Chapter Seven
It didn't take long for the wedding invitations to be sent out.
The invitees weren't just Korra and Mako however, since Eska was actually a princess, people of importance had to be invited as well such as Tenzin (and his family) who represent the Air Nomads, Firelord Izumi, her father Zuko, General Iroh, Lin Beifong, and others.
Although the invitations were sent out early, the date set was not actually till four months later for after the excitement had died down, the four realised that the season had changed to one where blizzards were frequent.
It turns out that Bolin and Asami had arrived just in time before the weather turned for the worse.
The temperature dropped down well into the negatives and the sunlight became scarce. The Northern Water Tribe citizens seemed to have holed up in their homes as three hours of sunlight a day made it impossible to do anything other than go to the stores to restock their food supplies.
Thankfully, due to modern technology, fishing seemed to become more efficient and homes now had a way to grow their own vegetables for everyone to live comfortably until the start of spring.
In short, there wasn't much for Eska, Bolin, Desna and Asami to do other than loiter around in the palace or go out shopping during what little sunlight there was available.
With the advances in fishing, Bolin and Asami's diet mainly consisted of fish which took some time for them to get adjusted to. Even Bolin who loved food seemed to balk now whenever he saw a tuna pie, sushi, sashimi or salmon fillets. There was no rice available and wheat was in short supply but mercifully there were homegrown vegetables to change up their meals.
It was during this quiet time that the revolutionaries of the Northern Water Tribe seemed to quiet down. They have done their rallies and protests but Desna had somehow managed to quell their anger through his speeches.
Perhaps they were intimidated or perhaps they were biding their time, the twins didn't know. But one thing was for certain: they were ready for them.
A month after the invitations were sent, something special occurred.
Despite the unrelenting blizzards and snowstorms, a travelling circus had arrived. How they managed to brave through the extremes was anyone's guess but they had managed to get permission from Desna and his council of elders to set up and perform within the city boundaries.
They tried to erect giant, colourful tents but the wind and the gale blew them down very quickly so, after much frustration, the circus master contracted some of the water benders of the tribe to help him build igloos to house his acts.
It was an interesting affair. Many of the Northern Water Tribe citizens participated for they had not much to do. In fact, some of them were enterprising enough to begin selling their own goods, turning the circus into a grand carnival where some sold popcorn, cotton candy and others took the opportunity to earn money by hosting carnival games where others could win prizes such as stuffed toys and the like.
Although Desna was the tribe chief and Eska the tribe princess, that didn't stop them from joining the festivities. In fact, it was widely welcomed for a sign of a good tribe chief is being one with his people. It was vastly different from a monarchy where a king was separate from his subjects.
The four were walking along with the crowd one day when Bolin sentimentally recounted, "I remember it was a night like this in the South Pole when I met you."
"Yes," Eska replied with her usual monotone but her lips formed an elegant smile. "I remember how you were bumbling like an idiot back then."
"You growled and hissed at him when he approached, sister," Desna added.
"Did I? I cannot remember now."
"Yes, you did."
"Oh. But somehow things ended up fine, did it not?"
"I suppose it did."
Bolin furrowed his brows and interrupted saying, "Wait. I wasn't bumbling. I remember I approached you like the suave, cool, handsome and debonair man that I am."
"If that's what you think, my love," Eska didn't refute but snuggled into Bolin's arms instead. Like a spoiled child, she demanded, "I want a cotton candy."
"Anything for you, my lovely koala-otter," Bolin smiled.
Desna looked at Asami disinterestedly and dully offered, "Would you like a cotton candy as well?"
"I'd like that," Asami smiled. It was a nice change of pace for her to be the one on the receiving end of a relationship. Although she and Desna both knew that they were just pretend lovers, and although he looked bored during the whole time and seemed like he didn't care, she felt that in truth he actually did.
Furthermore, the way he treated her was vastly different from how Mako did. With Mako, he treated her like some disposable thing, abandoning her at a moment's notice whenever Korra was involved. Desna on the other hand treated her better.
The four of them made their way to the cotton candy stand where they found Bolin and Eska had already gotten their cotton candy.
Desna said to Asami, "Would you like the blue cotton candy or the pink one?"
"I'll take the blue one," Asami said.
"Very well."
He turned over to the cotton candy vendor and monotonously ordered an extra large portion of blue coloured cotton candy.
He pulled out a couple of yuans from his pocket and paid the man then turned his attention back to Asami saying, "Here."
"Thanks!" Asami cheerfully took the cotton candy from his hands.
Beside them, Eska was acting spoiled by getting Bolin to hand feed her chunks of the pink cotton candy they bought.
Asami looked on at them with slight discomfort at their public display of affection. Although she had held hands and kissed Mako before in public, she had never acted so cheesy the way Eska and Bolin did.
Desna observed her look and mistook it for something else. He expressionlessly said, "No. I am not doing that for you."
Asami wanted to retort 'I didn't want you to' but thought better than to say it. It was, after all, a pleasant day where she expected three hours of sunlight and she didn't want to waste it by arguing, neither did she want to ruin her mood by fighting over petty nonsense.
The four of them continued walking around, enjoying the scenery and the liveliness.
Eska commented, "Perhaps we should hold more of these carnivals during this time of the year, brother. I seems like a good source of entertainment to quell our boredom."
"I am sure that only applies to you, sister. I am rapidly getting tired of walking and observing."
"Desna you are a fool," Eska rebuked. "Bolin!" she shouted, although Bolin was just beside her, holding her hand.
"Yes, dear?" he said timidly.
"Earthbend a giant boulder at my brother."
"Uh... you know, I don't think that's such a good idea."
"Yes, I do not think that is such a good idea," Desna agreed lackadaisically.
Eska sighed dejectedly then she laughed in her usual creepy manner and said to Desna, "I was only joking," then turned to Bolin and said, "Darling, win me some prizes."
"Yes, my love," Bolin complied. He did felt warm in the heart. Eska was weird, but that was part of why he loved her.
And so, Bolin and Eska left to play some of the carnival games.
There were ones where Bolin had to use a fire hose to shoot water streams into a target. With his superior aiming skills from years of experience shooting earth bending disks during pro-bending matches, the game proved to be a cinch and Bolin easily won Eska a giant polar bear-dog stuffed toy which she happily accepted and cuddled.
Then Eska suggested that Bolin should join one of those hotdog eating contests.
Upon hearing that hotdogs were available for free as part of the contest, Bolin eagerly complied for he had grown slightly tired of eating fish.
After he signed up, he was shortly joined by a large, beefy man and - fascinatingly - Desna.
"Line up, folks! It's a hotdog eating contest you don't want to miss for we have here tonight - the tribe chief himself!" the manager of the contest announced using a megaphone.
Bolin thought that the tone of the voice, or rather, the way he spoke was oddly familiar and that it sounded like that of the announcer during his pro-bending matches. It seemed to him that all radio announcers sounded the same. That or they were all the same person, but he highly doubted that theory. He wondered if they might possibly be twins with the same accent, but that was all he could do - wonder - for he had a vague feeling that he would never find out.
"Aaaaaand, introducing one of the contestants, he's a person you probably know very well folks. The very famous mover star. Nuktuk of the South!" The announcer pronounced 'introducing' with large pauses between the syllables making it sound like 'intro-du-cing'.
"Hey! I signed up under 'Bolin'!"
There were many boos from the crowd but Bolin hardly cared for the grilling smell of hotdogs coming his way was more than enough to make his saliva drip.
The manager introduced the third contestant and the contest went underway.
The three of them had five minutes and one cup of water. They had to eat as many hotdogs as they could in that time.
Halfway through the countdown, Desna slowed down his eating pace and it was clear that he had difficulty chewing and swallowing at the same time. He looked like he was about to choke but he used the cup of water to help him down the hotdogs.
All the while, Asami shouted encouragingly, "Yay! Go Desna! You can do it!"
Desna rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath, "Ugh. Shut up. I'd like to see you do it." But he really wasn't mad at Asami. In fact, he even found her encouragement... well... encouraging. So, with renewed vigour, he stuffed more hotdogs in his mouth and chewed and swallowed them all down as if his life depended on it.
However, it must be said that he was already quite behind for the contest had reached its final peak. The contest was a close match between Bolin and the beefy man.
Bolin's eating pace slowed down but the beefy man just kept stuffing his face with the hotdogs, even going as far as using both his left and right hands.
"Bolin, you must win!" Eska shouted.
Hearing her voice, Bolin's energy surged but even then he could only do so much.
Seeing that her fiance was fast losing, Eska couldn't bear watching and, with a little flick of her fingers, she used the opportunity when the beefy man was drinking to waterbend the water up his nose.
The man clutched his nose in pain as the stinging sensation of having water go up his nose evaded his senses.
The timer ticked down to three seconds.
Two seconds.
One second.
And the contest was over with Bolin having caught up, barely winning the competition with one hotdog eaten more than the beefy man.
"Bolin! You've done it, my feeble turtle-duck!" Eska gave him a big kiss and hug.
Bolin gave a big burp and wiped his forehead. "Yeah," he smiled. "Phew, I thought I wasn't gonna make it! I mean did you see that? He was stuffing his face left, right and centre!"
As the two of them continued talking about the competition, Asami went over to Desna who had buried his head under his arms.
"Hey, are you okay?" Asami asked.
"Ugh. Yes. I am fine," then he made the motion of hurling but managed to stop himself. He said, "Never again."
"It's so fortunate folks," the manager announced, "That there were only three participants in this contest, so our chief managed to snag third place and won himself this giant hotdog bolster!"
He tried to hand Desna the consolation prize for third place but Desna, who still looked a bit green, dismissed the man saying, "Give it to her," he pointed to Asami.
Asami received the Bolster and felt her ears becoming slightly warm at the kind gesture.
Finally, the beefy man received his prize: a hundred coupons for hotdogs, while Bolin managed to win a trophy, three hundred coupons for hotdogs and another stuffed toy which he gave to Eska.
The sky turned dark after a short while but the carnival went on.
The four of them amused themselves further by going on rides, going through horror mansions (where Eska and Desna injured some of the staff by waterbending at them when they tried to sneak up on them), playing more carnival games (where Bolin's luck finally failed him), and just holding hands, walking around and eating lollies.
Due to the limited amount of sunlight, the sky had soon turned dark, but the carnival went on as the streets became bright with lights.
If Unlaq - Eska and Desna's father - was still alive, he would definitely be shaking in anger at what his tribe had become. For the first time in many years, people were having fun which he would certainly relate to sacrificing spirituality.
Finally, the sky became brightly lit with fireworks, signalling the end of the day.
Everyone made their way back and it was truly a day for Eska, Bolin, Asami and Desna to remember.
The following weeks after that, the four spent their days without worry as everything seemed to run perfectly.
And then the day of the wedding came.
End of Chapter Seven
To be continued...
