Since we're on Ember Island, and everyone is in a bad mood after the play we watched, I've got an idea that should cheer everyone up a little. And who knows, we might find something interesting on this little treasure hunt.
I go to the courtyard, where Zuko and Aang are cooling off after practice, and everyone else is sitting around relaxing. "Hey guys, does anyone feel like going on a treasure hunt?"
Toph is immediately interested. "A treasure hunt? What for?"
I laugh a little. "Something really cool, I promise. Well, assuming that it's still standing?"
"Uh, last I checked, there's no treasure here on Ember Island." Zuko puts his shirt back on after drying off, and walks over. "If there was, I probably would have heard about it as a kid. Besides, we don't have time to be going on treasure hunts."
"Yeah, we don't really have any time to play around." Surprisingly, Aang takes Zuko's side on this.
But I came prepared. "Oh well, I guess I'll get to keep all the master level firebending techniques for myself."
That gets their attention, and Aang looks curious now. "Wait, what are you talking about? What exactly is this treasure?"
I grin eagerly. "It's not so much a what, as a where…" I point up to the volcano. "I know approximately where it is, all I need is some help to find it, and maybe dig it out."
Now Sokka is moderately interested. "What, is it another hidden library? Because the last time we went in one of those, we nearly got buried alive."
I shake my head. "Not exactly. There is a library in there, but that's only part of the structure." I take a piece of paper from my sleeve, and roll it open to show them. "It's my family's palace. I want to get inside and find the archives. There's still something that I haven't learned yet, and I really want to figure out what it is."
They all looks surprised, to say the least, but Sokka nods. "Alright, I can see why you would want to go. And who knows, maybe we'll find something we can use against the Fire Lord."
I shrug. "No promises, but maybe. According to the stories my grandparents told me, the archives are enormous. And, they contain everything we ever learned about firebending."
Zuko frowns, then sighs. "Alright, this could be good. But I hope that you know where you're going. I doubt that anyone's touched that place in a hundred years."
A smile works its way back onto my face. "Oh, don't worry. It's up the volcano. We shouldn't have a hard time finding it. I just want to make sure that I can get in. I have no idea what could have happened to the outside in a century, so it's best to be prepared."
"Then let's go!" Toph jumps to her feet and grabs my arm. "I've never explored an ancient palace before, I wanna go feel what it's like!"
Instead of yanking my arm out of her grip, I close my fingers around her arm instead, and pull her along. "Alright!"
The two of us sprint out of the vacation house and head towards the mountain. And judging from the footsteps behind us, everyone else is going to be joining us on this little adventure. And Toph is almost as excited as I am. "So how big is this place supposed to be?"
I shrug, as much as I can while running along like this. "I'm not sure. But trust me, it's going to be pretty huge. Bigger than the vacation house, and bigger than your house. Supposedly, it held our entire family, as well as the court. This has always been a vacation island for the nobles, so court would be held here. We're looking for a pretty big building. So you'll probably find it before the rest of us!"
"Hey, slow down a little! You're going to make me trip!" Toph's panting alarms me, so I do slow down, right to a stop.
I turn to look at the poor girl that I've been dragging up a mountain, and I let go of her arm. "Sorry…I just got a little too excited." I look over her shoulder, down the hill, and see the others running to catch up. "Jeez, I really did move too quickly."
Aang catches up first, running like the wind. "Ciara…wait…up…we can't…keep up…"
I wince slightly. "Sorry, Aang. I just really want to find this place."
"I know." He leans over to catch his breath. "But…what if what you're looking for isn't there? It's been a hundred years…"
I entertain the idea of finding nothing but ash. And it's plenty likely. But, I'd prefer to air on the optimistic side. "I know, there might be nothing there, it might all have been burned to ash. But I'll never know if I don't try to find it. And there's always a chance that the palace might still be there. If it is, what we'll find inside is going to be incredible."
After a minute, everyone else catches up, and Sokka glares at me. "You know, you could have told us that we were going to have to walk this far. I wasn't planning on hiking up a mountain today."
I roll my eyes. "Well, I'm sorry that this trip is too long for your delicate constitution. Next time, I'll be sure to bring you a tent and some food."
"That would be nice."
I shake my head and point up the slope. "It's only another half mile or so, maybe less. We're getting pretty close. It's supposed to be on the east side of the volcano, facing the direction the sun rises from. Well, the entrance does, anyway."
"Then let's get moving again, the sooner we find this place, the better." Zuko leans against a tree, getting a little impatient. "We don't have a lot of time to spare."
I nod. "Then if everyone is done catching their breath, then let's get moving." I turn towards the east side of the volcano, with a hill lying between us and our destination. "Off to the palace…"
We alternate between walking and running the last half mile, and we make it to the top of the hill. I start looking around for anything that I could use as identification. And I soon find it. Hidden under the growth of the forest, are tiny remains of what looks like stonework. And not just any stonework, but stonework with red pillars, inlaid with gold. These are the ruins of a palace. "This is it! We're here!"
Aang looks around, far more upset than I am. "There's almost nothing left…this place got burned down a long time ago."
I stare at the ruins, a little confused by what I see. Sure, there are scorch marks everywhere, but something is wrong, it should be a lot bigger. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. Sokka looks at the pillars, then up to where the roof should be. "I thought this place would be bigger, and, you know, not so wrecked. The way you described it…made me think that it would be huge, like Wan Shi Tong's library. This place is just…tiny."
"Yeah…" I look around, walking further in. and then, I notice a discrepancy. "Wait a minute…" And I can see that the juncture of the rock and the wall is strange. "This isn't caved in…"
"What are you talking about? It looks pretty caved in to me." Zuko knocks on the rock. "It's probably been crushed."
But I've seen enough earthbending to know what this is. "Well well…this is a surprise. I'd heard that they'd employed people from other nations here, but I wasn't expecting earthbenders to be on the payroll." I knock hard on the rock, a grin spreading across my face. "Looks like this place got sealed up when Sozin attaked. His army only got to destroy the front porch." I turn to Toph. "Think you can give me a hand and open this place up? Gently…"
She cracks her knuckles, grinning. "No problem." She smacks her hands against the rock wall and looks surprised. "Wow, you weren't kidding. That place is huge! It extends right into the volcano, and it's built on solid rock pillars. I don't think they just employed earthbenders here, I think that they helped in the construction of this place. It's almost all intact!"
That's exactly what I was hoping to hear. "Alright, then let's open this place up."
Toph slams her palms to the rock walls, and cracks extend from where her hands touch the stone. With a few quick movements, the rocks crumble, and she shoots them out in all directions, throwing them off into the forest, clearing the way inside.
And just as I expected, behind those rocks are a huge set of doors, completely intact. "I knew it…I knew that they wouldn't go down without a fight."
Aang frowns. "Do you think there's stills someone here?"
I shake my head. "No. This place wasn't meant to hold off a siege. And if they'd closed themselves in here, that's what would have happened. Sozin's men probably killed all that they found in the front area, the ones who had come out to fight. The rest probably tried to escape into the air."
"Into the air? What are you talking about?"
I blink at Aang, feeling like I'm about to point out the obvious. "Into the air, as in, on dragons."
Everyone's jaws drop, Zuko's most prominently. "They had dragons here? How?"
I shrug. "I dunno, but according to the stories Grandpa heard, there were a dozen dragons here. That's how they traveled between the islands so quickly. It's probably also why Sozin decided to turn hunting dragons into a sport, he tried to wipe out our historic link with them, as well as our mode of transportation." Then I turn to the door. "Anyway, now it's time to open these doors."
Sokka, like usual, runs up to try and open the doors himself. "They won't budge!"
I try to stifle a laugh, but fail. "Of course they won't open like that…remember, everyone born into my family is a firebender. The way to open the doors is like this." I shove him out of the way and press my palms to the doors. "Come on…move…" Flames burst from my fingertips, spreading out over the doors, and dipping into the indents and holes. Gears start turning within the doors, and they start to creak open. "Yes!" I give them one good push, and they swing open with a deafening thud.
The inside is dark, but I walk inside, measuring my steps carefully. Beside me, Aang lights a fire in his palm. "It's so dark in here…how do you know where you're going?"
"I don't know…" I just follow my instincts another twenty feet, then stop. "Here…" I look down, and see a familiar pattern. "It's here. This is the great hall. This is where all of the hallways connect to. Now…how do I open them…?"
"Why don't you try dancing for them? Don't dragons like dances?" Katara makes a joke aimed at when Zuko and Aang learned the Dancing Dragon form.
But that gives me a great idea. "Good idea." I motion to Aang. "Hey, get everyone back, I need room to dance."
"Uh…I was just kidding."
"Well I'm not." I look at the symbol on the floor, as well as the grooves and indents. "Now I see…I see why he insisted that I learn that one so thoroughly…"
Aang backs away carefully. "Okay, I'm nervous. What exactly are you planning to do?"
I smile back at them, and I place one hand behind me, and one in front of me. "Like I said, I'm going to dance. That's the key to opening this place up. The locks are activated by firebending. And if I had to guess, I would say that they have to be hit in certain ways, and in a certain order. The symbol on the floor is a lily, it corresponds to one of the dances that my father taught me. A special firebending form."
Aang's eyes widen, and he backs up even further. "How far away should we be?"
I look carefully at him. "There should be good. Just try not to move around and get hit by stray fireballs. It's about to get very hot in here."
With them all getting safely out of range, I collect fire in my palms, and despite the darkness, I begin to dance. First, a swirl to the left, surrounding myself in a ring of fire that shoots down into the ground. Next, a spin to the right, this time, the fire shoots upwards into the ceiling. I hear some gears starting to turn, which is encouraging. I whirl my arms forward, bringing plumes of flame down from ceiling to floor. And that lights a series of torches, giving light to the room.
Now, I can see the many indents and crevices in the walls as well, which is just as well, because the most difficult part of the dance it still to come. Raising my left hand and letting loose three balls of fire, they slam into the far wall, revealing a huge golden statue of a phoenix and dragon twisting around each other. A swish of my right hand lights up the ceiling, lighting the torches of a chandelier.
Now, the difficult part. I jump into the air, spinning on an angle, and shooting fire out of my hands and feet, both in blasts and streams, until I touch the floor again. I repeat the motion, only in the opposite direction, before bending backwards and touching my hands to the floor, shooting fire into the grooves in the floor, as well as using that propulsion to spin myself around, creating a whirlwind of fire with my feet. I push off the ground and land back on my feet, ready to continue.
I start spinning on the balls of my feet, shooting blasts of fire in every direction, ducking down and around my own flames as they fly through the air. I have no fear, and I feel no anger or pain. I am one with fire, and it obeys my will.
With the dance nearly over, I breathe in deeply, wary of the two dragon statues with open maws on either side of me. But I know what to do. I stare into the hole in the floor right below me, opened by my earlier dance, and I roar. Flames pour from my mouth in a torrent, and they disappear into the hold, just before I get down on one knee, bow my head, and cross my right arm over my left.
Now, I see the purpose of the kneeling pose after the dance. The two dragon statues rumble a little, before the flames that I shot into the floor earlier come shooting out, enveloping me in a whirlwind of golden fire.
"Ciara!" That's Zuko's voice…
"Hey! She needs help!" Sokka…always in a panic when something goes weird.
Aang, do something!" Katara, the worrywart, she really needs to slow down and stop worrying about me.
I shake my head, my power pouring out of me, my fire protecting me. "No! I'm fine! The fire isn't touching me!"
And as the fire stars to die down, the fiery bird enveloping me spreads its wings and dissipates what remains of the fire, before burning out of existence. The fire is gone, the danger has passed, and the dance is over. So I get to my feet and look around. The gears turn loudly in the walls, and the sealed doors all around the hall start to open. And most impressively, the roof peels back, revealing a clear roof made of glass panels. Something that I've never seen before.
I look back to see them all looking amazed, Suki most of all. "What is this place?"
I smile, a little sadly. "This is my home. Or…what should have been my home." Then I look at all of the doors, my heart lightening a little. "Now…I have absolutely no idea where to go from here. There are doors, but I don't know what leads where…so I figure, maybe we should just split up and try all of them? And if you find something interesting, like a huge set of metal doors, or a door that you can't open, then just remember where it is, and we'll meet back here in say…half an hour?"
Aang shrugs. "Alright. We'll try not to break anything."
I roll my eyes. "Thank you. I would like as much of this place to remain intact as possible." And I pick a door, walking through it and into a wide corridor.
I walk down the hallway, and I find a lot of doors. I open them one by one, finding bedrooms, and lots of them. It must be true, then entire family lived here. There are enough rooms for dozens of people. And when I come to the end of the corridor, I finally find a room that speaks to me.
The inside of the room is beautiful, everything is red and white and gold, with wooden furniture, and a messy bed, as though someone was sleeping there. But it looks sad and empty, like whoever just slept there hasn't been here for a long time. It must be from the time that Sozin snuck up on this place in the middle of the night.
I find a closet, and I touch it gingerly, opening it a crack, before pulling it open and jumping back, half expecting an animal to come out of it. But there is no animal, just clothes. Very pretty clothing, that looks like it's only just been washed. There's no dust, no bugs, nothing. It's all in pristine condition.
Looking down at my travel-worn clothes, I contemplate the clothes in the closet. Well, this is my house, technically. And I'm the only one left, so no one is going to miss these clothes. And upon arriving at that conclusion, I reach into the closet, and pull out some of the clothes.
The shirt that I put on has long white sleeves, a golden bodice that exposes my midriff, and red satin that falls down in pleated ruffles in the back, kind of like a tall waterfall. The pants are red and loose, with a golden sash that falls down both the front and back, halfway past my knees, and decorated with white and red embroidery. The boots that go with the pants are slim and blend well against the pants, being both comfortable and fashionable. Though it's surprising that this is what they wore a hundred years ago. I hadn't expected them to be so fashion forward.
Then I remember that I'm supposed to be meeting the others soon. So I rummage around in the closet some more, and I find a box at the bottom. I open it, revealing a collection of golden jewelry. Well, I suppose that I'm already wearing the clothes, so I might as well take some jewelry to match. I lift a few of the pieces from the box, and fasten the two necklaces around my neck, and the golden wristbands to my arms. I take out my own tiara, and fasten it up into my hair, combing my fingers through the golden brown strands and letting half of it fall down around my shoulders. I look quickly at my reflection in one of the wristbands, and I barely recognize myself.
But now that I'm dressed better, I race out of the room and back down the corridor, hoping to make it back to the great hall on time. I shouldn't have spent so much time getting changed, the others will probably be wondering where I wandered off to.
I reach the door, breathing a little hard, but I take a moment to catch my breath before opening the door and walking back into the hall. Waiting there is Sokka, Suki, Katara and Toph. But before I can approach them, a door across the hall opens, revealing Aang and Zuko. Aang waves to the others. "Hey, we found the doors that she was talking about!" then he looks around. "Where's Ciara? Isn't she back yet?"
Toph turns her head towards me. "Yeah, she's here. She's just behind that door."
She points to my door, and I take a deep breath before opening it and striding into the room. "I found the living quarters…I must have opened up thirty doors…" Then I notice their stares. "What? Have I got something on my face?"
Sokka stares at me unblinkingly. "Who are you?"
His question catches me off-guard, to say the least. "What are you talking about? It's me. Toph did say that I was right behind the door." I point it out like it should be the most obvious thing in the world.
But now, they're all staring at me, and Aang squints at me. "Ciara…? Is that really you? You look…really different."
Finally, it occurs to me why they're all so confused. "Ah, it's the clothes isn't it? I found them in one of the rooms, so I figured that I'd change. I was pretty surprised at how well these fit me, so I pulled them out of the closet and…well…" I shrug. "If they look that bad, I can go look for something else."
Aang waves his hands. "No! that's not what I meant. I just meant that you look really different now, it's good. We've heard a bunch of times that you're a princess, but I guess now you really look like it."
"No kidding. She's almost as pretty as Yue!" And there Sokka goes, using the greatest taboo of all…comparing a woman to his old girlfriend, in front of his new girlfriend. And he gets no sympathy from me when Suki whacks him in the head.
I smirk at the poor idiot. "Thank you for the compliment, but I don't think you want to do that in front of Suki again. You might end up with some permanent damage." I walk over to the rest of them, noticing that Zuko has been silently staring. So, just to tease him, I give him a smile, which turns him scarlet, before turning to Aang. "Now, what was this about finding doors?"
Aang grins. "Follow me! There's a pair of huge metal doors downstairs!"
That excites me, and I follow Aang through the other door, which leads down a couple flights of stairs, into a large hall underneath the first one. And at the end of the hall, is a pair of enormous red, gold and bronze doors. "Now that's what we're looking for. That should be the way into the archives."
"Are you sure?" Katara seems a little nervous as she comes down the stairs to look at the doors. "That place looks a little big for archives…"
I approach the doors and shake my head. "No, it's just the right size. Now…how to open this one…" I look around, trying to find indents. "This one is different. The locking mechanism isn't the same as the other one." Then I find one indent. "Ah, here we go." I press my hand into the indent, and blow fire into it. The locking mechanism clanks as it moves, but after it stops, it starts moving again, right back into place. "Damn it, what did I do wrong?"
"Hm…I think it needs two people." Zuko looks at the door on the other side, and I can see him looking at an identical indent. One that's way too far away for me to reach.
I look back at the door, before returning my gaze to Zuko. "Feel like helping out here?"
"Sure." He presses his right hand to the door, mirroring my position with my left hand pressed against the warm metal.
"On three then." I look back at my door, concentrating. "One…two…three!" And simultaneous fire blasts erupt from our hands, making the locks clank together, and causing a deep rumbling sound. "I think that did it." I push on the door, and both of them move, opening to reveal a large room that is now well lit, from all of the sunlight streaming in through the clear roof. And what I see is amazing. Shelves fifty feet high, in hundreds of rows. Books, scrolls, artefacts, and what looks like a planetarium at the back.
"Awesome…" Aang walks in behind me and looks around. "This place looks like a small version of Wan Shi Tong's library! I wonder what we'll find in here…"
I raise my hand with a flourish. "Well, go ahead and explore. The firebending scrolls should be obvious enough. If you see dragons, that's probably your best bet for them. I've got something else to find…"
Aang heads straight down one of the rows, probably looking for the firebending scrolls. But I head for the section beyond the planetarium, where I can faintly see the outline of a phoenix statue. That should be where they've stored what I'm looking for.
While everyone else looks around, I search relentlessly through the special section of the archives. I'm looking for any mention of a special firebending skill, something that might seem impossible, or out of the ordinary. Something that my father never got the chance to teach me.
A couple of hours later, and after taking out a veritable mountain of scrolls, I find one with a golden seal on it. As soon as I touch it, I know that it's special. So I break the seal and unroll it, revealing a firebending scroll. But my frustration mounts as it looks just like any other firebending scroll. I already know normal firebending, and even some less than normal firebending, what I'm looking for is different.
But when I toss the scroll into the pile, it unravels onto the floor, revealing exactly what I'm looking for. This is it! This is what he never got to teach me! The forms are different, and there are written instructions along the bottom. This is…what? Light…lightbending? That can't be right. But it occurs to me that metalbending is an offshoot of earthbending, and bloodbending is an offshoot of waterbending. So maybe it's not so unbelievable that there could be an alternate, more advanced form of firebending. Something other than just lightning.
I roll up the scroll and head back out through the archives, looking for the others. "Hey, are you guys still alive? Or did you topple some books over and die?"
No response, until Aang comes riding over on an air scooter. "Ciara! You won't believe it! We found a ton of firebending scrolls! Can we take them back to the vacation house with us?"
His enthusiasm startles me a little. "Uh, sure. I've got what I came for, so you guys can pick up whatever you want to bring with us. Just make sure that it's not too much for you to carry."
"Yes!" And he zooms right off again, no doubt to find Zuko and pick out as many scrolls as they can.
Now, it's time to train. It's time for me to learn the next step in my family's firebending traditions.
