“Duu, what is this place?” Yaosen asked, picking his way through the bare eroded earth beside the gorge, and the spars of long-dead trees.

“Badlands,” said Duu, “Grandfather told me never to come here.”

Torun turned at that.

“Then why are we here?” asked Torun, “Duu, we’re relying on you as our guide.”

“There’s no other way up to the place you said,” Duu looked hurt, as if she had somehow failed them but wasn’t sure how.

“It’s ok, Duu,” said Yaosen, “I know you’re probably not used to making decisions with other people, aside from your grandfather.”

“But it wasn’t a decision. We have to go this way. The other branches of the river go underground for too long. This is the only other way to follow the river north, and I haven't gone this far north, so all I can do is follow the river!”

An offshoot creek trickled at the bottom of the gorge, but the flow was muddy and weak, carrying off whatever nutrients remained in the rocky red lands around them.

“Even if there are no other options, we can’t just jump into things,” said Torun, “We need to plan and prepare.”

“And the best way to do that,” Yaosen added, “Is to share everything we know and think on it before acting.”

Duu hung her head, she looked not only abashed, but also frightened suddenly.

“It’s ok, Duu,” said Yaosen, “We can practice working together now. What did your grandfather say was in these gorges?”

“Other people.”

“People?” Yaosen asked and Duu nodded, “Duu that’s great! We were looking for other people.”

“Not these people.”

It was a struggle for Yaosen not to snap at the girl. She had been so loquacious when things between the four of them – Grunt included – had been sunny and bright. But now that Duu had been chastised, she seemed as reticent as when they had first met her. It was frustrating, but Torun’s stern and direct way of doing things would only make Duu clam up more.

Yaosen took a deep breath and spoke calmly, “Can you tell us why these people aren’t the people we’re looking for?”

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Duu looked from one adult to the other. Torun nodded.

“Grandfather said these people are bad, like too much creeper living on a tree. He said they choked the land. They took too much from it too fast and the land died. Some moved on. But the ones that stayed only live here to trap the others going north.”

“Others going north?”

“A few clans have passed by grandfather’s hollow. There are lots of clans in the south, but they’re always fighting. Some people say there’s a place in the north that’s safe.”

“And these people, the ones like the creepers who choked the land, they rob the people going north?”

Duu shrugged, “Grandfather wouldn’t tell me. He just said to never go here alone. But you two are with me. And if you can beat the metalhunter then you must be very strong.”

Torun’s mouth was a grim line. “Once we come up with a plan everything will be fine.”

Yaosen looked at Torun, then back to the little waterbender, “Duu would you mind bending some clean water from the creek? Our waterskins are running low.”

Duu nodded and took their waterskins. The climb down to the gorge wasn’t terribly difficult in this section, and Duu managed it with ease. She began spinning a circle of water with one of the basic forms they had taught her, and pulling the clear water into their tankards little by little.

“She overestimates us,” said Torun. “She must have seen the battle with Lu Gun, maybe even watched our encampment for some time before that.”

Yaosen nodded but didn’t respond.

“What do you make of these creepers?”

Yaosen surveyed the land around them: dry, dusty, treeless and bare for miles. Nothing moved. Nothing lived. It was like a volcanic ashfield back home, but there, the soil was dark and rich, primed for regrowth, as Duu had said. Here the soil was thin and depleted. “It would have to be bad if her grandfather wouldn’t even tell her. It didn’t seem like he kept much from her.”

“I can’t see how people would even survive out here. There’s nothing to hunt or eat.”

“I don’t like this,” agreed Yaosen.

“No choice,” said Torun, “She says this is the only way and it's not like we can ask someone else for directions. You’re sure we’re headed the right direction?”

Yaosen sighed, “No. All I know is that somehow I knew the core of the Earthbreakers were in the south, at the mouth of the river. I knew it even before we saw their city as if I could feel their negative energy, like the black Yin of this land. And somehow I got the feeling that its polar opposite was at the source of this river, the Yang that could balance it out. I’m not the avatar, but I can only assume that it's the spirit world trying to tell me something, like the Mountain Spirit or Duu’s grandfather.”

Torun groaned, “Hate trusting spirit things.”

Yaosen shrugged, “I don’t know anything. But I hope that it’s the avatar waiting for us in the north. It’s the only thing I can think of that can balance something as powerful as the Earthbreaker invasion.”

Duu returned with their water, and the group moved on.

As they followed the badlands north, the gorge got deeper, and the muddy flow of the river appeared more turbulent on its way south.

As night fell, they agreed that they couldn’t afford a fire in this place, lest they give away their position to the creepers.

In the end, it didn’t matter.