Korra surveys the grounds below, guiding her drawn arrow around, getting a good feel for the area, the altitude, and the direction of the wind. She's found the perfect vantage point, a rooftop far away enough to avoid unwanted attention, and completely out of line of sight from the villagers. There's a waist high wall around the perimeter of the roof which she can duck behind, should anyone look her way.

She watches attentively as the daughter approaches the bandits, eases the pull on her string a little, since it's better to watch a while before taking action. She has little time to rest though, the bandits are already moving forwards, charging the villagers. She sucks in her breath and tenses the string again, panicking for a moment when the daughter immediately engages in the fight.

Pretty little rich girl's gonna get herself killed…

Or so she thinks, but doubt is replaced with awe as she watches the woman slice through a bandit with ease, followed by a second, then a third, and it's like the blade has a life of its own. There's two women with her, also cutting through their opponents, and it looks like they have some skilled archers – the ranged bandits are already down, and she can see others falling one by one.

Hmph, not bad, she thinks, releasing her held breath. She wasn't expecting that these people would actually be able to fight. It's fortuitous that they can hold themselves in battle… it means she has the option of strategically, and sneakily joining the fray. She switches her attention to the rear of the group of bandits. It'll be far less obvious to pick off stragglers in the distance, but even so, arrows flying from out of nowhere could quickly reveal her presence.

As she watches more bandits fall, she considers for a moment whether she needs to get involved at all, but quickly chides herself at the thought. The more I help, the less casualties they'll get.

She glances around, looking for the villager's archers. She finds them, upon the lower rooftops, and waits for them to draw. They release their shots, whilst she quickly finds a target toward the back of the bandits, and lets loose her own arrow. Though she's twice the distance of the other archers, her arrow hits true, and the force of it penetrates straight through her target's temple. His knees buckle, and he falls.

She repeats this seven more times, each time attacking the furthest target, the one at the back, the one least likely to be seen by any villager. In the heart, the eye, the soft sides of the skull or the jugular. She knows to go for the vitals, these aren't the sort of people you leave for dead and turn your back on - a lesson she's learnt the hard way. She re-focuses her thoughts, her shoulder blade itching at a distant memory.

It comes as no surprise when the bandits panic at the sight of their comrades falling, one after the other. They're acting like disorganised rioters, and some look like they may turn to flee. She readies another shot, but instead of finding a target, she finds herself distracted, watching the daughter slice through more men. She can't help but smirk as she watches the blade dance through the air. Two-handed katana are generally heavy and unwieldy, but these moves are graceful, and the strikes appear as though effortless. The daughter's obviously trained long, and hard.

The other villagers are putting up a good fight too, though she can see that some are wounded. As she glances around, she notices with sudden alarm that three bandits have broken away from the main group and are skulking through the shadows, hiding away between nearby houses and huts. She sees their intent. They'll sneak to the rear of the daughter's position, from where it will be a trivial task to step from the alleyways, landing a lethal blow.

Shit! Not good

She shifts her aim, tenses her string, and closely watches the only two exits that the bandits can leap from. She knows that if she kills them, she'll give herself away, so she'll have to do this as an absolute last resort.

They make their move, and she curses again as she realises that all three are attacking together. They sprint from the darkness, but the villager's archers shout a warning. She breathes a sigh of relief as the daughter, and two women at her side, spin to face their sneaky assailants.

It seems these three bandits have some skill compared to the rest, they're putting up a decent fight, but they're outmatched. She grins as the daughter impales the first of them, straight through his torso. But the smile drops from her face when she notices there's a fourth bandit, who'd been hiding in the shadows all along. He's stealthy, short, and quick. Clever, like a rat.

"Shit. Shit. Shit!" She's cursing under her breath as he sneaks into the fray completely un-noticed, draws a dagger, and raises it into the air, readying a lethal blow.

::

"Asami!" Lin yells, wide eyes staring somewhere behind her back.

She spins around fearfully, expecting to feel cold steel at any moment. Instead, there's a metallic clang, and she's met with an open, trembling fist raised one inch away from her face. Wide and frightened eyes search into hers, and as she lowers her gaze she gasps at the sight of a narrow, pointed shaft impaled all the way through her would-be-attacker's neck.

He chokes, grasps at his wound, spreading his own slick blood across his fingertips before falling to the floor in a spluttering heap.

"What… how?" Lin asks, looking with confusion at the arrow and then back to her. Lin's realised the same thing, then. This wasn't from the twins. A misfire from the bandits? She'll have to look into this later, right now Su's in trouble… the remaining bandit is putting up a hell of a fight, and two men are approaching the swordswoman from behind.

"Suyin!"

She yells out a warning and rushes toward them. As they turn to face her, she quickly slices the first from waist to top. He shifts his grip from his blade and fumbles at his belly in confusion, as hot, pink mess starts to spill out. The second draws his blade, but before he can swing, a deft horizontal slice sees his head swiftly depart his shoulders, bounce across the floor, and land miraculously beneath the heel of Su's foe. He stumbles against it, falls backwards and cracks his head open on a sharp rock.

"Su, are you okay?" she asks, noticing that the other woman's trembling, with darkened eyes and furrowed brows.

"Su?" She places her palm on Su's back, and shoulders jerk beneath her touch.

"Sorry…" Su sighs, seeming to regain her senses, "I just… I want this to be over."

"You and me both."

She analyses the battlefield. There's twelve bandits left, and most of them are bloodied or limping. They're backing off, getting ready to flee. Their leader's face-down on the floor with two arrows protruding from his torso, and a woodcutter's axe lodged deep in the base of his skull. I'll have to thank whoever did that later.

As much as she wishes she could afford them an opportunity to retreat, it's a well-known fact that the bandits in these parts are ruthless killers, merciless rapists. If she spares them, they'll come back, mainly out of revenge, or spite.

They'll kill us in our sleep… or worse.

She tells herself this, over and over, trembling and feeling nauseous as she closes her eyes and shouts her next command.

"After them! Leave none alive!" She cries out, chases down the limping stragglers, and ends their suffering with quick, merciful strokes of her blade. She mentally and physically forces her arms to move. She doesn't enjoy killing, especially when her opponents aren't fighting back. She doesn't enjoy the sight or smell of blood, and she kills because she has to, to protect her home, her people.

She sighs with guilty relief, knowing that she won't have to dirty her blade further still, as arrows from Wei and Wing finish off the last of the bandits.

She shakes the excess blood from her blade, runs a cloth up its length to clean the rest, then slides it back into her sheathe. Then she takes a deep breath, and wretches at the stench of metallic blood, mixed with the lingering, rancid smell of urine. Corpses are littered all around her, staring vacantly, and there's patches of blood everywhere, like a crazed artist has decided to cover his entire canvas with spatters of crimson.

She pushes the gristly sight to the back of her mind and walks toward the centre of the holding, where she asks the villagers to tend to the wounded, and gather any bandit corpses ready for burning. Tears stream down her cheeks as she sees that three of her own men have fallen, and one woman. They'll receive a proper burial later tonight, she'll make sure of it.

She walks towards the infirmary, to check on Opal.

"Need a hand in here?" she asks as she prises open the door, and sees Opal's weary expression. She feels guilty that she's given the task of mending the wounded to someone so young, but Opal is an extremely talented healer, too good to waste at times like this.

"I think we're okay actually," Opal smiles up at her, "My girls have been excellent, and we took far fewer casualties than expected!"

"I'll ask Wing and Wei to help anyway, once they're rested. Thanks, everyone," she smiles at them, and heads back outside.

::

Korra leaps down from her massive, pale-white steed and strokes her palm up and down a long, furry nose, electing a muffled whinny of appreciation.

"Atta girl, Naga. You got us out of there nice and quick." She grins as she secures Naga to the post, "I'll get you some good hay tonight!"

It's just after midnight, she's tired, and she's about to try her luck by knocking on Mako's door. She's fairly certain he's attracted to her, so he might open because of that, if nothing else… at least that's what she hopes as she raises her fist to the door.

She knocks, and is rewarded a few moments later by dull footsteps, and a very sleepy bartender as the door creaks open.

"Korra!" he exclaims, "What are you doing here?" He yawns, and brushes some sleep away from his eye, "You're not going to bust up the place again are you?"

"No, no!" she raises her palms, tries to show peaceful intentions, "It's just that I… finished the job. But I don't meet Mr Sato for payment for two days and I kind of… need somewhere to stay." She tries to smile, but ends up half-grimacing.

"Here? After the trouble you brought earlier?"

"Well it's not like anyone knows I'm here right now!" She pouts, then her tummy rumbles, "Come on, you did offer a room, and you're not going to leave a girl outside, hungry and cold?"

"I don't think you're in a position to pull off the vulnerable maiden act." Mako says, matter-of-factly, "But in any case, come in, sit down." he waves his arm into the room in invitation.

She walks inside, finds a stool at the bar, and sits, resting her chin into her palms. Mako pours her a cold sake, which she gratefully takes from him, smiling.

"So, how did it go?" he asks.

"Those villagers are strong. Like, crazy strong!" She exclaims, "Never seen anything quite like it, especially those three."

"Which three?" Mako raises an eyebrow.

"The daughter, and the two older women with her. Sword users."

"Oh, the Beifongs. Yeah, they ought to be good…" Mako trails off mid-sentence.

"What do you mean?" Korra asks, intrigued.

"What? Oh uh, nothing…" Mako looks to the side, scratching the back of his head.

She decides to leave it be, for now. Barkeeps often know lots of interesting titbits, and she's sure she can wrestle more out of him if and when she needs to. She finishes her sake, and grins sheepishly when her belly rumbles again, this time loudly.

"Here's some leftovers," Mako laughs, grabbing a basket of rolls and placing them on the counter, "And there's hay in the back for that insanely large horse out there."

"Oh, Naga?" Korra chuckles as she bites into a roll, "Yeah, she's big. But she's a softy. Thanks, Mako!" Korra leans over and pecks him on the cheek, leaving crumbs against his skin.

"Yeah, uh, no problem," Mako blushes, "I just hope you're gonna pay for all this!"

They're interrupted by a loud "mrrrow?" and she looks down to see a fluffy, ginger tomcat dancing around her stool, tail raised in the air.

"Pabu! Where've you been?" he asks, as he pulls out a small bowl, fills it with water and places it on the floor, where Pabu gratefully laps up the refreshment.

"You have a cat?" She's surprised, it's rare to see them near humans, since they're generally far too wild.

"It's Bolin's actually, he rescued him from a wild pack of dogs on one of his adventures. Pabu has never left his side since." Mako explains, "If he's here, Bolin can't be far!"

"Bolin?" Korra asks.

"My brother, the one I told you about?"

"Oh! You never told me his name," Korra yawns.

"Alright, I think it's definitely time to sleep." Mako says, "I have a room you can use, upstairs two doors on the left, and the bathroom is just through there." He points out each location as he speaks.

There's a loud whinny from outside. She laughs at the not-so-subtle reminder.

"I'll let you take care of that," Mako smiles, waving a hand as he heads back into his room and closes the door.

She chuckles. He's a good guy, she thinks, as she grabs a bunch of hay and a bucket of water, and goes to tend to her persistent mare. As she fills the trough, she reminisces about all of the times that Naga has gotten them out of tight situations, the times they've needed to make a hasty retreat, even trampling over would-be assassins to save her neck. She feels lucky to have such a truly loyal companion, and friend.

"Thanks again, girl", Korra says quietly, kissing Naga on the neck before heading inside and locking the door behind.

She walks upstairs toward her room, feeling too tired to bathe right now, and throws herself on the bed, staring up into space and recalling the events of the day. As she drifts into welcome slumber, the most prominent thing on her mind is an elegantly dancing katana, and a pale-skinned, raven haired woman, expression fierce, gracefully swinging it against foe after foe.

::

As she closes the door behind herself, Asami sees that Lin and Su join are waiting, just outside of the infirmary.

"So, about that arrow." Lin growls, looks serious as always.

"The one that saved my life?" She replies, frowning at the memory, at how careless she'd been.

"It's a different design to the bandit's, and nothing like ours."

"So there was a third party?" She gasps, "I knew it!"

"We found eight more of them, each lodged in a corpse," Su interjects, holding out one of the arrows. She takes it, runs her fingertip down the smooth shaft, to the pointed, thin metal tip at the end.

"Whoever made these is extremely talented," Su says, "You should take it to your father, he might know something."

Dad! She's filled with the sudden urge to check that he's okay. He hasn't been himself these past few years, and she's worried that the death of her Mother could be taking an ultimate toll on his health. She bids farewell to Lin and Su, and heads home quickly.

As she jogs up the stone pavement towards her front door, she pauses in her tracks at a sudden realisation. Eight arrows, either lethal shots, eight dead bandits. And that's excluding the shot that saved her. She's stunned at the thought… it's an almost incomprehensible level of accuracy, especially against targets caught in the throes of battle.

She holds the arrow out across her palms, stares at it, and furrows her brow.

Just who, exactly, are you?