BOOK 4:
AIR
Chapter 4: The Ark
"Water, Earth, Fire, Air"
Previously on Avatar, Finally, Zuko had felt the warmth of his mother's embrace after years of separation. Zuko's mother had explained of how her new home came to be, her deceased husband and her young daughter. Sokka and the Kyoshi warriors returned to Kyoshi Island, only to discover the disaster that had occurred there. Cho Zheng begged for help from the Avatar. Aang was blown back by a blast of wind so strong that it ripped surrounding vegetables from the soil.
The scene at Ursa's farm was almost frozen. Time stood still, as Aang tried his hardest to regain his posture. He could barely breath, yet alone stand.
"Now do you see?" begged Cho Zheng, "This is precisely what I mean Avatar! What you are seeking can be found in the place which desperately needs your help!"
Aang grunted.
"Fine!" Aang barely managed to squeeze the words from the side of his mouth. His teeth were clenched in fear and his lips were almost frozen, "but first… you have to tell me…"
"Tell you what?" replied Cho Zheng.
"Everything…"
…
Katara and Toph were comfortably seated on two small chairs situated on the roof top of the gates of Ba Sing Se. Before them was a sunset unlike any other.
"Yet again… another sunset and Aang still hasn't returned. I wonder where he really went?" said Katara.
"Eh… Twinkle Toes is probably just wondering the forest, being one with the earth", replied Toph teasingly. Katara emitted a small giggle from her nose.
Then, appearing as just a black silhouette against the setting sun were three travellers. Katara could only make out that two of them were men, and the one in the middle was a woman. They walked with confidence and authority, which immediately suggested that they came to the city with wicked intentions.
"Toph, I think we should probably check them out", said Katara.
"I'm on it!" said Toph. She placed he hand on the floor of the roof-top and immediately, her eyes grew with terror as she shrieked in shock. "OH NO KATARA!"
"What is it?" asked Katara at once.
"A GROUP OF TRAVELLERS ARE HEADED THIS WAY!"
"What's so bad about that?" asked Katara.
"Nothing… I just like messing with yah", teased Toph. Katara slapped her across the back of the head.
"That's not funny!"
"To you maybe…"
Katara stood up and then leaned forward as she began to climb down the gate.
"Can I help you?" she asked loudly as the travellers grew closer. Now that she could see their appearances she disliked them even more. The woman was dressed in prison clothes, alternated with a sack-cloth vest and a spotted bandanna. Her hair was concealed by the bandanna, but it was obvious that it was shaven. The two men were evidently twins, dressed in strange, sack cloth vests and course pants. They two had shaven heads, and their faces were grim with unpleasant expressions.
By now, the travellers were a mere few metres away from Katara, who was already unscrewing her water canteen.
"There will be no need for that!" cackled the woman, "Honestly, I know our appearances can be a little… unruly, but I assure you, we're just simple travellers".
Katara screwed the lid back on.
"And how dare you judge us!" exclaimed one of the twins.
"Well… you have to admit, you don't exactly look like the simple type", said Katara.
"So I've been told", laughed the woman, "My name is Fifi… how do you do?"
…..
Back a Kyoshi Island, Sokka was running after Sheila through a thick, dense forest made of mostly bamboo and oaks.
"Wait!" he shouted, "I've got a limp you know!"
"Well, don't chase me!" replied Sheila.
"But if I don't stop you… and you get hurt, your stupid brother will blame it on me!" cried Sokka, "I can already hear him screaming… What did you do Sokka? It's all your fault Sokka? Blah Blah Blah Sokka!"
"Would you shut up!" snapped Sheila.
"UUGGAAHHH!" screamed Sokka as he fell on his left leg. "MY LEG!"
"Oh! Sokka!" Sheila ran back through the forest and dropped to his side. "I'm SOOO sorry!"
"You should be!"
"AND I AM!" moaned Sheila loudly.
"Go get Suki!" demanded Sokka.
"Okay!" Sheila immediately ran back through the forest, looking back at Sokka. "Next time home wreckers." With that she stormed off deep into the forest until she could no longer be seen.
….
Ursa had welcomed Cho Zheng and Aang into her house, along with her son Zuko offcourse. They had all been sharing tea at the table situated in the kitchen. This was the same table that Zuko and Ursa had sat at earlier.
"So… what is it that you meant by everything?" asked Cho Zheng, wiping his mouth after taking a sip of hot tea.
"Exactly what I said. Everything you know!" demanded Aang, ignoring his tea..
"It is rude to deny tea given to you by a stranger you know", teased Cho Zheng.
"I'll drink it when it's cool", replied Aang sternly.
Cho Zheng blew over Aang's tea with immense bending power. The steam stopped rising.
"There… now drink it, and I will tell you everything you want to know".
Aang tipped the cup over with the back of his hands, stood up slammed his fists down on the table so angrily, that the sky had begun to turn grey.
"TELL ME EVERYTHING NOW!"
"Ok", replied Cho Zheng, "This house is made of mud-bricks and straw, Zuko is the fire-lord, you're the Avatar…"
Aang became so infuriated, but the teachings from the monks had overtaken him, and he managed his anger through taking deep breaths, during which we regained his seat, put his tea cup up-right and apologised for the spill.
"Please… Tell me everything you know about the air-benders. Are there any more of you, or are you the only one?" begged Aang.
"Why… there are hundreds more. A whole civilisation, kept secret from the world for centuries… since the time of Avatar Yangchen", answered Cho Zheng.
"WHAT!" Everyone in the room had spit out their tea in a kind of spray as a result of shock.
"I don't understand… That was almost 500 years ago… what with me being frozen and all…"
"And yet, I still remember the day we took flight", replied Cho Zheng. At this remark, Aang, Zuko and Ursa's eyes grew tenfold as the surprise of being in the room with a 500+ year old man.
"You mean to tell me…" said Zuko.
"SHH! Let him explain", snapped Aang.
"Well… You see. It began with a rebellion. A small group of group of air-benders who opposed the way of life that the monks had thought them. They wanted to love, to have riches, to be earthly", said Cho Zheng, 'not to live in the confines of the temple walls and in un-fulfilling poverty. At first, the knowledge of the rebellion had infuriated Aang; until he remembered that he himself had strayed away from the way of life the monks had thought him.
"The rebellion originated from the Western Air Temple, but with time; it grew to expand over numerous temples… even those that were not limited to the four corners of the Earth. It had involved hundreds on air-nomads. They held secret meetings in Earth Kingdom territories so that they wouldn't be discovered… but unfortunately, Avatar Yangchen was extremely well respected, and feared for that matter. Earth Kingdom officials had reported the occurrences that took place during these meetings and unfortunately, Yangchen did not take it too lightly. She led a deep investigation… through which all of the air nomads who had been apart of the rebellion were banished and sentenced to serve their entire lives in but a tiny Air-temple located far beyond the corners of the Earth (Figure of speech) where the monks had taken either a vow of silence or blindness. For 15 years they served in that temple, during which I was born. I was a mere 3 years of age when the project had begun… A great ark the size of a small city where the rebellion could live peacefully".
"Wait? How on earth did they build an ark the size of a city without the monks noticing?" asked Ursa.
"Well… the monks had taken a vow of either blindness or silence, so those who could see it could not speak of it to others, and those who could speak of it could not see it", answered Cho Zheng. "Within another 10 years the project was complete. However, the day in which the rebellion had chosen to set sail on had also been the day in which Avatar Yangchen had organised to visit the temple. It was certain that she would discover the ark… and when she did – she had done a terrible thing. In a fit of rage she had entered the Avatar State and created a blast of air so great it completely destroyed the temple. The rebellion raced onto the ark at once… leaving behind the rest of the monks. It may have been centuries ago… but I will never forget what happened there…"
"What… what happened?" asked Aang, who was about to fall off the edge of his seat.
"Yangchen didn't just create a blast of air… an entire storm had been surrounded the remains of the temple. Fortunately, we were able to use this storm to our advantage; using the strong winds to lift the ark. Afterwards we used air-bending to keep it airborne. Unfortunately... the storm had regretfully taken the lives of each and every monk who were living at that temple."
"That's horrible! Avatar Yangchen would never do something like that! I would never do something like that!" exclaimed Aang.
"Aang… just because she is your past life… it doesn't mean that she is you", replied Zuko, walking over to Aang and placing his hand on his shoulder.
"So within those 500 years, the ark had become a city, we had managed to take a few bison with us, so now we have an entire population of them, along with hundreds of air-benders", said Cho Zheng.
"Do any of them have tattoos like me?" asked Aang.
"Only the elders…"
"None of this explains how you lived for the whole 500 years!" beamed Zuko.
"Well… that… that is harder to explain than you would expect… Many say that the death of so many people… holy people; monks who had dedicated their lives to the service of the earth and the spirits… well many people say that such a thing cannot go without a curse – an imprint of the anger and hurt that this brought to the great spirits who govern the universe. It is said that the spirits themselves cursed us with eternal life… by poisoning the water we had brought onto the ark – by poisoning it with the elixir of life".
"I don't see how that's a punishment… especially when all of your friends get to live with you forever too", said Zuko.
"Never understanding what it means to return to the earth, to see heaven… to meet the spirits! What's more… when the world ends, we will be destined to sail the cosmos unable to die… only to suffer an eternity. For you see… we are only relieved of death, not suffering or sickness. As far as I am concerned… immortal life is a punishment worse than death itself", explained Cho Zheng. At his last remark, everyone shuddered as they understood what he meant.
"Furthermore… the elixir doesn't just give one immortal life… it increases their bending power tenfold… but only as a result of a thirst for more. The elixir is addicting… and every moment I go without it here on the ground I lust only for more… and the more I lust… the more I am prone to commit unspeakable acts… which is why I must return to the ark… why you must free my people!" cried Cho Zheng. "Oh and Avatar… if you don't mind my asking… why is this knowledge so important to you?"
"Because Cho Zheng… Here, on the surface of the world… I am the last air-bender", answered Aang sternly. Cho Zheng's eyes widened with surprise as his jaw slowly dropped
"So that's it then… that's what you want me to help you with then… you want me to plead with the spirits to lift the curse?" said Aang.
"No…", replied Cho Zheng, "I'm afraid Avatar… that I need your help with another matter".
….
"I'm doing just fine", said Katara. She couldn't tell exactly what it was that was off about these people, but she knew that it was something.
"My friends here are twins, their names are Bow and Low", said Fifi. I assure you, we mean no harm; just travellers looking for a place to spend the night. I mean… the sun is already setting. If we don't find shelter soon, then we'll be caught in the storm."
"The storm?" said Katara.
"I didn't hear about any storm coming", said Toph, jumping down from the top of the gate, using earth-bending to break her fall.
"Of course you didn't. I mean how would you? Your all the way in Ba Sing Se, which is miles away from the storm; which is why we chose to settle here", replied Fifi. "We saw the storm with our own eyes, and frankly even if it did come to Ba Sing Se, it wouldn't be able to cause much damage."
"Are you gonna' let us enter or what?' said one of the twins, obviously bearing some kind of impediment.
Katara stepped out of the way, glaring at Fifi. The trio entered through the gates, ignoring Katara's stares.
"You know… I may not be able to see your facial expressions exactly, but I can see enough to know that something's wrong. If it means that much to you, maybe we should go spy on them… be like secret police; you know, keeping an eye on suspicious people", suggested Toph.
"Yeah come on", said Katara, creeping into the city without loosing sight of Fifi, Bow and Low.
…
Suki came rushing through the forest followed by Rave and Keisha. Immediately, Suki dropped to Sokka's side.
"Are you okay?" asked Suki worryingly.
"Do I look okay?" shouted Sokka, "Oh yeah I'm fine, I just broke my leg again!" he retorted sarcastically.
"Sokka… I'm sorry about before. I can get a little sensitive about my past, especially about Sheila. I hope you can forgive me", apologised Rave.
"Yeah, yeah sure. Apologises later… fixing broken leg NOW!" demanded Sokka.
"We're here!" called Sheila and Ty Lee. They had been carrying some sort of stretcher. Together, the five of them had lifted Sokka onto the stretcher and had taken him through the forest, back into the main village where he was inspected by the village healer.
"My name is Puki", said the healer. She was an elderly woman dressed in simple, peach coloured silk robes. "I'm from the northern water tribe, and I have lots of experience with healing… so just sit tight and let me work my magic", she laughed.
"You're water-tribe?" asked Sokka.
"Well… yes. Isn't that what I just said", she replied.
"I'm water tribe too! But I'm from the southern tribe", exclaimed Sokka.
"That's wonderful dear, now if you'll just let me work on your leg", she said while placing her water-enclosed hands on Sokka's leg.
"That's the stuff", moaned Sokka pleasurably. Her hands emitted a bright, white light and the glowing water wrapped itself around Sokka's leg. Within moments, he was permanently healed
"So… what brings you to Kyoshi Island?" asked Puki.
"I came here with Suki… she's kinda my girlfriend", replied Sokka.
"What do you mean Kinda?" said Suki.
Sokka laughed a strange sort of giggle, and corrected himself. "I mean, she is my girlfriend. So what about you?'
"Well, I came here 30 years ago to escape from the war. My husband and my children… well they were killed by the Fire Nation. I thought I wouldn't be able to live without them, but here I am; helping people."
"They would be proud of you", said Sokka honourably.
"If only… I could say the same", she whispered silently to herself.
…
Night had fallen upon Ba Sing Se, and Katara and Toph had followed the suspicious trio since they had entered the building. The trio had found shelter within Ling Ming inn. One couldn't say that the inn wasn't a decent place to spend the night; however it was no where near a common hotel. The inside was boarded with rotting wood and the furniture was dusty and moth eaten. In every corner of the lobby alone was a garden of cob-webs; each of which played home to a family of winged spiders. Katara and Toph were hiding behind two earth pillars that Toph had created.
"Wow… I'm blind and even I wouldn't spend the night there", teased Toph.
"Something tells me that they're not planning on spending the night anywhere", said Katara,
"Oh come on! We've followed them the entire day and nothing's happened! Don't you think it's time to go home and have a nice long nap", replied Toph.
"This was your idea", retorted Katara; not taking her eyes off the trio.
"Yeah well, I changed my mind!" complained Toph.
"Shh!" snapped Katara.
Bow and Low had made their way down a set of half-broken wooden stairs and walked up to the front counter. There, they had punched the inn manager (who happened to be the same man who sells cabbages, but keeps running to trouble which inevitable results in the destructions of his cabbages) right in the stomach and had demanded that he give them all of the gold and copper pieces he owned. The inn manager handed Bow a small bag the size of his palm which was about a third full of copper pieces. Bow gave him a look of stupidity.
"I knew it!" said Katara. She raced into the inn, and with one sway of both her hands, the water inside of her canteen emerged and with it, she whipped Bow and Low to the other side of the lobby. Toph had followed, earth-bending the twins into stone prisons so that only their arms and heads were free.
"MY INN!" called the inn-keeper.
"Oh hush! Clearly you weren't making much business anyway", teased Toph.
Katara had raced up the stair, her arms covered in water whips from shoulder to finger. She blast open each door until she found Fifi, gracefully un packing. She threw a great blast of water at the un-suspecting woman. Fifi was blown back to the other side of the bed-room, which was small, stuffy and barely furnished.
"What is your problem!' complained Fifi. She regained her stance and continued to speak. "Why did you attack me?"
"Don't play dumb with me. Your friends out there are robbing the poor in-keeper!"
"What… Bow and Low would never!" she retorted.
"Take a look!" ordered Katara. Fifi peered out of the room, and saw Bow and Low imprisoned in stone.
"Release them now!" she shouted, as she ran down the stairs. She immediately raced towards her companions and to her surprise, they had done something that she would have never expected.
Low (Who was on the left) reached out and grabbed Fifi with his huge hand. He grasped her around the neck, pulled her closer to him and fashioned his other hand on her head, so that he could break her neck is he wanted to.
"Low… what are you doing?" asked Fifi fearfully.
"One wrong move and I'll snap her neck!" shouted Low dumbly.
"YOU TRAITOR!" screamed Fifi.
"Release us, and no one gets hurt!" shouted Bow.
"Do it Toph", said Katara. Her voice was clouded with the expression of disappointment. Toph drew her right hand up, then down firmly. This act released Bow and Low and they inturn, had released Fifi. With this, they raced out of the door and into the night.
"Well don't just stand here! Chase them! They've got my money!" demanded the Inn keeper.
Toph sighed as she ran out of the inn. Katara stayed behind for a moment to apologise to Fifi.
"I'm sorry for judging you so fast… I should have given you a chance", apologised Katara.
"Yeah… you should of", sternly retorted Fifi, "but we all make mistakes".
"Yeah…" said Katara shamefully.
"Well come one!" yelled Fifi, "Let's go after them!"
Fifi and Katara were not far behind Toph. Bow and Low had been spotted further ahead of the threesome, turning into a dark alley. They reached the end of the alley way and saw that there were two different directions in which they could take. The path on the right led to the inner city where as the path on the left led to the residential district. Toph, Katara and Fifi were closing in on the twins, but to their surprise, the twins had done something that they had not anticipated. For the first time in years, they had separated. Bow took the left path into the city, and Low took the right path into the residential district.
Toph chased after Bow, through crowded streets on stone paths. Katara was chasing after Low in a quite, stone-built area with crowded houses lined in a row on either side of the road. The chase had gone on for minutes, and Katara had soon realised that she had accidentally lost Fifi.
"Fifi?" she called out.
"I'm over here!" Fifi responded loudly. She was located far behind Katara, in the middle of the road. She had stopped to take a moment to catch her breath. "You go on!"
Katara would have liked to go on, but unfortunately she too had to take a moment to regain her breath. She looked into the sky drearily, and saw that it was almost a full moon. It wasn't long before Low had disappeared into the shadows.
"We lost him", she moaned. What she didn't know was that Low was hiding behind a near-by house. He continued to move further away from Katara whilst remaining behind the house. Unfortunately, his plan of escape was thwarted by the house-owners pet Lama-Dog. (It appeared to be a cross between a dog and a lama. It had the head of a dog on a long, lama-like neck with a dog body, but with lama legs. It was tied to a post near a cart of hay which suggested that it was used to haul the hay through the city. The Lama-Dog emitted a strange noise which was not like barking or yelping. Instead, it appeared to be some kind of extremely high pitched roar. Katara turned to the source of the noise immediately and ran to the building in which Low was hiding behind.
Low was no longer there. However, she did spot a broken window next to the large, wooden door perched upon a timber veranda. She climbed in through the window and had seen what she had hoped she wouldn't. Standing in the centre of a barely furnished hallway was Low, holding two children beneath his bulky arms.
"Now I'm going to take them with me to the city gate. If you chase me, I break their necks. If I escape, I'll leave them by the gate and you'll know where to find them."
The parents of the children had made their way into the scene. One was a short, fat man and the other a tall, thin woman. Both burst into tears at the sight of their terrified children.
"I'm afraid I can't let you escape", said Katara sternly.
"And just how to you suppose your gonna' stop me without letting these poor children die?" asked Bow.
Without seeing the sky, she had known that the full moon had risen, as a surge of energy overcame her body. She formed an awkward position, with her right foot on it's heal in-front of her and her right hand open, and pointed towards the ground. Bow was now under her full control. Katara had blood-bended Bow so that he would release the children and walk right out of the building. She then forced him to walk into a near-by fish pond in the house-owners garden. Here, she froze his feet in a block of ice which kept him stationary.
Toph's chase was not nearly as difficult as Katara's. She conserved energy by his heal feet to turn left into a street full of people with carts and Lama-dogs. Toph was forced to stop bending, and she soon lost her way within the chase. However, to her advantage Bow had dropped the inn-keepers money and leaned down to pick it up. Toph spotted him amongst the crowd and bended a great-big entrapment around him which covered everything but his head.
Not long later, Bow and Low were being taken into custody by Ba Sing Se officials and Katara gad begun to apologise to Fifi once more.
"Again… I'm sorry for miss-judging you", said Katara shamefully.
"I'm sorry that I spent weeks travelling the Earth Kingdom with those jerks!" said Fifi.
"So what are you planning to do now?" asked Toph.
"Continue travelling. I'm searching for something. A fleet of airships actually, they destroyed my village not to long ago, but we've cleaned up very well", responded Fifi, "I just want to thank you for helping me out here too… if it weren't for you guys, I would have been accused of robbing that inn with dumb and dumber."
"It's no problem!" laughed Toph.
"I should be thanking you Fifi… you made what was the most boring weak of my life a little bit interesting", said Katara with a smile.
Fifi laughed in response. "Well, I better get going. That fleet isn't going to wait for me."
"Just one question…" said Toph, "What exactly do you plan to do once you have found the fleet?"
Fifi smirked and giggled beneath her breath. "Prove my theory."
"What theory?" asked Katara.
"That the Avatar is not the last air-bender!" answered Fifi. Katara's eyes widened as she spoke the name of her beloved partner.
"Aang."
(I was supposed to write what Cho Zheng wanted with Aang, but this chapter is getting to long so I'll leave it as like a cliff hanger. Can't be bothered to proof read – ill go through it tomorrow and replace it with a proof-read version then)