Disclaimer – all original Avatar: The Last Airbender characters in this fanfic (excluding my OC's) are the property of Bryana Konietzko and Michaela Dante DiMartino.
Chapter 12. Negative Emotions.
Spirit World, Realm of Keepers.
When the two Fire Keepers and Huo arrived in the realm, he clearly felt the difference in the temperature. He felt like it was the hottest day of the summer without any wind, but despite that, the boy was simply amazed by what he saw. After his father told him that the Fire Keepers would take him to their realm, he was really anxious to see their home and began to imagine it. Everything he saw was just like he imagined and more.
As they flew above the volcanic landscape, Huo spotted the massive, gold pedestal in the distance. "What's that?" he asked curiously, pointing towards the pedestal.
"A very important place for the Keepers," Shen'Rai replied. "The leaders gather there to talk about important decision and actions regarding the balance. Wei'Rai is the current leader."
Huo looked at the second phoenix, who simply flew beside Shen'Rai and ignored the human. The boy was really intrigued by the realm and constantly turned his head in all directions, observing everything from above. When Shen'Rai and Wei'Rai began to land, Huo spotted two new phoenixes, who sat on the yellow-red grass. One had a green-colored crest, and the other had a white-colored one.
Huo got off Shen'Rai and felt heat coming from below. He crouched, touching the grass, which was warm. When his mother took him to the island's shore during summer, the sand was hot from the sun. It was a similar feeling.
"Is that the child, Shen'Rai spoke about?" asked Vin'Rai, the phoenix with a green-colored crest, as he approached Huo with Nou'Rai. Both phoenixes looked at the boy's orange-colored eyes. "I never expected you to bring a human to our realm," Vin'Rai said, looking at Wei'Rai.
Wei'Rai looked at Huo. "Leave us alone for a bit," he instructed. Huo had a hunch that they were about to talk about the woman. While he was curious to learn more about here, he complied to not anger the spirits. Small birds with black feathers, which rested on the tree branches with burning leaves, caught his attention, and he went to take a closer look at them. When he was far enough, Wei'Rai began to talk to his siblings.
"Shen'Rai gave the child too much of his life force," he explained. "His mother attacked him in the village and that caused many negative emotions, which awoke the connection to... her."
Vin'Rai and Nou'Rai immediately understood the situation, and their eyes widened. "She already spoke to him when he was in the pond," Wei'Rai continued. "Luckily, she didn't see or hear him, thus, she mistook him for Shen'Rai. We'll observe him for now."
"The mist spirit surely calmed her down, but that's still an issue," Vin'Rai pointed out. "The child cannot get too angry, sad, or scared. If he does... there will be serious trouble."
"Which brings us to a certain topic," Shen'Rai began to speak. "Huo doesn't know tat his father died. He also has no idea how long was he in the pond. We should not bring that up."
"Exactly," Wei'Rai agreed and gave Shen'Rai a glare. "And since you started this, you're going to make sure he stays cheerful. Nou'Rai always had a calming effect on everyone so she'll help you if you'll need it."
"Okay," Shen'Rai agreed. He didn't have any problems with taking care of Huo. He liked the boy and wanted him to be safe.
"Boy! Come here!" Wei'Rai called Huo, who was focused on the tree and the birds. He ran up to the four phoenixes and looked at the two he hadn't met yet. He liked that each phoenix had a different color of the crest and flames on their tails, or else it would be hard to distinguish them apart.
Shen'Rai gestured with his wing towards the phoenix with the green-colored crest. "This is Vin'Rai," he spoke and shifted his wing towards the phoenix with a white-colored crest. "And this is Nou'Rai."
"Hello!" Huo bowed his head and greeted the two phoenixes. "I'm Huo!"
"Nice to meet you, Huo," Nou'Rai replied while Vin'Rai simply nodded. Huo noticed Nou'Rai's feminine voice and didn't hide his surprise. "Oh, you're a girl!"
Nou'Rai chuckled. She was amused since she was called a 'girl' not every day. "Very perceptive," she replied while Wei'Rai rolled his eyes and spoke. "Alright, now that everyone has been introduced, Shen'Rai will show you your place where you'll sleep. But before that, there are certain rules you must follow. One, you cannot leave our realm without supervision; two, you don't approach the golden pedestal at the center, which you saw earlier; three, you don't interrupt us when we are focused on our firebending; and four, you keep your negative emotions in check. If you don't abide by them, there will be trouble. Understand?"
"Yes," Huo answered with a nod. He didn't know why but he had hoped that Shen'Rai would explain everything later.
"Good," Wei'Rai replied. Shen'Rai beckoned Huo to follow him, and the boy complied. When they left, Nou'Rai moved closer to Wei'Rai.
"He seems to be a kind and good-hearted child," she noted.
"He's a human; he'll be just like the rest when he grows up," Wei'Rai stated and prepared himself to fly. "I need to call a Gathering and inform other Keepers about him."
"As you already noticed, our realm is full of fire, ash, and lava, but it's also full of life," Shen'Rai said to Huo as they slowly walked through the volcanic landscape. "Even though you're a firebender you have a physical body. You have to be careful not to get burned by accident."
Huo spotted a tiny black lizard with a red-colored fin on its back. The curious lizard saw a human for the first time and ran up to Huo to take a closer look. "Hello," the boy said and crouched in front of the lizard. He looked at Shen'Rai and asked. "Is it okay for me to touch it?"
"Go ahead," Shen'Rai replied. "Actually, you can show it your fire."
"Okay," Huo moved his hand closer to the lizard and created a tiny orange flame. The lizard immediately jumped on the boy's hand and began to touch the fire without harming itself. "Haha," Huo laughed and watched the lizard. After a few moments, he noticed that the fin, located on its back, turned from red to orange.
"Their fins turn color depending on the flame they touch," Shen'Rai explained. "Amusing animals, but the adults can be dangerous if provoked."
"Adults?" Huo asked, and Shen'Rai gestured with his beak towards a stream of lava a couple of meters away. Huo turned his head and spotted a much larger lizard, which lay in the lava and glared at the boy. It could easily swallow Huo whole. "Oh, umm... hi," the boy's eyes widened as he smiled awkwardly.
"It's the mother of the young on your hand," Shen'Rai said. The large lizard growled, and the tiny lizard jumped down from Huo's hand and rushed to his mother. She sniffed its baby a few times and gave the human boy a look. Huo waved the lizard goodbye as it submerged in the lava with its mother.
"Come on, let's go," Shen'Rai said and continued onward with the boy. In the corner of his eye, the phoenix noticed that the gold pedestal in the middle of their realm flashed, and a symbol of fire appeared above it. His brother Wei'Rai called the Gathering.
"It's hot," Huo noted, fanning himself with his hand. "It's going to be hard to fall asleep."
"That's why I'm leading you to a cave, where its colder," Shen'Rai replied. "It's the place where you'll sleep. Sorry, we don't have beds, but I'll try to think of something."
"Okay," Huo replied, not really bothered by it.
"Now," Shen'Rai continued. "When it comes to that woman in your dream, just like my brother said, you have to remember to not get too angry, sad, scared, or upset in any way."
"Why?" Huo asked, squinting his orange-colored eyes.
"Did your father ever told you about the Fog of the Lost Souls?" Shen'Rai asked, and Huo nodded. "Yes. It's a prison inhabited by a sentient fog spirits that effect minds and drives people insane by imprisoning them in their own darkest memories."
"Exactly," Shen'Rai confirmed. "Many beings in the Spirit World have their counterparts; a Yin to their Yang. Raava and Vaatu, Koh the Face Stealer and Mother of Faces, Tui and La. And then, there's the Fog of the Lost Souls and... the Mist of the Sleeping Souls. Both of them trap a person, but where the former uses dark memories and drives the prisoners insane, the latter uses beautiful dreams from which a person doesn't want to wake up."
"The woman is trapped in a wonderful dream without knowing it," the phoenix continued. "I know since we put her there when she was unconscious so she 'woke up' in a dream. Since you two have a connection, when she senses your negative emotions, she begins to realize something is not right."
"Does that mean she can sense when you're angry or sad as well?" Huo asked, and Shen'Rai nodded. "Yes," he confirmed. "My siblings and I need to be careful with our negative emotions as well since she's is very sensitive to them. Even we cannot sense our and your negative emotions like she does. If she learns that she's in a dream and not in the physical world, she'll easily break out of the prison and start looking for you. If she finds you, she'll try to hurt you, to put it mildly."
"Why?! I did nothing to her?!" Huo complained.
"I know, but she simply won't like the fact that you have the life force of a Fire Keeper," Shen'Rai replied but quickly reassured the boy. "However, as long as you remember what I said, everything should be okay. Just be calm, and she will never leave her dream."
"Okay... I'll try," Huo promised, albeit nervously. While the rules made more sense to him now, there were many things he didn't understand. However, one thing was sure: that woman was an evil person, and he needed to avoid her.
"Good, oh... there's the cave," Shen'Rai gestured with his wing towards a cave entrance. When the two entered it, Huo felt the air getting cooler. It felt wonderful. Any more of that heat outside and Huo thought he'd pass out.
The boy noticed that the walls were covered by red luminescent crystals, which gave a nice reddish light. It was nice knowing that he wouldn't sleep or spend time in a completely dark cave.
"If you go further down, there's an underground hot springs where you can take a bath," Shen'Rai informed. "It's not a fancy house, but it's better than nothing. I'll talk with your father so I can get you some essential stuff."
"Okay," Huo replied. "Thank you."
Before Shen'Rai returned to his siblings, he told Huo to gather a bunch of leaves and grass, which would serve him as a temporary mattress until he'd get him something better. The phoenix returned and noticed that Wei'Rai had also returned from the Gathering.
"So how the rest of the Keepers reacted?" Shen'Rai asked, approaching the three phoenixes.
"Better take a deep breath before you hear the answer," Wei'Rai replied, and Shen'Rai squinted his orange-colored eyes. He already had a bad feeling about this.
"We all agreed that the child would be observed for now and kept from harm in order not to trigger any negative emotions," Wei'Rai stated. "However, if it turns out that the task will be too difficult for us, the best solution would be to kill him quickly and painlessly."
Shen'Rai took a deep breath and exhaled. "I'll pretend I didn't hear that," he replied. "Our role is to develop firebending to its absolute epitome. We don't kill humans, especially children."
"If she breaks out of her prison because of that child, the number of deaths will be higher than I can count," Wei'Rai pointed out. "While I wouldn't cry if humankind would be wiped out, it wouldn't end just there. It would mean trouble for us and the Spirit World. Everything we have accomplished throughout millennia would be lost. Like I said, we'll just observe for now, and I genuinely hope it won't come to this."
Shen'Rai turned around and flew away without saying a word. In the meantime, Huo lay on the pile of leaves and grass in his cave, staring at the ceiling. He had a smile on his face, but when he turned on his side and sighed, his smile faded, and he closed his eyes.
A few days later – Spirit World, Realm of Keepers.
Just like Shen'Rai promised, the phoenix talked with Yan Zu, and the two got a few ideas on how to get a mattress or a sleeping bag for Huo. The phoenix spirit traveled to the physical world during nighttime and visited the village where Huo was born.
Yan Zu suggested that the phoenix should head towards his cottage once again. Shen'Rai already visited it nineteen years ago when he got the man a few books to read and pipa to play. The cottage stayed untouched for a few years, but eventually, a new family moved in. Since sneaking inside a house full of humans wasn't a good idea, the phoenix decided to try something else and flew to the forest.
As Shen'Rai thought about his next move high in the tress, he spotted a light and decided to check it out. It turned out that some poachers decided to make camp in the middle of the forest after hunting animals. Since they weren't the nicest of people, the spirit simply scared them away without even revealing himself. When they abandoned their stuff, Shen'Rai took a sleeping bag and some other stuff that might be useful.
For a few days, everything was fine. The sleeping bag, a pot, a bowl, and some cutlery, which Shen'Rai got from the poachers, were useful, and the boy could sleep comfortably. Since Huo helped his mother when she cooked at the inn, he knew a little something about preparing meals and could experiment with the food the phoenixes gave him.
Still, Huo began to get bored. Yes, the realm was interesting, but the boy wanted to do something. Every time he was idle, bad memories of her mother and what happened in the forest returned, so he asked Shen'Rai to teach him firebending to have something to pass the time.
Wei'Rai would never agree that a Fire Keeper would train a human, so Shen'Rai suggested that Huo would train by himself. For that, the boy needed firebending scrolls, and the phoenix spirit knew exactly where to find them. Since the boy asked to come along with the phoenix, Shen'Rai agreed, and the two were ready to enter the physical world.
Earth Kingdom, Si Wong Desert.
Otherwise known as the Desert of the Dead, the Si Wong Desert was the driest, hottest environment in the world, consisting of miles of barren sand, and due to its extreme climate, it was almost impossible to successfully cross. Only a select few were mentally and physically capable of surviving in this desert for an extended period of time, let alone navigating through it. Among the select few were tribes of sandbenders and beetle-headed merchants, a group of desert-dwellers who predate all other tribes in the Si Wong Desert.
When Huo and Shen'Rai entered the physical world and arrived above the desert, the boy was immediately blinded by the bright light. He squinted his orange-colored eyes, which slowly began to adjust. "It's so bright... and hot," he commented. "Who would have scrolls in such a place?"
"An ancient and wise spirit named Wan Shi Tong," Shen'Rai replied. "He oversees the largest library in the world. He built it in the Spirit World and took it to the physical world in hope that the humans could benefit from its knowledge."
"That's nice of him," Huo replied. "But I think it would be better if the library would be located somewhere less hot."
"Heh, you can talk with him about it once we reach the library," Shen'Rai chuckled and flew with the boy on his back. He knew where the library was, so the two reached their destination after a couple of minutes.
Earth Kingdom, Si Wong desert, Wan Shi Tong's Library.
The library was considered to be very difficult to locate, as it was almost completely buried under the desert sand, with only the dome protruding. Countless floors of the library contained tall bookshelves with vast amounts of books, scrolls, and other documents with valuable information. Even though the structure was located under the sand, the green-colored crystals on the walls and bookshelves provided the necessary light.
The collection of knowledge was constantly expanded by Wan Shi Tong's assistants, the Knowledge Seekers, fox-like spirits, who traveled the world collecting old books and parchments to contribute to the library's vast archives. The Knowledge Seekers also helped library patrons and provided assistance in finding books, expecting a treat in return.
Huo expected to enter the library through a door, but instead, he and Shen'Rai needed to use a window in the protruding dome to get inside. Since Shen'Rai could fly, he went first, squeezing through the window. When he succeeded, he hovered in place, allowing Huo to jump down and land safely on his back. Shen'Rai then landed with Huo on one of the bridges at the library's center.
When the boy jumped down from the phoenix, they both heard footsteps. Huo turned his head and spotted a huge black, white-faced owl, which walked towards them. The boy noticed that the same face was carved on the columns and walls.
"You're must be the spirit who build this library," Huo stated and gained the spirit's attention. "Indeed, I am Wan Shi Tong, he who knows ten thousand things," the spirit introduced himself proudly.
"Greetings, Wan Shi Tong," Shen'Rai spoke and spread his left wing, slightly patting Huo on the back, reminding him to introduce himself.
"Ah!" Huo quickly bowed his head respectfully. "Greetings, I'm Huo," he introduced himself.
"A Fire Keeper has never visited my study before and with a human all the more," Wan Shi Tong stated, not hiding his curiosity. "In fact, as if his eyes weren't a clear giveaway, I sense your life force inside him. What brings you here?"
"The boy wants to study firebending, so we'd like to borrow a few of your scrolls," Shen'Rai said. "I know you have a rule that one must give some useful knowledge in return, but this is a unique situation. I promise to return them when the boy finishes."
"You ask me to break my rule for a human and yet you don't plan on breaking one of yours and teach him firebending yourself," Wan Shi Tong replied.
"You don't like humans?" Huo asked, slightly confused. "Didn't you bring your library here to share your knowledge with them?"
Wan Shi Tong looked at Huo. "Humans aren't interested in gaining knowledge to better themselves; they only use it for violence and destruction," he said harshly, leaning his head towards Huo. "Why do you want to learn firebending? Who are you trying to destroy with it?"
"Nobody," Huo shook his head. "I was just... bored. Learning firebending would help me take my mind off bad memories. I have to be calm so that evil, tall woman with the same eyes as mine won't escape from the Mist of the Sleeping Souls."
Upon hearing this, Wan Shi Tong's eyes widened. He looked at Shen'Rai, who nodded confirmingly. Being an old and wise spirit, Wan Shi Tong knew of whom the boy spoke. "This is indeed a unique situation," Wan Shi Tong acknowledged, leaning his head back. "Fine, feel free to use my study and borrow what you need. Just this once, I allow it."
"Thank you," Huo bowed his head again as Wan Shi Tong turned around and left.
One of the fox-like spirits guided Shen'Rai and Huo towards their goal, the wing of the library dedicated to the Fire Nation. Since Zhao hasn't found the library yet, he didn't learn about the moon and the ocean spirits and didn't destroy the wing to prevent anyone from discovering the Fire Nation's weaknesses.
"So many books and scrolls," Huo noted, looking at the bookshelves. "It will be hard not take all of them."
"Indeed," Shen'Rai replied. "Look for the oldest scrolls and books."
"Okay," Huo complied and began to look. It took him a while, but Huo found two old scrolls with words: breath, energy, and fire. The boy took one of them, undid the wrapping cord, and unfurled the scroll. He noticed illustrations that showed firebending forms. "I think I found it," he said and showed the scroll to Shen'Rai, who took a look at the images.
"Yes, that will do," the phoenix approved. "The old styles are far better than the ones being used currently by the Fire Nation."
"Why?" Huo asked, furling the scroll and tying the wrapping cord around it. "Are they bad?"
"The current firebenders are focused on destruction and rage, which forbids them from using many other techniques," Shen'Rai answered and got an idea. "Try to find a book with old history of the Fire Nation. You'll see what I mean."
Huo nodded and once again began to look. While the boy was preoccupied, Shen'Rai noticed that Wan Shi Tong stood at the entrance to the wing and watched them closely. Wan Shi Tong spoke silently when the phoenix approached him, ensuring that the boy would not hear them. "I hope you and your siblings know what you're doing with him. You're walking on thin ice, babysitting a human who can become responsible for the downfall of his kind with just one large hissy fit."
"We're aware of that," Shen'Rai assured. "During the Gathering, the leaders decided to watch him for now and make sure he stays calm, but if that proves to be too difficult..."
Shen'Rai didn't need to speak more. Wan Shi Tong knew what would await the boy if his negative emotions were too hard to control.
"I found it!" Huo exclaimed and took a large book bound in leather from the bookshelf. It was covered with dust, and the boy blew it off.
"Good," Shen'Rai replied and looked at Wan Shi Tong. "Two scrolls and that book. Three things, that's all we need."
"Fine," Wan Shi Tong replied. "Just make sure I get them back."
"I will," the phoenix promised and looked back at the boy. "Huo, we can take that book and the two scrolls," he said. "Grab them and let's go."
"Okay!" Huo did as he was told and ran up to the spirits, looking at Wan Shi Tong. "Thank you for letting me borrow your knowledge," the boy said, bowing his head. "I will take good care of the book and the scrolls."
"Make sure you do that," Wan Shi Tong replied.
Shen'Rai and Huo left the library wing, and the boy waved to Wan Shi Tong before they headed back to the top of the library, where they could leave the structure and return to the Spirit World.
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