"Korra wake up." ever since she'd slammed into the rocks she's been out cold and I've been stuck alone in this massive cave with a dragon growing more impatient by the second.

"Korra I really need you to wake up right now." a slight murmur was all I got.

Come on Asami think, how can I get her to wake up?

And idea struck me and I pulled out a small blade and sliced my palm and let a few drops of blood drip into her mouth. Her eyes fluttered open as soon as the blood hit her tongue. She was up and in a fighting position in seconds.

"Dragon!... that's not attacking." she looked to me clearly confused.

"Korra he's agreed to teach you. Don't you remember attacking him? You were firebending and your eyes were glowing white. It was actually kind of creepy."

"Huh must have gone into the avatar state."

"The what?"

"It's when I have all the abilities and past experiences of all previous avatars at my disposal. Usually it activates when I'm in serious danger. But he's really agreed to teach me fire?"

The way she skipped over the whole previous abilities of avatar was kind of annoying but I'd get answers later. Right now we had a much more dangerous problem. "Yeah but if you fail he's going to eat us."

"Well then it's a good thing I'm a quick study." she throws a rock at the dragon, getting its attention. "So what's my first lesson?"

"Fire is not so easily mastered little mortal. For the dragons fire is power and knowledge. For mortals fire is energy and breath. It starts as air then extends past the limbs and becomes flame." He flies down from his perch and breaths out a small stream of fire creating a circle around her.

"Keep this fire from going out. That is your first lesson, now I must leave and hunt." just to make it harder he took off right in front of her sending burst of air directly at her. She had to focus harder on the flames but even then nearly all of it went out as he exited the cave.

What was left of the fire was a small candle like ember that Korra was focusing on with both hands.

"This is going to be harder than I thought."

"Can you keep it going?"

"Yeah in fact I think I can..." she moved her hands outward and took a deep breath just as she did the flame doubled in size. It happened so quickly I barely had time to take a step back.

Korra was overjoyed by her handwork and proceeded to move the flame, raising and lowering the intensity at will.

"This is fun. I think fire is going to be the easiest one to learn besides water."

Well fire is spontaneous, bold and dangerous by nature. I think it suits her personality nicely. But I've seen it's destructive capabilities, both by dragons and benders.

"I love that you're having fun with this but please keep in mind that if you fail that dragon is going to literally eat us alive. So I'd appreciate if you could focus."

"Asami relax, all I have to do is keep this lit until he gets back." As she continued to play with the fire I decided to explore the cave to see what was inside. For the most part it was like every other icy cave that littered the landscape. Rock met with snow and ice but just as I was returning to Korra I saw a small wooden door beneath some rocks.

With a bit of leverage I was inside what looked to be a lab, notes and ledgers littered the small opening and there in the middle of the floor being illuminated by a patch of light was a magic circle carved into stone.

Usually these kinds of places where used to summon spirts or demons that usually turned on the caster. The notes surprised me for they weren't on how to summon something but on how to rid yourself on something. On one of the tables was a book of experiments.

"Test number one. Rendering drauger lifeless corpse once again. Tried the magic extract test. Ended in assistant dead." setting it down I turned to the next one.

"Test number 2. Attempting to cure afflicted werewolf using silver knife and forsworn nature. Test mildly successful. Test subject returned to human form before using knife to end own life." who ever owned this lab obviously didn't have a large success rate. I was starting to see a pattern but I noticed one final book lying near a skeleton.

"Test number six vampirism cure." my heart sped up as I gripped the book looking at the words and instructions.

"Test subject is feral vampire that attempted to kill me. Used the ritual to drain their vampiric essence into soul gem, returning them to human form. Upon waking the newly turned human still attempted to kill me and I had to kill them. Sadly used last of ingredients curing vampire and growing tension between the people have left me with little choice. I must leave to my second laboratory in Dragon Bridge." I couldn't believe what I was reading and then rereading. A cure existed and somebody had written down the steps.

But as I turned the page I noticed the brittle condition of the book and how many pages were missing. Then only thing that was there was the name of the author.

"Fallion. Well it's not much but at least it's a start." I gathered what I could and started out of the small opening just as the sound of descend wings filled the cave followed by a roar.

The dragon had returned and from the faint blood marks around his teeth it was clear he had found his meal. Korra on the other hand was stull huddled around the small fire, a pound smile on her face.

"So what's next?"

"So you can maintain a small flame. I expected more from the avatar but it will do." her smile deflated and I became angry. "If you are going to challenge a dragon you must know their power and overcome it. I will transfer my knowledge and understanding of fire to you." he closed his eyes as energy rippled over his body and into Korra. Her eyes went white as they usually did when she learned something.

When it was done she collapsed to her knees.

"Now you know fire as a dragon does. Now survive!" the fire came faster than I could see and Korra was completely engulfed as the flames surrounded her.

I could only stand there and watch as the entire area filled with the fire.

Is she? No she can't be dead. She's too powerful but a blast that powerful at close range would do some serious damage.

But as I thought about what ifs I saw proof she was alive. The area where she was was starting to form a small bubble that grew bigger and bigger until I could make out Korra hands extended to her sides, guiding the fire around her. With every passing second the fire spread further and further from her body until finally it was completely passing her on either side.

Seeing this the dragon stopped and actually smirked that is if dragons could.

"Well done, but there are many more challenges for you. Rest and we will continue once you've regained your strength." as he retreated into the cave I rushed to Korra to check to see if she was alright.

Her arms had some slight burn marks and she was struggling to stay upright but other than that I couldn't see anything wrong. She collapsed into my arms smiling like an idiot.

"I did it."

"Yeah you did now get some rest." I set her down and made a makeshift bed out of our jackets. As she slept I kept going over the notes and research from the lab.

Should I tell her? No not until I'm absolutely sure. But no matter how many times I told myself it was the right thing to do I couldn't get rid of the knot in my stomach.