Bella [AANGXOC]

Chapter 76: Worthwhile Knowledge

There'll be a chapter on the next three Tuesdays... :)

Once he had gone I felt a bit more relaxed. But I still wanted to get what we needed and get out as fast as we could. It probably wasn't gonna happen though.

We started at the first corridor, the one closest to where we entered. And began plowing through the books. Aang and Katara didn't have any sense of urgency, so they weren't actively trying to reach the goal. Sokka and I were trying a little bit harder.

"Hey! Look at these weird lion turtle things!" Aang said holding up a couple drawings of a massive animal on a beach.

"Ah, I've seen weirder," Sokka replied.

"Aang, did you know in a past life you were left-handed?" Katara said holding a book to her chest.

"I always knew I was special!" Aang exclaimed.

Professor Zei had been quiet the whole time, flipping through books and then finding new ones. He currently had a selection built up in his arms of his favorites.

Sokka was grabbing scrolls from the shelves and putting them in his bag.

"We probably shouldn't be taking stuff, Sokka," I told him.

"He won't miss 'em," he said as he took another one.

He probably will miss them. And then hold us accountable.

"Hey look at this!" Sokka said running over to a little room off the side of the corridor. It opened with an arch and inside was a pedestal with something on it. He ran into the little room and I followed him in.

On the pedestal was a piece of burnt parchment covered by a glass dome.

"The darkest day in Fire Nation history..." Sokka read off of it.

That could potentially be helpful, if we knew why.

Sokka pointed to the top, "It's got a date, but it doesn't say anything else."

Because this could potentially help us, I didn't mind as much when Sokka took out his knife and pulled the parchment out of its case. I am a wanted thief after all.

He rolled it up and slipped it into his bag.

"Come on," he said to me as we walked out of the room, and strangely away from where Katara, Aang and the professor were.

"Sokka, where are you going?" Aang asked him.

"I want to know what happened to the Fire Nation on their darkest day, this could be promising," Sokka replied still making his way to what I now recognized as the Fire Nation section. Aang and the others followed us.

Once we entered the room dedicated to Fire Nation knowledge, it was obvious it wasn't going to be much help.

The room smelled like smoke and wax. As if it had just been cleaned out. All the shelves, books, and scrolls had been burnt down to nothing but black scraps. In some places you could see the corners of the ancient shelves, but everything else was shapeless. The firebenders had done this so no one would ever know of their history, or their weaknesses. And from the looks of the damage they had done, I'm sure they didn't get out of here alive. Not with the owl. I shivered at the thought of angering that spirit to this extent.

"Firebenders," Sokka hissed.

"They destroyed everything having to do with the Fire Nation," Katara said.

"That's so unfair! Just when I think I'm one step ahead of the fire nation, it turn out they beat us here a long time ago!"

"I need to know what happened on their darkest day," Sokka sighed.