So I posted this on my tumblr and naturally I like to post my work everywhere. ((The next installment of Cerulean is coming this weekend. Keep an eye out!))

Disclaimer: I stake no legal claims on The Legend of Korra or its characters. Everything rightfully belongs to Bryke.

Enjoy!


The first tear fell selfishly for her, for all her resist, for all her torment, for all her sacrifices. The salt ridden tear fell into the pool of still water, dispersing into patterned ripples that distorted her reflection. The second tear fell for her friends and she relinquished the tether that bound her to them. The ripple grew fervent―vigorous until her face was a blur of moving colors. She let the salt tracks cling and dry to her cheeks.

Her hands reached up and slid the beads from her thickened russet hair. Luminous thickets fell around her face and tumbled delicately over her shoulders and down her back. She tossed the beads into the water. The ripples carried them away and swallowed them to rot in growing groves of algae at the bottom of the pool.

The blade felt heavy in its leather sheath that lain on her lap. Leisurely she drew the blade out, her fingers sliding along the hilt to the fuller, to the edge that shallowly cut open the soft pink flesh of her fingertip. It scarcely stung.

I've felt greater pain. She silently told her reflection.

Blinking once, twice, she rubbed the moisture from her eyes with the back of her hand. When she opened them, in the pool of stilling blue water, her eyes showed an ethereal white, pulsing lifelessly. When she gasped, reeling back, her reflection stayed still like stone, her lips straight, hair disheveled and shoulders hunched.

Thrown back, years flashed in her eyes, her breath hitching and sputtering in her closing throat. Chains rattled in her ears, the roar of fire hot on her tongue. Her legs felt atrophic beneath her.

The voices were loud. The voices were clear―screaming, gouging new holes into her.

The world doesn't need you anymore!

The time of the Avatar is ending!

You're weak!

You're a coward!

You are nothing!

You're the most loyal, brave, and selfless person I've ever met.

Korra shoved the blade through the assembly of tresses that snapped and splintered from curls that formed at her neck. How easy it all came away frightened her and she unsnarled herself from the corpse of detached strands.

Eventually the water stilled and the swell of colors became a visage she refrained to distinguish. Her eyes blinked blue.

The first tear Korra shed fell selfishly for herself. The second tear for what she used to know, and the third for who she used to be.


Let me know what you think! What did you like? What did you hate! Feedback is valued and encouraged! Thank you kindly for reading!

~Megan~