The snow is hot and sticky. It falls slowly and silently, hitting the Air Temple roof without alerting them to its presence. But Korra was a Waterbender far before she was an Avatar, and she can feel the freezing flakes of joy in her veins, the acidic taste of melted water on the back of her throat. She drops the leaf she was trying to lift with a yearning sigh. She walks to the door like she's floating, an ethereal trance brought on by spending far too little time rolling in snow drifts.
Naga feels it, too. Korra finds her outside, catching miniscule stars on her tongue and wagging her tail like it's the best thing she's seen in weeks. Probably because it is.
The Airbending clothes are thin, and the children shiver when they follow her outside. Snow doesn't visit Republic City often, and never this often - perhaps it has come to visit the Avatar, to make sure she's happy and healthy, and offer her a bit of homestyle comfort. And it's the perfect gift; no matter how busy she keeps herself, a bit of homesickness always manages to sneak into her brain and make her shiver in the cursedly Tropical climate she now inhabits. Whatever the reason for the visit, she's so, so grateful for its presence.
The trees, native to the original Air Temples, have an odd and disjointed beauty in their frozen states. Tenzin and the monks hurry to cover them with blankets and drag them inside in a futile effort to save them, but it's a fairytale land of massacre for a while. Even though the freezing landscape belongs to her alone, the view makes her think of Aang and his people, and for the first time in her life, she decides that she is different. She alone will go through life unscathed. It's a pipe dream, but an understandable one, especially for a girl of seventeen years who is so very far from home.
Pema, Ikki, Jinora, and Meelo come out to enjoy themselves, throwing tacky snowballs that fly a little farther than they should. They laugh, and after a few minutes, Korra joins them. But not before she takes a deep breath of the cold air coming off the Ocean, and, just for a moment, feels like she's home.
I'm under 500! Woo.
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