The Road to Recovery pt. 2
I could feel the bruises on my knees turning a darker shade of purple as I fell for the fifth time in five minutes.
"Alright, let's try that again." Noaidi spoke softly, her hands already trying to help me get back on my feet. I gripped the snow walls tight enough to turn my normally tan knuckle white as snow, crushing some of it in the process. I groaned, I was exhausted from the exercise, who knew it would be this difficult to try and walk again. I have been working on this for almost a year and I could still only take a few steps. I would have had Katara try to help heal me, but after giving her the first waterbending lesson, I knew she wouldn't be able to do much if anything at all. The Katara I remember would probably be able to heal me no problem… well not immediately, but it would probably be going a lot faster than what I'm doing now.
"Okay." I responded, holding myself up with my arms as my shoes lightly touched the snow covered ground.
"Alright, just like last time. Close your eyes and picture yourself walking towards me." I closed my eyes as I listened to her voice. Grunting, I mentally ordered my legs to move. I could see myself walking to Noaidi, but actually doing so was a completely different story.
"There you go, now, take another step." I heard her voice encourage me, and I opened my eyes to look down at my feet. I felt the smile creep up on my face.
"I did it." I looked back up at Noaidi, her smile encouraging me to try again. I willed myself to move my other leg, picturing myself taking another step. I was almost half way across the two banks, and I wanted to make it today.
"One more. You can do it." I closed my eyes and breathed again, just need to move my left leg. One more time. One more step. Just… one… more… step…
"There you go. Good job, Korra." I looked up to spot Noaidi standing three feet from me... I made it across? I couldn't stop the tears as I smiled back at Noaidi, I could feel my tears freezing as they tried to run down my cheeks. I looked at where I was compared to where I started. "You made it across."
"I did it…" I was in awe at what I had done. I couldn't believe it. I had made it across the entire walkway.
"Eight months ago you could only move your toe, and now you are close to being able to walk." She smiled at me. I couldn't believe how far I had come, despite the rough patches, it was alleviating the stress and the pain from not being able to do anything by myself.
"Alright, let's try something different." Noaidi said, moving to sit next to me. "I want you to try and move your toe. Image it and feel it moving." I looked at her, tilting my head as I tried to do as she said.
"So, I need to just-"
"Close your eyes, and see you toe in your mind's eye, then see it moving." I closed my eyes, trying to picture my toe, and seeing it moving. "Once you can see it moving in your mind, feel it moving… Just like that."
"What?!" My eyes flew open and trained onto my toe, tears of joy beginning to stream down my face. "I- I did it. It's moving!"
I couldn't stop moving it, I didn't want to stop, afraid that I wouldn't be able to do so again. Just seeing the small twitches filled me with hope, hope that I could regain my life again. And if I could walk again after everything that had happened, then maybe, just maybe, I could regain my bending.
"Noaidi! Korra!" That sounded like Katara. Both of us turned to the sound of the voice as it got closer.
"Katara, were are over here."
"Oh! There you are!" Katara had come around the corner of the wall, spotting us on the other side of the village. She ran towards us, a large smile on her face. "How is the therapy going?"
"Good," I breathed, holding myself up on the walls still. "Just tiring. You would not believe how hard it is to walk."
"She made it all the way across today. I think she will be able to walk normally within the next month if she keeps this pace up." Noaidi smiled, hope surging through my chest again. To have my freedom back would be amazing.
"Oh my gosh! Korra, that's great!" Katara had made her way around one of the snow walls and hugged me. I grunted as I had to use my arms double time to hold us both up as she began to lean on me. "Oh, I'm sorry!" She released me, covering her mouth as she realized what she did.
"Are you okay?" Katara asked as she helped me stand. I nodded my head as she moved the sled for me to sit on. This sled was something that my butt has seen a lot of recently, and my current mode of transportation when I have to go anywhere outside of Noaidi's tent. How I wish I could have one of the wheelchairs from Republic City. At least with those I could be somewhat independent, wheel myself around when I need to get somewhere. But sadly, the past has its limitations, and I felt bad when I had to go somewhere because someone else had to pull me along just to get to where I wanted to go. The villagers say they don't mind, but I know it's just an inconvenience… and I know I lost some weight being bedridden for a while, but the muscle that I still have (and now rebuilding), isn't light.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She didn't look convinced, "Katara, I'm fine. I promise. Why don't we work on some waterbending?" I tried to change the subject, and it worked as she light up like the southern lights, her eyes shining like the sun.
"Really?!" I nodded at her, watching her bounce in excitement. She loved practicing, and she has come a long way since our first lesson. Her first lesson was also only three months ago, but that was only because Noaidi didn't let me do anything until she believed I could handle it physically and mentally. Don't get me wrong, teaching waterbending to Katara has been fun, weird since she was my waterbending master, but fun none the less. Still, you wouldn't believe how tiring physical therapy could be, hell I didn't even think I would be that tired after one hour or rehab, but I was exhausted. I still am, but I was also getting better, I want to walk again so badly and that is probably my biggest motivator.
Katara has been a big help as well, always being there to try and help out when she can. I think she was really lonely when the men of the tribe and her father left to help fight in the war eight months ago, and hanging out with me just made her feel better I guess. I'm not complaining though, it was getting really boring in Noaidi's tent. They did give me my own tent though, even if it is conveniently located next to the healing tent, it is still my own place. And again, having Katara around helped pass the time, she has offered to load me up on the sled just to take me somewhere rather than just letting me sit in my tent all day, but I won't let her. Mostly because she tried one time and couldn't really pull me. That was actually kinda funny now that I think about it.
"Katara, I don't think this is going to work."
"Relax, Korra. It'll be fine. Just watch." She grinned, grabbing the rope at the front of the sled and turned. I raised my eye brow as she began walking, the rope going taunt as she tried to pull me forward. Nothing happened except her groaning as she trying to get the sled to budge.
"Katara-"
"No… I- got- it… Just s-sit tight…" her voice raised several octaves as she continued to try and pull me across the camp.
"Katara, really it's-" the sled moved a fraction of an inch.
"See? We-we are getting- somewhere…" the sled had stopped moving again. I noticed the groves in the snow below her feet, trying to hold back my laughter as she dropped the rope panting.
"We can just practice here. All you will need is a little bit of water… which technically, we have abundance of in snow, but..." Katara just looked at me confused, I sighed. "Never mind. How about you tell me what you know about waterbending, and what you are able to do."
"Oh, okay… well, I can swirl the water around in a pot, I usually do that to try and get the laundry done faster, and I can kinda make little waves in the ocean…"
"What do you know about waterbending?" I pushed, I needed to know where was at in terms of the art… something I wish I paid more attention to when I was learning it for the first time.
"Well, I know that it's an ancient art that is significant to our culture and that waterbending is a way of life for us…" She looked to me, probably to see if she was on the right track with her answer.
"Okay… so, not a lot." She frowned, looking down in shame and probably really embarrassed about her lack of knowledge on her own Heritage. "But that is to be expected from a tribe that has no more waterbenders in it. So, let's start with the basics. Do you know who the Moon and Ocean spirits are?"
"Yeah, Tu and La! Tu is the Moon spirit, and La is the Ocean spirit." She grinned, I had to mentally stop myself from correcting her about the Moon spirit being Yue… That was a future event.
"Correct. Now, do you know how waterbending first started? Where the people learned it?"
"Ummm… The Moon I think…"
I grinned, "Correct. Just like the other elements and how they learned from animals like the Sky Bison for Air, Dragons for fire, or Badger Moles for earth, the watertribes learned waterbending from the Moon as the Moon was the first waterbender. However, because we learned from the Moon this also means that the strength of our bending is tied to the phases of the moon. The fuller the moon the stronger our waterbending will be. Our people leaned how to push and pull the water like the moon after watching it for so many years. And that will be our first lesson."
"It's over already?"
"What? OH! No. Nononono. I meant that is where we will start. The basics of waterbending comes from the push and pull of the water. Feel the flow of the water as you bend it." I finished, Katara was staring at me intently, waiting for further instruction. "I want you to try and move the water like the Moon does. You said you can sometimes create small waves right?" Katara nodded. "Well, when you practice those waves, try to feel the push and pull of the water as you are bending, to feel it's movements like the Moon would." I lifted my arms, slowly moving them back and forth, as if I was going to waterbend the waves myself. Katara tilted her head, before understanding what I was doing, and quickly copied my motions.
"This is the best technique (that I can think of) for you to use as a way to begin feeling the push and pull of the water. Next time you are near the water try this, and see what happens." I smiled at her, "For now though, we are just going to work on the actual form of the technique, that way when you practice you know how it's supposed to be done."
"Okay. Let's do this." She grinned back, determined to master her element.
"So, what are we going to work on today?" Katara bouncing in place, her eyes shining with excitement.
"What we did last time, streaming the water." She nodded, "Assume your stance, and begin." I watched as she pulled the water from the ocean, the long tendril reminding me of an octopus tentacle. I watched as she moved the water around, making loops and bending the cylindrical cone of water. Some of the movements could have been more fluid, but she was also still learning… I also didn't think I would have been this good of a teacher, but I guess we both get to learn something new.
"Good, now try to sever the tendril from the ocean." I instructed, carefully watching as her arms moved to do so. The water split from its home cleanly, "Good, now-" the water however didn't take to well to the movements of Katara's arms, plopping right back into the ocean, effectively splashing the waterbender trainee.
"Gahh! Awww… I was so close too…" She whined, a pout on her lips as she glared at the water. "What did I do wrong?"
"Hmm…" I studied what I remembered from her movements, trying to find what caused the water to ignore her command, but couldn't really find any… Her jerkiness, I noted. "While you had the proper movements, you are still a little jerky with the arm and wrist motions. Waterbending is about the flow of energy, and allowing that flow to let you move between attacking and defending, while also using your opponent's energy against them. You need to be fluid and graceful with how you control your own movements, if you don't move fluidly, then the water won't respond correctly." I couldn't move my lower body due to the shed, but I could provide the arm and wrist movements for her to watch and mimic.
"How do I correct that?"
"Practice. It's just going to take practice. It seems we both need to keep practicing and working hard to achieve what we want most."
Katara nodded, determination engulfing her as she exhaled while looking at the ocean, getting ready to try again. "We just keep practicing. I can do that."
Wow... that took way longer than it should have to get published... I blame life.
I did want to add more scenes and make it longer, but I think that was what was taking so long because I was hitting a road block on some of the other scenes. However, I still am going to use them, however, they will just be in the next chapter.
Next chapter will probably show more about Korra's timeline... But idk yet, but I'm still working that out. I didn't want to exposition dump with something that was only half ready, especially since I'm not even sure I want to keep what I wrote for that yet... Speaking of which, don't be afraid to ask about uploads because I tend to be lazy and a procrastinator, so if something like this happens again just PM me.
Thanks to all those that follwed/favorited and reviewed! You guys all rock! See you all next chapter! :D