Untouchable
By Kevin Kalis
Chapter 6: Tragedy Part 2
(A/N): Hey everyone! I am SO SO SO sorry for not updating this story sooner. More than a whole month went by? Really? Wow. Anyway, my computer crashed and I'm now dating my best friend and some other friends of mine were visiting from NJ. It's been a pretty hectic month. Not to mention that my mom got remarried (I wasn't invited to the wedding) and I fell down the stairs twice. So anyway, I'm REALLY REALLY sorry about that! Oh well, enough of my rambling. On with the show!
Hunger. All it could feel now was the hunger. The aching, burning, crushing hunger that coursed through it's mangled body. The creature could barely remember a time when it had been without the hunger. Wait...there was a time once. A very long time ago. Yes...that was true! There had been no hunger like this before. What had happened? Something had happened...yes, something dark. It had been that man! The one with the glowing face! He had done it! Imprisoned the creature. Never let it feed. Kept it away from the world of men. But then, what had happened? Oh yes, that's right. The man had died. He was gone now. But the gate still remained. The gate and the hunger remained. But tonight, a scratch had appeared on the door. A crack. A flaw...a weakness! Yes... the creature will be free. Soon, there will be no more gate. Soon, there will be no more hunger.
The young monk flew solemnly towards his destination. His faithful bison paddled through the sky, completely unaware of what was coming. A sense of dread hung in the air, though. The bison knew not what was causing his friend's unease. He let out a bellowing cry and, had they not been over the middle of the ocean, it would have been heard for miles.
"It's okay buddy. Nothing to worry about." Said the young avatar, in response.
The winds had died down and an eerie silence penetrated everything. Aang was growing restless. They were almost at their destination. A small island in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by ocean for miles. A young woman sat up in the seat behind him, clothed in her traditional Southern Water Tribe outfit.
"Are you alright Aang? You don't have to do this you know." She said, in a very worried voice. Aang glanced over at her on the saddle. He gave a sad smile before shaking his head.
"I'm fine Katara. But you're wrong. I DO have to do this."
A small dot appeared on the horizon. The island in the distance creeped into view. It was a sight to behold. The entire front appeared to be a sheer cliff that rose at a mile into the air. The ocean around it was surrounded by jagged rocks and grey waters. The island itself was also very wide, and it appeared to be covered in dark chasms.
Appa touched down on one of the few flat areas there was on the mountainous rock. The sun was completely blocked by the tip of the island, and so the entire thing was coated in it's own shadow. There was no indication of any type of life at all. It was completely barren.
"Looks like this is it." The young avatar stated plainly.
"Look at this place!" Said Katara. Her voice sounded with both wonder and horror at the same time.
"Come on. We need to find the seal." Replied Aang with determination evident in his voice.
The pair entered one of the dark caves. Aang illuminated the area using his fire bending on a torch hat hung from the wall. Holding the torch up, they noticed something about the walls. They were completely covered in strange symbols. Odd markings that were unlike anything either had ever seen. The musty cave seemed to stretch on as an endless hallway.
The pair began to make their way down the hallway of symbols. As they walked, they began to recognize some of the mysterious markings on the walls. They seemed to be moving with the young avatar and his equally young girlfriend.
"Aang, take a look at this! Some of these markings...they look really familiar!" Announced the water bender, in a surprised tone.
"You're right! They look almost like writing...but in a different language. One I've never seen before." Responded the equally surprised young avatar.
The two continued down the dark, narrow corridor. The markings on the walls became fewer and farther in between. The hallway seemed to stretch on for a mile, when suddenly they came to a large, spacious room. The walls were covered in a thin layer of dust, and bare of the symbols, save for one marking on the wall the pair was facing. It was much larger than the others. It seemed more elegant as well. This one was not carved into the stone as the others had been, but etched in gold onto the face of an iron section of the wall.
Aang and Katara shared a look, and cautiously approached the wall.
"Wow Aang! Look at this thing! It must be hundreds of years old!" Katara exclaimed in wonderment.
"According to Roku, it's even older than that." Replied Aang, adding to Katara's amazement.
Aang reached out his hand to the symbol, feeling the smooth texture of the gold. The curved outlines on the iron section on the wall were both beautiful and foreboding.
"Well, if this is the seal...then I don't see anything wrong with it." Said Aang, the confusion evident in his voice.
"I don't know Aang. Maybe Roku was wrong. Maybe there's nothing wrong with the seal!" Exclaimed Katara hopefully.
Aang's hand continued to glide across the glossy surface of the golden symbol. Suddenly, his hand found a small indent in the fine texture. The young Avatar's brow creased as he focused on the small section of gold.
"Hey Katara, take a look at this. There's an indent right here." Said Aang as he motioned over Katara.
"Aang, I don't think you should be touching tha-" Katara was interrupted mid-sentence as the symbol began to glow a dull red. It began to pulse and thrive as if it was alive.
Aang quickly retracted his hand, just as the other symbols in the hallway behind them began to emit the same dull red, pulsing glow. The room they had entered was suddenly lit up with the glowing, and they could see just how massive it was. The walls were lined by massive marble columns, which reflected the red glow on their shiny surface.
"Uh...Aang?" asked Katara as she looked over at the slightly awed air bender.
She watched as Aang slowly made his way back to the main symbol. It seemed to glow brighter with every step Aang took towards it. The rate of the pulsing increased as well. Katara was getting extremely nervous as she watched Aang approach it.
Suddenly, four tendrils of red light shot out from the symbol, wrapping themselves around the surprised young avatar.
"Ack! What the...? Katara! I can't move!" Yelled Aang.
Katara had a look of pure terror as she watched Aang being lifted up into the air by the tendrils. He was still struggling against them as they lifted him twenty feet above the center of the room. The entire floor was glowing the same red hue by now and the room was humming with energy.
Katara's scream could be heard as the four arm-like tendrils suddenly pinned Aang to the ground. She recovered quickly, however, and whipped out the water pouch she always carried with her. She pulled the water into her dangerous water whip, and lashed out at the tendrils restraining the avatar. To her dismay, she found that as soon as the water touched them, it evaporated.
"Gaaaaaaagh!" Aang screamed. It felt like he was being torn apart from the inside out. He could feel the tendrils sucking the life from him as painfully as possible.
"Nooooo! Aang! Hold on! I'll get you out!" Screamed Katara. She quickly changed tactics. She turned the water whip into and ice shard and thrust it at the tendrils.
Once again though, the water evaporated as soon as it touched the tendrils. No, not so much evaporated as it simply...vanished. It seemed to pass directly through the tendril, yet it did not emerge from the other side at all.
The young avatar's screams of pain continued as the skin at his hands and feet began to turn a dark shade of grey. It was like his body was turning to stone before him.
Aang's torturous cries echoed through the room as the grey on his skin continued to rise up his limbs. Katara could only watch helplessly as the life drained from Aang's body.
As the grey skin finally reached his torso, the tentacles suddenly retracted back into the wall. Katara was by Aang's side in an instant. She drew water from the air and began to try to heal Aang's limbs.
Her water, however, was appearing to have no affect on Aang as his skin remained a dull grey. Aang looked up at Katara, tears in her eyes. She leaned over to him as he whispered into her ear weakly.
"I'll be fine Katara. I'm just a little weak right now." He whispered with labored breathing.
"Come on, we have to get you out of here. Right now." She said, regaining her composure slightly.
Just at that moment, however, the main symbol began to glow a different color. It was now a searing white, and the pulsing had stopped. Then, the whole room went dark.
A deep, menacing growl came from out of the darkness. A sound like an explosion of rock came from the wall with the symbol. Still encased in darkness, Katara could not see what had happened.
Then, as another deep, guttural growl came from the darkness, Aang's whisper came. Laced with fear and horror, all he could say to what was in the room was "Oh no."