"...Korra has entered the Avatar State."
Korra.
Avatar State.
"Howl!" His commander shouted, his voice implying an order that had yet to be uttered.
Howl paid him no mind - he was too busy rushing to the corner where he'd been reading, picking up the swords that had been leaning against the cool side of the building, and running. He did not see the way his superior officer's face turned a nasty shade of rogue, or the heavy hand that descended upon the man's shoulder.
He did hear the words that Tenzin spoke, floating across the night like leaves on a breeze.
"Let him go. Our duty is to Korra. We must hurry."
Howl reached the edge of the island within seconds. He could still hear the hustle and bustle as the Order tried to get in order for...whatever it was they were going to do. It would take time to get assembled, time to get their orders, time to break into ranks and groups and time to take the ferry and time, time that they didn't have.
Yue Bay shone back at him, the bright lights of the city reflected upon her soft waves. Any other night, Howl would have been admiring the beauty of it, thinking of how it was the perfect scene. But not tonight. Tonight, he was frantic, somewhere in between trained Order of the White Lotus Guard and a panicked friend.
Tonight, he just needed to find a way across the bay.
The minute it took for him to come to a solution lasted a lifetime. And then, the answer was there. As simple as it could be, really.
Korra had been going to practice with her teammates.
Korra had left the island alone, as she was so wont to do.
His left hand flew to his mouth before his mind had fully wrapped itself around the thought. A sharp whistle pierced the air, and the resounding bang let him grasp the solution to this problem, the problem of crossing the bay on his own.
Except he wasn't really on his own, was he?
Korra had new friends. she was making a new life for herself. She'd left Howl behind, sure. But he wasn't the only one missing her affections. That much was evidenced by the worried shouts coming from behind him, then reinforced by the warm nose that touched his palm.
"Good girl, Naga." The polar bear-dog's tail thumped once, in recognition. He had helped Korra raise the beast, after all. And while he might not share the same kind of bond as they did, Howl was the only other one who could get Naga to listen to him. Most of the time.
He clambered into the saddle on her back, fingers brushing through the coarse white fur. "Alright," he said, "Time to go. Naga, find Korra!"
At the name, the polar bear-dog's ears pricked up and almost without warning - Howl had just enough time to raise the sheathed sword above his head with one hand and grab onto the reins with the other - she bounded into the bay.
It wasn't as quick as the ferry would have been - but Howl couldn't be bothered waiting for someone to radio the dockmaster and for the dockmaster to contact the ferry operator and for the operator to get the damn thing running and...
No. This was the quicker, more efficient way of crossing the bay. Even if, he noted as the clambered out of the water not too far from the ruins of the arena, it was not the most comfortable way.
Naga's head swung left, and she pulled against the reins to head towards the golden building. Howl pulled back.
"Not now, girl. Time to find Korra. Track her. Track Korra."
The name seemed to reignite that spark in his mount, and Howl wondered - not for the first time - just how smart the animal underneath him was. Intelligence didn't matter now, though. What mattered was that Naga was, perhaps, the finest tracker on the planet with a nose a hundred times more sensitive than a wolfbat's. She kept her head to the ground and then, seemingly catching a fresh trail, they were off.
He tied Naga to a post. They were near enough now that he didn't need her nose. With a pat on the head and a slice of blubbered seal jerky from the treat bag he'd finally gotten Korra to fasten to one of the saddle straps, he left the animal behind.
Any notions Howl had of a speedy rescue were dashed after a few hundred feet. Chunks of debris, moist and steaming and he thought he saw a foot sticking out from one of them, littered the ruined streets. Fires seemed to sputter in and out of life faster than he could register, and every so often the pavement beneath his feet would rumble menacingly.
He needed to find her.
So he did the logical thing. Howl disregarded the growing destruction around him and headed for what seemed to be the center ofthe disaster. A few people passed him, running in the opposite direction. A few of them were garbed in Equalist drab. But Howl paid them no mind. He was focused on his task, focused on getting to Korra and helping her, saving her from whatever had triggered this catastrophe.
Still, he kept moving.
The street he was on became jagged, a large rift dividing the lanes. There were no more people. In the distance, he could hear the sirens that signaled the metalbenders had been deployed. He wondered if the Lotus had gotten to the City yet. It didn't matter. As he crested a particularly large mound of upturned earth, Howl doubted that any of their efforts would matter.
He had reached the center of the Hell he'd been traversing. It looked like an explosion had torn the warehouse inside out, first sucking everything inside and then spewing it back at the world. It looked like a herd of elephant mandrill had ransacked the area.
It looked like the Avatar had reaped vengance for countless wrongs done to countless lives.
And Howl ran headfirst into it.
A/N: I know I said this would be a two-part series, but I decided to keep this chapter the length it was and finish up next time. Let me know what you think!