Chapter 22:
"The library is buried!" Professor Zei shouted. He ran forwards and fell onto his hands and knees before the tower. "My life's ambition is now full of sand." he complained. He suddenly grinned and pulled out a small shovel. "Well, time to start excavating." He stated to dig.
Toph walked forwards and slammed her palm into the structure.
"Actually, that won't be necessary. The inside seems to be completely intact, and it's huge." Toph confessed as the others watched her.
"That fox thingy went in through a window. I say we climb up there and give it a look." Sokka said
"Well, we're not digging and none of us can bend sand at this moment so I don't see how else we should get in." Freya agreed.
"I say you guys go ahead without me." Toph decided, crossing her arms.
"You got something against libraries?" Katara wondered. Freya sighed at the girl.
"I've held books before, and I gotta tell you, they don't exactly do it for me." Toph admitted
"No surprise if you can't read them." Freya said to Katara who suddenly laughed nervously and scratched the back of her head.
"Oh, right. Sorry."
"Let me know if they have something you can listen to." she said in response.
"Well, Sokka rope?" Freya asked. The boy collected some and attached it to his boomerang which he threw up in through a window. He pulled to check the security as Aang and Freya patted Appa who growled in complaint.
"Don't worry buddy. I'm not making you go underground ever again."
"Unless it's a dire situation and we really don't have a choice." Freya muttered and Aang chuckled slightly as she smiled and petted the beast.
"You can stay out here with Toph." Aang assured as Sokka began to climb the rope, walking up the side of the tower. Toph crossed her arms as the two looked away and Appa grumbled before they looked at one another again.
"What's up?" Toph asked.
Professor Zei, Katara, Freya and then Aang followed the older water tribe boy and then proceeded to lower the rope down on the inside, the professor going first. They moved down the tower and Momo flew down after them as they slid down the rope, the Professor looking around in awe.
"Oh, it's breath taking. The spirits spared no expense designing this place." he believed. He stopped and pointed, causing everyone above him to stop too. "Look at those beautiful buttresses!" he said.
Sokka and Aang started chuckling at the word and Freya sighed as she glanced around. Many of the pillars had owls carved into the top of them.
"What's funny?" the professor questioned
"Nothing. We just like architecture." Aang lied
"As do I." the man agreed smiling.
The professor released the rope and Sokka lowered himself down, Katara after him as Freya and Aang jumped down from higher up, all looking around as they stood on a bridge over a giant hole in which there were levels and levels of shelving below them.
"My word!" the professor was looking up at a mosaic in which there were clouds below and a black owl pictured in it. "The exquisite mosaic handiwork of this tile-rendered avian symbol…" he stopped as the four looked at him. "Eh, nice…owl." he went with.
A sound like ruffling feathers sounded and the two siblings moved first, followed by Freya before Aang took Zei's hand and pulled him along. They hid between the shelves and out of the way, peering out as a large owl walked from the opposite side of the bridge. He was tall, and all black with a white face and very dark eyes.
The owl approached the rope hanging down from the roof and glanced around as the five hid, waiting. Aang and Freya peeked out as the owl turned away, two eye like marks in white were on the back of it's head. It's head turned completely around on it's shoulders before the owl spoke.
"I know you're back there." Aang gasped and he and Freya ducked away as the professor twiddled his fingers smiling before he suddenly walked out onto the bridge and towards the giant owl.
"Hello!" he said excitedly "I'm Professor Zei, head of anthropology at Ba Sing Se University." he bowed to the owl who looked down at him.
"You should leave the way you came, unless you want to become a stuffed head of anthropology." the owl turned to the side were there are three stuffed animal heads handing from a pillar. Zei pulled on his collar and groaned nervously as the benders and Sokka moved out from hiding as well.
"Are you the spirit who brought this library to the physical world?" Sokka asked
"Are you Wan Shi Tong?" Freya wondered
"Indeed, I am Wan Shi Tong, he who knows 10,000 things. And you are obviously humans, which by the way are no longer permitted in my study." he decided
"But I thought you created his library for humans?" Freya asked confused
"Once that was the case." the owl responded
"What do you have against humans?" Aang asked
"Hmm, humans only bother learning things to get the edge on other humans, like that firebender who came to this place a few years ago, looking to destroy his enemy." Freya already guessed the fire bender had been Zhao, he had had to get the information about the moon and ocean spirits from somewhere. She felt guilty though, they had come here to do the same thing…
"So," The owl leaned down to Sokka who leaned back guiltily "Who are you trying to destroy?" he asked.
Sokka began to wave his hands in protest. "What? Oh, no, no, no destroying, we're not into that." he said laughing nervously.
"Then why have you come here?" he asked.
Sokka paused.
"Um, knowledge, for, knowledge's sake." Sokka finally answered.
"If you're going to lie to an all-knowing spirit being, you should at least put some effort into it." Wan Shi Tong suggested.
"I'm not lying. I'm here with the Avatar," Sokka pointed at Aang before pulling him to stand in between the water tribe warrior and the owl. "and he's the bridge between our worlds, he'll vouch for me." He patted Aang on the shoulder before nudging him in the back.
"Ow." Aang complained "Uh, yeah, I'll vouch. We will not abuse the knowledge in your library, good spirit. You have my word." They all bowed to him.
"Hmm, very well. I'll let you peruse my vast collection, on one condition." Everyone frowned "To prove your worth as scholars, you have to contribute some worthwhile knowledge."
Aang stepped back as Zei stepped forwards. He kneeled and presented a very thick book.
"Please accept this tome as a donation to your library."
"First edition, very nice." the Owl slipped his wing over the book and it vanished.
Katara stepped forwards with her water bending scroll.
"I have an authentic waterbending scroll."
"Oh... these illustrations are quite stylish." and again it vanished from her hands before Katara bowed and backed away.
"The only thing I currently have on me is this book." Freya admitted and she held it up. It was a book of stories and legends. "Some stories and legends have a ring of truth and history."
"A very wise belief." and the book vanished.
Aang thought.
"Uh, oh, I know!" he pulled into his shirt and suddenly pulled out the wanted poster the Fire Nation had created of him. "Ha!" The spirit eyed the poster.
"I suppose that counts." he said and the poster vanished.
Sokka walked forwards next. "Oh, great spirit, check this out!" he pulled out a piece if string and began to tie it until it was in a butterfly shape. "Ta da!" There was silence and Wan Shi Tong stared at Sokka and his knot. "It's a special knot! That counts as knowledge."
There was a pause.
"You're not very bright, are you?" the owl responded with. Sokka frowned and groaned but the owl took the knot anyway.
"Enjoy the library." Wan Shi Tong said before he turned and jumped off the bridge, he spread his magnificent wings and soared off to the libraries lower levels.
Everyone watched him vanish before turning to walk away, Sokka following last.
"Bright enough to fool you." Sokka mumbled.
They moved through the towering shelves and grabbed books from them, flicking through and taking in the interesting facts scattered around. A few foxes moved around and put away and took out some books and scrolls from the shelves.
Aang sat with a book on one side of the shelf as Freya stood beside him reading another book. Katara and Sokka were at the shelf beside them as the Professor sat already surrounded by books.
"Hey, look at these weird lion turtle things." Aang said as he held up the page in which the lion turtle towered over a person. Sokka glanced as he took a book and put it in his bag.
"Eh, I've seen weirder." he decided
"The Lion turtles are the oldest and biggest animals in the world apparently." Freya smiled "Apparently people used to live on the backs of their shells and were protected by the beasts. Back then people didn't have bending, the lion turtles gifted it to them when they left and it was returned when the people returned to the shell's protection. Bending was a tool, like a weapon given to protect them against the spirits, as humans and spirits didn't get along then. Each Lion Turtle could gift a different element to bend. Eventually the turtles decided that humans had to make their way without their help and so they sent them out into the world with the elements to then learn from their respective teachers to use the power properly. So the water benders learnt from the moon, fire benders from the dragons, air benders from the bisons and earth benders from the badger moles." Freya smiled
"Wow, where'd you here that?" Aang asked amazed
"On one of my dad's ships. It was a story told at night by one of the crewmen. I don't know if it's real but," she shrugged.
"Aang, did you know in a past life, you were left handed?" Katara asked as she held a book to her chest and approached the boy.
"I always knew I was special." Aang responded grinning.
Zei was piling up more books as Sokka looked around the shelves. He pulled a scroll from a pile and dust fluttered around it before the boy opened it, glanced at the page and added it to his bag. He eventually came to a plaque in which a burnt piece of parchment was under some dusty glass.
"The darkest day in Fire Nation history." he read "It's got a date at the top, but it doesn't say anything else."
Sokka removed his machete and inched it between the plaque and the glass, lifting it up. He grabbed the corner of the paper and pulled it out before rolling it up as Aang, Katara, Freya and Zei walked out behind him.
"Sokka, where are you going?" Aang asked as the boy began to jog between the shelves. He turned and held up the paper, waving it.
"I want to know what happened to the Fire Nation on their darkest day. This could be promising." he believed and the others all followed, running through the library."The information on the Fire Nation should be right up here." they moved until they came to a hall with the Fire Nation's symbol on the wall above the door. It was dark inside and they all walked in to find the room was blackened with soot, debris and the remains of a fire.
"Firebenders." Aang knew.
"They destroyed everything having to do with the Fire Nation." Katara said
"That's so unfair!" Sokka said annoyed "Just when I think I'm one step ahead of the Fire Nation, it turns out they beat us here a long time ago."
"I think it might have been Zhao." Freya said and they looked at her
"What makes you say that?" Aang asked
"Think about it, he had information and knew where the ocean and moon spirits were and what they looked like, he even knew which was which. Don't you think it makes sense that this would have been the perfect place to receive such information? Especially when no one else knew about that? Not only that but Wan Shi Tong said a fire bender had come to find information on his enemies." she reminded them.
"I need to know what happened on the darkest day." Sokka decided as he was on his hands and knees.
The five of them turned around as suddenly there was a whimper and a fox was standing on it's back feet behind them.
"Hello, little weird fox guy." Sokka mumbled.
The fox turned, returning to all four feet and pointed it's nose down the corridor. Zei pointed to it.
"Seems it's trying to assist you."
"Let's follow it." Freya decided
"Um, sure, I'll guess I'll follow you." Sokka agreed
They ran through the library after the fox and came to a wall in which a very large sun symbol sat within it. It was gold and circular, sitting between the look of a sun and a sunflower. The fox ran straight for a small hole in the wall in which it crawled through and disappeared. A second later the smaller circular sun in the middle of the wall began to slide sideways to reveal a door. The fox sat on the other side and the group walked into the dark room. In the centre was a circular raised platform and beside it was a leaver. The fox hit it and suddenly something moved over the circular dome of a celling. What had once looked like a blue sky was now covered in a black starry celling, as though the room had become a planetarium. The stars passing over them and a moon moved over it all as though it was moving through the sky.
"This room is a true marvel. A mechanical wonder! It's a planetarium that shows the heavens moving." Zei marvelled, smiling with his hands on his cheeks.
The black sky vanished and the blue was back, mountains lined all around the bottom of the walls with a few clouds.
"Uh, this is beautiful, but, how is it helpful?" Sokka wondered as a sun moved over the celling. Katara was eyeing the mechanism before them in which there were numbers on different dials.
"Maybe these dials represent dates and times." Katara pointed "Sokka, try entering that date from the parchment you took."
"Shh! Katara!" Sokka said and covered his mouth with his hand as he whispered, glancing a the fox. "Not in front of the fox, he's with the owl."
The fox whined and lowered his head, it's ears dropping. Freya pet the animal as Sokka raised his bag to his eyes and slipped the burnt parchment from it slightly to read the date. He began to slide the stone dials to have the date lined up between two golden rods and then he pushed the leaver. The room was darkened again by the starry sky, the moon moving across it.
"Wow, I gotta hand it to you Sokka. You picked the best mini-vacation, for sure." Aang grinned as they watched the room work.
The blue reappeared, the sun and moon moved across the celling and then, everything went dark.
"Hey wait, what happened to the sun?" Katara asked. The moon hovered above them and Freya glanced at it she took a few steps forwards and her eyes widened.
"Great, you must have broken it." Aang complained
"No, he didn't." Freya whispered
"It's not broken." Sokka agreed, noticing what Freya did.
The edge of the sun was peaking out from behind the moon.
"The sun is behind the moon, it's a solar eclipse! It's literally the darkest day in Fire Nation history."
"Yeah, thats because Fire benders loose their bending during a solar eclipse." Freya admitted and they all looked at her "The sun fuels firebending, without it, no fire bending. That's why fire benders are stronger during the day."
"Now I get it!" Sokka beamed and he grabbed Aang's shoulders. "Something awful happened on that day, I don't know what, but I do know why. Firebenders loose their bending during a solar eclipse!" he celebrated as he pushed Aang. "Sorry." Sokka said as Aang stumbled.
"That makes sense." Katara agreed "I mean, think of what the lunar eclipse at the North Pole did to the waterbenders."
"I don't know if that counts as a lunar eclipse, I mean the moon was literally gone so…" Freya mumbled.
"This is huge!" Katara believed, ignoring the girl's statement.
The fox whimpered again and had moved to Sokka's feet, it raised it's two front paws and began to beg. Sokka smiled.
"Fine, you earned it." Sokka threw the fox a treat and it turned to leave.
"We've got to get this information to the Earth King at Ba Sing Se. We'll wait for the next eclipse, then we'll invade the Fire Nation when they're totally helpless. The Fire Lord is goin' down!" Sokka declared.
His smile however vanished as a shadow loomed over Sokka. Freya looked worried as Wan Shi Tong stood behind the boy.
"Mortals are so predictable. And such terrible liars." he declared as Sokka turned to him and gulped.
"You betrayed my trust. From the beginning you intended to misuse this knowledge for evil purposes." he stated.
"You don't understand." Sokka shook his fist. "If anyone's evil, it's the Fire Nation. You saw what they did to your library. They're destructive and dangerous. We need this information."
"You think you're the first person to believe their war was justified?" the owl leaned towards them. "Countless others before you have come here, seeking weapons or weaknesses or battle strategies."
"We had no choice. Please, we're just desperate to protect the people we love." Aang pleaded
"And now I'm going to protect what I love." Wan Shi Tong decided.
He suddenly beat his wings and strong gusts of wind whipped the planetarium.
"What are you doing?" Aang demanded
"I'm taking my knowledge back. No one will ever abuse it again." Sand began to seep in through the ceiling and walls.
"He's sinking the building! We've gotta get out of here!" Katara called.
"I'm afraid I can't allow that. You already know too much." The spirit transformed, his neck elongating before he struck down on them all. They each ducked out of the way and ran from the room, the bird chasing after them.
Sand was seeping down the shelves as they ran between them, the owl bursted through, breaking it's pillars as it cried out. Professor Zei had a pile of books in his hands as Momo glided above them. The professor stopped and cried out as the bird flew at them.
"Great knowledge spirit, I beg you. Do not destroy your vast collection of priceless tomes."
Aang turned as the bird approached and gathered a heap of air, pulling the professor back and away as the bird stabbed it's beak into the bridge. Sokka caught the man as he slid along the ground and the bird soared towards them. Aang spun his staff and the bird was knocked off with a cry and fell down the edge of the bridge.
"We've gotta get back to the surface." Aang shouted and he lead the way down another isle. Sokka however didn't follow.
"Sokka, let's go!" Katara shouted as he glanced sideways.
"But we still don't know when the next eclipse is gonna happen." he called
"You wanna be buried here!?" Freya demanded
"Don't be stupid, we'll find out later." Katara believed
"No, we won't. If we leave this place we'll never get the information. Aang, come with me to the planetarium, I need cover." Sokka strategised.
"What?" Freya asked. Aang ran over to Sokka
"Katara, Freya, take Momo and get out of here." Sokka ordered
"But—" the shelf exploded beside them cutting off the younger waterbender as the bird appeared again.
"Go!" Sokka shouted.
"We don't have a choice now!" Freya believed and she grabbed the girl's wrist and pulled her with her.
"Hurry Sokka." Katara returned as the bird followed the girls and the professor.
Sokka and Aang moved back off towards the planetarium and the Professor diverted away from the girls and down another isle. He ducked to the ground before a book caught his attention.
Katara and Freya continued to run, glancing back at the bird as it swooped at them.
Freya grabbed Katara's wrist and she tossed the girl before jumping after her and the bird crashed into a pile of his own stuff as it turned to follow them.
They moved through the shelves over and over and the bird moved after them angrily. Katara eventually pulled down the older girl and they hid panting as Katara held Momo.
They heard the birds footsteps and it stopped looking around before it noticed Momo's tail.
"At least I'll have one specimen to add to my collection." Freya looked down and noticed the lemur's tail and gasped. She grabbed Katara and they rolled out of the way as the bird's beak smashed where they'd been sitting.
He swirled after them as they ran through the shelves and then skidded as the rope they'd come down on came into sight. The two stopped, taking a bending stance each and the bird opened it's wings as it towered over them.
"Your waterbending won't do you much good here. I've studied Northern Water Style, Southern Water Style, even Foggy Swamp Style." The bird admitted as it rose itself higher and the two girls took a stance.
"I must say my dear, I am impressed how you've managed to include some of your water bending stances into your firebending." Iroh smiled and Freya looked at him surprised
"What?"
"As a water bender you have a natural elegance to you, your stances flow together gracefully. Firebenders are usually a lot more direct and move from stance to stance, but you have learnt to incorporate the two of them together."
"I have?" she asked and he nodded. "Does that limit my firebending?"
"It allows you to move more swiftly through your stances and gives you more agility. Fire benders rely on their offence and there is little defence where as Waterbenders are the opposite. It seems you have incorporated the two to compensate for that."
The girl glanced at Katara beside her and then back at the bird preparing to strike.
"How about a style you haven't learnt." she said and she turned around, shot her hands forward and the bird cried out as fire was blasted into its face. Katara stared at the girl shocked as she swung her foot up quickly and knocked the bird over backwards onto his back, his wings flailed out beside him.
Freya turned to Katara who could only stare with her mouth hanging open.
"Climb!" Freya shouted at her and Katara turned to do so.
"Katara!" Aang glided past above them and Sokka was on the top of the glider. They dropped down and Sokka jumped off, landing at Freya's feet.
"Quick!" Freya ushered.
Sokka run up the bird, onto it's stomach and grabbed the rope, climbing up, Katara followed, glancing at Freya before the older girl brought up the rear. Aang glided around them on his glider before Sokka stopped.
"Wait!" He turned to look down and saw Professor Zei sitting on the ground surrounded by books. "Professor, let's go!" he ordered
"I'm not leaving. I can't." he dropped a piece of parchment to his lap. "I've spent too long trying to find this place. There's not another collection of knowledge like this on Earth. I could spend an eternity in here."
"Good cause you're about to, Sokka move!" Freya ordered from below Katara.
"Just go!" Katara agreed.
Before they could move Wan Shi Tong was getting back up again and the rope swung from his movement. The rope moved so much that Freya gripped tightly and the two water benders cried out as the bird had grabbed the bottom of the rope, pulling on it.
"Aang!" Freya shouted and the boy glided below them. Freya launched herself up into the air with a swing and she landed on top of the glider as the two siblings grabbed Aang's feet and they headed up towards the entrance, Momo following.
The owl released the rope and took off after the airbender who headed up the tower towards the windows.
Freya released a hand and opened her water skin to flick her wrist and hit the owl in the face, pushing it back. It gave Aang what he needed and the four shot out through the window. Freya looked down to see Toph had her hands plunged into the side of the tower, keeping it from sliding and falling below the sand. Aang landed and Freya did the same as the siblings crash landed. Toph immediately pulled her fingers out of the tower and it immediately began to plunge down into the sand. Freya stood up and took a sigh before she looked around. Her eyebrows creased instantly as she noticed something was wrong. Aang looked around as Toph was sent backwards and into the sand from the force of the tower and the blow out of sand from the sudden movement. Soon a crater sat in the sand and the library was gone.
"We got it. There's a solar eclipse coming." Sokka and Katara hugged one another as Freya spun around, looking over the sand and its emptiness. "The Fire Nation's in trouble, now!" Sokka believed
"Wait…" Freya said and Aang stood up beside her and looked around. He walked over to Toph who was sitting on the ground, her hands on the sides of her head.
"Where's Appa?" Aang asked having noticed the giant bison was missing.
Toph simply shook her head.
Freya's eyes widened in shock and Aang's instantly filled with tears in shock.
"He's… gone?" Freya whispered.