The sun began to rise, signaling the beginning of a new day. The sun's rays pierced the curtains of Elsa's room, where she, Anna and Korra had enjoyed a pleasant and fun slumber party.
After Korra told them about her story with Asami and Elsa and Anna helped her with her problem, they had the most exciting and fun part of the evening: a pillow fight.
The three of them were hitting each other with the pillows of Elsa's royal bed, while laughing at how funny it was. In the end, the room was covered with feathers, although they were still laughing. After that, they all decided to leave the rest of the night to rest in their sleeping bags.
Unfortunately, it didn't last long for Arendelle's queen when the sun's rays reached her face. She groaned a little at the discomfort until she couldn't take it anymore and woke up. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and checked the room.
As I remembered, the room was quite covered with feathers from the pillow fight. It used to be fun, but now it's a nuisance for the maid to have to clean all that up, Elsa would mentally pick some up to lighten the maid's workload a bit. That's when she realized that one person in particular was missing.
Korra's sleeping bag was empty. Elsa assumed that she had probably woken up early and gone to breakfast. She probably didn't wake them up so they could get some more rest. Doing the same thing she did with her sister, Elsa got out of her sleeping bag and left the room, making sure not to wake up her sister who was sleeping with a smile on her face.
When she arrived at the dining room, she expected to see the Avatar eating breakfast or patiently waiting for them, but she only saw that there were 3 plates on the table with cutlery and so on, which indicated that Korra hadn't yet eaten breakfast.
She put her hand on her chin, thinking about where she might be at this time of the morning. That's when she heard something, it was faint, but she could tell it was coming from the front yard. As she stepped out of the castle gate, she saw that Korra was in the center of the courtyard performing training exercises.
First she moved her hands, forming a whip of water with which she hit the air, then she jumped up and while she was in the air she threw a kick from which a fireball came out, when she touched the ground, she stepped down so hard that two rocks came out from each of her sides and finally she stretched out her arms on each side, sending a current of air that destroyed both rocks.
Although she had seen her skills before, Elsa was still impressed by the control she had over the four elements. In her mind, she wished that she could have the same ability and control that she has. She was so immersed in her thoughts that she didn't realize she had been noticed by Korra.
"Oh, Elsa. Are you awake already?" asked Korra stopping her exercises to turn around and look at her.
"Um... Yes, recently. Sorry if I interrupted you or anything." said Elsa.
"It's okay, I've been here for a while." said Korra.
"Did you get up early for training?" Elsa asked.
"It's what it takes to be the Avatar. I have to be prepared; you never know when something bad might happen." said Korra with some wisdom.
Every time she spent with her, she saw that the difference between the two was getting bigger and bigger. Yes, she was a queen with powers of ice, but Korra was the Avatar, guardian of her world. That thought made Elsa feel inferior to her.
Korra noticed the queen's depressed expression. "Is something wrong with you?" she asked.
"It's just... Ah, it's nothing." Elsa said without being sure to tell her.
"Elsa." Korra began by approaching her to put her hand on her shoulder. "If something happens, tell me. You can trust me." ended Korra seriously.
Elsa had a hard time telling her, but seeing the Avatar's serious look, she also saw that he was serious when he said that last thing. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to tell her about what she was feeling, she just hoped it was true.
"The thing is... I'm jealous of you." confessed Elsa.
"Jealous? Of me? Why?" Korra asked with an eyebrow raised in curiosity and confusion.
"Not only can you master the 4 elements as if it were something simple, you are also the Avatar, the guardian of your world. I instead have been trying to keep my powers under control and hidden from everyone, even my sister, and even though I am Arendelle's queen, it's nothing compared to what you do." said Elsa expressing what she felt and thought.
Korra's eyes were open to Elsa's confession. During her life, she had seen people of all ages admire her or treat her like a normal person, but she had never heard that anyone was jealous of her, not in that particular way.
"Wow. I'm sorry if I made you feel that way." said Korra rubbing the back of her head.
"No. It's my fault. I shouldn't have said that." said Elsa feeling guilty about what she said.
"No. It's good that you told me." said Korra reassuring the queen a bit. "To tell you the truth, I've been thinking about something ever since you told me about your powers."
"What did you think?" Elsa asked.
"How would you like it if I trained you?" asked Korra.
Elsa's eyes widened at Korra's suggestion. No one, absolutely no one, had offered to train her. During her childhood she knew some simple tricks like covering a room with snow, then after the coronation she did some things she didn't think she could do, like building an ice palace in one night and creating a couple of living snowmen.
She always thought she knew enough, but when she met Korra, she knew there was more to it than she imagined and now she was standing in front of her, offering to train her.
"Do you... do you want to train me?" Elsa asked still shocked by the question.
"Why not?" asked Korra. "I know a lot about waterbender and ice is a property of water. Maybe you can improve by learning something from it." said Korra.
"But are you sure about it? I mean, do you really think you can teach me?" Elsa asked.
"There's no harm in trying, right?" asked Korra with a shrug.
Elsa thought for a moment. She had a chance to improve and what better person to teach her than the bender of the four elements. Besides, she was right, there was nothing wrong with trying.
"All right. Teach me, master." said Elsa with a smile of excitement.
"Hehe. Just Korra will be fine. All we need is a quiet place where we can train quietly without much bother. Do you know of such a place?" Korra asked.
Elsa thought of several places where they could both train without being disturbed, but of all places, there was one that caught her attention, a place that would certainly be suitable.
"I know just the place." said Elsa.
"Great. Then let's go." said Korra before a grunt sounded from her stomach.
Elsa laughed slightly at it as a small blush appeared on Korra's face.
"I think we should have breakfast first." said Elsa stopping her laugh.
"Yes. I think so too." said Korra with a shy smile.
When they arrived at the dining room, they were eating breakfast for a few minutes until Anna arrived a little sleepy from the night they had spent. She was able to stay awake long enough to have breakfast with the others.
During breakfast, Korra and Elsa told Anna about their training plan, which left Anna impressed and excited at the thought that her sister would be trained by the Avatar. She asked to go see him, but Korra said it was up to the two of them, Anna even tried to convince her by putting on puppy dog eyes, but Elsa calmed her down by saying that they needed someone who could handle things in the kingdom while she was away all day.
After informing the servants and preparing for the journey, Korra and Elsa stood at the entrance to the palace next to a cart pulled by Sven, saying goodbye to the others.
"Make sure everything is all right, okay?" Elsa asked.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure everything is as it was before you left." said Anna.
"And I'll make sure she makes sure of it." said Kristoff, earning a little nudge from his girlfriend.
"Why can't I come with you?" asked Olaf.
"I'm sorry, Olaf, but this is between me and Elsa." said Korra.
"Oh." said Olaf depressing himself before a smile came on his face. "Can I at least give you a hug goodbye?" he asked with outstretched arms.
Korra rolled her eyes at the snowman's childish attitude. "Of course, you can."
"Good!" said Olaf excitedly before running to the Avatar to hug her leg.
After saying goodbye and Elsa gave Anna a couple of tips, the two women got into the car and Elsa asked Sven to start shooting. The reindeer started pulling the cart, pulling it away from the castle and the kingdom until the kingdom was out of sight for them.
"By the way. You didn't tell me where we were going." Korra mentioned, realizing the lack of information.
"Let's just say it would be better if you saw for yourself." said Elsa to confuse the other.
After a while, Sven stopped. Elsa explained to Korra that the rest of the way was difficult to travel with a car and the best thing would be to get there on foot.
"Hey, I noticed something. How come you're not warm or something?" asked Korra.
"Don't worry. The cold never bothered me." Elsa replied. "What's your excuse?"
"I was at the South Pole most of my life. This weather is nothing compared to the cold there." Korra replied.
They walked for a couple of minutes until they reached a huge rock wall.
"Um... Is there another way, by any chance?" Korra asked, hoping she wouldn't have to climb that.
"There is." Elsa said, drawing Korra's attention to herself by the stairs.
Both women climbed the stairs until they reached the top of the wall.
"Well. We're here." said Elsa.
At that moment, Korra saw that, in front of them, there was something she couldn't even imagine in her wildest dreams, a castle made entirely of ice. Every part, every window, every detail of the castle was made of ice, and to perfection. Its beauty couldn't compare to the palaces she had seen in her world.
"Wow. Just, wow. It's... awesome." Korra said before she turned to the queen. "Did you make it?"
"Yes, and strange as it sounds, I did it on the first try." said Elsa.
"I thought your skills were amazing, but this... this is something unique. Not even a group of earthbenders would be able to do that, and if they did, it would take months." said Korra, amazed at Elsa's powers.
Elsa blushed a little when she received such a lake, she knew it was impressive that she could easily make an ice castle, but she didn't expect it to be so impressive for the banners of Korra's world.
"Thank you." Elsa said.
"So, this is the place where we'll be training?" Korra asked looking at the ice castle.
"That's right. This place is pretty isolated and few people know it exists. In my opinion, it's the perfect place." answered Elsa.
"That's fine with me." said Korra before the two women headed for the castle.
When they both stopped at the foot of the stairs for a few seconds, the snowdrift next to them started to move and rise, revealing itself to be a much larger snowman than Olaf.
"Let me guess, this is the guardian of the castle?" Korra asked, thinking about the obvious.
"Yes. This is Marshmallow, he makes sure no intruders enter the castle." explained Elsa.
"You call a little snowman Olaf, but you call this big guy Marshmallow?" asked Korra arching an eyebrow.
"It was Anna who named the two of them." said Elsa with a shrug.
The two women began to climb the ice stairs. Marshmallow stared at them some more before returning to his original position.
When they entered the main hall of the castle, Korra was even more surprised by the design of the interior. Elsa's powers were beyond what she would have ever thought if she was able to do such a thing in only a short time.
"So... where do we start?" asked Elsa, pulling Korra out of her astonishment.
"What? Oh, yeah. I think the main thing would be meditation." Korra said.
"Meditation?" Elsa asked.
"A bender's abilities aren't only physical, it's also mental. If your mind is focused enough, you can be capable of several things." said Korra recalling the teachings she had.
"It's ok." said Elsa before taking Korra upstairs where they could meditate quietly.
Korra got into a meditative position and Elsa copied her.
"Okay. Now, close your eyes, take a deep breath and let your mind go blank." said Korra before doing what she said earlier.
Elsa had her doubts, but decided to listen to her teacher. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and tried to keep her mind blank.
They were both like this for a few minutes, but while Korra was quietly meditating, Elsa was having difficulty. Although she found it easy at first, seconds later she began to lose her concentration. She opened her eyes and saw Korra in the same position as before. She tried again to close her eyes and keep her mind blank, but she tried to fail soon after. Elsa grunted a bit about it.
"Is everything ok?" asked Korra coming out of her meditation.
"Yes. I just... can't concentrate." said Elsa.
"I've noticed that. What's wrong with you?" asked Korra.
"You see. I like this thing about you training me, but... I can't help but think if..." Elsa started.
"If your powers got out of control and you hurt people?" Korra asked, knowing where the queen was going.
Elsa nodded at the question. "Alone, I can't help but worry."
"Elsa, you can't let a bad experience torment you forever. I admit it's horrible what you went through, but if you let it haunt you, you won't be able to help anyone." started Korra before she lowered her head. "I almost did it once." she said, drawing the queen's attention.
"What do you mean?" Elsa asked.
Korra had her doubts about whether or not to tell her, but if she wanted to help her, she would have to share that information, plus she trusted her enough to tell her.
"There's something I didn't tell you before, but this shouldn't leave here, okay?" asked Korra seriously.
Elsa was surprised that Korra was serious about something she hadn't said before when she told them about her life. It must have been a very serious and personal matter.
"Okay." Elsa said.
"When I faced the Red Lotus, they captured me. They told me that, not only did they want to eliminate all the rulers, they also wanted to eliminate the Avatar. But they knew that if they killed me, another Avatar would be born later, so they tried a more drastic method." said Korra.
"How drastic?" Elsa asked and began to worry.
"You see, the Avatar has another special power, known as the Avatar State. It is a process in which the spirits of the Avatars of the past merge with mine, increasing my powers. It may seem amazing, but it also has a risk and that is that if the Avatar dies during that state, the cycle would be broken and the Avatar would cease to exist." continued Korra.
Elsa was surprised to learn that Korra had another skill that acted as a double-edged sword, but what interested her most was the story about the Red Lotus.
"Zaheer, the leader of the Red Lotus, knew this and intended to use it to eliminate the Avatar forever. To do this, they introduced mercury poison into my body." said Korra, beginning to tremble at the memory.
Elsa put her hands to her mouth with the surprise and horror of imagining someone doing such a thing.
"The poison was slowly killing me and instinctively activating the Avatar State, but that wouldn't be enough to stop the poison. It was only a matter of time before the poison killed me in the Avatar State and destroyed the Avatar cycle." said Korra.
Tears began to form in Elsa's eyes. Korra had told them many things, from her friends to the battles she faced, but she never thought she could have gone through anything as horrible as that.
"Some friends were able to remove the poison from me and save me, but it affected me physically and emotionally, and I had no choice but to return to the South Pole to recover. Sometime later, I started to get better, but I still felt that I hadn't fully recovered and that I would never recover. I wanted to go back, but I didn't feel ready and began traveling the world alone trying to discover myself for years. A couple of years later, I met an old friend of the previous Avatar. She made me realize that if I was to face future threats, I had to overcome my fear of getting injured like I had. When I did, I was able to go back to my friends and the rest you know." said Korra, recounting the darkest moment of her life.
Before she said anything else, Korra was surprised when Elsa rushed to embrace her with tears running down her face.
"I'm sorry. *Snif* I'm sorry you had to go through that. *Snif* And that you told me. *Snif*" said Elsa in tears.
Korra knew her story wasn't exactly the most beautiful, but she didn't expect this reaction from Elsa.
"Quiet. That's in the past. You don't have to worry." Korra said, returning the hug.
Elsa broke away from the hug and wiped away what was left of her tears.
"I know. I just find it horrible to worry about something like that when you've been through worse." said Elsa.
"Maybe, but that doesn't mean that the same thing won't happen to me as it did to you. You also had your happy moments with Anna and then something happened that made you not believe in yourself, but then a person taught you how to do it and since then everything has been better for you, or am I wrong?" said Korra reminding Elsa of her life.
Elsa laughed a little when she realized something. "You know, put it that way, we're more alike than I thought." said Elsa.
"I think so, too." said Korra, causing a little laugh between the two of them. "What do you say we continue with the training?"
"I think it's a good idea." said Elsa.
For the next few hours, the two of them concentrated on training.
First, Korra began by teaching Elsa simple water control movements, such as the movement of the waves or the water whip. Elsa did her own version of this by moving the snow outside as if it were water, and when she tried to create a water whip, she threw a white energy bullet that, when it hit a rock, caused an explosion of ice that froze a small part of it.
Korra then taught her body movements for the waterbenders, which Elsa imitated. They were both performing the same choreography as a dance, but suddenly Elsa stumbled, causing both her and Korra to fall to the ground. It was a little painful, but they still laughed.
Later on, they started with something that was new to Korra, helping Elsa with creating ice things.
"All right. Start with something small and simple, that can fit in the palm of your hand." said Korra giving instructions to the queen.
"I'll try." Elsa looked at her hand and started thinking of something she could easily grab with her hand.
When she was clear about what she wanted, she concentrated on creating it with her magic and soon after a snowflake appeared in her hand.
"Not bad." said Korra, congratulating the queen on her work.
"Thank you." said Elsa.
"Good. Now let's go with something a little bigger, but not so much, like a cane or a sword or something like that." said Korra moving on to the next phase.
"Got it." Elsa said before she thought about what she wanted to create.
When it was clear, she raised her two hands and concentrated on it. Because it was a little bigger than before, she moaned a little about the effort. Soon after, an ice cane appeared above them.
"Great. You're getting better and better." Korra said.
"Yeah." said Elsa breathing heavily because of the little effort she put in.
"Do you need a break?" Korra asked, seeing the queen's symptoms of exhaustion.
"No. I'm just... not used to using them all the time. If I got tired this way over a cane, I don't know how I'll be when I have to do something bigger." said Elsa.
"Listen. Sometimes you need to focus on something to be able to do the movement successfully. You just need something good to focus on. Try to do something else, but this time, think of something that makes you comfortable, calm and happy." instructed Korra.
Elsa tried to think of something like that and then smiled when something went through her mind.
"I think I have something." said Elsa.
After saying that, Elsa closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she took a couple of steps back, confusing the Avatar. When she felt that she was far enough away, even with her eyes closed, she began to move her hands, with white and blue flashes in her wake. As she made those movements, the ice began to rise from the ground and was rising as it took shape.
Korra was surprised and amazed when she saw that the result was an ice statue of her. It looked exactly like her, from the strands of hair, to the clothes she wore, to a smiling face.
"Well, what do you think?" asked Elsa opening her eyes when she noticed that her work was done.
"This is... incredible." said Korra with the only thing she could think of to describe it.
"It's my way of thanking you." Elsa said.
"What were you thinking when you did it?" Korra asked.
"The times when Anna and I were little and played in the snow with my powers. It was a long time ago, but... they're my best memories." said Elsa.
"If that's so, then treasure those moments. And as for the 'thank you' part, you didn't have to do that." said Korra.
"Are you kidding me? Not only did you save me, but you're here, helping me with my powers, I can't tell you how grateful I am." said Elsa.
"Just 'thank you' is enough." said Korra smiling, Elsa smiling back.
They both fell silent, looking at each other, when suddenly Elsa noticed something from behind Korra. She started walking until she was outside on the balcony of the room and looked in the distance. Korra stood next to her wondering what she saw and when she looked in her direction, her eyes, like Elsa's, opened wide.
From the balcony you could have an excellent view, not only of the landscape, but also of Arendelle, but at that moment, a column of smoke was rising from the castle.
"What could be happening there?" asked Elsa, beginning to worry.
"I don't know, but it doesn't look good." said Korra before addressing the queen with a serious expression. "We have to go back!"
"But Sven took the sled and it will take longer on foot." said Elsa.
"Then let's not go on foot." said Korra before she loaded Elsa up bridal style.
"K... Korra, w... what are you doing?" asked Elsa blushing because of the stance she was being held in.
"You hold on to me." said Korra before she jumped up and formed an air ball on which she stood.
Then he moved over the air sphere on the balcony until he jumped from it. Elsa screamed in panic as she hugged the Avatar's neck. As they were falling, Korra stood on the wall of the castle and began to slide down it until she reached the ground, where she began to move at great speed, due to the air sphere, through the forest in the direction of Arendelle.
Elsa calmed down when she saw that they were safe and moving at an even faster speed than a reindeer. She took one look at Korra and saw that she had a serious expression, then looked forward with a worried expression, hoping that nothing had happened to her sister.