see us dance," I said. Princess Sadira shook her head.

"That's not quite true," she said, looking over her shoulder. She leaned in toward us. "I want to learn how to dance."

We kachinas exchanged nervous glances. Apparently, teaching the princess to dance like a kachina was an unapproved activity, hence her anxiety. We would surely get into trouble if we did. But would the princess be angry if we refused?

"Why don't you ask one of your own kachinas to teach you, your majesty?" I asked, curious. The princess sighed and trailed her finger through the fountain water.

"They won't," she said sadly. "The tivas* here have been specifically told not to teach me. But you have not. You have not been forbidden to teach me."

"Why do you want to learn so badly, majesty?" Sparkle asked. The princess smiled, her eyes lit up.

"Because the way tivas dance is beautiful!" she cried. "Traditional Julese dancing is just dancing, but dancing like tivas is something else. It's like singing with your body."

Right then and there, I was willing to teach the little princess. She felt about dancing the same way I did. It wasn't just dancing; it was art.

"I will teach you, Princess," I said quickly. The other kachinas glared at me.

"Ember," Firefly snapped. "What are you thinking? If the Emperor were to find out, it could compromise this entire diplomatic visit."

"Firefly is right," Flare said. I was surprised; she usually sides with me in these things.

"It's like the princess said," I began. "We haven't been told not to teach her. If the Emperor finds out, we can just say we didn't know we weren't supposed to."

"But then the princess would get in trouble," Firefly pointed out. "That's hardly fair."

"No, what's hardly fair is depriving someone of what they're passionate about," I retorted. "I know I love dancing more than the rest of you, so it's possible that you just don't understand. If the princess loves dancing like I do, keeping it from her now won't make a difference. She'll just find some other way later on, and perhaps not the best way."

"Well, at least we won't be involved," Firefly said hotly. "I know you won't think about the rest of our skins, but think about the princess's. If her father were to find out she learned kachina dancing behind his back, he would surely be very angry with her! And who knows what would become of us! The Emperor would probably have us punished, but even if he didn't, the Fire Lord most certainly would. No, you teach the princess if you want to, but I, for one, will NOT." She curtsied to the princess and hurried out of the courtyard. Flicker and Comet followed.

I turned to watch them, frowning.

"Wait!" I called desperately. As much as I they irritate me, it always feels wrong to do things without all of us. Firefly didn't wait, though. She kept going. Flicker and Comet waited. I went on. "What if we just dance for the princess? Do the same routine over and over. Sooner or later, she'll pick it up. Maybe we can just tell her a few tips. She'll never actually have to dance. If anyone comes by or sees us, they'll just see us entertaining the princess like good guest kachinas should." I looked back at the princess. "Does that sound alright?" She nodded eagerly.

"Yes, thank you," she said. "It's more than my own tivas would ever do for me. Thank you!" I smiled. I really liked the princess. She was kind to us. The Fire Lord would never dream of thanking a slave.

I looked back at Comet and Flicker. Flicker was shaking her head. She turned and ran after Firefly. Comet came back, though. Flare and Sparkle agreed as well.

For amateur kachinas, dancing in perfect unison while keeping the same tempo without music would be next to impossible, but we, of course, are no amateurs. We entertained the princess for a couple of shadowmarks before someone came to fetch us. We were wanted in the throne room. It was time to entertain the Emperor.

The only problem was, Firefly and Flicker were still not with us, so we had to go back to our room to get them.

They weren't there.

We began to panic. It wouldn't do to keep the Emperor waiting while we searched, but several of best our routines required all six of us. Not to mention the fact that if Firefly and Flicker didn't dance, the Fire Lord would be extremely displeased.

We were beginning to get truly worried when Firefly and Flicker waltzed into the room.

"Where have you been?!" I cried angrily, marching over. "It's time for us to entertain the Emperor, and if he's angry at being kept waiting, it'll be all your fault!" I grabbed Firefly's hand and Flare grabbed Flicker and we raced through the halls to the throne room.

But we couldn't find it.

The Palace was so huge, and with all the complicated designs on the walls, it was impossible to tell one hallway from another. Where were all the servants and slaves, anyway? We kept hoping we would run into someone who could point us in the right direction, but no one was to be seen.

Then it occured to us: they were all in the throne room, waiting for us.

This was horrible. Punctuality is so important for guests, and even more imporant for slaves! The Fire Lord has a low tolerance for tardiness, so I doubted the harsh Emperor of Jules would be any different.

By the time we finally found the throne room doors, Flicker was crying, Firefly and I were nearly screaming at each other, Flare had gone completely silent, Sparkle was muttering to herself, and Comet kept repeating, "Just stay calm, we have to stay calm."

The sight of the huge double doors of a throne room was beautiful to us.

"For mercy's sake, Flicker!" I snapped, shaking the little blonde sparktress. "Stop crying and pull yourself together! If you go into the throne room looking like a sobbing beggar, they'll be hell to pay."

"As if there won't already be hell to pay," Firefly snapped. "We must be half a shadowmark late at the earliest!"

The guards standing at the throne room doors were ignoring us while we tried to gain composure.

"Alright, listen to me," I hissed angrily. "We're already in trouble. Now, it's possible that we can salvage this catastrophe if we put our best foot forward and behave like the brilliant kachinas we are. We are going to walk into this throne room with apologetic yet confident expressions. We are going to position ourselves in the center of the room. We are going to hear the music and surrender all control to our love dancing. We are going to shock and awe the people of Jules like no kachina has ever done before. By the time we're finished with our performance, our tardiness will be long forgotten and the Emperor will tell the Fire Lord that he has the best kachinas Jeolotoe has ever seen. Alright? Good. Let's go. Guards, if you would open the doors, please..."

It didn't go quite like that.

It went even better.

The Emperor did not even notice our being late because his daughter was even later. Yes, the Princess Sadira was not yet present, and that's who everyone was thinking about. Well, everyone except the Fire Lord. He most certainly did notice our tardiness and by the look he threw at us, he intended to teach us a lesson after our performance.

I know this isn't a very important detail, but I have a picture of the Empress Nala I'd like to show you: http://z.about.com/d/hinduism/1/0/2/V/1.jpg Isn't she lovely?

Princess Sadira arrived a quarter shadowmark after we did, and then the Julese kachinas (tivas) were called into the center of the room.

The way this sort of thing works, I'm told is this: when a royal family or person is a guest and has brought his kachinas with him, there is an air of competition about the room. In this case, the Emperor wanted to show the Fire Lord how great his city was by showing him that his tivas were beyond compare. The Fire Lord wanted to do the same. It's quite odd to me that the grandeur of a city is measured by its dancers.

The tivas took their places in the center of the room and waited for the music. They all looked nervous. Flute music suddenly floated into the air, and the tivas prepared to begin. On the next one count, they timidly flew into action. The flute music trilled around them. The tivas' movements were fluid and graceful but in a weak way. It wasn’t like they were controlling their movements, it was like they didn’t have the energy to move any different. Something about the way they danced was almost desperate.

They performed maybe five routines before the Emperor dismissed them with a wave of his hand. They bowed, Julese style, and went to their place agasint the wall. Apparently that was the same in every city.

The Emperor looked proud of what his tivas had just done, but it was all we kachinas could do to keep from grinning. We could out dance them in our sleep.

The Emperor motioned for us to come to the center of the room, and we did. Firefly whispered that we would perform routine nineteen, and we took out beginning poses.

There's nothing quite like the tingling sensation I get when I'm about to perform for someone new. Standing in the center of the fresh, blue and golden throne room, I felt like I could do anything.

The eerie music began. Firefly breathed,

“Five, six, seven, eight.” We suddenly snapped into action, all at precisely the same moment. Our movements were sharp and exact. We twisted and twirled effortlessly, making the art of dance look almost easy, smiling all the while. The dance was alluring instead of disappointing.

The crowd actually gasped as we danced our hearts out. They were shocked at our skill. I caught the Fire Lord's eye once. He actually looked proud of us. I've never felt so good in my entire life. In my whole life as a kachina, I don't think I've ever once felt like I had pleased my Lord.

When we finished, we stopped abruptly, whirled to face the Emperor, and executed a dramatic Furierite curtsy--in perfect unison, of course. We had done well. The Emperor seemed shocked, slightly dismayed, and yet thrilled at our performance. He told us we were excellent, and we were all dismissed.

The Fire Lord was so pleased that he never punished us for being late. The rest of the day passed uneventfully, but well. I was really enjoying my stay in Jules.

Sorry for the long post! If you got this far, I'm impressed, and thank you. *smiles*

The First Day in Jules

We're in Jules, and have been for three days now!

Oh. My. Goodness.

Frozen fire! this is a beautiful and exciting city!

I have a picture to show you, but I can't seem to format it correctly. I'll have to paint pictures for you with words instead. It'll be impossible to convey the beauty and elegance and exoticness, though.

The colors of my city of Furier are gold and red, but Jules is a blue city. It's blue with lots of marble, yet it retains the exotic feel.

Let me go back to the beginning of our arrival. I'm warning you, this may be a long post, but I simply must capture this experience.

When we reached the edges of the city at around sunset, it didn't seem like the people were even close to going to bed. All throughout the wide, dirt streets, people were dancing with bright-colored streamers. I thought there must be a celebration going on, but when we drew nearer, someone cried out,

"Hail! The Lord of Fire!"

The dancing and music was for us! What a way to be welcomed. It was fantastic. Paper lanterns and streamers hung from everywhere and thousands of flute notes floated through the air.

The Fire Lord responded politely with a brief thank-you speech with a few compliments thrown in, and we were on our way again. The Fire Lord had us kachinas walk in the front of his little procession. I think he was actually proud of us. He knew we were every bit as good as the Julese street dancers.

My first impression (other than the welcoming festival) was how straight everyone's posture was. I know that's an odd thing to notice, but everyone in Jules, even the children, seemed to carry themselves with an air of grace and poise and total confidence.

The people also all looked exactly as I had been told: long, silky-straight black hair and black, almond shaped eyes. Their skin was also very pale, especially in contrast to we fire fairies' tan-and-rose complexion. Everyone was quite beautiful, even the commoners, but perhaps it's just that they were different from any people I had ever seen. The humans in Furier all have brown or blonde hair with brown (sometimes blue) eyes and white, though tanned, skin. Nothing as extreme as black hair with skin like moonlight.

It took us several more shadowmarks to reach the Julese Palace. When we saw it, my eyes grew large and my mouth fell open. It was just as great as the Palace of Furier, but instead of all gold, this palace was made of marble with a bright blue roof and gold curling designs decorating the columns and huge windows. It was the most intricate thing I have ever seen. The Palace of Furier is fairly simple with large, bold architechture. The Julese Palace was just so much more detailed, and in the gathering dusk, it looked cold and almost haunting.

When we neared the Palace, several men blew a high, clear note on a strange instrument and the great, white, arched doors of the Palace swung open. Out rode a dozen great, white horses and six white elephants, all painted with Julese designs. I was shocked to see animals coming out of a palace, but when I looked through the doors, I could see grass inside. There was a huge courtyard inside, big enough to put a small settlement.

In the middle of the group of white elephants and horses, on the biggest elephant of all, sitting in an extravagant litter, rode the Emperor Nero and Empress Nala of Jules. They were dressed in classic Julese attire: he wore a light, sheer blue shirt and baggy, white pants with pointed shoes. On his head sat an impressive silver crown with blue and green jewels sitting in it. His arms were spread wide in a welcoming gesture to us, and he smiled as though he'd been waiting his whole life to meet us. His jet black hair matched his eyes, which were outlined in black to make them stand out even more. His tattoos were visible through his shirt, and I could see that he had plenty of them.

The Empress wore a small blue top with silver tassels and thread designs. Her sleeves matched the billowy, sheer blue style of her husband's shirt. Her skirt was also blue, and dripped with all sorts of jewels. On her head was the delicate silver crown of Jules with a sapphire drop resting gracefully on her forehead. Multiple gold and silver bangles adorned her arms, and she had four anklets on each foot.

They both sat cross-legged.

I didn't notice her at first, but after a moment, I spotted another figure on a smaller elephant riding behind the Emperor and Empress. It was the young Princess Sadira.

"Welcome, Lord of Fire!" Emperor Nero called. "We are honored with your visit."

He and the Fire Lord exchanged customary formalitites and pleasantries, and then we were ceremoniously led into the courtyard, which was almost more impressive than the outside of the Palace. The gardens were bursting with colorful flowers and the fountains were breathtaking. I could almost feel the Fire Lord planning to add some splendor to his own Palace.

Several times, I leaned over to say something to Flare or Firefly, but then remembered; we had been strictly forbidden to speak in the presence of the Emperor and Empress. For all their hearty welcoming and smiles, the Julese were said to be a harsh people.

"Please, we know you are very tired from your journey," the Emperor said as soon as we were all in the throne room and he was sitting on his throne. "It would be unhospitable of us to try and entertain you further tonight. I will have somone escourt you to the guest wing immediately."

This was odd to me, for whenever a guest comes to Furier, everyone stays up at least half the night performing and eating and drinking and singing. I suppose we Furierites are just an eager sort of culture.

By this time, I was really very sleepy and not taking in much more. The long walk to the guest wing of the Palace is a bit blurry. I do remember everything being white marble with blue veins, and there being a lot of details and lots of silver. The Palace was truly huge as well. It sprawled over a great area, unlike the Palace of Furier, which is really rather small as palaces go.

The room we kachinas were led to was large with two big beds. It wasn't a fancy room by any reckoning, but it was better than what we had at home. The blankets were light and airy, and the pillows were oddly rounded. There were so many great, arched windows around the room that it felt almost like sleeping outside.

Firefly, Flare and I claimed one of the big beds, and Sparkle, Comet and Flicker slept in the other. Comet and Flicker were soon asleep, but the other four of us stayed awake for some time, marveling at all the grandeur around us. It had been an interesting day for sure, but we knew the next few days would be even more full of surprises.

We were right. Some completely unexpected things have happened the last three days, some good, some bad. Right now, though, I'm exhausted and I don't think I can write any more tonight. I'll try to write tomorrow, though, and tell you everything.

Still Traveling

I can't believe it, I'm actually posting two days in a row. *smiles*

We're still making excellent time, and the word is that we'll be in Jules by sunset, which is still a bit late considering it's summertime. Today has been the hottest of all. I'm so tired. My eyes are burning, everything aches, I have a headache, etc. etc. I can't wait to get to Jules, although I'm sure we all look a fright. I hope we'll be able to freshen up a little before meeting the Emperor.

I'm also very hungry and thirsty and bored. We harassed the guards and spies for a while, but then they got irritated enough for us to leave them alone (after all, we do value our lives at least somewhat).

I made us drill our routines for a while, just to make sure we're in prime preforming condition when we arrive. But then Firefly started nagging me for being bossy, Flicker started frustrating me with her weak form, Sparkle started griping about the heat, Flare retreated into her Ember-Is-Being-A-Jerk-And-I-Don't-Want-To-Tell-Her shell, and Comet just quit practicing. Plus, the sparkers started making catcalls and making fun of us for being such drill sargents about dancing, so I was glad to stop after a while.

The problem is that aside from dancing, there isn't much to do out here but walk and daydream. We passed through a tiny settlement around midday, but it wasn't very interesting. There weren't many people and they were all dull as anything. The settlement was so small and new that it wasn't even named yet.

Sorry I don't have any more to say. I'll try to post tonight after we get to Jules (I'm *so* excited!!), but I make no promises. Thanks for reading!

Traveling in the Heat

We're making very good time on the way to Jules, and we should be there either tomorrow or the day after. Nothing terribly exciting has happened on the journey so far, aside from a few minor accidents, one involving a fireball (I swear, I wasn't aiming for Flame's litter). We aren't running low on treated water yet, which is a very good thing because it's dangerously hot.

The heat has made things absolutely miserable the last couple of days. Especially for traveling over the unoccupied areas of Jeolotoe. There's a small desert region between Furier and Jules, and we just had to cross it during the hottest part of the year. The sun beating down so intensely you can feel your skin soaking up the blistering rays, the water being rationed, your throat always being parched and your lips cracked and dry, walking for shadowmarks a day, riding in a litter for maybe half a shadowmark, the whole journey is just awful.

I'm not really complaining, though. I'm alright with the scorching heat as long as there's Jules to look forward to. And anyway, we fire fairies are much better with heat than humans.

Oh, I have more to tell you, but I have to stop writing now. It's late (at least for a journey night) and Coal is giving me the evil eye for having holding this fireball for light. I'd better say goodbye or he's liable to come over and put it out himself. Thank you for reading, I hope your night is a cooler one than mine.

Shockingly Lucky

We are leaving for Jules today! I'm so excited! But also extremely nervous. On top of having to please the Fire Lord constantly these next weeks, we'll also have to please the Julese Emperor. I've heard he is a strict and harsh man. Although, I don't think he could possibly be more so than the Fire Lord. Not that the Fire Lord is too strict or harsh, just very so.

Yesterday, Flare and Firefly and I dithered outside the door to the throne room for half a shadowmark trying to decide how to ask the Fire Lord for the material for new kachina costumes. Finally, they voted me to be the one to ask him. I wasn't sure whether to be flattered or upset.

I knocked, and Flame stuck his head out the door. When he saw us, his expressioned turned sour.

"What do you want?" he snapped impatiently. "Go away. You've not been summoned." I drew myself up, trying to make myself as tall as Flame. (Not even close.)

"We--I'm here to ask him a favor," I retorted. "One that could mean the difference between making a good impression on the Emperor and a bad one. The Fire Lord will want to see me." I wasn't at all sure about that last part, but I decided that there was nothing wrong with showing a little confidence. Flame snorted.

"If you say so," he said. "We'll see, won't we?" I frowned suspiciously. It wasn't like him to give in so easily. He stepped aside and pulled the double doors open. I swallowed hard as I saw the Fire Lord sitting on his throne. He was talking to someone--Coal--in a low, serious tone. My heart stopped and I whirled to glare at Flame, whose eyes sparkled blue. He could have warned me that the Fire Lord was in an audience with one of his spies!

They both looked up when they heard me gasp. The Fire Lord looked furious, Coal looked irritated.

"Why have you interrupted us?" the Fire Lord demanded. "Who called you here?"

"N-no one, my lord," I answered. "I only came to ask--to beg a favor of you. it's important. It could mean the difference between making a good impression and a bad one on the Emperor." The Fire Lord's expression did not change.

"It doesn't matter why you came," he said coldly. "You came. And without being summoned." I was starting to get very afraid until Coal spoke up quietly.

"That rule does not apply, my lord, in emergencies," he pointed out. He looked at me with one eyebrow raised. "Any chance this could be an emercency?"

"Um...i-in a way," I said. "It could be. If...yes?" Coal gave me an unamused look before turning to the Fire Lord. The Fire Lord narrowed his eyes.

"Tell me what you are here for and I will decide if it is an emergency," he said dismissively. "Be quick, kachina."

I took a deep breath. "Our kachina costumes are sadly worn and if we showed ourselves to the Emperor in such a fashion, he might very well be offended or at least get a bad impression of what Furier is like. It's an emergency because it takes time to make good kachinas costumes, and we leave for Jules in only a day. And the seamstresses don't have the material to make the costumes, which is why I'm here. If you can't grant me the material for six elaborate costumes very soon, the Emperor of Jules will be displeased."

The Fire Lord and Coal looked at me with almost identical expressions of disbelief and disgust.

"You came here about your costumes?" the Fire Lord said. I blinked.

"Well, yes, my lord...It could be sort of an emergency...or at least urgent, my lord..."

Then something amazing happened.

The Fire Lord chuckled.

He chuckled.

HE LAUGHED!

He said he respected my coming to see him, and that he would send the material to the seamstresses within the hour.

I was convinced I was dreaming for a full hour until Firefly called me in to see the gorgeous fabric the Fire Lord had sent for our costumes. Not even I could dream up something as beautiful as the silk and tassels and jewels he provided.

The seamstresses managed to make our costumes, and the finishing touches are being put on now. We're going to be leaving right after the midday meal. I'm so excited and nervous! (I know, I'm saying that a lot, but it's so true.)

I'll post whenever I can. Thanks for reading!
:

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!

Water Poisoning

I'm unfortunately not feeling very well at the moment. I have water poisoning.

I realize that you have no idea what that is for a fire fairy, so I'll explain it briefly. Since water is naturally detrimental to our health, it has to be "treated" with a special smoke chemical. There's a outlying section of Furier called the Smokers' Village where all the smokers live. Smokers are the fairies whose job it is to treat the water that fire fairies drink.

The water is put into buckets and the buckets are packed into huts with fire rings in the center of them. A fire made from some sort of special wood is lit and all the doors of the hut are completely shut and sealed. The water is left in the smokey hut for a day or two and then shipped wherever it is needed.

If a fire fairy bathes in untreated water, the effect is much like getting a cold. If a fire fairy drinks untreated water, something more like pneumonia develops. Usually drinking or bathing in untreated water is just a large inconvenience that lasts anywhere from a couple of days to a week (depending on the situation), but sometimes it is fatal.

The reason I have water poisoning is actually a bit embarrassing because it's my own fault. I was harassing Flame and he got fed up with me. He was standing right outside the supply closet near the torture chamber, so he just grabbed a glass of untreated water from in there and tossed it onto me.

I hate Flame. Always have, always will. He's so arrogant and mean to everyone. He tells horrible lies to the younger guards and slaves just to frighten them, and he's always telling the Fire Lord about things his fellow slaves are doing. He doesn't even know the meaning of loyalty except when it comes to the Fire Lord.

Flame really isn't so different from Coal actually, but somehow Coal is someone that everyone likes and respects while Flame is a hated bully.

I suppose it's all in how they come across. The two sparkers do a lot of the same things, but the way they do them is different. When Coal tells horror stories to the newbies, his eyes have this sparkle that tells you that he's only kidding around. When he reports something you did to the Fire Lord, it's usually out of duty and not out of spite or the desire to cause trouble.

Daily Schedule

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a long time. Nothing interesting has happened. Everything has been perfectly typical every day.

But then I got to thinking: you probably don't know what a typical day for a kachina is anyway!

So, I'm going to tell you what a typical day looks like in the Palace of Furier.

5:00am: The morning bell tolls and everyone gets up. We kachinas usually just dress in our kachina costumes because the Fire Lord usually wants entertainment fairly soon after breakfast.

I also just occured to me that you might not know what kachina costumes look like. If you want to know, click the following links. Firefly might not be pleased with me for sharing the pictures. She hates the costumes; thinks they're too "revealing". They probably are, but I've known them all my life so it's hard to suddenly be ashamed of wearing them.

Links:
1. https://secure.isisexchange.com/images/03190909.jpg
2. http://www.worldtrendz.com/bellydancingoutfitspics/orange-goldbellydancingoutfit.jpg
3. http://www.security-b2b.com/b2b/pics/Belly_Dance_Costume.jpg

They are the closest things I could find. They're actually quite authentic. Hopefully you won't think badly of me for having to wear those to dance in. It's no choice of my own, believe me.

5:30am: Usually this is when breakfast is served in the main hall.

6:00am: Everyone must report to the throne room for any announcments.

6:30am: Everyone is dismissed. We kachinas usually go back to our room and try to sleep a little before kachina training/practice.

7:30am: Kachina practice. Ruthless training where we have to do things to strengthen our bodies, perfect our tecniques, become more flexible, work on our endurance, etc. etc. etc.

The Fire Lord usually calls us in to entertain him.

9:30am: Often, we go out into the city and visit various friends. Usually that's Torchess. Sometimes we just sit at her house and talk, or sometimes she makes us help with chores.

10:00am: We rush back to the Palace. Sometimes, the Fire Lord has been looking for us, and we're in a lot of trouble. If he is, we go into the throne room and the curtains are drawn over the floor-to-ceiling windows and any candles are blown out. The musicians play their eerie-sounding music, and we six kachinas dance. Sometimes we us firestrands as streams. If the Fire Lord hasn't called us, we usually go and do things with Coal or Star Dancer until he does call us in to entertain him. Usually we do thing with Coal, though. Star Dancer can be...unpleasant company.

12:00noon: The midday meal is served in the main hall.

1:00pm: Nothing happens much. Usually it takes a while to clear up and wash all the meal dishes, so sometime we help the kitchen maids with that.

2:30pm: The Fire Lord calls all the official types (guards, spies, generals, etc.) to the meeting room and they discuss peasant rebellion, surrounding kingdoms, and other boring things like that. We kachinas either go back to Torchess's house or help Star Dancer with her chores. Once we listened at the door to the meeting room, but Coal, with his uncanny ability to sense whenever we're around, came out and ran us off.

4:00pm: The Fire Lord calls us in for entertainment again.

5:30pm: We clean up for dinner, which is a very solemn occasion. The Fire Lord dines with us, and the spies are always around, making sure non of the slaves are talking rebelliously (they never are).

7:00pm: Finish with dinner. Any new announcments are made.

7:30pm: If it's a Friday, the Fire Lord's ceremony begins with announcments and then mingling time. If it isn't Friday...I actually don't know what everyone else does. We kachinas are usually called in to entertain.

9:00pm: If it's a Friday, the mingling part of the ceremony ends and the entertainment portion begins. First the village entertainers put on a show. If it isn't Friday, we finish entertaining the Fire Lord and go a large room in the far wing of the Palace where most of the slaves gather after all their work is done. We all talk and do things together like playing games. There's always at least one game of sparks (see the middle-end part of the post A Terrible Night).

10:00pm: If Friday, the kachina portion of the entertainment begins. This is everyone's favorite part if I do say so myself. If it isn't a Friday, the slaves' little gathering continues unless someone is called to the Fire Lord. Sometimes one of the spies is, or we kachinas, and often the guards come and go as they switch posts.

11:30: Friday: the ceremony ends with a drawn-out Thank You speech by the Fire Lord. If anyone has gotten in trouble over the course of the ceremony, their stomach tightens painfully in anticipation of receiving their punishment after everyone has left. Not Friday: the slaves' gatherhing disperses and everyone goes to bed.

12:00pm: Most everyone is in bed except the guards on duty, any snooping spies, and any slaves being punished. Sometimes the Fire Lord will demand entertainment at this ungodly hour as well and we'll have to stay up and dance for him.

1:00pm: The Palace is dark and quiet and filled with sleeping fire fairies, stealthy spies, and bored guards.

Then the day begins again.

I hope this wasn't too terribly boring to you! At least now you have a better grasp of what it means to be a slave in the Palace of Furier. Thank you for reading! I appreciate you all. All four of you...*smiles*

The Time We Made the Guard Sound the Alarm (well, one of the times)

What do you think of the fire fairy I added to the blog title? I think she's beautiful! She's very authentic, too. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find a picture that looks like an actual fire fairy? Some people have such ridiculous ideas about what we look like. There are just two things that aren't realistic about the sparktress: one: she looks perfectly calm, and yet her eyes are red(ish). Whoever made the sparktress obviously doesn't really know about us, although plenty lots of gorgeous sparktresses, but I also know lots of ordinary ones, and a couple of flat-out unattractice ones. Not all of us are stunningly pretty.

Overall, though, the sparktress is remarkably authentic.

Today was a very good day! Exciting, and free from serious punishments, which, considering what happened, is amazing.

We danced for the Fire Lord just after breakfast, and then Firefly told us that she had promised to visit elderly Mrs. Brightworthy today. Mrs. Brightworthy has no family to speak of except Star Dancer, who's too selfish to take an interest in visiting her grandmother, so we all thought it was nice of Firefly to go visit her. Flicker, always the charitable one, offered to go with her. Secretly, I think Flicker just didn't want to be around us if Firefly wasn't going to be there. Flicker gets on all of our nerves except Firefly's and Comet's. I'm a little ashamed to say that we do sometimes pick on her when Firefly isn't there to remind us to be nice. If you knew Flicker you'd know why I'm only a little ashamed. Flicker could make even a saint angry with her stupid little remarks and timid facial expressions. Just thinking about her makes my lip curl.

Anyway, with Firefly and Flicker gone, there was no one to hold the remaining four of us back from doing all kinds of mischeivous things. We tried spying on Coal for a while, but he kept catching us so that wasn't any fun. He did give us an idea of what to do, though.

"Would you all just leave me alone?" he said the third time he caught us. "Why don't you go pester the Library guard? He's new."

I know you're probably wondering why the Fire Lord would have a library guarded. The Royal Library is off limits to all but the most trusted Palace slaves. All the records and military tactics and battle secrets are in there. Basically anything important and/or secret that can be written down.

We four kachinas decided to go annoy the library guard. Usually an up-tight sparker named Pyros guards the library, but when we got to the library wing of the Palace, we saw that Coal had been right. A new guard was there. Judging by the fierce way he clutched the hammer used to sound the alarm gong, he wasn't just new to guarding the library, he was new to being a guard at all. I looked at Flare. There was a mischeivous gleam in her blue eyes. I knew mine were equally blue and equally mischeivous. Newbies are always fun to tease.

"Hello!" I said as we rounded the corner and faced the sparker. He looked even younger than Coal. I'd say he was barely sixteen. He looked at us suspiciously.

"Hello," he answered. "Wh-who are you?" My mouth fell open in shock. So did the others'.

"You don't even know who we are?" Flare asked incredulously. "You must have just come to the Palace. Did you?" The sparker frowned.

"I don't know if I should be giving out that information," he said stiffly. I rolled my eyes. He was obviously very new and very up-tight.

"We're just kachinas, not an invading army," I said. I grinned. "Nothing scary about us." I eyed the gong hammer in his hand. "Can I hold that?" The sparker glared at me.

"I think you had better leave," he said. "The four of you seem like trouble."

"Trouble?" Flare's eyes were wide with false innocence. "Us?"

"We're just curious," Sparkle piped up. She reached slowly for the gong hammer. "Can I touch it?"

"No!" the sparker jerked the hammer out of her reach, holding it above his head. He scowled. "Leave!"

"I understand how he feels," I said suddenly, looking sternly at the sparktresses. "He has it very hard here! We shouldn't be pestering him. He's so busy, can't you tell?" I turned to him with a reverent expression. "How do you do it? Standing here all day just holding that gong, always faithful. It must take real courage to stand your ground even when you're dying to run and find something better to do. We simply must respect your talent for standing so still all day long." The sparker's eyes narrowed in irritation.

"Really. All of you had better beat it out of here or I'll sound the alarm," he threatened.

"Oh, that would be a good idea," Flare said sarcastically.

"Yes," I seconded, equally dryly. "I'm sure Flame would be thrilled to discover you sounded the alarm because a bunch of kachinas were pestering you." The sparker looked away from us.

"Fine," he snapped. "Stay. Just keep quiet." We laughed at that. Keep quiet? What fun is that?

"Hmm, alright," Flare agreed. "If we can have a look in the Library." The sparker genuinely laughed.

"Right. I'll let you right in to the highly forbidden Library. After all, that's what I'm here for: to greet people at the door." His sarcasm was almost as good as ours. Almost. "LEAVE ME ALONE."

"Not till you hand over the gong hammer, you up-tight newbie!" exclaimed Sparkle, diving for the hammer. With a startled cry, the sparker stepped backwards and tripped over his own feet. We all laughed. Not meanly exactly, but it was funny to see him on the floor blinking the way he was.

"Oopsy," Sparkle taunted, enjoying her own moment in the spotlight. "Took a little tumble, did we?" The sparker's eyes flashed immediately to red, skipping any form of purple as they passed through blue.

He slammed the hammer against the alarm gong.

We kachinas gave a unanimous cry of alarm ourselves. I looked crossly at the sparker.

"Now look what you've done," I scolded. "You've gone and called all the standby guards! We'll all be in trouble, now!"

"What's going on?" came a voice. It was Flame, chief guard. He rounded the corner and saw us all. "What the devil is going on here?" He looked at the guard sparker, who was still on the floor. "Explain yourself! Why did you sound the alarm?"

Just then about a dozen other standby guards ran up, all asking the same thing.

"I..." The newbie had nothing to say. He had gone suddenly very pale as Flame glowered at him. "I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking."

"You'll be thinking you wish you'd never been given this job if I decide to tell the Fire Lord!" Flame threatened darkly. "Don't you know alarms are taken very seriously in the Palace of Furier?"

"Yes!" the sparker cried, scrambling to his feet. "I'm sorry! I just--" Flame turned on us.

"And you," He glared at us with disgust, as usual. "Why are you here?"

"We were bored," I retorted with all the boldness I could muster in the face of Flame. "We decided to come and taunt the new guard. We didn't think he would overreact so much!" Flame blinked as he suddenly got it. He turned to the guard sparker.

"You...you called for assistance because the kachinas were pestering you??" The sparker blushed.

"Well, I didn't really think about it--I mean, I wasn't thinking--I can't imagine why I--they were--I--yes."

Flame's eyes were blue with spiteful laughter. "You are pathetic," he said with the kind of distain only Flame can master. I suddenly felt sorry for the guard sparker. When Flame looks and talks to you like that, all you want to do is find a hole and crawl into it.

"Well, it was sort of our fault, too..." My voice trailed off as Flame turned his contemptuous gaze on me.

I hate that sparker.

Anyway, to make this looooooong story shorter, Flame didn't tell the Fire Lord on any of us, he just made us swear to bring him a gift along with one for the Fire Lord at the ceremony tomorrow. I plan to give him a large basket fill with poisoned fruit.

Just kidding.

So, that was the excitement for today.

Peasants and Kachinas are Not the Same

I'm still horribly sore today, but the Fire Lord hasn't taken his bad mood out on us again so far, which is good. We've only been called in to entertain him once today. I suppose he's fairly busy with the peasant trouble and all.

I still can't figure out what the "peasant trouble" is exactly. As far as I can tell, the only peasant that caused any trouble was the fellow that the Fire Lord had arrested a couple of days ago. The Fire Lord had him done away with, though, and I haven't heard anything more about trouble in the village. Flare and I went to Coal and asked him earlier, but he wouldn't tell us anything. I'm not sure if it's because he's been ordered not to, or if he's still angry with us for spying on him in the garden that day ...

Anyway, since the Fire Lord was tied up with other things, we kachinas took the day off a bit. Well, we planned to, at least. We went to Torchess' house again, planning to relax wit her. She wasn't in a very good mood, though, and when we told her we'd come to sit and talk with her, she got irritated and told us that not everyone gets to sit around all day in a cool palace while every else does all the work.

I got angry when she said that. She has no right to criticize our lives! She's just a peasant! We're kachinas! We may not be exactly royal, but we've more standing than Torchess has any day. (I don't suppose you humans know this, but kachinas are highly valued in Southeastern Jeolotoe. We're almost like noblesparktresses, only we're still treated like slaves...it's difficult to explain.)

And we don't just "sit around all day"! We have to be ready to dance at any moment, right under the Fire Lord's nose. He usually calls for entertainment when he's under a lot of stress and needs to take his mind off his troubles. That basically means whenever he's in a bad mood. So really being a kachina is quite a dangerous profession when you think about it.

I tried to explain this to Torchess, but she only got more irritated. That was probably due to the fact that I accidentally called her a lowly peasant...Anyway, she told us to come with her and she'd show us what a typical day was like for a "lowly peasant".

She took us to the fields where the food for all the Furierites is grown.

I think the way our city is laid out is very practical. All the houses are in one section, the fields in another, and the large livestock like horses and cows in another. Then, of course, the Royal part of the city where the Palace of Furier is located. It seems so much mroe practical than having everyone make their fields behind their houses. The soil isn't the same everywhere, and it makes sense to plant everything in the one spot where things grow best, don't you think? I geuss I can't really take credit for knowing all that, though. Coal told me why the city is laid out the way it is. Sorry. Back to the afternoon.

Torchess took us to the fields. There were lots of fire fairies there pulling weeds and picking the ripe vegetables. Torchess looked at us kachinas and told us to start helping.

Every move I made hurt after the beating I got yesterday, so picking wild sancion wasn't exactly a picnic.

We must have worked for three or four hours before Torchess would let us go back to the Palace. I'm still mad at her for making us do that. It's too hot to be outside bending over silly little roots and picking cammimont leaves. Well, it is if you aren't used to it. We kachinas aren't used to doing silly things like that, so it wasn't fair to expect us to suddenly be good at it.

I asked Firefly if she didn't think Torchess was being childish about the whole peasants-have-it-so-difficult thing. Firefly wouldn't say, but I know she agrees with Torchess. Firefly can be such a pushover sometimes. All Torchess had to do was gripe about how hard it is to be a peasant, and Firefly was immediately agreeing. It's disgusting.

I know I said that picking wild sancion in the hot sun was hard and not much fun, but that's because we aren't suppose to do that! Peasants are. It's what they do. It's their job. My job is being a kachina for a hot-tempered Fire Lord, their job is to raise food for the Fire Lord and his Palace. It's not that difficult to understand, FIREFLY AND TORCHESS.

Flare and Comet and Sparkle agree with me, and Flicker won't side with anyone. Typical of her. Flicker has no oppinion on anything. That's what bothers me about her. She just exists, she doens't live.

Anyway, today wasn't the best, but it was a ten compared to yesterday.

A Bad Day

Today was horrible. Sparkle tripped while we were entertaining the Fire Lord, and he threw a fireball at her.

That isn't even the bad part.

The Fire Lord was in a terrible mood (Coal told us it had something to do with the unruly peasant), and he took it out on Sparkle. After he threw the fireball at her, she crumpled to the ground, instinctively pressing her fingertips (that's where our cooling shields are) to her arm where the fireball had hit. The rest of us went on dancing, because that's what we're trained to do. I couldn't help but watch Sparkle though. She was in so much pain, the kind of pain only a fireball thrown by the Fire Lord can cause.

It would have been okay if that had been the end of it, but the Fire Lord started yelling at Sparkle to get back up and keep dancing. When she tried and couldn't very well because of her arm, the Fire Lord threw more fireballs at her. She just curled into a ball on the floor and threw up her fireshield. Of course, the Fire Lord's power was too great and the fireballs went right through her shield.

He stood up and continued shouting at her and shooting little fire strands at her. We kept on dancing, but after a few more seconds of watching and hearing the Fire Lord torture Sparkle, I couldn't take it any more.

Before I knew what I was doing, I whirled around and put myself between Sparkle and the Fire Lord.

"Stay away from her!" I shouted. "She didn't do anything wrong!" I knew that wasn't true even as I said it. Sparkle had fallen, which demonstrates imperfection. The Fire Lord doesn't put up with imperfection, which is perfectly right and natural. I just wasn't thinking about that when I stood up to him. I was only thinking of Sparkle's screaming and how horrible it seemed for the Fire Lord to keep burning her.

Well, saying what I did was probably the worst thing for me to do. The Fire Lord did stay away from Sparkle; he came after me. Very slowly and almost calmly, but he came after me.

He burned me for much longer than he had Sparkle. In fact by the time he left me alone, the rest of the kachinas were gone and the throne room candles had been relit. The Fire Lord didn't order me to get up for another long while, for which I was grateful. I wouldn't have been able to make my legs support me, and that might have earned me another beating.

There is nothing quite like the pain of being tormented with fire. It's an excruciating feeling for so many reasons. Fire is a precious part of us fire fairies, so to have it used against us is like having your best friend betray you. It's also just a very painful way to be punished. I suppose even you humans can understand that, though I've never heard of your rulers using fire as a disciplinary method.

When I was able, the Fire Lord allowed me to nurse my wounds with my fireshield. That's when he asked me to stand. Then he explained why he'd punished Sparkle, and why he'd punished me: he has to maintain perfect discipline in the Palace. It's a Fire Lord's chief duty to protect his subjects, and the most effective way to do that is to ensure that every rule is always followed. If the Fire Lord were to allow some mistakes and defiances to go unpunished, pretty soon he'd be allowing the soldiers to take vacations and pillage the village at will.

It all made perfect sense to me when the Fire Lord was finished. I even agree with him. That doesn't mean I like feeling like I've been roasted alive, but I understand why the Fire Lord did it. He isn't cruel, he's just practical.

But I'm still lying on my bed with Sparkle wishing I felt good enough to go to the party a bunch of slaves are throwing.

Garden Secrets

Yesterday was a living Hell just as I predicted it would be. We kachinas got no sleep Friday night, and the Fire Lord made us dance for him almost constantly Saturday. If we weren't dancing, he gave us some other thankless task to do. We were so tired that we made many mistakes in everything we did, and he punished us for that as well. I am still sore today.

I was afraid that the Fire Lord might make us stay awake last night, too, but he didn't. I still had trouble sleeping, though. I was too tired to sleep. That's one of teh most miserable feelings in Jeolotoe, let me tell you.

Today was a much better day; a good day even! The Fire Lord was engaged in some matter about a misbehaving peasant for much of the afternoon, so we kachinas were free from duty for most of the day.

We went to see Torchess (we know her because her father sells wine to the Fire Lord) and spent a while with her, helping her with her chores and listening to her stories about which sparker is after her now. Torchess is a beautiful sparktress and well old enough to marry now (she's twenty), so there are sparkers calling on her constantly. Some of the poor fools are really good for a laugh. When she isn't telling us about the love-struck sillies prancing after her, Torchess tells us about the sort of sparker she wants to marry: someone handsome and clever with a sense of adventure. The way she describes her dream husband, I'd think she was sweet on Coal, who's three years her junior. Firefly shares this suspicion, and we had a good laugh about it today.

Then things got crazier!

While Comet and Sparkle and Flicker were off talking to some other younger sparkresses in the Palace, Firefly and Flare and I decided we'd practice our dancing in the courtyard. I love doing that. Usually some Palace slaves and a few villagers will come and watch us. I love to preform, and it's even better when some of them toss us a few coins.

This time, however, we didn't make it to the courtyard. We were distracted when we spotted Coal slipping into the garden behind in the Palace. Well, I saw him. He was so quiet and fast that by the time I got Firefly and Flare's attention, he was gone. They didn't believe me that I'd seen him, but they agreed to go with me and follow him into the garden to see what he was up to

There's a certain thrill that comes with spying on a spy.


All of us expected to get caught almost immediately--we're rarely able to sneak up on Coal with any success--but we weren't. He was so preoccupied that we followed him all the way to the garden's center without him even being aware of our presence.

He sat on the stone bench and just waited for a while. We crouched in the bushes a couple of yards behind him and waited. We were all thinking the same thing: Coal must be unusually deep in thought not to have noticed us by now. We weren't making any noise at all, but somehow Coal is generally able to sense others' presence . Maybe that's part of being a spy.

After less than a quarter shadowmark of waiting, our patience was rewarded. A pretty blonde sparktress trotted up!

I don't know when's the last time I've been so shocked. Was Coal seeing someone??

"Hello," he said, standing up. The blonde giggled. She appeared to be a typical love-struck maid. That sort are always after Coal. Sometimes he'll go after them, too, almost just for fun. The blonde ran the last few steps seperating her and made a fist with each hand, pressing the fireshields in her fingertips to the fireball glands in her palms. (This is the symbol of ultimate trust between fire fairies. Doing that shuts down both our fireball glands and our fireshields, making us incapable of both attack and defense.)

My jaw dropped. This sparktress seemed awfully smitten, almost as bad as the peasant girl who'd chased Coal for a month last summer.

"Hello, Coal." Her voice was sort of...sparkly.

Firefly jabbed me in the ribs. I looked over at her. Her eyes were huge, and so were Flare's. Both of them were on the verge of bursting into laughter. I glared at them. If they revealed ourselves, I would NOT be pleased. And neither would Coal.

It was too late to hiss a warning, though. Coal finally came back to himself and whirled around. We weren't exactly hidden very well, especially not for spy eyes. Coal's eyes glowed red for a moment before he remembered to control them and nudge them back to blue.

"What are you doing here?" His voice was moderately even, but his eyes were giving us his angriest look. He was making sure the giggly sparktress couldn't see his face, though. She would probably have run in terror. Firefly and Flare and I would have, had we not grown used to that look over the years.

"Watching," I answered warily as I stood up.

"We had no idea that you were...I mean if we had known..." Firefly was having a hard time explaining. She isn't really very good under pressure.

"Who's that?" Only Flare had the courage to ask outright. Her eyes glinted as she pointed to the blonde.

"Glow," said the blonde, her eyes wide. "My name is Glow. Why were you spying on us?"

"Yes, you little minions," Coal began, glowering. "Why?"

I flicked my long brown hair over my shoulder.

"Curiosity," I said, looking down at Glow. I would have tried to look down at Coal, but, well, he's much taller than I am. I glanced at Coal. "You don't usually spend much time in the garden. We figured something might be...amiss."

"I'm sure you did," Coal said sarcastically. "Well. Nothing's 'amiss'. You can leave now."

So we did.

But what a funny piece of information, isn't it? Coal seeing a sparktress! This could be wonderful blackmail if he chooses to keep his relationship a secret. Of course, it probably won't last very long. I'm sure that whenever Coal get serious about someone, he won't try to hide her in the garden.

I must go now. Blaze just stuck his head in and said the Fire Lord wants us to come and take his mind off his troubles. I shall write again tomorrow if I can. Thank you for reading!