Disclaimer: I do not own The Legend of Korra and I do not claim so.

Chapter 2: 'First steps' (part 1)

The ship, which Korra was on, was slowly closing to its destination. Young Avatar was standing at its prow, leaning against barrier and almost jumping from excitement. Two hours ago the captain of the "Red Seal Duck" had told her that they will arrive to the city shortly and the girl was waiting outside since then. And now, finally, the land has appeared on the horizon.

Korra was absolutely amazed, her heart racing in her chest so fast, as if it wanted to break free. Set at the foot of two mountains, lied the Republic City, its skyscrapers shining in the light of the sun, more beautiful than Korra has ever imagined. The young Avatar could not decide where to look at: on the left she could see what would seem to be an Air Temple Island, with Aang's Memorial slowly emerging from behind it; in the middle was the very center of the city, the place she promised herself to explore until she will know it by heart. And on the right…

"Pro-bending arena!" Korra almost fell out of the ship, when she leaned towards it, trying to get as close to golden building as it was possible. She has been dreaming about this place for almost seven years now, ever since Shailesh had accidently spilled that he used to be a player. What he has regretted heavily, as overly excited teenager was later forcing him to tell the story of his short, but eventful career at least once a weak.

"If you end up in water, you will swim to the coast yourself," captain Chaman, a fat man in his late fifties with long, black beard and mustache grabbed Korra's collar and pulled her away from the barrier.

"Relax, old man," the girl laughed, not even looking at him. "I could always jump back in. Waterbending, right?"

"Bender or nonbender, it is not wise to underestimate the sea," Chaman replied very seriously. He looked briefly at the city, that has stopped impressing him quite a long ago. He scratched his head, sure that he has forgotten something important. He was about to head back to the work and prepare ship for docking, but with his first step, something jingled in his pocket. "Avatar."

"Yes?" Korra turned to him.

"I was ordered to give you those." He put his right hand to the pocket of his leather trousers and took the small pouch and tiny, sealed envelope out of it.

Korra took items with curiosity, as Chaman handed them over to her and left the prow. The pouch was pretty heavy and, as she suspected, contained a dozen or so coins and few banknotes, all with Aang's picture on them – Republic's yuans. The envelope was way more mysterious, tiny and square shaped, with only Korra's name written on it. Girl had no idea what could it contain, but the sender was obvious. Honna's lettering, evidently shaped by her aristocratic upbringing, stood out from everything she has ever seen.

Korra broke the wax seal and opened envelope curious about its contents. She took out two pieces of paper, one with a short letter on it, and the other with only one sentence – "I'm the Avatar, and I'm completely broke." Korra raised her eyebrows, read it two times normally and upside down, trying to get any possible deeper message hidden in it. When it didn't work, she shrugged and started reading the letter.

Dear Korra,

With my supreme prediction skills, I concluded that, when you will arrive to the Republic City, you will be utterly penniless. Thus, I have opened you a bank account, and I transferred some of my hard-earned money on it.

Korra rolled her eyes.

I expect Tenzin to feed you and take care about yours other day-to-day necessities, but were you to require something more, how to phrase that, extravagant, you should pay for it with your own money. The sentence on the other piece of paper is your password, that confirms your identity to the bank's service. Learn it by heart and eat paper afterwards.

I yearn for you to fare well in the Republic City, young Avatar. Try not to make anything extremely stupid, please. I hope we will meet again, when I get bored of my holidays on the Ember Island.

And not a second before!

Yours firebending master,

Honna

PS: If you will miss me so much, that your heart will crack unless you see my beautiful face, ask Firelord Zuko about me. He is a decent man and he will undoubtedly help you contact me. Even though I will probably slaughter you both for interrupting my leisure.

Korra giggled a little bit - Honna's sense of humor always got her. She took one more look at the paper with password and burnt it between fingers. The girl for quite some time now was worried about how will her financial situation look in the Republic City, but it seemed that her masters took care also about that. Korra felt a little bit guilty, but until completion of her Avatar training there was little she could do about it and they all knew it. Mastering elements was the most important thing right now.

Thinking about such a mundane thing as money, Korra has finally arrived to the city of her dreams. The gangplank was set up and Avatar, sitting on Naga, stepped down on the cobblestone of the harbor. Only then had she realized, that she could have jumped out the ship with Naga, when they were close to Air Temple, and waterbent them both to the coast. Now the distance was too great, to carry the polar bear dog with her, not to mention swimming there themselves.

"I was so excited that I completely forgot about that." Korra laughed to herself, patting Naga's head. She straighten up, and started moving her eyes around, looking for the boat that would take her to the island. She could see many of them of different sizes and origins, but she has quickly realized, that she didn't know what to look for. It wasn't like the ship to the island would have a giant, shining sign above it.

After around fifteen minutes of wandering aimlessly, the girl understood that she will have to ask somebody for advice, but then Naga suddenly stopped and started sniffing and jiggling nervously. Korra also felt that – a smell of food. She remembered that she has not eaten anything since the breakfast on the ship, and that her bear dog was on rather strict diet during couple of past days, spent on the sea.

"How can I say 'no' to her?" Korra loosened the grip of her tights and Naga, smelling freedom in the air, run towards the city happily. However there was one thing that the Avatar has not accounted for – Republic City's traffic was not exactly accommodated to handling polar bear dogs running wild between Satomobiles.

What followed was one the craziest experience, that Korra has ever lived through. After all when one and a half ton of fur and muscles appears in the middle of the street, chaos is imminent. Naga was running in zigzags, trying to avoid Satomobiles, that were coming from all directions, threatening to hit her. Korra had to use all of her strength to keep herself from falling down on the street, as they were passing vehicles, that often had to stop violently and were blowing their horns. She tried to apologize drivers, but that was not helping her situation at all. The girl has never in her life heard so many swearwords in such a short time before. Man and woman alike, shouting at her things like 'What the fuck are you doing here with this thing?!' and 'Are you dumb?!' wasn't exactly the most pleasant thing that has happened to her lately.

After crossing one particularly broad street, almost causing seven serious accidents, Korra decided to unmount Naga and lead her while walking next to her on the pavement. Pedestrians also weren't very happy about bear dog, but they at least could go past animal without threating anybody's life.

"Now, that was 'extremely stupid', I guess " Korra tried not to think what Honna would say about that occurrence, when Naga were dragging her towards the plaza on which some sort of festival was taking place. Dirty and happy children were running around laughing, multiple counters were selling all kinds of food and, in a distance, music was playing.

Naga stopped at the nearest of stands, full of smoked hams and slabs of hard to identify meat. She stretched her head towards the meal, when her master betrayed her and dragged her back.

"Watch your dog, missy!" woman behind counter shouted at Korra, looking at her angrily, but her discontent disappeared, when Korra voiced her willingness to buy 'two of those biggest pieces'. Korra paid for her meal, first time in her life not being supervised by anybody, and that made her feel more free than ever. Especially when she could just hear Honna saying something along the line of: 'What is the point of buying an expensive meat for your bear, if it cannot even appreciate its taste?' It was clear as day, that old aristocrat has never had a pet.

Korra looked around, trying to find a place to eat peacefully and rest after her stressing first steps in the city. She spotted the bench, standing in the shades of townhouses, that marked the border of plaza. On her way there she tried to recall the way she travelled from harbor and failed, since the crazy raid through streets left her a little bit confused. She, however, didn't bother herself with this much - she could always just follow the smell of the ocean.

The girl sat down and Naga lied next to her, so that she was touching Korra's feet, but with muzzle away from her master. Just in case. Girl chuckled a little seeing that and started eating, grabbing a flyer from the pile that somebody left on the bench earlier, apparently forgetting about them.

It portrayed a masked man standing in a pose she could only describe as 'victorious' and had few sparsely spread sentences on it.

'Are you tired of bender's supremacy? Are you tired of widespread INEQUALITY? Are you tired of being looked down upon, only because you cannot bend? We, Equalists, are fighting for YOUR freedom and we need YOUR help! Join us and support OUR noble cause!'

Korra raised her brows, not really sure what she has just read.

" 'Bender's supremacy'? 'Inequality?' 'Fighting?' " girl looked one more time on the masked man and it occurred to her, that he looked more like a general of an army, with the red sun drawn behind him and his confident pose. "What is this about?"

She examined flyer further. The second side was more informational though, pointing towards peoples and places that could interest reader. There were few addresses, phone numbers and one advertisement, this time more toned down.

'Do you have a problem regarding unequal treatment, that you would like to talk about, but you don't feel comfortable contacting authorities? Come to the Active Nonbenders' meeting and share it with others like you! We don't lay dormant, but instead we discuss about our everyday problems and seek for solutions to them. Don't hesitate, come any Tuesday, Friday and Saturday to the Palace of Culture and Science and ask about us!

Asami Sato, vice-president of the Future Industries, head of the Active Nonbenders' '

"This one at least does not sound like the declaration of war," Korra put flyer down, trying to finish her meal, that turned out to be a little bit too much for her, so she threw rest for Naga. Polar bear dog caught meat in the air and ate it with the purest kind of happiness in her eyes. "Sato? Like the one from Satomobiles?"

Korra would start thinking about flyer again, but something else suddenly attracted her attention.

Continued in part 2...