Book One: Water
Chapter 7: Winter Solstice Part 1- The Spirit World
"I wonder what it would feel like if I jumped on one of those big, fluffy clouds?" Katara says.
"I don't know," Sokka says. "Why don't you give it a try?"
"You are hilarious Sokka," Katara says sarcastically. "You know that?"
"Yeah," Sokka says.
"I think I'll give it a try," Aang says and jumps off of Appa.
We watch him fall through the cloud and come back up, using his glider, dripping wet. He airbends the water off of him, which disturbs Milo and Momo because they don't like getting wet.
"I forgot that clouds have water in them," Aang says.
"Yeah? How do you think it rains?" I ask him and Katara chuckles.
"Wow," Sokka says. "Look at that. It looks like a huge, black scar."
I look over Appa and see a bunch of burned trees, as we lower to the ground. We jump off of Appa and look at the woods. The trees are all burned and it looks like Fire Nation has been here, from the footprints in the dirt. Aang falls to the ground and sits there.
"Something wrong?" I ask him.
"Look at this place," Aang says. "It is my fault. As the Avatar I am supposed to protect nature. I failed and there are probably more places like this."
"Hey I am the Avatar too," I say. "It is also my fault."
"Yeah," Aang says. "We share the responsibility."
"Don't worry guys," Katara says. "This will cheer you up."
Katara takes a couple of acorns and throws it at the both of us.
"How is this supposed to make me feel better?" I ask her.
"It made me feel better," Sokka says laughing.
Katara then forcefully throws an acorn at Sokka.
"I guess I deserved that," he says.
"Yeah you did," Katara says. "Look guys. The forest will grow back because of the abundance of acorns scattered all around the forest."
We see an old man walking towards us at a steady pace. When he gets to us, we all look surprised and so does he.
"You must be the Avatar from your flying bison," the man says. "And you…"
He points at me with a smile on his face.
"Yes?"
"I have heard about you," the old man says. "A waterbending master, who travels with the other Avatar, and together they are unstoppable. Please follow me. We need your help young Avatars!"
We follow the old man to a small village, which has been completely destroyed. The buildings are either crumbled or falling down at the moment. It looks like the trees have been knocked down onto the buildings, and it is very dusty around the small town.
"What is this place called?" I ask the old man.
"Our village is called Senlin Village," he says. "We have been in danger and hoping you two could help."
We go into a small house with no doors, which have obviously have been viciously destroyed by something or someone.
"My name is John," the man says that the older man brought us too. "Yours?"
"This is Kaya, the other Avatar," Aang says and points to me. "Katara and Sokka."
"Nice to meet all of you. We need your help, desperately."
"Why is this village in ruins?" Katara asks him.
"That's why we need you Avatars! Our village is being terrorized by a spirit, known as Hei Bai. This spirit comes here at sunset, and destroys our village.
"Why is it attacking you?" Sokka asks him.
"I don't know, but each of the last three nights he has abducted each of our own. We are especially fearful when the winter solstice comes."
"What happens them?" I ask.
"As the solstice approaches," the old man says walking closer to us, "the world and the Spirit World grow closer and closer, until the line between them is blurred completely. Hei Bai is already causing devastation and destruction. When the solstice comes there is no telling what will happen."
I am very skeptical about agreeing to this, because I have no idea what I am going to do to save this village. I know I can't just pack up my things and leave. I wonder if Aang has a theory to all of this? On the other hand, Aang isn't very good of creating solutions.
"I don't know…" I say skeptically. "What do you want us to do exactly?"
"Who better to resolve a crisis between our world and the Spirit World then the Avatars," the old man says. "You two are the great bridge between man and spirits."
"Right," I say skeptically. "That's us."
"Hey great bridge guys," Katara says. "Can I talk to you guys for a second?"
She walks over to the window for a while and then turns around to say, "You guys seem a little unsure about this."
"Yeah," Aang mumbles. "But that might be because I don't know anything about the spirit world."
Sokka walks over to us and I go, "It's not like there is someone to teach us this stuff!"
"So can you help these people?" Sokka goes.
"Will have the solution for it soon," he says with a big smile. "Lets go look for something that might help us or clues."
"Whatever," I mumble and we all leave the house.
"We should split up," Aang says. "Katara and I will go look on the east side of the village. You guys can go look on the west side and we meet back here by sunset. I want Kaya and I to confront the spirit.
"Wait a second," Sokka says.
We look at him because we think he is going to say something, but then he doesn't.
"You going to say something?" I ask him.
"Oh yeah. How can a spirit be terrorizing a village? Aren't they like ghosts? If they tried touching something they would just drop it."
"You're an idiot Sokka," Katara tells him and Katara and Aang then leave.
"Come on Sokka," I say. "We need to try and get some answers."
He nods at me and we saunter towards a group of villagers. I see a large bucket of some substance and an old lady standing near it. She also has a large group of pots near it.
"Can I help you?" the old lady asks us.
"Yeah," I say. "I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the spirit that is destroying your village?"
"I don't know much," the old lady says. "When I was younger none of this nonsense happened to us. I have lived here my whole life. When the Fire Nation came and destroyed the forest that spirit started showing up. It keeps terrorizing us and we didn't even do anything!"
"What's in the bucket?" Sokka asks her.
"Oh," she says. "Very strong smelling per…"
"Knockout gas!" Sokka exclaims.
"No you idiot," I say. "She was going to say perfume."
"Precisely. I was thinking that my perfume essence would scare away the spirit and return it where it came from."
"Maybe we should talk to some other villagers," Sokka whispers to me.
"Well we got to go," I say. "Nice meeting you… I guess…"
Sokka and I leave and the lady starts putting the perfume in her pots.
"Well that was no help at all!" Sokka shouts.
"You didn't exactly ask any questions. You thought the bucket was full of knockout gas!"
"It could have been! Anyway we should probably meet Aang and Katara because the sun is starting to set."
"You don't want to find anything else out…"
"No!" Sokka screams in a childish voice. "Lets go."
We go back to the middle of the village where we all left from Aang and Katara walk towards us and I hope they got some information. We got barely any information from the lady, thanks to Sokka.
"What did you guys find out?" Aang asks us.
"Well Sokka found out that those buckets weren't full of knockout gas," I say and Katara giggles. "We also found out the spirit came when the Fire Nation burned down the forest. You guys?"
"Basically the same thing," Katara says and giggles, "except for the knockout gas. What was the bucket full of anyway?"
"Perfume."
"Really smelly perfume," Sokka says and makes a face. "I would never go around anyone smelling like that."
"Lets look for that spirit," Aang tells me. "Or at least wait for it."
Aang and I sit down at the entrance of the village, which has a huge forest in front of it, to wait for the spirit. We wait at that point for an hour or two but no spirit shows up. Aang is starting to give up a little bit and he stands up.
"Come on," I tell Aang. "Lets go.
Aang sticks his hand out in front of him and says, "Before we leave I will tell it a few words. Please leave this village alone spirit!"
We start to walk back and I hear a loud noise. I turn around and the huge spirit is following us. He is at least three times the size of Appa and he does not look happy. Aang then turns around.
"You must be Hei Bai," he says. "My name is…"
He gets interrupted by the spirit rearing in front of him and then the spirit walks over to the village.
"Hey come back," Aang says and starts running towards it. "We are the Avatars and we want to help you!"
The spirit starts destroying everything with its multiple arms. Then it blasts energy towards some of the houses.
"Hey listen to me," Aang shouts and I have caught up with him. "I command you to turn around now!"
The spirit does turn around, but then hits Aang against a house. I run over to him to see if he is okay, and he looks like he is fine.
Sokka runs out and shouts at the spirit, "Hei Bai! Over here!"
He then throws his boomerang towards it, but it doesn't come back. Sokka starts running towards it.
"No Sokka!" I shout. "Go back inside!"
"Will fight him together," Sokka says after he catches up to us.
"I don't want to fight him unless…"
All of a sudden Hei Bai picks him up and runs away with Sokka.
"Come on Kaya!" Aang shouts. "Grab onto my glider."
After I grab onto it, Aang then jumps into the air and follows the spirit into the forest. Aang quickly and carefully dodges every tree in the forest. I see Sokka freaking out up ahead, and Hei Bai is running incredibly fast. We are now on the side of him and I hear Sokka shouting something.
"Guys over here!"
We keep following the monster and now we are back to the burned part of the forest. Aang goes in closer and I am trying to grab Sokka's hand. I grab his hand but then the spirit and Sokka disappear.
Aang falls to the ground and I feel like I got knocked out.
I then wake up and Aang screams, "Sokka! No… I failed."
-:-
Aang and I get back to the village and I see Katara talking to the old man. She looks really sad because Sokka is gone. It is going to be even worse when Aang and I tell her that we couldn't get Katara.
"I wish Aang and Kaya were here," Katara says.
"Um…" I mutter. "We are right here!"
Aang tries to get Katara's attention but no one can see us. I look at my hand and I can see through it. I move my hand in front of the sunlight and it looks like I am a ghost.
"What's happening?" I ask Aang.
"Were in the Spirit World!" Aang exclaims.
-:-
The next day Aang is sitting in front of Katara, who is groaning. Appa comes up and growls. I wonder if he can see us?
"Hey buddy I am right here," Aang says and Appa goes up to Katara.
Appa growls and Katara says to him, "It's okay Appa. I am sure Aang and Katara are on their way back.
"What are we supposed to do?" he asks me. "Avatar Roku! How can I talk to you?"
I then here a loud noise and see something flying toward us. Aang is freaking out so he jumps onto his glider, to try and fly away. His glider doesn't work and I see his trying to bend.
"Why can't I bend?" Aang asks.
I try firebending but nothing works.
I see what the flying thing is and it is a dragon. The dragon taps my head with its whisker and I see a vision of Avatar Roku.
"You are Avatar Roku's dragon. We need to save our friend and we don't know how. Is there some way we can talk to Avatar Roku?"
The dragon then puts its head near us and we both jump on him. The dragon takes us to a crescent shape island. We then fly through a building and the dragon takes us to a statue of Roku.
"I don't understand," Aang tells the dragon. "This is just a statue of Roku."
The dragon then touches my forehead and Aang's, with his whisker. I see a vision of a comet going through the air.
"Is that what Roku wants to talk to us about?" I ask the dragon. "A comet. When can we talk to him?"
The dragon ducks revealing a light that hits the statue's shoulder. The dragon touches my forehead again and I see days pass by. The light must hit the statue at a certain spot.
"It's a calendar," Aang says, "and the light will reach Roku on the solstice. But we can't wait that long. We need to save Sokka now!"
We hop onto the dragon again and the dragon returns us to our bodies. I jump back onto Aang's glider and we head towards the village. When we get there Katara looks so happy to see us.
"You're back!" she shouts and gives us each a hug. "Where's Sokka?"
"I'm not sure," Aang says and puts his head down.
-:-
It is sunset and Aang and I wait by the forest. It is windy out and also very dark. Aang looks sad and starts to walk away, so I follow him. Then the spirit jumps out of a building screaming.
The spirit keeps running and I jump on top of it. I then touch the middle of its forehead and see a panda bear. I also saw a panda bear statue earlier by the burned forest.
"You must be the spirit of this forest," I say to it and it stops moving. "I understand now."
"Me too," Aang says. "You were angry and upset because your home burned down. When I saw the forest had burned I was sad and upset, but my friend gave me hope that the forest will grow back."
Aang then shows him the acorn and drops it down onto the ground. The spirit picks it up with its human like hands and looks at it. Then it turns around and turns back into the panda bear. When it leaves the village, bamboo grows out of the ground. Then I see Sokka and a bunch of other people coming out of it.
"Sokka!" Katara shouts and she runs up to him to give him a hug.
"What happened?" he asks Katara.
"You were trapped in the Spirit World for twenty-four hours. How are you feeling?"
"Like I seriously need to use the bathroom," he says and his eyes widen.
"Thank you Avatars," the older man tells us. "If there was only a way to repay you for what you have done."
"You could give us some supplies and money," Sokka says.
"Sokka," Katara says and elbows him.
"What? We need stuff."
"It would be an honor," the man says and he walks away.
"I'm so proud of you guys," Katara tells Aang and me. "That you figured it out all on your own."
"Actually I did have a little help," Aang says. "And there is something else."
"What is it?" Sokka asks.
"I need to talk to Roku and I think I found a way to contact his spirit."
"That's great!" Katara shouts.
"Creepy but great," Sokka says.
"There is a temple on a crescent shape island," I say. "If we go there on the solstice, we'll be able to speak with him."
"But the solstice is tomorrow," Katara says looking worried.
"Yeah and there is one more problem," I say. "The island is in the Fire Nation."
So there is also another part coming up and I am excited to write it. Sorry that it takes me long to update. The only reason is, is because I don't have internet.
So I got a question on one of my reviews saying how many chapters there will be. I really don't know how many chapters there will be, but I know that there will be a lot. I am doing each season and trying to follow the story line.
See you guys soon and please review!
