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Book 1 "AS 299", Episode 3

"Things Not Seen"

"Air. Water. Earth. Fire. Only the Avatar can master all four elements and enforce her balance on the world. Only we have the chance to stop her."

Kadat unhooked his seatbelt and stood up from his folding seat bolted to the bulkhead, feeling the vibrations of the plane moving through his bones. The rattling was slightly more noticeable than on a commercial flight, the boxes and parcels that occupied the rest of this vehicle's space being less likely to complain, but still nothing to bother anyone. Well, not enough to bother most people. Sano looked a little pale in the cheeks and was intent on looking strait ahead at the trussed cargo in the hold. And Yan... Well, who knew what Yan was doing behind that facade of a human face.

Kadat strolled across the perforated metal floor to the small window implanted in one of the exit doors. There was not much need for windows on a cargo plane and whatever advantages this mode of transport gave them in terms of not getting arrested Kadat missed the easy access to views. He pressed his nose to the inside plastic pane and looked out at the ocean stretching out below a speckled layer of clouds that blazed orange with the rising sun. Ahead, as far as could be seen, those bulging cotton mountains drifted together and clambered atop each other to a distant cliff-like wall of storms that glowered black under its wind whipped roof. Kadat sighed, filled with something like contentment even as he heard heavy footsteps jangled up behind him.

Yan leaned close to Kadat's back, never having seemed to understand personal space. The full range of the spirit's voice was muffled behind his fleshy mask and if one could forget what he was he almost sounded human. "There is a stark beauty to the physical world."

Kadat didn't flinch as he had on the previous occasions when the spirit had spoken to him. It was possible that he was just too tired to be afraid. He had gotten a few hours of sleep since takeoff but the stress of the last few days had left him aching down to his bones. Still, he had welcomed that piercing shaft of the sunrise stabbing through the little window to wake them. Looking down at the ocean from this height, where every wave and swell blurred into a dark floor of felt, had always brought him calm.

So he responded, "It's freedom out here in the sky. Just emptiness. It makes you feel like you can do anything." He leaned back from the window to let Yan have an eyeline if he chose. "No rulers here. It must be like being in the spirit world."

Yan turned to look at the young man and his lined human mouth slowly opened to speak but Sano was quicker to fill the silence. The boy groaned, "Whatever it is like, it has to be better than here. Anything has to be." He was pale, and his blanched face now showed a tinge of green.

"Hey man, I gave you like five airsickness bags to be safe so if there is going to be anything to clean up you will be the one doing it."

Yan was confused by these human frailties or had simply elected to ignore them. Either way, he brushed aside Sano's complaining and took his speech at face value. "Indeed it is better," he began. "And you shall soon see it."

Sano's throat was working in opposition with him so Kadat was quicker on the uptake. "Wait, what? The Spirit World, what are you talking about? We are landing in Haru to see if we find your spy with the info on the top secret Avatar project. And anyway, I thought that we had the only artificial portal in the world, and that is destroyed. There is no way the three of us are punching through the Avatar's control of any of the three real portals!"

Yan's false brow darkened at the mention of the Avatar, but he continued looking at Sano. "The portals do allow humans and spirits to cross over at full strength but there have always been those who can make their own way between the worlds. Avatar Korra punched her holes in a film, not a wall." He leaned close to Sano's seat, and the young man involuntarily shied back at his intensity. "In the cafe, I saw you react to the Avatar's assault on the fabric. I saw you feel the opening of the portal. Your line is a spiritual one, human. With training you will cast your spirit across the divide."

Sano was looking at a lined and weathered old face with watery brown eyes, but in his mind flashed the image of seven glittering jewels glaring down at him. He swallowed, willing his tossing stomach to quiet. "Ok. But why would I want to? I thought the Avatar pretty much controlled the spirit world?"

He instantly knew he had said the wrong thing as Yan jerked back. His robe twitched and bulged as strange motions roiled within him. The human face did not remember to move as the voice came out deep and dark from behind still lips. "Lies! That human postures at control with fear and traitors! Since my awakening she has grown ever more bold as the spirits grow ever more cowardly at the rumor of vanishings. But whatever obscene devices she has created, she is an outsider there and it is there that our human allies meet away from her eyes." Yan showed a great pull of effort and calmed himself. "I have myself watched the man Nakamura meet with his spy there. The spy will return to seek help against the Avatar's pursuit. You must be there to lead this human's observations to me."

Kadat did not like that direction this conversation was taking. "Hey, no one is sending him all alone into the gatorlion's den! Why do you even need him? You're a spirit and you got here. Why don't you just pop back over?"

Yan loomed up to meet this challenge, but found that Kadat was no longer backing down as before. So he turned in disgust, "I did not cross through the portals. I was rebuf...Most of my true essence remains on the other side and what little strength I have marshaled here would be lost if I returned. That is why the artificial portal was so important. With it my spirits could have advanced in all their numbers as before when the portals were not held against us. But it is lost. Now we must try another way. The young fire soul is our best chance to beat the Avatar to the spy."

"And what if we do? What then?! What could they know? Is there even a plan anymore now that our nation's fallen?" Kadat was furious, emotions that had been rising to a boil over the last day were bursting free. Now he was lashing back at Yan, bitter and mocking. "And if there is a plan, does it help us little humans at all?"

"Kadat!" Sano yelled.

"No, damn it, no!" Kadat continued. "Firelord Kazuo trusted him and look what happened. Look how broken up about it this spirit is! They don't care about this world at all!"

"You are wrong," said Yan, quiet within his battered disguise.

"What was that?" Kadat yelled. "Speak up, you didn't have any problem yelling when you were trying to boss our lord around!"

Yan turned on Kadat swiftly. Sano tried to jump up between them but stumbled as the plane hit a pocket of air. However no blows came. The spirit only said, "I have more interest in this mortal world more than you can appreciate. All you know is this current existence the Avatar has enforced. It was the Avatar who exiled my people and sealed the portals the Great Spirit made. In this age the spirit and the mortal worlds are once again woven together but the Avatar still tries to control their interface. She fortifies the portals as her keeps, no human bodily crosses the border without permission, and as you saw she now imprisons spirits who pass to this world. And still she dares for even greater mastery." Yan, ever with a sense of drama, here removed his human face like the mask it was, revealing shadows and gold and glittering eyes of gem.

"You ask what common cause spirits have with humans? We discovered the Avatar was researching something in her hall of machines. And when it was revealed the human governments were swift to make alliance with me. The Avatar is constructing another another Tree of Time."

Sano felt his blood turn to ice in his veins. He was dizzy, the yawning space of possibilities made it seem as if the bottom of the plane winked out of existence and he was tumbling down to the sea below. The Tree of Time? How was that even...

Kadat was only confused. "What?"

Yan merely grunted mouthlessly and gestured to Sano as he replaced his mask. "Your friend understands."

Sano tried to wet his mouth, trying to bring together all the scraps of information Aunt Jin might have mentioned in the past. "The Tree of Time binds together the physical and spiritual worlds. That the Avatar is making another is... I don't even understand. How can there be two? How do you build something like that?"

"This new Tree would be under the Avatar's command. She would have invincible dominion over both the spirit and mortal worlds as not has been possible for two ages. Nothing would be hidden, no fortress safe." Yan said. "Those are the stakes. This human spy has discovered a way to stop that."

Kadat was about to continue arguing but Sano interrupted. "All right, I'll do it. I will cross into the spirit world." He felt dramatic and heroic for a brief moment. Then it passed. "Or I would, if I had any idea how someone crossed into the spirit world."

Yan stood before him, arms crossed behind his body like a schoolteacher. "I will instruct you. It will be hard, it will require intense focus and unquestioning discipline and we have very little time to accomplish it. But if I am right about you, you will succeed before I break you."

Just then the plane hit a pocket of rough air and Sano felt his heart and several other organs jump up into his throat. He clutched his stomach and moaned, his other hand fumbling for the airsickness back as Yan loomed over him. "Just great, no pressure," he moaned. "Well at least there is no one on earth more miserable than me right now."

"Amala! Duck!"

Amala dodged and slipped, rolling into a deep dirty puddle as the spikes of an electrified cable smashed into the brick wall behind her. She sat up, muddy water seeping through her clothes in time to see the attacker charging towards her. The thing that had fallen from the sky was the size of a cow, shining with metal covered by plates of dull carbon. Four large, arching legs projected out from its body like a huge partially dismembered spider and below the glowing red eyes she could see other more delicate mechanical limbs cycling through weapon load-outs. All this she saw in terrifyingly clear detail because it was racing forward faster than she could think.

Bang!

Suddenly something happened to the front right leg of the machine and it lost its footing mid run, skidding to the side across the asphalt. It rose up in a second but was quickly rocked by three more invisible impacts that rang with sharp cracks. On the last, the monstrous thing twisted to the side and Amala reacted to the sound of a knife swiping against metal before a car window shattered down the block.

"Get up and run!" Green shouted as her hand reached into another pocket. "I'm not even denting the thing!" She tossed up a handful of small, smooth rocks which briefly slowed in their downward trajectory before her punching fist came among them and they vanished with a zip, followed by two more bangs against the robot and another smash of broken glass.

Amala scrambled to her feet and Green had time to see one of the robot's weapon arms aim something nasty at the girl before Green's last pebble knocked it aside, hopefully breaking something important. She grabbed Amala as she ran by and guided her around the street corner, yet she still took the time to yell back at the mechanical adversary, "Ha ha, yes! That's called aiming, suckas!"

The two girls ran down the empty street, encouraged forward by the loud whirring and crashing of their pursuit. Green shoved the airbender down another alley as she bent down in her run to scoop up more gravel. Amala yelled out as she panted, "Your a, gasp, bender? gasp, I thought you were, gasp, equalist!"

Green grabbed another handful of rocks as they turned a corner to face a tall wooden fence blocking their path. Two quick motions and two planks erupted with splintered holes at the appropriate heights for footholds. "Omashu school Opportunist actually, second wave." She ran forward and with the new holds she was able to grab the crossbeam of the fence and pull herself up, before turning to offer an arm down to Amala. "Benders can also be concerned about equality of opportunity. It's that same divisive narrative..."

Green had her arm outstretched as she saw Amala press something under her clothes and with a twirl and a burst of air that lifted her braid she sail neatly up to the top of the fence. As Amala landed her foot on the beam she said, "Could you talk politics somewhere away from the death machine!" Green muttered, "If I had a mu for every time I've heard that." The girl had time to give her an exasperated look before there was a crash behind them as the robot came skidding around the corner to slam against a wall. Amala lost her balance with a surprised chirp and fell to the far side of the fence. It sounded like she bent herself an air cushion before hitting the bottom but Green only had time to aim two more shots at the robot's eyes before leaping herself. As she fell back she was rewarded by the crack of one of those glowing cameras being extinguished as her bullet shattered through the thick glass lens.

She landed and carried her momentum into a roll, suddenly carrying new resentment in her hip for her earlier tumble across the alley floor. She yelled through gritted teeth, "How is that drone still chasing us? There is no way any controller is keeping line of sight on it!"

The shorter girl was feeling across her face to check the continued integrity of her glasses, "I don't know! It isn't acting like any..."

The two turned to run as they were showered by a burst of wooden shards. A long metal limb was smashing through that fence and the rest would be through in seconds. Which was bad news since it appeared the women were in a long space between two buildings that revealed empty loading docks on one side and a flat brick wall on the other. Nowhere to hide and only one direction to run, not that they could outrun that thing once it got going in a strait line. And now there were sirens approaching.

The wind shifted in a sudden gust and Green caught a face-full of misty rain. Through it and past several loading bays she saw a metal emergency ladder stretching down off the lefthand roof. It stopped a good three meters off the ground but they had no other options. She yelled at Amala, "Can you get us up there!?" Behind them the machine broke through the fence and bolted forward, now being enveloped from behind by a swiftly moving curtain of rain.

Green did not know any unprogramed moves to get up to the ladder but hopefully the airbender did if she could give her time. Amala was fumbling for something about her person, "Just a second!" she yelled. Green turned to face down their pursuer and punched out three more shots which cracked through the air. One struck true, but the robot seemed to have learned from earlier impacts and now flicked a metal cover across its remaining primary cameras right as the stone bullet struck. She wasn't stopping it. Then she saw something shift in the machinery it held against its undercarriage and something shot out towards her. Green twisted to the side but she felt something soft hit against her hand. Then she felt pain across her entire arm. There was a blue goop sticking to her glove and the skin of her fingers that sparkled with electricity. She screamed out as the limb went numb.

There was a faint clicking noise and Amala yelled, "Got it!" Suddenly Green felt the smaller girl's arms around her torso and a blinding blast of wind rose up around them. It was by pure luck that she reacted to catch hold of the nearest rung of the ladder and even then her remaining arm nearly left her socket as both her and Amala's weight suddenly renewed their relationship with gravity. She groaned and twisted to knock the other girl's shoulder against the ladder so maybe she would grab onto that instead of Green's waist which she was currently squeezing to death.

The rain came down on them and the rungs were deadly slippery where they were not coated with rust but they both managed to scramble up to the roof as the robot came whirring and crashing to a halt below them. Green had summited was just turning to Amala when the metal ladder structure gave a reverberating clang. Quickly she pulled up the other woman with her one good arm, and leaving the Amala sprawled across the damp and dirty tarpaper Green leaned over the edge of the roof. The metal monster had managed to hook one leg in the bottom rung of the ladder and was now pulling its self up, long limbs flailing and stabbing for purchase. Green dug for the last of her rocks but though both her one handed shots hit like the rounds of a railgun the body was barely scuffed and the spinning laser sensor was well shielded under its dome where it sat like the hump of a headless buffalo.

A shout came from behind her, struggled out between panting gasps. "Huamei! Green! There's lights on the other side of the..." Amala trailed off, sputtering as rainwater ran down her face. Green plastered her bangs back with a hand as she turned to look and sure enough, red and blue strobes were flashing below every other edge of this roof. Those sirens she had heard had been closer than she thought. It is funny how crazy science fiction robots will hold a monopoly on your attention.

The repeated clangs and smashes from beneath them showed that the robot would be up soon, and at this point Green finally let herself sag and feel the exhaustion. At least the rain was washing off the paralyzing goop. "Look Amala," she said. "The rain drove off the copters but the jig is pretty well up here." To emphasize her point an amplified voice boomed up from the police down on the main street, urging them to surrender to custody.

The other girl anxiously tugged on her sodden braid. "No! There's a door over there, can't you shoot out the..."

Green found herself coming down with a fit of giggling at the rapid decent into absurdity she had suffered. Why was she going through it for this girl? "Lady, I don't know exactly what you did to be so intent on running but this is too much for me. I can probably make a decent argument for common terror in running from the drone, but no way are they adding resisting arrest to me. My computer bag is really unfortunate to be caught wearing but hopefully the security protocol will erase my data like it's supposed to. I'm really sorry, but sometimes you got to take your licks."

Amala did not appear to be listening, "Wait! If I switch out circuits two and seven then...and we had a distraction, we could get away down the street..."

Green grabbed the other girl's shoulder as the airbender was once again digging through her pockets. "There's no distraction big enough. Amala, you're caught! Look, I know a guy whose brother's a lawyer. I can help you if..."

There was a zipping sound followed by heavy splashes landing on the roof. Two cops had now joined them, metal cables retracting back into their body-tracing powerframes. "You two, hands up!"

Green was already raising hers, wincing as she managed to lift the stricken arm "Officers, help! We were being chased by something! It's still coming up."

The cops were selecting other options on their power frames, "Other girl, hands up! This is your warning!"

Green hissed, "Amala!" but the other girl was looking at her clasped hands in front of her and frowning. She muttered to herself so that Green barely heard, "They are very close but if I..."

The officers were now about five meters away and increasingly testy. "Girl! Get your hands up right now or...What the hell is that?!"

The hunter robot pulled itself over the lip of the roof with a scrape of metal on brick, front two legs digging in and flexing like the talons of some immense hand raising up a red eyed demon from the abyss. That was a distraction but not of the scale Amala had been hoping for so as Green watched the cops and the robot she brought her hand to her mouth for what looked like a kiss and cast her opening palm forward. Nothing visible happened but Amala spun to grab Green's waist and pull her back at the same time that she activated her bending circuit.

Green yelled, the cops yelled, the robot lunged forward and then something erupted into existence that smacked Green in the back so hard they went flying off the building. In mid air an ear-rattling gust caught them and Green felt her and Amala soaring across the street before landing on a soft cushion of a tornado.

"Gah! Wha..?" Green managed before things began to register in her mind and she looked back to see the building they had stood on being ripped apart by a dark coil of giant snakes. Or that is what she thought it was until one shot out over the road to sink its self into the splintering concrete near her and she saw small leaves rapidly unfurling. Vines?

Amala was tugging on her hand. "Come on! Please!" Green allowed herself to be dragged off as the sounds of crumpling metal and smashing masonry mixed with screams behind her. What had she gotten into? "Amala," she said. "What did you...I saw those cops get hit, hard. I think that..." She could barely organize the image of that chaotic second, all she had was the impression of bending limbs and of sounds, the snapping of metal or vines or...

Sano sat perfectly still, focusing on breathing in and out. Putting out of mind the rumble of the plane and the feeling of the seat. Feeling his breath stir the pattern of his chi as his aunt had taught him long ago. With his eyes closed his mind tried to fill his vision with splotches of swirling color to make up for his missing sight but he worked to ignore that, instead visualizing a single point of light. A single light into which he fed his emotions, his self, and his senses. He smelled something. Wait no, he was not supposed to be focusing on his senses, but what...no he had lost the focus. He sighed and opened his eyes.

Yan's face was inches from his nose.

Once Sano was done screaming and Kadat was done laughing, Yan continued his irritated lecturing. In his agitation, the human face he wore had become slightly detached from his control and seemed to be cycling through random emotions. This did not make it easier to give him the reverence he demanded. "You ridiculous mortals!" He ranted, old man face shifting from ecstatic grin to coy embarrassment. "You cling to your bodies like they were some precious thing! How you ever managed to rise out of the mud I will never understand! Do you all have such little focus!"

Kadat responded, slightly insulted. "Hey, don't compare us all to Sano!"

"Thanks bud," Sano grumbled. "Look Yan, we've been at this for less than an hour. When my aunt was training my bending I spent weeks learning to seize control of my chi. Now you want me to let it go, and that is going to take a while!"

Yan rose up, disgusted. "Don't compare your turtle magic to my teachings. We have no time for your boastings and posturing. I am Lord Yan and you will do as I say!"

Kadat moved in to smooth tensions, "Hey everybody. Easy." Then he turned to Kadat, "Actually, we will be landing fairly soon so it would be really nice if you made a spiritual breakthrough right now so we knew where to go and won't be stuck at the airport."

Sano groaned but he knew Kadat was saying the truth. They were stumbling free without any more than a hint of what to do. If they wanted to break the Avatar's power and save the Fire Nation they needed to make contact with the spy. And they needed to do it before the Avatar did. He sighed and closed his eyes, "All right. I apologize, Lord Yan."

He sat there concentrating as Yan's voice droned on. "You must let go of your attachment to your physical form. Let go of your senses. Identify that part of you which does not interact with the dust and the smoke and then stretch it out to touch the similar essence in all things."

Sano kept himself from grimacing, but this explanation again made no sense. Try as he might he could not get anywhere close to detaching himself from his body. Closing his eyes only made his hearing more focused. If he tried to block out his perception of sound he could now feel the motion of every hair on his body. Even the beating of his heart began to feel like an unconquerable distraction. But wait, maybe a different tactic. Guided by a hopeless sense of inspiration or raw boredom, Sano tried to reverse the process. Instead of shutting out, he tried to welcome it all in. The droning vibration of the engines were taken into the depths of his bones. Every sound was catalogued and mashed together into an indecipherable conglomeration. He tried to feel everything at once so his mind would not be able to separate any sensation to give it conscious thought. It was overwhelming.

And it did not work.

Nothing happened. He felt nothing special. No falling sensation or perception of the world on the other side of the spiritual veil. Oh well, it didn't hurt to try. "All right teacher Yan, I am ready for the next hint. I don't think I am getting very far as it is."

Yan was refusing to chime in. Sano sighed as he held his eyes closed, "Yeah, yeah, patience and discipline, but before it comes to that I think I need some insight as to what exactly I am trying to do! You've told me a ton about what to search for once I am in the spirit world but I have understood nothing about how to actually get there in the first place!" The breeze tickled his nose and he wrinkled it to keep from sneezing. "Yeah, all right. I have lost my focus so you might as well..."

He opened his eyes.

He nearly fell off the tree trunk as he saw branches sticking strait out into the air in a fanlike formation. They were covered with evergreen needles at the tips but near the trunk the limbs were bare and widely spaced like spokes marching out or up to the narrowing crown where the tree gave way to sky in front of him. Sano spun around and saw the ground behind him. He was sitting on the side of the trunk of a tall tree looking up at the sky. He jumped back down to solid ground only to fall right back up on to the pine tree and begin sliding off the curved diameter of the trunk. His fingers scrabbled for a hold and as he looked down he saw the forest stretching out far below him punctured with the spikes of rocks and trees like gargoyles on some infinite building, the ground at his right and the sky at his left.

Sano regained his perch and sat panting on his horizontal trunk with his back against the uncomfortably perpendicular earth. It was then that he noticed panting was not actually doing anything and he felt no real need to breath. All right, the spirit world. That was easy.

Profoundest terror of a world gone mad slightly subsided, Sano tried to gain some sense of orientation. This proved exceedingly difficult. A bit of dirt grabbed from the earthwall fell right back against it when he let go. He was the only thing which seemed to be disagreeing with the local gravity. If such a term could be applied here. Above him the ground seemed to slope into an overhang, and down below him the uneven forest wall crisscrossed with vertically flowing streams seemed to have a general curvature as well. Crawling on his hands and knees Sano made his way up or across the rough bark of the pine trunk until the wood began to sag upwards rather distressingly. But he did not need to go farther as he could see the sky, or in this case the lack there of.

He was on the inside of a giant sphere, one filled with a rocky pine forest across the entire inside surface. The only breaks in the twisted engulfing horizon were three vast pits that punctured various spots in one hemisphere and were rimmed with mist from the many small streams tumbling down or out or up over their lip. Nothing before him made sense but through the lowest of the holes Sano thought he saw a distant mountain that blessedly shared his opinion of down. Now all he had to do was get out there.

This he managed, lowering himself from tree to tree until the slope of the ground below curved enough towards horizontal to allow walking. Then he was making his way uphill, following a little rivulet that burbled up the slope with happy ignorance of physics. The rough and rocky rim of this hole in the sphere-world drifted with rising mist from the tumbling of small waterfalls that dropped outward until abruptly reestablishing directional consensus into a uniform down. From his damp perch leaning over this exit Sano could see a broad vista through this dribbling curtain, a wide flat valley ringed with the sharp points of mountains and beyond an expanse shrouded with clouds in which vague shapes appeared and vanished.

"All right," Sano muttered to himself. "That bit of land looks more reasonable. I just wish I knew how I was going to get downnnAAAAHHH!"

Sano clinging to the edge of this stone pit looking out as everything abruptly disappeared. He felt existence shred around him and hurtle through his body like a whirlwind of knives as he fell up and down and drowned in fire. And then he was safe, standing unmolested in a flower filled meadow ringed by tall trees. Sano carefully considered his situation and after deliberation decided to scream again. "AAAaahhhhh!

"Will you be quiet!"

The voice rang out from behind him but as Sano turned there was no one there, only rocks and trees and flowers. He instinctively flexed his hand to summon a threatening ball of flame but nothing happened. "Oh right, no bending in the spirit world."

"Well not for those who enter the normal way, but try telling that to the Avatar and her people."

Once again Sano darted his head back and forth but saw no hint of a speaker behind any tree or shock of grass. "Um, hello?" he chanced. There was no reply. Feeling completely overwhelmed he took a seat on a large flat rock at the edge of the meadow. It held a shallow pool of water in a hollow on its surface that every few seconds grew by a single drop of dew that dripped off the leaf of an overhanging bow. It was a peaceful scene and allowed Sano to collect his mind so that he managed to process what he saw when he looked up. Looming above the forest was a tall stony mountain shaped or carved like a headless human figure holding a sphere as large as its weathered torso. The sphere had three large holes evenly spaced in a triangle across one side which trailed sparkling lines of water. He thought he could see pine trees inside.

"Huh," was the analysis Sano could muster. "But how did I get down from...I do not understand the spirit world at all."

"You don't understand manners either or do strangers come and sit their butts down on you in your world?"

Sano jumped up and looked down at the rock on which he had sat. It was grey with patches of moss and looked like every other boulder in the meadow he could see. Nevertheless he knelt down to address the nearest patch of granite. "I apologize, spirit. This is my first visit to your world and I did not see you."

"Yeah, stand up kid. It makes me uncomfortable for you to be talking to my knee like that."

Sano stood up to examine the patch of landscape before him that held nothing but the large boulder with its dew decked tree and behind them the rest of the forest. Still he could not see what he was talking to. He brought his hands together far in front of him, bowing in apology to the general area and trying to see if he felt anything invisible standing in front of him but there was only air. Another drop splashed into the otherwise still pool.

"And while you are apologizing, how about throwing one out for Mo helping you down after you blundered in. Guy didn't have to give you a hand you know."

This time Sano way paying close attention and somehow got the sense that there was some vibration to the tree itself or in the water on the rock that responded with the spirit's speech. But Aunt Jin had tried to train him to be respectful so he made to apologize to whoever 'Mo' was. For lack of a better direction he turned his face up towards the mountain holding the sphere from which he had received this 'help'. Once again he could not see anyone. "Thank you...Mo. I appreciate, um, whatever you did."

Sano bowed vaguely into the distance, feeling foolish. The mountain waved back, turning the vast sphere with its other hand so the three holes looked down at the little meadow. Sano decided to stop questioning things. "He's...nice."

"Yeah, he's a sweet old guy. A little shy about his body but what can you do but be supportive. Anyway he vouches for you so I'm Water-falling-from-tree-into-pool-on-stone. What can I do for you to get you out of my drafting studio."

The human gestured uncertainly around him. "Well it looks very nice." He said, hoping that being a random patch of woodland meadow was a normal state of affairs for a spirit's workplace. "What do you design if I might ask?"

It was interesting to watch a specific arrangement of tree, rock and dripping water express haughty condescension but the idea was conveyed. "Why, the wind of course. Mostly zephyrs and breezes. I don't touch gusts."

Sano failed to keep the confusion from his voice, "The wind?"

"What, you have a problem with that? Don't think a woman can be an architect?" came the snappy reply as a drop fell angrily.

"No, no, no! Not at all! I..." Despite not have muscles to fatigue Sano felt a sudden need to sit down.

Sano tried to pick out a seat in the meadow that was not part of this landscape-architect's body. He gestured to a hummock of grass and the pool of water rippled in what Sano was just going to assume was a permissive manner. He collapsed, folding his legs before him. In an effort to collect his thoughts he looked out at what he could take in of the surrounding vista. Behind him the land angled up to one of the pointed mountains that surrounded the wide valley where Mo sat. This meadow was high enough on the slope that in the other direction Sano could see beyond where Mo loomed to where the valley fall away sharply into mist only to rise again faintly in the far distance in another similar flat valley ringed by the same sort of peaks. The sky shone with no hint of sun.

It was beautiful but the sight clarified Sano's problem. He had been told to ask for directions but how exactly was he going to get around in this strange world? A tiny deer, barely as tall as Sano's knee but sporting a broad rack of flat bowl-like antlers walked out of the meadow grass, wildflowers brushing its chin. It was not a faun, though it had spots across its back its wide green eyes shone with age and the antlers were covered with lichen and a few pebbles. However to Sano the appearance of being made of flesh and blood rather than of stone or assorted geographic features made this miniature creature comforting. It walked over to Sano, regarding him without fear, and as he held out his hand it moved close. Smiling he leaned over and gently stroked the tiny head between those flat little antlers.

"Well your manners may need work I can't say you aren't brave, touching Lu like that," said Water-falling.

Sano drew back his hand but the little deer only looked at him in disappointment so he returned his finger to stroke the tiny head. Sano felt only a sense of peace and protection. "Nothing feels dangerous about him, and he does not appear to mind."

The tree component of the architect rustled, "I never said he was, it's the clumsy human I am worried a out."

"What are you..." Then a motion in the distance caught Sano's eye. Down and across the valley where the land fell away into mist a massive pillar bigger than any of the surrounding mountains now pierced down out of the cloudy vagueness of the sky. On one side it was smoothly rounded and shiny, on the other rough and lined and it was infused with a pink color of red. It was a finger. It was a finger the size of a small continent reaching down between the two wide valleys ringed by peaks shaped like antler tines. And it moved in time to Sano stroking the little deer's head before him.

Sano sat back, consigning Lu to being disappointed by the end of petting and trying not to look too closely at the basins of those little antlers. In tiny detail he thought he could see the speck that was Mo shift in position. From now on, no touching anything. He needed to contact the spy quickly or he was not going to survive here. He addressed Water-falling, judging that her previous statements had not indicated a love of the Avatar. "My lady spirit, I am here on behalf of a spirit currently in the mortal world. I need to find a way to 'The Wooden Canyon', and do so away from...official eyes."

The spirit mulled, "Hmmmm," as Lu began to browse on small sprigs that sprouted around the edge of the bolder. The deer spirit's antlers knocked lightly against the stone in a way that made Sano wince. "That's not as easy as it was a moment ago. Just fifty years back, there were any number of choices. Now the wildflower dreams are fortified by humans and branded ones patrol the meditation on eight stone steps. Kage the Thief and the Western Fox could get around them fine, but I hear they seem to be hiding now. No one has seen them. And there is no appealing to the ancients since they are all..." Here she stopped, pool falling to stillness.

Sano considered himself pretty good at reading body language. That talent gave him no help. He had no idea how much time was passing here, Yan had said that such things depended entirely on his own mental discipline. At the moment he was not feeling very disciplined. He had been warned to use caution but he decided now was the time to disregard that and roll the metaphorical dice. "I was sent by Yan."

As he said that name the ground trembled. Water-falling was less impressed, "I don't recognize that name. That is a spirit?" At the foot of her boulder Lu pawed agitatedly at pebbles before shaking his head and with a final snort trotted off into the underbrush. Water-falling's pool rippled. "Oh, that is one of those agitators. Not one I've heard about but I know the type."

Sano found himself gripping the dirt as the tiny deer stormed out of sight. He cleared his throat. "Um, Lu seemed upset. Are we going to be ok?"

Water-falling's voice chuckled, "Don't mind him. He just tries to stay out of all this human and spirit stuff. He's old enough to remember the last time. I guess that gave him his fill, though I wouldn't know. It was long before my era. Still," She continued. "Mo wants me to help you and I would love to get you out of my way so I will give you your directions."

Sano clapped his hands together, "That's great. But, um, couldn't you just teleport me again, like Mo did to get me down from...well, Mo? It's just that it seems like it might be pretty far and we have a time consideration."

The chuckle returned with a bit more gentle wickedness, "Oh, Mo is going to throw you all right. I thought you might want to know where you are going so you don't end up at the doorstep of the Fog of Lost Souls. So I am going to paint you a map."

As the last syllable died away a hush fell over the meadow. The tree over the boulder shivered and the surface of the little pool shuddered in ripples which instead of dying away rebounded and reflected in constantly canceling waves. Through the wildflowers and the leaves of the forest a rustling grew. It built in volume as it seemed to come in close, swirling around Sano with the scent of grass and damp bark. Suddenly there were colors in the air, flashes of hues like ribbons of impossibly thin gossamer. The colors coalesced in front of Sano in a transparent swirling ball. Wonderstruck Sano reached forth one hand to touch its boundary surface when a hand reached back to meet the tip of his finger. It was an ephemeral human arm, composed of the same colored wind, and now what it was connected to was not a ball of air, but the shifting suggestion of a woman drifting above the ground.

Sano could not help from jumping back. This new spirit had appeared suddenly, and though her form was humanlike the constantly swirling colors that indicated her shape made it very clear that this shape did not include clothes. Sano had a quick mental battle over whether looking away was respectful or rude when it came to spirits and ended up postponing the decision by bowing deeply enough that his eyes met the ground rather than the girl.

Water-falling sounded amused, "Oh sure, the map you are polite to."

Sano started to form a question before rising, "Wha..."

Suddenly a transparent face of pastel hues was floating upside down before his. She smiled, "Map!"

Sano got up and turned back to the agglomeration of Water-falling. Well he tried. He had to keep jerking his head to one side or another as the colors girl insisted on popping up inches from his nose at different angles. In the end he settled for a sort of waltz that kept him moving enough to leave the transparent girl a few steps behind. "Um, who is this?" he said as he tried not to stumble over the uneven ground.

Water-falling spoke, "Who? Oh, the map. I told you I design winds, what did you expect?"

Sano turned back to the wind girl who was apparently also a map. He blushed, envisioning the technique of examining her for directions. The girl herself helpfully replied with her own contribution. "Map!"

"Yes, yes, you sure are dear." Water-falling murmured absently. "Though maps don't strictly need to announce themselves. So now, human, I think..."

A scream rang out above them. It reverberated across the entire antler valley like the screech of a metal eagle, raising flocks of birdlike somethings from the flanks of Mo. A shadow whisked across the meadow, vast against whatever sun-like light source this world possessed. Then another shadow like a pair of vast wings. Wings with patterned holes in them, letting light down that traced the Yin-yang symbol of the Avatar across the ground.

Sano twisted franticly, but could not see what had cast the shadow. Others acted more constructively. Water-falling's voice rang out, "Damn that woman. She is searching again. Mo, do it now!"

In the distance, Mo shifted the giant sphere that was his head so he could reach out with one cliff sized stony army and point down at the meadow. Sano felt a similar sensation of the world dissolving around him, but now something pressed around his chest as the wind girl clung to him. She yelled out in the shattering existence, "Map!" and Sano felt his fall begin to take on direction. For a moment he could still hear Water-falling's voice in his ear.

"Goodbye human. Be careful of what crowd you fall in with and watch out for yourself. War is coming soon enough."

-Continued-