Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ Avatar: The Last Airbender Mixed ❯ Chapter Two: The Library ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Avatar: The Last Airbender
Book Two: Earth

I do not own avatar. It belongs to Mike and Bryan and also nick. This was just made for fun. So enjoy!


Chapter Two: The Library

They had spent days traveling and days watching the Avatar learn earth bending but after several days he seemed to have the hang of the basic moves. Toph felt short of proud when he began to do more advance moves. It was a short of feeling of achievement that only came from teaching someone successfully. She couldn’t feel prouder.

When they were done with the basics in earth bending, Aang came up with an interesting idea. Why didn’t they have some time off from all the bending they were doing and take mini-vacations. Everyone but Sokka agreed, even though Zuko didn’t agree out loud. Sokka didn’t agree for he thought that they should be spending their time planning but everyone else ignored him. He sighed inwardly.

First up was Aang.

They flew out east of where they had been on Appa, and even though their wasn’t an immediate change in the environment, gradually the landscape changed. It became more dry looking, and the green around the area gradually decreased. The ground also began to get less rocky. Sokka noted that to himself, guessing they were getting closer to a desert. It figured.

They finally landed in a rocky plan were the grass was still green and fresh, and got off of Appa. The ground it self was covered in round holes that creatures had seemed made. They didn’t seem natural anyway. The breeze blew by gently here, stirring the dirt around their feet. Zuko looked up towards the sky lazily and ran a hand through his short hair. When his eyes returned to Aang he saw that he was sitting on the ground cross legged, holding a wood flute in his hands. He rose an eyebrow in confusement. What was the bald kid going to do with that out in the middle of the desert. Oh god, he couldn’t help but think, he was going to play for them.

“What’s out here,” Sokka asked, looking at the fire bender for a moment before returning to looking at Aang. Toph knelt down so she could touch the ground with the palm of her hand.

“Actually a lot. There’s tons of little-”

The Avatar turned around. “Shh,” he said in his normal happy tone. “I know that you see underground but don’t say anything alright?” He then put the flute to his lips and blew out a single note. A small rodent, looking somewhat like a dog of some short, rose up and mimicked the sound of the note when it called out, then went back into it’s hole. Aang smiled brightly and then blew another note. Yet another one came out. He cheered and put his hands in the air.

“I’m putting a band together!”

Sokka looked disinterested. “Well La-dee-da.”

Aang ignored him and continued to play for a few minutes. With every note, another rodent rose from the ground and sung out. Momo, with each rising and falling, began to watched the rodents with interest. He got so interested that he began to chase after them, going so far as to dive into the holes. Aang continued to play until Sokka stuffed his finger into the end of the flute.

“This was fun and all, but let’s start making plans.”

“We did make plans,” Toph reminded him. “We’re all taking mini-vacations.”

“We do not have time for that,” he almost screamed at them.

Aang stood up and turned to the warrior. “I’m learning the elements as fast as I can, I’m practically losing my arrow because of it! We deserve a break.”

“Yes,” Katara said with a simple nod of her head. “What’s wrong with that?”

He crossed his arms and looked at all of them, looking stern for once in his life. “Even if you do master the elements Aang, then what? It’s not like we have a map. What are we going to do, knock on the fire lord door and expect him to let us in? I don't think so. We need some intelligence if we're gonna win this war.”

Aang deiced that he was right, and nodded his head. “Alright.”

“Yeah,” Katara said, smiling impishly, “we’ll finish our vacation and then look for Sokka’s intelligence.”

Zuko laughed at that, and Sokka gave him a death glare but that didn’t stop the firebender from laughing at his misery. It was just too good and he couldn’t pass up something like that. Now it was Katara’s turn so he watched her go over to Aang.

“Where would you like to go?”

She studied the map, her crystal blue eyes scanning the land marks. She found a lot of stops that interested her, but one stood out in particular. “There! The Misty Palms Oasis! It sounds nice.”

He smiled and nodded his head in agreement. “Yeah, it’s a natural ice spring. It’s a great place.”

“A natural ice spring,” Zuko asked and Aang nodded his head. “I guess why it is such a wonder.” And the Avatar nodded at that.

So they sprung onto Appa’s back and headed over the barren landscape to the Misty Palms Oasis. Despite the nice picture on the map, the real place was far from what it use to be. The ruined buildings around the area almost seemed like they had been abandoned for a while, the roofs threatened to fall in on several. The people here, as they walked deeper into the area, looked dangerous and wild. A group of people closest to the largest building in the small village looked like they had been out in the area for a long time. Most of that group wore light color clothing, cloth around their face no doubt to protect their faces from the sand. They made their way inside the main building but right before Sokka could walk in one of the men spat in front of him. Sokka got ready to give the man a piece of his mind when Zuko grabbed him by the collar and pulled him inside.

The inside of the building was pretty simple. There were hanging lamps that lit the room dimly showing two tables sitting by the door. There were two people sitting at those tables and in front of them was a bar. The bartender was bald and he had a short brown beard. He seemed to be the person who ran the restaurant like place. A man who stood in front of the bar ordered a drink, and the bartender simple nodded. He took a cup made out of ice from beside him and then with his two broad swords began to cut up some fruit. With effortless motion he put the cut up fruit in the cup, put an small umbrella in the cup along with a straw, and then handed it to the man.

Sokka stared at the fruit cup with interest and then rubbed his chin. “Now… I don’t see anything wrong with having one of those fruit cups while we plan our strategy.”

He pushed them out of the way and moved towards the bar, leaving the others to stare at each other for a moment and then shrug. They followed the oaf over to the bar when Aang suddenly bumped into the man who had went to the bar before them, and he spilt his drink all over him. But Aang wasn’t that mad.

“Don’t worry, “ he said, smiling brightly, “I clean up easy!”

With a quick motion, he bended the frozen fruit off of him and smiled at the man. The man for a moment look confused but then a bright smiled formed on his face. “You're a living relic!”

He smiled sheepishly. “I try.”

The man began to circle Aang, a hand on his chin. “Wow, an air nomad right in front of me.” He went around him a few more times before he began to realize that what he was doing looked foolish and he stopped. “Oh I’m sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. I am Zei, head of anthropology at Ba Sing Se University. Tell me, from which of the temples do you hail from?”

“The Southern Temple.”

“Oh splendid! Now tell me, what was the primary agricultural product of your people?”

Zuko rolled his eyes, and moved forward. “Really, we don’t have time for this.”

Sokka this time pushed him aside, causing Zuko to grunt in frustration. But Sokka pretended not to notice. “Ah… So professor, you're obviously a well traveled guy. Do you have a more current map? Ours seems to be a little dated.”

He nodded his head, seemingly egger to help the friends of the Avatar. “Certainly.”

Once they had gotten their cups of fruit, they made their way to a more private spot of the room and Zei rolled out his maps. Sokka took a few moments to look at them and then quickly grew annoyed. He rolled up the maps and turned to Zuko in annoyance. “Why can’t I ever find a map of the Fire Nation!?”

He shrugged his shoulders and then turned his attention to Katara, who was looking at a map that Sokka had forgot to roll up. It showed the desert that was only a few miles away, and paths draw across the paper. Many paths. Katara noticed that too, and was the first to say anything about it.

“You’ve made lots of trips into the desert.”

Zei looked sadly at her and nodded his head. “And all in vain I’m afraid. I've found lost civilizations all over the Earth Kingdom, but I haven't managed to find the crown jewel. Wan Shi Tong's Library.”

He took another scroll from his bag and unrolled it on the table. A large building with many domes and towers was before them, the building seemed large enough to store infinite knowledge. Zuko looked at it and then looked over as Sokka as a strange expression. His eyes shown that he was on the verge of a revelation. The look made Zuko remember how much he annoyed him and he inched a few steps away from him.

“If this library as books from all the nations then they have to have books on the Fire Nation. Don’t you think,” he said, looking at Zei.

The teacher put a hand on his chin and shrugged. “I don’t know. But if the world still has that kind of knowledge it will be there.”

“Then, I think it’s settled. Aang,” he said, turning to the small bald monk. “I think I know where I want to spend my vacation. At the library!”

“There he goes again,” Zuko muttered and Katara nodded at him in agreement.

“But how are you going to get there? In order to travel the desert properly you would need a sand speeder and I don’t think the Sand-bender would be willing to give you one.”

Sokka and Aang exchanged knowing glances and Sokka looked over at Zei. “Professor, would you like to meet our Sky Bison.”

“What?! You actually have one?”

----

Appa growled at the Sand-benders who stared at the bison with anger and fear. Professor Zei ran over and shooed the men away. The Sand-benders moved away from Appa and then took off on their Sandspeeders into the desert. For a moment they looked at each other and then they took off on Appa to look for this Library.

When they were flaying over the desert they became even more aware of how hot it was. Crystal clear sky as far as the eye could see, the yellow sun burned brightly in the sky. The hot, dry wind cut into them. Sokka removed his shirt and wrapped it around his head before he looked around the desert with his spy glass. Zuko also looked around but even with his dark clothes he didn’t remove his shirt.

For what seemed like hours they flied around the desert, searching for the mysterious library. All there seemed to be was sand, sand and more sand. Endless dunes stretched out as far as they eye could see. Toph grabbed Zuko by his shirt collar and growled;

“Please tell me you see it.”

“Nope.”

She let go of him and sighed. Just a few minutes after that Sokka saw something in the sand. A tower of strange design raising out of the desert sands. But that couldn’t be it. The image on the map was a lot larger then just a tower. But as to tell them that they had reached the right spot a fox showed it’s self from the sands and then climbed into the tower. Zei told them that had to be one of the knowledge seekers that worked for Won Shi Tong. So they landed and Toph stayed behind with Appa because of her blindness. They climbed into the tower and slowly entered the Library.

Zei looked amazed. “ Oh, it's breath taking. The spirits spared no expense designing this place. Look at those buttresses!”

Immaturely Sokka and Aang began to laugh, and Zuko couldn’t help rolling his eyes. It was so like them to be that way. Once they reached the ground Zei whirled around and took in the complete wonder that was the library. Before he had a chance to really take in the area, a noise behind them caught their attention so they hid behind the columns close by. A large owl walked it’s way from the other side the room and stopped to examine the rope. They stayed behind the columns but that didn’t seem to help.

“I know your back there,” the owl said in a deep, powerful voice. Zei threw deiced to met the spirit head on and walked towards him.


“Hello, I am Zei, head of anthropology at Ba Sing Se Uni-”
“You should leave the way you came,” the owl interrupted him. He cased his dark eyes at some strange heads on the wall of animals they had never seen before, “unless you want to become a stuffed head of anthropology.”

Zei rubbed his neck as Sokka and the others approached. “Are you the spirit that brought this library to the physical world?”

“Indeed, I am Won Shi Tong, he who knows 10,000’s things. And you are obviously human, which are by the way no longer permitted in my library.”

“What do you have against humans?”

“Hmm, humans only bother learning things to get the edge on other humans. Like that firebender who came here a few years ago to find the weakness of his enemies” He inched his bird face closer to Sokka. “So, who have you came here to destroy?”

He put his hands up in protest. “Destroy? No no no! We’re not into that!”

“So why are you here?”

“Knowledge for knowledge’s sake?”

“If your going to lie to a all knowing spirit, at least put some effort into it.”

“I’m not lying, and I’m here with the Avatar! He’ll vouch for me!” He pushed Aang in front of him and Aang laughed nervously.

“Yeah, I’ll vouch. We will not abuse the knowledge of your great library, good spirit,” he said with a bow.

“Hmm, very well. I'll let you peruse my vast collection, on one condition. To prove your worth as scholars, you have to contribute some worthwhile knowledge.”

Zei came up and gave the spirit a tome. The spirit took it seemingly pleased. Zuko came up next with a book of tea recipes, a copied version of his uncle’s things. Katara gave her water bending scroll, the one that she had gotten from the pirates but Sokka… he gave the great Spirit a knot. The owl gave him a look of disgust.

“Your not very bright are you?” But he took it anyway, and after saying his farewell took off into the deep parts of the library. Sokka watched him go and shook his head.

“Bright enough to fool you.”

----

Toph and Appa sat beside the tower, relaxing despite the heat. Toph at first wondered if the bison could understand her when she spoke. He probably did, he just couldn’t answer back like they could.

“So…” she said hesitantly, “you like flying?”

Appa grunted in approval. She nodded.

“I personally like it on the ground, where I can see. Well, I don’t see like you do. I feel the vibrations in the ground. But this sand is so shifty that the vibration comes out fuzzy.”

Appa grunted disapprovingly.

“No that I mind fuzzy!!”

----

The four teens and the one Professor scanned the books of the library, picking up books every once in a while. There were so many different kinds of information it was almost mind numbing. Aang spent his time looking at extinct animal species, while Katara read about pass Avatars. Zuko had found an interesting book of legends and prophesies and was sitting with his back against the book self, reading. Zei was studying several books at the same time. But Sokka…

Sokka was grabbing seemingly random books, tomes and scrolls from the selves and stuffing them into his bag. He was looking for any information he could find on the fire nation. And there was plenty of interesting information in this place. He scanned the selves until his attention was drawn to a partly burnt piece of parchment sitting in a glass podium.

“The darkest day in Fire Nation history? It’s got a date on top but nothing else…”

Using his bone knife to lift up the glass, he quickly grabbed the parchment. He had to figure this out. He just had to know what had happened. He took off running but Aang caused him to stop.

“Where are you going Sokka?”

“I have to know what happened on the darkest day in Fire Nation history! Oh!” He turned to Zuko. “Do you know?”

Zuko taught for a few moments and then shook his head. “Must of skipped that lesson.”

“Uh… figures. Well, doesn’t matter. Let’s go to the Fire Nation section of the library!”

They took off running, going in the direction that Sokka said it was in. When they got there however they saw that someone had beat them there years ago… The Fire Nation part of the library was in ashes. Every book, tome and scroll had been destroyed no doubt by the firebender that Won Shi Tong had mentioned. Sokka threw his hands up in frustration.

“Just when I though I was one step ahead of the Fire Nation I find out they beat us here!” He looked around at the ruined selves. “I have to know what happened to the Fire Nation on their darkest day.”

A whine from behind them caused them to turn and they saw a fox there, standing on it’s hind-legs. Zei had told tem before that Won Shi Tong used foxes to gather his information. Sokka laughed nervously at it.

“Hello little fox creature…”

It went back down on all fours and then turned, almost seeming to point. Zei smiled. “I think it’s trying to help.”

“Alright. We’ll follow you.”

As they left after the Fox, something caught Zuko’s attention in the ash. It was a partly burned picture of a woman. He picked it up and when he looked at he realized he knew this woman. On the picture it’s self there was a name, one word and then a date of birth and a blank on the death. Ursa. He smiled slightly and felt his heart race. His mother was still alive, she didn’t die on the same day his grandfather did like his father told him. With a sudden resolve to find her soon, he ran off after the others.

They followed the fox down the hall, pass bookcases full of scrolls, tomes and books. Eventually they reached a golden door, the largest one that they had ever seen. Even bigger then the door to the Air Temple Sanctuaries. The design on the door was a flower but it turned away before they really had a chance to look at it fully, rolling away until a opening was reviled. The fox was waiting inside.

Once they were all in the fox pushed a lever in the center of the room by a large stone tablet and a wondrous thing happened. The ceiling above them changed into something that mimicked the movement of the stars. The face moon went along the same path as the real moon. Then it changed into the day time sky, and the sun went along it’s path. Then it stopped.

“This is amazing,” Zei exclaimed. “It’s a mechanical wonder! A wonder that shows the movements of the sky!”

“Look at this,” said Zuko as he looked at the tablet. “These different layers can move and their dated. Like a calendar.”

“Why don’t you pit in the date from the scroll you stole,” Katara suggested.

“Shh! Not in front of the fox! He’s with the owl.”

The fox whined sadly.

Sokka looked over the scroll quickly and then put in the date. Then they sky changed back and forth several times from night to day as it back tracked. Aang smiled in wonder.

“I have to hand it to you Sokka. You picked the best mini-vacation.”

Then it stopped, and the light in the room grew din. Zuko rolled his eyes. “You broke it.”

“No I didn’t. Look,” he said, pointing. “The sun it hidden behind the moon! It’s a solar eclipse.” He then passed the fox a treat and it ate it joyfully before disappearing.

He smiled brightly while the fire bender thought about it. “Like water bender, we lose out bending during an eclipse. Theirs is Lunar and ours is Solar.”

“Yes! We can use this to-”

“Human beings are so predicable.”

The cool, dark voice of Won Shi Tong rang out behind them and they turned. He seemed enraged, angry at what they did. Aang honestly couldn’t blame him. They had lied to him. Sokka tired to explain.

“We need this information for the war. The Fire Nation-”

“Do you think that your the first one who came here looking for knowledge on your enemies weakness? Countless before you have come here looking for battle tactics, weapon designs and weakness of their foes! Like that Fire Bender.”

“Please, we need this information to save the people we care about,” Aang tried to pled but the spirit didn’t seem care.

“And now I will protect what I care about!”

He out stretched his large wings and began to beat the air with them. The room around them rocked and buckled when he did that, like and earth quake. IT knocked them back a few steps.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking my knowledge back.”

“He’s sinking the library!”

“We got to run!”

“I’m afraid you won’t be allowed to leave here alive. You know too much,” the spirit said before he attacked.

----

Mean while on the surface Appa was the first to become aware of the sinking library. He grunted and moved away from Toph and she sprung up. She felt the rumbling under her feet and she rushed over to the tower.

“Library sinking. Library sinking!”

She pushed her fist into the limestone building, attempting to hold it up. But she was sinking into the sand so she removed one and turned the sand around her feet into a more solid sand stone. She had to keep it from sinking until the others got out.

----

The owl’s beak snapped behind them as they ran, going between the book cases and columns in an attempt to lose it. But it maneuvered effortlessly after them, almost getting them several times. Aang managed to knock him down into the lower floors with an air bending strike. They continued until Sokka paused.

“What is it? We have to get out of here!”

“I have to know when the next Solar eclipse is coming. It will be the only chance we have. Aang, come with me.” Aang nodded and ran over. “Zuko, get Katara and the others out of here! Now go!”

The Firebender nodded and grabbed Katara by the wrist and pulled her along just as Sokka and Aang took off running in the other direction. When they reached their destination Aang looked around.

“How are you going to have time to check all the dates?”

“I don’t have to check every date. I just have to check every date before Sozin’s comet. If it falls after that… let’s not think about that..”

So they began to check the dates, Sokka dealing with the tablet and Aang pulling the lever. Every time they tried the sun and moon got closer and closer together but never seemed to want to connect. With ever second the library was sinking deeper and deeper. They were running out of time. They tried again and again. Finally they got the date.

“There,” Sokka said, jotting it down. “Now let’s get to Ba Sing Se.”

----

Katara and Zuko dunked behind a self a few rows ahead of the great owl. Momo clung to Katara while the two teens attempted to bereave. They though they were alright but the own spotted Momo’s tail and attacked. They rushed towards the spot where the rope was but the two benders turned at the same time to face the owl. They couldn’t leave with out Sokka and Aang.

“You won’t be able to do anything. I’ve studied all the fighting styles of the firebenders and the styles of the water benders.”

Just at that moment Aang arrived and attacked the bird, knocking it back. It growled and charged at them.

---

Toph tired to hold the library up, but she was quickly losing that battle. And that wasn’t the only thing happening. Sand-benders on their sand speeders were advancing and Appa tired to get Toph’s attention. But she couldn’t help, she had to worry about her other friends too.

The sand-benders jumped off their speeders and began to tie him up even though Appa managed to destroy one of their gliders. They were almost hit by an attack that Toph sent their way, but she missed every time. She couldn’t feel where they were. They ropes were tired around Appa and he was drugged away. Toph felt her heart sink.

“I’m sorry Appa.”

---

While Aang kept the owl spirit back; Katara, Sokka and Zuko climbed up the rope. That was when they noticed that Zei was no longer with them. They saw him reading between book cases.

“Come on!”

“I can’t,” he said sadly. “There is no other place like this in all the world. I could stay here forever.”

“Just forget about him! Come on!”

They started climbing the rope but the vibrations of the sinking library knocked Sokka’s boomerang out of it’s place and they started to fall. Aang saw that and flew over, grabbing the rope. They were pulled up at high speeds even as the owl followed them. They just barely made it out of there. Then if sand fully into the ground knocking Toph back.

“We did it,” Sokka said, hugging his sister. “We know when the next solar eclipse will be!”

Aang was looking around for his bison when he turned to Toph. “Where’s Appa?”

She shook her head and moaned in sorrow. Aang felt like someone had just grabbed his heart and ripped it out. Appa was gone.

End.