The One Who Collects

Adan was flying across the ocean, going toward the fire nation. He has been flying for two days with no rest. This is normal for him because when he was in the desert, he once didn't sleep for a week. As he was flying, a swarm of a bird appeared in front of him. He used the fire coming from his left arm to burn the bird but lost concentration and fell.

"F.u.c.k, I wasn't paying attention. I need to work on my concentration." Adan said while falling. "I am finally out of that desert and left those boys so I can go out, build my legend, get married, and have kids but here I am, going out to look for a thing that may not exist. Adam keeps dragging this on. We should have just shown ourselves to the world, kill the Avatar, and then show the world our power. But he wants us to separate and get stronger than we already are. I am sure no one can beat me in fire-bending. Haa, I should get this over with and go train with the dragons." Adan said, folding his arms.

As he was about to hit the ocean, he quickly brought out flames from his foot to stabilize himself. 'I also need to learn how to swim.' He thought while flying forward close to the ocean. He then flew upward, through the cloud and floated there for some time. He smiled.

"I love freedom, unlike that desert where I have to train day and night. Now I can go anywhere I want... I can't. No, I have to stay in the fire nation and keep training and also look for that Ancient dragon. Sign, Adam don't give us that much freedom of choice with that temper of his. I need to talk to him about that when we get back." Adan said flying down and then flew closer to the ocean. Adan blasted himself toward the border of the fire nation, splitting the ocean in half.

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Adan landed on the border of the fire nation capital which is called Royal Caldera City. 

"I wonder why they named it Royal Caldera City, don't they have anything to name it? Like Land of Volcan or something else." Adan said while walking toward the gate. As he was about to pass the gate, a guard stopped him. 

"You can't pass through here. Commoner are not allowed here." The guard said standing in front Adan. He had on a red and black armor and a helmet with a skull-shaped mask.

"I am going into the city, why are you stopping me?" Adan asked confused.

"This city only holds wealthiest and most important nobles. And judging by your attire you are not a noble so you cant enter." The guard said, looking at Adan up and down through the skull mask.

"What if I am a noble but wanted to dress like this?" Adan asked.

"You are? Sorry, sir." The guard said while moving out of the way. "You can enter." He said while gesturing to the gate.

Adan looked at the guard, confused, 'I never said I am a noble, but ok.' He thought while walking past the guard into the city.

As Adan was walking through the city, he remembered something. He brought out a map, then walked toward the location of The Fire Sages Capital Temple. After some time of walking, he saw the temple and entered since no one was there to stop him. He kept wandering inside for some time before he saw a big door with many ornate metal circle installed around the door.

"Is this some kind of code or something." Adan said walking closer to the door and inspecting it, "How do I open it?" 

He tried pushing the door open but it didn't work. Then he tried pulling it but it didn't open.

"I can just burn it down." Adan said shooting a stream of fire at the door. The fire stream entered one of the metal circles and it opened. "What the f.u.c.k? That it? That how you open it? Of course, it in the fire nation so you need fire for almost everything. Why didn't I think of that." Adan said while slapping his forehead.

He walked in and entered a hallway is lined with the skulls of dragons and lit on both. side by a line of torches. It also led to multiple halls through multiple doors by the side of the wall. He looked around and walked into the farthest one. He walked into a hallway that was filled with detailed mural and has low light. He walked deeper before he entered a room, at the end of the hallway, filled with scrolls.

"Scrolls? I thought this was supposed to be a tomb." Adan said as he took the nearest scroll off the wall. The title was 'Sun Warriors'.

Adam sat on the floor to read it. After finishing reading the scroll, he stood up and grinned. 

"So this is where I can go to learn more about fire-bending, from the Sun Warriors, the first people to learn fire bending from the dragons. If I had a dragon, I could have made it teach me more fire-bending." Adan put the scroll back on the shelf and walked out of the temple And flew with fire bending. He saw people looking at him surprised and he smiled smugly. 'Yes, worship this great fire-bending master.'

He flew north and closer to the cloud so he can see farther. 

"I don't know, but I thought I was faster than this. I have been flying for hours and haven't even seen any sign of the Sun Warriors' ancient city. This is why I don't like fire bending flying, I need a dragon. It will make moving around easier." Adan said with a bored tone. "All I have done after leaving the desert is fly, eat, sleep, read, then fly again. Continuously flying with fire is getting hard and boring. I need something to let out my anger."

After flying for many more hours, Adan saw a ruined city and flew toward it. Around the pyramid was a ruined city covered with vines. 'It could have looked better if it wasn't in ruins.' Adan thought as he landed at the outer part of the ruined city. 

"This is the place. The place looks similar to the Fire Sages Temple. Maybe the fire sages copied from the sun warriors architecture." As he was walking, he stepped on something and multiple iron spikes came flying at him but he dodges the spikes before any could hit him. "People don't make traps unless they are hiding something. Hehe, I was right to come here."

Adan kept walking around, inspecting the building, until he saw a big mural and walked toward it. He encountered many more traps but managed to either destroy them or evade them. As he was about to reach the mural, he felt something touching his neck and something else poking his back. He looked down and saw a sword touching his neck.

"Who are you and why did you come here?" The person, who sounds like a girl, said from behind Adan.

"Amazing, someone who managed to sneak up to me, and a girl at that. Hehehe, Adam was right, we need to get stronger. Little girl, don't bother this grandfather or else you will be cooked like the Eel hound I ate last night. Oh, that right, you won't know as you weren't even there, but you get the picture." Adan said calmly.

"I will like to see you try." The person responded.

Adan brought out flames from his left leg and kicked backward. A stream of fire came out his foot and shot toward the person. He doesn't know how, but the person managed to dodge the attack. Adan then turned around and saw It running toward Adan while conjuring huge amounts of flame to push itself at high speeds toward Adan. Adan was shocked, not because of the skill it just showed, but because the fire was blue. 

He quickly kicked his foot circular motion to create an expanding ring of flames flying toward the person. He made sure the fire was orange, not red. The person slides under the flame but before it could stand back up, Adan kicked it right on its face.

The person flew sideways and hit the wall of a ruined building. The building collapsed and fell on top of it. Adan looked up and saw the person, standing on top of a building. 

It had on an armor which is colored primarily in black, with red and fine golden tracing. Worn over the c.h.e.s.t of the person, the armor extends across the shoulders and down to the top of the stomach. The Fire Nation insignia is visible on the front directly beneath the neck area on the c.h.e.s.t. The person had on a blank mask with only holes for the eyes and held on to a dual broadsword. It also had long black hair tied in a ponytail that held together by a flame shape three-pronged headpiece.

'It seems to be a girl.' Adan thought then said, "Girl come down here and apologize and I will let you live..."

Before he could finish talking, an enormous blast of blue flame, came at him. Adan quickly created his blast of orange flames, from his right fist, to hit hers. When they hit, they were a struggle between the two flames before the blue flame started pushing his. His let go of his control and let his fire become red, this made his flame hotter and wider so it was to push back hers. The girl created multiple disks of fire and shut it toward Adan while also moving sideways with the help of her flames, dodging Adan's attack.

He changed the trajectory of his flames so it will follow her. The kept shooting flame disk at Adan while also moving through buildings, trying to distract Adan's view. Adan stopped his attack and ran after the girl while also dodging her fire disk, easily. As he was following her, he kept running into traps. He destroyed all of the traps, but it slowed him down and the girl kept getting further.

"This girl is leading me through traps, f.u.c.k this. Let me show you my ultimate attack." Adan said as he stopped running.

Adan breathes in from his core and then created a point of concentrated heat and fire, in his right palm, that he holds back and compresses retreat it. You can hear the whistling like the pressure and a teapot. And then it rapidly expands into a great torrent of flames that shot toward the direction of the girl. The read flam flowed and destroy anything in its path before it the girl and caused a big explosion and collapsed the buildings around her.

"Damn, I didn't know if it will be that strong. It really an ultimate attack, but it can be improved. I can see through her mask that she was scared. No one could survive that attack... Except for Adam or Aerin, I guess." Adan said, grinning.

Adan waited for the air to clear out and then walked toward the rubble of collapsed buildings. As Adan was standing on top of the mountains of rubble, Adan suddenly flipped backward and landed on top of a building that manages not to collapse. Where he was once standing got destroyed by lightning coming from under the rubble.

The girl climbed out of the hole with half of her mask and some of her armor broken. She pointed her right hand two fingers at Adan and lightning struck at Adan.

'What the f.u.c.k? Lightning bending? Agate was right, there is a lightning bending.' Adam thought while he jumped to another building, avoiding the lightning.

 As he was about to land, he saw another lightning coming at him. He used his fire bending to move away from the way but another one appeared where he was moving to with the help of his fire. He quickly created a ball of fire around him. The lightning struck it and pushed him into a building.

Adan stood up and smirked widely. "You are a strong one aren't you? Let me show you another of my ultimate attack." From the side of her mask, Adan could see her frowning, "Don't worry, this one will give you a quick death."

Adam made a condensed ball of fire on his left arm and slowly shaped it into the form of a five-point shuriken. After making the five-point shuriken, Adan made the shuriken spin fast. It spun so fast that you hear the whistling as he spun. 

As he was readying the attack, the girl kept shooting lightning bolt and fire disk at Adan. This made Adan's charge longer as he has to dodge her attack at the same throw fire disk to intercept hers.

"Done. Behold, Fire shuriken." Adan said as he threw the shuriken.

The shuriken flew fast that the girl almost couldn't react. Adan was happy at its speed and its power. He looked at were the shuriken flew passed and saw everything in its way was sliced smoothly and the part of some earth it sliced, turned into lava.

He continuously threw shuriken at her, but it was less powerful as the first one as it had less charge time. Some more building was destroyed by his barrage of attacks. After some time he stopped his attack and walked toward the girl position and saw her laying on her back with her mask destroyed and her two swords destroyed. 

He stepped on her c.h.e.s.t and asked, "Who are you and why did you attack me." Adan asked angrily, "Talk or else I will kill you and be done with."

"Kill me and you will have the whole fire nation army on your back." The girl said while coughing. "When I get home and tell my father what you did to me. He will put a bounty on your head and you will be dead sooner or later."

"Look at your beautiful face, I can just send you to one of my brothers, and he will treat you like a treasure. Trust me, you don't want him to treat you like that." Adan said grinning, "Also tell me why you are here and why you have blue flames. What I showed you were not even ten percent of my power, if I wanted to, I could have controlled your blue flame and used it against you."

"Then why didn't you do it?" The girl said while touching Adans and shocking him with lightning, making him move his foot from her c.h.e.s.t. She stood up, dusted herself, and walked away, seemingly not caring about Adan.

"Because I wanted to have some kind of fun, I haven't fought for a long time. And little girl You need to have some respect for your elders, I am in my fifties and you look like you are in your twenties, that is like a thirty years difference." Adan said extinguishing his flame dagger, but not letting his guard down.

Adan followed her as she walked through the battle sight, toward the dragon mural and inspecting it, acting like Adan was not there. Adan looked at the dragon mural and asked, "Do you know what that is?"

"Obviously, why will I come here." The girl said.

"Talk to me with manners or else, I will throw more shuriken at you little girl. Now, let me tell you what I think about this painting. It shows two dragons burning a human. I thought dragons were nice to humans." Adan said walking toward the mural, while not letting down his guard.

"No, you stupid old man this is a mural of two dragons sharing their knowledge of fire-bending to a Sun Warrior." The girl said while walking away from the mural, toward the big pyramid at the middle of the city.

"I am not stupid, I am one of the smartest man alive, I read about 10,000 in my youth, so you better mind your tongue." Adan said getting angry while following her since she seems to know more about this place than him.

"Reading books doesn't mean you will become smart, and why are you following me?" The girl said while spinning on her heels to face Adan.

"...Seriously, Aerin will love to have you as a pet or something along that line. Haa, I hate explaining things. I am following you because you know more about this place than me." Adan said looking around at the buildings and back at the battle sight, "I really did so much destruction to these people city. I wonder what they will think if they are alive."

"You can follow me if you want and you were not the only one that did the damage, I did more than you." The girl said turning around and continued walking.

"Don't be jealous of my power. Maybe if you could give me some secret about your lightning bending and your blue fire, then I will be your teacher." Adan said while walking up to her and walking beside her.

"Tell me about your red fire and I will teach you lightning bending." The girl said walking up multiple steps that lead to a closed circular goldin door.

The door looked like a sun and above it was a red gem embedded on the wall with markings around it. Adam walked up to the door and tried to push it on but it didn't open. He then created a huge Stream of flame, coming out of his elbows, to use as propulsion so he could push with more force. After ten seconds, he moved back, sweating.

"This door is heavy. If we were all together, I think we may be able to push it open." Adan said moving back, beside the girl. "Let try to push it open together, they may be a secret in there."

"Hmmm." The girl said while looking behind her at a tower and the door. "That not how you open it, it is a celestial calendar."

"What is a celestial calendar?" Adan asked

"Look at that tower at the center of the tower. The large red gem on it refracts slivers of light onto a calendar on the door." She said pointing at the tower and then on the door. "This gem is part of a celestial locking system that protects a sacred room that can only be opened on specific days, like the summer solstice. Luckily today is the summer solstice, I just have to wait some more hours." Se said, walking next to the door, folding her arms and resting on it with her eyes closed.

Adan walked and sat on the ground beside her. There was silence.

"Sooo, what is your name?" Adan asked breaking the silence, 'Not like I care.'

"Tell me your name first, then I will tell you mine?" The girl said still closing her eyes

"Ok, my name is Adan, part of the, soon to be famous, A brothers. Now tell me your name." Adan said while continuously making fireballs and dispersing it.

"My name is Kelama." The girl said.

"Ok, who is your parent? How is your father able to sent the fire nation army after me if I killed you? Is your father the fire lord?" Adan asked still making more fireballs and dispersing it.

"Yes." The girl said looking at the tower.

"I kind of noticed that with the three-pronged headpieces you have on. People with strong backing are really c.o.c.ky. You fought me and didn't apologize even after I put you on your back." Adan said.

"Is your hair naturally red or you paint it?" Kelama said, looking down at Adan's hair, "Why is your hair changing color when you are in your fifties? Also, why don't you have wrinkles?"

"My hair is naturally red. For your second and third question, it is none of your business." Adan said. "Who taught you lightning bending and can you teach me?"

"My sister and I can't teach you as it is a family secret." Kelama said.

"I get it." Adan said closing his eyes to meditate.

After some hours of waiting in silence, Kalama opened her eyes and moving away from the door.

"Old man wake up, its time. Move away from the door." Kelama said tapping Adan's head.

"I wasn't sleeping." Adan said while moving away from the door, standing next to Kelama, facing the door. He saw the sunlight shining through the red gem, on the tower, to the red gem on top of the door. After some time, the door opened. "Good setting." Adan said, walking through the door, with Kalama behind her.

The chamber was circular and inside the chamber are two sets of ten bronze statues, each doing similar dance moves in a circular motion so, at the last step of the dance, they both touch each other. The floor displays the drawing of the sun. In the ceiling was a big barred window with the sunlight shining through, toward the sun drawing on the ground.

"Nice dance moves. It seems to be made for two people to dance." Adan said, looking at the statues. Adan then looked at the statue and saw that they were something written on it. "It says dancing dragon. Nice, this is the dancing dragon move."

Adan tried to mimic the dance move and felt his left foot steps on something. He looked down and saw his foot on a foot-pad. He looked around and saw more footpads next to the statues.

"Kelama, dance with me." Adan said, still inspecting the statue and the footpads.

"I am not dancing with a fifty years old man." Kelama said, looking around the chamber.

Adan walked up to her and dragged her to the other part of the dance. "This is the dancing dragon move. I read a book saying if you put this move into your fire-bending, it will be stronger."

"Books are not always right, but let me try." Kelama said.

Kelama started dancing while Adan only looked for the foot-pads and step on them. He thought that since they were on both sides, so it may trigger something if two people step on it simultaneously.

"You weren't even dancing." Kelama said while repeating the dance moves.

"Don't need to." Adan said.

Suddenly, a pedestal rose from the middle of the room holding stone. Adan walked up to it and started inspecting it.

"See, it was some kind of code and I also feel it was easier to fire bend while dancing. Didn't you feel the same? What do you think of this stone is?" Adan said looking over to Kelama who was repeating the dance.

"Uh-huh." Kelama said while repeating the dance. "I think it is a mystical stone or something mystical because it is inside a chamber that locked by a celestial locking system." Kelama answered still dancing. 

After she was done, she walked up to it and tried to lift it but Adan stopped her arm.

"Don't touch it, it may be a trap. Have you ever seen a beautiful glowing object, sitting on a pedestal without someone guarding it? The stone and the pedestal looks suspicious." Adan said while pulling her arm away.

"Let me try." She said snatching her arm away from Adan's hand.

"Suit yourself." Adan said moving back, away from the pedestal.

She pulled it up from the pedestal, then after some time grinned at Adan. "See, it not a trap..."

Before she could finish talking, a strong pulse green liquid came out from under the pedestal and hit her back pushing her up and gluing her, face-up, to the barred window on the ceiling. She tried to move but couldn't.

"Adan, get me out of here, it seems to be some kind of glue." Kelama shouted with her face through the window.

"I told you it was a trap. Well, I'm out." Adan said trying to run out the door but the door closed and glue start chamber. Adam flew next to Kelama and looked at the room being filled, with nowhere to go. 

He created multiple fire disks and threw it at the green glue but the disk just got absorbed into the glue. He turned around and threw fire disk at the barred window, but it didn't budge. He quickly turned around and laid, with his c.h.e.s.t on the ceiling, making sure his face is through the window. The glue then filled the chamber and glued him, face-up, to the ceiling. After some time, the glue stopped filling moving.

"It is your fault, I could have left this chamber when you wanted to pick up the stone." Adan said angrily, looking at Kelama with only his eyes since he couldn't move his head.

"Don't blame me, you were the one that said we should dance. If we didn't dance, the pedestal wouldn't come up and I wouldn't have touched the stone. At least we can still breath, maybe the glue will die down." Kelama said looking back at Adam with only her eyes.

"Yeah, maybe," Adan said sighing.

The day passed and it became night. They haven't talked through the time they were stuck.

"You had to pick up the glowing stone." Adan said.

"At least I made something happen." Kelama said. She then cleared her throat and screamed: "CAN SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

"..." Adan stared at her, "YEAH ME TOO. HELP ME!"

*Step**Step* "Two thieves caught." A man said, walking up to them with three animals behind him.

After he freed them, he took them and put them against the front door of the chamber. The three animals started l.i.c.k.i.n.g away the glue on them. Thew was also surrounded by people dressed in ancient clothing with markings on their faces.

"Two people trying to steal the sacred sunstone." The man that helped them said. He was holding the sacred sunstone and his other tribesmen beside hem had torches with them.

"I didn't try to steal anything, she did. I came here to learn more about fire-bending since I couldn't learn from books anymore." Adan said while shrugging.

The tribe people all turned their heads at Kelama. 

"I... I wasn't trying to steal it, I was just curious. I also came here to learn more about fire bending." Kelama said looking away from the tribe people.

"We are the Sun Warriors and I am the chief. This is where we live. The damage you did to our city will be repaid." The Sun Warriors chief said.

"It wasn't me, it was him that did all the destroying." Kelama quickly said, pointing at Adan.

"I heard you guys talking and you said 'you were not the only one that did the damage, I did more than you.' So you both did some damage to the city." The tribe leader said, "If you want to learn the origin of fire-bending, you have to learn from the true original, Ran, and Shaw."

"Wait, there are two? In the book I read, it only said there was one." Kelama said.

"Reading books doesn't mean it is right. Isn't that similar to what you told me?" Adan said while standing up after the glue was licked off.

"When you present yourself to them, they will examine you, they will read your hearts, your soul, and your ancestry. If they deem you worthy, they will teach you, if they don't, you will be destroyed on the spot." The tribe leader said in an intimidating tone. "In the morning, come to the top of the ancient pyramid, you can do this by climbing the steps at the back of it." The leader said, walking away with his other tribe's men.

"That was scary." Adan said playfully.

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In the morning, Adan and Kelama met at the top of the ancient pyramid. At the top, there was a protective chamber and a flame burned within it. The tribe chief was standing in front of the flame with the two of them next to him. The other tribesmen were sitting in a meditation position, around them.

"This fire was given to us by the Dragons and has been kept alight by us for thousands of years." He took two pieces of the flame and gave one to each of them. "If you are going to see the masters, you must bring them a piece of the eternal flame. The flame must be kept at a constant temperature, as a small flame will go out, whereas a large flame will spiral out of control."

"It seems... Alive?" Kelama said confused.

"Fire is also life, not just destruction. you will take your flame up there, the cave of the masters is beneath that rock" The tribe leader said, pointing at a mountain.

As they were climbing the mountain, Adan kept playing with the flames, trying to shape it and see how big it can go before he lost his control over it.

"This is easier than they made it sound." Adan said while playing with the fire.

"You are acting like a little child when you are in your 50." Kelama said, controlling her flame to be the same size.

After climbing the mountain, they entered a place where two caves located atop large rocks overlooking the ocean. They were both connected by a bridge and the bridge can be accessed by a huge long step. The sun warriors surrounded the steps at the front, some were standing while the other was kneeling with drums in front of them. The tribe leader came to them and took some flame from both of them. He gave the piece of flame it to two of his tribesmen, which they passed around to the standing tribesmen, which they used to make a ring of fire. 

"Let go." Adan said grinning, "This will be easy."

"Chanters." The tribe leader said. The tribe men with drums started beating it. The female tribe women were in front of the drummers, bowing. "When you reach the top, you will present your fire to the masters."

They began climbing the steps. When they reached the top, they all faced opposite caves and presented their fire. After some time, a loud horn sounded. The caves shook and the dragons came out and flying around them.

"So this is a dragon? Amazing, it's better than looking at them in the book. I want to ride one. They are faster than me even going in a circle like this. HAHAHA... Oh shit, my flame is out." Adan's tone went from excited to shocked.

"My... My flame is... It is out. We are going to die." Kelama said scared.

The dragon kept flying around them and didn't attack.

"We should do that dance move." Kelama said.

"Why?" 

"The dance is called the dancing dragon and the dragon looks like they are dancing. So maybe we have to dance with them." Kelama said.

"Damn, I don't know the dance." Adan said.

"Your fault for not dancing inside the chamber." Kelama said. After breathing in, she started doing the dance move, dancing with the blue dragon.

The red dragon stopped flying around and stared at Adan.

'Be a man, look into its eyes. It is not intimidating if you don't make it intimidating. Stay calm. Poker face mode, on.' Adan thought, keeping himself calm and staring into the Dragon's eyes.

After the Kelama finished dancing with the dragons, the blue Dragon also stopped and faced Kelama.

After some time, they both opened their mouths and breathed flames at them.

"I am dead. Goodbye life." Adan said, his voice shaking and closing his eyes.

"Because you didn't dance." Kelama said, crying while also closing her eyes.

After some time of not dying, they both opened their eyes and saw that they were surrounded by many different colors of flames.

"I understand..." Adan said.

"The true meaning of fire." Kelama finished Adan's sentences.

After the fire calmed down, the dragon flew up then into their caves. Adan and Kelama came down the steps.

'So many colors, Amazing. So this is true fire. Life, distraction, and beauty.' Adam thought while coming down the steps.

"You man managed to be judged and deemed worthy without even doing the dancing dragon. You must have a good heritage or a good heart." The tribe leader said, patting Adan's shoulder.

'Not a good heart, but maybe ancestry, since my fire-bending came from the spirit world, according to Adam.' Adan thought.

"Now, let's get down to business. To pay for the damage, you guys have to stay with us for two years. You must learn about our culture and more about the fire. After that, you will be tasked to share the true meaning of fire. But you must also keep the survival of the Sun Warriors a secret." The tribe leader said.

"That doesn't seem so bad. I don't have anywhere to go in three years. I will become a Sun Warrior." Adan side, bowing.

"Me too. My father doesn't expect me to come back before five years so I will stay and become a Sun Warrior." Kelama said also bowing.

"Even if you weren't free, you would have still been forced to stay." The skinny guy that always beside the chief said. "Follow me." He said walking away.

'Forget about Adams's mission for now.' Adan thought then said, "Kelama, you were crying inside the fire. HAHAHA, you are still a little girl."

"Shut it." Kelama said, whaling ahead of Adan.

"HAHAHA. little girl. HAHAHA!" Adan kept laughing, following Kelama and the man he will take as the subtribe leader.