"I can't believe this." Katara said. "I've never heard of a Central Water Tribe."
She started in amazement at the piece of wood infront of her. She looked toward the hole that Appa had created.
"We have to go see what's down there." she said.
"There can't be much light down there, and we don't even know how old this place is. It could be falling apart for all we know!" said Aang.
"Looks stable from here," Toph said. "and we could always have Zuko make us some light."
Katara walked over to the hole and looked down. It didn't look very far and she was certain she could make it in and out with ease.
"We'll be fine guys, come on. This is huge!" exclaimed Katara. "We can't just not explore this."
"We don't have a lot of time, Katara." said Zuko. "I do have to be in Ba Sing Se in the next couple of days, and it's a long journey."
"It won't take that long, I promise." she replied.
The group walked over to the hole in the sand and looked into the wooden room revealed below.
"So," said Soph. "who's first?"
At that Zuko jumped into the woodern room and landed on the floor. Everyone gasped as he hit the floor and heard creaking.
"Seems to be sturdy." he said, jumping a few times before reassuring himself.
One by one they jumped into the wooden room and started to search it to see what they could find. As they were all looking around the room Suki came across a wooden chest.
"Guys, check this out." she said as she opened the chest. It was full of solid ice and she felt cold just standing infront of it. In the center of the chest was a frozen vile of water.
"What do you think it is?" asked Aang curiously. He grabbed it from the chest and almost immediately dropped it. When it hit it bounced a few times and landed on its side.
"What's the matter?" said Katara rushing over. Aang was shaking his hand back and forth.
"That was really cold!" he exclaimed. Showing his hand to Katara. His hand had frozen slightly where he grabbed the vile.
"Wow," Zuko said. "look at the floor."
Everyone's attention turned to the floor around the vile. The wooden floor was starting to freeze over where the vile had rolled and several inches around the vile. Sokka climbed out of the hole and disappeared.
"Hold on!" he said as he was running away.
"What do you think he's doing?" Toph asked, looking at Katara. She shrugged. Sokka came jumping back down with a heavy piece of cloth.
"We're definately going to have to bring this along." he said as he grabbed the vile with the cloth and wrapped it. He held it infront of his face and examined it.
He quickly backed away from the vile as he felt his eyebrows start to freeze.
"What do you think makes it so cold?" Suki asked.
"I'm not sure," said Sokka. "but I'm going to put this away for later." he said as he put it in the pouch he had at his side.
"Guys, come here." Aang said as he walked over to a door on the other side of the room. "Let's see what else is here."
He opened the door and started to walk through only to be greeted by a pile of fallen rocks. He bent the rocks out of his way and continued through the door.
"I thought you said this place was sturdy!" he said looking at Toph.
"Well, your definition of sturdy and my definition of sturdy must be two completely different sturdies." she replied laughing a little bit.
Aang looked away and started walking down a hallway, everyone else closely behind. The hallway was wider than most average hallways and there were doors every ten feet or so. Zuko opened one of the doors and saw a room not unlike the one they had entered. When they reached the end of the hallway they came upon a bigger door made out of metal. Aang pushed on the door as it toppled over on the other side, making a loud thump. He shot Toph a quick look again. He then looked back and walked over the newly toppled door.
"Woah." he gasped as he saw what was on the other side. The rest of the group joined in the gasp as they walked out through the door and over to the edge Aang was now looking over. Over the edge was a giant central building about three hundred feet below where they were at, surrouneded by many different alley ways and break offs.
"This is incredible!" yelled Katara.
"I can't believe a place like this has gone unnoticed this whole time." claimed Zuko. "It must be centuries old." He looked toward the ceiling of the cavern where there were streaming waterfalls leading to a canal system which appeared to run throughout the entire city.
"How are we going to get down?" asked Suki noticing that the stairs had apparently collapsed years ago. She walked over to the where there stairs should have been and pointed to the floor below. "It's a pretty far fall."
"We can always earthbend some stairs." said Aang, joining her near the edge.
"I don't think that would be a good idea," said Toph. "Now that I'm actually down here it doesn't seem as stable as I'd thought. Bending the rock could weaken any support it could be giving to this entire cavern. We'll have to find another way down."
"Hey guys, come take a look at this." Sokka said, pointing to a metal design on the wall infront of where the stairs would be. "What do you think it is?"
Aang walked over to where Sokka was standing and examined the design. There was a hole in the center that couldn't have been more than an inch in diameter. He put his eye to it and looked through. It was dripping water and appeared to continue further through the wall.
"This hole keeps going into the wall somewhere." he stated.
"What could it be?" Katara asked as she walked up and examined it. She noticed the water dripping from it and tried to see if she could bend any water from the hole. To her surprised it squirted water about three feet and made a little puddle on the ground.
"Is it a water fountain or something?" Zuko laughed as he saw what had just happened.
"No, I don't think so." said Aang seriously. He looked at it closer. "I think it's a locking mechanism, like the ones they used at the Air Temples."
"That makes sense," Katara replied. "but how do you think we use it?"
"Try pushing water through it." he replied.
Katara bent water from one of the nearby waterfalls and forced it into the little hole. She watched as more and more water went into the hole and nothing happened.
"It's not doing anything." she finally declared.
"Wait!" cried Sokka as he reached into his pouch and pulled out the cloth he stored the vial of water in. He opened it carefully and set it on the ground. "Do you think this could have something to do with it?"
Zuko looked at it for a moment. "Well," he said. "It is about the right size to fit in the hole."
"Katara, try to bend this into the hole." Sokka said.
Katara focused as she bent the vial of ice up into the air and directed it towards the opening in the metal design. It fit into place perfectly with the top of the vial sticking out just barely enough to see. Suddenly they heard a loud sound.
"What is that!" cried Toph holding her ears.
"I don't know!" yelled Aang. He listened as he heard the sound of water freezing rapidly. The sound traveled through the walls and down below them before coming to a stop. He looked around when he saw that everyone else noticed the sound stopped as well.
"What was that?" asked Suki, looking around to see if anything had changed. Nothing had.
"I think the water that Katara pushed into the hole is frozen now, all of it." claimed Sokka.
"But nothing happened, aren't these things supposed to open a door?" she looked at Aang.
"I'm not sure what it was supposed to do, I was only suggesting what it might be." he replied.
Katara bent the vial out of its socket and put it back onto Sokka's cloth. She looked inside and the few inches she could see had been frozen solid was now blocked by solid ice.
"This is very strange." she said.
"I think I understand it now." Toph said, placing her hand on the ground. "When the ice was freezing I got a good look at where it was going as it collided with the metal. The hole leads down into the wall and to the bottom of the cavern, with side paths every couple of feet. I don't think the water was enough pressure to activate the mechanism."
Sokka suddenly started up, "But steam is!" he exclaimed. "Zuko, blast the inside of that hole with fire." he added making a firebending motion.
Zuko walked over infront of the hole and began to shoot fire into it. They heard a sound as steam was escaping from places in the rock below them. Suki looked down and saw a metal stairway being pushed from inside the wall out into a path leading to the central area.
"It's pushing a stairway into place!" Suki exclaimed as she watched it form.
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Not Finished with Chapter 3, just putting it up for now.