Chapter 2 The secret tunnel

"Hey guys, what happened to the four creepy men that were just standing there?" stammered Gabby with a scared look on her face.

Then at that moment all of the girls heard a rumbling sound right underneath them. At the next second the ground seemed to have dropped from under the girls, and the girls dropped with it. When they landed on the hard, cold, ground, they realized all they could see was a narrow dark tunnel in front of them and the giant moonlight hole above them to light the way. They all looked at each other with the same look of fear and confusion. However, the fear in their eyes were not enough to stop them from walking down the tunnel together. As they were coming to the end of the tunnel, the girls started to make out four tall figures in the distance. As the girls walked closer, they notice the figures were the old men!

"WHERE ARE WE!" demanded Lisa

"YEA, WHY ARE WE HERE!" yelled Dannie.

"Relax, you are in no danger" said the man in the light blue robe.

"Who are you and what are you going to do to us?" Tia demanded.

"The one in the light blue is Drake, the one in the dark blue is Ian, the one in the green is Josh, and I am Cole." Said the man in the red rob.

"Like we said, we are not going to harm you at all" said Ian

"We brought you here to train you" said Cole.

"Train us?" repeated Gabby.

"Train us for what exactly? Lisa exclaimed. I already do enough training for soccer; I don't need to work extra on my days off."

Josh laughed loudly.

"Yes, you are defiantly an earth bender" josh chuckled.

"A WHAT?" exclaimed Dannie and Lisa together

"An earth bender" repeated Josh

"That is why you are here" said Cole. To learn the four elements

"Why do we have to do that?" asked Tia.

"Because you went into the pond of eternal gift" said Cole.

"Yea but only because you threw us in!" exclaimed Lisa.

"I am sick of this; just take us back to the cabin!" Gabby yelled.

At that moment the girls heard a rumbling sound again. The girls abruptly turned around in fear.

"Not again!" yelled Tia.

At that moment a big chunk of the tunnel wall was pushed out and slowly moved to the side to reveal a short old man with white long hair and wearing a white rob. To the girls, he looked like one of those old kung fu masters you would see on TV. The girls looked at the old man in astonishment. They could not believe what they were seeing.

"Did you see that" whispered Lisa?

The girls nodded with their eyes wide open.

"My name is Chi Fu" said the old man.

"Please let us go home." Said Gabby calmly.

The old man smiled and looked at the girls with an expression of empathy.

"We understand how you must feel," Cole interrupted.

"We were just like you four girls, not too long ago," Drake assured.

"And trust me, I was more than afraid" Ian said with a chuckle.

"Uuuuggghhhh, I'm tired of all of this talking! Just take us back to our camp, and I promise we won't tell anybody what happened" Dannie argued.

Suddenly, Chi Fu interrupted the argument.

"Enough! Everybody, follow me."

The girls looked at each other with the same questioning expression. As Chi Fu and the four men continued down the tunnel, the girls were debating with each other bout following the men or making a run for it.

"Ok guys; please tell me we are not going to follow them?" Whispered Lisa

"Well how else are we going to find our way out of this tunnel?" asked Tia.

"We can make a run for it!" Dannie exclaimed.

"And if we get lost then what? They would know that we were trying to run away, and then they would find us. Our best and smartest option is to follow them through the tunnel. We are bound to find some way out of here if we keep quiet and do enough observing" argued Gabby.

The girls knew that Gabby had a point to what she was saying. If the men were trying to harm them, then the girls would just make everything worse by trying to run away. However, if they keep calm and do what they are told, they could buy themselves enough time to figure out a way to escape. So the girls decided to follow the men down the tunnel. As the girls ran to catch up to the men, they noticed that the group had come to a dead end. The girls were all afraid and confused at why the group had decided to stop at a dead end. Then before they could say anything Chu Fu hit his fists against the wall; and in that one swift motion, the stone wall was blown to pieces.

As if nothing had happened, the men continued to walk through the tunnel. The girls were curtain that this was not their imagination this time. The old man really moved a stone wall with nothing but his hands. However, even though they were astonished and very confused, they decided to continue walking along.

As the group continued to walk, they notice a turquoise light at the end of the tunnel. Rather than making a run for the strange light, the girls continued to walk toward it in wonder.

When they finally came close enough to the light, they were amazed to step into a grand room that was filled with shelves of books and scrolls, the entire place was light by giant turquoise crystals that hung on the ceiling and the walls as tall and as far as the eye could see.

"What is this place?" Tia asked in amazement.

"This is where you learn who you are" Chi Fu said.

"What do you mean?" Dannie asked

"Long ago, there was nothing but war on this earth. A war between each tribe of the four elements: water tribe, air tribe, earth tribe, and fire tribe. These wars were fought for control over the earth. However, there were those who wished for peace between the four tribes. In order to gain peace between the elements, peaceful members of each tribe met in the forest that lay in the center of the tribe lands. Every night they would meet there and poor a little of their power in the pond of eternal gift. After one night when all of their powers were drained into the pond, the groups nominated one person from each tribe that wanted to fight for peace to touch the pond and receive an abundance of one element's power. Those who were nominated and received the abundance of power from the pond were turned into the strongest bender in their tribe. These four were the ones that ended the war and returned the peace to earth. And to make certain that this war would not happen again; the four benders took everyone's bending power away and drained it into the pond of eternal gift.

Before the four benders died, they emptied their powers into the pond and placed a spell around the pond, proclaiming that after every generation only four people of pure heart and close in friendship may obtain power and youth from this pond until the next generation steps forward."

The girls were completely silent. They had nothing to say. Finally Ian broke the silence.

"Maybe we should take them through the library and read them some of the history and show them some bending techniques."

"You're right, good idea" admitted Chi Fu.

For most of the night the men were reading stories of the great peacekeeping benders that lived before them, and showing off their bending for the girls, to show them what they could be capable of.

"This is amazing!" yelled Lisa.

"I'm glad you all think so" Chi Fu admitted.

"So what now?" Gabby asked.

"Well if you choose to keep the powers then you will need to start training tomorrow if you are going to be the new protectors of earth" Chi Fu informed.

The girls agreed to keep the powers and to come back tomorrow. Soon after, the men were walking the girls back to the cabin. When the girls got back to the cabin they quickly got into their beds and excitedly awaited for tomorrow.