"Isn't it beautiful?" Jinora asks in awe.
"It is," I answer, just as stunned as she.
I don't think I'll ever get over the beauty that is the Spirit World. Just think, we'd be able to come here all the time If Avatar Wan didn't close the portals, but I understand why he did. It was to protect both spirits and humans.
"Just ... stick close to me, okay? This seems nice, but you never know when we'll run into some dark spirits- Huh!" Korra says.
As her hand grazes over a flower, it turns into a giant butterfly. It's nothing like the butterflies in the physical world, nothing here is.
"Look!" I shout happily. "It's like it's made of jewels! The spirits are so much more beautiful in their own world than they are at home."
Jinora and I chase after the butterfly, leaving my sister behind. I hear her shout after us, but come on, can you blame us? It's not everyday you get to go to the spirit world! We play around with the butterfly for a few minutes until I turn around to check on my sister who is making quite a bit of commotion.
"Jinora!" I call to her.
She turns around to see what's going on, and we both look at each other worryingly. In the middle of the field is Korra, she's being attacked by meerkat-like creatures, and they're growing on her- No, literally. They're actually sticking to her skin and they're getting bigger and bigger!
What did she do this time?
"Are you kidding me?" I scold. "We've been in the Spirit World for five minutes and you've already made the spirits mad?!"
"Korra! Stay calm!" Jinora orders. "Your energy is upsetting them. You're only making it worse!"
Jinora and I run over to my sister and try to get the spirits off of her, but they won't budge.
"Please, let her go!" I plead with them. "She's sorry, she won't do it again!"
What did she even do to them?
They ignore me as the other meerkat spirits march around us in a circle. I gulp as a giant hole opens under us, and the three of us scream as we're flushed down into a deep stream of water.
I reach for my sister and Jinora, and the three of us hold on to each other for dear life. I try to scream as we approach a very large dark spirit swimming towards us. I take in an unwanted mouth full of water instead, and then, the spirit swallows us whole.
We haven't even been here that long! We were chasing a butterfly, and now we might be stuck here forever. How could this happen?
...
So we're not dead, great.
I look around, we were teleported to a river that spirals down a rocky slope. The river soon forks and Jinora and I go one way while my sister goes down the other.
"Korra!" I shout, but it's to late.
She's gone.
...
We couldn't have one day where something goes right? Yeah, ok. And if you can't tell, I'm rolling my eyes right now.
There's Jinora. It looks like we're in some sort of meadow. At least Jinora's here with me, but where are we? And where's my sister? I'm actually in disbelief, We were suppose to stick together!
"Ugh, I can't believe this is happening," I tell her.
"At least we're together."
"Yeah, but my sister. She's all alone and she's not the most spiritual person.."
"We'll find her, let's just see if she's around here. She can't be too far."
"You're right," I admit. "Korra! Where are you?"
"Hello? We're lost. Can anybody help us?" Jinora tries.
We're lost in the spirit world, we're lost in the spirit world.
Ok, don't panic. Hopefully Korra has found the portal by now and closed it, and now she can find us. We can get out of here, and the world is saved... Who am I kidding? That would be too easy. Nothing ever works out for us, so I doubt it will now.
What is that?
It's loud, like a large beating sound. I spot Furry-Foot flying over a hill approaching us.
"Furry-Foot?"
"It's so good to see you again!" Jinora says.
"He's humongous!" I exclaim. "How is he so big?"
He's several feet taller vs. in the physical world where he could fit in the palm of my hand.
"He is," she agrees before turning back to the spirit. "I don't suppose you know where Korra is, do you? We were supposed to go find the spirit portals, but we don't know how to find anything down here."
Furry-Foot coos and starts to flap his wings. The dragonfly bunny spirit flies over to us and we jump on his back. Together, we take off. I look down as we fly over the spirit world. It's so beautiful, I could cry. It's kind of like our world, except everything seems... Magical. It's so radiant here.
We pass over a range of terrain. Mountains, rivers, and we even came across a few spirits. My expression changes to one of wonder as everything seems to change. Deep in the forest, twisted roots change to tall trees in which an ornate building is suspended upside down by vines. A chilling sensation overcomes my body.
This place looks familiar...
"Jinora," I gasp. "I know this place!"
"Grandpa Aang came here," she says.
We look at each other.
"Wan Shi Tong's Library."
...
Oh. My. Stars. There are so many books here. This is the biggest library I've ever seen! I bet there are books in here with information that the world has never even heard of. Books from the beginning of time, information about all of the Avatars. I know about the first Avatar, but I bet there's information about the second one, or the fifth one, maybe even the 34th Avatar, who knows. The possibilities are endless!
As much as I'd love to stay here and read, there's still the owl, and I'm terrified to cross him. Katara says that he chased her and Momo around when they were in here, and it still frightens her to this day just thinking about it.
"Jinora, this place... it's amazing, but we shouldn't stay here for long. We don't want to make the spirit of this library angry."
"Wow," she says mesmerized. "I could just stay in here forever, reading."
"Me too, but-"
Oh no, oh no, oh no, this is exactly what I was afraid of. I cut myself off when a giant creature lands behind Jinora. My eyes slowly trailing up its body until I meet its eyes that are staring directly at me. This cannot be happening.
Oh shoot, it's the owl.
He's terrifying, the biggest creature I've ever seen! I thought birds where suppose to be cute, but this is something you see in your worst nightmares. With his sleek feathers the color of midnight, his beaty little eyes, his tall frame the size of a statue, it's all so much. I'd probably pee my pants if I were in my body.
"The last human who said that is still here," he says darkly.
He turns just a bit, and Jinora and I follow suit. I almost puke at the sight of a decomposed skeleton.
My goodness.
"Professor Zei!" Jinora and I gasp.
"I see you two have some knowledge of the past, so you should know that humans are no longer allowed in my library. Get out."
"I thought anyone could come in if they brought you some new knowledge?" Jinora says.
"Those are the old rules. Besides, what has a little girl and her friend got to teach Wan Shi Tong, he who knows ten thousand things?"
"Well, since you've been down in the Spirit World, the humans have invented radio," Jinora says as she folds her arms smugly.
"Yes, I am well aware of the radio."
"But do you know how it works?" I ask.
"Of course I do! There is a box, and inside the box, there is a tiny man who sings and plays musical instruments."
I snicker loudly and I quickly stop as he shoots me an evil glare.
"Actually, when we speak, our voices produce sound waves. Right, Kitty?"
"Yep! And the radio takes those sound waves and converts them into electromagnetic energy that is transmitted through the spectrum-"
"All right, enough," the owl snaps. "I did not know this. Apparently, I have been fed some misinformation about the existence of tiny men in boxes. Still, I am not interested in that human garbage. Now, go away."
"My grandfather was the Avatar," Jinora says.
"Yeah," I add. "And my sister is the new Avatar."
"And we came to the Spirit World with the new Avatar to find the spirit portals. I would think that you'd wanna help us."
Go, Jinora!
"You came with the Avatar, hm? And you're her sister?" he asks. "Well, why didn't you say so! Fine, you may look around, but don't break anything- I'll know," he says before he soars off into the library.
Hmm. Now why did he change his mind so quickly? Something isn't right.
"Jinora," I say to her. "I don't trust that thing. We have to be fast, come on."
She nods and turns to Furry-Foot. "Come on, Furry-Foot. Hurry!"
...
Book after book after book and we've found nothing! This is so frustrating! I don't like being here either, something just doesn't feel right. It feels dark, and I don't trust that owl.
"Ugh, it's not in here either! We have to find the portals," I tell Jinora.
"Korra is probably waiting for us there right now! We need to find a map that shows where the spirit portals are, could you help us?" She asks the fox-like creature. It leads us to a book a few shelves down.
"Thanks!" I say politely, and look down at the book. I open it and go through some of the pages until one catches our eye.
"The Tree of Time!" Jinora says happily. We're finally getting somewhere!
"That's where Avatar Wan imprisoned Vaatu!" I exclaim and read on, "The elders believe that as long as the portals are closed during the Harmonic Convergence, Vaatu will remain imprisoned and the battle between good and evil will not be fought again. But, if both portals are open, spirit energy is amplified greatly. During the Harmonic Convergence, this energy will be great enough to allow Vaatu to break free from his bonds, and the material world will again risk being consumed by darkness."
"Oh, no!" Jinora says with a gasp. "That's bad, that's really bad."
"We have to find my sister and get her to those portals!" I say while slamming the book shut and quickly standing to my feet.
"Leaving so soon?"
Oh, no. It can't be..
"Uncle, what are you doing here?" I ask him.
And why is he standing with the owl?
"When Wan Shi Tong told me he had a visitor, I had to see it with my own eyes. I can't believe Tenzin sent his daughter here instead of coming himself, what kind of a father is he? And my brother, I'm not all that surprised."
"Better than you," Jinora says.
"Do not talk about my father, especially since your kids don't even like you," I tell him.
"Oh please, your father doesn't even know you exist. Actually, you're not even suppose to exist."
What a horrible human being. I'm still his niece, how can he be so cruel?
"Wan Shi Tong, how can you be helping him?" Jinora asks changing the subject.
"Unalaq has proven to be a true friend to the spirits- unlike the Avatar."
"Are you kidding me?" I ask rhetorically. "Why would you wanna help Vaatu escape? He'll destroy everything!"
"Don't believe everything you read," Unalaq says. "Why don't you two come with me, so you can do some firsthand research?"
There is no way we are going with him! I push Jinora behind me and we slowly start backing away until we're backed against something. We both look up worryingly and spot a scary looking Furry-Foot.
"Furry-Foot?"
...
"Kitty... Kitty.." I hear someone call my name, but they sound far away. I blink a few times trying to clear my vision.
"Jinora?"
Where am I? What happened?
"You might want to reconsider- that is, if you want to save your friend."
I look down and I'm startled. Jinora and I are in Unalaq's grasp, holding us by our waist with his waterbending. I remember everything. Ugh, I could kick myself! Of course the owl is working for Unalaq! A crazy man and a crazy owl, what did we expect?! And there's Vaatu, still scarier than ever, waiting to be released. I can feel his energy taking over, it's scary. No wonder Furry-Foot turned into a dark spirit.
"Kitty! Jinora!" Korra yells, then turns her attention back to Unalaq. "I can't believe I trusted you! You made me think you wanted to restore balance with spirits, but this- this isn't balance, it's madness! Now let them go!"
"If you want your friend and your sister to make it out of the Spirit World, you'll open the other portal now."
"Don't do it, Korra!" Jinora shouts.
"Korra, listen to us! Don't do it. We'll be fine!" I shout as well.
But we won't be fine. There's two things that can happen if Korra refuses to open the portal. Unalaq will kill us. It's doesn't matter if he's our uncle. Obviously family means nothing to him. It's that or he'll keep us here in the spirit world and make it where we can't get out. Jinora and my body will die. Meaning Tenzin and Pema lose a daughter, and the world loses one of the only remaining airbenders left. Either way, we'll die.
"What will it be?" Unalaq asks. "Open the portal, or lose your friend and your sister's soul forever?"
"Stop! I'll do it."
"No Korra, please!" I plead.
It's too late, she walks over to portal and opens it. We're all doomed now.
"Now let them go- Ahhh!" she screams as Unalaq starts to attack her with his waterbending.
"You should've come through the portal. Then you could do this!"
Darn, he's right!
"Ahhh! Korra!" Jinora and I scream as Furry-Foot swiftly picks us up and carries us away.
"Korra!" I scream again as I watch from above as Unalaq continues to attack her.
"Jinora! We have to get out of here!"
"How?!" she asks in a panic.
"Focus, Jinora! Focus on your body!" I tell her.
"I- I can't!"
I look down as Furry-Foot hovers over the Spirit World. We're so high up, I can barely see it.
Jinora and I scream as he drops us, and we fall from the sky.
"Yes you can! Now, Jinora!"
We're falling fast. We need to get out of here! I close my eyes, and breath as steadily as I can.
Focus... Focus... Focus...
...
"Ahhhh!" I scream.
I look around frantically. I hyperventilate, it's so hard to breath. It feels like my heart is beating out of my chest.
"Kitty, calm down! It's ok! look at me!"
I focus on the pair of blue eyes that are looking into mine. It's my sister. I look around and Kya and Bumi look at me worryingly.
"Jinora?" I say with a frown.
I look at her body. Her eyes are closed, and she's still in the meditating position. Oh no... Please, no. I can feel my face flush with realization setting in.
"Tenzin," I whisper. "I-I-"
"It's ok, Kitty," Kya says softly.
But it's not ok. Jinora is still in there! With Vaatu and my crazy uncle!
"Jinora- where's my Jinora?" Tenzin asks.
"I tried to save her- I tried to get her to come with me. Tenzin, I- I'm so sorry! I'm sorry."
...