A/N. Yeah… You can see where this is going. This is an episode chapter, so not many new things.
I don't own Avatar the Last Airbender
Aang had trained his earthbending for more than two weeks, nonstop. They had settles into a routine: In the mornings, the airbender would train with Toph, and then, in the afternoon with her. In the evenings, Aang would train alone, to keep his airbending on a good level. Not that Katara suspected he actually needed it, because it was probably some of the best bending, she had ever seen. Then again, it was not possible to compare it to another airbender.
In the training schedule, she and Aang had also put a secret study hour. When Sokka went asleep, and Toph disappeared inside her earth tent, Katara would quietly make her way to Appa, where Aang was sitting, and by the light of a little lantern, he would learn her words and phrases of the Air Nomad speech.
She had managed to learn some basics, like good morning, good evening, how are you, and such things. It was very basic. But at least, she was learning, and Aang seemed extremely pleased when she repeated, hesitantly, the words that he had said. He also wrote them down, with the translation in the common language next to it, so that she could study.
But all the training had worn them out. So, when she had suggested a break, and that they would begin moving to the jungle, the others had all taken it up, and so, now they were travelling northeastward. Aang had called it a mini vacation and had insisted that each and every one of them could choose a place that was on the route to their destination, for a quick pit stop.
Katara had laughed when they had arrived at the airbender's vacation spot: A savannah, without a living thing in it. The airbender had pulled a flute out a secret part of the chest that the watebender hadn't seen before. So, there was more inside it… Then, he had started to play.
The notes sounded… Sad. But also, beautiful. And, one by one, from little holes in the ground, some sort of groundhog came up, singing the same tune. After a while, Aang stopped, and the animals looked all around, confused.
"It's their mating ritual." The airbender explained, "That's why they sing : THe female sings a song, and then the males must compete to have the best melody."
Sokka shook his head and walked towards Appa.
"Well, judging by the heart rate of Sugar Queen, that melody is also the mating ritual of two extremely weird people." Toph grinned, and Katara felt her ears heat up. She had chosen to ignore the earthbender teasing, but sometimes, it was hard…
Before she could answer, or look towards Aang, her brother came back, holding a map.
"This is all very well, but we are going to need some intelligence to know our next move." He grumbled.
"Alright. We are going to finish our vacations. Then, we are going to look for Sokka's… intelligence." She smirked at that. Ah, teasing her brother was just too easy sometimes.
Sokka grumbled, unfurled the map and turned it towards her.
"Okay, but in that case, please choose something that is not too far. These vacations are over tomorrow."
She looked at the map. The paper was turning yellow at the edges, and Katara realized these were not the maps from General Fong's fortress, but rather the map from Aang's time…
"The Misty Palms Oasis? Ever been there?" She asked the airbender, who smiled widely.
"Oh yes! It has a pristine natural ice spring! It is really beautiful!"
So, they went.
Misty Palms Oasis. Hah!
It was not misty, there were no palms. And in the terms of oasis, this was not what Katara had expected. Sure, she had never seen such a thing as this desert. The Si Wong Desert stretched for hundreds of miles, and this oasis was nearly at the border between the arid lands east of Goaling and the jungles of Chameleon Bay.
They landed on the outskirts of the little village built in the oasis, and, while Aang wasn't looking, Katara quickly put a lock on the chest. The waterbender had done this each time they went to a place with people.
Descending from Appa, she was disappointed by the choice of her vacation. The village was not much bigger than her own, and well… It was different, to say the least.
The mud huts were riddled with vermin, the ice spring that Aang had talked about… Well, it was there… But is had been reduced to a just something as high as Toph. Meaning, not high. As they approached the spring, a coyote-dog did his business against the spring, and the ice turned yellow. What a place.
And she hadn't even mentioned the people. She tried not to judge, but it was a bit difficult. These men, in ragged and stained white clothing looked at them with those glasses that she recognized as snow glasses. Probably, those had the same effect as the ones she had used on the South Pole, but with sand. And… She didn't miss the fact that several of the men looked her up and down. Spirits, this was a creepy place.
"Look, a tavern. Let's just get something to eat, and then we are going to leave this place." Sokka suggested, and Katara was more than happy to leave the open market space.
They entered, and well… It wasn't much better. Several men were sleeping at one table. At another, two were playing the roughest game of Pai Sho Katara had ever seen. The only other customer was a man in neat white clothes, and standing next to the bar.
She looked over, to see a pile of ice cups on the counter, in which the barman poured a liquid and several fruits. It seemed very refreshing, and not really what you could expect from a seedy bar in the middle of nowhere. But again, she had seen what had happened between the dog and the ice. So, Katara decided not to order something coming from such a cup.
Walking over, the man in the white clothes turned, and bumped into Aang.
"Oh, my! Sorry young man!" The fellow said, without really looking up.
"Oh, don't worry, I clean up easy!" Aang said, and proceeded to blow himself dry with his airbending. Katara watched as the man's eyes widened, and she saw the excited gleam in them. Oh great… Another Avatar fan.
"Oh! An Air Nomad! I thought you were extinct! You are a living relic!" Oh… That was… not what she had expected. Quickly looking at Aang, she saw that his face turned to that dark look, but rapidly turned back to his usual, friendly expression. The man bowed, and to Katara's astonishment, used the same gestures as Aang normally did.
"Professor Zei, from Ba Sing Se University! From which Temple are you?"
As the professor walked away with Aang, Toph walked over to Katara.
"Okay, that guy is weird. He had nearly the same reaction to the fact that Twinkletoes is an airbender as you do each time said airbender looks at you. Hah! You have competition Sugar Queen!" She laughed, and joined Sokka at the counter, who was trying to buy drinks without piss ice.
Katara shook her head, smiling. For once, it was actually funny. Taking a drink from Sokka, without ice, they moved to the table where Zei was very invested in asking Aang questions. Without even waiting for a response. Katara sat down, next to the airbender, to hear the next set of questions.
"Oh please, tell me about the agriculture!" He asked, ecstatically. Aang just rolled his eyes, with a smile on his face. When the man pulled some sort of instrument from a bag, he started to measure Aang's head! And the width of the arrow tattoo. And then, the airbender's hands. Aang just smiled and underwent it. Katara moved to stop this intrusive behaviour, but Aang just shook his head.
"Don't worry, this happened each time when I met some of the other professors around the world. Air Nomad information was quite scarce, even in my time." The wrinkles around the airbender's eyes suggested he was actually enjoying himself. The waterbender could imagine how it felt for him. In a world where nothing was the same, he had finally found something that hadn't changed.
"Oh, this is something for the journal! A true Air Nomad!" Zei said, while he pulled a rather large journal from his bag. A map fell out of it. Katara picked it up, with a quick glance, she remarked it was a hand-drawn map of the desert. With several lines on it, suggesting routes that had been undertaken.
"You seem like a well-travelled guy." She said, putting the map on the table. Zei looked at it, and sighed.
Yeah… I've found lost civilizations all around the Earth Kingdom… But I have not managed to find the crown jewel… Wan-Chi Tong's Library…
"You've spent years of your life… Looking for a library… " Toph asked, dumbfounded.
"Yes! It has the greatest collection of books and knowledge in the whole world! It is said to be built by the great Spirit Wan-Chi Tong and his foxy assistants." Zei said, with a look in his eyes as if he was talking about his newborn child.
"Foxy assistants?" Sokka whispered in her ear, sounding like a man in need of… Foxy Assistants…
"I think he means literal foxes Sokka," Katara exclaimed, punching him in the ribs.
"Ah! I know, I know, just a joke! Aang understands, right?" Her brother wiggled his eyebrows in the airbender's direction, who just raised his eyebrows slightly, not even responding, just sipping his drink.
"Oh, that library had really everything known to mankind…" Zei continued to praise.
"Even a map of the Fire Nation?" Sokka asked. Ah, so that was what he wanted. That was his intelligence.
"Well… If such a thing exists… It would be in the library, yes." The professor nodded,
"In that case, ready Appa! My vacation is going to be…. The Librabry!" Her brother exclaimed, dramatically throwing one arm in the air. Katara didn't even roll her eyes. She was too used to the fuss of Sokka.
"Well… There is the small matter of finding it. No one has managed to find it…. I have nearly died several times searching for it. The desert in uncrossable." Zei sighed.
Katara saw Sokka look hopefully in Aang's direction, who just smiled. Oh no… why?
"Professor… Would you like to meet our Sky Bison?
In the air, Katara fell down on the saddle next to Toph, who was picking her nose, as was completely normal for a young lady from noble birth.
"I wish we wouldn't venture so deep inside the desert. There is no water. Only that in our waterskins." She grumbled, while the blind girl just sat silently.
"I mean, there is no way this is going to end well, who are we kidding? It is us. Surely something is going to happen." The waterbender continued.
"Relax Sugar. We will just fly over this waste land, until Sokka and the mad guy have decided that this magical library doesn't exist. Then, we will turn back towards the coast. Just let them have this. I believe Meathead needs it." Toph said, uninterested, and then began to pick between her toes.
Katara sighed, and crawled to the other side of the saddle. Sokka was busy with Aang, watching the map and trying to find a route. While they did that, Katara produced her scroll from her bag. Beginning to read the words, she muttered them, trying to say them the same way the airbender did, with that kind of melodic tone.
"What are you reading young lady?" The voice of the professor came from her right.
"Oh… Nothing!" She didn't want the man trying to coerce Aang in teaching it to him.
"Well… I believe those are words in the Air Nomad language, aren't they?" Zei asked, looking over her shoulder.
"Yes." She answered, without much enthusiasm.
"At Ba Sing Se, we have been trying to decipher it. There are several books in that language in the library of the University. But for the moment, no one managed. Can you speak it?" He asked, and for the first time, Katara saw the kindness in his eyes. There was no malevolence, no hidden agenda in his eyes.
"Well… No. Aang is teaching me." She responded.
"Ah… I see. Well, try to encourage him to teach it to others, if he has the time. The Avatar is a busy man most of the time." The man smiled.
They hadn't told him Aang was the Avatar, but it was probably obvious. A young Air Nomad, travelling with two water tribe siblings and a blind earthbender with a Sky Bison. Yeah, there was no other group like that.
"I will try." Katara replied.
Several hours passed, without a sign of the enormous building on the drawing of the professor. Just when Sokka wanted to call an end to the search, he spotted a tower. Landing in front of it, Katara watched the drawing, and then again, the building in front of them. Yeah… No way that was the famous library.
Just then, a fox appeared. A real one. Not a polar rabit-fox, just… a fox. With a scroll in its mouth. If Katara wasn't mistaken, they were all looking at it like it was the first time they had seen an animal. The fox ran up the tower and entered the building. Oh Spirits… it was the library!
"It's buried! That's why no one ever found it!" Sokka exclaimed, while Toph confirmed it. Her brother ran back to Appa, where they had some rope. With Aang's help, Sokka managed to throw one end through the window at the top of the tower.
"Well, I'm not going! I don't have use for books!" Toph exclaimed, "I'm staying with Appa." It made sense. At least the Bison wouldn't be waiting out here, alone, while they explored a library that was potentially the greatest building in the world.
They began to climb, and Katara went last. Before starting the ascend the rope, she turned back to the earthbender.
"Toph… Look out for yourself. Don't go wandering around, please." She warned the blind girl. Of course, she wouldn't like to be told what to do. But Katara felt better, warning the girl.
"Don't worry about me Sugar Queen. I'm tough."
Sighing, Katara began to climb. When she passed the window, she heard the professor.
"Look at those buttresses… Just exquisite!"
And of course, she heard her brother snicker… Joined by Aang.
Sometimes, they were really a bunch of knuckleheads…
Answers :
Gabriela N. Gonzalez : Yeah, It was sweet! I thought Aang would panick in this case, and would try to figure out some things on his own. But now, the story moves forward. I'm not looking forward to the next three chapters…
CoyoteLemon : I know right! I wanted to show that Katara is extremely interested in culture in her own right here. That it was not only as a sort of service to Aang. But rather to preserve Air Nomad culture. But yeah, in this fic they are both pinning for each other, what makes it so much fun to write!
Bay45220 : Thanks a lot! I once had a partner, who wanted to learn my language (I don't life in the country where I was born) and that made me just so happy, that I imagined it inside this story!