Avatar Rylon
Book 1 Past
Chapter 8: Avatar Xi
Rylon watched from the large windows in the airship as Zaofu slowly disappeared into the distance as they made their way towards the Fire Nation Capital. He knew that this time he wasn't going to wait ten years to come back home again.
"So we're just going to the royal library and then leaving right?" Sy said not looking out the window as he sat in his seat focusing on the next seat in front of him.
"That's what I was hoping." Rylon said turning to him.
"You can't possibly be going to the Royal Palace without letting the Fire Lord know!" Zuri said quickly sitting up in her seat.
"I don't need to bother him with this." Rylon said quickly wanting to just get the information they needed from the library and then head back to Republic City to sort out this mess.
"No the Fire Lord should at least know you're coming." Zuri said quickly standing up.
"Where are you going?" Rylon said looking after her.
"I'm going up to the pilot to tell him to contact the Palace and tell them the Avatar is coming to visit." With that she disappeared through a door as Rylon quickly stood up and followed after her.
"I'll just stay here!" Sy called out after them.
"Wait Zuri we really don't need to let the Fire Lord know." Rylon said quickly catching up to Zuri who stopped and turned to him.
"See this is your problem." Zuri said crossing her arms as Rylon looked confused. "You're supposed to be the Avatar Rylon and yet you let yourself get bossed around by everyone including me."
"I don't let…" Rylon started but was interrupted by Zuri.
"Quiet!" Zuri snapped in a very authoritative tone as Rylon kept quiet. "See this is the problem! You shouldn't let people boss you around or tell you what to do if you don't like it."
"I don't let people boss me around I just agree with what most people are saying that's all." He looked up at Zuri who wasn't convinced by what he has said at all. "It's easy for you to boss people around because you're a Police Officer." Zuri frowned slightly at him. "I'm just the Avatar."
"Exactly you're the Avatar! Did you ever hear about Avatar Korra being bossed around? What about Aang?" Zuri said as Rylon frowned.
"It's different now Zuri each Nation is run by an elected office that is chosen by the people and it is those people who make decisions for their nation not me. Who am I to say to the President of Republic City or-or say to the Fire Lord what they should or shouldn't be doing? I try to keep balance between our world and the spirit world that is it. If the leader of a Nation says that something is best for their people who am I to say it isn't?" He paused.
"Can't you see though after what has happened that corruption that can occur right under every ones noses? The President may have been elected by his people but that gives him no right to lie to their faces and put their lives in danger nor is it his right to communicate with the spirits that's what you're supposed to do. You've spent all your life being told to do whatever it takes to keep balance but that doesn't mean ignoring things and hoping they go away if you don't like what's happening…"
"That's not true." Rylon snapped. "I've done everything in my power to protect our world and the spirit world. I had no idea the President of Republic City was lying to me and to Shanto and now I'm doing everything in my power to solve this problem as best I can. I will not allow war to break out and after I find out the truth about this barrier then The President will be shown to the world as a liar and my name can be cleared." Rylon said taking a deep breath looking at Zuri who smiled.
"I knew you had a backbone in there somewhere, it'll help with your fire bending training." Zuri said looking up at Rylon.
"You, you did that on purpose." He said with a slight frown as she nodded.
"Exactly Avatar, we'll work on you being more aggressive and decisive later but for now I need to contact the palace." She said walking towards the cockpit.
"I assume I'm not going to be able to convince you not to though." Rylon looked after her a she shook her head.
"Not a chance Avatar." She said with a laugh.
Looking after her for a moment Rylon turned back around and walked back into the passenger seating area where Sy turned to face him when he walked inside.
"You have a stowaway." Sy said looking to Rylon as Mr Fuzzy jumped up onto the top of the seats headrest.
"Mr Fuzzy?" Rylon said walking over to the seat. "Where did he come from?"
"Your bag over there, your dad sent it over earlier to the airport with some extra supplies in it. I didn't' go through it!" Sy said quickly. "I heard a noise coming from it, I opened it and Mr Fuzzy jumped out at me. Scared the daylights out of me!"
"Well it's too late to take you back now." Rylon said petting the Mr Fuzzy as Platinum looked on jealously from the seat he was sitting in.
After a few minutes Zuri walked back inside the room and over to Rylon and Sy.
"I contacted the palace in the name of the Avatar and their greatest scholar will meet us at the landing pad to take us directly to the library when we arrive and in the evening we have been formally invited to attend dinner with the Fire Lord and his family." Zuri said looking satisfied with herself. "We also have permission to land on the official landing bay at the Royal Palace so we don't have to walk all the way from the airship airport. I do suggest however that Platinum and Mr Fuzzy stay aboard the ship, I doubt the scholar we are meeting would enjoy their company in the Fire Nations greatest and oldest collection of ancient books and records." Zuri said as Mr Fuzzy jumped on her lap and sat down.
-x-
After about an hour the airship which was also the fastest of the new line arrived with clearance at the palace landing bay.
"I met with the Fire Lord a few weeks ago when I started my fire bending training, I didn't think I would be meeting him again so soon, he is always so busy." Rylon said as he, Sy and Zuri walked down the exit steps of the airship onto the landing platform where they were greeted by an older man and a younger woman.
"Avatar! Greetings and welcome to the Fire Lord's Palace once more. I am Ki'zen head scholar in charge of the Ancient Fire Nation Library here at the palace and this is my assistance and successor Zi'lee."
"It's an honour for you to allow me and my friends to enter your library Ki'Zen." Rylon said graciously as Ki'zen looked to Sy for a moment but didn't say anything as he quickly turned around.
"This way Avatar."
The group walked through the Palace which was full of nobles, soldiers and scholars all going about their daily business. They walked for quite some time before they arrived at a door that had a golden sign above it with the words, "Fire Nation Archives" engraved into the gold with a Fire Nation symbol beside it.
"Welcome to the greatest collection of Fire Nation history books in the entire world." Ki'zen said glancing back at Rylon with a smile as he opened the door in front of him.
Stepping inside Rylon was instantly blown away by the sheer size of the library which dwarfed the size of any library he had ever been in before. The library had at least 3 levels and the book shelves were jam packed with both ancient books and modern day books and each level extended far down into the distance. Inside scholars sat quietly at long tables at the front of the library as they looked through books making their own notes and doing their own research.
"This is amazing." Sy said wide eyed stepping into the room and looking around with a huge grin on his face.
"This library is usually off limits to most people but the Avatar and his friends are more than welcome to come and do any research at any time of course." Zi'lee said looking to Rylon. "All we ask is caution as some of the older books here are first editions which have been passed down through many, many generations and are extremely fragile to touch."
"Now Avatar please tell me what it is you require as I am sure we will have the information here for you." Ki'zen said.
"We're looking for any information you have on the ancient Fire Nation Avatar, Avatar Xi." Rylon said stepping forward beside Ki'zen who nodded.
"A very ancient Avatar indeed young Avatar, may I enquire as to your interest in her?" Ki'zen started as he walked into the library quickly followed by Rylon and the others.
Rylon did not like to lie but he knew Ki'zen would have no clue about what was occurring with Juan Dai and the spirit barrier as the President of Republic City and his Representatives had convinced the world it had just been a rocket malfunction and nothing more.
"Having lost my connection to my past lives I have been very interested in researching them to understand their lives and what they went through." Rylon lied as Ki'zen turned to him.
"Very strange you would be interested in such an ancient Avatar who lived for such a short time but her life though short was very active." Ki'zen said suddenly coming to a stop so quickly Rylon nearly bumped into him. "Zi'lee take this, this and this…" He handed 3 books to her. "You start looking through these ancient texts while I look for more."
"I'll come help." Sy said eagerly almost drooling at the site of the ancient books.
"I will to, 3 books 3 researchers, it'll be quicker.' Zuri said as she, Sy and Zi'lee walked back towards the entrance and the large tables that were there.
"What do you know about Avatar Xi?" Rylon asked as Ki'zen continued to look at all the books on the shelves.
"Not as much as I would like especially considering she was a Fire Nation Avatar but you must understand young Avatar that text books, recollections and stories that have been written down get lost over time. Books fade away into nothing if not cared for and so with these ancient Avatars I'm afraid what we are left with most of the time is only their name and the date they died. It's a shame to admit it but wars have also cost us scholars hundreds of texts that get destroyed due to wars waged by stupid men and their large ego's." Ki'zen picked out a large book that was so heavy he had a hard time trying to open it to look inside. "Oh excellent." He said turning the book to face Rylon where on an ancient page of the text book was a hand drawn picture of Avatar Xi fire bending. She was wearing ancient formal Fire Nation attire, had long black hair down to her waist and wore a small fire nation royal headpiece on her head. Xi looked around 20 years old in the hand drawn picture and had a very solemn look on her face.
"Amazing they still have a hand drawn picture of her from all that time ago." Rylon said looking down at the picture as Ki'zen closed the book.
"Come on let's go have a closer look and see if your friends found anything in those old books." Ki'zen said eagerly hurrying back towards the front of library.
Once they reached the front of the library Rylon could see Zuri, Sy and Zi'lee each looking at one book each all reading the texts to themselves.
"Here Avatar look at this whilst I go back and make sure we haven't missed anything." Ki'zen said carefully putting the book with the picture of Avatar Xi down in front of him before walking away.
Sitting down at the table Rylon looked at the book title which read, "Ancient Avatar Pictures and Descriptions." Opening the book he saw a huge list of chapters that was full of ancient Avatars each having a page or two all to themselves beginning with Avatar Wan and continuing on through the Avatar line. Looking for Avatar Xi Rylon found her and turned to the page that had her hand drawn picture on it but he was disappointed to see that she only had one page which was primarily just the picture whilst others Avatars had so much more written about them. Looking down at the picture he saw a little blurb written underneath it. 'Avatar Xi The Lost. The Avatar who saved everyone but lost herself.' Rylon read the blurb in his mind not understanding what it meant but before he had a chance to think about it he heard Sy say something.
"This is fantastic." Sy grinned. "It says here that after Xi dethroned the Fire Lord for abusing his people and making them slaves the new Fire Lord she chose created a temple in her honour on the ancient Island of Lantau."
"Does it say anything else about her?" Rylon asked curiously looking up at Sy who shook his head.
"I'm afraid this book only has one paragraph about her that explains what happened after she tore town the Fire Lord's tower and defeated the sky spirit."
"My book says it was on this Lantau Island which was the highest volcano in the entire kingdom at the time where the ancient Fire Lord forced his people to create his tower to the moon." Zuri looked up. "That must be why they built her temple there, they most likely used pieces from the destroyed tower he tried to create there to make her temple."
"What does yours say?" Sy asked eagerly looking at Rylons book.
"I'm afraid very little, it just has a hand drawn picture of her which underneath says that she saved her people but then lost herself in the process?" Rylon said curiously looking to Sy who shrugged.
"I'm afraid Avatar that my book only repeats the same information that we already have." Zi'lee said with a sigh as she slowly closed her book.
"I haven't heard of this Lantau Island before." Rylon said turning to Zi'lee.
"The name of that island was changed a few centuries ago Avatar to Huozai Island." When she finished Rylon looked at Zuri who shook her head.
"Well there's the end of that investigation." Zuri said with a sigh.
"I don't understand?" Rylon asked.
"Houzai Island has a very active volcano on it, if there was ever any temple there then the possibility of it having been destroyed long ago is very high." Zuri said sadly looking to Rylon who tried to not to look discouraged.
"Here you go Avatar." Ki'zen said suddenly returning to them and putting a book down in front of Rylon which showed a map with the words 'Lantau Island' beneath it. "This is an ancient map showing where the Temple of Avatar Xi was located on the Island."
"The temple would have been destroyed long ago!" Zuri said crossing her arms as Rylon looked down and began to read the blurb next to the map.
"It is written by Ancient Exporters who visited the Temple only a few hundred years ago…" Rylon said as Sy looked intrigued. "It says that they believed the ancient Fire Lord constructed the temple after Xi's death in her honour. so future Avatar could follow on her legacy."
"Wait a minute." Sy said as he suddenly grabbed the book Rylon had been reading with the list of Avatars in it as he quickly flicked through the pages till he reached the next Fire Nation Avatar after Xi which was a man known as Avatar Yan. Sy pointed to him excitedly. "I remember reading about him back at the museum briefly, he was an incredibly spiritual Avatar who was claimed to have had a very strong connection to his past lives because the world was in a state of peace giving him time to meditate and connect with his past lives and the spirits. Here look it says that Avatar Yan spent his time making sure that past Avatar monuments dedicated to his past lives were looked after and protected for future generations since the world he lived in was in peace."
"This explorer's note book Ki'zen found describes an ancient tablet the explorers found at the entrance to Xi's temple explaining how a future Avatar using their Avatar state had created a huge protective earth shield around the temple to protect it during any small eruptions." Rylon said excitedly. "If this was Avatar Yan then…"
"It's possible the temple is still on the island but it's just been buried by a lava flow but the temple itself should be protected by Yan having created a huge earth shield covering it. If we can find out where it's been buried we could still get inside!" Sy grinned.
"Wow, just wait a minute." Zuri said quickly. "Not that I don't want to get excited over this but who's to tell this huge earth shield hasn't collapsed over time due to all the lava flows?"
"Your friend speaks the truth young Avatar but I believe it is worth seeing for yourself as this temple would have all the information you require on Avatar Xi if it still exists." Ki'zen said with a nod looking down at Rylon who quickly stood up.
"I'm ready to go and see if we can find it." Rylon said as Sy jumped up.
"Count me in." Sy said eagerly as Zuri sighed.
"I better go then to, to make sure you two stay out of trouble and that we're back in time for our dinner with the Fire Lord." Zuri said standing up.
"I wish you the best of luck Avatar and be sure to bring back any artefacts you may find." Ki'zen grinned as Rylon nodded and thanked him and his assistant before he, Zuri and Sy began to make their way back to his airship.
Just as they arrived on the landing pad Zuri quickly stopped them.
"Before we go charging onto a volcanic island I just want you two to know that the possibility of finding this long lost temple is going to be nearly impossible." She paused. "And we have to make sure we're back in time for dinner with the Fire Lord!"
"We have all day Zuri to look and the island didn't look very big." Rylon said as Sy nodded eagerly. "Come on we better get started then to make sure we're back in time." Rylon said as he and Sy excitedly walked onto the airship followed by Zuri.
-x-
It didn't take long for the airship to reach the island as it wasn't very far from where the main Fire Nation Island where the Palace and city stood.
As the Island came into view Rylon could see that it had a huge volcano that rose up high into the sky and that it was spitting out ash and steam. The volcano had very steep sides before at the island level it levelled out to an almost flat surface till it reached the water. There was no vegetation at all on the small island as the constant ash and lava flows from the volcano would kill anything within a day if it tried to grow.
"I'm not going to be able to safely land Avatar but I can get you close enough to the ground to jump out." The pilot said turning to Rylon who nodded.
"Then stand by at a safe distance just in case it erupts. Don't risk yourself if it does." Rylon nodded before walking out of the cockpit and towards Sy and Zuri who were waiting near the exit door. "The pilot says he can't land but we'll be close enough to he ground so we can jump off." Just as he finished the door automatically slid open revealing there were just a metre above the sooty black ground.
"Let's go." Zuri said jumping down as she was followed by Rylon who when they both landed kicked up a small sooty dust cloud.
"Actually it looks a little dirty, maybe I should stay." Sy said looking down from the airship.
"Get down here Sy." Zuri said crossing her arms. "We need you to give us a good idea based on that old map where you think this temple may be."
For a moment Sy didn't move before he took a deep breath and jumped off also creating a small soot cloud when he landed.
"My clothes!" Sy said looking down at the black soot sticking to his clothes but as he tried to wipe it away it disintegrated into black patches on his clothes instead.
"I told the pilot to land us here on the west side which looked as though were the temple was located." Rylon said looking around him. The entire area around them was nothing more than black and grey solid rock ground covered in soot that looked the same in all directions.
"It wasn't near the volcano itself because that would be way too steep to create a temple on." Zuri said looking back towards the volcano just a the ground shook a little beneath them.
"I'm really starting to think this wasn't a good idea." Sy said biting his lip.
"Then let's be quick?" Zuri said turning to him. "Which way?"
"On the map the temple was on the west side but appeared to be more SW so if we go in that direction and look." Sy said turning around pointing further down the island.
The group walked for about five minutes before Rylon stopped and stamped his foot down on the ground to see whether or not the vibrations reflected any large structures or air pockets beneath the surface but he felt nothing except thick layers of volcanic rock.
"Let's keep going." He said as they continued to walk south west.
-x-
After what seemed like hours the group had found nothing.
"My feet are starting to get sore." Sy complained.
"I'm not a quitter but I think we've been all over the SW part of this island and we've found nothing." Zuri sighed wiping her brow.
"Just a little longer?" Rylon said as he quickly ran forward.
"I'm with Zuri, we tried and now I'm hot and tired…I mean we're all hot and tired and need a break." Sy said looking after Rylon who ignored them for a moment and almost pleaded to find something as he stomped down on the ground and almost instantly he felt the presence of a huge structure not far from their location under the ground.
"I found it." He said quietly before turning to Zuri and Sy. "I found it!" He called out as Sy ran over to him.
"Fantastic I knew you could!" Sy grinned as Zuri rolled her eyes.
Taking a step forward Rylon took a deep breath before using his earth bending to push away the outer layers of volcanic rock on the surface near where they were revealing what seemed to be a large tunnel just below the surface that led further underground. The three looked down at the large tunnel before Rylon jumped down.
"You two go I'll wait outside just in case the volcano decides that it wants to erupt." Zuri said looking down at Rylon who nodded just as Sy jumped down beside him.
Holding out his palm Rylon created a small fire to light the way as he and Sy walked down the tunnel.
"It's very stuffy in here." Sy coughed but before he could say anything else the tunnel ended into what appeared to be a huge open cave.
Rylon created a huge fireball in front of the pair which lit up the huge room for a few moments revealing a small temple in front of them. The small temple was created out of the same type of volcanic rock that was all around them. At the entrance to the temple stood two mirror image granite statues of Avatar Xi solemnly guarding her temple with the small tablet outside that the explorers had mentioned finding in the book.
Walking forward towards the entrance Rylon stared up at the two statues of an Avatar that had lived 8000 years ago that had all but been forgotten over time as no one knew her name or what she had done in her short 22 year life so long ago.
"Quick come inside." Sy said motioning Rylon over with his light. Rylon walked past the doors of the temple where inside in a small room he saw a huge tablet that had writing on it which Sy was reading in the dim light.
Whilst Sy read the tablet Rylon looked around the small room noticing that a lot of the paper documents and pictures had all but crumbled into dust long ago and all that remained in the room were a few small artefacts such as small statues of Xi and the Fire Lord. Rylon imagined that when Xi had died her temple at first would have been looked after by the Fire Nation, the statues cleaned, the room dusted and she would have been remembered as a hero among her people and yet now 8000 years later the temple was in ruin and her name all but forgotten. Though to her testament here beneath the volcanic ash and rock her temple still stood as a reminder that even Avatars long past and long forgotten were all once looked upon as hero's who did whatever they could to protect their home and their people and were highly respected.
"This is fascinating." Sy said turning to Rylon who turned back to him.
"What does it say?" Rylon asked.
"Apparently the Fire Lord when this volcano had a brief period of calm being the highest peak in the Fire Nation, ordered his people to build a tower to the moon on it. When the tower wasn't being built high enough it says that the Fire Lord grew angry and began to punish his people. When Avatar Xi arrived back from the Earth Kingdom and saw her people living in fear and as slaves she confronted the Fire Lord on the peak of this very volcano before putting him in chains. Once at the bottom of the volcano she went into the Avatar state causing the volcano to suddenly and violently erupt into the sky. The tower blew off the volcano and high up into the sky because of the explosion which angered the spirit in the sky." Sy said turning to Rylon.
"Does it say anything about the darkness or how she died?" Rylon asked just as the ground beneath them shook violently. "And hurry."
"I'm going as fast as I can." Sy said spinning around back to the tablet. "Umm, it says here that's err here we go when the sky spirit got angry it decided that it was Avatar Xi's fault they had been disturbed and that they infected her with a horrible curse…" Sy trailed off turning to Rylon. "…that killed the Avatar so that no one else had to face the same punishment from the sky spirit who threatened her people."
Rylon had no time to contemplate what he had just heard as once more the room began to shake violently with parts of the temple roof starting to fall down around them.
"Get out of there now the volcano's erupting!" Rylon heard Zuri yell out from the end of the tunnel as her voice echoed around them.
"We have to go now!" Rylon yelled as Sy tore himself away from the tablet in front of him as the two began to run back towards the entrance Rylon had created to the tunnel. Once they reached the entrance point Rylon pushed Sy up with his air bending before jumping up himself.
"We have to get out of here now." Zuri yelled over the sound of the volcano exploding above them as it began to spew out black smoke and ash that was falling all around them.
"Quick to the water." Rylon said as the three began to run towards the water just as lava began to slide down all sides of the volcano from its peak.
"It's not safe enough for the airship to get this close with all this ash in the air." Sy said in a panic looking out to sea.
"This way." Rylon yelled over the volcano as he turned the water in front of them into an ice bridge that they all jumped onto before he created a long ice path leading away from the island and out to see that could hold their weight. The airship saw them and quickly hovered over towards the ice bridge. Glancing back momentarily at the Island Rylon saw the fresh lava flow, flow completely over the entrance tunnel that lead to Avatar Xi's temple once again covering it up and hiding it from the rest of the world.
The airship hovered above the ice bridge as Zuri, Sy and Rylon quickly jumped aboard just as the volcano once again violently erupted sending a huge plume of ash into the sky as the air ship quickly exited the area heading back towards the Fire Nation capital at full speed.
Reaching the lounge area all three friends looked at each other noticing that they were all covered in black soot and dust from head to toe and after a few moments the three burst into laughter.
"I'm so glad you can bend water bend or else we'd all be pretty crispy right now." Zuri laughed patting Rylon on the shoulder sending a small soot cloud into the air.
"I think we'd be a little more than crispy." Sy grinned shaking his head.
"Deep fried Avatar and friends?" Rylon said as they all laughed.
Platinum and Mr Fuzzy who were nearby looked over at the group from a nearby chair with small grins on their faces at how silly they looked all covered in ash.
Once the three had calmed down and were sitting down in the chairs nearby they began to talk about what they had found.
"So the Fire Lord didn't actually get to the moon he just built on the highest volcano in the Fire Nation to try and reach it so when Avatar Xi caused the volcano to erupt to destroy the tower it shot up into the sky hitting this barrier and because it was a man-made structure the barrier reacted as an attempt of something trying to free Juan." Zuri said turning to Rylon and Sy.
"That's not what should be concerning us though." Sy said turning to Rylon. "It mentioned the curse or illness that overcame Xi because of the angered sky spirit ended up killing her so that it wouldn't affect anyone else in the world."
"The illness has to be Juan Dai." Rylon said shaking his head. "It can't possibly be anything else." He said standing up.
"This was 8000 years ago I'm sure we'll be able to help you now." Zuri said quickly. "We have fantastic healers, medicines and very spiritual leaders who'll all be able to help you now that we know the problem." Zuri reassured.
"I agree there is nothing at all to worry about you'll be fine…I'm sure." Sy said nodding.
"We'll see." Rylon said softly to himself as a hint of fear crept inside him for the first time. He had never thought that Juan Dai visiting him from his banishment prison was actually something that could potentially kill him. Every time he had meet with Juan Dai he had been sweating, felt sick and had had a huge headache before falling unconscious, if Avatar Xi had the exact same illness or course it meant that Juan Dai ended up killing her before it could affect others. Was this his destiny also to allow Juan to eventually kill him?
"Avatar we are approaching the Palace." The pilot said over the intercom as Zuri quickly jumped up.
"Look at our clothes we can't possibly see the Fire Lord in this." She said looking down at the clothes they were wearing.
"I'm sure they will have some spare clothes in there it is a palace." Sy said standing up. "Come on let's go find some I'm sure they'll be happy to accommodate the Avatar and his friends." He continued as he and Zuri began to walk to the exit. Rylon was about to follow when he felt Platinum land on his shoulder and Mr Fuzzy sit on shoe looking up at him both with worried expressions.
"Don't worry you two I'm fine, no more volcano's for me today I promise." He said with a smile petting both Mr Fuzzy and Platinum leaving black soot marks on them both.
-x-
"Told you they'd have some spare clothes around." Sy said stepping out into the hallway in modern formal Fire Nation attire from his changing room where Zuri and Rylon were already waiting for him.
"I'm just glad they were happy to lend us these clothes for this dinner." Rylon said looking down at the royal clothes he was wearing.
"It took you long enough to get changed and clean up we've been waiting out here forever." Zuri said fiddling with the straps on her dress before turning to Sy.
"You're the one who wanted us to look good for the Fire Lord." Sy said with a grin. "So how do I look?" He asked turning to Zuri who blushed a little before Rylon said something.
"They look fine now let's get going I don't' want to be late." Rylon said walking forward towards the grand dining hall.
Rylon had to admit that wearing these Fire Nation clothes felt a lot different than his normal clothes but he was glad that they still had long sleeves so he was able to wear his adaptive armour inconspicuously under them.
The group reached the dining hall door where there was a man outside waiting for them.
"Oh I'm actually feeling a little nervous which is not like me at all." Zuri said nervously as Rylon turned to her.
"Don't worry the Fire Lord is very gracious and great with people."
The doors opened as the man who had been waiting for them at the door stepped inside and introduced them.
"Introducing Avatar Rylon, Zuri and Sy Ember my Lord."
Walking up towards the long dining table Rylon instantly noticed that it wasn't just the royal family who were attending but also the Ember family once Sy saw them and they saw him they was a very awkward silence.
"Avatar Rylon so good to see you!" The Fire Lord said breaking the silence and standing up from the head of the table as Rylon walked over to him.
"An honour to meet you again Fire Lord Azul." Rylon said bowing.
"The honour is mine Avatar now please sit down here beside me whilst your friends may sit where they like."
Rylon sat down beside the Fire Lord as he turned to see both Zuri and Sy sit down beside the Fire Lord's two children Princess Myu and Prince Visas who were both in their late teens.
"Please bring out the food as the Avatar tells us all about his visit to investigate the long forgotten Avatar Xi." Fire Lord Azul said clapping his hand together and turning to Rylon.
-x-
The dinner went very well and everyone except for Sy and his family who avoided eye contact with each other all evening and never directly spoke to each other enjoyed the meal.
Once dinner was finished Rylon thanked the Fire Lord who offered for him, Zuri and Sy to spend the night at the Palace in their guest chambers.
Saying goodbye to the Fire Lord and his family Rylon and Zuri saw Sy finally talking to his parents and decided to leave him alone with them as they walked off to find the guest chambers.
Finding their rooms Zuri waited inside Rylon's room as they waited for Sy to return.
"I have to admit that I did have a good time tonight." Rylon said turning to Zuri knowing that it had been her idea for him to meet up with the Fire Lord whilst he was here.
"Told you and you were right the Fire Lord is very much a people person who was very kind and quite funny." She said with a smile but before she could say anything they heard someone walking around in the hall outside.
Rylon quickly stood up and opened his door to see Sy trying to figure out which room fit his key before seeing Rylon who invited him into his room with Zuri. Walking inside the three sat down on the lounge to a very awkward silence.
"I suppose you're both waiting for me to say something." Sy said with a sigh as Zuri and Rylon both looked at each other not sure what to say. "All my parents said to me that it was good that I was travelling with the Avatar and that he could teach me a few things." Sy frowned. "Nothing about my achievements or how you told them I had helped you find Avatar Xi's temple nothing…they didn't even ask how I was. They did say also however that they hoped I took all of your advice Avatar and listened to you because you were such a fantastic bender." Sy said standing up angrily. "They might as well have just said they wished you were their son instead the amount of times they told you at dinner how amazing you were and ignored me completely." He said pointing at Rylon.
"Ok just calm down." Zuri said standing up turning to Sy who stood up and threw his hands in the air in frustration.
"I've had enough, I don't need to sit here and explain any of this to you." Sy said storming out of the room.
"He's just angry that's all I'm sure he'll fine tomorrow morning." Zuri said turning to Rylon who nodded looking after him. "I better get to bed to so we're all ready to discuss what we're going to do tomorrow." With that Zuri walked out of the room leaving Rylon sitting down on the lounge on his own.
-x-
Rylon spent hours on his bed tossing and turning as he thought about Avatar Xi and how she had died presumably because of Juan Dai infecting her with an curse. Was this illness the same thing that he had? Was he going to die to? Could they do anything to stop it?
Suddenly seeing a bright light in his room he immediately sat up in his bed and looked to the end of the room where he rubbed his eyes in shock as he saw Avatar Xi standing there looking at him very solemnly before he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head causing him to close his eyes. Though the pain didn't last very long as he reopened his eyes with them glowing deep purple. Standing up Rylon looked towards the door to his room and grinned.