"Today is the day!"
The cloth of the tent parted to make way for an excited teenage Avatar, who burst forth into the sunlight with an ecstatic grin on her face. She raced down the snow to a wooden enclosure, tackling her pet polar bear dog awake.
"Today's the day, Naga!" she repeated, pressing herself into the animal's fur. "Today's the day I finally pass my waterbending test!"
Naga gave a moan of encouragement.
"Getting a little ahead of yourself, aren't you, Korra?"
Korra's face was overtaken by a large smile, and turned around to greet the person behind her. "Master Katara! Is everything ready?"
"Still getting set up," the waterbending master answered. "You seem awfully excited."
"If I pass this test that means I only have to focus on mastering earthbending and firebending," she replied, gesturing animatedly with her arms. "I know that means no more sessions with you, but this is your home, so I'll still see you around, right?"
Katara smiled. "I'm not going anywhere, Korra. I'm very proud of you, you know. You're fourteen years old now. That's how old I was when I mastered waterbending."
The young Avatar chuckled. "Oh come on, I've heard about all of your adventures and I know you didn't have any formal instruction before you ran off with Avatar Aang. There's no way you mastered waterbending in a year. I mean, what else did you spend the last seventy years doing?"
"The last seventy years have been devoted to raising my family and looking after the new Avatar," she responded with a patience that only a woman of her years was capable of possessing. "And I have been refining and adding to my waterbending, but I mastered it in that one turbulent year. Just because you've mastered something, it doesn't mean you've learned everything there is to know about it."
Korra raised a confused eyebrow. "I thought that was the definition of mastery."
The old waterbender only smiled. "Korra, I've been around a long time, and I can tell you that words rarely show their true meaning until you've experienced them."
She gestured to a small trough that held Naga's drinking water, then started to move it back and forth with one hand. "I mastered the basics of waterbending when I was young. Push and pull. Redirecting your opponent's energy and using it to your advantage. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike."
Unexpectedly, the water in the trough leaped out and splashed Korra in the back of the head, causing her hair to freeze to her face. She pulled her bangs aside like a curtain and glared daggers at the waterbending master.
Katara pressed a hand to her mouth and chuckled mischievously. "Come on," she said after a few moments, gesturing up the stairs. "You've still got a lot to learn before you're a fully realized Avatar, but you know enough about waterbending to pass this test. You're going to do great out there."
Grinning, Korra rushed past her and into the waiting arms of the morning.
"Welcome, Avatar Korra," the leader of the White Lotus greeted her as she arrived at the testing ground. He came around so rarely that she had never really bothered learning his name, and she had known him too long to avoid an awkward situation if she asked him at this point. Korra called him Beardface. "I trust you are ready for your waterbending exam?"
She nodded excitedly.
"Very well then, the rules are simple." He gestured out to the large court, where three large barrels of water had been placed in a triangle pattern. "These barrels have been filled unevenly. Your task is to transfer the water between barrels until all of them are even."
"Sounds easy enough," she replied confidently, stretching her arms in front of her and cracking her knuckles while rolling her neck.
"Did I mention that you will also have to stop three other waterbenders from making them uneven again?"
Three White Lotus waterbenders stepped up to the court, in between the gaps of the barrels.
"Not really."
"You may use these smaller containers for combat," Beardface continued, motioning to a series of troughs. "Spill even a single drop of the larger barrels, and you fail. Understood?"
She nodded.
"Very well, then," he replied, stepping back under the pagoda with the other masters, including Katara. "Begin."
Korra turned around and ground her knuckles into her palm. "You boys ready to get started?"
Rushing forward, she pulled water from the smaller troughs and trapped the first waterbender in the crossfire between them, sending him flying off the court. She reached out to the first barrel, sending water over to the second one in a long arc without spilling a single drop.
The second waterbender lashed out with a water whip and she spun, redirecting it right back into his face. He tumbled along the ground for a few feet, while she turned her focus to the third. Emptying the final trough, she froze him from the neck down, allowing her to focus on getting the barrels even.
That proved to be something of a challenge, since the barrels were taller than her and she could not clearly see inside them. But she had not come this far to fail now, so she kept at it, figuring if she transferred the water between the barrels enough she would eventually get it right.
Her resolve started to falter after five minutes, when she began to realize that the test was impossible. If the White Lotus could not see the water to verify that it was even, how could she be expected to? She continued transferring the water anyway, waiting until they told her to stop.
The water was halfway between barrels when she was nearly blindsided on both sides by the two unfrozen waterbenders. She brought the water around to defend herself, and...
"Stop!" Beardface shouted as the water fell to the ground.
...failed completely.
"Raugh!" she exploded, freezing the water in her anger.
"I must say, you performed rather below expectations today, Korra," he told her. "I was led to believe that you were very far advanced in your study of waterbending." He glanced to Katara, who gave him no acknowledgement.
"Well I never got to practice with anything like this!" she yelled, gesturing to the barrels. "You can't just throw something completely random at me and expect me to get it right away!"
"Waterbending is all about being adaptable," Beardface countered. "Adjusting to new challenges on the fly is what separates a master from a novice."
"Oh, I'm adaptable!" she retorted, pointing a thumb at her chest before sweeping her arm out horizontally. "But this test was rigged. How am I supposed to know the water's even if I can't see it?"
"You're not. The test is designed to—"
"To make me look like a big fat idiot!" Korra interrupted. "Who the hell came up with such a stupid test anyway?"
"I did," Katara answered, and the Avatar froze.
"Well you could've picked a better one," she muttered before storming away.
She frowned.
"I thought you said she was ready," Beardface admonished.
"She is," the old waterbender insisted. "There's just one more thing she needs to learn."
The moon was at half-wax overhead, illuminating the courtyard just enough for Korra to see where she was going in the darkness. Not that sight particularly mattered at the moment.
"Argh, what am I missing?" she shouted at nobody in particular. "How the hell am I supposed to make sure these barrels are even if I can't see inside them?"
"You're not supposed to see it," Katara answered from behind her. "You're supposed to reach out and feel it."
She whipped around and glared at the waterbending master. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Katara smiled warmly. "Korra, you've always excelled at the movements and advanced techniques of waterbending, but that isn't what makes you a master. To master any element, you have to understand its basic nature. Waterbending is all about feeling the push and pull of the water. You don't have to see it to know it's there. That's what this test is designed to teach you."
The Avatar raised an eyebrow. "You couldn't have just mentioned it earlier?"
"I did," she pointed out. "Right before the test. You just weren't listening."
Korra sighed and stared at her feet. "You're right. I'm sorry I got all mad and stuff."
"You were frustrated," the waterbending master replied. "I understand. Would you like me to show you how it's done?"
"Please," she answered, stepping back.
Katara moved into the center of the three barrels, then raised her arms and drew the water out, gathering it high above her in a giant sphere.
"The key is to get all the water into one place, then separate it," she narrated as the water split into three separate globes, then drifted back towards the barrels. "You have to really feel it to be able to split it evenly."
As soon as the water was back in the barrels, Korra understood. "I think you're right," she said. "I can feel it. Just a little, but I can."
"The moon is out, and waterbenders are strongest at night," Katara encouraged her, redistributing the water so it was uneven again. "You can do this. I know it."
They switched places, and Korra took a deep breath before calling out to the water in the barrels. She closed her eyes, trying to feel the water. It was faint, but she felt everything down to the last drop. It grew stronger the more she concentrated, and soon she had separated it into three even spheres.
The water moved back into the barrels, and by the time she released it Korra had a huge smile on her face.
"I did it!" she shouted excitedly. "I really did it!"
The old waterbender smiled. "Very good, Korra. You're a master waterbender now."
Korra grinned right back. "I'm lucky to have such a great teacher," she replied. "Sifu Katara."
Katara's eyes grew wide, as if she had seen a spirit. Then they filled with tears and before she knew it Korra was being embraced.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," the waterbending master replied. "I'm just so very proud of you."
She wrapped her arms around her and returned the hug. "Thank you, Master Katara."