Air Temple Island was quiet without the airbenders, more so in this early hour. The first ferry had been almost empty, and the biting cold kept the acolytes inside. There was no birdsong to be heard, as the weather had driven them inland, south, not to return until there was better warmth to be had. Even the clouds seemed still in the winter air, vast gray blankets hanging high in the sky, motionless without breeze to catch them. A light layer of snow had fallen overnight and seemed to swallow sound and energy.

Mei Ling had climbed the long staircase nonetheless, her weathered boots successfully keeping her feet dry and herself from slipping on the snow. Her training flats, less water-resistant, had been tucked neatly in the fold of her robes, which were a plain brown in a similar style of the acolyte robes... Though sashless, of course. Underneath she had donned the long-sleeved training garb, dull gray, which she'd received as part of the RCPD staff uniform and admittedly rarely worn in her administrative role; and she protected her hands with a pair of dark gloves, which occasionally cracked in the cold despite being warmed by chi.

Beside her flats was the scroll, borrowed some days past from the temple's library, generally useless in that it was one of many copies of a more ancient artifact. In it was contained basic forms taught to novice acolytes and children - the library's page had seemed amused but pleased when she brought it up. Though it had been brought to Mei Ling's apartment, there was not enough space to practice (and tended to make her feel dizzy), and so the young firebender led herself to the training platform on Air Temple Island.

It had been a long and stressful week, and she was eager to meditate.

Though Mei Ling had reached where she knew the platform to be, with its Yin and Yang symbol and eight trigrams, but the snow had covered its face. Were it not so early, or had she been elsewhere, she might have painstakingly brushed the snow from its surface, with a broom or her feet or her hands. Instead, she opened her stance, and crouched low to the ground, body angled at the platform. She inhaled. She exhaled, She swept her arm over the snow, and an smooth arc of fire rippled over it, spreading to melt and clear the snow away. She brought her other arm in the same motion, sending another flame to dry the water.

Already feeling relieved, Mei Ling straightened up with a pleased sigh, and stepped out of her boots and into the circle. In moments she had the scroll before her in the center of the platform and her training flats on her feet. She practically knew the forms by heart, but seeing a form and doing it were entirely different things. If the airbenders had still been here, they might have been able to teach her... But she closed her eyes and cleared her thoughts, not daring to consider it.

The firebender stepped into the first row of Li. She entered the first stance, then slowly, surely, began the circle walk, feeling through its transitions and the movement of her hands. Her eyes were on her feet for only a moment, watching how they stepped on black, then gray, then black again, but she was soon watching the tips of her fingers, the empty space before her, as if the scroll hung at eye level in the center of the platform. The rest of the island began to fade away until she only saw the circle, Yin and Yang, the edge of each trigram as she passed. Mountain, then Water. Earth, and back to Fire.

Her chi flowed strongly, for the first time in a long time.