Avatar The Legend of Korra
The Arctic Flame
Chapter 1: Fluid Fire
"He bends fire like it's water!"
Korra barely managed to glance behind her in time to see purple-white fire explode into the stunned thug, his own fire used against him.
"What the-" A second thug crumpled under Korra's solid right hook as the young Avatar's full attention turned to the shorter teenager beside her.
He was watching the last Firebender thug with calm concentration. As soon as the man lashed out with a violent blast of flames, the teenaged boy effortlessly moved into stance. Korra instantly recognized the fluid motions of a Waterbender, but as she watched in surprise, he captured control of the fire roaring towards him. The red flames curled around his body, and as he directed it right back into the thug's shocked face, the color of the fire changed into that strange purple-white Korra had glimpsed before.
With a grunt the man hit a nearby wall and slumped to the ground, unconscious along with his two cohorts. As the boy stood straight from his stance, Korra heard herself ask, "Who... who are you?"
Deep purple eyes met her gaze for the shortest of moments before he shrugged with indifference. "I'm just another lost soul here in Republic City." He was very soft spoken and would not meet Korra's questioning eyes again, although the Avatar could see that he stood with a great weight on his shoulders. She never expected to find such a person when she entered the city that day, in an effort to clear her head after another long and frustrating morning of Airbending training.
Her wandering had taken her though some of the more run-down areas of the city, where she heard a commotion coming from a grubby dead-end alley. At first glance, it appeared as if three firebending brutes had cornered a defenseless teenager, but the Avatar now knew that it was a misleading illusion. She had assumed that the strange boy with white hair was a non-bender because he wasn't putting up a fight at all. He had only reacted when one of the men shot at Korra from a blind spot, and he surprised everyone by redirecting the fire of another person. Korra would have never believed that such a thing was possible if she hadn't witnessed it herself. It was unheard of, not to mention the bizarre way that the fire changed color by his hand.
She studied his white hair where it appeared from under his hat, her mind trying to understand why it seemed so damn familiar, but the train of thought was lost when she saw movement in the corner of her eye. She reacted, but it wasn't fast enough to save the boy from taking a nasty suckerpunch from the man who had fallen first, golden glasses flying towards Korra.
The short boy hit the ground in the same moment that Korra launched the man high into the air with a well-aimed point of earth, his scream lost among the sounds of him crashing onto a nearby roof. The Water Tribe girl then scooped the motionless boy up into her arms after carefully picking up his golden specs, and she turned to leave the alley to seek out the nearest ferry back to the island.
It was quiet when Korra returned to the Air Temple island with the boy still in her arms. A severe bruise was already forming over his swollen right eye and he had not stirred at all on the boat ride back to the island. I hope you'll be alright... Lightly Korra bit her bottom lip.
She took the strange boy inside and gently laid him out on the nearest bench before she left to find Tenzin. The Airbending master was outside, quietly meditating in a pavilion overlooking the water between the island and the mainland, but he stirred when he heard Korra approach.
"You came back rather quickly... Did something happen, Korra?"
The Avatar sighed and replied, "Actually, yeah... Would you mind coming with me? I'll explain..."
By the time the two stood beside the boy, Korra had told Tenzin about everything that happened. His gaze took in the teenage boy's entire appearance while he thoughtfully stroked his beard, his long silence telling Korra that he knew something profound.
When he finally spoke, his every word caught her ear, "Korra, do you know the story of the Moon Spirit and Princess Yue?"
She smacked her fist against her open palm with sudden revelation. "Oh, of course! I can't believe I forgot something like that..." Her blue eyes studied white hair. "No wonder he feels like a familiar presence... He's been blessed by the Moon Spirit, but why? How is it possible? I would never think that the Moon Spirit would bless a Firebender..."
Tenzin let out a small chuckle. "Well, the spirits sometimes do things that we never expect... You will just have to ask him when he wakes up. For now, be patient." Korra nodded, possibilities of all kinds turning over in her mind. She wanted to ask the strange Firebender so many questions! Tenzin gave her shoulder a light squeeze. "Korra, why don't you catch your breath and eat something? I'll keep an eye on him for you."
Nodding, Korra at last turned to leave, but she paused at the doorway. Before she could voice her mind, Tenzin waved her off and said, "I'll call for you if he wakes up, so go on." She flashed the Airbender a thankful grin and left the room. Tenzin listened to her footsteps fade away, then he leaned down a bit to get a better look at the boy.
It was easy to see that his facial features and skin tone hinted at Water Tribe heritage, though it didn't prove that he had been born from a Water Tribe family. However, based on Korra's story and the detail of the boy controlling fire like water, it did add more weight to that possibility. Tenzin pulled off the boy's hat and lightly touched his forehead to probe his spiritual energy.
Immediately Tenzin could feel the power of the Moon Spirit strongly within the boy, but he could also feel inner darkness. Who are you? What has taken place in your young life already to leave such a mark of darkness upon your spirit?
Korra was in the middle of eating a bowl of spicy noodles when she heard Tenzin call for her. She practically bolted from the table and left her forgotten food behind, hurrying to the front foyer and to the young Firebender's side. He was sitting up and cradled his head in his hand, his purple hat clutched tightly in his other fist. At the sound of Korra's steps he looked up, their eyes meeting again for a brief instant before he looked away. The young Avatar winced at the sight of the boy's black eye, but when she leaned down to get a closer look, he instinctively pulled away. She frowned, meeting Tenzin's gaze for a moment before she took a step back. The mysterious boy visibly relaxed with the space between them again.
Tenzin stroked his beard for a moment, then he asked, "What is your name?"
The boy replaced his hat on his head and tugged the bill low over his eyes, responding in the same soft voice Korra remembered, "My name... Kai."
The Airbender was silent for a moment, Korra watching his face to try to gauge what Tenzin was thinking but his expression gave nothing away. "Kai, you say? I'm Tenzin, but do you mind me asking where you originally come from? It's not often that we come across a Firebender who's as... unique as you are. Korra here told me what you did with the fire from another bender."
Kai was silent for a while, and when he looked down at his hands he murmured, "I don't come from anywhere. I have no home to speak of." The weight of his words clearly said otherwise, and the Airbending master was reminded of the taint of darkness he had felt within Kai.
"Sadly, that is a well-known story in Republic City, but I want you to know you are always welcome here in the Air Temple, for as long as you need. Korra," the young Avatar turned to Tenzin, "please make our new friend feel comfortable. I am going to do a little research in the library, so if you need anything you know where to find me."
Korra watched Tenzin go, and once she was alone with the Firebender, she looked at his small form. He was staring down at his hands in silence, and even though Korra wanted to ask him a thousand different questions, she instead held them inside. She took a seat at the other end of the bench, leaving as much space between the two young benders as the bench would allow.
While Korra tried to decide where to start, Kai spoke, "Thank you..."
She felt herself smile a bit, but only for a moment before she asked, "How did they manage to corner you like that? It's obvious that you are a much stronger bender than all three of them combined..."
Letting out a sigh, Kai's face turned away and his soft voice trembled the slightest as he responded, "I try to avoid bending as much as I can. It's not... not really something I am proud of." His hands clenched into tight fists and his entire body shook.
Korra was shocked. "Not proud of? But why? Bending is such an amazing gift..."
"No it's not! It's a damn curse, and one that I want to be cured of!" The sudden strength in his voice only validated the honesty of his words, and again Korra found herself in stunned surprise.
"...How could you believe such a thing?" Korra asked, her voice a mere murmur in the wake of Kai's shout. The white-haired boy bit his bottom lip, unspoken words weighing heavily down on him, yet he remained silent. He would not meet the Avatar's eyes, and the Water Tribe girl became angry.
"How can you believe that?" she asked again, her voice rising with her demand to know. "What the hell happened to you to make you feel this way about yourself? No one should ever want to lose a part of themselves like that, Kai!"
He laughed bitterly and finally met her burning blue eyes. Korra could see a deep-cutting pain within the small Firebender's expression and some of her anger deflated. When he spoke, that pain tightly laced within the tone of his soft voice, "Sometimes the way we are born is wrong, it's as simple as that. I should have never existed as a Firebender; it only plagues the lives of others. I'm a curse on my family, Korra. Do you understand that?"
Silence was heavy between the two, Korra biting on her own tongue in the face of Kai's pain.
"Kai, I'm sorry-" she started, but he cut her words short and interjected, "Don't bother about it, you don't know the full story." He turned away, but he added in a quiet whisper, "Maybe one day, I can tell you everything about me..."
"Like about you and the Moon Spirit...?"
Shocked hardly befitted the Firebender's expression when he met Korra's eyes, this time not breaking their eye contact. She could clearly see a powerful fear overflowing from Kai. "How... How do you know about that?" the boy asked, his voice so weak that Korra almost didn't hear him.
She replied, "I'm the Avatar, but I'm also a Southern Water Tribe girl. The legend of Princess Yue and the Moon Spirit is well known even in the Southern Water Tribe, but to be honest I didn't remember it until Tenzin brought it up."
That fear only increased in Kai's wide purple eyes and it looked like he would bolt from the room at any given instant. "How did he know?" Kai demanded.
Korra put up her hands and said, "Relax, we aren't going to tell anyone if that's what worries you! Tenzin's mother is Water Tribe, plus she was sort of there with Yue when she saved the spirit... Anyway, your hair kinda gives it away, but what I want to know is how it happened to you..."
Suddenly, Korra became deathly silent, remembering a fable she was told as a child about Princess Yue and the Moon Spirit. Without realizing it at first, she began to recite it in a soft whisper,
Long ago in the era of the Avatar that was the last bender of air
A girl in the far north was born as still as the winter night
Three days her parents prayed to the spirit of the Moon to ease their despair
Their cries were answered with a blessing of life and the girl marked by hair snow-white..."
To Korra's great surprise, Kai's voice picked up where she had left off, the teenaged boy completing the rhyme perfectly word-for-word,
"Her gift was not wasted as she experienced life with its joy and sorrow
Until came the curse of fire that selfishly ended the Moon without a fight
In a moment she decided the fate of all, knowing for her there would be no tomorrow
And with a courageous heart returned the blessing of life to the spirit of the night."
As his words fell silent, Korra noticed tears building in his eyes, but the fact that he knew the rhyme led the young Avatar to suspect that Kai was hiding a lot more from her. "I thought that only Water Tribe natives know that particular rhyme…" Korra whispered, her words easy to follow to her true thoughts.
Rather than deny what Korra was implying, Kai pulled off his golden framed specs and dropped them on the bench beside him so he could cover his face. His small body shook with the sobs that he tried to contain, but it was far beyond his control. He completely broke down in front of the young Avatar, Korra amazed by the sudden emotion from the Firebender.
This time when she got close, he did not draw away from her, and tenderly Korra held Kai in her arms as he cried. Even though Korra didn't fully understand what caused Kai such pain, she knew that she wanted to do something to try to ease it. After knowing Kai for less than a day, it was obvious that the Firebender's life had never been easy nor kind to him, and despite Korra's usually tough demeanor, she felt her own eyes start to burn.
"Kai…" Korra breathed when she felt him bury his face against her chest. He clutched onto her clothes and his smaller form shook against her body. The young Avatar could tell that Kai had been holding his emotions inside for an awful long time. She pulled off his hat and set it aside so she could run her fingers through his moon-touched white hair, her strokes soothing him enough to stop his relentless shaking. I wonder if he's ever had a friend… Korra thought to herself, biting her tongue lightly.
From the shadows beyond a nearby doorway, Tenzin stepped back and mused to himself. He had come back to the front foyer when he had heard the two shouting, and quietly stood by to overhear the conversation that followed. Just like Korra, the Airbender wondered about the exact chain of events that had led to Kai becoming blessed by the Moon Spirit, but by now Tenzin strongly believed that the small boy was indeed a natural born Water Tribe native.
He listened to Kai's quiet sobs for a few more moments, then he silently retreated to search his library for any information he could find on the mysterious Moon Spirit and if a Firebender before Kai had ever been blessed by it.
Night had fallen across Republic City by the time that Kai finally managed to stop crying. He had not intended to unleash such a flood of raw emotion in Korra's presence, but the young Avatar noticed that he seemed to carry himself lighter than before. The two benders were taking a quiet walk outside, but they soon discovered that they weren't alone.
Korra heard familiar giggles behind the two while they stood on the pavilion overlooking the water, and she turned to see Tenzin's two daughters with matching over exaggerated grins. "Ooh, Korra, who is this that you're taking a romantic evening stroll with?" Ikki questioned loudly as her and Jinora studied the teenaged boy standing beside Korra.
"Uh…" Korra started, but her voice faltered when the older sister put in, "My goodness, he's kinda cute! Where did you find him?"
"Er, well, you see…"
"Look Jin! Korra's blushing like a school girl! I think we walked in on them at a bad time~!"
"Hey now, it's not what you think-!"
"Heehee, we totally did bust them at a bad time, Jin! Now he's blushing, too!"
"Grr, scram, you pests!" Korra punctuated her loud growl with a hard kick of earthbending that launched the two giggling Airbenders into the night sky, beyond sight. Kai mumbled something that Korra couldn't make out and he turned back around to the water, hiding his bright blush beneath the bill of his hat as he tugged it lower.
The Avatar awkwardly ran her fingers over her bangs and sighed, struggling with her own flushed cheeks. "… Sorry about that. Those two, they're at that age, y'know?"
To her surprise, Kai actually chuckled and nodded. "Yeah. I remember what it was like," he said with a faint smile. Korra felt a grin touch her own lips.
"You sound like an old man when you say it like that," Korra chided playfully.
Kai tugged on a lock of white hair and said, "Well, I certainly have the hair for it!" They both laughed at that and Korra again faced the water, right by Kai's side. The silence that followed was a light one, Kai taking in the night while Korra took in his presence.
Even now, numerous questions filled her restless mind about the mysterious boy, but she only gave voice to one, "Does your eye still hurt a lot?"
Kai brushed his fingertips against his puffy cheek below his bruised eye, but he replied, "Nah, it's not the worst pain I've experienced. It'll be alright."
For a moment, Korra bit her lower lip in thought, then she said, "If you want, I could heal it right now for you. It would only take a second."
Those deep purple eyes met the sincerity in her blue gaze, Kai really studying Korra's face in the moonlight for the first time. She still had a faint blush across her cheeks and her bottom lip held between her teeth, but Kai was struck by her unrealized and majestic beauty. He heard himself answer before he really thought it through, "O-okay, Korra."
He reached up and pulled his hat off while Korra twirled her fingers and twisted her wrist upwards above the surface of the water. Far below the pavilion, the water eagerly responded and a small tendril curled up through the air's currents to her. It coated her entire hand and started to faintly glow with blue light. With her free hand, the Water Tribe girl carefully plucked Kai's golden framed specs from his face and she leaned closer.
Her water-coated hand came up between them and her outstretched fingers tenderly touched his swollen cheek. Through their small contact, the Avatar felt a tremor run through the moon-touched Firebender. Korra exhaled a deep breath to focus and her glowing water responded, leaving the surface of her hand to coat Kai's injured skin.
The warmth of the Water Tribe girl's breath tickled his trembling lips and told him just how close Korra was. He had shut his eyes against the increasing brightness of the glowing blue energy, but another warm exhale across his lips sent a tremor down his spine. Korra noticed that the Firebender had developed a light blush and ever so slightly he pressed more into the palm of her hand. Now the Avatar could feel his hot breath against her, which sparked a blush on her face as well. Without being aware of it, Korra was tilting her head down more towards Kai while Kai was standing up on his toes to get closer to Korra.
The blue glow of Korra's healing water was just starting to fade away and the distance between the two young benders almost gone when a muffled gasp from above jolted them out of the moment. Kai quickly stepped away from Korra with raw shame filling his expression, and the Avatar released an annoyed sound. She moved through a quick and well-known sequence, her efforts rewarded by a loud splash on the roof of the pavilion and two girlish shrieks.
"If I have to come up there, then Tenzin is going to have to hammer two frozen daughters out of giant ice blocks! Now, get outta here and go to bed, it's way beyond your bedtimes!" Kai and Korra heard faint whooshes as Jinora and Ikki carefully airbended off of the roof towards their nearby home, leaving the two still standing on the pavilion alone.
"Mischievous, those two kids," Korra said with a shake of her head. Kai faintly laughed in response and replaced his hat, though Korra could still see that shame in his expression. She wanted to distract Kai from that painful feeling and a random impulse hit her. Korra offered his glasses to him, but as he slid them on, the Avatar stole the hat from his head. She put it on herself and laughed, turning and running towards the lit windows of the waiting Airbender home. The shorter boy hollered after her, but with a genuine smile now touching his still trembling lips.
The dim darkness of the dungeon-like room ebbed away from the flimsy light of the single candle. The Chi blocker could not stop the trembling of his body as he knelt to the floor before the absolutely silent man. When the kneeling man glanced up at the emotionless white mask of Amon, he licked his lips nervously.
"Rise, my fellow Equalist, and tell me about what you saw today." His voice was like icy velvet when he spoke, every word precisely articulated from beneath the unmoving mask.
Standing up straight, the Chi blocker nodded and replied in a hushed murmur, "This afternoon, while I was tailing the Avatar in the city, she came across a scuffle between some Firebending filth and a teenaged boy. At first, it didn't look like anything big, until the teenager bended another Firebender's flames as if they were water. His movements mirrored a master Waterbender, but the kicker is this: he changed the color of the fire, and his hair is snow white."
Amon's back stiffened and he inhaled rather sharply. "Are you absolutely sure of what you saw?" he hissed, venom filling his words now. The Chi blocker nodded, and Amon released a disturbing laugh. "Excellent! Now, I want you to gather a small team of your best fighters and prepare yourselves for a most important task. Remember, this matter must remain a private affair, so only a few men are needed. I want you to keep track of this Firebender, and on my command you will bring him to me. Alive, and in chains."
Chapter 1 End~
