The Lost Scrolls: Earth (Avatar: The Last Airbender) (Chapter Books - Fixed)

by Nickelodeon

  I had no choice. My recklessness got us into this

  mess, and now my skills would have to get us out of it.

  I told the king that I’d do whatever he wanted.

  He led me into a huge cavern. Sharp stalagmites

  jutted up from the cave floor, and equally sharp

  stalactites hung down from the ceiling. In the center

  of the cave, right in the middle of a raging waterfall,

  a key hung on a chain from the ceiling. A ladder rose

  up just below it.

  “It seems I’ve lost my lunch box key and I’m

  hungry,” the king said, looking right at me. “Would

  you mind fetching it for me?”

  It didn’t look too tough. I launched myself off a

  stalagmite and used my Airbending to speed to the

  base of the ladder. But the moment I entered the

  waterfall, I felt its raging torrent press down on me

  and I couldn’t outmuscle it. I lost my grip and was

  flung out of the waterfall. It took a last-second bit of

  Airbending to catch myself before I fell on a sharp

  stalagmite.

  “Oh, climbing the ladder,” the king mocked me.

  “No one’s thought of that before!”

  I hated being made fun of, especially by some

  crazy guy who held the fate of my friends in his

  hands. Obviously force wasn’t going to get the job

  done. There had to be another way. I glanced down

  at the stalagmite I was clutching and I got an idea.

  I grabbed the point, yanked hard, and the top snapped

  off. I hurled it toward the waterfall, following up with

  a powerful Airbending burst that directed the pointy

  rock right through the key’s chain. The rock cut the

  chain in half and continued to soar through the air,

  landing in the wall above the king’s head. There was

  the key, dangling right in front of his face!

  “Here, enjoy your lunch,” I said as the king took

  the key. “I want my friends back. Now!” I looked

  over and saw that the crystal was growing quickly.

  “Not yet,” the king replied. “I need your help with

  another matter. I lost my pet, Flopsie.”

  The king led me into another chamber, where

  I spotted a small, sweet-looking furry creature, which

  I assumed was Flopsie. After a few minutes of chasing

  the little fur ball, this other huge creature came

  towering over me, growling

  and revealing long, sharp

  fangs and long, floppy ears.

  Suddenly, it started licking

  my face. That’s when I

  discovered the little ball of fur

  wasn’t Flopsie—the big, scary

  ball of fur was! Yikes! Good

  thing Flopsie turned out to

  be a lovable ball of fur after I

  stopped acting scared.

  “Okay, I found your

  Flopsie!” I told the king.

  “Guys, are you okay?” I called over to them.

  “Other than the crystal slowly encasing my entire

  body, you mean?” Katara said, forcing a pained smile.

  “Doing great!”

  The crystals just kept spreading. Time was running

  out.

  “Come on!” I shouted.

  “I’m ready for the next

  challenge.”

  “Your final test is a

  duel,” the king said. “And

  you may choose your

  opponent.”

  Suddenly

  two

  of

  the

  scariest-looking

  guys

  I’d

  ever

  seen

  stepped into the room.

  One guy carried a sharp spear, the other, an

  enormous ax. I didn’t have much of a choice. Then

  I came up with a brilliant plan—at least, I thought

  so at the time. I pointed at the king. He was old and

  weak and I figured I’d be able to knock him over with

  a single Airbending blast.

  Boy was I wrong!

  The king threw off his robe, and underneath, his

  body was solid muscle. His Earthbending power was

  beyond anything I’d ever seen. He jumped into the

  air, and when his feet struck the ground, he sent a

  wave of rock rippling under me, which knocked me

  halfway across the room!

  The king continued his powerful attacks, sending

  small rocks and large boulders sailing at me.

  I deflected them using Airbending, but I wasn’t sure

  how long I could keep it up!

  “Typical Airbender tactic,” the king taunted me.

  “Avoid and evade. I’d hoped the Avatar would be less

  predictable. Sooner or later you’ll have to strike back!”

  Angered by his taunts, I charged right at the king,

  but he forced a thick wall to spring from the ground,

  blocking my way. No matter which way I turned, a

  wall rose up to stop me. At one point he even turned

  the ground I was running on into quicksand! How do

  I get myself into these messes?

  I began to run around in a tight circle repeatedly

  to create a spinning vortex so I could catch his rocks

  in it and deflect them back at him. My vortex worked,

  but the king just Earthbended the boulders into tiny

  grains of sand!

  He then tore off a huge chunk of the room and flung it

  toward me, but my air vortex spun that right back at him

  too. While the king was busy disintegrating the large chunk

  of rock, I was able to sneak up on him and slam him with an

  Airbending blast that knocked him to the ground.

  “Well done, Avatar,” the king said. “You fight with much

  fire in your heart.”

  Then he opened a crack in the ground and fell through

  it. He reappeared right next to Katara and Sokka, who were

  now, aside from their faces, completely covered in crystal. I

  had done it. I had finished the challenges in time.

  “You passed all my tests,” he said. “Answer this one

  question and I’ll set your friends free,” the king said. I was

  furious! I had already passed all of his tests! He kept changing

  the rules, and I wasn’t about to take it. But no matter how

  much I protested, he just smirked and said, “What’s the

  point of tests if you don’t learn anything?

  “What is my name?” the king asked.

  How should I know? Talk about an unfair challenge!

  “Think about the challenges,” Katara suggested as the

  crystal started closing in on her face. “What did you learn?

  Maybe it’s some kind of riddle.”

  “Well, they weren’t straightforward,” I said
. “To solve

  each test I had to think differently from how I would

  normally.”

  I thought about the king for a moment, and then it struck

  me like a thunderbolt. “I know his name!” I announced. I

  was sure I was right.

  I turned toward the king. “As you said a long time ago,

  I had to open my mind to the possibilities. Bumi, you’re a

  mad genius!”

  Imagine that! My old friend Bumi, the king of Omashu!

  I was so happy. I thought I’d never see him again!

  “It’s good to see you again, Aang. You haven’t changed a

  bit . . . literally,” he said, smiling.

  “Uh, a little help over here!” Katara yelled, just as the

  crystal enclosed her face.

  With a tiny wave of his hand, Bumi shattered the crystal

  surrounding Katara and Sokka. Then he picked up a piece

  and popped it into his mouth. “Jennamite is made of rock

  candy,” he said. “Delicious.”

  “Why did you do all this instead of just telling Aang who

  you were?” Sokka asked.

  Bumi said that as the Avatar, I have a pretty huge task

  ahead of me, and that he hoped that his little tests would

  help me meet those challenges by thinking like a mad genius.

  Maybe he’s right!

  Before we left Omashu, Bumi and I took a long-overdue

  ride in a cart down one of the mail chutes. As I sped along

  the chute, I thought that when the time came for me to

  learn Earthbending, I couldn’t find a better teacher than my

  old pal Bumi!

  The legend of the first Earthbenders, also known

  as the “Legend of the Two Lovers,” is as old as

  Earthbending itself. Two lovers from warring villages

  were separated by a mountain and forbidden to see

  each other. These lovers learned Earthbending from

  the first Earthbenders, the badger-moles who lived in the

  mountain, and thus became the first human Earthbenders.

  They used their newfound abilities to carve an elaborate

  system of tunnels through the mountain so they could

  be together. When the man was killed in the war, the

  woman became so furious that she unleashed a display

  of Earthbending that could have destroyed both villages.

  Eventually, she used her powers to end the war and both

  villages helped her build a new city out of the mountain

  where they could all live in peace. The woman’s name

  was Oma. The man’s name was Shu, and so the city was

  called Omashu.

  I gathered the information below after spending some

  time traveling across the incredible Earth Kingdom.

  HOW OMASHU CAME TO BE

  THE GATES OF OMASHU

  Omashu’s massive stone gates can only be opened by

  skilled Earthbenders. There are three gates, one behind the

  other, that stand at the entrance to the city. Each gate is five

  feet thick and towers over thirty feet into the air. Working

  in tandem, the two guards use Earthbending to separate

  the two halves of the first gate.

  KYOSHI

  The Earth Kingdom village of Kyoshi, named for the

  Avatar who was born there four hundred years before, is

  located on an island in the South Sea. The island is primarily

  a fishing port and is visited by many travelers and traders.

  Its remote location and small population have kept it safe

  from Fire Nation attacks. The village has a team of female

  Kyoshi warriors, who stand ready to serve and protect the

  people of the island.

  KYOSHI WARRIORS

  Avatar Kyoshi, a powerful Earthbending woman, taught

  the fighting and defensive techniques now used by the

  Kyoshi warriors who defend the island. In her honor, the

  village has a huge statue of her. Because of her great influence,

  all the warriors on Kyoshi are female. Their fighting style is

  about turning the enemy’s force against himself, not about

  overpowering their opponent. Their weapon is the fan and

  their traditional outfits and painted faces, modeled after

  Kabuki theater, are designed to intimidate their opponents.

  My buddy Aang is a pretty

  smart guy. Of course, he’s

  also the Avatar, so that’s

  no surprise. One of the

  smartest things I ever saw

  him do was make peace

  between two feuding

  Earth tribes, the Gan Jins

  and the Zhangs.

  By the way, I’m

  Sokka, just in case

  there’s any confusion

  about who’s writing

  this. I’m a warrior

  from the Southern

  Water Tribe and

  I’m traveling with

  Aang, the Avatar,

  and my sister,

  Katara, on our

  way to find them

  a Waterbending

  master.

  by the Avatar and his friends about their travels. One

  memorable adventure through the Earth Kingdom taught

  everyone a valuable lesson about how important it is to

  stand behind your people in times of danger.

  We just finished crossing the Great Divide, this huge

  canyon of rocks, with the feuding Earth tribes. Boy, an

  experience like that really reminds me how important it is

  for us to fight together against our common enemy—the

  Fire Nation—and not get sidetracked by silly arguments,

  no matter how frustrating some know-it-alls can be!

  Take my sister, for example. She’s a Waterbender.

  And she can be quite a pain sometimes! Just last night,

  I was setting up the tent in our campsite when she basically

  demanded I put the tarp on top of the tent. As if I needed

  her instructions! She has this idea in her head that she knows

  everything. I tried to tell her it was the dry season and we

  wouldn’t need it, but she got mad and then we got into a

  huge fight.

  That’s when Aang came back from gathering dinner.

  When he realized we were fighting, he actually gave some

  pretty good advice. He said that harsh words wouldn’t solve

  problems. Only action could. Then he suggested that we

  switch jobs. We both agreed. I knew I could gather more

  firewood than she could any day. And I couldn’t wait to see

  her try to put up the tent!

  “You see that,” Aang said. “Settling feuds and

  making peace. All in a day’s work for the Avatar.”

  Little did Aang know, he’d soon have a much

  bigger feud to settle.

  The next day we came to the Great Divide, the

  bigg
est canyon in the world. Katara was all impressed.

  Me, I found the whole thing boring. I mean it’s just a

  bunch of rocks! I just wanted to get across the thing,

  and flying over on Appa was the fastest way to do it.

  But then this guy came running up to us; he

  seemed annoyed.

  “If you’re looking for the canyon guide, I was here

  first,” the guy said. “He’s an Earthbender and the

  only way across the canyon is with his help. And he’s

  taking my tribe across the canyon next.”

  “All right, calm down,” I said. Jeez!

  “You wouldn’t be calm if the Fire Nation destroyed

  your home and forced you to flee,” he said. “My

  whole tribe has to walk a thousand miles to the Earth

  capital city of Ba Sing Se.”

  Then Katara spotted a tribe coming toward us.

  “Is that your tribe?” she asked.

  “It most certainly is not!” he replied. He sounded

  really annoyed. “I’m a scout for the Gan Jin tribe.

  That wretched-looking group is the Zhang tribe, a

  bunch of lowlife thieves. They’ve been the enemies of

  my tribe for a hundred years.”

  When the Zhang tribe arrived, they started arguing

  with this guy about who should go across the canyon

  first.

  “Where are the rest of the Gan Jin tribe?” the

  Zhang leader asked. “Still tidying up their campsite?”

  These guys really didn’t like each other. But

  I didn’t see why this was our problem. We had Appa.

  Then the canyon guide showed up, followed by the

  rest of the Gan Jins, and a big argument broke out

  over who should cross the canyon first.

  “We should go first,” the Zhang leader said. “We

  have sick people that need shelter.”

  “We have old people who are weary from traveling,”

  the Gan Jin scout argued. So Aang stepped up to