Chapter 4: Twin Lessons

Hanjo and Sen managed to find a road that wasn't the byproduct of a large predatory monster eventually, and they followed it. Carts and fellow travelers passing up and down on either side confirmed that there was some kind of major city along this road. They'd finally hit a lucky break. One traveler, a fellow named Kodo, even stuck with them for a while, despite the fact that they hadn't bathed in weeks, and answered some of their questions.

"Oh yeah, Zang's a real decent sized city. No rail lines through it, not yet, but it's still got a few trade routes left running the old ostrich-horse and buggy style."

"Have you been there often?"

"I travel back and forth for business, but I don't often spend time there. I do have a good friend that lives there, though, so I keep in touch over radio, keep up to date, you know?"

"What do they think about the Avatar situation?"

Hanjo had lied to the traveler and told him they were eighteen, but often got mistaken for sixteen. He had talked earlier about all the trouble he'd gotten into being mistaken for a possible Avatar when he wasn't, so hopefully the traveler wouldn't suspect something.

"Oh, they're of two minds. It's like that all around this area. People close to that orphanage where it started are all afraid of Howler, but everyone close to Zaofu thinks they have to help the Avatar. Towns in-between, like Zang, are all split down the middle."

Hanjo shrugged at Sen. It was better than nothing. They could play it safe in Zang long enough to get closer to Zaofu, where finding help would be easier. The fact that they knew they were heading towards definite safety for the first time in weeks was good for lifting their spirits.

"Just tell them how old you are and there should be nothing to worry about."

"Thanks for the help, stranger," Hanjo said. "My friend and I are going to take a break for lunch, care to join us?"

"No thanks, friend," Kodo said. "If you make it to Zang soon, though, I'll probably still be holed up at the inn. Look me up when you get there!"

Hanjo and Sen stopped walking and waved goodbye to their companion as he continued down the road.

"Lunchtime," Hanjo said.

"We haven't got any food," Sen reminded him.

In response, Hanjo held out a package wrapped in paper. He unraveled the string keeping it bound together and revealed a loaf of bread. He smiled smugly. Sen slapped him.

"You stole that!"

"No, it fell off of a bread tree," Hanjo said. He tore off a chunk and ate it greedily. He offered a piece to Sen as well.

"Avatar's don't steal things," Sen objected.

"Avatar's also don't die of malnutrition," Hanjo shot back. "When we get to town we'll do some honest labor and buy our next meal the right way, if that's how you want it. But you need to eat something."

Sen grunted and took the bread. It didn't even taste that good, and they had nothing to wash it down with, so it left a dry ache in his mouth. This was what karma tasted like, he thought.

With stomachs full of stolen bread, they continued on their way. The road was getting livelier now, hopefully a sign that they were getting closer to their destination. It took a few hours yet, but Zang was finally in sight. They picked up their pace as soon as they laid eyes on the town. It was a small little hamlet by any standard, but to two teenagers who'd been wandering the wilds for weeks it might as well have been Ba Sing Se. There weren't many satomobiles, even on Main Street, and most of the buildings were still classic Earth Kingdom architecture instead of the updated style, but it was civilization, and that was what mattered.

"The first thing we should do is find a place to work," Hanjo suggested. "Once we have some money, we'll stock up on food, supplies, some new clothes, and probably rent a room at the inn, I haven't slept on a bed in months!"

"We've only been on the road a few weeks," Sen said.

"I know, a bunch of bullies stole my bed back at the orphanage," Hanjo replied. "I slept on the floor."

Hanjo was suddenly distracted by something and dashed off to gaze through some storefront window. He beckoned Sen over to see it as well.

"Look at this! They've got a TV!"

A TV, or TeleVarrick, used a lot of fancy mechanical things that neither Hanjo nor Sen understood to display video images on a glass screen. While they were still somewhat rare, TeleVarrick's were becoming more and more common in households across the nations, several decades after the first model had been invented. It had been one of Varrick's last great inventions, and one of few notable creations in the past few decades. After the Earth Empire crisis, Varrick and all the other great inventors had seemed to hit a brick wall, and no one knew why. Some people thought they were afraid of creating another Spirit Cannon, others thought that Harmonic Convergence had focused the world towards spirituality rather than technology. For whatever reason, Varrick, Asami Sato, and all other innovators had simply run out of ideas. Many people found that highly suspicious.

"This is a little fuzzier than I expected," Sen said of the TeleVarrick. The image was greyed out and fuzzy looking. He supposed it was technologically impressive, but the real world looked much better than the black and white blur on the TeleVarrick's screen. It was displaying a pro-bending match, and Sen could hardly see what they were doing.

"I know, but come on, show some enthusiasm! We didn't have anything like this back at the orphanage."

A very large and imposing figure crept up behind them quite suddenly, and grabbed each of them by the shoulder.

"Now, two orphans on the run," the large man said. "Don't that sound familiar?"

Sen kept his mouth shut. Hanjo had proven fantastic at coming up with lies on the spot, so it was time for him to go to work.

"Why would it sound familiar?"

"Because the Avatar's been on the run with a friend of his for weeks now," the huge man said.

"Oh, did he have a friend," Hanjo said. "Well I can see what you're thinking now, I see your point, but I'm afraid you're looking in the wrong place. My friend and I here are orphans, yeah, and we are on the run, but for entirely different reasons, my good man. You see, with the Avatar out and about, we don't have to worry about being mistaken for him anymore! Nobody will be suspicious of us, nobody will dislike us, and we can finally go out in the world without having to worry! Or so I thought…"

Hanjo gave a dejected sigh and looked at his feet. Sen had to admit, he was really, really good at this.

"We're not even the right age for it," Hanjo continued. The real key to lying was to be consistent about it. If you're going to lie, tell everyone the same lie. As far as the world was concerned he and Sen were eighteen now.

The large man seemed to be buying it. His posture was a lot less threatening now, and he wasn't glaring quite so much.

"Alright boys, I'll tell you what. You want to work, we've got work around. Me and some of the men in town go on a patrol, you know, making sure the Avatar isn't anywhere around. That's why I caught you, because I was watching for folks like you. But because we're out and about, stuff doesn't get done around town. Talk to anyone you see doing work; ask around, I'm sure you'll find something. Tell 'em Wang sent you and you'll fit right in."

That sounded like a plan, so they nodded and thanked Wang for the advice. He shook their hands and continued his patrol. The two travelling companions conspired as soon as he turned his back.

"They know we're travelling as a duo, so I think we should split up to find work, we'll attract less attention," Sen suggested.

"Good plan," Hanjo said. "I'll cover the east side, you cover the west. Sound good? We'll meet back here at nightfall."

They shook hands and parted ways, Hanjo heading east and Sen heading west. It didn't take long for either of them to find work. Women whose husbands were out on "patrol" had plenty of work for strapping young men to do. Within a few hours both had enough spare money to afford some clean clothes and a fresh lunch, but it would take a lot more money to keep them decently supplied for the rest of the trip.

As they travelled, word started to spread about the two helpful young men, and eventually people started to actively seek Sen out. Word had gotten around that he was an earthbender, and someone had a special task for him. It was better for him if someone tracked him down anyway, he had a hard time getting around; the streets signs in this town were almost unreadable.

A girl a little older than Sen tracked him down and dragged him away from his latest small job to show him a shed without a roof and a large block of granite.

"You're an earthbender, right? I want you to take that, and make it fit that," she said, pointing at the stone block and the shed in turn.

"I don't know if I'm that good," Sen said with an awkward shrug. The girl kept batting her eyelashes at him, probably trying to flirt him out of a paycheck.

"Come on," she said, prodding him in the lower back. "Cut a few corners and lift it up, it's not hard."

"What kind of shed needs a granite roof anyway? Won't wood work just fine?"

"There's usually more Earthbenders around town, so it's easier to make things out of rock. But they're all on patrol, so it's just been sitting there. But now you can do it! So do it."

He examined the stone, trying to measure out what he thought was a good roof shape with his mind. It took him a while. He'd never been taught anything about geometry in the orphanage.

"It's not a shed, by the way," the girl said, breaking his concentration completely. "It's a house, for my pet Hog Monkey."

"You keep one of those as a pet?"

"He's not a very good pet," the girl said. "But he's mine and I love him. I just need to keep him in something very sturdy so he doesn't smash it."

Sen decided to get a little more hands on. He grabbed a nearby stone and started scratching out markings on the granite slab, drawing out the shape of a roof on it.

"My name's Kyo, by the way."

"My name is," Sen said, before pausing. Hanjo had given him an alias to use earlier, but he couldn't remember it for a moment. It came back to him quickly enough, though. "Wei."

He finished up his markings on the slab and readied himself to shape it. He'd never done anything that required actual precision yet, so he was looking forward to testing himself. He opened his palm and thrust his hand forward in a chopping motion.

The whole block went sliding backwards, nearly knocking down Kyo's fence. Sen managed to pull it back just in time. Kyo squealed in horror as it came to a halt just short of the wooden planks. Her father would kill her if she got their property damaged.

"I'm so sorry," Sen said. He'd torn up the grass all over her lawn just to save her fence. "I'm not very good at this."

"I can see that," Kyo sighed. "Have you ever had a real lesson?"

"Not really," Sen admitted. "Most people aren't willing to teach a guy around my age."

Kyo examined the swath of dirt Sen had torn into the lawn. The grass would grow back, but it would leave an ugly spot for a couple of weeks. Nothing her father would be too angry about.

"Well, I know a few earthbenders; maybe I can give you a lesson."

She pushed Sen into position in front of the slab, and then pulled and pushed his limbs until he was in a proper bending stance. She pointed at the rock.

"My uncle Kuro says that breaking rock is a lot different than moving it. You have to take something that's whole, and make it not whole. So what he says to do is imagine the parts of the rock you want to break as something you don't like, and imagine the part you want to keep as something you do like."

She got behind Sen and sat down on a barrel.

"So imagine those outside parts are something you hate," Kyo said. "And then get rid of them."

He stopped to think for a while. He focused on the bandit who'd attacked him at the orphanage, and then the Energybender, he tried the Headmaster who had let him and all his fellow orphans be abused, but he couldn't bring himself to really hate any of them. He hardly even knew anything about them, especially the Energybender.

That was what he really hated. Not knowing things. He focused on the frustration and let it out on the stone, splintering two large pieces off of it.

He hated the fact that he had no idea what he was doing as an Avatar. He didn't know who he could trust, besides Hanjo. He didn't know who his enemies were or what they wanted. His life had been boring and unremarkable before, but it had been simple. Now he had more questions than most people dealt with in a lifetime. He wanted answers.

With another heavy blow, he tore a chunk out of the granite. It was starting to take on the right shape now, but there was another huge chunk yet to be removed. Sen thought about the biggest question he had; what was he going to do next? Hanjo seemed to have a destination in mind, but did he have a plan after that? What were they going to do for the rest of their journey, across all the months and years it would take Sen to master all four elements?

Sen pushed forward with both hands, and the last chunk of stone vanished into a cloud of dust as he shattered it completely. He was left with a perfectly roof-shaped chunk of granite. He let go of his anger for a second and turned to Kyo, satisfied. She seemed to have gotten several inches taller, and she was staring wide-eyed at his feet.

Sen looked down. He was standing in a small crater, apparently of his own creation. He awkwardly lifted the soil back into place and shrugged at Kyo.

"Sorry," he said.

"You got pretty intense there," Kyo said. "Are you alright?"

"I was just thinking," Sen explained. "About the Avatar, mostly. I've had to go through a lot because of him."

"Oh."

Kyo glanced over at the granite roof and nodded approvingly. She seemed to be looking for a change in topic.

"So, how about lifting that into place now?"

Sen nodded. He'd practiced moving heavy stones earlier, so he didn't need any special instructions for this. Kyo nodded approvingly as the rooftop slid into place.

"Perfect," she said. Sen gave her a confident thumbs up. She went into the house to retrieve Sen's payment. Her Hog Monkey slipped out the door as she entered, and bolted for his new house, paying Sen no attention. He liked it that way. Hog Monkeys were noisy, dangerous animals, and he didn't like them.

Kyo returned with a respectable amount of money, thanked Sen for his time, and sent him on his way rather abruptly. He didn't ask what her deal was, better to just move on and try to find another job to do.

One the other side of town, Hanjo was having just as much luck with work. He was doing less wandering from place to place, and more doing long term work. Right now he was helping some workers load chunks of metal onto a satomobile. They'd been at this for a few hours now.

"Where's all this metal going, by the way?"

"Rail depot down the road," one of the workers said. "They're trying to get a rail line out to the mine nearby, but the projects stalling, so for now it still comes through our town."

"But if that rail gets finished, won't you all be out of a job?"

"Yeah, we'll probably stop doing this," another worker said. He wiped the sweat off his brow. "But if a rail goes to the mine, it would come here too, so that'd make this place a lot livelier. It'd make as many jobs as it takes."

"Makes sense," Hanjo said.

He went back to work, lifting another heavy container and carrying it towards a truck. He wondered if he could try metalbending it instead. He didn't see anyone else metalbending, though, so this had to be platinum, or some other unbendable metal. It was probably a good idea to wait until he was better at earthbending to try metalbending anyway.

As time went on, Hanjo noticed people getting quieter and quieter. When he'd arrived the workers were throwing friendly banter back and forth nonstop, but over time they all stopped talking to each other. Hanjo looked around to see what could be causing this. Considering he was a fugitive on the run, anything suspicious needed to be investigated.

There was nothing particularly threatening about anyone here, but he noticed someone standing at the edge of the room that had not been there earlier. He dressed like a police officer, but there was a badge on his chest that Hanjo didn't recognize. He didn't seem to be scaring anyone, but his appearance had shut down conversation in the room.

The strange officer wandered away eventually, and conversation started back up again, confirming Hanjo's suspicions. He turned to the man he was working with, a portly fellow named Zu.

"Who was the guy in the uniform?"

"You ain't seen his kind before? Guess you're from down south, yeah?"

Hanjo nodded. Zu chuckled to himself.

"That fellow is called a Weaver," Zu explained. "After the White Lotus got torn to bits, a Minister up on the other side of Ba Sing Se created his own security force, saying he was looking out for us."

"That seems like a good thing," Hanjo said. "But I get the feeling you're going to tell me otherwise."

"Clever kid," Zu said. "The Weaver's didn't waste much time trying to ferret out Avatar supporters, saying they was keeping us all safe by making sure nobody was hiding him. A lot of people got thrown in prison for not a whole lot of reason."

Zu tossed another bundle of metal into the bed of a satomobile and grabbed another out of Hanjo's hands.

"Now, I'm not going to open my door for no Avatar if he comes knocking, but those Weavers are using people's fear against them. Nobody here likes 'em."

Hanjo made a note of that. The Weavers were going to be a problem for him in and Sen in the future. The last thing they needed was to run afoul of a Ministerial security force.

"They aren't even supposed to be outside of Minister Raisu's own borders, but Parliament doesn't care enough to stop them from accusing people willy-nilly. Still, they don't usually come this far south."

"Why not?"

"The desert, mostly," Zu continued. "And the fact that you have to go through Zaofu to avoid the desert. Weaver's tried to get the Beifongs accused of something or another a few years back, and Minister Beifong counter-accused them of framing him, won the case, ended up banning them from his city entirely. It was a real embarrassment for their club."

Zaofu was starting to sound better and better every day. Maybe they could even stop and talk with the Beifongs personally. Their family seemed to be doing a great job of keeping anti-Avatar forces out of the town, so there was a chance there'd be no Energybender sympathizers at all.

"Hey, you ever drove a Satomobile before, kid?"

"Not once, Zu," Hanjo replied.

"Then consider this a lesson. Just climb in, we leave the keys in the cab."

Zu then gave him a handy lesson in running Satomobiles. Enough to get him around the corner of a building and hand it off to a more experienced driver. The experience driving would come in handy later. Seeing as Sen probably wouldn't get his hands on a flying bison anytime soon, a satomobile would be good for transportation.

That was the last thing anyone at this establishment needed done, so Hanjo collected his payment, bid Zu goodbye, and went on to the next job, and then the next one, until it started getting dark. It was time to meet up with Sen and count the day's profits.

The two met at the location they'd agreed on early in the morning. They were exhausted and hungry, so they purchased as much food as their money would buy immediately, and then checked into a hotel room.

"This isn't all that much," Sen sighed, looking at their meager collection of supplies. "But it's enough that you can stop stealing stuff, right?"

Hanjo ignored that question and moved on.

"It'll be enough to get us to a city with a train station, at least. We can get to Zaofu within a day if we get on the right route."

"A day of walking?"

"Uh, no," Hanjo said. "It'll probably be a week at least to get to the next town, then one day on the train. Maybe I could get Zu to let us take a truck to it instead…"

"Who's Zu?"

"A friendly guy at this factory I worked at. Taught me how to drive a satomobile, and he told me about a new bad guy we have to worry about."

"Great," Sen said with a sigh. He flopped down on his bed as Hanjo explained the situation with the Weavers and Minister Raisu. Sen just shook his head and pulled the covers over himself. He was suddenly much more tired.

"At least we learned something," Hanjo said, before calling it a night.