"Come on, girl." Korra whispered to Naga urging her to go faster. She wanted to get as far away as possible from her parents. She knew they meant well. Even though only the three of them knew that she was the Avatar and no one else expected her to go help the Air Nomads, she felt it was her responsibility to go to the aid of the last Air Temple standing. The Eastern, Western, and Southern Air Temples had been eliminated by the Fire Nation simultaneously. The Northern Air Temple was safe for the time being due to a terrible storm that didn't allow the Fire Nation to attack it. However, Korra knew it was only a matter of time and she wanted to be there to aid them in any way she could. It was her duty.
Korra was pulled out of her thoughts when Naga stopped running. They had reached the wall that kept threats out, but everyone else in. In a rash decision, Korra jumped off of Naga pushed her hands down then out towards the ground before the wall. The ice gave way and a tunnel wide enough for Korra and Naga to walk through appeared. Korra didn't look back as she descended into the tunnel with Naga trailing behind her. The wall was thick, and took Korra a minute to walk through the tunnel. When she reached the opening on the other side of the wall, she looked out over the ocean towards the direction of the Northern Air Temple. Her eyes met nothing but blue ocean and sky.
She blinked. When she opened her eyes, she looked at the sky. Ominous clouds covered the sky as far as the eye could see. She hesitated. It would be a difficult journey to the Air Temple with ideal conditions, but with a storm with no end in sight would make traveling nearly impossible. Impossible. Korra thought it would be impossible for anyone unwanted to reach an Air Temple. She thought it would be impossible for her to break a rule she herself had promised to keep, to never go to the other side of the wall.
Korra's face turned into a determined mask. Impossible things were happening all around her. She could make an impossible journey. She could save the Northern Air Temple and the remaining monks. She could do the impossible.
Korra got into a waterbending stance and moved gracefully making a large block of ice. She continued her deliberate moves and with a final sweep of her arm, a boat was made large enough to carry Naga and herself without capsizing from their weight and the storm.
Her face turned into a proud and satisfied smirk as she hopped onto her masterpiece and beckoned to Naga to follow her. Korra waterbended the boat only several feet before they were stopped. The water swirled, rocks rolled onto the boat coming out of thin air, the wind whirled, despite the normally frigid the area surround the ice boat began to heat up, and it took all of Korra's concentration to keep the boat frozen.
Korra suddenly saw through a bright blue light. All of the past Avatars stretched out in front of her to the limits of her vision. All but one was aged. The youngest one, not a day older than eight, stood directly in front of Korra clothed in current Air Nomad clothing. Although she had never even heard of him before, she knew that his name was Aang.
"Seventeen years ago," Aang began in a voice that sounded wiser than the elder people of her tribe. "I discovered that the fire nation had planned to wipe out the Air Nomads. I was given a choice. I choose to sacrifice myself to save a select few Air Nomads. No one knew I was the Avatar, myself included. I was meant to sacrifice myself, but you are not. It isn't quite time for you to save the world."
Korra gave Aang a questioning look, before she had the chance to ask him what he meant; all of the past Avatars disappeared. All Korra felt was cold.
Korra had no way of knowing how time passed, it might have been a few seconds, it could have been years, but when Korra felt as if she was rising and a sudden warmth spread from her head to her toes, she knew her time had come to save the world. With that thought, she forced the ice away from her body and saw two boys. One was her age with a wolf tail and beautiful blue eyes, the other seemed a few years younger. She tried to find a memory of them, some way to identify them, but she came up with nothing. Not one to wait, she stared the older one in the eyes, noticing him staring back. Unfazed she spoke. "Who are you?"
"Noatak, you know father will be angry if he finds out we were outside of the wall." Tarrlok said to his older brother in a small voice, already speculating a punishment he in no way, shape, or form wished to endure.
"Tarrlok," Noatak said as he turned to his younger brother, and placed his hands on his brother's shoulders. "I won't let him hurt you. I'm done with his evil ways. I brought you out here for this reason." Noatak sighed as he turned to the ice wall, flicked his wrist revealing two bags, pulling out one of them, and pushing it into Tarrlok's hands. "We can run away together. Maybe even do some good for a change. I know that there are people out there who want to stop the Fire Nation, and with our skills-"
"What? Noatak, the reason we hate father is because he is a crazy bloodbender! Why would you use that horrible ability on anyone, no matter how deserving?" With each word Tarrlok's anger rose. He began making elaborate gestures with his arms, and threw his bag back into the wall. It wasn't until after Noatak backed away and broke eye contact that he realized the damage Tarrlok's anger caused. The ocean was in disarray and as the last words were spoken, a large ball of ice rose out of the water following Tarrlok's arm movement. Noticing Noatak's distracted expression, Tarrlok turned around. As if in a trance, he reached out to touch the sphere and quickly pulled his hand away. "Noatak, it's really warm."
"Is that a girl in there?"
As Tarrlok began to focus on the fuzzy blob, it began to shake and before Tarrlok could even look at Noatak, or Noatak at him, the sphere exploded. Indeed a girl was inside it, with a polar bear dog as well. When she opened her eyes a blue glowing light began to fade, revealing blue eyes the color of the ocean on the prettiest day of the year. Noatak was lost in the depth of her eyes before she snapped him back into reality with a question. "Who are you?"
"I think the real question is who are you?" Noatak said keeping his emotions in check.
The girl's eyes flitted to her polar bear dog on her right and Noatak finally focused on the polar bear dog and went into action. He raised a column of ice, turning it into an ice spear and willed it to travel through the polar bear dog. It didn't even make it halfway before it was melted.
"What do you think you're doing? Naga is my best friend." As if to prove her point, she gave Naga a hug and Naga licked her face.
"Sorry! We didn't realize, my name is Tarrlok and this is my older brother Noatak." Noatak shook his head at his brother and shot him a disapproving look.
"Korra." The girl said putting her hand out and gave Tarrlok's hand a sturdy shake. She held her hand out to Noatak and he shook hers before giving it a thought. She had a strong grip, surprising Noatak. Most girls, especially short girls gave light handshakes.
"Why are you out here in a chunk of ice?" Noatak asked Korra.
"Good question, but I don't have time to humor it. My parents are probably worried, so I'll be on my way." Korra got into a stance and Noatak prepared himself to go on the defensive. When Korra just made a tunnel traveling under the wall headed towards the tribe Noatak reached out to her confused.
"Wait, you live here?"
"Yep, I moved here when I turned six."
"Well I've lived here my whole life and I've never seen you before."
"My parents and live on the outskirts, we are self-reliant and keep to ourselves so that isn't that surprising." With that said, Korra began going into the tunnel, Naga trailing behind her. Noatak looked at Tarrlok and they both nodded at each other. They followed Korra into the tunnel.
Korra smiled to herself when the brothers followed her through her tunnel. She didn't know what it was, but she felt like Noatak and Tarrlok were important. When she made it to the other side of the tunnel, her smiled turned into a frown and she stopped dead in her tracks. The tribe wasn't how Korra had left it. Everything was built out of ice and a river ran around all the buildings, boats moving on it. How long was she in that iceberg?
"Korra, can you let us out?" A small voice asked behind her, reminding her she wasn't alone.
"Oh sorry, of course," Korra answered hurriedly as she moved forward then hopped onto Naga's back. "We'll be off."
"Not so fast, Korra," Noatak said stepping in front of Naga, blocking the path. "We are coming with you."
"I don't need an escort. I don't want one either."
"We are just curious about where you live and whether you want us to or not, we are going to follow you.
Korra would have argued, but the state of the Northern Water Tribe put her on edge and she wanted to be comforted by her parents as soon as possible. "Fine," She huffed. "Get on."
Korra laughed at the brother's scared expressions. "Naga won't hurt you unless I tell her too. You have nothing to worry about." Korra thought she heard someone mumble 'that's really reassuring,' but they both got onto Naga's back.
Korra had no idea how to maneuver through the paths and she brought them to a dead end twice. When Korra finally made it through the cluster of homes and shops, she was stopped once again. A cliff, not a wall of ice blocked her path. She jumped off of Naga and examined the cliff side and the ground.
"What are you doing?" Noatak hissed.
Korra's pulse quickened. "I, uh, have to go to the bathroom."
She made a tent of ice surround her as she tried to make sense of things. But she couldn't concentrate on anything, but her possible loss. Her parents, Master Pakku, everyone she ever knew, could be dead. She had come back to console her parents, but they could have spent the rest of their lives wondering where she was.
She must have been in her ice tent for a while, or at least Noatak thought so. "Korra, if you don't come out now, I'm going to melt the ice."
"I'd like to see you try." Korra snipped back, but let her tent fall. "Look, this is as far as I'll take you. I'm going on by myself." Before they had a chance to protest, Korra hurried on. "Besides, I've never been to your home, so how can you demand to see mine?"
"That's completely beside the point." Noatak said, patience growing thin.
"Oh yeah? I'll only let you come if I can see your house."
The brother's look, they seemed reluctant to oblige. "Look, Master Yakone-"
"Master Yakone?"
"Yeah, our father."
Korra smiled inwardly. While she had never heard Master Pakku or her parents talk about Master Yakone, that didn't mean they didn't know him. "Do you know anything about Master Pakku or Tonraq or Senna?"
"Well Tonraq and Senna had a child who could waterbend. Master Pakku was the child's master. One day the child disappeared never to be seen again. Tonraq and Senna died one hundred years ago because they were so distraught with their child's disappearance."
Korra collapsed to the ground. No, her parents couldn't be dead. She couldn't have spent one hundred years frozen in ice. Pools of water threatened to escape Korra's eyes and the snow on the ground began to rise.
"Korra, what's wrong?" Tarrlok asked as he approached Korra cautiously and placed a hand carefully on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her, but it didn't help and tears streamed down her cheeks.
"You're their missing child aren't you?"
Korra couldn't look Noatak in the eyes when she shook her head and said, "No."
"You're a really bad liar."
Korra just covered her face with her hands and let sobs break through. She didn't hear Noatak walk towards her and she hadn't realized he was next to her until he scooped her up into his arms and began walking away from the cliff.
"Come on Tarrlok, let's take her home."
Home. Korra would never go back there again.