Avatar: The Last Airbender: Reawakening

26

Tau pushed the doors open as Sorin and Ryu fell into step behind him. Tau didn't know what he was expecting to see when they finally entered the room at the top of the Southern Air Temple's central spire but he was a little underwhelmed. He supposed part of him was expecting Air Nomad paintings all over the walls or some statues of important people from the culture but instead the room was just...empty, with just a plain stone floor and walls, and the only light that lit the room came from the few windows towards the top. Tau also noticed that there didn't appear to be a staircase leading back down to the rest of the temple, which confirmed his theory that the only way to get up here was to fly.

At the same time though, it was fairly large. A large crowd of at least one hundred people could have gathered here and the ceiling was nearly fifty feet above him. Still though, the emptiness just felt odd to Tau. However, while that did not meet his expectations, what he saw in the middle of the room did. It was the only thing in the room and it was right where the Avatar had told him it would be.

He barely registered Ryu and Sorin closing the doors behind them as he gazed at the object that he saw at the center of the room. The podium that the Avatar had been talking about was elevated from the rest of the floor by a platform. A dozen stairs surrounded it from all sides allowing anyone to simply walk up to the podium.

Tau walked closer, hearing his companion's footsteps behind him as they followed and as he got closer, he realized the podium itself wasn't all that big. It was no taller than four feet. He reached the base of the staircase, and slowly began to walk up it. He reached the top where there was a small space on all sides to stand around the podium and he stood there looking down at it. Sorin and Ryu joined him, standing across from him on the other side of the object.

"No one really ever bothered to clean the thing did they?" Sorin questioned upon noticing all the dust that had gathered on the top of the podium.

"Having no one alive to clean it would usually result in that," Ryu deadpanned.

Tau ran his hand across the top of it and sure enough, there was a clear streak where his hand had run across as the dust had been moved. Tau gazed at the dusty surface thoughtfully before gathering some water out of the air and slowly moving it across the top of the podium to clean it off before discarding the water.

"There, good as new," he stated, noticing a small circular indent that was revealed on the top of the podium after he had cleared away all the dust.

"You think that is where we insert whatever object we end up needing?" Ryu asked, also seeing the small indent.

"Probably," Tau answered, placing his hand in the small circle, "It seems like something is definitely supposed to be placed inside of here."

"And then what?" Sorin asked, looking up to gaze at Tau from across the podium, "This thing just splits open and outcome the Yanari?"

Tau regarded the podium again thoughtfully before shaking his head, "I don't think so. The podium is built into the floor here so I don't think it would be able to open up or anything like that. Placing the object into the podium must release the Yanari some other way."

"Like what?" Sorin raised his eyebrows.

"How would I know?" Tau shrugged before giving his companions a small smile, "But we'll find out soon. We know the podium is here and we know the object that Monk Gyatso's necklace is holding is a circular shape. I think it's time we start looking for it. It might take us a few days."

He turned away from the podium to walk back down the steps as Ryu and Sorin followed him.

"Well not to be a pessimist," Ryu started as he followed Tau back outside to the walkway surrounding the room, "But there isn't exactly any way to get down from here. It's fairly obvious that there are not any staircases leading up here and having to fly the airship up and down isn't exactly efficient."