Asami jaw fell slack as she leaned dangerously far over the edge of the canoe. Was that…?
She looked back and saw Korra nodding her head, the fur edge on her hood almost obscuring the Inuit girl's answering grin.
A pod of sealwhales. They were smack dab in the center of a pod of sealwhales.
They were… beautiful. Asami had only seen them limp and dying on the cold iron deck of the Equalist, blood black against cold industrial grey. On culling days, the stench was too unbearable to be anywhere but below decks and away from Captain Amon's masked stare.
But here, looking down ten feet in crystalline arctic water, Asami could see everything. The sleek grey hide that was pebbled with white spots around the sealwhale's muzzle and belly, the powerful fins that could propel sealwhales faster than any animal its size ought to move, the playful black pebble eyes that shimmered in the white reflection from the icebergs that floated all around-
She could understand, now, why Korra fought so hard to make every jar of sealwhale oil cost far more than it was worth. For every whaling ship the Inuit girl scuttled, ship line she cut, every engine she blew, every time she unpinned the rudder and left the Equalist adrift in the treacherous arctic waters…
It was all for this.
Asami started when she felt Korra's hand on her shoulder.
The Inuit girl didn't speak United (Barbarians, Captain Amon had snorted. Asami had kept silentI) and instead gestured toward the majestic animals below them. Korra placed her gloved hand on her chest, her fist curling over her heart.
"Kahra."
Korra's eyes were impossibly blue—bluer than the ocean that surrounded them for miles. They lit up as she flung her arms wide, as if she were encompassing the world. The canoe rocked dangerously.
Her shout rang for miles, but the sealwhales below drifted by at the same leisurely pace.
"ANIRNIQ!"
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xxxxx
kahra- body
anirniq- soul