Whew! School's a drag, but I managed to get this chapter done finally, even if it's a little shorter than my previous ones. I also saw The Firebending Masters on YouTube. Dragons are so awesome! I'll do something similar but different in my fic later. Shout out goes to pink princess 16, charizardag, the original Pe, ehsurewhatever, Guardian of Balance, mystery writer5775, kitkat1327, wtfbrunteesoftball, MastaDrumma22, storm-of-insanity, and all of my phantom readers. I know, you're out there...I can see you! Just kidding...or am I?! Yes, I am just kidding...or maybe not! Noo... I own nothing, so lawyers, stop calling me!
The Search for Shang-wēifēng
Chapter Three:
The Secret of Shang-wēifēng
Aang dashed through the corridors with single-minded determination. The others trailed behind him, calling for him to slow down, but he didn't listen. After he had heard what Sokka had found in the Sanctuary, they all piled onto Appa and swiftly flew back down to the Temple.
When Aang had visited the Northern Air Temple and found that everything had been changed - retrofitted by Teo's father, the Mechanist, and his fellow Earth Kingdom refugees - he was outraged that they would defile his people's sacred ground, even more so when he learned War Minister Qin was extorting weapons from the inventor and using the Sanctuary as an armory. But when he saw how they defended their new home and each other, eventually driving out the Fire Nation, he forgave them and gladly welcomed them as honorary Air Nomads.
Now, he had learned from Sokka that the Fire Nation had once again committed sacrilege within an Air Temple Sanctuary. His face was hardened, and his eyes flashed dangerously, as he flew through the halls toward the chamber. He would not forgive this.
"So," said Toph conversationally, as she jogged abreast of Zuko. "How'd firebending training go?"
"Fine," Zuko said evasively. "The Avatar is a competent and able student."
Toph looked at him flatly, then called to Katara on the Fire Prince's other side. "So," she repeated. "How'd firebending training go?"
Katara couldn't help a giggle escaping her lips. "Zuko fizzled!" Upon her shoulder, Momo chirped in a manner that was almost like chuckling.
"It's not funny!" Zuko shouted. He wasn't sure if he was yelling at the waterbender or the lemur.
"Oh, but it is," smirked the Water Tribe girl.
"Wait, you mean to tell me," cried Sokka from over his shoulder. "That after nearly a year of running from you and your fire balls and...flame dagger...thingies, and whatnot, that now that we actually need you to firebend, you can't?"
The Fire Prince didn't answer, and became absorbed with the floor he was running upon, but Katara drawled, "Ironic, isn't it?"
Zuko glared at the waterbender and was about to unleash all the insults and putdowns he had been building up against the girl for the past two days, when Toph snorted. "Don't be embarrassed," she smiled. "I hear it happens to a lot of guys."
Zuko gaped at her in horror, and heard Haru chuckle behind him, who was soon joined by Katara.
Sokka furrowed his brow in confusion. "Are we still talking about bending?"
When they reached the Sanctuary, Teo and the Duke were clearing away the rubble. Aang's already stern expression, hardened further as he took in the devastation. Then, he strode past the inventor's son and the little Freedom Fighter, and entered the chamber.
Sokka had told him what to expect, tried to prepare him for the horror, but all of his descriptions fell short of the reality. The blackened bones of the nuns who cared for the Temple, wrapped in the tattered remains of their robes, lay strewn all over the Sanctuary floor. Shelves had been knocked over and left to rot while scrolls - the few that were not burned away - were left dry and brittle with the ink faded into illegibility. Sacred texts, historical documents, airbending arts. All of them gone.
Aang, sank to his knees and bowed his head. It was just like the Southern Air Temple, where he had found Monk Gyatso, his body amongst hundreds of Fire Nation soldiers a century dead. It was where he had realized beyond any doubt that he was the last airbender.
Katara knelt next to the grief-stricken airbender and enveloped him in an embrace, and was soon joined by her brother who placed a sympathetic hand on the monk's shoulder.
"I'm sorry Aang," whispered Sokka.
The others looked around the chamber.
"I guess they thought they could hide from the invaders here," said Teo, as he wheeled in with the Duke.
"They were looking for something," observed Zuko quietly.
"Over here," called Haru, indicating the body of a nun, her fingers still clutching the broken and blackened haft of a Fire Nation spear.
"She fought back," stated Katara sadly as she and Aang rose to their feet.
"No," said Sokka. "Look at this."
He pointed at the wall the body faced. There, near the blackened end of the spear were a series of markings scratched into the wall.
"It looks like she wrote something before he died," said Sokka, squinting at the letters.
"What's it say?" Toph asked.
"'The Lotus opens wide for those who know its secrets'," read Katara.
"Well," grunted Sokka. "That's less than helpful."
"'The Lotus opens wide'?" repeated Toph incredulously. "That sounds like a cheesy come-on."
"Any idea what it means Aang?" asked Katara.
The Avatar thought for a moment. "Airbenders meditate in a position called the lotus," he said. "And it's a big part of Air Nomad philosophy, though I never really paid that much attention to the scholars. While they were teaching lessons about the meaning of the universe or something, I was busy thinking up new airbending games."
"Maybe it's code," suggested Haru.
"Or a secret password," added Sokka.
During all this, Zuko was absorbed in his own thoughts, as he took in yet another atrocity committed by his family. His mind was much clearer now that he had recovered from the initial shock of losing his bending, and the mention of the Lotus triggered a memory from his travels with his Uncle.
"No one here is going to help us," muttered the Fire Prince scornfully, taking in the vagabonds and riffraff in the bar. "These people just look like filthy wanderers."
"So do we," grinned Uncle, as he looked around the room hopefully.
"Ah," breathed Iroh, indicating an old man sitting at the Pai Sho table across from theirs. "This is interesting. I believe I have found our friend."
"You brought us here to gamble on Pai Sho?" scoffed Zuko.
"I don't think this is a gamble," smiled the retired general, as he walked towards the table. "May I have this game?" he asked the player politely.
"The guest has the first move," answered the old man. Iroh seated himself, selected a game piece, and placed it in the exact center of the board. It was inscribed with a blooming white flower.
"I see you favor the White Lotus Gambit," observed the old man, bowing his head and cupping his hands. "Not many still cling to the ancient ways."
"But those who do," replied Uncle, mimicking the gesture. "Can always find a friend."
"Then let us play," said the old man, placing his own piece on the table. Then Iroh made another move, which was countered by the other player.
Zuko seated himself and watched curiously as the two players arranged their pieces into a lotus pattern.
"Welcome, Brother," said the old man, spreading is arms. "The White Lotus opens wide for those who know its secrets."
"What are you two gasbags talking about?" demanded Zuko impatiently.
"I always tried to tell you," answered his Uncle, smiling mysteriously, flipping another game piece through his fingers. "Pai Sho is more than just a game."
"Pai Sho!" cried Zuko. All eyes turned to him and he flushed a little in embarrassment. "During our travels through the Earth Kingdom," he explained quickly. "My Uncle and I met an old man who he played Pai Sho with. They used it as some sort of code for this White Lotus - a clandestine society or something - and it turns out, my Uncle's a grand master, and..."
"This really interesting and everything," interrupted Sokka. "But what does it have to do with the writing on the wall?"
Zuko smiled triumphantly towards the Avatar and asked, "Didn't you say this place has a giant Pai Sho table?"
Later the whole group filed into the mammoth domed chamber that housed the massive Pai Sho board. In the exact center of the arena was a White Lotus pattern.
"It's...it's gigantic!" breathed Sokka, taking everything in from the raised dias.
"So," asked Aang, looking around the vast chamber. "Now that we're here, what do we do?"
"Now," smiled Zuko. "We play."
"Are you kidding?" demanded Haru. Everyone was taken aback for a moment. This was the first time the Earth Kingdom boy had ever spoken directly to the Fire Prince. Usually when he wasn't glowering at Zuko, he was peering at him from the corner of his eye as though he expected him to sprout horns and fangs. "We don't have any pieces, and, even if we did, how are we supposed to play on a giant game board?"
"But we do have pieces, Haru," said Aang, pointing with his staff. "Right over there."
On either side of the room were stacks of stone disks, resembling those the Earth Kingdom used as projectiles weapons. "When I was a kid," continued Aang. "Pai Sho was really popular in the Earth Kingdom, so, every year the Western Air Temple would host a tournament in which the players used earthbending to move the pieces."
"Guess that's our cue," smirked Toph, cracking her knuckles. "C'mon Haru. Twinkletoes. You guys start at one end, I'll start at the other."
"Remember," said Zuko, as Aang handed his staff to the Duke. "You need to arrange the pieces like the design in the center of the room."
"This isn't going to work," muttered Haru as he stomped off to the opposite side of the chamber from Toph, followed by Aang.
"Let's get started," smiled Aang, as he and Haru assumed the Horse Stance.
They stomped the floor and levitated a disk to the ground before them, then, with a jab of their fists, sent it sliding across the floor. Then they repeated the process with the rest of their stack. On the other side, Toph was sliding the disks two or three at a time.
"Showoff," muttered Katara.
One after another, the disks were arranged into the pattern - they had to stop once to tell Toph she was arranging them so that the petals pointed inward instead of out - until the Lotus was complete.
"Well," said Toph, as she and her student, followed by Haru rejoined the others at the entrance of the chamber. "That's all of them."
"Shouldn't something have happened?" asked Sokka.
"Told you it wouldn't work," grumbled Haru.
Zuko was about to verbally assassinate the long-haired earthbender and his ridiculous facial hair, when a loud click echoed throughout the chamber.
Everyone turned to the source of the noise and found that a slot had opened up in the center of the lotus pattern. After a stunned silence, everyone scrambled across the floor, carefully maneuvering around the large game disks, to investigate. Aang was the first, and he impulsively reached into the slot before anyone could cry "booby-trap". His fingers closed around a thin cylindrical object and he pulled it out.
"What is it?" asked Toph.
"It's a scroll," answered Sokka.
"We went through all of that for a crummy piece of paper?" demanded the tiny earthbender indignantly.
"Well," sighed Katara. "We've got it, we may as well read it."
Aang broke the seal, uncurled the scroll, and began to scan the page. The ink was so faded in some places that the Air Nomad could make out the words, and the writing on the top and bottom of the scroll seemed to have been hastily scribbled in. Suddenly his eyes widened.
"Guys, listen to this."
To whomever may find this, know that here follows the final account of Sister Guan Yin, the last Abbess of the Western Air Temple.
Spring Third Half Moon
We have been informed that the Avatar, a young boy from the Southern Air Temple named Aang, has been made aware of his identity. However the monks, concerned that he may not receive the preparation he needs in his home, have decided to transfer him to our care. I'm not sure I agree, the boy should be allowed to remain where he is among friends and familiar faces, but I do understand the importance of the Avatar's training and pray that the boy is equal to the burden he bears.
Spring Full Moon
Terrible news from the Southern Air Temple. The boy has disappeared. We were informed that Monk Gyatso, Avatar Aang's guardian, had found a letter on the boy's bed explaining that the anxiety and confusion brought on by his new identity became too much for him to bear. I can't say I don't emphasize with the boy, but nonetheless, grave consequences may result from his disappearance.
The Fire Nation, after its industrial revolution, have all but tapped its resources dry, soon Fire Lord Sozin will look towards the other nations with hunger. Already, he has mobilized his military, and stands poised for attack. It's only a matter of time.
The comet our astronomers say will appear in the sky at summer's end is also troubling. I realize our doctrine teaches detachment from worldly concerns, but I can't help but steal a nervous glance or two westward.
Summer New Moon
We are betrayed. A young Southern Air Temple monk named Afiko, had joined the Fire Lord. All of our secrets are now in the hands of that monster. Already, Fire Nation armies have converged around The Four Air Temples. We've managed to hold them back so far but I fear it may be hopeless. In desperation, I sought the help of the Order of the White Lotus, an ancient spiritual society founded by Avatar Yang Chen. They told me of a hidden valley called Shang-wēifēng, where we would be safe from the Fire Nation.
I convened a council and after much debate, decided that the youngest of our number, including my daughter Mayu, should depart with the guides from the Order for the valley, while the rest of us remain behind in hopes of saving our home. The White Lotus has also sent messengers to the other Air Temples, that our people may endure.
This may be my last entry, as summer comes to a close, and our enemies converge around us. I'll hide it in a place only the trusted will find. If there are any Air Nomads left to find this, know that you are not alone. You're people are waiting in Shang-wēifēng. Seek out the White Lotus.
Abbess Guan Yin
There was silence as the weight of significance the words held sank in.
"I..." said Aang in a choked voice. "I don't believe it."
"Aang..." Katara began, but was interrupted by an excited whoop from the airbender.
"WHOO-HOO!" shouted the monk jubilantly leaping into the air, dancing a jig around the group, and conjuring an air scooter to ride circles around his friends, as he was joined by Momo who flew joyous circles in the air. "Yes! Yes! YEAH-HA-HA! I'm not the last airbender! I'm not the last airbender!"
"This is wonderful!" laughed Katara.
"Way to go Twinkletoes," smiled Toph.
Even Zuko couldn't help but smile in sympathetic joy for the boy. More so he was glad that his family had failed to wipe out an entire people.
"We've gotta find them," declared the Avatar, leaping from his scooter. "They could help us. I'll bet they've made up all kinds of awesome airbender moves over the last hundred years. And bisons! Appa'll finally have more bison to play with! And you'll have more lemurs, Momo!"
Momo chattered happily at the prospect, as he came to perch on Aang's head.
"Sounds great Aang," said Sokka, dryly. "Except for one giant flaw: how're we supposed to find Shang-Woo-Fay, or whatever this place is called if it's hidden?"
"We'll just do like Sister Guan Yin's note says," grinned the airbender. "We'll just find this Order of the White Lotus and they'll help us out."
"Right," said Sokka sardonically. "We'll find some secret society so we can find a hidden valley. Sounds easy enough."
"Cut it out Sokka," snapped Katara. "This is the best thing that's happened to us since the eclipse."
"I'm just trying to be realistic here," said Sokka. "We're on a time clock here. We've only got less than two months before summer's end and firebenders everywhere get a serious boost in juice...except for maybe Prince Fizzle over here."
Zuko glared at that but said nothing.
"We could try using that secret Lotus pattern to find them," suggested Teo.
"It'll take forever challenging every geezer we find to Pai Sho," argued Sokka.
"Besides," added Katara. "With Sokka's playing ability, we'd be broke in no time."
"Hey!"
"Good one Katara," laughed Aang. Then he turned to Zuko and bowed. "Thank you."
The Fire Prince raised his good eyebrow in confusion.
"If it weren't for your help," explained the Avatar, we'd never have found this, so thank you."
"Ya did good Sunshine," smiled Toph, giving Zuko an affectionate punch on the arm that sent him staggering. "Ya did good."
Suddenly the blind little earthbender tensed. "I hear something."
"What is it Toph," asked Katara apprehensively.
"It sounds like... thunder," said Toph. "But also like a swarm of angry buzzard-wasps. I can't really tell, but it's definitely not on the ground."
Everyone visible paled.
Fire Nation airships.
At once, Haru grabbed Zuko by his robes, and snarled, "You dirty spider-snake! You sold us out!"
"No," protested Zuko. "I didn't!"
"Back off Moustache!" cried Toph defensively. "Or we'll find out right here and right now who's the better earthbender. I'll give you a hint, it's not gonna be you."
As the two martial artists faced each other, Sokka and Sokka were trying unsuccessfully to smooth things over between them while at the same time teo was trying keep the Duke from panicking.
"Stop it!" shouted Katara. Everyone fell silent and looked at her. "Haru," she said more calmly, but just as firm. "Put him down." Slowly, reluctantly, the Earth Kingdom boy obeyed. "Toph," she inquired the blind girl. "How far away are they?"
Suddenly, an ominous hum filled the Temple, and the sounds of barked orders and hustling feet soon followed.
"This is just a guess, but..." Toph began dryly, but was interrupted by the distressed bellow of a sky bison.
"Appa!" Aang cried, and he sprang in the direction of his friend.
Outside, the war balloons had secured a perimeter, and were engaged with the sky bison. As the great animal tried to charge at the flying machines, the firebenders aboard sent out a jet of flame, which the creature immediately shied away from. Its antagonists had it pinned in. From her descending airship, Azula smiled sadistically. She had such plans for that animal. And his master.
"Fire the anchors," said the Fire Princess softly.
"Fire the anchors," repeated the captain in shouted tones, his self-importance once again puffed up to its previous over-inflated extent.
Immediately, chained harpoons were fired from the starboard side, embedded themselves into the cliff side and secured themselves by drilling deeper into the rock.
"Anchors secure," said the navigator saluting to the captain.
"Anchors secure," repeated the captain to Azula.
"I heard it the first time," responded the Fire Princess flatly.
She turned to her companions and said, "I want both the traitor and the Avatar captured alive. Neither of them are entitled a swift death. Understand."
Mai gave a barely perceptible nod but Ty Lee seemed to be debating with herself.
Azula sighed. "What is it?"
The acrobat tilted her head to the side and asked, "What about the others?"
"They're unimportant," said the Fire Princess. "Do with them as you wish."
Ty Lee's face split into a gleeful grin, then she dashed off, cheering, "I'm coming for you Water Boy!"
Simultaneously, Azula and Mai sighed.
Oh no kids! Here comes a psycho-bee-hotch! Afiko the Betrayer is an actual character from the Avatar trading card game. I thought the betrayal bit was interesting so I decided to use it in my story, albeit a little differently than in the TCG. Mayu is also a figure in the Game though I completely revamped her character. Another character by the same name may appear later. If you can guess who Guan Yin is named after and which Chinese epic she appears in you get the satisfaction of knowing you're as big an otaku anime geek as I am. 'Til next time! Shibui out! Next: Escape From the Western Air Temple