53 Chapter 52

"So now that we're alone what is this message you have for me?"

"Years ago I went on a spiritual journey of sorts. I'll skip over some of the minutiae, but one of my major stops was the spirit library. It was maintained by a spirit of knowledge. The spirit had previously banned humans from its library because the last human who had visited stole from the library. I got around this on a technicality. Being blind I wouldn't use the library I instead received personal instruction from the spirit. During the instruction, I asked a question that the spirit would only answer if I performed two favors. The first was to guide the avatar."

"Ok, which explains why you've found yourself with the avatar. But I assume that's not what you wanted to talk to me about."

"The second favor was to stop the thief who had stolen from the library. The thief was a fire nation officer looking for an edge in the war. He found what he thought was a way to cripple the water tribe. I encountered him during my journey with the avatar. He died before I could ask him any questions, so I don't know who he shared his knowledge with."

"What exactly are you telling me? How credible is this ability to 'cripple' the water tribes?" The chief asks with a noticeable tone of worry.

"I'm telling you, that you should be preparing for a fire nation invasion in the near future, and that I need to visit the spirit oasis. The plan could hypothetically work, but would be disastrous for everybody."

"I understand. You've given me a lot to think about. I thank you for bringing this to me, and I'll have an escort to the spirit oasis ready for you by tomorrow." He tells me calmly after taking a few deep breaths. I give a slight now before I leave his office to meet back up with the group. As we're escorted out of the main building and to our lodging for while we stay here Sokka nudges me.

"Sooo?"

I see him, Katara, and Aang all looking at me for an explanation.

"When we get to our rooms"

The rest of our walk was in tense silence. Our escorts bring us to a series of rooms each is rather spacious with a desk, large bed, and other amenities. The guards leave us to ourselves after telling us that they'll be back to escort us to the welcoming feast. The four of us then make our way into a single room to talk.

"Alright, I'll tell you but first you have to promise not to freak out."

"I promise we won't freak out" Aang calmly tells me.

"There may be an attempt to invade the northern water tribe soon"

"What." "What!" "What?"

"How could you not tell us about this?" Katara asks me angrily.

"Well. I mean the fire nation is probably always planning an invasion, and this particular one might not happen, so there was no reason to worry any of you. But it is something that the Chief should know even if it doesn't end up happening"

" I guess that's fair. How do you even know about it"

"You know that guy that was chasing us at Crescent Island?"

"Zuko?"

"No. Huh I guess you never met him because I went to distract him. Any way guy named Zhao let it slip he was supposed to lead an invasion here."

"Why would that come up?"

"Well, I'm Blind and clearly water tribe of some sort. He is incredibly arrogant so he was bragging before he captured or killed me would be my guess"

"Hah, and I guess you showed him why you don't mess with the water tribe. What happened after that?" Sokka continues his questions.

"Well, We fought and I knocked him and his men unconscious. I ran back to you guys only to find a glowing avatar Roku erupting the island. I know that there were other teams that I didn't run into, but I really don't know what happened to everyone on the island" As I speak I notice Aang getting more tense and uncomfortable even making a choking noise when he hears about the people on the island. Katara scooches over to him and hugs him. The two of them splinter off leaving me and Sokka in an awkward silence waiting for dinner. I kinda figured this might trigger Aang, but it's something he'll have to deal with eventually. I know I killed Zhao, but Roku did potentially kill everyone else on the island. Roku may have killed the other soldiers and whoever else maintained the temple. There's no way a temple of that size is maintained and used by only those five old men. There had to be a bunch of acolytes and others at the temple. I really can't believe Roku's first idea to get Aang out of trouble is to blow up an island. Just more evidence he was a lackluster avatar.

We sit in awkward silence for almost an hour before the guards who bright us here come back to bring us to a feast. Where we are all introduced as the guests of honor. Well us and the Chief's daughter whose 16th birthday it just happens to be. The feast is made up of traditional water tribe food and meat from a giant crab-like creature. There is also a performance by some of the water benders of the tribe. After the performance, the performers' master, Pakku, comes over. He's offended by our request to have him teach Aang only a couple of techniques. He doesn't initially believe in my ability to be his master, but throughout the feast, we talk about water bending. At first, he was just grilling me, but after I talk about my vapor bending and blind sense he gets into it and we start talking shop. I lose track of the rest of the feast as I talk to a bending master for the first time. By the end, I think Pakku's got some respect for me because I certainly do for him. The man is an expert at traditional water bending, but he did his fair share of experimentation(not that kind) when he was younger. We worked out a compromise where he'll teach Aang the more traditional style including, but not exclusively the spirit bending techniques. I mention Katara and explain the situation. He said as long as she only learned healing or my style of bending there would be no issues. She just wouldn't be able to learn the traditional stuff. All in all, I'm glad everything went so smoothly working out the conditions for Aang's training. The feast was nearly over by the time I was done talking to Pakku, so I retired back to my room for the night.