Hello everyone! As some of you may or may not have known, I have recently participated in the Legend of Korra Big Bang to celebrate the anniversary of the finale of Legend of Korra. As you might /also/ know is that I am very behind schedule when it comes to posting for History: Part II. Due to time constraints, I have been unable to finish the first part of The Arts, though I do plan on finishing it within the next few weeks over break.
Regardless, I am still planning on posting for the Big Bang. So, to celebrate the Legend of Korra Big Bang /and/ the most recent feedback from Chapter 30 of History: Part II, I am releasing a preview of this first chapter of "The Arts: Part I". Of course, I'll be updating the tags, descriptions, and everything else as time goes on, and I was planning originally to post the whole first chapter of The Arts, but after reading through it, I realized there were some major spoilers for History: Part II things that haven't happened yet. So, once those spoilers have passed, I'll post the entirety of this chapter.
Updates for The Arts, of course, will depend on how quickly I'll get to write. Hopefully, I can get it going in a few weeks. *crosses fingers*
A little bit more information (all the words!). This is somewhat of a prologue chapter that I wrote all the way back when I first worked on "The Arts". I hope you enjoy this brief glimpse of what is to come.
The art that has been made for this fic is in collaboration with the stupendous dinopwnt (tumblr URL) via the Legend of Korra Big Bang project. I highly recommend their art and I fully believe you should support them! They are incredible. This piece highlights some of the important key players that may or may not be in this first part of The Arts and I couldn't be more excited about how it turned out. I big huge special thanks to the people running the Legend of Korra Big Bang and to dinopwnt for the incredible art work (it's currently my home screen on my phone, by the way).
I also want to thank each of my readers for supporting me for all this time. I am overly excited to continue writing this story and to eventually get into canon events, and most of all, I'm just honored and thrilled to have all of you in my life in some way, shape, or form. So thank-you, from the bottom, left, right, and top of my heart.
*bows*
Without further ado, please enjoy this preview and keep your eye out for more to come. *heart*
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March 15, 2016 Update
Hello once again! I know it's been quite some time since I've posted in this chapter. As some of you know, I celebrate the 15th of each month for a personal goal of mine that I've kept since May 15, 2012 (wow, that seems like so long ago!). As such, I wanted to update the rest of this chapter as only a preview was previously released. Everything past "Perhaps a little too soon" is new material, and I hope you enjoy it! ^_^
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Chapter 1
"Korra is special. She is going to do amazing things in this world – I already know it."
Remember my words
"Senna, it's going to be okay." Tonraq rubbed his wife's back as he held her in his arms.
The room was dark, with the exception of a small lamp on in the corner. Shadows elongated and shortened from the passing lights through the window. Different objects – simple objects – projected the most horrid images; they felt as basic and emotionless as their insides, the darkness projected onto the floors and walls personifying their hope. Of course, neither of them would let the other admit it, but they were afraid. But it wasn't Korra's disappearance that kept them up at this late hour in the night. She was already lost, already gone. The fear from that news had long passed. No, they weren't afraid that their daughter was missing.
They were afraid that their daughter was dead.
"We're going to find her," Tonraq reassured, withholding his own doubts and fears for the time being; he'd already expressed them enough on the bridge and throughout their journey, and part of him was convinced that it was his own shortcomings that had made the hope and optimism in his wife falter. "And she's going to be alive," he added, further attempting to convince Senna of the future to come.
Not that he really knew what was going to happen for sure. He knew the possibilities, but had not a single clue of the outcome.
"And if she's not? Our baby girl…" Senna's wails grew louder, though at this point, they were just a few notches above a whisper. Regardless, her sobs echoed off of the walls of the borrowed apartment bedroom.
Urkoma was nearby in her own chambers, listening through the wood that separated them in her reading chair near the corner. Her hands were to her chest, sorrow on her face. She stared out of the window and watched the various lights flicker and flash in the all-too-common yellow glow that was Republic City. Korra was out there somewhere and she had no idea where. She had grown quite fond of the teenager, going so far as to consider her a friend – even if their time spent together was short.
That didn't stop the worrying, though.
She would be lying if she said she didn't think about this Southern Water Tribe girl more than any of her other patients. Korra had changed her perspective and given her something to think about. Korra had touched her heart in a way that others had not.
And Korra had left an impact on her that she couldn't explain.
While she knew there was something different about her during their healing sessions several weeks ago, there was still an aspect she couldn't put her finger on until those fingers started working.
Then again, Urkoma knew more about her than Korra – or anyone else, for that matter – had come to realize. She put the pieces together, and all it took was the man's name.
Kuru.
But she wasn't one to blow secrets and she wasn't one to voice her opinions on clandestine matters to strangers – especially the ones on the other side of the wall to her.
Because they weren't just strangers in her eyes. No. They were much more.
Tonraq stiffened, his heart starting to come undone as he tried to comfort his wife. "Our baby girl…" He muttered, thinking of nothing else to say.
"I miss her, Tonraq." Senna spoke between sniffles. "I miss her laugh and the way her and Naga would go fishing together every day. I miss the way her and Katara would sit together, talking about the Avatar and all of these different things with tea in front of them and Naga between them."
The Avatar? Urkoma raised a brow, a faint skip of her heart bringing a spark to her chest. The Avatar, she repeated in her head, closing her eyes to let the pieces settle themselves and play with her previous suspicions. Hmmm…
"I know, Senna. I know." He rubbed his wife's back, wanting nothing more than to stop the tears from falling and hitting his chest. "I miss her, too."
"Why did she have to run away? Why couldn't she wait for us? Why did she leave again?"
His heart grew heavy. He had a pretty good reason as to why Korra might have run away, and it's been stuck in the back of his head ever since they started tracking her throughout the City. He closed his eyes and inhaled, searching for some sort of temporary peace.
The only thing that filled him was images – images from his past.
His folly in the North and the destruction of the Sacred Forest.
His banishment that stripped him of everything he had worked so hard to become.
His constant need to prove himself, to atone for all of his actions of the past – to show that he wasn't the neglecting, hot-headed monster that people thought he was.
He was convinced he could do this through a family. He knew there was little he, himself, could do to justify his worth to the North without an heir, especially with his father and Unalaq at the reigns. So he focused on the South. He worked tirelessly to do whatever he could for his people; hunt, repair, protect – whatever they needed. He built his credibility. He built himself up. He dreamed of raising children who would do the same – no, more – than he could ever do.
They would travel the world.
They would be Warriors and Healers and helpers to all people.
They would fix the void he had left behind and bring honor to his blood and his name.
And then, there was Korra.
He had been trying for years to conceive, convinced that he had been cursed with the inability to make a child. But the time came. He made a breakthrough and several months later, Senna was pregnant.
It was one of the happiest days of his life.
They went to the taakti every week to check on the health of their child. When the baby was big enough, the taakti showed them how to use Water Bending to feel the life of the fetus.
It was one of his favorite things to do.
Every night, he would wrap his arms around his wife's growing belly – just after she had drifted to sleep – and reach into her with his chi, which was amplified by his Bending.
There it was; his little baby's heart.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
It was music to his ears – his favorite symphony. It told a story that no kiluan or atuktuk could render, no matter how intense the song. There were nights where the little flesh raced and the baby tossed and turned. Other evenings brought about a gentle pitter patter, the child occasionally stretching or twitching in the process. Yes, it was one of the most rewarding experiences of his life – feeling the life he created, the life filled with his own blood, growing and preparing to enter the world.
Perhaps a little too soon.
He never would have expected to find Senna on the floor when he returned from his hunting trip, several days late from the storms that stranded them. They had outrun the second one that threatened to keep them at bay, but had to abandon the food they fought so hard to capture. Many of the people in the village were hungry. Some of them needed clothes and boots from those tiger seals. His fellow hunters had waited days for the blizzards to let up enough for them to scout and search for some sort of prey, the squalls becoming more and more frequent ever since the Avatar had returned to the Southern Water Tribe.
That, too, was when his little baby had been the most upset inside his wife's womb, sometimes even keeping Senna awake all night from the tossing.
He found himself humming softly to the unborn child during these times, hoping the gentle vibrations from his voice would be enough to soothe his baby while allowing Senna to sleep undisturbed – at least, in the times that she hadn't been woken up from the distress.
It did little to help the restless child.
Of course, the more he thought about it after the fact, the more he realized why it made sense: it was no secret to him that Korra was premature after the birth. She wanted to get out, and she wanted to get out as soon as she could.
Yes, he was quite full of shock when he returned from the storms to find his wife on the ground in labor. Korra was always stubborn.
And she was always a fighter.
Even the day she was born, Korra was a fighter. The baby that emerged from Senna was tiny and thin and frail looking, much more so than the newly born children he had seen in the past. Her head was fuzzy and small. Her hands were in little fists the moment Kya helped her out of his wife. But what concerned him the most was how still the child was.
How still and breathless.
His heart had dropped at that moment. His baby was dying. His baby was dying in front of his eyes and there was nothing he could do.
He couldn't feel that little heart beat, couldn't make sure she was alive. And he was terrified that he would never feel that heart beat again.
Tonraq almost wished he could shove the baby right back inside of Senna and let her grow until she was more developed, until she was healthy enough to be outside of the womb.
But he knew that was not how such things worked.
It was when the violent shaking began, not even a few seconds after the stillness and the failed attempt to get his baby to breathe that he felt his world shatter.
Kya was doing everything she could to save his child. He knew that. But it wasn't enough. He felt helpless; he had no knowledge about babies and healing and any of this stuff.
The only thing he could hear was that little thumping he missed so much.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
He had fought through the noise, fought through the heartbreak to get to Katara. He watched on as they Bent water around his one and only child, her skin paling by the second.
But those fists.
Those fists were still tight. She was still fighting, grasping the emptiness in her little hands as if she were grasping onto life itself.
That's when he knew she was a fighter.
His eyes widened when the fluid was pulled from her lungs. He clutched onto his wife, who was squeezing him back in the same state of disbelief.
Soon, the shaking and flinching stopped. The pained expression on his little baby's face faded away.
Then came the crying. The loud, powerful shrill shook them to the core and made their eardrums reverberate.
And that high pitched sound overtook the symphony of her little heart on those quiet nights – replaced it altogether.
Her cry not only showcased her strength, but it showcased her life. She was a fighter, she was alive, she was his little baby girl, and he was determined, at that moment, to do whatever he could for the premature newborn in his arm. He looked onto his child – his blood – with watery eyes, smiling when the baby stopped crying once they gave her her name.
Korra.
Her bright blue eyes opened at that moment, the shrieking simmering to gentle breathing. She looked up at him and he was overcome with a potent love. He would take any deathblow at that second if it meant the child wrapped up in the wolf pelt he had procured the week before was safe.
Tonraq mirrored the smile his little girl gave him. He closed his eyes and it was then that he could feel the heart beat once more.
It was sporadic but strong, intermingled with a life force so mighty that he almost flinched at its rawness.
Where did it all go wrong?
You know where it all went wrong.
He did. Sure, he couldn't pinpoint the exact moment, but he knew why it went wrong.
It was because of him, because of his ego and ulterior motives. He wanted a child, but his subconscious wanted redemption more.
"It's my fault." He muttered, more to himself than his wife.
"Tonraq, it's not –"
"I pushed her too hard, Senna. I wanted her to be a Water Bender. I wanted her to fill my spot, fill my place, to end the shame I brought upon my name after what happened in the North. And I kept making it worse. I wanted a clean slate, and I tried to do that through her."
She lowered her head, her heart shattering further at the truth she already knew.
Urkoma set her jaw in the other room, anger swelling in her.
How could he use Korra like that?
"I wanted her to be more, Senna, to have a better life than me. I – I never should have been so rough with her."
"She's got your stubbornness, Tonraq. She wasn't going to stop trying to Water Bend until she got the water in the pot to move. Even after we took her to Katara's –"
"That was wrong of me. I never should have dragged her there the way I did. I – I never should have done what I did." He looked away, his heart dropping in his chest. "I let my anger get the best of me. And I hurt her."
Urkoma gripped onto the arms of her chair, her knuckles a few shades lighter than before.
I swear to the Spirits if he ever laid a harmful hand on Korra.
"I wanted her to end up… I didn't want her to have the life I had. I didn't want her to make the same mistakes. And now, she has nothing. She can't Water Bend. She has no education. What is she going to be? What is she going to do? I just wanted her to be something, Senna."
"That's what every parent should want, Tonraq."
"But I took it too far. I know I did. All those times I tried to train her. All the times I got frustrated with her when she couldn't do even the simplest Water Bending task of feeling the water. All of the times I made her cry… And she ran away. She ran away in her teens and almost died because of it. She –" He fought for breath in his recollection. His mind flashed from the shaking infant on the fur across from him to the shaking teen under the furs by his side. "Now, she's gone again and who knows if she made it this time. She's gone. She's gone because of me."
Senna didn't know what to say. She pulled him closer and ran her fingers across his chest, her tears still flowing. "There's got to be more to it than this, Tonraq."
"Is there, really? Because you're right, Senna. She could have waited. She could have stayed in her dorm until we got there and told us everything that happened. But she didn't. She just… left."
"We're going to find her."
"And if she doesn't want to come back with us?"
She paused. "Then we'll cross that bridge when we get there. We can't force her to come home if she doesn't want to. Besides, you're not the only one at fault for this. I didn't exactly treat Korra the best I could have, either. But all we can do now is tell her how sorry we are and how much we love her and try to make amends."
"If she's still alive."
Their hearts dropped. Senna's tears worsened into streams. She tensed up and curled into her husband.
"I'm sorry, Senna. I'm sorry." Tonraq pulled his wife closer, Bending some of her tears away out of habit. "We'll find her. She'll be okay." He closed his eyes and took a breath, wishing for nothing more than to feel his little baby's heartbeat again, to just know for sure that Korra was alive.
The only thing he felt was guilt. Guilt and regret.
(-)
When he cracked his lids about half an hour later, he lowered his sight to his wife, who had fallen asleep in his arms. Her tear trails were dried on her face, leaving a salty residue. He glanced out the window, watching the glimmering lights of this strange place. Sleep would not come to him. Every shadow that passed made his heart flinch at the thought of his daughter being out there in this mess somewhere. Tonraq slid out of Senna's loose grip. He creaked across the room, stretching along the way. He snuck out of the borrowed bedroom and into the common room nearby. The door to a small outdoor patio caught his eye. He stepped outside and took in the cold air through his nose. He didn't like the smells of Republic City. The air was tainted with burned fuels and people and dust. He was much more accustomed to the clear, crisp sting of the arctic ends of the earth. He rested his forearms against the metal banister and stared out at the almost-starless sky before him.
"Can't sleep?"
Tonraq spun around to the unfamiliar voice behind him. His eyes met Urkoma's with a flick of fear in his pupils. He masked it with a blink. "I'm just getting some air."
"You don't need to lie, Tonraq." Urkoma leaned against the outer stone wall of the apartment.
He crossed his arms, his stubbornness ever present. "I'm not lying."
"Cut the machismo act. It's not fooling anyone." She straightened and matched the intensity in his being, completely through with playing nice. She had been waiting too long for this moment. "I heard you and Senna talking. I know about what you did in the North. And I know about the way you treated Korra. You're just as ruthless as your father was when he disinherited you."
Tonraq gritted his teeth, red coming into his sight. "What could you possibly know about any of this?"
"Because I'm from the Northern Water Tribe, Tonraq. I was there when you destroyed the Sacred Forest." It was Urkoma's turn to cross her arms.
"You – you were there?"
"Not at the scene, no. But I got the end result. My whole family did – especially my little brother." Her tone morphed from intense to sorrowful. She forced it away, for the time being. "But this isn't about that and how your banishment royally screwed the Northern Water Tribe. This is about Korra."
He paused. "What do you mean 'my banishment royally screwed the Northern Water Tribe'?"
She sighed. "When was the last time you heard anything from anyone in the North since you left that wasn't from the Chief himself or the tax collectors? Things are going downhill, and your little stunt with the Sacred Forest was the first nail in the coffin."
He scowled. "It wasn't a stunt. I was trying to protect my people –"
"And look where it got you. Look where you ended up." She stepped closer and closer to him, fire in his eyes. "Do you ever take the time to think over your actions, or do you just shoot out of the gate and ask questions later like a mindless gorilla goat?"
Tonraq backed up until his body hit the banister behind him. He gripped the railing to stop himself from falling over the edge.
"You would think you would have learned something from your banishment, but you're still the same arrogant, hot-headed, stubborn sack of stupidity you were twenty-one years ago."
"Did you only invite me into your home so that you could insult me?"
"The only reason I even let you set a single foot near me is Korra."
Their faces were inches apart, red rage meeting red rage.
"What does Korra have to do with this?"
"Everything, Tonraq. Korra has everything to do with this. She is the only reason why I'm not snapping your neck where you stand after everything you've done."
Tonraq clenched his jaw. "I know I'm not perfect. I know I've fucked things up in the past –"
"And what have you done to fix them?"
"There's not much I can do in the North given the whole banished for life part –"
"Tonraq, I'm not talking about the North. Fuck the North. You've already done enough damage up there and killed enough people in the city."
"I didn't kill a single person in the city."
"You didn't, but the Dark Spirits you released when you destroyed the Sacred Forest did."
He scoffed. "There were no casualties from the Spirits. My brother took care of them before they could take any lives."
"Oh, really? Tell that to my brother who was crushed and killed under the debris when the Dark Spirits destroyed my home!" Urkoma was seeing red, inches away from just pushing Tonraq over the side of the patio and watching him plummet to the ground in a satisfying splatter.
The blood drained from his face. His heart sunk in his chest. "I – I had no idea –"
"No, you didn't." She growled, turning away from the man before she lost control. Urkoma paced over to the patio door and rested her forehead against the cool stone of the apartment. She took a breath to gather herself, having not felt this type of fury for decades. "Things were never the same after that," she muttered, the memories of her broken family coming back to her. "I couldn't stay in my home, even after it was rebuilt. I wanted to leave the Northern Water Tribe and never come back. Having Unalaq as the next heir didn't help; things in the North only got worse and worse. My parents didn't want me to go, but once I finished my schooling at the medical facilities, I left. I haven't been back since." She faced him again, a new wave of momentum filling her. "So you want to know what I know about this? I know plenty. I know that your actions have hurt more people than you think, but most of all, they've hurt Korra."
"I know they have –"
"No, you don't. You have no idea what type of damage you've inflicted on her. You've done more than made her run away when she was younger. You've broken her. You've made her feel useless. She just wants to be enough for you, but she feels like she never will be, all because you were so hell bent on her being a Water Bender. She wasn't just jumbled up when she came to see me in the hospital; she was broken." Urkoma's heart ached to the words that flew out of her mouth, but she kept the fervor in her eyes as they bore into Tonraq's. "Korra is special. She is going to do amazing things in this world – I already know it. But you've left a gaping hole inside of her that you need to fix. She's never going to get better until you start to show her that she's enough for you. And if she isn't enough for you, then you don't deserve her as a daughter. As a matter of fact, you don't deserve her at all."
Their faces were inches apart again. Urkoma didn't even realize that she had moved closer to Tonraq in her fury.
"And she certainly doesn't deserve you as a father from the way you've treated her in the past. Stop trying to make up for what you did in the North and start working on what you've done to Korra. Your relationship with the Northern Water Tribe is beyond repair. The actions have been done. The mistakes have been made. It was over twenty years ago. Move the fuck on. But Korra… she's your daughter, your blood. She looked up to you and you sent her crashing down into a pool of your own failure and insecurity. You want to know why she ran away? Well there you have it. You're right; she wasn't looking forward to seeing you. And until you start acting like a better father and stop crushing her under your disappointment, she's going to keep running. I thought all people from the Southern Water Tribe were going to be as brash and idiotic and unsophisticated as you until I met Korra. She opened my eyes and changed my perspective. She is a wonderful person. She is strong and kind and courageous beyond your years. And she deserves a hell of a lot better than you. So you better shape up and you better find her. Got it?"
Tonraq's legs were shaking underneath him, even though the movement was minute. His heart sunk to the core of the earth. He didn't know when he had started crying, but there were single tears down the sides of his face. He nodded, frustration and regret in his irises.
Urkoma wanted to lay it on him, wanted to let him have it for everything he did to Korra. But when she looked into his eyes, she had seen the damage she had done. While she believed he deserved it, a broken Warrior wouldn't be as effective at finding Korra as a whole one would be. She simmered down and placed a hand on each of his shoulders. "You need to find Korra. You and I both know the City isn't a safe place for her. Now get yourself together and get some sleep. I don't expect you to stop until you've got her in your sights." She turned away and approached the patio door, but stopped short of the exit. She faced him again, a darkness in her eyes brought on by years of her past and the stories Korra had told her. "And if I hear a single word about you laying a finger on Korra, you'll be getting a visit from me in the Southern Water Tribe, and I will be the last person you ever see in your life." Urkoma pushed her way through to the common room, leaving Tonraq to mull over the words that she left hanging in the air.
And he better not forget a single one of them. Remember my words, Tonraq. Korra is so much more than what everyone thinks she is and she deserves so much better than what she's got.
She paused a moment at her bedroom doorway and looked out to the City, her own fears for her former patient consuming her.
I hope they find her soon, and I hope she's okay.
