Fiction:Airulo Poda

Airulo Poda is a mostly drunken, always poetic, warrior panda from a flying village on a mountaintop. You are looking at the face of awesome.

Early Life
Airulo was born first in a litter of five in the house of famed warrior poets, the Poda clan. Theirs was a small but tasteful pagoda situated near one of the many pools and streams within the village, and it was in and around this house that Airulo first gained his appreciation for the beauty of the world. While at play with his siblings, he also learned how easy it was to break things; being rather large children, a rolling Maleno cub was more than forceful enough to bulldoze patches of reeds or bamboo. While his parents were content to sing of the constancy of things, he loved change. With an open mind he embraced the way things could turn from one to another: how Maleno grew from young to old, foolish to wise; how the leaves on the trees turned from green to yellow, then fell off to make way for the next fresh bunch; and how his parents could change from loving and doting caretakers to disappointed and judgemental overseers. The Maleno lived sedentary lives, as their secluded village gave them no reason not to. Though time and tide changed around them, their village stayed constant, and so did they. They were not happy that young Airulo was embracing the very change that the Maleno ignored by instinct, and worked hard to suppress these urges.

As he grew, Airulo found about as much comfort from the bottom of a drinking cup as he did from his family. He eventually conceded and started to learn the old songs about the way of the world, and pretended to enjoy the simple life they did. He would often spend long days staring out over the ocean, to the edge of another land just out of reach. He would make all manner of excuses as to why he wanted to look just there, but eventually this was accepted as a constant and left to be.

Leaving the Village
After nearly forty years living in the village, Airulo finally decided it was time to leave the village. He had no idea what the world was like beneath the clouds, but he took with him a number of objects including a large bamboo slat scroll on which he could record what he experienced. He intended to chronicle the outside world, and find evidence of the change he was sure was coming.