15 Chapter 15: Vacation?

After couple more days of training, Aang with earthbending and me with lavabending, Katara suggests some vacation time.

Sokka complains about there not being enough time for it, but Aang and Katara convince him otherwise.

"Since we're close, I think we should go to the Misty Palms Oasis."

Aang chips in and agrees with Katara.

"Yeah! It's a beautiful place that produces natural ice!"

When we get there, the 'Oasis' only consists of a few round buildings and a rough wall around it.

"What a... nice place you chose, Katara."

Sokka, looking bored, decided to tease his sister on her choice of vacation spot.

Aang looks down sheepishly.

"Must've changed owners in the last hundred years..."

We land and head to the biggest building, a bar that serves fruit drinks.

Sokka looks at the fruity drinks and orders one for all of us.

Aang then bumps into a man who proceeded to spill his drink on Aang.

After showing that he can airbend, the man introduces himself as a professor from Ba Sing Se University.

Sokka takes interest in this and asks what knowledge he can provide.

"If it's knowledge you seek, then Wan Shi Tong's library is the place. I've been crossing the entire desert in search of it, with no luck."

"Hmm... hey professor, have you ever seen a sky bison?"

We make our way outside to find Appa surrounded by sandbenders.

I immediately send a few blasts of sand to them in warning.

"Get away from him!"

Seemingly intimidated, the sandbenders use their sand boats to leave.

Knowing how greedy they are, they'll come back.

I won't let them take Appa.

Even if that means Aang not meeting the Guru. I can always come up with an excuse to go to the Eastern Air Temple before the fight with Ozai.

He might not need to master the Avatar state anytime soon, though. I may be able to help Aang battle him.

...

Eh, I'll have him meet Guru Pathik before the final fight. Just in case.

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After we all get on Appa, we scour the desert in search of the library.

A couple of hours pass, and we still can't locate the elusive library.

"I don't get it. Going by this illustration, the library is huge. How come we can't find it?"

I'll give Sokka a hint.

"If the professor said that this place existed for a very long time, and it's located in a desert, maybe it's buried?"

The professor groans at my statement.

"Hopefully it's not buried entirely."

A few more minutes pass until we spot a fox running to a small tower.

"Is that the library? It is buried! You were right, Lu Chen!"

When we land, the professor pitifully begins to use a small shovel to attempt to dig out the library.

Toph comes up and reassures the professor that the inside is fine.

Sokka pulls out his ropes from Appa's saddle.

"We can just use this time to get inside."

Toph, looking uncomfortable, speaks up to voice what's bothering her.

"Eh, I'll stay out here."

Katara looks at Toph quizzically.

"Why? Got something against libraries?"

"I've held books before, but they don't exactly work on me."

"Oh... Sorry."

I stand next to Toph and put my arm over her shoulder.

"I'll stay out here too. It's a rare chance to be completely alone with Toph. And books don't really interest me much."

Toph blushes at my statement and elbows me softly in the ribs.

"If you say so, Lu Chen. Come on, let's go, Aang, Katara."

The rest of Team Avatar, along with the professor, head into the library, leaving Toph, Appa, and me outside.

"Well, now that we're alone... what do you want to do?"

Toph asks me while blushing harder.

"Well, I was just thinking of just cuddling under the shade of this tower. Not much to do except playing with sand."

"... Cuddling sounds nice."

For a while, Toph and I stuck close together under the shade that the tower provided for us.

Until the Fire Natio- I mean the library started sinking.

"Hey! What's going on?!"

Toph, getting surprised by the sudden situation, stands up.

"The library! It's sinking!"

We both put in the effort to prevent the library from sinking, until not long after the sandbenders show up.

"Hey, Toph! Looks like those sandbenders are back! You hold onto the library while I see what they're up to!"

"What?!"

"Well, you can't exactly fight on the sand, can you! Even I can barely feel anything!"

"Tck! Fine, just be quick!"

I turn to face the sandbenders.

As always, I wait for them to attach first.

One group detaches from the convoy and heads towards Appa and the other, smaller group, heads towards me.

The group facing me launches a few sandblasts at me from multiple directions.

I kick across the ground in front of me, canceling the attacks, then stomp my foot down into the sand, turning all the sand under my feet into sandstone within a 20-meter radius.

This confuses the sandbenders attacking me. They probably haven't earthbended in a while, judging from how novice their earth-style technique looks.

I make quick work of them and they retreat.

Appa, who was struggling, was getting closer to being caught.

I swing my arms up then bring them down and push forward, sending a large tsunami of sand to the group of attackers.

Most of them get buried in the sand. It looks quite comical.

I blast the ones trying to get back up into the air, while the buried ones free themselves and retreat to their sand boats.

"Retreat! This ain't worth it, boys!"

Cowards.

I watch as they escape, and send one last giant blast of sand in their direction as a final warning.

I see some boats get flipped and the others come back to retrieve their fallen comrades.

I look in Appa's direction.

"You okay, buddy?"

Appa, still with ropes loosely tied on him, comes up to me,

"Ghuuuur."

And he licks me. I appreciate the thanks, Appa, but I didn't need this.

"Okay, okay, you're welcome Appa, but I have to go help Toph now."

I look back at Toph and run up to help her find the library.

"I took care of them! They were after Appa."

"Well, it's a good thing you decided to stay out here! Otherwise, we would've been stranded here!"

A few seconds later, I see Aang, Sokka, Katara, and Momo escape from the window of the library.

Toph and I then let go of the library, letting it sink into nothingness.

"That was a close one! Sokka, Katara, you guys okay?"

"Oh, we're all just dandy! Thanks, Aang."

I look up at the group and feign concern.

"Where's that professor guy?"

Sokka looked down towards the spot the library used to be, mildly discontent.

"He chose to stay behind."

"Yeesh... well, if it was his choice, who are we to judge. Anyways, what did you find in there? Anything useful?"

Sokka jumps up excitedly.

"Oh, yeah we did! Check this out! We found out a weakness in firebenders!"

Sokka holds up a half-burned piece of paper.

"And? What's the weakness?"

Of course, I already know.

"Firebenders lose their ability to bend during a solar eclipse! And the best part? It's only a few months away!"

"That's great and all, but how're we supposed to defeat the Fire Nation on that day. They still have an entire army, benders or not."

Sokka just smiles and tells me his plan.

"I plan on telling the Earth King this info, and he'll be sure to send an army to assist the Avatar!"

I look at Sokka, unimpressed.

"What? You got a problem with my plan?"

"No, it's just that... I get a weird feeling from the city of Ba Sing Se. I think we shouldn't trust the Earth Kingdom government all that much. It might be better to see how they operate first before we entrust them with vital information."

Aang comes up to enter the conversation.

"What do you mean? Aren't the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation enemies? And we're allies to the Earth Kingdom, too. Shouldn't they be informed?"

I look at both Aang and Sokka.

"You guys know that one of the biggest topics in conversation is the war, right?"

They both nod.

"Well, when I went there in the past, I overheard no one speak of war, and there wasn't any news posting on the current state of the war or any mentions of won or lost battles. Even though there are plenty of stories and updates on the war in Gaoling, it seems to not even exist in the minds of the people living there. It just seems untrustworthy to me. We should be careful."

The entire group looks at each other in confusion.

Sokka speaks up.

"Well, since you're the only one who's been to Ba Sing Se, we'll take your advice. We'll scope out the city and get a feel for it. If they seem trustworthy, we'll give them information in exchange for an army, if not, I'll come up with another plan."

I nod and accept Sokka's terms.

Aang takes a look at Appa and furrows his brows.

"Hey what're these ropes on Appa?"

Aang looks at me for answers.

"Oh, just some sandbenders trying to kidnap Appa. I taught them a very valuable lesson in return."

Aang smiles brightly and gives me a friendly nudge to my shoulder.

"Thanks, Lu Chen. You protected my best friend. Thank you. I don't know what I'd do if Appa were to have been taken away."

"No problem, Aang. Appa is precious to all of us."

Sokka inspected the ropes he took off of Appa.

"Well, it's not that bad that those sandbenders attempted it. We got some quality rope out of it!"

We all stare at Sokka hopelessly.

"What? At least it's one positive! Rope is always useful!"

"Alright, already! I'm sick of not being able to see! Let's get going, I'm tired of this sand!"

Toph raises her arms in exclamation and stumbles her way towards Appa.

We all get on after her and make our way to Ba Sing Se.

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Will Aang master the Avatar state? Will he even need it now?

Idk, maybe.