Okay so I posted this chapter early and it might happen a few times throughout book 2. The reason is sometimes my Monday's can be a bit chaotic. So if Monday is going to be crazy, I might post a chapter Sunday night EST. It will be a rare event but will probably happen again sometime. I have changed the name of the chapter because 'Strange Tales' just didn't seem to fit completely. My editor and I came up with this which is much cooler haha. Enjoy.

Chapter 11

Secrets Revealed

"Um, excuse me?" Lamara exclaimed. "You're from a different world?"

"Yes, of course, now let us speak at length in a more secure area," she told us.

We couldn't get anything else out of her, so we walked through the mountains until sunset. We set up camp in a small clearing in a cluster of trees. I felt the uneasiness creep up my spine once again. Lalima Ekala walked in a circle around the camp, muttering things while holding the stick.

"Hey, um, Lalama-" Shan began.

"Lalima Ekala," she corrected and turned to him. Her tone was kind but with a subtly fierce expression.

"How 'bout we just call you L. E.?" Koluk asked.

"Mmm," she smiled somewhat amusedly, then went back to her muttering.

"Whatever, so uh, L. E., what are you doing?" Shan asked her.

"I have just finished putting up protective wards," she said and sat down by the fire.

I could tell the uneasiness had been lessened a bit.

"So could you explain a bit more of what you meant when you said you were from a different world?" I asked politely.

"I meant exactly what I said; I am from a different world. There is a Spirit World, is there not?" I nodded. "So why could there not be another world just beyond your reach or sight? Why not two or three or hundreds?" L. E. looked at all of us.

"Well - I - um-" I was at a loss for words.

"Exactly. I come from one of those worlds," she said.

"So why are you here?" Lamara asked.

"I am here to help. However, you must first understand everything. My world has three races of people. First, The Cloud People: they have skin of pure white and are usually the fairest and kindest of us. Then there are the Gray Folk. I am a member of that race. Our skin is gray, and we are the middle ground of the races. The third and final are the Night Walkers. Their skin is as black as the night sky with no stars or moon. They keep to themselves and are a more fierce people."

I felt like those words should be important to me.

"When referring to all three races as one people, we say 'The All Folk.' The All Folk are a very powerful people. We have many extraordinary talents, including your bending arts, but that is only a small part of our powers. Despite our extensive power, each one of us has one ability that presides above the others. Mine, for instance, is nature magic, which consists of anything and everything to do with nature to a certain extent. In your terms, you would call it, plant bending."

She held out her hand. A rose bush suddenly sprung from the ground and deposited a rose in L. E.'s hand then retracted back into the earth.

"That was beautiful," Lamara said, stunned.

"Thank you, but plants can be just as fierce as they are beautiful. Many people think that the ability you are strongest with, matches your personality. I, for instance again, can be gentle and strong. Over the years, we have had several tyrants rise up. There was Kris; she was a Cloud Walker. It is rare for one of them to be poisoned with bad thoughts, so she was unexpected, and that was her advantage. Her specialty was ice sorcery. She rose up quickly and was a threat at first, but our military soon took her down and sent her off to prison for her evil crimes. Then there was Mal, he was of my race. His talents were in animal charms. He could tame most animals and even transform himself into other beasts. He could also adopt the abilities of animals. He could climb up slick surfaces like a spider, breathe fire like a dragon, fly like a bird, run like a cheetah- you get the idea. He was a bit harder to bring down as you may imagine. I actually helped in his capture for the best way to take down one of the All Folk is to use the opposite of his talent on him. Mal worked with animals, and the opposite of animals is plants. The thing with most of these people is that they work alone and think their power is enough when it is not. They are arrogant and selfish. They are all threats, but minor ones. The worst of our tyrants is Avon, a Night Walker."

"Wait a second, for the others you said 'was' as in not anymore, but for Avon, you said 'is.' Why is that?" I pointed out.

"That is because they were defeated; Avon is still at large," L. E. explained.

"Dare I ask his magical talent?" I said, thinking I knew where she was going with this.

"Avon's talent is Dark Magic," she said. "What he is most famous for is raising shadow armies."

"How come all the big bad guys can always raise armies or stuff like that?" Koluk said.

"Well think about it," L. E. said, "Mal and Kris weren't big threats because it was just them. No matter what they could do, they acted alone and were one threat. That is why Avon is a 'big bad guy.' He does act alone, but an army behind him can make a huge difference. Think of it in your world. If the Fire Lord still had all of his world conquering plans but no army, would he be much of a threat to the world? No he wouldn't. Sure, he would still be a threat but nothing you couldn't handle."

"I - I suppose," Koluk responded.

"Why are you bringing Mal, Kris, and Avon up in the first place?" I asked her.

"Because Fire Lord Ozai is not this world's only threat. I was able to figure out Avon's next target world- your world. He has conquered thirteen others. I was able to just find out that he was coming here, so I tried to arrive before him. It seems I was successful. It is also believed that he has broken Mal and Kris out of prison and taken them under his wing and is commanding them. Separate Mal and Kris were no real threat. However, under Avon's tutelage and together, they will be a grave threat," she said.

I was trying to process all this information, and it wasn't going well.

"So, uh, this Avon is targeting our world next, and he has some sort of dark magic?" I asked.

"Yes, I believe so. Those people at the forest today were shadows he raised. That is why I appeared there. I looked for the most dark magic, and I was drawn to your battle," she said.

"You also said you were trying to get here before him," Lamara remembered.

"Yes, he will be here soon," L. E. said.

"Well then I'd say we get a move on tomorrow. Though, you might be pretty recognizable if you look like that L. E.," I said.

"Oh, it is no problem," she said and transformed.

Her gray skin filled with color, and her angled features became more normal looking. Her unusual, metallic hair turned into dark, silky locks. Soon, a fairly normal looking girl stood before us. Everything about her seemed average except her clothing, and her eyes remained purple.

"Uh, okay, well that's settled, we can sort out your clothes in the morning" I said, at a loss for words at what I just saw. A question popped into my head. "Why is Avon so interested in our world anyway?"

"He is already a major problem and any world added to his small empire is bad. But this one in particular is special. Now, I know what I have said is hard to accept, but it might be harder to accept what I am about to tell you," L. E. warned us. "This world would be a great gain for him. Once he takes a world, all of its people and resources become his. He is a great manipulator, and what he does is he take the most powerful person in that world, like the Chosen One or something similar, and he corrupts this person. That way, he will have a powerful ally and be able to take out his opponent at once. That is his usual technique, and it is quite successful. The reason this world is such a prize is because it has multiple dimensions."

"What are dimensions?" Koluk asked.

"They are alternate universes, a different reality. This world has several, but two reign over the others; this is one of the two," L. E. explained.

"And the other?" Moji asked.

"The other is a bit more complicated. It is overall, a normal place with nothing extraordinary. All the people that live there are not extraordinary either. To you, they are all non benders, but they make up for the lack of their abilities in their technology. They are incredibly advanced. But underneath the surface, lies a society hidden from them. The people there are known as witches and wizards. They are people with magical talents but need a wand to channel and control it. Exactly like the people today. Certain words or phrases indicate the type of spell they want to cast. I believe you, Hyriu, posses these magical talents. Though I can't be sure now, and we do not have the time to test it at this moment. The reason it would be so bad if Avon were to be successful here is because of its multiple dimensions. Each dimension is like a world, so he would be taking several worlds all at once. The Darkness will be here swiftly. We must set out at dawn," L. E. announced.

I could tell we were all having trouble understanding all of this. L. E. just went from one thing to another without a pause, and it was exhausting. I focused on what I understood.

"Okay we will set out at dawn. Let's see." I looked at the maps of the Earth Kingdom to see what the best route would be.

"We could take The Wall of Earth?" Moji suggested. "It has a path that leads north, and it will help us cut across a lot of land." She showed me on the map.

"What is The Wall of Earth?" Lamara questioned.

"It is a natural rock formation that is literally a wall. We can walk atop it, so we don't have to wander around the mountains," Moji said.

"So, Hyriu, how many more people are we going to pick up and take with us?" Koluk asked.

"I don't know. I feel like this is a good group to go up against the Avatar and the Darkness, but we will see," I answered him.

"Wait, the Avatar? A team going up against Avon?" L. E. exclaimed. "I was hoping we could contact the world leaders and notify them of the coming threat, so they can prepare for it."

"Well, I don't know how much you know about our world, but we have been at war for one hundred years, so that isn't really possible. The Air Nomads are all but eradicated, the Northern Water Tribe is strong but small, the Earth Kingdom is falling fast, and the Fire Nation is causing all of it. They aren't in their right minds to prepare for another threat. The Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation are too busy fighting to do anything else," Shan snapped.

L. E. sighed, "I know what is going on. I just hoped that your world would unite against Avon."

"Our world will never be united," Shan said bitterly.

"And the Water Tribe has a plan decades in the making. Whether you meant to or not, you came to the perfect people. I am the embodiment of that plan. I should probably fill you in on everything," I told L. E.

The others went to sleep while I explained as much as I could to L. E. It was late in the night when I was able to get some sleep. Akiko once again showed her face in my nightmares.

How many times did you have to re read that to understand it? I had to do it a few times and I wrote it. Well I had to re read the rough versions which were much worse. In case you can't tell, this a very watered down version of all that information. Well normally the chapter names are symbolic or comples, but the next chapter tells you everything you need to know to get excited.

Chapter 12: The Avatar and the Anzen will go up Thursday.