Naya and the Last Airbender

xiv. The Library

The rest of us walked forward, where Aang and I bumped into a man holding a drink. The Avatar and I both got wet, but I didn't mind.

"No worries. We clean up easy," Aang assured. Simultaneously, we both blew ourselves off with air bending. I smiled in satisfaction at the fact that I've improved a lot over the past few days. I was lucky airbending came so easily to me, unlike waterbending which I still struggled with.

"Wow! I can't believe my eyes, you two are living relics," the man exclaimed.

"Thanks! We try," Aang gushed.

"Two Air Nomads right in front of me. Professor Zei, head of Anthropology at Ba Sing Se University. Tell me... which of the Air Temples do you hail from?"

"Uh, well, I'm not actually an Air Nomad, I'm the Akshata," I told.

"I'm from the Southern Temple," Aang said.

"Oh even better! Your origins are fascinating," he turned to Aang and inspected his head. "And you! What was the primary agricultural product of your people?"

"Uh, are fruit pies an agricultural product?" Aang asked.

"Oh, truly fascinating. That's one for the journal," he mumbled.

"So professor, you're obviously a well-traveled guy. Do you have a more current map? Our seems to be a little dated?" Sokka asked.

Zei smiled. "Certainly."

The professor handed my brother a map and we all walked towards a table. Toph and I both comfortably sat down while the rest peered over the map.

"What? No Fire Nation? Doesn't anybody have a good map of that place?" Sokka whined.

"You've made a lot of trips into the desert," Katara pointed out.

"All in vain, I'm afraid. I've found civilizations all over the Earth Kingdom, but I haven't managed to find the crown jewel— Wan-Chi Tong's library."

"You've spent years walking through the desert to find some guy's library?" Toph asked with her dirty feet in my face. I cringed and pushed them off of the table, earning a look from the earthbender.

"This library is more valuable than gold, Little Lady. It is said to contain a vast collection of knowledge. And knowledge... is priceless," Zei said.

"Hmm sounds like good times," Toph mumbled.

"Oh, it is," he said not realizing she was being sarcastic. "According to legend, it was built by the great knowledge spirit Wan-Chi Tong with the help of his foxy knowledge seekers."

"Oh, so this spirit has attractive assistants, huh?" Sokka asked.

"Really? Is all you think about girls?" I questioned.

"Not all the time, like 90% or so," he retorted.

Katara rolled her eyes. "Well, I think he means they look like actual foxes, Sokka."

"Well, you're both right. Handsome little creatures. Wan-Chi Tong and his knowledge seekers collected books from all over the world and put them on display for mankind to read so that we might better ourselves."