Korra's breath left her lungs in one disbelieving gasp, and she grit her teeth. Asami, moving with the slow deliberation of a stalking cat, slipped next to Korra, closing her fists and raising them defensively. Korra hoped she wasn't thinking about fist fighting a giant owl spirit. She could not imagine that ending well for anyone.
Wan Shi Tong loomed over them, exuding the black stench of the blight, chittering and growling in an ancient, inhuman language.
"What's he saying?" Asami whispered.
"No idea." Korra tried to make out any words she might recognize, but the guttural, clicking, primeval speech Wan Shi Tong was spouting made absolutely no sense to her.
"Do you think he wants my notebook?" Asami hissed worriedly.
The great owl shifted his weight, elongating his massive neck, spreading his wings, red eyes opening wide. Asami fumbled lamely through her pack, not daring to take her eyes off the spirit. Her hands shook as she groped for her notebook.
"I don't think he wants it," Korra growled, readying a breath deep in her gut, churning the energy that would spit fire out of her fists if she so wished it. She stepped forward into a fighting stance.
Wan Shi Tong's impenetrable clicks and groans ceased for a moment, and he leaned forward, neck extending, head turning, twisting around, once, twice…
Korra, holding her breath, still as a rock, watched those two red slits spin and drink them in and swallow them whole. She could almost see the shattered, poisoned mind work steadily behind those glowing eyes, judging whether or not to spare, kill, eat, infect—
With a sudden lurch forward, Wan Shi Tong opened his beak, wide, wider, wider than any bird could, and Korra found herself staring into the gaping, open maw of the dark spirit, lined with obsidian teeth and stinking with the revolting rot of infection. The shape of the protean mouth shifted with each twitch of the massive bird, dancing in a nightmarish circle of flashing teeth and a bottomless, dilating throat. A thin, salivating tongue wriggled in the massive mouth like bait, and for a moment Korra thought she might be sick.
She screamed, stepping back and pushing Asami aside just as the giant mouth hurled forward, snapping air where the two girls had been. Korra released her accumulated energy with one long, powerful stroke, and with her breath came two long whips of fire, aimed straight for the dark spirit's face.
"Asami, run!"
Asami wasted no time, and Korra was not far behind her, occasionally turning back to fling licks of fire at Wan Shi Tong, who had now begun stumbling and lurching after them, overturning bookshelves, flinging up dust and grime and loose tiles. He was screeching, turning his head around in fury, flapping mindlessly, powerful talons crushing stone beneath them as he stomped after his prey.
Korra turned back, once, twice, to flood their trail with flame, hoping to deter the giant bird.
"Korra, we're in a library!" Asami screamed.
Not now, Asami, please. Korra released her next wave of fire with a sigh, and it sputtered out before it reached Wan Shi Tong's flailing body. Although, Korra had to concede, she might have a point. If any of these dusty dry books went up in flame the rest of the building would soon follow, including Korra and Asami.
As they turned a corner, Korra used the stream from a crumbling decorative fountain to flood the hall with a spray of steaming water. She danced back into the shadows after Asami, only to be met with a yell.
"Korra! Water damage!"
"Oh gods above, Asami, this is not the time!"
Korra slipped on some of her spilled water and stumbled after Asami into a dusty, empty hallway.
"Now is exactly the time!" Asami hissed. She grabbed Korra's wrist before she could throw a punch of air back at the raging bird, and dragged her into a crevice between two crumbing pillars. "Stop giving him so many breadcrumbs," she whispered, and held Korra back in the shadows.
Korra shut her mouth and lowered her fists, slipping into the darkness behind Asami. They could hear the echoes of massive talons on stone, stomping, searching, the sound of Wan Shi Tong's incomprehensible screeching bouncing down the hall.
"Look," Asami whispered, opening her pack slightly. Korra could barely make out the outlines of a few tattered, worn-down tomes. "Spiritual botany. These might tell us what's going on. If that giant bird gets distracted I might be able to snag a few more helpful books before we get out of here. So no more spewing fire."
Korra nodded, and they sidled through the crack between the two pillars, hoping that the angry spirit behind them would not think to look so closely in the walls. If anything, he did seem beside himself with rage—not the rational thinker that the stories had made him out to be.
Korra slipped her way past Asami into the depths of the shadows. "Do you think the crack goes all the way through?" she whispered. Her query was answered when her extended hands met cold stone. It looked like the crevice only went in enough to hide them, not provide them with an escape. "I think I can bend our way outta here," Korra said, widening her stance and grounding her heels.
"No, you'll make too much noise," Asami breathed. "Wait till he passes and then we can get back to the disease section. If you crumble the wall he'll be on us in a split-second."
Asami leaned out into the now quiet hall, searching for a hint of moving shadow, a rustle or a stray feather that might tell them if Wan Shi Tong was still nearby.
"It looks safe," Asami whispered, and crept out of the shadows, back into the hall. Korra followed her, surveying the damage she had caused in their flight: bookshelves overturned, manuscripts and paper scattered, intricate mosaics cracked and flung by angry talons, the remains of the decorative fountain that now lay in ruin, dripping dark water.
Korra crept behind Asami, back along the hall, hoping like they could get what they needed and get the hell out of that death trap of a library. Korra couldn't completely quell the feeling that somewhere, sometime, she had done this sort of thing before.
A creaking behind her told her that their odds of carrying out their plan were less than spectacular. Without looking behind her, Korra gently grabbed Asami's arm. "Those other books are going to have to wait."
She pulled Asami into a dark hall just as a massive wing swept at them, followed by an ear-splitting shriek. Korra pushed Asami down the corridor, spun around, stomped her feet, and blocked their path by raising a wall of stone behind them.
"Get moving," she grunted before turning and following Asami down the hall, as the harrowing sounds of Wan Shi Tong beating away at her wall echoed behind her. Just as they were turning a corner, she heard a bone-crushing boom, followed by the crumbling chatter of stone on stone. A shiver ran up her spine and she knew they didn't have much time.
She caught up with Asami, as they sprinted through tapered hallways, through rooms and across bridges, fleeing the awful screech of the ancient librarian. When Korra was sure they were completely lost, she spied a possible exit. At the end of this hallway, upside-down and narrow, stood a tall window. Beyond that, a flood of greenish-yellow light.
"Hold on," Korra told Asami, grabbing her about the waist. She practically lifted the girl up with one arm while the other flexed, summoning up a wave of stone. With a yell and a crunch, Korra launched both her and Asami through the narrow window, propelled by a burst of stone. They flailed, screaming, out of the library an into the open air, stopping for a weightless moment at the peak of their trajectory, before they started to fall.
Asami squeezed Korra's neck so tight she thought that she might choke her to death before they even hit the ground. Still, Korra mustered up enough strength to kick billow of air under them, slowing their descent. The ground rushed up to meet them in a blur of greenery, and Korra tightened her muscles, holding Asami close, bracing for impact.
They hit the ground clumsily, with a grunt and a roll. They tumbled through the underbrush, just a flailing pile of bruised limbs and tangled hair. Shrubbery, roots, saplings and the like wove into the mess of their twisting bodies. Screaming, they rolled down the huge curve of a massive tree root before flopping to a full stop, panting and bruised.
"Are you all right?" Korra barely managed to gasp after a few long seconds of pained silence.
"I landed on my books," Asami complained, disentangling herself from Korra and struggling to her feet. She immediately checked her backpack for her stolen items. "All there. A little bruised, but all there. You?"
"Yeah, I'm good," Korra muttered, before looking above them where the inverted library hung suspended in the greenery. Before their intrusion, the library looked mysterious and inviting, now it just had an eerie, unsettling air about it. A resounding shriek echoed from its halls, rife with the rage and pain of the blight-afflicted librarian. Korra grimaced. "I mean, I heard Wan Shi Tong was a sourpuss, but damn. That was something else."
"It's the disease," Asami said, rearranging her hair. "Whatever it is, it can spread between different spirits. It may…" Asami trailed off, lowering her eyes worriedly.
"It may what?"
"Well, there is a possibility that it can spread to us." Korra's stomach did a little turn, and she shivered. "And if that happens, it's probably only a matter of time before it makes its way to our world. We should get back to Republic City. I can have a research team figure this whole thing out. I'll need samples."
"Wait, Asami," Korra said. "I'm not sure if that's the right course."
"Why not?" Asami looked taken aback. "It seems like the most logical thing to do."
"Well, it's not. We can't just drag a bunch of scientists in here and have them cure a spirit disease. It doesn't work like that."
Asami crossed her arms. "How do you know?"
"I just do, okay? I just do—my gut tells me."
"And we should just listen to your gut? Did your gut tell you that Wan Shi Tong was going to welcome us into his library and show us around? Did your magical gut say we would have a happy old time on our holiday?" Korra pursed her lips, seething, and Asami continued. "If we want to solve a problem like this we have to tackle it head-on, logically. That's how science works—"
"Yes, Asami, that might be how it works, but this isn't the logical world," Korra grit her teeth with annoyance. "This world doesn't follow the rules that you're so used to. Things happen here that you don't understand." At the hair-raising tone in Korra's voice, a dark cloud shifted in front of the sun, throwing the whole forest under its shadow. "This is not something that's physical, it's not something that you and your stupid gadgets and your tinkering can solve, okay? This is important—this is something that only I…"
The indignant betrayal in Asami's face shut her up. She grimaced, clenching her fists at her sides, and sat back down, crossing her legs and taking a deep breath.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm just…" she lowered her eyes, finding something comforting in staring at the moss by her feet. "I feel like this is all my fault. I'm the Avatar, right? The bridge between the two worlds, protector of the spirits, all that junk. I'm supposed to stop things like this from happening."
Asami sat down beside her. "Of course it's not your fault." She sighed. "Look, I'm sorry too. I just... I know that this is something that I don't completely understand, since I'm not in touch with the spirit world… at all. I just don't want to see you get hurt or anything, tackling this whole thing by yourself." She took Korra's hand between two palms, warming it. "I just want to get you safe back to Republic City. This kind of thing is what we have labs and mechs and quarantines for, Korra. So please, don't do this spirit stuff all by yourself. There's no shame in asking for help."
Korra looked up at her and smiled. Asami, as usual, was right. There was no shame in asking for help. But there was no way she was going back to the city. "I'll guide you back to the portal and you can get home safe."
"And leave you out here with that nutty book-penguin and all those nasty vines? No, Korra. If you're hell-bent on solving this, I'm with you all the way. For the duration." Asami stood, holding out her hand in professional coldness. Korra wasn't sure what to make of it.
In Asami's eyes she could see a flare of resolve, of independence. Korra understood what that look meant, and accepted that if they were going to solve this problem, they must not hold one another back. Both of them could take care of themselves, but it was better if they could take care of each other. Korra sighed.
She reached out her hand and took Asami's, solidifying their tacit contract like two businesswomen sealing an important deal. Korra smiled.
A blood-curdling screech reverberated from the library, inhuman and saturated with wrath. A few bricks crumbled from the library's wall, around its windows, as Wan Shi Tong pecked mercilessly at his barriers.
"Do you think we should get out of here?" Korra asked, a little nervously.
Asami jumped to her feet, grabbing her pack. "That seems like a good idea."
Korra followed her, reaching for Asami's hand. "Yeah, my magic gut suggested it to me."
"Shut up, Korra."