The Avatar was supposed to be the master of all four elements: air, water, earth, and fire.
The Avatar had more power, was the wisest, strongest, and the most uncontrollable force know to walk the world of the benders. No one messed with the Avatar.
At least, that's how it should have been. But then Avatar Aang died, and the search was on for his reincarnation.
It was almost like the Avatar's soul did not want to be found again. Five years after Aang's death, many benders and non-benders alike began to believe that there would be a repeat of the hundred years Aang was missing.
The White Lotus searched and conducted tests on a countless number of children, but with each failure, with each possibility that this child might just be the Avatar that raised the hopes that were soon dashed by the fact that this child wasn't the one; people steadily began to become surer that their child might be the one.
The highest members of the White Lotus had by now traveled even the most exotic places of their world, ever searching for that one glimpse of raw power. Their search led them to the barest and most desolate face on the Earth. The South Pole.
Upon their arrival, they immediately traveled to the capital of the Southern Water Tribe, and word soon spread from the city to the small, scarce villages around it. Water was the next in the cycle, and thousands flooded through the city gates to get their children tested, just because they held onto that small hope that their child was the Avatar.
This was what Korra knew at the age of about five and a half, the hope that was set ablaze in the eyes of proud parents, and soon kindled in the hearts of children. That their child, if a powerful enough bender, might be singled out among the floods of other children as the single most powerful bender to walk the Earth.
Korra watched as one by one, people she had been growing up with left the smallest of the Water Tribe villages, the yearning and desire for the title that would make them more powerful than all the rest clearly showing in their eyes. She watched as, upon their return, the hope in their eyes disappeared and was replaced with something like disgust, anger, pain, and a sort of brokenness in their hearts that healed back crooked.
The children she lived with never acted the same after they came home from seeing those strange flower-men in the city.
Where there used to be a kindness and joy and freeness in each child's life there now was a hostility and anger and jerkiness in each of their actions.
Korra had never been a powerful bender, and she hadn't wanted to be. Especially not after seeing the lives of the children and their parents after each of the hopes they inherited from their parents blew up in their faces. She didn't want that for her family, and she did not want the power. Not like these children did, and not like her parents did.
But as the numbers of the children from each village narrowed down, the more excited her own parents became as the possibility that their little Korra could be the next Avatar rose, and as the open dislike and hostility between Korra and the other benders of her tribe became more obvious.
The children she had used to go penguin sledding with, had used to spend every waking hour with, now laughed at the attempts of her parents to get her to become more powerful. They laughed at her weakness, and told her she would do nothing more than wash the dirty laundry of other people. Korra never fought back when they began to throw snowballs with rocks or hard ice in the middle, she didn't defend herself.
Korra kept her mouth shut and would just walk away.
She didn't blame the other children for treating her this way, she was weak, and they had their hearts crushed, and she was sure their parents that had once revered their child now treated them much differently. But then again, what did she know? She was only five.
More months past, and although the attacks of the children had calmed down, they hadn't stopped altogether. Nor had her parents' attempts to get her to do something amazing.
Why couldn't her parents or those other kids understand?
Korra was nothing special. She wasn't amazing or powerful or anything. She was different, yeah, but that was only because of the way she was being treated.
By her parents, it was as if she was the most powerful, important bender of the world.
By the other children, she should be eliminated, and the stones in the snowballs were larger.
When Korra turned six, something happened. Something she had never thought would. Up until now, her parents had been kind, almost too kind, trying to spoil their daughter and get her to show her love for them by doing outrageous things in order to make up for the lavish gifts her parents gave her. Sometimes the tricks her parents had her try to do would cause her great pain and she'd pass out from it.
She didn't get why they would treat her like that, or why they'd want her to be the Avatar. The Avatar, if that was a title that could change a people this much, then she didn't want to know what kind of powers the actual person might have.
Up until her birthday, the day things changed, her parents had hurt her trying to get her to be someone she wasn't. But they'd always apologize and would keep her safe and warm from the harsh winter colds, and from the stones other children threw at her.
She'd never have expected her parents to give up on her suddenly, in the middle of one of their exercises, and start a rant on how worthless and weak and pathetic she was. She was fine with that, she understood the fact that she didn't meet up to her parents' expectations.
What hurt her the most about her birthday was when, instead of saving Korra from the stones children threw at her lately, her parents joined in. And with those two adults among the children, other bitter parents joined the group of small children and Korra's own parents.
Up until Korra's birthday, she had never been hit by a stone, but it was amazing how much the accuracy of the children improved with the addition of those menacing looking adults. And it was amazing how much blood Korra had coming from her small body.
Korra had never fought back, she had never allowed her temper to get the best of her, but on her birthday, with those pools of warm red blood melting the snow at Korra's feet, when she was so weak and helpless where she couldn't rein her anger in, she let it out.
All of it.
All the anger and pain and fear and mistreatment Korra had ever received, she threw right back at them. Her meek and useless water bending suddenly became powerful, sure movements. The water over her head arced with her body and matched her movements, and she gathered up moisture and water and ice into a large wave. With a movement of her arms, she threw all of it at her parents, and the children and those adults that were standing, looking at her with something like awe written on their faces.
They didn't move as the large torrent of water was rushing towards them.
Korra tasted something bitter sweet in the back of her mouth, and she liked it. She realized it was the taste of power, of what everyone besides her was longing for and fighting over. This was power, and strength, and she wanted more of it, to protect herself. She wanted to be strong and never have anyone hurt her like her own people did again.
The wave Korra made was almost upon those people, and soon the bitterness overcame the sweetness, and Korra felt a prickling in her eyes.
As a tear slid down her now six-year old face, Korra lowered her arms, and the water followed her movements. Soon the giant wave was just a pool of water, much like the blood at her feet.
Korra looked up into the faces of the people she had almost drowned, from the scared faces of the children, to the haunted looks of their parents, to the look of absolute success upon her own parents' faces. That last look startled her, and the pool of water rose up in a steady stream, following Korra's rising, accusing finger as she pointed over to her parents. Korra realized her parents had hurt her. Her parents had hurt her just to see that one glimpse of power Korra had become instantly addicted to.
The regret she had felt prickling the backs of her eyes was still there, as was pain and anger at her parents' betrayal.
Suddenly her mother looked surprised, and her father ashamed, as they realized themselves what they had done to their daughter to bring out that power. Korra roared out her anger, and with the rising stream of water, she formed a wall and froze it.
That wall would give her enough time to get away from all of them, because Korra now knew she couldn't live around people that starved only for her power, or that resented her because of it.
So she ran.
Later, when it was dark out, and the moon was high, Korra had never felt so cold. Her once fresh and warm clothes now felt soggy, and the biting air seemed to gnaw at her bones. Korra had faced a winter night before in the South Pole, she lived there, and of course she had. But she hadn't ever faced one like this.
Not ever this dark, this wet, this weary and tired and cold.
Korra had been walking for hours and the muscles underneath were coat were slick with sweat. Korra was shaking violently from the cold and from the exhaustion. A few more steps and she couldn't take any more. She collapsed on the frozen snow and ice. Her body began to grow numb, and it stung now, more than earlier, where the stones had hit her belly.
Korra had never wanted to be so weak again, and she knew that she wouldn't have a chance to reverse that weakness that was her right now unless she got back up and kept walking. She'd have to take care of herself until she found help.
So Korra got up, and stumbled along the snow before regaining her balance and continuing to walk.
When the moon was directly overhead, Korra thought she would collapse again, though from lack of sleep. She was pretty sure that her mind was playing tricks on her too, because from the moment she had first fallen, she had thought she saw movement out of the corners of her eyes.
Every time she saw that movement, or whatever it was, she'd twist her head and look in that direction, before shaking her head in confusion and walking on.
A six year old should not have to go through the things Korra had, although she probably wasn't the last one to, or the first.
Korra would've died that day, the day of her birthday; if it weren't for the one friend she met that saved her life.
A young polar bear-dog pup had been following her, straying far from its own family.
When Korra fell again, it raced over to her and nudged her with its wet snout, and allowed Korra to clamper up onto its back.
The polar bear-dog carried her, barking sharply occasionally, almost as if it was making sure Korra was still awake. When that happened, Korra would pat its head lightly, before burrowing in a little closer to its warm fur.
At some point that night, Korra did fall into a dreamless, black sleep. And though her eyes woke up when she heard the screaming of a woman sometime in the early morning hours, she never registered exactly what was going on. She clung on tightly to the dog carrying her on its back, that fear that her parents and old friends would hurt her again showing in her movements.
She wasn't aware of a woman running over to her, and trying to pry her arms off of the polar bear-dog, or of the strong arms of a man that must've been the woman's husband carrying her into a warm stone house.
The warmth made her shiver more, and her blue skin that had begun to be coated with ice now warmed and melted. She thought she heard a voice telling someone to grab more blankets, but she certainly felt the result of it.
Korra's eyes closed again, since everything was moving too fast, and was too dizzy and too much to bare. She didn't know that when she opened them again, she'd soon have two new, caring, loving parents, or a best friend made out of a polar bear-dog named Naga.
And she didn't know that the power she felt inside of her made her the Avatar, the most powerful bender of all.
Right, so I know this is really weird and way off-kilter, the story line is way off, so please forgive me for that. Also please forgive me for being so... Angst? Is that what this is? I don't know, I wrote this yesterday and was feeling kinda depressed, so I guess it showed in the story. Please forgive me if you like Korra being the exact opposite of whatever this is. Like I said, something happened to me yesterday and I needed to get my mind off of it, somewhat. Thanks for reading and please review if you have something to say. I don't mind anything, really, I can take any bad reviews, but I especially like the good reviews. Thanks again.