Yaosen returned to the hollow to the sounds of Duu’s shouting.

“I won’t leave grandfather! I won’t! If I leave, there will be no one left for him to talk to and no one should have no one to talk to!”

Since Duu had taken care of them and seemed to know so much, not only about waterbending – treebending, Yaosen corrected himself with a silent apology to the forest spirit – but about herbs and the forest, as well, it was easy for Yaosen to forget that Duu was still just a child. To hear her throw such a tantrum brought that reality crashing back down.

For Torun, it was literally crashing down, as the girl threw all manner of things – bowls, bandage leaves, clumps of wet moss – at Torun to punctuate her points.

Poor Torun was absorbing the onslaught and doing his best to keep a civil tone, “All I’m saying, Duu, is that you might be happier to help us find other people. There might even be other kids where we’re going.”

“I don’t want to find other people. I want to stay with grandfather and my trees.”

“You can’t!” said Torun, exasperated, “There are bad people coming and they might hurt you if you’re out here all alone.”

“Then I should stay with grandfather so they don’t hurt him! Tell him Yaosen. Tell him that I can’t leave grandfather all alone.”

Yaosen had been on Duu’s side about meditating to talk to the tree, so perhaps Duu thought he would be on her side for this, too. When Yaosen shook his head, Duu looked surprised and even a little hurt.

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“Your grandfather said that when you’re treebending you have to break a little bit if you need to move fast. The trick, he said, is to heal as you go.”

Tears began to well up in Duu’s eyes and she ran to Yaosen, burying her face in the monk’s bloodied gi.

Yaosen flinched, but he held the girl just the same. If what the forest spirit said was true, Duu had never really been held; not since she was a babe. The forest spirit knew that it was a poor substitute for a real parent, even if it had once been one in life.

Maybe Torun and Yaosen would be poor substitutes too, but the least they could do is take the girl with them, bring her to a village where someone might take her in and raise her properly.

The girl needed warmth and love, not just training and meditation. Yaosen knew that all too well.

“You know we have to leave, right?” said Yaosen, lowering himself to meet the girl’s eye.

Duu sniffed and nodded.

“Do you know if there are other people around? Maybe a city- er, a big village or clan, with someone in charge of a lot of other people.”

The girl nodded again.

“Can you take us there?”

“It's at the source.”

“The source of what?”

“The big waterwiggle.”

“River,” Torun clarified.

“Yea, I got that,” said Yaosen, then he stood, “We’ll collect what we need this evening, rest tonight, then tomorrow morning we can go say goodbye to your grandfather.”

“Will I ever see him again?” Duu wiped her nose on the moss of her sleeve.

Yaosen sighed, “Duu, your grandfather came back from the dead and became a spirit, just so you’d have someone to talk to. If there’s anyone you can count on seeing again, it's your grandfather.”