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

by Nickelodeon

  do his Avatar peacemaking routine. His suggestion

  that the two tribes share the guide and travel across

  together went over like a Fire Nation ship in a Water

  Tribe village.

  “We’d rather be taken by the Fire Nation than

  travel with those stinking thieves,” said the Gan Jin

  leader.

  “We wouldn’t travel with you tyrants anyway!”

  said the Zhang leader.

  Finally Aang got mad. “All right, here’s the deal!”

  he yelled. “You’re all going down together, and Appa,

  my flying bison, will fly all the sick and the elderly

  from both tribes across the canyon. Does that seem

  fair?”

  At first I was impressed by Aang’s skill. But then

  I realized what this meant for me—I was going to

  have to walk across the enormous canyon on foot!

  And then came even more bad news. The guide told

  us that no one could bring any food down into the

  canyon because it would attract dangerous predators.

  Sounded like this was going to be some fun trip!

  We descended into the canyon, following a narrow

  winding ledge that ran along the sheer rock face. When

  we came to a huge gap in the pathway, the guide used

  his Earthbending powers to extend large chunks of

  rock from the canyon wall to complete the missing

  pieces of the path. Later, when a rockslide almost

  buried us, the guide Earthbended the avalanche of

  stones completely away from us. Talk about a handy

  guy to have around when you’re crossing a rock-filled

  canyon! No wonder the tribes didn’t want to cross it

  without him. Finally, we reached the bottom of the

  canyon wall safely. Suddenly a giant monster that

  looked like a cross between a spider and a crocodile

  crawled down the canyon wall and snatched the guide

  in its jaws.

  I immediately grabbed my boomerang and flung it

  at the beast. After all, I am a warrior, and someone had

  to protect our guide. My weapon struck the creature

  right in the eye, forcing it to drop the Earthbender. It

  was an amazing shot! But before I could rejoice in my

  skill, the creature turned

  and charged at me!

  Katara swatted the

  beast with a Waterbending

  move, but it didn’t work.

  The creature turned its

  big ugly mouth toward

  her and snapped. Nobody

  attacks my sister, no

  matter how big of a pain

  she is! As I reached back

  for my boomerang again, Aang leaped in, blowing

  the creature away with an Airbending blast, causing

  it to cower back inside a distant cave.

  “What was that?” Aang asked as we all hurried

  over to the guide.

  “Canyon crawler,” the guide gasped, obviously in

  pain. “And there’s sure to be more.”

  Both of the guide’s arms were broken, and without

  his arms, he couldn’t Earthbend—which meant we

  were trapped in the canyon. I knew coming down here

  on foot was a bad idea! I was really mad. I thought the

  whole point of not bringing any food down here was

  so that we wouldn’t have to deal with creatures like

  that. If I had known other people were bringing food

  down here, I sure would have brought a snack. The

  question was, who was the culprit?

  “It’s the Zhangs!” cried the Gan Jin leader. “They

  brought food with them!”

  “What!” cried the Zhang leader. “If there’s anyone

  who can’t go without food for a day it’s you pampered

  Gan Jins!”

  That’s when the two tribes started arguing again, each

  one saying that they wouldn’t take one more step with

  the other. I thought that Katara and I fought a lot, but

  these guys were ridiculous.

  “Stop!” Aang finally yelled to be heard over all the

  shouting. “I thought I could help you all get along, but

  I see now that that is impossible! We’ll have to split up.

  Gan Jins, you travel on one side of the canyon, Zhangs

  on the other.”

  Then Aang asked me to travel with the Zhangs and

  Katara to travel with the Gan Jins so we could try to find

  out why they hated each other so much. That was fine

  with me, as long as we just kept moving.

  That night, I watched the Zhangs set up their campsite.

  None of them put tarps on the tents. They said they

  didn’t need to because it was the dry season. And they

  told me that they like to use the tarps as blankets. Finally,

  someone who understood me! I really liked these guys.

  And I couldn’t wait to tell Katara that she was totally

  wrong about the whole tarp thing.

  Then, I liked these Zhangs even more when one of

  them pulled out food and offered some to me! Man,

  was it delicious. The Zhang leader told me that the Gan

  Jins thought so poorly of the Zhangs that the Gan Jins

  probably brought food along because they assumed the

  Zhangs would—which is why the Zhangs brought their

  food.

  Whatever, all I know is I was hungry and that roasted

  leg of something or other was really good! Anyway, as

  I munched, the Zhang leader told me why the Zhangs

  hated the Gan Jins so much.

  One hundred years ago, a Zhang named Wei

  Jin was traveling when he saw that a member of the

  Gan Jins named Jin Wei had collapsed just outside

  the village. Jin Wei was carrying an orb, sacred to

  his people, back to their village. Wei Jin stopped to

  help Jin Wei, who told Wei Jin to bring the orb to

  the Gan Jin village. Wei Jin promised to send help

  back for the injured Jin Wei. But as soon as Wei Jin

  crossed the border into Gan Jin territory, instead of

  thanking him for delivering their sacred orb, the Gan

  Jins threw him into jail for twenty years! The Zhangs

  never forgave the Gan Jins for this great injustice.

  No wonder the Zhangs hated those Gan Jins. What

  an awful thing to do. I’d be pretty mad too if they

  did that to one of my fellow Water Tribe warriors.

  Besides, they gave me food, so how bad could they

  be?

  The next morning the Zhangs and the Gan Jins

  met near a tall rock.

  “Sokka, Katara, will these people cooperate long

  enough to get out of the canyon?” Aang asked us.

  “I don’t think so, Aang,” Katara said. “The Zhangs

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  named Wei Jin ambushed and attacked a Gan Jin

  named Jin Wei just to steal the Gan Jins’ sacred orb.”

  I was shocked. How could Katara believe such an

  obvious lie! I tried to explain that Wei Jin was just

  trying to return the sacred orb to the Gan Jins but as

  usual, my sister wouldn’t listen to me. She had made

  up her stubborn mind and that was that.

  And we weren’t the only ones arguing. The Zhangs

  and Gan Jins began shouting at each other again.

  Then they drew their weapons and began fighting.

  Suddenly Aang broke up the fighting with a huge

  Airbending move that flung the two leaders back to

  their sides of the canyon and forced the food they had

  smuggled in to fall to the ground. Aang was furious

  about the food, but he didn’t have much time to yell

  before a whole bunch of canyon crawlers showed up!

  Katara took my hand. “Sokka,” she said, “I don’t

  care about this stupid feud. I just want us to get out

  of here alive!”

  “Me too. I only took their side ’cause they fed

  me,” I admitted.

  There were times when I was really glad that

  Katara was my sister. I knew deep down she cared

  more about me than about being right. I half expected

  a comment from her about me thinking with my

  stomach and not my head, but she didn’t say a word.

  We just ran for it.

  We battled the canyon crawlers the best we could,

  but it seemed hopeless. There was no way we could

  beat them—but Aang came up with a plan so we

  didn’t have to.

  Aang jumped onto a crawler’s back, then guided

  it over to where the food had fallen. He scooped up

  the food and wrapped it in a sack, which he tied to a

  stick. Then he dangled the food in front of a crawler.

  When it stuck its head out to grab the food, Aang

  covered its mouth with one of the empty sacks that

  the food was in. Everyone else did the same thing.

  Then we pointed our sticks up the canyon wall. The

  crawlers chased the food right up the wall, carrying all

  of us on their backs!

  I have to admit I was pretty creeped out riding on

  the back of that thing, but as long as I dangled food

  in front of its nose it didn’t seem to be interested in

  me at all.

  When we reached the top, Aang shouted for

  everyone to jump off and toss their food over the

  cliff, back down into the canyon, where the crawlers

  followed it.

  “I never thought that a Gan Jin could get his hands

  dirty like that,” the Zhang leader remarked.

  “And I never thought you Zhangs were so reliable

  in a pinch,” the Gan Jin leader said.

  “Perhaps we’re not so different after all,” the

  Zhang leader commented.

  “Too bad we can’t rewrite history,” the Gan Jin

  leader said. “You thieves stole our sacred orb from Jin

  Wei.”

  “You tyrants unjustly imprisoned Wei Jin!”

  the Zhang leader cried, yanking his hand free and

  grabbing his sword.

  “Wait a second,” Aang said, stepping in between

  the two leaders. “Jin Wei, Wei Jin? I know those guys,”

  Aang said. “I might not look it, but I’m one hundred

  and twelve years old. I was there one hundred years

  ago on the day you are talking about. There seems to

  be a lot of confusion about what happened. First of

  all, Jin Wei and Wei Jin weren’t enemies, they were

  brothers—twins, in fact. And they were eight. And

  most importantly,

  they were just

  playing a game.

  The sacred orb

  from the legend?

  That was the ball.

  And the Eastern and

  Western gates, those

  were the goal posts.

  Jin Wei had the ball and was running to score a goal

  when he fell down and fumbled it. Wei Jin picked

  it up and started running toward the other goal, but

  he stepped out of bounds. So the official put him

  in the penalty box for two minutes, not in jail for

  twenty years. Don’t get me wrong, Wei Jin was kind

  of a slob, and Jin Wei was a little bit stuffy, but they

  respected each other’s differences enough to share the

  same playing field.”

  “I suppose it’s time we forget the past,” the leader

  of the Zhangs declared.

  “And look toward the future,” the leader of the

  Gan Jins added with a bow.

  “Then let us travel to the Earth Kingdom capital

  together, as one tribe!” the Zhang leader declared, as

  they set off toward the capital.

  “That was some luck that you knew Jin Wei and

  Wei Jin,” I said.

  “You could call it luck, or you could call it lying!”

  Aang said. “I made the whole thing up!”

  Katara and I were shocked! But I have to admit,

  I was really impressed with Aang. He really was a

  great peacemaker. Even if it took a little white lie to

  make the peace, it was still a great strategy. Hmm .

  . . I wonder if he’s ever duped me and Katara into

  forgiving one another with a made-up story like that?

  No way, he could never dupe me! Anyway, from now

  on I’m definitely going to make a point of not fighting

  so much over stupid things—I mean, if we spend our

  energy fighting against each other, how will we have

  the strength to fight the real enemy?

  Zhangs, and the Great Divide, the largest canyon in

  the world.

  Some people have said that the canyon is the

  result of millions of years of erosion, but local belief

  teaches that the canyon was carved into the ground

  by Earth spirits who were angry with local farmers for

 
not offering them proper sacrifices. The narrow path

  along the sheer canyon wall offers the only way down.

  Fraught with carnivorous creatures and missing

  sections of walls, the canyon is extremely dangerous

  and should not be crossed without the aid of the

  Earthbender guide. He is the only one who knows

  the secrets of the canyon and can re-create missing

  sections of the trail to allow people to cross otherwise

  perilous paths.

  The Gan Jins have always been better

  educated, dressed, and mannered, as

  well as cleaner, than their enemy

  tribe. For hundreds of years,

  they performed a sacred ritual

  known as the Redemption

  ritual, during which their

  sacred orb was carried from

  the Great Eastern Gate to

  the Great Western Gate, a

  journey that simulated the

  rising and setting of the sun.

  It was thought that this ritual purified the

  Gan Jins’ connection to the spirits.

  Ever since the disappearance of their orb at the

  hands of a Zhang, or so they thought, they have

  considered the Zhangs to be dirty, lazy, slovenly people

  lacking in self-respect.

  THE GAN JINS

  THE GAN JINS AND THE ZHANGS

  THE WESTERN GATE

  The origins of the sacred orb are

  unknown. With each passing year,

  the story of the missing orb becomes

  more and more blurred. It has been

  discussed that the orb may not have

  existed at all, or that if it did, it was

  just a simple toy for children.

  THE GAN JI

  NS’

  SACRED ORB

  Historically, the Zhang tribe is known as a sloppy

  and unrefined people. Much of this is due to their wild

  professions as outdoorsmen and hunters. However, in

  modern days the Zhangs have been involved in many

  other industries as well. Since the feud began, the

  Zhangs have viewed the Gan Jins as a stuffy, overly