Now to find out what's inside...
"Okay now we have the keys," I said while holding the white key in my hand. "You ready?" I asked Brianna who was holding onto the black key.
"You kidding? I was ready ever since I heard about this thing last night!" Brianna exclaimed as she lifted up the hand that held the key.
"Same here," I said while showing her an excited smile. "Alright let's get this thing opened before that crazy King comes in." Brianna nodded her head in agreement while laughing at the fact that I called him crazy, even though it was true.
We both took our assigned keys and placed them into the correct key holes. I could feel my heart beat racing from both excitement and fear. I mentally shook my head trying to rid all the fear away. I slowly turned my key clockwise while Brianna in tune with me turned hers counterclockwise. My body was working on its own again and judging from Brianna's facial expression so was hers. Once we both heard a click from the lock we released our grips on the keys leaving them in their holes.
We both jumped when we saw the lock shine a golden light for three seconds then disappear again. Just as the light faded the chains suddenly started moving and looked like it was being sucked in by the lock. When all of them disappeared from sight the book opened up on its own revealing its secrets.
"Great we found the book, but we still can't read it." I said after scanning the pages.
"Well at least there are plenty of pictures," Brianna said as she pointed to an unknown image involving what looked like two dragons fighting one another. "Not like those other books anyway," she said while sighing, thinking back on all the trouble the books that didn't have any illustrations in them.
"Yeah well this book is defiantly different from the others. This one glows." Brianna let out a giggle as I started flipping through the pages until I found something that caught my attention. "Good thing the illustrations make things obvious," I told Brianna as I pointed to a yin-yang imprint at the top of a page with inscriptions under it. "Let's hope that there's at least something in here that will give us a clue about what we are capable of."
"Wait I think I found something! Go back a page." Brianna exclaimed suddenly. I did as she instructed and turned a page back. There on the left page was a black and white painting of a girl about our age. In the picture her face didn't have eyes so that you couldn't be completely sure as to what she looked like. Her hair didn't have any color so that it remained white and went up to her shoulders. She looked a bit like Brianna except that the girl was wearing a plain black robe, probably because the artist didn't know what Brianna would look like exactly.
"Brianna I think that's you." I said after getting a better look at the image. "Not only that, but look at this" I pointed to the girl's wrist, "the artist wasn't completely off. He has the yang charm on the wrist instead of the arm, and if you look in the background you can see a really faint image of Nyoko." I pointed to the lightly sketched imprint behind the girl. You could just barely make out the tail, ears, horn, and wings but that was enough to know that it was definetely Nyoko.
"Ok now that we know that this is me, how are we going to get any information if we can't read the passage?"
"Well let's see if there's anything that might help," I told her as I scanned the right page if there was anything that might look something written in Chinese that I already learned. "Well I can't read this, so there's no way you would know what this says."
"Yeah no, I can't even read Spanish! I'm barely passing!" Brianna said frustrated with the thought of the most boring and pointless subject in our school.
"Well it's a good thing everyone in this world can only speak one language." I said trying to calm her down.
"Yes, English sweet English," Brianna said happy with the thought of not having to apply Spanish in with this show. "Wait Rebecca, look at this!" Brianna said after turning the page. I looked down at the paper and saw another black and white illustration only it was of a different girl this time. Her hair was colored in with black ink and just like the image from before her eyes weren't drawn in. She wore a plain colorless robe and had a yin necklace around her neck.
"Well I guess that's me but I'm not that pretty."
"Oh Rebecca, shush!" Brianna said as she hit me lightly on the head. "You are pretty and anyway you can see Gin in her shadows! So there I have proof!" Sure enough in the corner you could see a lightly drawn image of a wolf and his wings.
"Yeah well the artist was still way off when he drew me." Before Brianna could hit me again I managed to find something. "Hey look at this," I said after turning several pages. On both the right and left pages were illustrations of the two girls that represented us and our partners. We were in a curled up position with our partners wrapped in our arms. The backgrounds were painted with our assigned symbol, but were made closely together so that the yin and yang symbols looked connected even though they were on two separate pages.
"What do you think it means?" Brianna asked me after a moment of silence.
"I don't know but I think it has something to do with our partners. Maybe somehow they are connected to our hidden abilities or one of them at least."
"Well they are part of us. I guess it makes sense." I let out a sigh as I lay my body onto the floor.
"I just wish we could read so that this would be less confusing. And here I thought we could finally get some answers but instead it just raises more questions." I let out another sigh making Brianna pet my head trying to comfort me. I let out a groan as I slapped her hand away. "Don't do that. You know I hate it when you treat me like I kid even though I'm older than you. You should do this to Aang. It'd make a lot more sense…..technically speaking anyway," I told her as I turned my body away from her.
"It's because I find you like a child. Sometimes you can be so innocent and dense," Brianna said proudly.
"You're hopeless," I said not completely disagreeing with her logic. Once again the doors swung open only this time instead of the messenger coming to greet us it was King Bumi himself. He was wearing a purple outfit that to be perfectly honest looked terrible on him. I could feel my right eye twitching while Brianna just stared at him with a blank expression.
"I'm guessing Aang has passed his final test," I said to him as I tried not to look at the king's outfit and instead look at his elderly face.
"Yes, he has and he has to answer one question." Bumi said with a laugh.
"You mean 'What is my name?'" I said while picking myself up from the ground.
"Always so well informed, but yes that was the question" Bumi said proudly. "So how did your search go?"
"Would have been better if we could only read your language," I told him crossing my arms. I heard Bumi let out a small chuckle as he took several steps towards us.
"Yes well at least you were able to find the books. You passed the test! And anyway it's not like what was in the book helped anyway." Bumi picked up the book from the ground and turned a page back where there were only inscriptions. "Two warriors will appear to us in a time of need and will assist the Avatar in helping us keep balance in the world. They will be born from a world of one nation where they will stay hidden until the time is right. In them they have the power of the elements holding greater abilities. Together with their partners they possess unthinkable abilities and power but only when they become one."
"When we become one?" I asked repeating what he had read to us.
"What does that mean? And anyway how the heck do we become one with our partners?" Brianna asked confused.
"Sorry but I don't know what else to tell you guys because I'm just as clueless as you." Bumi said as he shrugged his shoulders. "But I'm sure you two to will find a way. Anyway you two better come with me Aang's been worried sick about you. He even threatened me if I didn't set you free." Bumi couldn't help but chuckle as he remembered the young monk threatening him.
"Well it's not that out of character," I said while trying to hold in my laughter.
"Hooray, Aang loves us!" Brianna exclaimed half jokingly.
"Do you want us to hide until he gives you his answer?" I asked the laughing king.
"Yeah I think that would be best. We wouldn't want him to get any more hints now would we?" Bumi said as he motioned us to follow him.
"You liar you just like messing with his head." Bumi started laughing at my statement not even bothering to deny anything. "Oh and by the way purple isn't your color." I said as I tugged at his purple sleeve. He let out another laugh but continued walking.
"Well Aang said he liked it." Bumi told me.
"He said it was fine but he hesitated as well." I said folding my arms.
"Are you always so well informed?" Bumi asked smiling.
"Of course, it's my job as the Avatar's bodyguard," I told him with a small smirk on my face. Both Brianna and Bumi let out a small laugh as we headed towards our hiding place.
((OOOO))
"Why couldn't we go? I wanted to go with Aang and Bumi! It's not fair!" Brianna complained to me. I rolled my body over as I snuggled against Appa's furry head trying to ignore her and her ranting.
"You could have gone if you wanted to," I said into Appa's fur.
"But I wanted you to go with me!" Brianna said whining.
"Sorry, but I'm still trying to recover from that hug Aang gave us after we came out from our hiding place. And I thought your mother gave deadly hugs. Aang almost killed me."
"That's because he loves us so much," Brianna said in a childish voice.
"Why must every friend I have show affection in a painful way?" I said with my face still against Appa's fur.
"Okay fine, I'll just go with Nyoko." I could tell that Brianna was disappointed but frankly I was too tired from the search to care. I could hear Brianna's footsteps walk away and a new set of footsteps head towards me.
"Hey you're not going to watch Aang and King Bumi?" I heard Sokka ask me as he got up on the saddle.
"No thanks, I'd rather not watch their bonding time if it means watching them destroy half of the kingdom," I told Sokka lifting my head a bit so he could hear me more clearly. I heard him give a slight chuckle before the two of us became silent.
"You know we were all…..worried about you two." Sokka said after the long silence. I peeked up from Appa's fur and saw Sokka was slightly blushing. I couldn't help but mentally laugh as to how easily Sokka could get embarrassed.
"Thanks, I wish I could say the same for you guys." I could tell that Sokka was both shocked and somewhat depressed at what I said. "I knew you guys would be alright. After all it's not like you three are completely helpless."
"So you trust us?" Sokka asked not knowing whether I was complimenting or insulting him. I picked myself up and walked to Sokka's side.
"Well you are the best warrior in your tribe right?" I said as I sat down across from him, "and you don't need to be a bender to be a good fighter." I told him with a confident smile on my face. "I mean Brianna and I seem to manage and we're both girls so it shouldn't be a problem for you right?" Sokka gave a small smile.
"Yeah no offense," Sokka said changing his smile into a smirk.
"None taken, well look at the time." I said as I watched the sun starting to set. "We better start packing."
"Can't you ever relax?" Sokka asked as I jumped off Appa's head.
"Only when no one's looking," I told him jokingly as I walked away. "Come on Sokka. Lifting heavy things is a man's job!"
"Yeah, yeah I'm coming." Sokka said as he struggled to get off of Appa.
"I thought you said you didn't need to be friends with anyone." I heard Gin's voice come from the charm. I touched the charm with my finger tips as I gave a gentle smile.
"I changed my mind. I don't think it would be such a bad thing being close to them. What are you, jealous?" I asked him teasingly.
"No comment," Gin said not completely denying it.
"You're strange," I said chuckling.
"Well I am part of you." I smiled down at the charm as I gently rubbed it.
