The one about Mai's coming, but I have to finish floranna's help_haiti fic first.
Fire sprang from the man’s hands and ripped through the scrolls. The smell of smoke and burning ink filled the air as he walked away, the bonfire behind him crackling merrily.
Wan Shi Tong bowed to him as he left and he closed the library doors behind him with a sinister smile, safe amongst the desert sands.
Hours later, one of the knowledge seekers came to his master, yipping and sobbing, to show him the way to the calamity.
Wan Shi Tong flung himself into the blaze with a scream. His wings beating aside bits of blackened paper, he clawed through the heap of scrolls, desperate for something, anything to save.
But there was nothing.
He watched the fire burn itself down, calling out a lament over the charred remains of the world’s knowledge on the Fire Nation. There was nothing left. He could feel the knowledge leave his mind as it burned.
One of his knowledge seekers whimpered, and he felt the same way. He looked down. The creature’s fur was black with soot, but in its mouth, it carried the remnants of a scroll. Wan Shi Tong wept when he saw the prize, and cradled it gently against his feathered chest to lock it away under glass, where no one could hurt it again.
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branchandroot
Zhao destroying part of Wan Shi Tong’s library
Date: 2010-02-11 12:01 am (UTC)Fire sprang from the man’s hands and ripped through the scrolls. The smell of smoke and burning ink filled the air as he walked away, the bonfire behind him crackling merrily.
Wan Shi Tong bowed to him as he left and he closed the library doors behind him with a sinister smile, safe amongst the desert sands.
Hours later, one of the knowledge seekers came to his master, yipping and sobbing, to show him the way to the calamity.
Wan Shi Tong flung himself into the blaze with a scream. His wings beating aside bits of blackened paper, he clawed through the heap of scrolls, desperate for something, anything to save.
But there was nothing.
He watched the fire burn itself down, calling out a lament over the charred remains of the world’s knowledge on the Fire Nation. There was nothing left. He could feel the knowledge leave his mind as it burned.
One of his knowledge seekers whimpered, and he felt the same way. He looked down. The creature’s fur was black with soot, but in its mouth, it carried the remnants of a scroll. Wan Shi Tong wept when he saw the prize, and cradled it gently against his feathered chest to lock it away under glass, where no one could hurt it again.