Lady, beautiful, of the sun
To your king I your true queen
Dragons, by all means, should have gone extinct. There had been no sighting of them since the neighbouring Fire Nation nobles started the so-called "sport" of dragon hunting hundreds of years ago.
And yet countless of witness reports had been popping up in the past six months. People were demanding the monarchy to do something, anything to stop the terrorising dragon on the loose.
The number of deaths kept piling up.
Mako had just returned from his last scouting. Her trusted knight-commander had lost many men this time, no less than the last.
Rumours were that the dragon - this specific blue dragon who could breathe fire and create storms and earthquake with its growls - demanded sacrifices every time it came out of hiding.
Rumours were that this time the queen was its chosen.
Queen Asami was pacing in her office. This had to be stopped. The dragon had to be stopped. But her men had done all they could and not all were fortunate enough to return alive.
Maybe it's time to give herself up... for the sake of her people.
"But you're the Queen! Our duty is to protect you with our lives!" - Mako cried.
"Exactly. I am the Queen," Asami smiled reassuringly, "I have a duty to this country, to its people. You and your knights have done more than enough."
Mako had insisted her to bring his troop along for protection, at least until they reached the cave, but she refused. If the rumours were to be believed, this dragon could sense how many people approaching its lair.
Best not to have more unnecessary deaths.
It wasn't like Asami was a delicate flower anyway. She had learnt to defense herself ever since before she could learn to read. Her father had made sure his only heir was well protected at all time. Asami had even donned her favourite hunting gears with her trusty daggers and leather gloves and all.
It took her nearly a week to reach the dragon's cave.
Asami's first thought upon seeing the beast was that the dragon was... small, comparing to other dragons she'd read about in the history books. Maybe twelve foot high at most - but would still tower over her if she was to stand near it. Fortunately it was sleeping.
Maybe she could just plan a way to sneak around, kill it and then return home. Maybe she wouldn't need to die.
Before Asami's mind could finish cataloging all the details of the cave and the dragon to use them to her advantages, however, the dragon suddenly opened its eyes and sniffed around suspiciously. Then... wait! Is her mind playing a trick on her because did the dragon just smile? Could dragons even smile?
The dragon gave Asami no time to consider the implication of this before it suddenly turns into... a girl. An honest-to-god human girl, with no tail or wings in sight. In blue clothing that reminded Asami of the Water Tribe people. And promptly disappeared.
Asami eyes widened in surprise. Ok, her eyes were definitely playing a trick on her mind now. One minute the dragon was right there, the next somehow turned into a girl looking no older than Asami herself, then apparently it was nowhere to be found now.
Asami's eyes quickly scanned the cave looking for any sight of the dragon - or the girl - but found none. Anxiety was creeping up onto her now. This was not good. The dragon seemed to notice that she was here already. Asami didn't come here to die for nothing. The least she could wring out of this beast-that-somehow-had-just-turned-into-a-girl is a way to stop it from hurting her people.
She felt a hand came from behind her, reaching for her shoulder. Asami didn't hear the "hey" that followed before her instincts kicked in and she quickly grabbed the hand and threw her attacker over her shoulders. The attacker fell to the ground in a hard-sounding thud.
"Hey it's me, I wasn't trying to hurt you." - the attacker said, wincing while putting up both their hands in the surrender pose.
"Then what were you trying to do, sneaking up behind me like that?" Asami shot back.
"Not going to help me up then?" The dark-skinned girl - who didn't look much older than Asami herself, probably even a year or two younger - pouted, before standing up and began dusting her clothes with her hands.
"Wait - her attacker is the girl that dragon turned into!" Asami's adrenaline-adlled mind finally clicked.
"Who... No. What are you?" She demanded, crossing her arms defensively.
The girl looked at Asami quizzically "It's me. Korra. Don't you remember?"
"I'm quite certain I've never run into any dragon before in my life, let alone a dragon-human hybrid. I thought they were all supposed to have gone extinct."
"Well, first off, I'm not a dragon-human hybrid. I'm just human, like you," the girl (Korra, she had a name now) gave her a lop-sided smile that felt so familiar though Asami couldn't put her finger on why, before seemingly reaching out to her arm but stopped midway and instead nodding her head towards the large rocks near the opening of the cave, "and second, while you might not have met me in this life, you certainly did in one of your last. So, come and sit down with me?"
"No, wait a moment. What do you mean by that?" Asami asked, confused.
The girl motioned her to have a seat on one of the rocks before entering the cave and starting to rummage through the pile of... something Asami couldn't see. Her voice echoed from the cave walls "I mean what I said. I was born a human, to human parents and grew up as human as you could possibly be. And you met me once, five life times ago. Or maybe six. There was a time when I couldn't find you so I'm not sure."
Ok this was becoming stranger and stranger. "Sorry, you lost me. Are you saying what I think you're saying? About past lives are somehow real? And just so you know I don't turn into a dragon and go around killing people."
Korra emerged from the cave with something clutched in her right hand. Her brow furrowed. "I don't kill people. I didn't kill those soldiers of yours. They were just..." Asami heard a sharp breath, "unfortunate. Anyway, here."
The girl went to sit opposite to Asami and opened her palm to show her a broken jade pendant with half of it gone. It was quite large, easily as large as the palm of her hand had it been whole. The jade had quite a beautiful shade of green and Asami absently noted the phoenix elegantly carved on one side of the pendant.
"It won't bite, you know. You can touch it if you want." Korra's eyes looked to Asami expectantly. Asami wasn't sure what all of this was supposed to do with her, but she took the offer anyway. It was strange how despite the rumours, Korra didn't feel dangerous. Quite the contrary, in fact. Asami had been wary of the dragon before, but in the girl's presence all she could feel was a familiar comfort that she couldn't quite name.
Or maybe there was really something wrong with her head.
"You didn't deny that you could turn into a dragon - or that that dragon was you."
The pendant was pleasing to the touch but Asami still handled it with care, lest she unknowingly damaged it further. In a cave full of dirt, fish bones and and dirty rags, the item in her hand didn't even have a speck of dust on it. It had obviously been well taken care of.
"I don't see any point in that. You are smart. Have always been," Korra leaned back, eyes looking up to the top of the cave's entrance, "And you'd find out in due time anyway."
Riiiiight, Asami had practically surrendered herself when she decided to come here in person, hadn't she? But that didn't tell her anything. She huffed. Which brought Korra's attention back to her.
"What are you, a giant shape-shifting stalker?" Asami looked straight into the other's eyes. "What do you want from me?"
Korra stared right back, and her gaze made Asami feel nervous, like those blue eyes could pierce through her soul and maybe see the stray thought of how beautiful those eyes were that Asami was trying to ignore.
"I don't want anything. I just want my soulmate back."