Little Soldier Boy

Buried treasures

"Sand benders! Away from the bison!" Professor zei ran to appa as they went outside to travel out to the desert for the library.

Aang frowned watching them stare at him, he didn't like how interested they were in his friend.

"We should get going," Katara touched his shoulder as they loaded onto appas saddle.

They took off quickly as Zuko and Toph sat together on the side and the professor took the back, Sokka and Katara sat closer to the front to Aang.

Zuko made a face as zei crawled to the front and sat on appas head while flying, intrigued while Aang and Sokka were searching the hundreds of miles of the desert while they flew.

"Is he being weird to appa?" Toph asked him.

"Yep," Zuko raised a brow as the professor was speaking directly to appa.

"Weird," she held onto the side of the saddle as he watched over his shoulder with the desert surrounding them.

It was so hot in the dry heat, Sokka made his shirt into a hat of some sort that protected his head from the sun. Zuko grabbed his own straw hat from before and wore it to avoid being burned. Ironically for a fire bender he burned pretty easy.

"Ughhhh ah, does this place even exist?" Toph groaned leaning against Zuko after hours of searching.

"Some say it doesn't," zei smiled proudly of the hypothetical.

"Shouldn't you have mentioned that before?" Zuko glared over at him.

Zei laughed nervously looking at the fire bender but Zuko adjusted his hat enough for the professor to see his eyes more clearly since his scarred side was facing the professor more.

"You must be a powerful fire bender," the professor gasped crawling to Zuko.

"What?" Zuko was taken back by the sudden interest.

"The golden eyes You have, many fire benders have amber, bronze, or even brown, brighter your eyes are more fire is in your heart or so I've heard," he explained as Toph snorted a little.

"But in your case you have pure gold, tell me how many generations are you from a powerful leader in your family," zei grabbed a pencil and his notebook excited to know more.

"Excuse me?" Zukos nose scrunched up in irritation.

"Do you have siblings with the same eyes?" He smiled brightly.

"Aren't you afraid that he's fire nation? Like the enemy?" Sokka pointed out curiously.

"I knew as soon as I saw him, is there others that have similar eye color from your village? I've heard that the brighter gold a fire civilians eyes are they're some bit related to the royal family even," professor squealed writing stuff down even if Zuko didn't tell him anything.

"That's a myth," Zuko said flatly.

"And I know non benders with golden eyes," he glared darkly.

"Oh yea that mai girl, she has bright eyes," Katara nodded remembering.

"I might've meant something centuries ago but it doesn't mean anything in the fire nation, golden eyes were seen as wisdom and bravery when the sun warriors were around, symbolic to the dragons they worshipped and honored," Zuko sighed bored of the studies he knew to well.

They looked at him impressed.

"What? I learned this as a child? I like history," he scoffed rolling his eyes.

"Do your parents have similar eyes?" The professor was more than happy to learn.

"Yea?" He didn't get why this guy cared.

"Since my eyes are white does that mean anything?" Toph teased.

"Brightest of them all," Zuko agreed feeding into her sarcasm. "Powerful bender,"

"I knew it," she smirked.

—

Another hour went by as everyone was bored and staring out into the nothingness.

"There it is!" Toph exclaimed enthusiastically.

Everyone went to her side of the saddle to look for the library. But nothing was there.

"That's what it would sound like when someone spots it," Toph rested her head again and waved her hand in front of her blind eyes.

"Ugh it shouldn't be this hard to spot this!" Sokka whined grabbing the binoculars.

"It would help more is everyone was involved," Katara looked over at Zuko who had no interest.

"Not my circus not my monkey," Zuko didn't bother moving.

"Youre doing great looking for something in the middle of nothing," he said sarcastically. She huffed a small growl in annoyance.

"Hey down there," Sokka pulled the binoculars away and pointed over at something tall in the distance. "What is it?"

They flew in the direction and landed in front of a tall tower with no entrance but had small windows in the top.

They all got out but was disappointed looking at the tower when they got closer.

"It's not what we're looking for," Katara sighed tired of the journey. "The building in the drawing is enormous,"

There was an animal running towards them from a hill of sand and saw a fox running past them and up the towers wall and into the windows to get inside.

"What kind of animal was that?" Sokka blinked confused.

"I think that was a knowledge seeker... oh we must be close to the library!" The professor clenched his fist like a victory.

"No, this is the library, look," Sokka looked at the drawing in aangs hands and pointed at the top of the library's towers that matched the one in front of them. 
"It's completely buried,"

"The library is buried?! My life's ambition is now full of sand!" Zei ran around hysterically and fell to the sand dramatically.

"Can we leave then?" Zuko asked unamused.

"Nope, it's time to start excavating," the professor pulled out a small shovel to start digging.

"Actually that won't be necessary," Toph put her hand on the tower and could feel inside easily.

"The inside seems to be completely intact, and it's huge," she told them and Aang looked at the map again seeing the comparison of the tower to what the rest of the library would be.

"That fox thing went through the window, I say we climb up there and give it a look," Sokka pointed above wanting to see inside.

"I say you guys go without me," Toph crossed her arms.

"Got something again library's?" Katara snorted a little.

"I've held books before, and I gotta say they don't do it for me," the blind girl side nodding.

"Oh.. right..."

"Want me to stay out here with you?" Zuko asked quietly to her knowing it might take a while.

"Nah your a history nerd apparently, just find a good few books and tell me some of the stuff in there, I'll listen to your history lessons," Toph smirked a little as Aang flew up to the top on his glider and dropped the rope from the window so everyone could climb up while he tied it down.

"Don't touch my seal jerky," Sokka called down to Toph when he was climbing.

"We still have seal jerky?" She perked up.