The Legend of Korra: Skarloey Kail

Chapter 1

Skarloey walked along the coastline of the southern water tribe, on the last night of the Glacier Spirit Festival. Beside him, his pet Izera, a Tiger-Wolf just as tall as he is, padded along beside him. It was dark by now and he had spent the entire day at the festival, having only arrived by boat this morning. He was getting hungry and he turned down a lane of booths to go and find the last meal he would be eating that day.

His hands were stuffed in his pockets, black shoulder-length hair blowing in the strong arctic breeze. His sea-foam green eyes moved back and forth, scanning the booths for something he would enjoy eating, keeping in mind that Izera would be hungry as well. He soon found a booth selling roasted Arctic Hen, and bought enough for himself and Izera to share.

She was around six and a half feet tall and seven and a half feet long, her coat was deep mahogany with charcoal black stripes, though her underside transitioned into white fur with the same stripes. He had met her seven years ago when she was just a cub, on his twelfth birthday.

Most people thought it odd, a boy traveling with a Tiger-Wolf, an animal that most would not consider a pet, however since Izera had been raised around humans her whole life she had become very used to being around people. Still, people would give her frightened looks when they walked by, even though she was a big softy on the inside.

Skarloey was decently muscled and bore a few marks of a troubled past. He was only nineteen but one could pick out several scarred sections of his skin, even with all his heavy clothing on. His neck had a scar down the right side, and another on his right ear, as if something had cut it in half down the center.

This scar, in particular, had come from when Izera was growing up, and she had lashed out at him when she was angry. Even though she had hurt him and landed him in the infirmary for a while, with several stitches, to say the least, he had insisted on keeping Izera as his pet, because he knew she hadn't meant to hurt him. Most of his other scars we decorated on his body from combat training, when he had been teaching himself to fight.

Skarloey was a self-taught earth bender, and one hell of a metal bender, he had focused on it his entire life, teaching himself everything he would need to know in order to join the military. However, by the time he had reached sixteen years old, he and his family had been cast out of society due to one particular screw up of his father's. Until this had occurred, he had been living in Ba Sing Se his entire life, in the Middle city district.

His father was a General in the Earth Kingdom Army for as long as Skarloey could remember, however, one day when he was coming home from school he found Earth Kingdom troops at their house, tossing their belongings out in the street and his mother yelling at them. Turned out his father had given a group of Fire Nation rebel forces vital information concerning secret routes into the capital city, and so they were being banished. As soon as he was out of the city he was reunited with his father who was waiting for them outside the wall, but he didn't stay with them for long.

It was less than a day before Skarloey decided it would be best to go his own way and start a new life for himself. He left his parents behind and took Izera with him, a year later, when she had grown to be full size he had begun to use her as a mount instead of just a hunting partner. They took any jobs they could along their journey to make money to pay for rooms and food, keeping each other alive. They always packed light, a change of clothes, a bedroll and enough emergency food for two days.

Skarloey also wears a black, full body leather trench coat over a black t-shirt and a pair of black pants, which are boot cut to fit over his combat boots. Once finished with his meal he heard Izera begin to growl a bit, turning to look up at her since he had been sitting down. He found she was looking to the sky behind the bench, over the tops of the booths nearby and soon she began to howl as if she could see the moon, but he knew she couldn't from this angle.

"What is it girl?" he asked as he raised his arm to the top of her head and began scratching her ears. People were looking too Izera with annoyed looks, wondering why she was howling so loud, and Skarloey could hear the muffled sounds of people talking about the two of them. He looks to them angrily but finds that they have all stopped and begun pointing at the sky.

He then stood up and took a few steps back from where Izera is looking, his eyes widening in shock as he begins to see the sky over the tops of the booths. "No way…" he breathes out before walking back to Izera and hopping onto her back as she levels out underneath him and stands up straight. "Come on girl!" He nudges her slightly, letting her know she's okay to start running.

The large Tiger-Wolf happily begins to run as fast as she can through the isles of the Festival, toward the back entrance of the festival grounds, dodging people left and right, several of them beginning to follow them out of the grounds so that they too can see the sky more clearly. People everywhere were climbing onto the roofs of the booths and climbing the framework on some of the rides so they could get up higher. Once outside the Festival grounds, Skarloey let Izera know it was time to stop, people running out of the festival behind them and starring up into the sky.

A little girl and her mother came alongside them and Skarloey could hear the young girl asking her mother about what it was. "Momma," she said tugging on her mother's robes, "What is it? I can't see over all the people!"

Skarloey quickly leaned over and picked up the small girl and set her down on Izera's back in front of him. "Woahh-hah," the young girl laughs out as she is lifted up and can now see the sky. The young girl's mother looks over to Skarloey worriedly but decides to not say anything.

"Those," Skarloey begins, still in disbelief, "Are the Southern lights." He had only just arrived here and couldn't believe that he had been around to witness such an amazing event. What were the odds that after over a hundred years the southern lights would suddenly reappear in the sky! Izera began to howl low and long as if signing to the sky as she had been before.

He soon let the little girl down and the girl's mother smiled up to Skarloey, he could tell she was glad he hadn't done anything to her daughter. Most would take one look at the man and immediately write him off as a suspicious person. More than once he was blamed for things he had absolutely nothing to do with simply because of his looks.

After a while, the crowd thinned out, but once again Skarloey could hear a woman talking nearby him. "Korra did it…she really did it," the woman looked up the sky with a smile on her face.

"Korra?" Skarloey asked out loud as Izera shuffled over the woman, "You mean Avatar Korra?"

"Yes of course."

"She did this? How do you know?"

"She is my daughter, she is at the south pole right now with her uncle and her friends."

"How did she do it? That is incredible."

"Something about a spirit portal, I don't have all the details about it," she said as she looked over Skarloey, easily able to tell that he has been run ragged and hasn't stayed in anywhere nice in quite a while. Mother's intuition. "Who are you?"

"Hm..?" Skarloey hummed, not paying attention.

"What is your name child."

"Skarloey…"

"You got a last name Skarloey? Earth kingdom folks always seem to, makes them sound more important."

"…Kail…"

"Kail? I know that name…why do I know that name?"

"Because if you are the Avatar's mother that means your husband is the leader of the Southern Water Tribe, which makes him the Water Tribe General who was banished from the north. You know my name because my father was also a General, banished from the Earth Kingdom, Rheneaus Kail."

"You are the child of Rheneaus Kail? That man almost single-handedly began a second great war with what he did…no wonder I remembered the name."

"Yeah…I know," he said before having Izera turn away and begin walking back toward the harbor, having the intention of finding a place to sleep where he wouldn't need to pay.

"Wait…Where are you staying tonight?"

"Where ever I crash, why?"

"…Why don't you come stay at our house for the night? Korra and her father will be back in the morning, so there is plenty of space for you and your friend," she says smiling up to Izera who has turned back around.

"Really? You would let her stay in the house?'

Korra's mother laughs at the question, "Son, I have had a Polar Bear-Dog living in my house for over a decade now, I don't think a Tiger-Wolf is going to be any more challenging than that." She then holds her hand out to Izera, who takes a moment to sniff it before licking her once and then nudging her hand with the tip of her nose. "She is very well behaved."

"Thank you, she seems to like you, and if she trusts you then I do, thank you, hop up and we can give you a ride back to your house."

Korra's mother climbs onto Izera's back behind Skarloey and she leads him to their home. Once there she led the two of them inside and hopped down off of Izera. "You two can use this room all you like, make yourselves at home. I would let you stay in a real bedroom but I don't know what time Korra will be back. If she found you asleep in her bedroom she would probably be furious," she laughs out. She then left the room to go to sleep herself.

"Thank you," Skarloey called after her before getting off of Izera's back and pulled his backpack down off of her and removed her simple saddle and sets them aside. He wouldn't need the bedroll since he was inside with the fire going, not to mention he could lean against Izera when he slept for extra warmth.

Izera quickly pads over to a corner of the room, a few feet from the fire and walks in a circle a few times before lying down, at which point Skarloey walks over to her and sits down beside her. He removes his trench coat and leans against her, lying down and then spreads his coat over him, using it as a blanket. By the time Korra's mother comes into the room to shut all of the lights off, she finds Skarloey and Izera both fast asleep in the corner of the room.

"Can't be easy…being on their own like they are. They must be exhausted, hopefully, over the next few days they will be able to relax a little." She had no idea that she couldn't have been more wrong.

End of Chapter

This is a re-upload of an old Fanfic I used to make. I took It down a few years ago because I hated it but now I've edited it and run it through Grammarly. For now every week I'm gonna edit a chapter of this and just put it up cus it only takes a few minutes and I really feel bad for not having the drive or time to Update AMBR right now. At least this way I'm doing SOMETHING. Some things will be getting changed this time around with this story but the main plot is still the same.