Forenote: Thanks much to everyone who reviewed the story so far. Effie's Head, I have re-uploaded chapter 2. (sighs at ffnet for not allowing ascii smilies)
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My name is Wan Shi Tong, which means 'He Who Knows Ten Thousand Things', which perhaps you may not consider enough for one refered to as the Spirit of Knowledge.
It all depends on what one classifies as 'one thing'. For one thing, I know the names of all the stars in the night sky and of every single living and unliving thing on this earth. Yet another 'one thing' which I know of is every language ever spoken and written in.
Do you understand now why I am called Wan Shi Tong?
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Amongst the tomes in the kitchen, I found my journal written so long ago it was even older than my library. I heard the kitsune quail in their burrows as I caused my journal to rise from where it had been secreted beneath the pile of hay they had prepared as a bed for the human.
How simple-minded they were now… Do they not know there are beds in the chamber just adjacent to the kitchen? … Ah yes… they did not wish to chance me seeing the human going to and fro from the kitchen.
Amusement filtered through my mind as I wondered how the human had managed to take care of his daily rituals whilst ensconced in the kitchen. … With a bucket perhaps?
Though I was no longer angry, the kitsune remained frightened and stayed within their burrows. None emerged when I ordered for them to tend to the unconscious human.
It was not long before I realized I would have to see to the professor's well-being myself.
I had chosen to forget the last time I had been in my human form though I had not forgotten how to assume it. While my form changed and shifted, I found myself musing if the kitsune remembered my human form. It had been such long time that they may had forgotten of it.
I knelt by the fallen professor in order to examine him. Slowly, I felt for broken bones; my own hands felt alien and yet at the same time - very familiar. The discovery that the human had merely passed out triggered a strange emotion within me. It took a while before I realized that it was relief.
How strange that at this human's words, I would begin to remember so clearly that once I admire his kind to the point of preferring their company to that of my fellow denizens of the Spirit World. Of my own volition, I had become one of them.
The human professor hadn't seemed... much to me. Plain in appearance, hardly distinguishing and only too obviously desperate to locate my library. I had known of many others of his kind far more interesting, intelligent and determined.
He had simply been fortunate to happen to be acquainted with the Avatar, who in this lifetime was an airbender with a Sky Bison. With one of those creatures, it would had only been a matter of time before the library spire had been seen. The Air Nomads' command of the sky had been one of the main reasons why they, not Earth Kingdom nor the Water Tribes, been the first the Fire Nation had attacked and destroyed wholly in this current and latest folly caused by humans... and which I bear some fault of because of my library.
Numbing pain suddenly filled me, and most abruptly - I remembered one of the reasons why long ago I chose never again to take human form. In it, I was far more susceptible to difficult emotions than in my spirit form. Instinct compelled me to change back, but as I stood up from the human professor's side, he made a distressed noise in his sleep.
Guilt was the next emotion to follow, and it kept me in this form. I busied myself with tending to the human and in order to keep myself from dwelling on the misery I had helped caused in this world.
I had intended for my library to shelter the wealth of human knowledge and allow humanity to have easy access to its vast store. I had time and time again witnessed humanity make wondrous discoveries, only to have it forgotten when destruction or disinterest or mismanagement or thievery befell their libraries, which to me were mortal and vulnerable as human beings were.
I had meant my library as a gift. Yet it has been used time and time again to destroy. That was not what it was and had been meant for. It was not supposed to assist humans in killing their own kind.
And slowly, I remembered I did not desire to kill either.
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Zei woke up with a start and a mere second after, fell back with a pained gasp. His upper torso felt as though it were one massive bruise.
Vaguely, as though from a distance, he heard someone say, "That you are in pain is a good sign. It means you are still alive." The voice sounded familiar but for the moment, he couldn't identify who spoke it. Slowly, flinching with every motion, he turned his head towards the speaker, which his worryingly blurry vision showed to him as a distinctively human silhouette.
That there was another human in this place filled Zei with such absolute joy that it rang clear in his tone as he said out loud with little thinking, "Thank the Spirits... I'm so glad there is another person in here."
Silence greeted his statement, but a delirious Zei paid it no mind as he struggled unsuccessfully to sit up on the bed. Later, he would wonder why he now had a proper bed, but for the time being he was a great deal more curious about his newfound human companion.
"A little help please," he said, smiling at the stranger he still couldn't see very well. The other man hesitated for so long that Zei was about to repeat his request for assistance when he drew near and helped the professor to sit up. After he had done so, he tried to pull away but Zei held on fast to his arm as though fearful he would vanish.
"The Knowledge Spirit is not close by, is he?" asked Zei of him in a low voice filled with much fear.
"... He is." The affirmative answer caused Zei to looked around the sleeping chamber in such a state of panic that he nearly fell off the bed, compelling the other man to calm him down.
"I meant 'Yes, he is not close by'."
"Are you certain?" squeaked Zei. Had his sight been clear then, he would had noticed the nonplussed expression that came across the other man's face but momentarily as his aquiline features settled into an annoyed and exasperated facade before softening ever so slightly and acquiring a tinge of guilt.
Zei wasn't assured when the stranger said to him that he was safe.
"There is no place in his library where we are safe from him!"
Silence once again fell in the room and soon to be broken by Zei who suddenly remembered his manners, saying, "Oh, pardon me. I am Professor Zei, Head of Anthropology at Ba Seng Sei University. And you are?"
"... Hui."
Unknown to Zei, the other man's black eyes widened in sheer shock when the professor (obviously still not quite recovered from his most recent traumatic experience with the Knowledge Spirit who had thrice almost killed him) embraced Hui and gave heartfelt thanks to whatever Spirits may be listening that they were both still alive.
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I had just been about to force the human away from me when he let his arms fall on their own. He turned embarrassed and mumbled apologies to me.
"I am sorry, Hui. I do not know what came over me," he said, brushing imaginary dirt from my garb as though he thought he had dirtied it.
I moved away to get out of his reach, and renewed fear turned his complexion pale once more.
"Please don't leave me!" he cried and moved to follow after me. He got off the bed, only to collapse to the floor when his limbs gave way underneath him. I closed my eyes as I had felt the beginnings of a headache.
Seeing him struggle to get back to his feet, I felt as though I had no alternative but to assist him once again. And which I did, much to be my growing annoyance with own self for it seemed as though my human form acted without my direction. It was a troubling thought, but I chose to reserve the matter for another time. I had to deal with the human professor now.
Once he was lying on the bed again, I ordered him to stay there.
"Promise first you'll stay with me," he begged, rendering me speechless once again. What is it about this human that he could and repeatedly dumbfound me? I am the Knowledge Spirit. Nothing should surprise me yet he continues to bewilder me to the point of inarticulation. It is inconcei-
The idiot was smiling at me. I felt my human face frown at him. What was he thinking of? And why was he smiling?
As though he read my thoughts, he suddenly said, "You are the most beautiful person I have ever seen."
I simply could not believe he had said that and even more surprising - blood had rushed up to my face at his statement.
I refused to turn away as he continued to look at me with that ridiculous smile on his face. I was not embarrassed.
I rebuked him to go to sleep. For the moment, it was the only thing I could think to say. This lack of verbal and even mental coherence of mine had to cease immediately.
As I made my way towards the door, I heard the idiot falling out of the bed yet again and and felt my face form a wince.
Fighting down the very human impulse to sigh, I turned back to him and wondered why I persisted in this most preposterous charade of being a human being for the sake of the human's emotional well-being. Clearly, the thought of another of his kind keeping him company in my library was a source of great comfort to him. However, I was most certainly under no obligation to set his mind at ease.
He was sitting on the floor and still smiling at me. It was such a foolish-looking smile that the sight of it caused my temper to strain to breaking point. Yet, when he begged of me again to stay with him, I chose not to reveal to the imbecile my true identity and instead, of all recourses to take - including wiping that smile off his face by ending his insignificant life then and there - I replied to him in the affirmative.
"Promise?" he immediately said, now beaming joyously at me.
Of the two of us, I found it most difficult to decide who was the more absurd.
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Endnote: 'Hui' is a Chinese name which means wise or clever. As always, please leave a review and let me know if you feel less worried about Zei being stuck in the library.