Act IV: Air
Air is the element of freedom.
The Air Nomads detached themselves from worldly concerns and found peace and freedom.
- Iroh, "Bitter Work"
Chapter 34: War in the Spirit World
Will Vandom looked around.
She had no idea where she was!
The sky, the landscape, everything looked strange! It was all bizarre colors!
The sky was yellow, with a haze hanging in the air that sometimes made it look golden yellow.
The ground was scarlet, the soil almost as red as the planet Mars, with giant bonsai and banyan trees scattered around pools of clear, shallow water.
This wasn't the green and blue Earth she called home, or rainbow Meridian, or even purple Zamballah!
Where the heck was she?
But even worse, most of her friends were missing!
Hay Lin was beside her, but she was the only one!
She instinctively reached for the Heart of Candracar. She hoped to use it to locate her friends, or even to get the heck out of there! But finding her friends was paramount to her.
Then Hay Lin jumped her!
"Will! Look out!" the Air Guardian yelled, pushing her aside.
Immediately after Will crashed to the forest floor, Hay Lin on top of her, an armored man on ostrichhorseback, who looked like an ancient Earth Kingdom soldier, galloped past their position. Followed by many more!
Then the forest came alive!
Tiny beings that looked like unrooted plants with stems for feet, insects with human arms and/or legs, and acorns with faces, raced/rolled towards them, fleeing for their lives, in obvious terror of the horseback soldiers!
Trying to escape, they ran over Will and Hay Lin, causing the girls to shout out!
"Hey! Stop it!" Will cried.
The soldiers heard the Guardian, and halted their ostrichhorses.
Then they rode back, advancing on Will and Hay Lin's position trot by trot.
The tiny creatures yelled, then screamed some more!
"Uh oh." Will said, which was quite an understatement.
Meanwhile, Irma and Cornelia, stuck in a place that looked similar to Will and Hay Lin's neck of the woods, except with many rocky outcroppings, wondered much the same thing as the other two Guardians.
Where were they, and where were their friends?
But for them, additional questions arose.
Such as, 'How do you adjust the reception on this thing'?
For they had stumbled onto a tiny portal to their world, a sort of interdimensional TV on a rock, that allowed them to look in on other places.
Cornelia saw herself, in Sheffield Institute, their school, taking a test she had no recollection of.
"What is going on?" Cornelia Hale said. "I don't remember this! This didn't happen!"
"Yeah, I know." said Irma, gazing at the school scene. "I can't believe you'd wear that top! Your parents must have been out of town!"
"Yeah, ha ha, Irma! That's a Divenchy original, from my closet, and I don't wear it to school! That's for...Never mind!" snapped Corny.
"Hanging out at the teen club?" guessed Irma.
"Try more upscale." suggested Cornelia.
"Corny! You sly old dog!" laughed Irma.
"Hey, I just go to those places with the other ice skaters! I have to do something when Caleb's not around!" she explained. "And dancing isn't cheating!"
"Does Caleb know that?" asked Irma.
"MInd your own beeswax, Irma Lair!" cautioned Cornelia.
Then the scene shifted.
It changed to...Elyon and Caleb!
"OmiGod! Look!" said the excited Miss Hale.
"What? It's not all-Corny TV, all the time? Hooray!" jeered Irma, who was getting a little tired of Cornelia being the center of attention and Queen of the Universe wherever she went.
"Hey, wait...It's Elyon and Caleb...with you??" said Irma, staring at the small portal 'screen'. "Wait, don't tell me, yet another thing that 'didn't happen'?"
"Shush! This one's got sound!" said Cornelia, motioning for her friend to be quiet.
"You made this astral drop out of a lock of Cornelia's hair?" said the bemused Caleb to the Queen of Meridian. "I didn't know you could do that!"
"Oh sure! Just never needed too! I could have used old skin cells, you know, dust, but that was too gross!" Elyon pointed out. "With the girls gone so long, we had to do something! The Oracle says they'll be back, but until they do..."
"Yeah. It kills me we can't do anything about that!" replied the somber, former rebel leader.
"I know! But we have to trust that they're okay, and safe." said the Meridian Queen.
"Elyon!!" Cornelia screamed, banging on the portal 'TV'. "Caleb!! We're here!"
But the two Meridianites continued their conversation, as if it were a recording.
"Why is the astral drop so quiet and still?" asked Caleb.
"It's not a real astral drop." Elyon clarified. "It was made from her cells, so it looks like her, but you'll have to teach it to be Cornelia!"
"How do I do that?" Caleb pondered.
"I don't know! Tell it...tell her why you love her. That ought to fill in some gaps!" suggested Elyon. "I have to go take care of the other drops!" she added, leaving the room.
"Why do I love you?" Caleb reiterated. "Let's see...Ahem."
He thought about it.
Really thought about it!
"Can you believe this?" Cornelia squealed. "He's going to tell me why he loves me! It's every girl's dream!"
"Except he's really telling some soulless thing that happens to look like you! Which, admittedly, isn't too far off the mark, so I suppose..." joked Irma.
"Oh, stop it, Irma!" Cornelia mildly scolded the Water Guardian. "You know you want to hear what he says, too!"
"Hmm. I suppose it is better than the typical reality TV show." Irma grudgingly admitted.
"Cornelia." began Caleb. "I love you so much! I love that..."
Just then, the picture and sound faded, and the rock was an ordinary rock once again.
"No!! You can't do this to me!" screamed Cornelia Hale.
Then a Great White Egret flew overhead, riding a breeze.
Also wafting in on the breeze was a strange voice that chilled Cornelia's and Irma's soul (but especially Cornelia's), because it filled the air with a foreboding for three people they knew...
Elyon...
"What? Is that an echo?" Irma asked.
Will...
"That's no echo!" replied Cornelia.
Lillian...
"Oh no." said Cornelia, upon hearing the name of her sister, the Heart of Earth.
In fact, all three were hearts of some sort.
Elyon was the Heart of Meridian. And Will possessed the Heart of Candracar.
The thought that their friends (and sister) were in some sort of trouble filled their own hearts with dread.
Back in the swampy forest, the ancient Asian soldiers astride ostrichhorses had spotted Will and Hay Lin and spurred their mounts onward in an attempt to run the girls down and capture them!
"He-yaa!" they yelled, cracking their hands on the sides of the ostriches.
"Stop right there!" commanded Will. "Or I'll..." But Will's hands emitted nary a spark.
"I'll get them, Will!" said Hay Lin, crouching slightly as she prepared to spin around like a tornado.
Except nothing happened. There was no air movement around Hay Lin. She stayed rooted to the spot!
"Huh?" she said.
"Our powers don't work!" exclaimed Will.
"Oh no!" cried Hay Lin, as the soldiers bore down on them!
"We can't stay here!" yelled Will. "We've got to...!"
Then Will jumped up.
And stayed up.
"What the? My wings work??" said the puzzled Guardian, floating in the air.
"Of course!" she said, almost slapping herself for being so dumb. "When I'm like this, my wings are a part of me! For them not to function, it'd be like my arm not moving! And that means...Hay Lin! Take cover! I got this!"
"But what can you do, without your powers?" asked the baffled Hay Lin.
"No time! Stay safe! Now!!" ordered Will, steeling herself for the harsh battle she knew was coming.
As Hay Lin ducked for cover, the lead ostrichhorse soldier raised his sword and prepared to run it through the Guardian leader hanging in the air in front of him!
But Will flew up at the last second, then somersaulted through the air and extended her arms so that her hands grabbed the soldier's helmet. Then she gave it a yank and tossed him off his horse!
Now standing on the back of the rider-less ostrich, Will watched as two other soldiers galloped alongside and tried to cleave her in two!
Will leaped up to avoid their deadly blows, then arced gracefully behind them. When she finally alighted, it was with her boots on the head of one of the soldiers.
She kicked downward.
Repeatedly!
WHAP WHAP WHAP WHAP
Went Will's pounding feet on the man's crown!
The ostrichhorse soldier became so addled, he fell off his horse!
Riderless and directionless, the ostrich veered into the path of the other soldier's ostrich, causing a collision that unseated the third soldier!
The five remaining soldiers vowed to take no chances with this prey!
They jumped off their horses and advanced on Will, weapons at the ready. Including a net!
Will easily avoided their clumsy trap and flew up...
...Right into the sights of another soldier who had climbed into the trees!
He leapt at her!
Will narrowly escaped his clutches, then flew to the top of the tree, and started jumping from treetop to treetop, hoping to lead the vicious soldiers away from Hay Lin.
The tree-climber followed! He swung from tree to tree, sword carried in his mouth!
Will saw him shadowing her, then flew downwards in arc that propelled her into the man's chest!
Out of breath, he fell to the swampy floor!
But Will had taken her eye off of the soldiers on the ground!
Quickly, they got their net around her and pulled her down into the crimson dirt!
Will didn't even attempt to lift herself up. The force of four men holding her down was too great to overcome.
Instead, she vibrated her wings like a buzzsaw and dug down into the soil!
The resulting dustcloud was so great, the men all exploded in coughing fits!
When the dust settled, they noticed, to their puzzling dismay, their net now lay around some large rock!
The prize they sought was gone!
Well, almost.
Will leapt onto the head of the soldier closest to her, her foot falls turning her opponent's brain into mush!
When another warrior charged her, she jumped off the soldier she was attacking and slammed a booted leg into his back!
The man fell forward, right into his oncoming compatriot! Both fell to the ground, defeated!
Will repeated this strategy with the final two warriors.
She jumped onto one soldier's head and pounded his helmet. Again and again! This way, she wouldn't have to engage the man's deadly sword-carrying arm or chain-mailed fist. She had effectively neutralized his combat advantage, while maximizing her own, that of flight.
The soldier's fellow warrior didn't see it that way.
He sliced at her everytime she placed her feet onto the soldier's head.
And everytime, Will leapt up, avoiding the deadly strike!
Until the warrior got careless, and hit his fellow soldier instead!
Shocked at his mistake, he hesitated.
And Will toppled the now-unconscious soldier onto the warrior, sending him to la-la land also!
"Wow!" said the stunned Hay Lin, running to the side of her triumphant friend. "How 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Will'! How'd you learn to fight like that?"
"When we became Guardians, my powers weren't that great, so I trained in combat fighting with some of the Meridian warriors." Will explained. "Then, after the Veil was lifted and I got my energy powers, I figured I couldn't always rely on the Super Guardian thing, so I continued my training."
"Oh. I just...kind of rely on my Super Guardian powers! Heh." admitted a sheepish Hay Lin.
"We can talk about it later. Let's get out of here!" replied Will Vandom.
As the girls exited the scene of battle, an odd figure flew in circles above them.
But this was no Great White Egret.
It was a strange beast with the head and wings of a hawk...the body of a dolphin (!)...and the powerful, grasping feet and claws of an armadillo! An extremely rare tribrid, indeed!
Equipped as it was, the tribrid HawkDolphDillo was a creature that could go anywhere - air, land or sea!
And, once there, see and hear all that occurred!
The perfect guardian to watch over this benighted land.
Or the perfect spy!
Meantime, at those rocky outcroppings, a girl sprang out from behind a giant, multi-limbed tree!
"You have to run! Save yourself!" yelled the girl with long, white hair.
"Wait! Who are you?" Cornelia called out to the unknown female. "What is this place?"
"There's no time! They're coming! Flee!" replied the frantic maiden.
Then the girl jumped into a pool of water!
And disappeared!
"Ho-kay! Now I've seen everything!" said the mystified Irma Lair.
"Hold on! Long, white hair? A platinum blonde?? Nobody has hair like that on the Avatar's world!" shouted Cornelia. "Except..." she added, in a much quieter tone, then shouted "...Yue! Sokka's old girlfriend!"
"Huh?" said the puzzled Irma. "But he said she's a Spirit!"
Then both girls exclaimed "We're in the Spirit World!!"
"Uh oh! That's not good!" said Irma.
"Why?" asked Corny.
"Remember what Aang said?" added Irma. "There's no bending in the Spirit World!"
Then the two powerless Guardians heard the thunder of horses' hooves approaching.
They turned, to behold a line of ancient Earth Kingdom warriors sitting atop a fleet of ostrichhorses!
"Halt!" they commanded.
"One guess what Yue was running from?" said Cornelia.
"And us without our powers!" chimed in Irma. "Ulp!"
Will and Hay Lin, meanwhile had scarcely left the area of their fight with the ancient warriors when they were accosted yet again - by the little creatures who had gotten them into trouble in the first place!
"There she is!" yelled one of the walking plants. "Get her!!" he demanded of his little friends.
"Hey!! What are you doing??" said the stunned Will, as she and Hay Lin were assaulted by the mobile plants, human/insect hybrids and rolling nuts with facial features. "We helped you! We stopped those soldiers from attacking you!"
"You don't fool us!" said the leader of the tiny band of weird creatures, as he brandished a twig he used as a spear to poke at Will. "You look like the other one who tried to destroy us!"
"What are you talking about??" said the harried Will, as she shielded her eyes from the tiny pebbles thrown at her by her assailants with one hand, while she used the other to sweep the bizarre, lilliputian mob off of her.
Hay Lin tried to aid her leader, but when she did the Air Guardian also came under attack by the mighty mites!
Beating feet to escape the madness, Will and Hay Lin took off, leaving their aggressors behind!
"They won't get far!" declared the walking weed. "Shui She will take care of them!"
"What now, Will?" Hay Lin asked her friend, the head of their little band of heroes.
The two Guardians ran through the murky mangrove swamp, splashing the shallow puddles of water that were all over the swamp's floor while avoiding the deeper pools of clear liquid.
"I don't know! I wish I knew where we were! This isn't like any other place we've been before!" Will replied.
"Well, they seem to know us! Or you, at least!" added Hay Lin.
"Yeah, that was pretty strange!" said Will. "But at least we got awayaaa!" said the Guardian leader, as sinewy scales coiled around her!
"Ahhh! Unhh!" gasped Will, as she struggled to free herself from the crushing folds of serpentine skin!
"Omigosh! It's a snake!" cried Hay Lin, who rushed to free Will from the reptile's powerful embrace! "Hold on, Will! I'll..."
Then the snake hissed at the young Asian girl, and drew ever more of his body out of the pool of water.
Hay Lin looked up. She couldn't quite believe what she was seeing!
"How, how big is this thing??" said the shocked Guardian of Air, taken back at the sheer size and length of the water snake. There had to be about 30 feet between the part that held Will and the pond it came from!
Then the reptile's eyes locked on the young Air Guardian, and she briefly considered fleeing.
But Hay Lin stood her ground, stood by her friend...and was soon entrapped by the twisting serpent's body!
"Unff!" said Hay Lin, fighting to get free of the mighty reptile. "You know, I can't say as I hate any animals, but I'm really starting to not like snakes!" exclaimed the Air Guardian, making a reference to their old shape-shifting foe, Cedric.
"Don't...worry, Hay Lin. We'll...get out of this. If I...can reach the Heart." said Will Vandom, struggling against the mighty serpent's stranglehold on her body, her hand inching towards the fabled Heart of Candracar.
"Uh uh!" uttered the little walking plant, who stood on the shoulders of his tiny compatriots to talk to Will.
"You again! What...do you want?" asked the annoyed Guardian leader, who desired nothing more at that moment than to get free of the snake so she could punt the irritating veggie to the other side of the swamp.
"I wanted...to do this! Pfoo!" said the plant, as he blew sleeppollen on Will's face.
"Huh? Uhhhh..." said Will, who then passed out, her body slumped over and limp.
As the Earth Kingdom soldiers menaced Irma and Cornelia, drawing ever nearer on their fearsome ostrichhorses, salvation arrived!
"Away, ruffians! Hee-ya!" bellowed an Earth Kingdom warrior in gleaming armor, astride an ostrichhorse in equally shining attire, as he rode in and challenged the other ostrichhorse soldiers to a duel.
His quick, slashing swordwork forced the other soldiers away from the power-challenged Guardians!
Faced with one who could fight back, the cowardly soldiers retreated!
Then the dashing warrior turned towards Cornelia. "Are you uninjured, milady?"
"Uh, yes." answered the stunned Earth Guardian. This was the last thing she expected! But it was hardly unwelcome.
"Then let us be away!" said the courageous (and handsome!) Earth Kingdom warrior, extending his hand to the girl Guardian. "It is not safe to stay here! My name's Kangxi!"
"Cornelia. Hi." replied the Guardian of Earth. Cornelia eagerly took the warrior's offered hand, and he easily picked her up and deposited her on the ostrich's back behind him.
Before he could order his ostrichhorse to depart, Cornelia piped up. "Wait! What about my friend?" she said, pointing to Irma.
"Eh?" said the very surprised Kangxi. "The sour girl is with one as sweet as you?" he laughed.
Irma steamed at the insult! But she didn't say anything.
"Oh no, she's usually not like that! She's actually fun to be around! Most of the time!" replied Cornelia.
"For you, milady? Anything!" said the smiling Kangxi. Then he motioned to his aide, who the two girls realized was another Earth Kingdom warrior hovering nearby. "Excuse me a moment, ladies." he said, as he unseated himself from his ostrichhorse.
"Sure." said the demure Guardian of Earth.
Kangxi conferenced privately with his associate, Puyi.
"There was only to be the golden-haired one, Kangxi." Puyi whispered.
"It matters not. We still have our mission." Kangxi responded. "So take the girl."
"You'll have to forgive Puyi." Kangxi announced with a grin to the two girls. "He's not used to passengers!" he added, as Puyi helped Irma onto the back of his ostrichhorse.
As the four new friends made tracks, Cornelia had a question or two.
"What's going on? Why did those men attack us?" she asked Kangxi.
"Our land is very unsettled!" Kangxi replied. "There is unrest everywhere, but my master intends to bring peace to our special world!"
"Your world?" said Corny. "You mean the Spirit World?"
"Yes." answered Kangxi. "Ordinarily, it is a wonderful place, but there are those who sow dissent and discord, and must be stopped!"
"Do you think you can help us find our friends?" Cornelia inquired.
"My master has much knowledge about the Spirit World, and many resources! I'm sure he can help locate your friends, if they're here in our world!" Kangxi assured her.
Then the four came upon another squadron of rebellious warriors.
"Wait here, milady!" said Kangxi, letting Cornelia off his ostrichhorse. "Apparently, I must teach another band of rebels a lesson! Fear not. I won't let them take you!"
"Be careful!" Cornelia yelled to the brave warrior as he rode off, soon joined by his comrade in battle, Puyi.
"Corny, we have to get out of here!" Irma begged her friend. "It's not safe!"
"Don't worry, Irma! Kangxi can handle these guys!" retorted Cornelia.
"No! I don't trust him!" exclaimed the Water Guardian.
"What are you talking about?" Cornelia angrily hissed. "He saved us!"
"I'm getting a bad vibe off of that Kangxi guy and his friend!" Irma explained. "I think we should try to find Will and the others, not go off with the first good-looking guy who comes along!"
"What are you saying, Irma?" Cornelia bitched. "That I can't be faithful to Caleb?"
"No! Just that we have to get out of here!" said Irma, urging her friend to leave with her.
"I'm not going anywhere!" said Cornelia, who would not be moved.
"Corny, will you quit fighting me? Let's go!" said Irma, pulling on Cornelia's robe.
"No!" said the haughty girl, crossing her arms in defiance.
"I'm sorry I said anything about you and Caleb! Okay?" Irma apologized. Then she used both arms to move her friend. "Now let's..."
Unfortunately, the two girls happened to be on one of those rocky outcroppings.
And it began to give way.
"...go?" said Irma, as the ground under them crumbled due to their combined weight.
"Ahhhhh!!" they both yelled as they fell down, down, down to the valley below.
Oh no!
Will and Hay Lin captured,
while Irma and Cornelia fall to an uncertain fate!
So what's coming up…
Next:
A chapter entitled "My Dinner with Wan Shi Tong"
(Because "My Time in a Jail Cell with Hay Lin" is a terrible title!)
wherein we learn more secrets of the Spirit World,
the origin of the Avatar,
the Avatar's connection to W.I.T.C.H.,
the secret of the Swamp, and more!
We also learn that my main owl WST was quite the playa in his day, yo!
But don't worry! Corny's not gonna make out with the giant owl!
She might be acting a little scatter-brained lately, but she's not that far gone!
Sheesh!
Then Avatar Roku pops his bearded head in, which totally ticks off Will!
Plus:
Find out more about the first Spirits (Hei Bai, Koh, Tui, La, etc. etc.),
who I've dubbed 'The Spirit Squad'!
Notes
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a martial arts movie/Chinese love story that has characters fly through the air when they fight, plus they run through the treetops. But since Will has wings and can really fly, it's only natural she'd learn combat techniques that made the best use of that ability. In fact, she appeared to do just that in Season One of W.I.T.C.H., before her energy powers fully developed in Season Two. If you go back and watch, you'll notice Will did a lot of combat fighting while flying around the battlefield, although there she usually had a few tools/weapons available to her, and here she has none.
I know this is more Irma & Cornelia duo action, but I can't seem to break them up! Together, they're too much fun!
In the next chapter, you'll see the Will/Hay Lin team (which is kind of a joke, really).
Shui She - Chinese for, literally, 'water snake'. The snake that is said to encircle the world. It's rumored to have another pair of eyes at its midsection, and another head at its end, but no one has ever seen either. No one really knows just how long it is.
The Spirit Warriors (Kangxi & Puyi) are named after Chinese Emperors. In fact, all of the Spirit Warriors are named after some historical figure. The Earth King in Avatar, Kuei, is based, at least in part, on Kangxi. Puyi was the last Emperor of China, and Kangxi was China's longest-serving Emperor.
The Spirit Warriors were last seen in this tale in another form. They were the Terracotta Warriors in Chapter 27.
