The Legend of Korra: Skarloey Kail
Chapter 2
Skarloey awoke the sounds of panic and marching outside the large tent and soon began to hear another commotion going on only a few feet away from him in the doorway. He sat up an wiped his eyes out, trying to focus on what was happening and soon found Korra's mother arguing with a man and teenaged girl. Before Skarloey had even had a chance to really wake up and start to focus, a polar bear-dog came rushing through the doorway past the others and began to growl loudly in his direction.
He then felt movement behind him and turned to see Izera standing up and walking in front of him to block him from the large beast, as she began to growl back at it. Skarloey quickly sprang to life and stood up from the floor and walked in front of Izera and took her face in his hands and looked into her bright golden eyes, trying to get her to focus on him.
"Common Izera, it's okay girl don't worry," he soothed as he began to scratch one of her ears to grab her attention. Almost at exactly the same time, the teen girl began to calm down her pet.
"Naga hush, it's alright. You," she said turning to Skarloey once both of the female mounts had stopped growling at each other. "Who are you."
"I have been trying to explain to you that he is a guest," Senna nearly yelled, clearly aggravated.
Skarloey waited while everyone began to calm down a little and let him speak for himself.
"My name is Skarloey, Senna let me stay here last night because I don't have a place to stay, I was here for the festival. We met when the Southern Lights came back to the sky."
"You let a stranger stay in our house?" Tanraq questioned.
"I wasn't going to let the boy stay out in the cold now was I?"
"Ya dad jeez have a heart," Korra said quietly looking away from her father.
"…Uh…not to break up the caring family conversation, but what is going on outside?" Skarloey asks.
"Northern Water Tribe troops have arrived and are locking down the entire city, they have already blockaded the harbor."
Almost before Tanraq has finished his sentence Skarloey yells out, "What? They can't!" He runs past everyone and out into the cold morning air to see first hand that everything Korra's father said was true. He then dropped to his knees, feeling and looking very defeated. "They can't keep us here, there are tons of tourists here, they have no right to close the harbor."
Everyone joined him outside, Izera nudging him in the back with her nose before rubbing her head against the side of his head, attempting to comfort him.
"You're a tourist?"
"Yes, and you are the Avatar, so I suggest you get a handle on this situation before I have to."
"Oh like you are gonna take on the whole Armada by yourself?" She jokes.
"If I am stuck here for any longer than a week, then yes, I will."
Senna then takes hold of Tanraq and Korra's hands and pulls them aside to talk to them. "This kid is the son of a banished Earth Kingdom General, he has no connections and no money to spare. Not only that but from what I know of his family he should be something special when it comes to bending. He is troubled and powerful, in my experience that is a deadly combination when it needs to be."
"Banished Earth Kingdom General?" Tanraq says louder than he should, Skarloey able to hear him but not the others.
"His name was Rheneaus Kail," Senna confirms before seeing Tanraq's face fills with surprise.
"You are the son of Rheneaus Kail?!" He asks looking to Skarloey.
"Who is Rheneaus Kail?" Korra asks.
"One of the strongest Earth benders ever born, it's said he had an incredible mind as well. His strategic nature and strength combined led him to the high ranks in no time flat, I wasn't aware he had any children." Tanraq said quietly at the end of his rant.
"I am surprised you know as much as you do about him," Skarloey scoffs.
"Well for someone like me it isn't uncommon to know these kinds of things," he almost mutters to himself.
"Skarloey, you are welcome to stay here as long as you need to, Izera as well," Senna says, breaking the small silence.
"Only if everyone agrees with that," he says, not wanting to impose.
"Alright," Tanraq agrees.
"Sure, now if you will excuse me, my uncle needs me," Korra says, almost with a bite to it directed at her father. She climbs onto Naga's saddle and heads off to find Unalaq.
Throughout the next several days Skarloey barely even sees or hears from Korra, as he is mostly out of the house all the time. He would roam around the town for hours on end, go hunting for his own food, try to take some jobs here and there to get paid a bit, and come back to the house as everyone was getting ready to go to sleep. He didn't want to be in their hair all the time and he didn't want to answer any more questions about himself, nor did he want to get in the middle of the feud between Korra and her parents.
One night, Skarloey was walking around the town looking for a place to buy a decent meal with the small scraps of money he had made over the past few days after the sun had set. By this time of night, he was usually headed back to Korra's house, but he had decided to stay up a bit late tonight with the hope of a good meal. Not only that, but he was also taking Izera on a longer walk to really stretch her legs and get moving. She strode along behind him, occasionally stopping to sniff at things here and there. By this point, most of the people around town had seen Izera several times and knew that as long as they did nothing to provoke her that she wouldn't hurt a fly, and the children around town had grown fond of seeing the large Tiger-Wolf.
She was unique, most of the people had never seen anything like her before. Every so often a few kids would come up to them and begin petting Izera, and the large wolf would lower her head to the children's level and let them scratch at her ears, her favorite spot to be touched. Izera loved all of the attention she was getting, seeing as Skarloey would often move from place to place in a day, so no one ever had time to get used to her being around.
Everywhere Skarloey went however, he could see the people of the Southern Tribe were angry, no doubt due to the North "uniting them". More like invading if you asked Skarloey, especially since the tourists still were unable to leave. Eventually, Skarloey came to a nice looking restaurant and stopped to have a look inside. He left Izera out with a few kids and walked in the building to have a look at their menu. Almost immediately inside, however, he found Korra and her friends at a table.
He then noticed the children of the Northern Chief were with them, but they quickly stood and headed over to the serving area to get more food. He walked over to their table and Korra immediately noticed his presence. "No, not to me it wasn't! I'm very bad at reading people you should know that by now! Huhoh man. Do something Avatarrr," one of the boys at their table half yells before leaning forward as if bowing to Korra sarcastically.
"Sorry Bolin but you are on your own with this one, only you can break up with her," Korra laughs out before noticing Skarloey heading toward them. "Oh look at that, he does go out in public," she says sarcastically to Skarloey.
"Ya well, I saved up enough money to finally pay for a meal so I wanted to check what the sold here. Who'er your friends?"
"This is Bolin and my Boyfriend Mako, they're brothers, Eska and Desna are unfortunately with us as well."
"Ya I noticed that what a riot they seem to be…"
"And you are?" Asked Mako, wondering why Korra knew this man.
"That's Skarloey, he is staying in my house."
"Why do you have another man staying at your house?" Bolin asks, not really aware of how his question sounded.
"Oh it's not like that," Korra says throwing up her arms in an X formation, "My mom invited him to stay after the festival because he doesn't have any money to spare and he was trapped here by the blockade."
"How is that going by the way?" Skarloey quickly asks.
"Unalaq hasn't said anything, every time I ask about that particular subject he dodges the question."
"Only a few more days before I go down there and beat the answer out of him…"
"Can we not do this now?" Korra sighs.
"…You could have said something ya know?" Mako says breaking up the awkward silence. "I would rather he stay with us instead of with you. You have enough to deal with as it is"
"Mean it?" Korra asks surprised.
"Look dude I don't care where I sleep, long as you two are willing to sleep with a-" his sentence is cut off by the sounds of howling outside and men yelling. "Izera!" he yells before turning around and running to the door and throwing it open, the others getting up and following him outside.
They immediately see a group of northern troops surrounding Izera, one of which has his hands on a rope which is tied around her neck, two of them surrounding her at ready stances to strike if needed, the fourth trying to tie another noose around her mouth to shut her up, and the fifth behind the rest with his arms crossed barking orders.
"Stay still you stupid beast!" the one trying to tie the knot around her mouth yells at her, but as soon as he finishes his sentence they all begin to feel the ground trembling.
Korra looks to her left, only to find Skarloey halfway through a punch, aimed straight at a chunk of earth floating before him. The tremble had come from when he slammed his left foot into the ground, making a crater around his foot and getting the chunk in the air in the first place. The chunk was probably twice the size of his own head, Korra couldn't believe how fast the had reacted and begun to strike.
'It's too late,' she thought to herself, eyes going wide. "I can't stop him, I don't have enough time!" she yelled inside her own head, raising her hands trying to get to him in time.
Skarloey's right fist connects with the rock, sending it straight for the man who had the rope tied around her neck, hitting him square in the back and sending him forward into the man who was trying to tie the rope around her mouth. Both men were thrown to the ground and knocked unconscious. Before the others could even react they all felt another quake beneath them as Skarloey slammed his palm down into the ground in front of him, and quickly twisted his palm in the dirt.
At the same moment, the ground beneath the remaining three men began to tremble wildly, before twisting around the same as Skarloey's hand and done, and they sunk shoulder deep into the earth, unable to move. Korra grabbed Skarloey by them arm before he shook her off and walked to the leader of the pack, grabbed him by the neck and pulled him up out of the ground and lifted him off his feet. "Skarloey wait! Stop you're only going to make everything worse!" Korra yelled to him, but he didn't care, these men were now at the top of his list and weren't going to let them go without a lesson.
"You listen good, you, or any other human being on this earth, EVER so much as looks at her the wrong way again, and not even the Avatar will be able to stop me from ending you…" He then tossed the troop into the snow before stomping the ground again, popping the other two soldiers back up onto their feet and out of the ground. "Got it?!" He yelled before the guards collected themselves and grabbed the two unconscious troops and ran away.
"You'll regret this you rotten kid!" One shouted back at him, but he wasn't listening. He ran to Izera's side to help her. She had laid down in the snow with her paws over her eyes and was audibly pouting to herself. He lifts her head up a bit and unties the rope around her neck and tosses it aside, followed by the loosely secured one around her mouth, acting as a muzzle. She then rested her head in his lap and he held her head tight in his arms, trying to comfort his friend. "It's okay girl, everything's alright, it's not your fault…you did nothing wrong," he nearly whispered this to her trying to soothe her nerves.
"You are such!… Do you have any idea what you just did you, idiot!?" Korra yells at him while she walks over and stands above him.
"Yes, I saved the only friend I have, deal with it. If you had done what everyone in your tribe has been asking you to do, this wouldn't have had to happen." Soon enough they begin to notice that they have drawn a crowd and that most of them are beginning to clap and cheer Skarloey on. Some even begin to shout at Korra.
"Stop cheering! He just attacked the Northern troops, now they will be more restrictive then they were before!" She tries to reason with them all.
"He is doing what you should've been doing all along!"
"They started it and he finished it!"
"He is a better Avatar than you are!"
Mako takes Korra's hand and tries to take her away, "Korra common it isn't worth it."
She turns to face Skarloey one last time before leaving with Mako and Bolin, "Don't bother coming back to my house tonight, you are no longer welcome! You're lucky I am not arresting you myself!" she yells before the group leaves.
"I'd pay to see you try.." Skarloey mutters to himself as Izera begins to cheer up a little bit and stand up with him. Skarloey climbed on her back and he began to hear many of the people in the crowd offered him a place to stay the night, Korra could still hear the crowd and began to shake her head in frustration, but didn't say anything. She also however soon heard Skarloey turn them all down and tell Izera to begin walking away, headed for the harbor.
He made his way into the docks and snuck past all the guards, keeping Izera hushed the whole time. They snuck into the cargo bay of the ship they had arrived on and Skarloey found some extra food laying around but not enough for both of them, so he gave it all to Izera to help cheer her up a little. He spread out a blanket for her and found another to lay over her, and then set up his own bedroll beside her and soon fell asleep beside her.
When Korra finally got home that night she walked in to find her mother pacing back and forth in the front room, with something in her right hand.
"Oh, Korra, where is Skarloey?"
"I don't know and I don't care!"
"What's wrong?" She asks as she stops pacing and blocks Korra from storming off to her room.
"Some Northern troops were trying to muzzle and capture Izera and he beat the snot out of them before threatening to kill them if they tried again. He is lucky I didn't personally take him into custody. I told him not to come back here."
"Korra he is a soldier at heart! If someone threatens his friends, of course, he is going to fight for them, he sounds like a friend you should consider having to be honest."
"…Why do you care anyway?" Korra says taking a deep breath and trying to calm down.
"He has no home, he is trapped here with no way of getting home and no real money. Not only that but he probably feels awful about this whole situation…he left this behind when he left this morning, I found it when I was cleaning up." She reveals the object in her hand and hands it to her daughter.
"A locket?" She asks before opening it up.
"Ugh, Korra you shouldn't just go through his personal items like that…" but before long she finds herself sneaking a peak in it as well.
On the left side, they find an inscription and on the right, they find the picture of a young girl, no older than twelve, with jet black hair, a powder white face and beautiful green eyes, not to mention unnaturally red lips. Korra then says the inscription out loud, "Forever in mind, Forever in heart, SK-AS."
"S for Skarloey, I wonder who she is, she is a very beautiful young lady," Korra's mother says looking over her shoulder.
"Probably someone from his childhood in Ba Sing Sei…he must be worried sick about this thing. Nice to see he has real feelings for an actual person."
"We should return it to him…"
"He turned down all the people who offered to give him shelter for the night, how am I gonna find him?"
"Have Naga track Izera as best she can. Try to think of a place you'd hide if you wanted to be alone."
"Alright, I'll be back later then I guess…" she said before running outside and hopping up on Naga's back and beginning the chase.
" A.S…" she thinks out loud, pulling out the locket and looking at the picture of the young girl again, feeling a soft warm smile creep over her lips for the first time in a few days. "Hmm, she really was a pretty one…"
End of Chapter