It took another week for them to reach the valley on foot, and another week after that for them to follow the river up to the place they had selected as the heart of the Farwilds.

From the moment they had spied the Earthbreaker beachhead Torun had begun to treat the hills and pine forests as hostile territory. Campfires were small and well banked, conversation was minimal, and Torun never left Yaosen’s side until they had chosen a defensible campsite.

Grunt left Torun’s side only a few times during that trek, but each time the beast did, the pair were richly rewarded for trusting him. The wolfboar apparently had a keen nose for truffles and other edible fungus, which made up half of their diet during their long journey to what they hoped would be their new home.

The other half of their diet consisted of game hunted by Torun.

When the last of the arrows he had brought failed, Torun showed Yaosen how to whittle shafts and fire-harden the wooden tips.

Slowly but surely, Yaosen learned how he could be useful. He filled and carried their waterskins, made their campfires, and crafted arrows or improved upon their initial pine-bough tent construction.

It was – some lingering part of Yoasen the Light Temple monk thought – the work of servants. But Yoasen the Exile knew that if this was all he could offer, he would need to swallow his pride and perform his duty. No acolytes would deliver food to him. No servants of the Light Temple would cater to his physical needs, allowing him to focus on study and higher thought.

Here, if he wanted an equal share of meat and mushroom, he needed to provide something in return. Here, a craftsman was higher than even a scholar.

Whatever hardship Yaosen endured during the journey was worth it when the forests finally opened up onto the wide meadows of the heartlands.

The river and her tributaries babbled merrily. The hills rolled softly, padded by lush grass and soft soil. The breeze was neither stagnant nor harsh, but just enough to be invigorating.

Yaosen knew the place they would call home before they had even stopped to rest.

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He unloaded their crude pine bough shelters from Grunt’s back. Once the wolfboar had adjusted to his new gait, Yaosen found that Grunt didn’t mind the added weight of a few branches, and a few dry pieces of wood for easy kindling.

Yaosen quickly set up their makeshift shelters near a riverbank, but he paused in preparing the campfire. He saw that Torun too was eyeing the flat hilltop that Yaosen had mentally chosen.

“What do you think, Grunt?” Yaosen asked.

Grunt snuffed the air then snorted, hobbling off in search of truffles no doubt.

“What next?” asked Yaosen.

Torun raised his eyebrows, “What do you think?”

“Food and water, shelter and safety. And then…”

Torun eyed him.

“...we begin the search for the avatar, in earnest,” Yaosen finished.

Torun cracked a smile. It quickly vanished, as that iron looked returned. Yaosen had begun to understand that look, not as one of admonishment or anger, but of determination. It was the gaze of the Meteor Knight that cut through everything extraneous to their goal, weighing this course of action over that one. It had been easy for Yaosen to misunderstand the look, because in those first few days, that gaze had spent so much time weighing him.

“The less time spent hunting, scavenging, or fighting for our lives, the more time we can spend mapping the area and searching for signs of human life,” said Torun, “We can start on a cabin here where we can command the meadow in all directions, a barn for Grunt here, were we can store what he finds, and I can set up snares along that threeline for small game and pelts.”

“This looks like good farmland too,” said Yaosen, “Plenty of Fire Nation farms are in valleys just like this one. There must be an active volcano somewhere at the river’s origin.”

Yaosen looked off into the distance, where the valley wound and wiggled through the land, then beyond to the white band of snow, where volcanoes and glaciers warred for the highlands.

The result was this river and these rich fields.

Torun followed his gaze, then said, “Let’s not get our hopes up. Plenty to do before we start playing farmer monk.”

Yaosen scowled at that. Hadn’t it been Torun who had insinuated that it could take years or even decades to find the avatar? It had certainly taken Yaosen’s great-grandfather a long time to even realize that the avatar was still out there, much less catch up with him and eventually aid him in bringing balance to the world. Why was Torun now hedging his bets?

Yaosen suspected it had something to do with Torun Bo’s dual heritage. Or perhaps it was the Meteor Knight’s own past life that inhibited him from fully committing to this one. But it wasn’t like Yaosen could just ask Torun, could he? Well he could… but asking was not the same as expecting an answer.