Notes: Um, wow. I am clunky and out of practice and you all have been fantastic. I thank you for your sweetness.

Unbendable: The Book of Earth

Chapter IV: Earth

Two days later found them sitting down to a cold breakfast. Toph and Lin were used to waking near dawn, but a handful of early mornings weren't enough for Korra to acclimate herself to her new routine. In retrospect, her early morning training with Mako and Bolin wasn't so bad after all.

Korra picked sleepily at her food, and tried not to dwell too much on how complicated everything had become between them all. But it was a welcome distraction from dwelling too much on how much progress she wasn't making at earthbending, so she allowed herself a few moments for it. It wasn't that she didn't love Mako, because she did, and she loved Bolin, and Asami. It was only that... well, she didn't know quite what. That was the problem.

She sighed.

"What's the matter, kid?" Lin asked, breaking off the conversation she'd been having with Toph to frown at Korra. "You've hardly touched your food."

"Nothing," Korra mumbled around a yawn, and took another bite. She couldn't even imagine bringing her romantic troubles to Lin Bei Fong for advice. The thought of doing so caused a giggle to swell up in her throat. She swallowed it back with another mouthful of breakfast, and tried not to choke.

"Good." Toph sounded satisfied. "Eat up. You'll need your strength."

"Tenzin will be happy to see you," Lin said, taking a sip of her tea as she and Toph returned to their conversation. "It's been awhile since you've come home."

"A year, at least," Toph said. "It's about time I surprised my nephew and his Twinklebrats. I did mean to visit Republic City last summer, but then you and I had our little adventure in Ba Sing Se... "

It must have been a good story because Lin actually laughed, but Korra felt dread slowly brew in her stomach. "We're going to Republic City?"

"Soon. Tenzin will have been doing his best, but with the other council members still... indisposed..." Lin frowned. "I don't trust just anyone to look after the city."

"Yeah," Korra said, pushing her food around on her plate. "Yeah, you're right."

Lin sighed. "All right," she said. "Why don't you want to go back?"

Korra stared down at her bowl, her appetite long gone. This problem, at least, she thought Lin would understand. "I just... don't know what use I'll be," she admitted. "I don't think I did enough good when I was the Avatar."

"That's not a good enough reason to stay," Lin said. "And you brought down Amon in the end."

"But he got away."

"We'll find him." Lin folded her arms. "Believe me when I say I want nothing more than to bring him in. But you are the Avatar, bending or no, and Republic City needs you."

There would be no winning this argument. Korra nodded and finished her breakfast before joining Lin and Toph in the yard. Lin had already tied a scarf around her eyes. Korra bowed to Toph and did the same, taking a few careful test steps. The ground was cool this early in the morning. It clung, wet, to her bare feet as she moved across it.

"Remember," Toph said, and the earth rumbled beneath her feet. "Remember to listen."

She waited, turning slowly. It was out there, somewhere—there, on her right. Korra planted herself firmly in place, eyes closed behind the blindfold. It was coming towards her, steadily, yet not so fast it would do her serious injury when she again failed to stop it.

"Face it," Toph cried. "Stand. Your. Ground."

She did.

It knocked her over anyway. Korra landed hard, wincing as her weight pressed a pebble into her palm. Beside her, she heard Lin grunt as she too was pushed aside by her rock.

The rest of the morning went no better, and the afternoon was worse. Korra stayed in the garden long after Lin and Toph had gone indoors, letting the tears roll down her face. She knew Lin had been right, the other day on the airship, when she'd said that Korra feeling sorry for herself would help nothing. She knew that, and she knew she shouldn't let herself think like this, but—she was hurting and scared and nothing anyone had said had helped yet.

She couldn't stay out and cry all night, though. As the sun set at her back, Korra returned to the house, where Lin sat quietly on the porch steps. After a moment's hesitation, Korra joined her.

"Hey, can I ask you a question?"

Lin eyed her over the rim of a teacup. She took a careful sip before replying. "I don't suppose you'll go away if I say no."

Korra took that as permission. "Is Sokka your dad?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Lin said calmly. "Why do you ask?"

"Because," Korra said, rearranging herself so that she sat cross-legged beside Lin, "then you and Tenzin would be cousins."

Lin took another sip of tea and narrowed her eyes at Korra. "We're not discussing that," she said. "But I can assure you that when my mother refers to him as a nephew, it is an honorary title."

They sat in silence awhile, Lin drinking her tea and Korra staring idly into the fading sunset. Her bruises ached now that she had a chance to sit still and feel them. Korra took a quick glance at Lin. Her left hand was bandaged, the right one bore the same scrapes as Korra's. There was a matching gash on her cheek, just below her eye, though not so deep it would leave a third scar.

"Do you think the others are all right?" she ventured.

Lin pursed her lips. "There's a reason I want to return to Republic City as soon as possible," she said finally. "But I'm sure your friends are well."

"I hope so," Korra whispered, but worry swirled around in her head. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad returning to Republic City, after all. At least that way she would know.

She stood abruptly. "I should brush Naga."

Lin raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Nodding to her, Korra walked away without another word.

Lin drained her second cup. She left it empty on the steps, limping her way back to the rocks. They'd rested there, perfectly silent, since the early afternoon when Toph had declared enough. She laid her hands on them, eyes closed, and caressed the stone. Solid, firm, coated in fine particles of dirt and grit that clung to her fingertips. She took a step back.

Her body would have known what to do without her, after a hundred thousand times. But she thought it through from beginning to end, every motion she made careful and deliberate down to the spread of her toes in the dirt. And then she moved, one smooth, uninterrupted step forward, her hands stretching through empty air. Forward, she insisted, pushing with everything she was. Move.

In the distance, before the roaring in her ears swallowed her whole, she thought she heard her mother whoop with joy.

The next thing she knew, she was on her hands and knees, and unbearably dizzy. She hung her head, breathing deeply through her nose because she feared she'd be sick if she opened her mouth. Her fingers curled into the dirt as she ground her teeth and fought for control of herself.

Slowly, the nausea faded. Lin exhaled through her mouth and chanced opening her eyes. The first few blinks were wobbly, but she waited, and the ground solidified once more.

A hand touched her back. "Are you going to just lie here all night?" her mother demanded in a gentle voice, rubbing brisk circles between her shoulder blades.

Lin found she wasn't too drained to smile. "Thinking about it," she murmured, carefully lifting her head. "Did I..."

"Take her other side," Toph said over her head, and Lin felt another hand slide beneath her shoulders. "Come on, we're going to get you up. Stand with us. That's my girl."

She tried to lean more heavily on the Avatar (she would have preferred not leaning on anyone at all, but that was quickly established as not being a viable option with her knees threatening to buckle). They helped her to the porch, where she tilted her head back against the earthen house and closed her eyes. Her left hand throbbed. The cuts must have opened up again. She would have to change that bandage.

"Get her something to drink," Toph ordered.

"I don't—" Lin started to wave away the suggestion, but she could taste dirt in her mouth and her throat was parched. When Korra pressed a cup into her hands, she drank from it gratefully. "Thank you."

Korra stared back at her in obvious concern. "What happened?"

Lin let her eyes wander back down the path. The rocks still stood. "Nothing," she said bitterly.

"Not nothing." Her mother beamed at her. "Didn't you feel that?"

Her gaze slid from Toph to the rocks and back again. "Are you sure?"

"You think I don't know what I'm talking about?" Toph huffed, and Lin felt her heat skip a beat. "You moved that rock, my little badgermole. You earthbent.