Chapter Three: Books and Letters
"Pass the papaya!"
With a practiced airbending motion Aang sent the dish of fruit soaring to one of the other breakfast tables. The bowl landed, spinning and almost tipping its contents, in front of a young boy.
"Thanks, Avatar Aang!"
Katara rolled her eyes. "Couldn't you have just passed the bowl?" She was seated on the cushion next to Aang.
"Why?" Aang fed a nut to Momo who was chittering on his shoulder. "I'm feeling very airbendy this morning." He was excited about today; Aang was going to begin his lessons with the youth of the Northern Air Temple. Aang expected quick results. He could just imagine all the kids eagerly leaving lessons to clean the temple's clogged fountains and sooty walls. Aang remembered Katara's words of reason, that he should not expect too much too soon as he usually did, but was ignoring them.
"You're feeling 'Airbendy'?" Katara replied.
Aang nodded. "I'm just excited about today's lessons."
Teo poured himself a cup of tea. "The Avatar's not the only one," he began from across the table, "everybody's excited."
There was a murmur of agreement among the other breakfasters. Today seemed like it was going to be a very good day. A clear, gray sky could be seen through the eating hall's many high, arched windows and a feeling of curiosity pervaded the room. Everyone felt honored and a little awed at the thought of any kind of attention from the Avatar. Even though most had no idea what was to be taught, they remembered the interesting stories Aang had told yesterday about Air Nomad life and were interested in anything related.
Breakfast continued with much talking, laughing, and the clinking of chopsticks in bowls. The only commotion was when Hana, who was seated next to Teo, chased her little sister Lin around the dining hall's many low, round tables. Lin had stuck her chopsticks under her lips so they looked like teeth and ran around screaming that she was a sabertooth moose-lion. Hana had been quite embarrassed. When everyone was done the tables were cleared. The room began to empty. Most were talking in excited voices about the Avatar and heading to the hang gliding area, the only place big enough to fit everyone. Aang was walking and joking with Teo he felt something wet on his head. Aang looked around.
"What was that?" Aang asked as he felt it again.
Suddenly it started to rain. The gray clouds rumbled and big, warm raindrops began to fall. There were shrieks and gasps of surprise as everyone, including Aang and his small group, rushed inside the surrounding towers or back into the dining hall. Rain echoed on the roof and splashed everywhere. It had washed away Aang's good mood. The smile he had worn all through breakfast was gone. There were to be no lessons today. Aang had wanted a spacious area to give bending displays and teach, and did not want to mess with the temple by using earthbending to create a roof.
"Just our luck," Teo said, "the first bit of rain in months and it's today."
Katara put her hand on Aang's back. "Don't be discouraged. I bet you can use today to prepare an ever better lesson." She kissed him on the cheek.
"Wait," Hana replied but stopped when everyone turned their attention to her. The teenager twirled the end of her long ponytail. "Teo, didn't you say your dad was inventing some kind of portable roof?"
"Yeah. Now that you mention it, I'm sure he'd help us if we went to see him."
Aang, Teo, and Hana set out while Katara hung back in the doorway.
"I'll wait for you guys here," Katara said, and Aang nodded.
Aang bent the rain around Teo and Hana so everyone was dry when they arrived at the workshop of Teo's dad. The room was even more of a mess than Aang remembered. Papers and dirty inkwells littered the tables and there were half-built inventions everywhere. On the other side of the room Teo's dad was tinkering with what looked like the cross-section of a vase with a pendulum built inside. He looked up as they came in.
"Well, hello there," Teo's father said with a smile.
"Whatcha doing dad?" Teo wheeled across the room, and Aang followed. Hana hung back in the doorway.
"Oh just making a few corrections to my earthquake detection device," Teo's dad replied, "I sent the blueprints to Ba Sing Se but, alas, there is a design flaw I must fix." He sighed and set the pendulum going. "But I doubt you came to hear me ramble."
"We came because we need some kind of high awning or roof to cover the courtyard," Aang said.
"Hmm," Teo's father said as he stroked his mustache, "I'm afraid I haven't quite finished it yet. I got a little sidetracked and--" he stopped, distracted by the pendulum.
Teo suddenly exclaimed, "Dad! Do I always have to remind you to take your rice bowl to the kitchen? It left rings on the blueprints I just inked for you!" He moved an empty bowl that sat on a stack of papers.
Aang looked at the blueprints. A title on the right read The Northeast Tower and illustrations showed the diagram of a tower. Everything was measured thoroughly and every character was tiny and neat. Aang noticed that one section was missing measurements.
"What's this empty spot right here?"
"That," Teo replied as he found the area with his finger, "is unmeasured space." At Aang's puzzled look he went on. "We measured the outside area of the tower, but for some reason the area inside is smaller. Unused space, like one wall is thicker than the others or there is an unaccounted for room or--"
"A secret room?" Aang interrupted.
Teo thought on this. "It's possible. I never really thought about it."
Teo and Aang looked at each other. Both remembered what had happened the first time Aang had come to the temple. Seeing how sad Aang had been about the temple, Teo had suggested opening the door to the inner sanctum. The room had turned out to be a war machine workshop for Teo's dad. Now the idea of finding an untouched room was a possibility again. The two boys said nothing, and Hana's gray eyes had gotten wide.
Only Teo's dad, oblivious to the situation, spoke. He muttered, "Inverted maybe. Badgermoles too, that'd be nice."
A massive wave skirted the edge of the runway but turned sharply before it could flow over the edge. Katara shifted through the stances as she maneuvered the water around her. Her hair was plastered to her forehead and she was soaked. Katara had stayed behind so she could get some waterbending in before Aang, Teo, and Hana came back. She was taking advantage of the rain. Katara could easily pull water from the air, it was the only way to waterbend here, but she preferred water from a natural source. During another set of moves she saw something dark in the sky.
"Hawky?"
Sokka's message hawk screamed as it circled above Katara's head. Sokka had discovered the bird on their journey through the Fire Nation and somehow the bird had found its way back to him.
"Hawky!" Katara held out her arm so Hawky could land. The bird had a mailbag made of waterproof seal blubber wrapped around its claws. Sokka had sent Aang and Katara a letter. Katara untied the bag and Hawky flew off to roost out of the rain. She waited around for Aang and the others to show back up so they could read the letters together, but they did not come. Katara figured Aang was fine and in her impatience decided to go through the mail.
Sitting on the wide sill of a shuttered window, Katara opened the bag. There were two letters inside. One was in a thick, expensive envelope and the other had been hastily folded. She picked up the folded letter. It was damp.
Aang + Katara,
Where are you two? You haven't written me lately. I'm supposed to be at the South Pole with the other warriors, but everyone is busy at the North Pole. Too much of the main glacier melted this summer and took part of the village with it. The medicine men at the temple are saying there is going to be a lot of Spirit World interference soon, with the equinox coming up and all. Spirit mumbo-jumbo isn't my thing, but I feel you two should have a heads up.
I'm staying at the barracks with the other young warriors. I have also been placed under an older, more experience warrior to learn from. I got paired with dad.
And don't forget about Gran-Gran and Pakku's wedding. Everyone's expected to come and bring a partner. I'm taking Suki.
Sokka
Sokka's handwriting was rushed and sloppy, like always, and there were scribbles and cross-outs everywhere. He had even drawn a heart around Suki's name. Katara had forgotten about Gran-Gran and Master Pakku's wedding. According to the letter it was very soon. She and Aang would have to write Sokka back.
Teo pointed. "And there's The Northeast Tower." The green turreted tower he pointed to stood on an incline ahead.
Aang, Teo, and Hana walked towards it under a green umbrella Hana held. The Northeast Tower had been built into one of the mountain's gentler slopes, and at the edge of the regular temple, but Aang knew if someone went to far left they would fall down the mountain. In the rain and freshly formed mountain fog Aang was especially wary. Stone steps led up to the tower. A ramp had also been built.
Aang sighed at the sight. He knew the Earth Kingdom people had labor saving devices everywhere but did they really have to desecrate sacred ground with a ramp? Was it really too much work to go down some stairs? Aang's annoyance left him when he saw Teo rolling his chair up the ramp while he and Hana took the stairs. Aang felt bad. Not everything done to the temple had been done for silly things like more baths. Inside Hana set the umbrella down and Aang looked around. There was an elevator and a flight of crumbling, unclimbable stairs that spiraled up along the wall.
Teo reached in among the assortment of scrolls he had brought in his chair and pulled out one. "Here's the diagram." Aang and Hana leaned forward to look as Teo began to unroll it. "Oops wrong one."
Yet before he could put it back, Aang put his hand down on it. "Did you draw this?" The scroll showed a colorful map of what looked like the entire temple.
"Yeah," Teo said, "I do most of my dad's illustrations and note taking for him."
"This is really good," Aang replied as Hana nodded in agreement.
Teo replied, "Thanks, but I've had a lot of practice." He rolled up the map and pulled out the diagram Aang had seen earlier. "I got my back injury shortly before coming here, so I was bedridden for almost a year. Drawing was the only thing to do. Now--"
"How can you say that so casually?" Hana interrupted in her quiet voice, "in the Fire Nation no one would say anything like that about themselves."
"You're not in the Fire Nation anymore," Teo shrugged, "and it doesn't bother me. It's what happened. But didn't we come to see what's wrong with the measurements?"
Aang walked forward and pressed his hands to the wall. He was surprised at what he had learned. Hana, and Lin, were Fire Nation refugees unlike everyone else here. Aang wondered what someone from the Fire Nation would be escaping from. Aang now used his earthbending to see into the walls. He was looking for anything that would account for missing area. Aang suddenly started.
"I saw—felt something high up," Aang said, "it's a huge room."
"Really?" Teo's eyes were wide as Aang nodded.
Teo and Hana headed to the elevator and got in, and Aang ran over to them.
"This room is at the top of the stairs, but the elevator doesn't go high enough. I'm going to have to airbend you up." Aang smiled. He was excited at the discovery of the room and feeling oddly mischievous. "Hold on!" he called as he summoned up a gust of air and jumped on. The elevator shot up like fireworks at the Fire Festival. Teo was screaming in excitement while Hana was just screaming. She was plastered to the side. When the elevator was high enough Aang summoned some air to push the elevator onto the landing.
"Whoo-hoo!" Teo yelled when he got out. "That was awesome! I wish I was an airbender."
Hana held her head. "That was fun, but—but--"
It took a few moments for Teo and Hana to get oriented, but when they did Hana pointed to the wall and told everybody to look. There was an outline of a round door. Teo and Hana moved apart so the Avatar could touch the wall. Aang put his hand on the wall and sent some air into the door's cracks. The door opened. The three of them walked in.
The second letter was from Toph. Katara could tell as the letter was sealed with a blob of emerald wax that had been stamped with a flying boar. She wondered who Toph had dictated the note to. Katara broke the seal and opened the letter.
As Dictated by Lady Toph Bai Fong to Madame Xiu
Dearest Avatar Aang and the Lady Katara,
I hope this letter finds you both well. A lot has happened since I saw you two last. Iroh has returned to the Fire Nation, Zuko needed his help, so Jin is running the tea shop. At the Jasmine Dragon I also ran into Master Yu and Xin Fu, the kind men my parents hired to bring me home.
Since Iroh is gone, he had me take his place at the Earth Kingdom meeting in Ba Sing Se. Anybody who was anybody was there. King Bumi was made ruler of the entire Earth Kingdom and some other guy is in charge of Omashu now.
At the meeting I ran into my dear parents and am living near them now. My parents have given me a wonderful assistant named Madame Xiu. I told my parents I can take care of myself, but they made me take her so she can do things like pick out my clothes, write my letters, and keep track of my agenda. My mom and dad also want to repair things between us by officially introducing me to the world. Thanks to the ever insightful Madame Xiu, it has been decided I will take part in a debutante ball. I would love it if you two would come.
Best wishes,
Lady Toph Bai Fong
Katara smiled when she finished the letter. She could tell what sections of Toph's speech Madame Xiu had changed. Katara doubted Toph would ever call her parents 'dear' or her bounty hunters 'kind men.' Katara also doubted that Toph would want her and Aang to attend her coming out ceremony, but they were going to. Katara was not going to miss such a big moment in her friend's life. She folded up the letters and put them back in the bag on the windowsill beside her.
Katara was glad to know that Toph and Sokka were doing fine. Even though she wondered how Zuko was doing. She had heard nothing about the Fire Lord except that Zuko, in need of his uncle's assistance for something, had brought Iroh back to the Fire Nation. Katara knew Zuko and Mai were very busy, but could they not find some royal scribe to write letters to their friends? Katara would have been happy with a few lines that said Zuko and Mai were doing fine. She sighed as she pulled the mailbag closed.
The room was dark save for the small amount of light that came in through the open door. There were books everywhere. Bookshelves ran along the stone wall and up into the tower's slanted roof. Books and scrolls were stacked on five low, round tables organized throughout the room. Everything was draped in a century's worth of cobwebs and dust.
"It's an Air Nomad library," Hana gasped.
"I've never seen so many books in my life," Teo said as he looked around.
Aang, Teo, and Hana walked around the room. Aang dusted off a lantern that sat on a table and used his firebending to light it. The lantern cast an impressive light around the dark room. Aang could now see that the books were not stacked very neatly on some of the shelves. It was like the Air Nomads had stockpiled as many books as quickly as they could. Hana opened a thick book and sneezed at the dust it raised.
"Get a load of this card catalog," Teo said as he leafed through a long box of handwritten cards. "Airbending, bison raising, celebrations, gliders, meditation; they have everything here."
Hana looked up. "Maybe they put all these records here and purposely broke the stairs so, so no one could find it. My old teacher said the Air people were preparing for a takeover by the Fire Nation." She flipped the pages of her book.
"This is amazing." Aang was running his hands along the book spines and reading the titles. "Monk Gyatso said the temples kept extensive records, but I never really thought about it." Aang turned to face the others and recounted what Monk Gyatso had said.
Monk Gyatso had told Aang the Air Nomads documented everything. Aang remembered that each Air Temple had a Scribe whose job was to make records on everything from Air Nomad culture, weather reading, to notes on different bending styles. Each year copies of certain documents would be sent by bison to the other temples. This was because the Air Nomads believed in the importance of knowledge and learning from other cultures.
"Like this book." Hana held up the book she was looking at. "It's about the palace and city at the South Pole." There was an illustration of an ice palace flying banners with waves printed on them.
Aang nodded and smiled to himself. He could not believe it. For the longest time he had been the only source for information on Air culture but at the sight of all these books Aang felt some of the pressure on him was lifted. He was sure there was information in here he did not know and Aang was eager to learn it. Although Aang could not remember the exact words, the monks had always said about how a person could never know too much. Or something like that.
Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me.
When I started writing this I sort of unofficially decided I would get a new chapter out every weeked, but this one took me a little longer to write. Feedback is appreciated, as always, and I'll eventually get the next chapter (in which Aang will begin his lessons as the Airbending Master) posted.