Disclaimer: I don't own Legend of Korra. Bryke does.
Title: Gathering Ghosts of Flowers (Sequel to Garden of Knights)
Songs to listen to:
How to Save a Life - The Fray || You Found Me - The Fray || Flowers for a Ghost - Thriving Ivory || To Build a Home - The Cinematic Orchestra || Safe and Sound - Taylor Swift ft. Civil Wars
Part 1: Empty Shadow in the Night
Korra's POV
I woke up to the smell of something burning. The air I breathed in was not compatible with my lungs, and I could feel little particles moving around in my throat, tickling it. I pushed my arms against the bed until I was sitting up, then threw off my blanket, and the cool burst of air blew the hair out of my face. It was nice, like a sip of iced lemonade on a hot summer day. The linen of the sheets made a soothing noise as I slid my legs over the side of the bed. 'What did Meelo do now?', I mumbled to myself.
I got up and lumbered over to the light-switch to turn it on, covering my yawn with one hand and stretching out my back with the other. Once the light was on, I dragged my feet over to the window so I could let some of the smoke out. It wasn't the first time Meelo had set something on fire. Although he usually caused trouble during the day, I wouldn't put it against the weird little devil to be up doing mischief at odd times. Honestly, I loved the little kid, but sometimes I just wanted to tie him up and tape his mouth. It seemed cruel, but no one would ever understand what it was like trying to babysit him. I could swear I heard my blood pressure rise. That kid was going to turn my hair grey before I would hit 20.
When I opened the window, it became an entirely different story. Republic City was set aflame, and thick black smoke was billowing from the buildings. Bright flames licked at the sides of the buildings, crawling their way up slowly as if to make sure everything was completely burned to ashes. I could hear faint sounds of chaos and pandemonium, and a cold sense of terror sunk into my heart like a ship in the sea. Then my attention was on the Pro-Bending Arena. It was engulfed in fire. Oh no, nonononono. Mako lived there, alone. Had the Equalists gotten to him already? My throat sealed off and my stomach tried to squeeze itself into nothing. I took off out of my room, barely fussing with the doorknob, and ignoring the dull pain in my shoulder from running into the doorframe. Hearing my collision with the door, Pema sleepily walked into the living room.
She shuffled toward me, taking in my pajamas and unruly hair. I froze, because I knew I got caught, so I replied, "Republic City is on fire, I need to go see what's happening." I took another step forward, but Pema stopped me, "Tenzin is already there, he tried to wake you up but you wouldn't, so he left. He should be at the police station by now," She knew that Mako lived in Republic City alone, and since we had been spending so much time together training over the past year, he was a viable target for the Equalists. Mako and Bolin were the closest thing I had to best friends in my whole life. Now that we lost Bolin to Amon, I wasn't ready to let Mako get hurt too. We needed to get Bolin back so we could be the Fire Ferrets again, so I could have my friends back.
"Please be careful Korra," Pema's voice was laced with worry but she handed me my parka anyway. I nodded to her, and we walked to the door together. When she opened it for me, I was about to thank her, but she just enveloped me in a hug. It was warm, lifting, and charged with hope. It felt like my own mother's hug, and I started to miss my parents. I hugged her back, enjoying the moment, and gave her a sincere thank you. I put on my parka, gave her one last look and took off into the night.
My feet slapped against the ground, and my lungs heaved as I tried to take in air that my body didn't want to. My muscles burned, and my skin stung from the cool air of the morning. But I just kept running, pushing myself to go farther. Damnit legs, why don't you move any faster? I came pounding up near the edge of the cliff and threw myself off, then I rotated my arms to lift the ocean water to cushion my jump. I swam to the surface and began my way toward Republic City. My arms pushed through the water like the rotor of a ship; my feet kicked with the strength of a bull. I turned my head to the side every once in a while to take in air.
Even with the frigid winter breeze, I couldn't feel the cold. I was worked up, my entire mind occupied on trying to swim faster. Still, I thought, I wasn't fast enough. After too long I had finally made it to Republic City, and I shot myself into the blazing building, keeping myself drenched. I knew that if I was going to rush in there, the water would give me a little while before I could burn in case anything went wrong. I picked my way through the room, firebending anything near me, away. It was kind of like an obstacle course. A burning, painful, deadly obstacle course. Right.
At first, the heat wasn't that bad. But after a couple of seconds of yelling Mako's name, constantly firebending, and getting smoke in my lungs, it became much much hotter. Somewhere in the distance I heard, "Oh my! There's someone in there!" I wanted to ask where, because then I could find Mako, but the smoke and exhaustion was getting to me. I could feel beads of sweat trickling down my face and body, my muscles struggling against the lack of oxygen. The walls were collapsing, and the building was slowly caving in. I hadn't thought it through, and I had already used up all my energy firebending. I took a heavy step forward. The smoke was tickling my throat, and slowly my lungs were closing up. I pushed forward, and tripped on a piece of the ceiling that had been hidden by the smoke.
My momentum was thrown forward, and I fell to the floor. My breath was driven from my lungs, and my ears were ringing. A large piece of the ceiling broke and fell, causing a mini-explosion, sending flares of flames I had missed in all directions. Almost immediately the floor gave out from under me and I crashed to the ground with a sickening crack. A sharp pain shot up my arm. It was definitely broken. Parts of the ceiling landed on me, and flames licked my back, arms and neck. My body just burned. I needed something to cool it down, and cool it down now. I would welcome death with open arms, I would do anything.
Something came into my line of sight and I heard, "Korra, can you hear me?" It took a couple of seconds for my vision to clear, and then I saw Mako's face hanging over me. I nodded, and coughed out something resembling a yes. "I'm going to get you out of here, okay?" he said hurriedly, and rolled me onto my back. When my back touched the ground, and the fire seeping into my skin intensified. Tears streamed out of my eyes, because I knew there was nothing I could do to make the pain just go away.
I coughed violently to try to get all the smoke out of my lungs, but that wasn't helping either. Mako slid his arms under me, placing a steady arm under my back and my knees. I heard a grunt and I felt his arm press into my back, struggling against my weight. The pain in my back exploded and I yelped out in pain, causing Mako to look at me and apologize. My vision began to blur and the ringing in my ears got louder. Eventually everything turned black. And then there was nothing.
Part 1 Fin.
A/N: If you could let me know what you thought of it please do!
