Wow, it's been a while since I updated. Hopefully that won't happen again... Eh, who am I kidding? Real life happens. .

I had the pleasure of having TWO betas proofread this for me. Many thanks to torikkusuta and stingrae90! (Stingrae, btw, has a very nice fic featuring Aang and Kuzon's friendship, too. You should check it out if you're into that sort of thing...which you probably are if you're reading this fic. It's called Letters from the Past, and it's in my favorites.)

Disclaimer: Avatar isn't mine.

Chapter 5: Of Books and Boarcupines

The Air Nomads had a term that they used to describe people who lived in one place all their life instead of constantly migrating on flying bison like normal people. That term was "settled", and while the Nomads never used it in a rude or jeering matter, there was always a little light in their eyes when they said it, as though they knew some great thing that those unfortunate souls stuck on the ground would never understand. Of course, they probably did. Air Nomads were an eccentric bunch, though, so most said unfortunate souls just ignored their antics, especially citizens of the Earth Kingdom, who'd long ago decided that their elemental opposites were crazy.

Gyatso would never admit it, but there were times when he actually envied people who were settled. Now was one of those times, as he reclined in a chair on the porch and read a book. The children had gone for a long walk through the island meadow, and Gyatso was using the time to relax, enjoy the silence, and read. Kuzon's family didn't keep many books here at their vacation home, but there was a decent-sized shelf filled with them. The books were nothing terribly deep--most held Fire Nation myths and light-hearted stories, the types of things you'd read for fun out loud around the campfire. Gyatso didn't mind, though, because he loved books and that shelf held more of them than he'd ever owned. He loved the life of a nomad, but it didn't allow for many material possessions.

Not that he really had any need for material possessions, of course. They were unnecessary, and often got in the way of what was really important in life, and were not conducive to proper spiritual peace and health.

That didn't stop him from loving books, though. They were such delightful things. What a pity he'd never be able to collect them. He'd seen a library once, at the University of Ba Sing Se, when he was a much younger man. He'd been quite impressed. All those shelves, filled to the brim with books and scrolls. It was the only thing about the city he'd actually enjoyed. (The caste system had been absolutely aggravating. And he'd caught those Dai Li agents watching him every now and again as he perused the library and the museums. He understood that they were only protecting their cultural heritage, but honestly, just because he was from their opposite element didn't mean he'd taint their civilization by breathing on ancient paper and pottery shards.)

He thought about returning to the place, just to see the books again, but shook the thought away. He didn't feel like exposing Aang to that sort of thing, not at this young age. Maybe he could find some sort of library in Crater City--he did intend to stop there at some point during the summer, after all. He had some acquaintances among the Fire Sages he wanted to see again, and the capital city was a sight to see. Perhaps they could stop for a few days en route to Ember Island. (Even when visiting friends in other countries, Air Nomads felt the need to keep moving.) There was bound to be a library in the capital. Probably a good number of book shops. Gyatso idly wondered how much a book actually cost. Not needing to buy material possessions aside from the occasional supply run, he had no idea how much some things were actually worth.

Gyatso sighed and stared down at the page he was on, not really reading the glyphs. I am never going to reach enlightenment, am I? he thought. Not that he really cared. Gyatso had reached his own sort of enlightenment long ago. He couldn't ever explain it to his fellow monks, unfortunately, as it involved a number of earthly attachments, Aang and books being two of them, and it would probably result in his getting kicked off the Council. Not to mention the fact that Dhargey would wring his neck (though Dhargey was always looking for an excuse to do that, anyway). Gyatso didn't care much for the Council's outlook on most things, but he certainly didn't want to get kicked off. They needed someone of his character on it, after all, or else things would quickly become rigid and stale.

Gyatso shook himself out of his reverie and went back to reading his book. He quickly became engrossed in an old Sun Warrior legend of the rain spirit Chalchihuitlicue, and the flood she brought upon the world, and so didn't hear the screaming until Aang and Zeph were upon him.

"MONK GYATSO! MONK GYATSO!"

He jerked in his seat and looked up to see the Airbender children flying out of the sky on their gliders, diving toward the ground as fast as they could. Aang managed a good landing, but Zeph hit the ground hard and barreled into Appa, who lowed in annoyance before going back to chewing on grass. The girl didn't seem to notice, as she simply picked herself up and dashed to the porch with Aang.

"What on earth is the matter?" the old monk asked, briefly mourning the end of his relaxation as he placed a marker in his book. The children started babbling a mile a minute.

"It was BIG, and BLACK AND BROWN, and there were all these SPIKES--"

"The koala sheep ran too fast, so it decided to go for us instead--"

"And it had all these teeth, and it was snarling! That was one nasty--uh, what did you say it was, Zeph?"

"A boarcupine!"

"Yeah! That was one nasty boarcupine!"

Gyatso felt a ball of dread drop to the bottom of his stomach. The children prattled on.

"And Aang and I flew out of the way on our gliders, but Kuzon and Bumi can't fly--"

"Kuzon was screaming like a girl, really--"

"He did not!"

"He did too!"

"I screamed like a girl, too!"

"Zeph, you are a girl!"

"Children," Gyatso interrupted, his words slow and measured, "where are Kuzon and Bumi?" Forget wringing his neck--Dhargey was going to abandon pacifism and outright kill him for this. The last thing he needed was a double international incident on his hands because the sons of an Earth nobleman and a Fire Army officer died while their Air Nomad friends flew away.

"Well, while Kuzon was screaming like a girl--"

"He does not!"

"--Bumi bended a giant wall of earth in front of them."

Gyatso decided it was still too early to sigh in relief. "And then?"

"Well, the boarcupine tried to go around the wall, so Bumi bended even more earth."

Gyatso groaned. At least the boys didn't seem to be dead. "You're saying they're completely encircled by a wall of earth?"

Aang fidgeted. "Well, not exactly..."

"And what does that mean?"

"The boarcupine tried to climb up the wall," Zeph explained. "So Bumi added a roof. They're stuck inside a giant dome of dirt. And the boarcupine's trying to dig through. They can be pretty territorial, you know."

Gyatso put a hand to his face and drew in a deep breath. It could be worse, he told himself. It could always be much, much worse than this.

"It can't get much worse than this," Kuzon declared, staring at the flame in his palm.

"Yep," Bumi sighed, leaning against the earth wall and steadfastly ignoring the sounds of digging and snarling from the ravenous beast outside.

"How long do you think it'll take Aang and Zeph to get help?"

"Those two airheads? Who knows? Besides, they didn't specifically say they were going for help. They just sorta...flew off."

"Good point. They'll probably end up distracted by more koala sheep. Nice of them to just fly off leave and us here. They could've tried blasting the boarcupine with air--worked well enough with us."

"Typical Airbender reaction," Bumi grumbled. "Avoid and evade." Kuzon nodded sagely.

"Oh, by the way," the Firebender said, "you'd better make some sort of airhole up in the ceiling if you want me to keep the light going."

"Why?"

"Fire needs air to live."

Bumi felt his eyes boggle. "Fire eats air?"

"...Sure, I guess you could put it that way."

"That's really weird," Bumi grunted, eyeing the ceiling. He made a punching motion, creating a small hole only a few inches across to let the air in.

"It doesn't really eat air, you rockhead."

"I suppose it drinks it, then."

"No."

Had a lot of fun with this one! Gyatso's a neat guy to write for. He comes across as being quite different from his fellow monks, so I tried to explore that angle a bit. Hopefully I didn't fail completely. XD (My beta Tori, btw, commented that he reminded her a lot of Qui-Gon Jinn here. I didn't even notice while I was writing, but it makes perfect sense!)

Dhargey—Tibetan, pronounced dar-djay, "progress, development". He's the harsh old monk who wants to intensify Aang's training during the flashbacks in The Storm. Why yes, I do adore giving names and personalities to random background characters, thank you very much.

Chalchihuitlicue—Aztec goddess of rain, lakes, streams, rivers, and flowing water in general. While I usually try to stick to Asian myths when working with the Avatar-verse's religious aspects, I decided to use an Aztec deity for two reasons here. 1) I couldn't find a female Asian rain deity (and I wanted her female for a reason I'll hopefully explore in another fanfic I mean to write). 2) The Sun Warriors are based on ancient Central American civilizations, so I figured it'd be neat to do something with them. Of course, she's rain, they worship the sun…but whatever. That and I like her name, though I can't pronounce it.

Keep in mind that the Dai Li mentioned here are not Long Feng's Dai Li. These are the guys who did nothing other than guard their Cultural Heritage™, no brainwashing involved. Personally, I think it's a little nutty to create a military-like organization devoted to protecting history and culture, but whatever. I figure they maintained museums, libraries, and historic sites, were huge history buffs, and took their jobs very, very seriously, despite how weird said jobs were.

"Fire eats air." Oh, Bumi, if only you knew the terrible genocide you just foreshadowed…

Hope you enjoyed reading! Reviews are, as always, appreciated. ^_^