Book 1: Magic
Chapter 3: Ruins in the Cavern
Korra was having one of the hardest training session of her life. Including her limited air bending training before she was transported to this strange world, Korra couldn't remember a single spar coming close to the sheer power and skill Gohan displayed with every offensive and defensive technique. She is a bit jealous, but yet it excited her at the same time to know that she could spar with someone on par with her abilities as the Avatar.
The Avatar ducked, narrowly dodging Gohan's kick. She thrusted her hand forward, fire appearing around it, toward Gohan's abdomen. But the half saiyan jumped back from her attack causing her to miss. Korra frowned a bit at the speed Gohan had at his disposal that made most of her attacks for naught. Suddenly, Naruto jumped over her head with half a dozen clones following him, all charging at Gohan with those black knives of his.
"How many of those knives do you have!?" Gohan yelled at Naruto.
"They're kunai, and I got plenty!" Naruto yelled back, the clones and Naruto attacked Gohan with many slices from their kunai. Gohan brought out his sword, blocking the many kunai strikes with more speed than skill. However, lack of experience with a sword soon caught up with him and even through his saiyan skin is tough, the many slices proved to make some cuts.
Korra decided not to stand there and quickly made her way closer to the lake, once there her fluid motions of water bending allowed her to rise the water from the lake. With quick thinking, she separated the water into many droplets before sending them at Gohan. Knowing well that water droplets wouldn't do much to Gohan, she then froze the rushing droplets into needles of ice.
With Gohan's back turned from Korra's attack, Naruto saw the needles coming in at high speeds, and jumped from Gohan at the last possible second. Gohan only had that second to wonder what Naruto was jumping away for, before he was stricken with many ice attacks from behind. He fell to the ground in pain.
Korra's eyes widened as she didn't expect them to actually pierce into Gohan's skin. She and Naruto rushed to Gohan's side.
"I'm sorry, I got carried away! You alright?" Korra questioned.
A stomach growled from Gohan's direction. "Yeah... My back hurts and I'm hungry, um... Do me a favor and take any needles out?"
Korra looked over Gohan's back to see that only a couple needles managed to stick into the half saiyan's back, while the rest were shattered across the dirt.
Naruto then commented. "Ouch... Um, I'm not good with needles... Korra are you?"
"Yeah, I have some knowledge." She replied, grasping onto a needle and pulling it out gradually.
Gohan nodded. "That's good, just keep doing it like that."
Korra pulled out the other five needles before sighing in relief that she did it all correctly. Then she saw a tiny bit blood at the needle tips and looked at Gohan before asking.
"Do you want to me to heal you? I've learned healing from my water bending teacher Katara." Korra said.
Gohan replied, "Really? That's useful! Do please go ahead."
"Awesome, then we can eat afterward! I'll go search for some food in the forest." Naruto said, before heading off, his clones that were training before on Chakra control dispelled, giving him the experience of tree climbing.
Korra grabbed a bucket, that she had borrowed from Fairy village, of clear water from the stream going into the lake, she brought it to Gohan and then bended some water onto his back, his shirt already removed. She noticed some of the holes from the needles were already beginning to heal over.
"You heal fast." Korra complimented, the water glowed white as it healed all of Gohan's injuries.
"I know, thanks." Gohan replied, watching in fascination at the speed of which Korra healed his minor wounds. Through not close to the recovery rate of the Senzu beans or Dende's own healing abilities, it was quite impressive to see powers used in the art of rejuvenation. Korra ended her healing in only a few seconds later, already finished.
"No problem. " Korra then punched Gohan's shoulder in a friendly matter. "But next time try to dodge it!"
Gohan grinned, before nodding at Korra.
*pluck*
Naruto plucked some bananas off the tree to bring back, he had gathered some berries but was unsure if they were edible for human consumption. He jumped down the tree, his feet covered with Chakra as he landed on the ground safely.
'Monkey plucking bananas like it's suppose to?' A deep dark chuckle resounded throughout Naruto's mind.
Naruto frowned mentally, 'Shut up fuzz ball.' He thought back.
'You brat! I am Kyuubi, greatest of the tailed beasts! Once I'm free of this accursed seal I will rip your soul to shreds and destroy Kohona! I'll take pleasure in killing your friends off slowly!' The Kyuubi yelled at Naruto.
'Yeah sure you will.' Naruto replied unconvinced.
'You rotten, weak, insufferable little-' Naruto cut the mental link to his tenant.
Naruto returned to his teammates location, a fire had been lit by Korra and some more fish had been gathered by Gohan. Jaina was craving some sticks to use as utensils with a knife.
"Hey, got some food." Naruto said, placing the items he gathered onto the fallen log.
"Awesome, Jaina how are those utensils?" Gohan asked.
"Hn, they're ready." The Dragon Knight replied, giving the utensils to Gohan.
Naruto took one and placed it into a fish's mouth, which he then stuck into the ground next to the fire so it can cook gradually. He looked over at his teammates, who were doing the same thing. He reviewed over them in his thoughts.
First, Gohan, Naruto liked him, he was quite cooperative and friendly. He was also willing to help out and the spar from before showed him how much strength he had, which he had plenty of, probably close to high level chunin. Naruto thought Gohan would've been a great Shinobi for Kohona if he was born there. Gohan had a kekkei genkai as well, the Oozaru limit as he called it. What it meant or did besides conserve energy, Naruto didn't know.
Next was Korra, another teammate of this group, she was competitive but friendly as well. Through Naruto guessed she thought himself a bit of a idiot, he was used to it. Naruto had to admit, her bending was very interesting, and she didn't appear to wear down from using it continuously like Chakra did.
Lastly is Jaina, she reminded him of Sasuke, personality-wise. She didn't seem interested or driven to help the group in... Whatever they were summoned here for. She's only shown the ability to use kenjutsu, or swordsmanship, in her fighting skills. Jaina claimed to do magic however, and Naruto didn't doubt her. Naruto hoped she would get to contribute to the team more then just grudgingly doing so.
Naruto took his now cooked fish, some fruit, and some fresh water and started eating, seeing the others do the same. After a few minutes when everyone's stomachs were satisfied, Jaina spoke up.
"Let's review over our current objective since we are all here." She then continued, "We are to head toward the Fairy capital where we will request audience with the authorities to gain knowledge on what's going on in this world, and if we can be returned to our own individual ones... Anyone disagree with this plan?" Neither Naruto, nor anyone else said anything. "Alright, we should have a supply check to see what we have. Gohan, what do you have on person?" She asked.
Gohan reached behind his waist and pulled out a small brown bag, he untied the string and looked into it.
"I have a dozen Senzu beans, and my sword. But that's about all." Gohan said.
Jaina shot a curious glance at the half saiyan. "Senzu beans?"
"Oh, sorry! Forgot you guys didn't know about them." Gohan paused for a second, thinking of a way to explain it. "Senzu beans are magical beans, they can fill you for both your food and water needs for fourteen days, restore all wounds no matter how severe in seconds, and also they taste like fish." He explained. "Oh, to give you guys fair warning. Senzu beans do not cure illness or disease, and take at least seven seconds to take full effect. Basically, don't get hit before the seconds are up."
Everyone blinked around Gohan, before Korra spoke up.
"Wow, just... Those sound really useful." She said, not having any other words for it.
Naruto only nodded. "What Sakura would've given to get one of those beans and make a garden of them."
"I agree, you should save those for dire situations." Jaina said. Gohan nodded and tied up the sack before replacing it back on his waist.
Jaina looked toward Naruto and asked of the ninja. "Alright... Naruto, what do you have?"
Naruto opened his pouch and examined the items within, the ninja was glad he had restocked before going to eat ramen back at Kohona. "Two sets of kunai, a set of shuriken, enough explosion tags to level a small village, and a small container of military ration and blood pills." 'And what remains of granny Tsunada's necklace.' Naruto mentally added. "Blood pills replenish blood supply while rations replenishes Chakra, which I only have use for."
"The rest are self-explanatory from the spar and battle earlier." Jaina noted.
Everyone looked toward Korra.
"I don't have anything of value." She said, shrugging her shoulders.
*Crack*
"What was that?" Naruto questioned.
*Crrrrumph!"
Suddenly, the ground collapsed beneath the group, sending the four heroes plummeting down a hole in the earth as it shook apart and reshifted, closing the crack that formed and sucked in the heroes with tons of rock.
Tumbling down the tunnel of rock and dirt, deeper and deeper into Equis, our four heroes finally crashed into what appeared to be the floor of a giant cavern. A minor earthquake continued to happen, dropped down rocks and collapsing the passageway that brought them here.
Gohan looked up to see the sunlight blocked as the exit filled with boulders of many sizes. It wasn't that Gohan couldn't easily burst his way out of the blocked tunnel, the problem resided in getting out without hurting, or killing, his fellow companions. Gohan's expertise in knowledge and study of the geographical layout of this cavern that his group fell into, revealed that the rocks were unstable, if something or someone tried to dig and break their way out of cavern the whole thing would collapsed onto them.
Gohan knew he could survive, but doubt filled his mind when he looked to his now standing friends.
"No problem, I'll just earth bend us out of here!" The Avatar, Korra, said with confidence.
She threw her fist upward like a punch, and the rocks started moving, however the instability of the earth around them reacted. Gohan, thanks to his enhanced saiyan senses, managed to see Korra react in a quick and precise manner as she moved her feet a bit to the right and her right arm shot forward, stopping the falling rocks from crushing both herself and Naruto and allowed the two to move out of the way.
"Don't do any earth bending, the cavern cannot handle pressure from anything without trying to crush us in here." Gohan explained.
"Yeah, figured as much when I felt the earth around me." Korra said, looking toward Naruto. "You okay?"
"I'm fine! No few pebbles going to knock me down!" Naruto boasted.
"Here we go." Jaina suddenly spoke, and came forth from the darkness with a unlighted torch. "You, Korra is it? Light this torch." She demanded of the Avatar.
Korra begrudgingly burst forth a bit of fire, lighting the torch up and the surrounding area. The Avatar then held her hand upward, and conjured forth a nicely sized flame, helping the torch push away the darkness so the group can see.
Jaina turned around, and started heading down the cavern. She only took a slight glance at the group's direction and said. "Let's go, I found the entrance to some ruins just right ahead of us. Korra, stay in the middle of the group to help provide a light source." Jaina switched torch hands and put the torch in her left hand.
"There was no need for a torch you know..." Korra said, raising her hand which held the flame in her palm to show her reasoning.
"Hn." Jaina made a annoying reply.
"Ugh, I hate that reply!" Naruto complained "Don't worry about her Korra, she's just one of those-"
"I can do what I want because it's the better method than yours no matter what you say?" Gohan answered.
Naruto pointed at Gohan as he looked at Korra. "Exactly!"
Korra giggled slightly at the comedic way in which both the boys tried to comfort her. The group followed the 'leader' Jaina through the caverns tunnel and came upon a mysterious entrance made of brown and green stones engraved with artistic lines that swirled lively throughout the architecture. A somehow unrusted small iron gate block the group from entering the unexplored ruins.
'Like that is going to stop us.' Gohan thought as he watched Jaina look around before pulling a chain that opened the iron gate. Allowing passage to the ruins of whatever made the place. As the heroes passed through the gateway, they were greeted by a sight to behold.
All around them, like magic, small yet perfectly placed stone lanterns lit up with burnt orange colored fires. Revealing the entirety of the ruins consisting of beautifully painted or engraved pictures on the walls that stretched all around the cylinder shaped roof. The roof had an ancient feeling, everything had that feeling, of being in a building with a story to tell.
The whole ruined room was made of green stone, probably from the moss and age the craftsmanship had endured over the centuries, the center was a huge circular floor with six strange symbols, each having some sort of word underneath it's symbol. The first symbol looked like a miniature butterfly, colored in pink. Next symbol shape is an orange painted apple, following that icon is three cyan colored gems. The fourth symbol gave the appearance of lightning, colored in a red hue. The last being a balloon, while in the middle of all five symbols, is a purplish star surrounded by other mini stars.
The exit out of the room was a strange door seemingly made of obsidian, no handle nor any switch could be found near it.
"Where are we?" Korra questioned, looking all around at the many depictions of long lost stories painted along the ceiling.
"Ruins, hundreds, or thousands of years old." Jaina answered, walking to the middle of room and glancing at the floor artwork. The Dragon Knight looked upward at the pictures, rolling her eyes along the images from left to right, then right to left, turning around to be able to see it all.
"I've never seen some place like this ever before." Naruto commented, his sight following along the flames of the stone lanterns
"This looks amazing, it's like we're in a adventuring novel." Gohan said looking around in awe. "What're suppose these pictures are telling us?"
Jaina replied. "Well, the first picture is definitely human. So it's safe to say humans have been in this world in the past. When you look at the next, it's a group of humans seeming to channel magic into the center of the room. The next picture indicated the symbols that are on the floor, so the ancient humans probably created those relics here." She pointed toward a picture. "Those images seem to show what each individual relic means."
The stone sketches varied from each other, some clearer to pick off than others. The balloon one easily indicated Laughter from the characters on the picture expressions. Another seemed to be a person helping nurse others to health, Kindness seemed the most likely meaning. Following it was several miniature events of a person being by another person's side, even in the face of death, Loyalty perhaps? Yet another one seemed to easily indicate Generosity with the giving of gifts. The last one seemed to be some sort of talk, then following through, Honesty seemed most likely with all the others being similar. The purple star was painfully obviously Magic.
"Laughter, Kindness, Loyalty, Honesty, Generosity, Honesty, and then Magic? What is this, some sort of review on positive sentient traits?" Jaina said.
The other three hero kids looked at Jaina in mild surprise.
"Did you just make a joke?" Naruto questioned in disbelief.
"Oh ha ha." Jaina replied to his disbelief.
Gohan and Korra snicker in amusement at the joking manner of Naruto's question to Jaina's own.
"We should continue." Gohan advised, "The Darkness won't stand idle as we explore here." He continued, reminding the group of their newest foe.
"He's correct, search out for a lever or hidden button." Jaina said.
Korra rolled her eyes, and put a bit of pressure in her right foot, feeling the ground around them. She closed her eyes as she sensed the earth's vibrations, and behold a small tile just next to her, shaped as one of the miniature stars of the Element of Magic happened to be the switch.
She pressed her left foot down onto the star picture, and felt the tile slide downward slightly. A small rumbling and the obsidian doorway blocking a long pitch black hallway opened up. Then the sound of a spark of electricity burnt out, all the magical fires disappeared, leaving the pre-teen heroes in the dark.
Before the group could manage to create a light source for themselves, above the newly revealed hallway, crystals shone brightly blue, lighting the way down the hallway. The group joined back up and journeyed through the hallway.
Jaina Draconis, Dragon Knight of Rivellon, ruler of the Battle Tower, and other assorted titles from her feats in the past entered the newest room with the rest of the group. The room, appeared to be a library. However the library's age worn down upon many of the scrolls, tomes, books, and other assorted literature. And shelves upon shelves were cracked, fallen apart, or simply destroyed.
She picked up a book, and found the pages rubbed down, purposely destroyed. "Such a waste of knowledge for it to get destroyed." She placed the book into a shelf. Before starting to walk through the library, looking for undamaged books.
Naruto absently passed through the many tomes, books, and other pieces. 'Not really a fan of reading... ' He thought as a excuse.
Jaina pushed aside broken wooden planks before coming across a glass case with four items in it, all undamaged and perfectly preserved. Two were scrolls, from the size of the rolls they contained a fair amount of illustration, another was a tome, probably a spell book to aid her skills. The last, a small notebook, most likely an journal.
Jaina pulled a small knife from a sheath hidden behind her back waist. The dragon knight pricked the edge of the case with the knife before prying it open professionally. Reaching into the case and pulling out one of the scrolls, she untied the knot keeping it rolled together and opened it up. Her assumptions were correct, the scroll showed illustrations of techniques, however they seemed to be focused on hand signs and manipulation of Naruto's energy called Chakra.
Rolling the scroll back up, she grasped the spell tome and placed it into one of her enchanted bagging, a bag she had enchanted in her time as a Dragon Slayer to hold items far effectively then a mere chest. Jaina then called to her acquaintance party members. "Over here, I have items that might spark your interest."
Gohan, Naruto, and Korra, traversed through the ruined library and came across Jaina and the glass case. Jaina handed the scroll she carried to the Shinobi Naruto, who unrolled it. Naruto's eyes widened at the techniques displayed in this scroll.
"This is a ninjutsu scroll! Wind techniques and lightning techniques!" Naruto said in amazement, and some excitement at the possibilities of learning more jutsu. "Some of these techniques I've never heard or seen before... " He said, looking through the scroll.
Jaina passed a scroll to Korra, the one with a green swirl on it. Korra opened the scroll, and she looked in surprise at the teachings within.
"This is a air bending scroll." She glanced at all the forms, "Wow, can't wait to try that out."
Gohan grasped the journal, he flipped through the pages, gathering glimpses of the contents within. He closed the book, confusion apparent in his face at the what appeared to be a journal written about Ki energy.
"What kind of library are we in?" Gohan questioned.
"These ancient humans seemed to have collected knowledge from other dimensions, pity that most of it was destroyed." Jaina eyes found a exit leading to the surface. "Come, the exit lies just ahead."
Korra, the Avatar, noticed how everything around her seemed to slow down. Suddenly she felt her world twist and turn into a different setting.
Aang, Katara, Sokka, and the Professor along with Momo, looked onto the great knowledge spirit. The spirit was three men tall, with black feathers running along it's body, his face was made of white feathers and his eyes were pitch black with no irises. They walked toward the spirit owl, Sokka speaking up.
"Are you the spirit that brought this library to the physical world?" The non-bender, Sokka, asked.
"Indeed, I am Wan Shi Tong. He who knows ten thousand things, and you are obviously humans which by the way are no longer permitted in my study." The owl said with utmost authority.
Aang looked up to Wan Shi Tong and asked. "What do you have against humans?"
"Hmmpfh, Humans only bother learning other things to get the edge on other humans, like that fire bender who came to this place years ago, looking to destroy his enemy." Wan Shi Tong necked stretched outward right to Sokka's figure. "So, who are you trying to destroy?" He questioned, a slight tint of anger in his tone.
"W-What? No, no, no, we're not trying to destroy, we're not into that!" Sokka lied, shaking his hands in false innocence.
"Then why have you come here?" The Spirit questioned further.
"Um, knowledge for knowledge's... Sake?" He lied, sweat dropping down his face.
"If your going to lie to a old knowing spirit being, you should at least put some effort into it- Korra, Korra!"
"Korra, you alright? You zoned out there." Gohan asked in concern.
"Wha- Gohan? Where did everyone go?" Korra asked, looking around for the spirit and people she saw.
"Everyone is right here Korra." Gohan said, Naruto looking in confusion, and Jaina not really caring.
"Let's go already, this place is boring me!" Naruto whined.
They all laughed, except Jaina, and the group of heroes headed up the stone staircase toward the light overhead. The four heroes covered their eyes from the blinding light of a noon timed sun, and behold they were finally free from being underground. Glancing around, they found out the ruins brought them at the very edge of the forest. They looked forward to see a grassland, filled with few trees spaced outward from each other and a river running down a set of hills. However, further exception gave them the sight of three roads from many directions colliding into what appeared to be a sizable town with a fortified wooden palisade wall.
Only, a quarter of the wall was on fire, or destroyed completely, and surrounding buildings were under siege.
The town was being attacked on the right side by a small-sized army from The Darkness.
"Well, looks like we have a town to save." Gohan commented.