Chapter Three: The Search for Tong Fa

"You really want to find Tong Fa?" Hotaru asked from across the continental breakfast offered by their latest hotel.

"She did say she was the best," Kaiya shrugged, poking at her cereal. She was getting really sick of cereal. She picked up the homeless morning paper they'd found at their table instead.

Washi came back to the table with a tray of donuts and three glasses of orange juice. Hotaru and Kaiya both gave him questioning glances. "What? You guys don't like donuts?"

Hahn walked up to Washi, shaking his head, and took the tray from his hands. "Take one donut and a glass of orange juice."

"Awe," Washi wined. "But why?"

"You're in training, dumbass. You can't have this much sugar in a day, much less in a meal," Hahn said. Kaiya fully expected him to smack Washi in the back of the head.

Washi did as he was told, but the grumpy expression on his face didn't go away, and Kaiya thought she heard him mutter something about the many different flavors of jelly filling in the donuts at this hotel.

"Hahn, please tell Kaiya again that finding Tong Fa is a bad idea."

"Oh, you think Hahn telling me that it's a bad idea will make me change my mind?" Kaiya asked.

Washi laughed. "Yeah, uh, about that. Nobody tells Kaiya what to do. But, for the record, and not just because I'm bitter about only getting one donut, I agree with Kaiya. Better the devil we know than the earthbender we don't."

"She tried to kill us," Hotaru reminded them.

"I remember, thank you," Washi said defensively, shoving the last piece of his donut into his mouth. "Hey, Hahn, what if I'm still hungry?" he asked, reaching for the tray.

"I will cut off your hand, Washi," Hahn warned. Washi retreated. After a moment of thinking, Hahn said calmly, "I kind of have to agree with Washi."

"One donut isn't enough!"

"No. Tong Fa owes us," Hahn said. "Kaiya totally had her and let her go. And, besides, she's purposeless now. We could give her something to do."

"And it looks like she's really, really bored," Kaiya said. She spread out the newspaper on the table so everybody could see the photo taking up most of the local news section. Someone had built a huge stone statue of a girl standing tall in front of a mountain. "That girl look familiar to anyone else?" Kaiya asked.

"Holy shit," Washi said.

Hotaru gave Kaiya a worried look, "She's your kind of stupid, isn't she? That's why you want her as your teacher."

Kaiya smiled, knowing Hotaru had given up. She picked up the paper again and looked closer at the statue. The Elites would be looking for their old agent. The girl would need some new friends to help protect herself. Who better to team up with than the Avatar? "Yeah," Kaiya said, "She sure is my kind of stupid."

*****

Kaiya looked up at the statue. It looked twenty feet tall. The figure was as tall as the mountain and actually looked like part of the mountain. Tong Fa had built it in a place sure to be noticed, at a street corner across from a mall. There was a huge crowd standing around it. Some were taking pictures, others were speculating what it could possibly mean. The general consensus was that it was some sort of political and patriotic statement about freedom and the United States.

Kaiya thought the inscription sounded way too familiar to be political. "The Mountain Cannot Bow to Anything."

She tilted her head and looked at it again. "I know I've heard that somewhere before."

Washi shrugged.

Hotaru bounded up to them with several sheets of paper in her hands. She and Hahn had gone to the library to see if there had been any other similar statues appearing anywhere. "This is definitely the most recent," she said, handing Kaiya the stack of papers. "But look! All around Ohio there were these creeping up."

Kaiya looked through the pictures. They were all similar, featuring a rock formation and a young girl standing proud and unmoving. "She's really good at this," Kaiya said after a moment. "I mean, she's going to be a famous artist."

"Yeah, until they ask her how she does it or for an inside look at her studio," Washi said. "Then she's screwed."

"She's screwed anyway, when the Elites find her," Hotaru muttered. "This is borderline exposure, don't forget."

"Kill-joy," Kaiya muttered to Hotaru. "Look, how all the inscriptions are different."

"While there is hope, there is a reason to fight," Washi read from one of the last ones.

"Stand firm against what opposes you," Kaiya read off another.

"Listen. Wait. Strike," Hotaru read.

"They're lessons," Kaiya said after a moment. The other two looked at her. "They're lessons," she repeated. "For benders. She's saying don't give in. Bide your time." Kaiya looked back up at the statue in front of her. "And we can't give up."

Hahn ran up to them from across the road. "Another one just popped up about an hour away!"

*****

The statue in Elkhart, Indiana was the biggest one yet. It depicted a young woman standing atop a mountain, arms spread out in a display of what Kaiya recognized as earthbending. It looked like she was destroying the two towns that were separated by the mountain. The base of this one read, "Only Justice can Bring Peace."

Tong Fa had also signed her name.

"She is totally screwed," Washi said after the group had spent several minutes in complete silence.

"I hope she's long gone by now," Hotaru said, shaking her head.

Kaiya couldn't stop staring at the statue. It looked familiar. She didn't know why. And the phrase. That sounded familiar too. But this time whatever it was reminding her of was further off. Like previous life, déjà vu off. Looking closer at the mountain, Kaiya read, "Omashu." A shiver ran down her spine. She blinked.

"Omashu?" Hotaru repeated. "Omashu. Oma and Shu." It was on the tip of her tongue.

"Sound familiar, right?" Kaiya asked.

"AH!" Hotaru yelled as the lightbulb came on. "The first earthbenders!"

Kaiya blinked at her.

Hotaru shrunk back slightly, embarrassed. "I've been reading the scrolls again." Kaiya made a gesture for her to go on. "It was like a Romeo and Juliet story, and they made tunnels so they could find each other."

"Cool," Washi said. "But, how would Tong Fa know about that?"

Kaiya and Hotaru shrugged. "Something else, though," Kaiya said after a moment. "It's like, I don't know. I think I'm supposed to remember something about Omashu."

"Is this an Avatar thing?" Washi asked. The others looked at him. "I'm just asking what you all are thinking. She's had past lives, right? So, hey, maybe one of your past lives knows all about Omashu."

Kaiya went back to studying the statue. "Where are you going next, Tong Fa?" she asked out loud.

*****

"What do you mean, you've changed your mind?" Hotaru asked the next morning at Denny's.

"Calm down. The restaurant will think I'm breaking up with you," Kaiya warned.

"We spent all of yesterday trying to find some sort of pattern in her damn statues and now you tell me that you want to give up?" Hotaru asked angrily, ignoring the warning.

"I don't want to give up!" Kaiya said. "I think we should keep an eye out for her. She's definitely going to get herself into trouble sooner or later…"

"My vote's sooner," Hahn muttered.

"…and we should be there to get her out of it when that happens. But, I don't think she's supposed to be my earthbending teacher."

"Why not? Yesterday you were all over it!" Hotaru yelled.

The other worshippers at the altar of breakfast twenty-four hours a day looked up from their tables.

Hotaru noticed and said more quietly, "Suddenly the best isn't who you want anymore?"

Kaiya sighed. How could she explain this in a way they'd actually understand? She just knew Tong Fa wasn't the one. The girl had her own mission, one that brought her too close to the Elites and exposure. The best thing for Tong Fa was for Kaiya to keep her distance. The last thing the Little Earthbender needed was the Avatar hanging around. Especially an Avatar who found it impossible to stay invisible for very long.

Finally, Kaiya landed on a fair point that no one could argue with. Much. "I need a teacher I can actually find. Don't you guys get the feeling that I don't have all the time in the world to learn this stuff?" Kaiya asked. The others exchanged glances. "The world's a mess and I just need to fix it," Kaiya said after they didn't answer her.

Hotaru sighed and rubbed at her temples. "All right. So, who do you want to track down next?" She pulled out her list of earthbenders she'd gotten from the White Lotus.

Kaiya closed her eyes and pointed. If she couldn't have the best, she figured she might as well leave it up to chance.