Korra sighed, her breath coming in quick short bursts. She did it. She passed her water bending test. She knew she would since water bending had always been her strong suit ever since she was little.
"Congratulations, Korra." An aged Katara spoke to her. The other bending masters looked down on her though with frowns upon their faces.
She held her arms out as if to challenge them, "What? That was PERFECT!" she yelled annoyed.
"Yes, Korra, You have a great talent for bending but you really lack restraint. You should learn from your sister. Arina's fighting style is so graceful and she has just the right amount of restraint." One of the few air bending masters they had spoke.
Korra gritted her teeth, Of Course he favored Arina, she was perfect at air bending and Korra could hardly even get a small gust of wind going. "Yeah, Yeah, I know. Arina this, Arina that… She's perfect at everything!" Korra threw her hands down a trail of fire following them. She pivoted on her foot and paced back and forth, "Maybe I'd be a better Avatar if I'd had better teachers!"
"Korra…" Katara looked at her sadly. There was a pause in the arguing and Korra stood there looking up at all the bending masters her hands balled into fists in frustration. Many of them looked back down on her frowning. 'Probably wishing just Arina was the Avatar,' she thought bitterly. 'Why did we have to be twins? Why did we both inherit the ability to be the Avatar? Can a past life really be split into two souls like that?' She had so many questions, but there was no one who could answer them. This had never happened before. Not once, unless there was some forgotten Avatar.
"Congratulations, Korra!" Arina came strolling around the corner smiling, "I heard you passed!" She was so cheery. 'Despite having the same face as me she seems so different…' Korra thought annoyed, she really needed to stop comparing herself to Arina. Even their expressions seemed different; Korra's was tense and overly enthusiastic. Arina's expression had a soft and patient look. She wore her hair down and it fell to her lower back. A red head band with a bow on the side kept it out of her face and her bangs fell across her forehead similarly to Korra's. Aside from that Arina had this way about her, she was the total and complete opposite of Korra. They were nothing alike. So why did everyone have this unwavering need to compare them to each other?
"Thanks." Korra mumbled and brushed past her leaving the training area.
"Korra," Katara's voice called after her, "Can I speak with you later?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, sure." She mumbled half heartedly.
Some time later that afternoon, Korra found herself making her way to the main hallwhere all the bending teachers usually met. 'She'd said she wanted to speak with me right?' Korra thought as she approached it.
But she stopped when she heard voices.
"Yes. I'm absolutely sure this is the case."
"And what makes you so sure?" The teachers seemed to be discussing something.
"Well, as you know, I've been doing researched for some time now and..."
"And?" The teachers prompted the man speaking. Korra hadn't heard his voice before and she edged closer eager to hear what was going on.
"It's true. There can only be one Avatar." He spoke as if he knew something more then he was letting on. As if he was leading up to something but he was interrupted.
"But they're twins. There's two of them. We've seen it, they can both bend all the elements. Well... Except Korra she can't quite get air." It was one of the younger air bending teachers, you couldn't exactly call him a master he was more like a prodigy, but with so few air benders this was the best they could do for a teacher. It was no wonder she couldn't bend air yet! She gritted her teeth annoyed by his comment.
"Yes. You're right." The foreign man continued, He sounded almost pleased that that was brought up. "They can both bend the elements. Sometimes with identical twins only one has bending, in this case both of them do. They are physically identical and both gained the skill to bend all four elements. But..." He paused, taking one too many extra seconds making it just a little over dramatic, "Their personalities are very different. I'm sure you've already figured that out. They are different people and this means that Spiritually they are different."
There was a long moment of silence as everyone seemed to take this in.
"So you're saying..." The young air bending teacher started again.
"Yes. I'm saying that the girl who can connect with the spirit world is our Avatar." There was a lot of hushed murmurs as the masters all took in this concept.
"Then the girl who can connect with her past lifes would be the Avatar, what does that make the other?"
"Gifted I suppose, to be able to bend all four elements and not be the Avatar, yes I'd consider her gifted."
"But...How will we know if one of them entered the spirit world or not?"
"The only way to know is really if one of them went into the avatar state." The man answered.
"So you're saying that we need to get one of them to go into the avatar state?"
"No! That could be extremely dangerous... to purposely set off the Avatar state! It's a very powerful force that could upset the balance of nature if set off badly."
"But..."
"It think you need to listen to him at that boys. I've seen the Avatar state in action and it can be very dangerous if not under control. Aang had a great deal of troubles before he learned to properly control it." Katara was speaking to them now. "I think it's best that we leave the matter at that, now shall we?"
Korra stood with back against the wall, eyes wide processing all the information she'd overheard. 'I wonder if they even intended for us to know about this...'
Thanks for reading! I know the Introduction was a bit unclear. I hope this chapter cleared some things up for you guys. And thanks for the reviews! To the one Annoymous review: I'd already considered that since I'd already written this chapter but you made me wanna publish this part sooner. Thanks for your input!
