"The Red Lotus?" Lin asked Korra, her façade of disinterest replaced by a rapt focus on the Marshal. "They're out?" Korra nodded in reply. "Yes ma'am, and it's my job to track them down. I just got back from scouting the areas near the fire nation border, and I'm here to buy some supplies and ask around for any information." Lin paused and thought for a moment. "You can stay." She said.

"I wasn't asking if I could." Korra snorted. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go get myself a room and some lunch at that saloon of yours." "No, you won't." Lin interjected. "The men you killed had friends, hard as it is to believe, and they'll probably kill you, or at least try, and whether or not they succeed, it's certain that I'll have more dead townsfolk on my hands. You can stay at the Mission with Pastor Tenzin and his family, just outside of town. Mako will take you there."

"Thanks!" Korra said, that happy spark back in her eyes as she left the jailhouse so fast that Mako had to run to catch up with her. "Miss, I think you're confused, the Mission's the other way!" he shouted, as he saw her sprinting back towards the saloon. He cursed as Korra ducked around the side of the saloon, and he had to put on an extra burst of speed to catch up with her.

"What the hell are you-" he began, but fell silent as he saw Korra gently rubbing the nose of a beautiful pale-white horse. "I can't go anywhere without Naga." Korra said, untying the horse from the post to which she was bound and heaving herself up into the saddle. "Now let's go!" she said, and broke into a trot as Mako walked beside her.

"You need supplies? Bullets? Anything like that?" Mako asked, as he walked beside her. "I could use some more ammunition, yeah." Korra replied. "Over there." Mako pointed out a rather large building on the outskirts of town with a large furnace outside. "That's Asami's workshop-she's our gunsmith. You'll probably run into her at the Mission, she spends a lot of time up there."

He pointed Korra down a narrow canyon carved into the rock face that dominated the Northwestern face of the town. "That there is Yue Pass. It used to be a riverbed, that's why you can still find nuggets of gold here washed downstream from the old mines. Those little bits of gold were what let me and my brother buy our ranch. We used to comb the pass for hours every day, looking for 'em."

Korra gave a low whistle. "I guess I should keep my eyes on the dirt, then. I might find enough gold for another round of that overpriced sludge your saloon calls beer." Mako chuckled at that. "Yeah, it's pretty bad, but it's the only place in town where you can get a drink, so it does good business. And most of the prospectors don't care what they drink when they get back from the Glittering Flats."

They entered the pass, Korra's hooves echoing off of the rock walls as they trudged on in silence. "See those caves up there?" Mako pointed to a series of openings carved into the rock. "There's dead men in 'em. Old Fire Nation soldiers who got cut off in the canyon during a border raid. Armed Mission members on one side of them and the Army on the other. They dug into the cliffside and tried to take shelter, but eventually food ran low and most of them charged down the canyon right into the guns of the army, trying to break out. The sheriff has an old bayonet and some spent cartridges she found in the caves when she was a girl."

"Creepy." Korra replied, and they trotted the rest of the way in near silence. "There we are." Mako said, as they rounded the bend in the canyon to reveal a compound with high walls of dry mud sitting on a mesa overlooking the vast, empty dunes around it. "It's more comfortable than it looks from the outside." Mako said, as he walked with Korra across the wastes. "They've got wells for drinking water, and a few crops and livestock. The rooms are pretty comfortable, too, and the folk out there are peaceful. They'll let you go about your business with no trouble."

"Much obliged!" Korra said, and suddenly she whooped and tapped Naga's sides with her heels and the two galloped away over the sands, leaving Mako in the dust behind him. He watched her gallop away, stunned at her abruptness, then threw up his hands in exasperation and began the long walk back to town.

Korra smiled at the feeling of the wind in her hair as she and Naga galloped across the plains, leaving the ranger in her dust. Naga had been tied up for a while and enjoyed the chance to run flat-out, and very soon Korra found herself in front of the gate to the inside of the small fortress.

"Hello up there!" Korra called, and very soon a figure appeared atop the walls. "Hello!" the young woman cried back. "What's your business here!" "I'm Korra, a White Lotus Marshal!" she replied. "Sheriff Beifong said I could stay here for a day or two!" the young woman nodded and shouted something down into the courtyard, and soon the gates swung open and Korra found that same young woman greeting her with a smile. "I'm Jinora" she said, beckoning Korra into the fort. "Welcome to El Caldera Mission."

Before long, Jinora had introduced her to her brother and sisters; fast-talking, precocious Ikki and the brash and confident Meelo. She led Korra inside the central building of the Mission, down cool, dim hallways to what appeared to be some sort of study. "This is my father's private den." Jinora said. "He'll want to meet you. Head on in." Korra knocked at the door and saw a large, bearded man in a pastor's vestments open it.

Korra could tell from the roughness of Pastor Tenzin's palms and the way he carried himself that Pastor Tenzin hadn't always been a man of faith. He was perfectly polite as he chatted with Korra, but something told her that if she'd put a gun in his hands he'd be more than capable with it. He chatted with her about trivial things for the most part, but almost, but not quite managed to intimidate Korra for a moment when he'd made it clear in no uncertain terms that any action that threatened his flock or his family would be met by 'an appropriate response.' Some of his tone must have affected Korra, because Jinora nodded knowingly when Korra left Tenzin's study.

"Yeah, dad can be a little overbearing sometimes" she said, leading Korra towards the guesthouse, "but he means well. Mom's a lot nicer to strangers, but dad just wants to protect us." She led Korra into a fairly spacious, well-lit room, with some antique, but sturdy furniture. "I'll leave you to get settled in, although you're more than welcome to join us for dinner. Just head to the main building when you hear the bell ring." "Thank you." Korra said, and Jinora turned and headed back outside.

Korra had just started to settle in when she found, of all people, Mako at her door. "What, don't tell me I broke another law." Korra drawled. Mako shook his head, his expression grave. "No, it's not that. I thought you'd like to know, Sheriff Lin got a telegraph about half an hour ago. A stagecoach between here and Zaofu got hit, and a Marshal's been found dead. Zaofu thinks it's the Red Lotus."

...

Hello, everyone! (or at least, presumably there are more than just one person reading the story, and I'm justified in using the plural.) So sorry about the long hiatus, there were technical difficulties and I was in Europe on a tour of military history there, which was fascinating and bizarrely gave me some new ideas for the series. I hammered this one out as quickly as I could, to reassure people that I'm still alive, and I'm hoping to do at least one more chapter on Sunday. Unfortunately, I regret to inform you that I'll have to take another hiatus shortly after this one for another trip, this time a family visit. But I'll try and put out as much work as I can for you in the time that I have.

As always, comments, concerns, suggestions and reviews are always welcome, and my deepest apologies for the delay!