An Innocent Spark [Zukka]

Chapter 37: The Sleeping Giant

The group did not bother stopping at the palace, opting to go straight to where the fire sage temple was located. The temple was built atop a large mountain that had once been home to one of the most powerful volcanoes in the Fire Nation. The sages believed building a temple at such a sight would give them a greater connection to the element of fire, though Zuko doubted the validity of such a belief.

The clouds gave way as Appa ascended, revealing the peak of the mountain looming ominously above. As Appa flew higher, Zuko's worst fear became a reality.

"That's not right..." he whispered and gripped the rim of Appa's saddle tightly as he leaned over to get a better view. "The temple should be right here, but there's... nothing."

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Aang asked, steering Appa around to make another pass over the site.

"Without a doubt in my mind," Zuko said. The temple had been built into the side of the mountain, and the outline of the building was still visible from above.

"I'm going to land Appa so we can take a closer look," Aang said. Appa landed on the ground with an audible grunt. The friends climbed down off of the flying bison and Toph exclaimed, "Finally, some solid ground under my feet!"

"We should split up and search for any clues as to what happened here," Zuko said and the others agreed.

"I'm going with Zuko!" Toph said and ran over to the firebender. Everyone gave her a strange look and Sokka objected and said, "Hey! He's my boyfriend."

"Exactly," Toph said and pointed at Sokka, "you get to be with him all the time. I still never got my life changing field trip with Zuko."

"You can come with us," Katara said and dragged Sokka away by the arm. Zuko laughed and him and Toph headed off towards the northern slope of the mountain.

"The ground feels strange here," Toph said and rubbed the soles of her feet into the volcanic soil, "almost like the soil was deposited here recently."

"This volcano hasn't erupted in hundreds of years, and if it had we would have known," Zuko said and kicked around at the soil, making note of how loose it was.

Toph stopped and stomped her foot into the ground. He was wondering what was going through her brain, more specifically, what she was seeing in the ground. She did this one more time, this time turning the loose soil beneath them into solid rock.

"The temple is beneath us," Toph said with a flat and serious tone.

"What do you mean it's beneath us?" Zuko asked.

"I mean the entire temple appears to have somehow completely sunk into the mountainside," Toph clarified.

"Can you tell if anyone is trapped inside?" Zuko asked, worried the fire sages and their students may have been engulfed with the temple.

"I might be the greatest earthbender in the world, but even I have my limits," Toph said. Zuko remembered humility was never exactly her strongest trait.

"Twinkletoes get over here I need your help!" Toph shouted down the mountainside to the avatar.

Their friends climbed up the unstable slope to get to their friends. Toph began to dig a hole in the ground beneath them, and Aang joined in, carving out a tunnel for the group to get to the temple below.

"What are we digging towards?" Aang asked as the two moved two large slabs of stone out of their way in front of them.

"The temple is buried beneath us, we need to reach it so we can search for the fire sages," Toph explained.

Zuko lit a small fire in his hand to illuminate the path for them. He never thought he would travel down into a volcano, let alone one of the largest and most dangerous ones in the Fire Nation.

"The temple seems to be located in a large cavern near the center of the mountain," Toph explained.

"That's just great," Sokka said sarcastically, "we're travelling down into an ancient volcano that hasn't had an eruption in hundreds of years, and now you tell us where we're headed is towards a huge cavern in the center of it? Can we just go back and say we couldn't find anything?"

Zuko gave Sokka an angry glare and the water tribe boy frowned and started walking again.

"Is it just me or is getting a little hot down here?" Katara asked and used waterbending to remove the sweat from her forehead.

"It's official, Toph is trying to kill us," Sokka said and wiped the sweat off of his forehead.

"I'm only doing this because sparky is back to wanting to restore his honor by finding these fire worshippers," Toph said and Zuko could imagine if she could, she would roll her eyes.

"I am not," Zuko said, offended by the earthbender's joke. "I just want to find the fire sages and figure out what happened here. A temple doesn't just randomly sink into a volcano, something else is going on here."

"Whatever you say your sparkyness," Toph said and laughed, Katara and Aang laughed a little too.

"We're almost there," Aang said.

"Whoa are you getting Toph's special earthy senses?" Sokka asked and poked the avatar a few times.

"No, it's just getting easier to move these rocks, meaning there's less pressure on them up ahead," Aang said. Sure enough the next chunk of stone they moved opened up into a very hot and bright cavern.

A large lava lake encompassed the ground of the cavern, and at the center stood the fire temple, completely intact. The five friends looked at each other in shock, and Sokka said unenthusiastically, "It just had to be in the middle of a giant pit of lava didn't it?"