Author's Note:
I do not own any of the characters listed below except for my OC's Maylin, Sharu and the fortune telling lady. Other OC's may be added later but for now, those are the only characters I own. I also do not own the world this takes place in as it belongs to the two men who created the "Legend of Korra" series.
It was chilly when Bolin awoke with Pabu gently snoring into his bare chest. The sun had barely begun to come up above the horizon of Republic City and Bolin found it eerily beautiful. He lazily stretched and accidentally jostled Pabu onto the pillow next to him. Bolin chuckled at the tiny fire ferret's confusion.
"Don't worry Pabu. It's just a brand new day, and I have a feeling something good is going to happen," he said. "I'm asking Korra out after our team practice. Isn't that exciting?"
Bolin quickly got dressed and rushed down to the street below his and his brother's tiny flat. He wandered aimlessly about the city doing odds and ends jobs for some extra cash to buy a gift for Korra.
As he stumbled into a shop, he heard a mysterious voice call out to him.
"Well hello there sonny-boy," an ancient woman called to him from the back to the room. "Want to know your fortune? It's free of charge."
Bolin hesitated. However, the idea of a free fortune-telling appealed to him.
"Sure," Bolin replied to the woman, "I'd love to know my future."
The decrepit lady chuckled harshly and thrust her wrinkled hand out to grasp his wrist. "It all starts with the life line, sweetheart." she rasped.
He watched her withered fingers trace all along his calloused hands that were twice the size of hers. After about six minutes, the woman gasped and fell into a fit of coughs and laughter.
"What is it? What's so funny?" Bolin cried out.
"Oh nothing deary. It's just that things aren't always as they seem."
The woman paused and Bolin glanced up at her. Her golden fire-nation eyes bore into his own emerald-green ones. He felt unnerved but refused to look away.
"There is a young woman in your life," the woman cautiously said as Bolin's eyes grew twice their normal size. "She is beautiful in a subtle way. Her hair is silken and her eyes are as blue as the moon on the lake of Omashu. She moves the earth in a way like none other and her hands are stronger than any man's. She has suffered some loss but it has made her into the strong-willed woman that she is today. You will see her soon and she will comfort you and guide you into the right direction, only..." The woman paused here as Bolin's mouth hung open in awe. "...only you will not see what she is doing until the sun sets on the seventh night. There will be a tower and an ocean and then you will make your final decision as the sun sets."
Bolin grinned at the ancient woman like a drunken idiot. "She had described Korra perfectly," he thought. "She even got her eyes the right color."
The woman squeezed his hands together and blew purple smoke into them. "It is finished," she whispered. "It is now done. Go! Be gone from this place and get flowers so pink that the sun rise will be envious of them! Go boy...and prosper in your endeavors."
Bolin nodded quickly and left the store. He threw a few coins into a small child's cup and walked gaily toward the marketplace.
The shops all had their doors and windows open to let the cool breeze in. Children ran in the streets laughing and playing ball. Mothers sat in chairs and gossiped to one another as their babies rolled around on soft patchwork blankets. Everyone seemed just as happy as Bolin did. In every shop he went into, there was a smile and a story for him.
Bolin spent the better part of the morning wandering around and playing with the children. Sometime around noon, he broke away from the playing children and walked around until he found his favorite noodle shop. He looked at the newly cleaned facade of the building and found a young woman sweeping the front steps. He smiled at her and she looked up from her work. Her face was delicately beautiful and Bolin couldn't help but chuckle at the way her bangs kept falling into her eyes when the wind blew. She was very pretty and he had seen her there before but had never really gotten a chance to know her. He decided, on a rash impulse, that now seemed to be a good time, and he began to walk over to her.
Just as he began his ascent to the top of the stone steps leading into the shop, a man came up to the young woman and began to speak to her in a harsh tone.
"Maylin what are you doing out here? We need you back on the crew. The roads aren't even half done and there's still an entire complex to build," the man said exasperatedly. "You don't even care about what happens if we don't finish in time do you?"
"I do care Sharu. But you know my terms." the girl replied.
"We can't afford your terms!" the man shouted in her face.
"Well," Maylin began, "it seems we have reached an impasse. Either I get the money you and your crew owe me or you're all on your own."
The man, Sharu, sighed heavily. "You drive a hard bargain Maylin. You really do. I can get you the money when the job is done."
"No tricks mister. I want the money up front and I can finish the job myself."
Sharu's face turned an intense color of red and he stalked off.
"It's been nice working for you Sharu. Good Luck!" Maylin called after the man, now almost out of sight. She returned to her sweeping and lazily entered back into the shop to clean a now empty table.
Bolin wondered how the girl had been in construction but couldn't dwell on the thought for long. The clock tower rising high above the city chimed two and Bolin rushed to the stadium for Fire Ferret practice and to see his beloved Korra.