The sun rose over the horizon, illuminating the Kinpa palace with its rays, Korra was asleep in the room she had been given after her arrival.
As soon as she felt it was morning, she sat up and let out a yawn before rubbing her eyes and opening them wide.
TOC-TOC
"Come in." said Korra letting whoever knocked on the door through and when it opened, it was revealed to be a maid.
"Good morning, miss. She informed you that the queen wishes to invite you to have breakfast with her." said the maid.
"Of course. Wait a little while for me to get ready." said Korra receiving a nod from the maid.
After getting ready properly, Korra was guided by the maid to a room where Youko could be seen having a leisurely breakfast.
"Good morning Korra, did you sleep well?" asked Youko.
"Yes, it was very comfortable." said Korra sitting down next to Youko and eating some breakfast.
"I bet you wished a certain someone was sleeping with you next to you." said Youko before chuckling as Korra blushed slightly at the queen's insinuation.
"So, I guess we'll address the issue today then?" asked Korra.
"That's right, I talked it over with the ministers yesterday and they agree to deal with the issue as soon as possible, so they will take care of the rest while I try to find out what's going on." said Youko.
"I agree. I sense that there is more to this than just youma attacks." said Korra.
Just then, Keiki came into the room.
"My queen, an urgent message just came in." said Keiki.
"What is it?" asked Youko.
"The King of En is on his way here and wishes to speak with you." said Youko.
"The King of En is on his way here?" asked Korra in surprise, as she didn't expect to meet so soon the man who managed to rule her kingdom for 500 years.
"If he is coming directly it must be something very serious. Let's go receive him as he deserves." said Youko getting up.
"Understood." said Korra getting up as well.
Later, Korra, Youko and Keiki were in the main hall, waiting for their unexpected guests.
Needless to say, Korra was a little nervous.
She may have been used to meeting important people or rulers, but this wasn't just any ruler, but one who had ruled his kingdom for a very long time.
Her nerves and thoughts were interrupted when the doors to the room opened and in walked a black-haired man with a ponytail and next to him was a boy with blonde hair, something that confused the Avatar a bit.
"Queen of Kei, it is a pleasure to see you again." said Shoryu, the king of En, bowing slightly in respect.
"Likewise, king of En." said Youko bowing as well.
It was then that Shoryu noticed a certain new person.
"And who might you be, miss?" asked Shoryu.
"I am Avatar Korra. It is a very great honor to meet you in person, king of En." said Korra bowing in respect.
"Avatar? I don't know that title." said Shoryu.
"It's a long story. I'll explain later." said Youko.
Then Korra turned her gaze to the boy.
"And who is this child?" asked Korra.
"Child?" asked the surprised boy as Shoryu tried to contain his laughter.
"Korra, this is Rokuta, the kirin of En." said Youko.
Korra was horrified to learn that she had just insulted a kirin.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I had no idea. I'm deeply sorry, sir." said Korra bowing, hoping not to anger a kirin who, in terms of her world, was like a spirit.
"*Sigh* Never mind. I usually give that impression." said Rokuta.
"Hahaha. That's because you look like a child no matter how old you are. Hahaha." said Shoryu laughing.
"Shut up. At least I'm not compared to an old man like you." said Rokuta as the king of En continued to laugh despite the comment.
That made Korra calm down, not only because the kirin forgave her for her mistake, but she could see that the king of En was more normal than she thought.
"So what exactly did you come here for? I doubt you came just to say hello." said Youko.
"No. That's right. We came here to talk about the youmas attacking the kingdom of Kei." said Shoryu.
"Why would you come all the way here to talk about that?" asked Keiki.
"Because they have been attacking the kingdom of En too." said Rokuta.
"What? Is that true?" asked Korra in surprise.
"Yes, at first, we thought they were common attacks, but there have been so many happening in such a short time that it started to look suspicious. My suspicions increased when I heard that the same thing was happening here, in the kingdom of Kei." said Shoryu.
"And you think it's related, right?" asked Youko.
"Exactly." said Rokuta.
"In that case, we should go somewhere more private to talk about it." said Youko.
"Good idea and by the way, you could take the opportunity to tell me about your new friend." said Shoryu referring to the Avatar.
"Sure." said Youko.
As they headed to another room, Youko and Korra were telling Shoryu and Rokuta the story of Korra's world, the Avatar and the circumstances that led her to that world.
"Wow. I must say your world is impressive." said Shoryu.
"Thank you, your majesty." said Korra.
"To me what strikes me most is the fact that you saw a kirin in your dream. If that's what brought you to this world, then the situation must be worse than we imagined." said Rokuta with his arms crossed.
"And more so now that we know that the kingdom of En is also suffering from those youmas attacks." said Keiki.
"That's why we should try to find out the cause before the situation goes further." said Youko.
"She's right. At the moment, only Kei and En have suffered attacks, but who's to say that the other kingdoms won't suffer the same?" asked Korra.
"I agree." said Shoryu.
Soon after, they all found themselves in a room, around a table on which there were a couple of maps showing the kingdoms of En and Kei.
"According to our informants, the youmas attacked in these places." said Shoryu marking with a brush the points that were attacked in the kingdom of En.
"And according to what I have been informed, these were the points of attack in the kingdom." said Youko marking the points in the kingdom of Kei with a paintbrush.
Staring at it, it could be seen that the marked points were scattered throughout the two kingdoms.
"It is just as we suspected." said Keiki.
"Yes, even if they look random, they are enough to make it look weird." said Rokuta.
"However. If you look closely, they don't attack near the borders. They seem to only concentrate on the villages in and around the provinces." said Korra.
"It's normal that they don't attack the capitals. The troops defending them are strong enough to withstand an attack by youmas." said Shoryu.
"Maybe, but I suspect there's more to it than that." said Korra.
"What do you mean?" asked Youko.
"Soon after we arrived in Republic City, there was a group of people called Equalists. They started with rallies, but then they began kidnapping benders and carrying out various attacks to scare people. It wasn't until they had what they needed that they attacked the city on a large scale." said Korra.
"Are you saying that the youmas haven't attacked the capitals because they aren't strong enough?" asked Keiki.
"That's right and if that's what's happening, then it's possible that someone is controlling those youmas to attack people." said Korra.
"That's impossible. Only the kirin can tame the wild youmas." said Rokuta.
"Could it be the kirin of another kingdom?" asked Youko remembering her experience with Kourin, the kirin of Kou who sent youmas to kill her.
"I don't think so. They would have no reason to attack our kingdoms since we are on good terms with them." said Shoryu.
"Maybe, but we can't let anything go." said Korra dad her experience with people who seemed to be on good terms with her, but turned out to be evil and manipulative people.
"If only we could get more information." said Youko crossing her arms.
"Maybe there is a way." said Keiki getting the attention of the others. "If what Avatar Korra said is true and someone is controlling those youmas, maybe I can find out who it is."
"Can you do that?" asked Youko.
"Yes, but to do that I would need to stare one of those youmas in the face." said Keiki.
"There's just one problem. To do that, we'd have to be at the next place where the youmas would attack and capture one, but with all those random spots, it'll be tricky to find out." said Shoryu.
"Well, I guess the only thing we can do is wait for that to happen." said Korra with a shrug, since they had no other solution.
In a village in the middle of the kingdom of Kei, people went about their business and sitting on a bench were Youko, Korra and Shoryu with all three disguised so as not to attract attention.
While they were standing on the street, above the skies were Keiki and Rokuta in their kirin forms, watching the surroundings for any youma.
"Maj… I mean, Shoryu, can I ask you a question?" asked Korra calling the king of En by name to avoid drawing attention to herself.
"Sure. Ask away." said Shoryu.
"How has you been able to rule your kingdom for so many years? After knowing about how this world's system of government works, yours sounds impressive." said Korra.
"Hehe. If I'm being honest, there are times when I wonder the same thing. When I started, I didn't know if I would be a suitable king, but I guess everyone has that concern, right?" asked Shoryu directing his gaze to Youko who nodded in response. "All I did was to do my best to make the kingdom of En peaceful and prosperous. I made some mistakes, but they were necessary so that I could improve and because of that, I managed to rule for 500 years."
Korra was surprised by the wisdom of someone who has been ruling for a long time.
In fact, she could understand it, since, at first, she didn't know if she would be the Avatar the world needed, even her predecessor, Aang, went through the same thing.
They both made mistakes, but in the end, they improved from them and became respected and loved people.
Suddenly, her train of thought stopped as she heard people commenting concerns about something.
"What's going on?" asked Youko getting up along with the others.
At that moment, Keiki and Rokuta, in their human form, came running towards them.
"We have a problem. There's a flock of kingens heading this way." said Rokuta.
"What?" asked Korra in surprise.
"Looks like the wait is over." said Shoryu taking off his disguise.
"You only need one to be able to perform the process, right?" asked Youko taking off her disguise.
"Yes, but I would have to be very still." said Keiki.
"We'll try." began Korra taking off her disguise. "What can you tell me about those youmas?"
"They are flying youmas, but be careful, in their tail is a knife that is poisonous." said Youko drawing his sword.
"Understood." said Korra.
Soon after, people started to flee as soon as everyone saw a bunch of birds flying through the sky towards the village.
As the people fled in terror, Youko, Korra and Shoryu prepared to fight, not only to carry out their plan, but also to defend the villagers.
When the kingens were close to the village, Korra started throwing huge fireballs from her fists that almost hit them.
However, they weren't meant to hit, as that made the flying youmas focus their attention on them.
They let out a shriek before launching themselves at them.
"You two stay back. We'll take care of them." said Shoryu to the kirins, who nodded before walking away from the combat scene.
"Here they come. Get ready." said Youko.
As the kingens approached them, the three moved to various sides, causing the flock to split into groups of four that chased each person.