The landing on Orta Island was rough, say the least. None of the beach areas that surrounded the town were very smooth areas in the middle of the day, due to low tide. Before anything else happened after the landing, a girl with chocolate brown hair pulled back into a long pony tail and pale skin approached them with an angry look on her face.
"I am going to fill my pockets with rocks, get a good grip on your ankle, and jump from the Bainbridge's cliff-side balcony into the deepest part of Electric Koi Eel bay, do you hear me Kao! Don't you ever run off without telling anybody like that again!" The girl then took Kao into a strangling hug.
"Sure thing, princess," Kao told the girl with a smirk. The girl dug her elbow into Kao's ribs good-naturedly.
Lin cleared her throat, and Kao looked over at them. "Why don't you introduce us to your friend, Kai?" Tenzin hinted.
"Guys, this is Azule, she's another friend of mine from when I was little. Azule, this is Korra," she pointed to the Avatar, "her boyfriend Mako," she pointed to the firebender boy, "his younger brother Bolin," She pointed to the childish earthebender, "Chief of the Republic City Police, Lin Bei Fong, and Republic City Councilman Tenzin."
"Like, as in, Avatar Aang's son?" Azule asked.
"Yes," Tenzin muttered embarrassedly.
"Cool," Azule replied absent-mindedly. "Let's get you guys settled in, yeah?" she then gestured for the group to follow.
"Okay," the group replied shocked at the island's immediate hospitality and acceptance of the strange group.
X
"Is walking through this swampy mess really necessary?" Korra groaned.
"No," Azule replied. "Not if you want to walk around the entire island to the one section of beach that's still completely attached."
"What?" Lin demanded.
They were walking through a river of sludge that was similar to that of what you stepped in in the shallowest parts of a swamp, but it smelled like salt water, fish that had rotted in the sun, bad oysters, and mud. The river of sludge was about seven feet wide and three feet deep, and that wouldn't have been a problem if its contents weren't thicker than a Komodo Rhino's hide.
"It's a small island with big movement." Kao replied. "Generations of earthbenders and waterbenders have practiced here, and all the shifting in the earth mixed with the bending of the water against the island has started to cause the beaches and the solid land that the town rests on to separate." She continued, struggling to pull her foot out of a strong pile of swampy, gooey mud.
"Don't worry Kai, I'll save you!" a loud and obnoxious boy declared from out of sight, and then all of a sudden a boy with brown hair and heavily tanned skin came flying through the air, and then went into a dive towards Kao.
He missed by a few inches and landed face down in the sludgy, swampy mud. "Dimitri you idiot!" Kao exclaimed while hitting the boy on the top of the head with the side of her fist. "Do you not understand what the word fragile means?! Your impact on the ground has started to cause more shifting in the earth, and with that happening I don't want to even think what amount of shifting would have happened if you had taken me down with you! Spirits!"
The boy wrapped his arms around Kao's knees. "I'm so sorry Kai, I'll think more next time." The boy sobbed, "I was just trying to win your love back," he buried his face into her legs, "Please love me." He begged. Lin raised her eyebrow at the girl, trying to gain an answer as to what the boy's problem was.
Kao pinched the bridge of her nose, and let out an irritated sigh. "Dimitri, get off the ground." She told him. The boy rose from the ground, but never pulled his arms from around her. Kao's cheeks flared a bright cherry red that was very obvious against her cream colored skin. "Hey!" Bolin exclaimed angrily, stomping over to the boy that wouldn't let go of Kao. "Let go of her!" When Bolin reached Kao and the boy named Dimitri he ripped Dimitri off of Kao. "And don't feel her up like that again."
Kao, flustered with anger and embarrassment, was finally able to pull her foot free from the mud. "Let's get onto solid ground before we deal with the rest of that situation." She grumbled and then started quickly making her way through the sludgy mess they were walking through.
"Why is this area so swampy if it's a beach and ground made out of solid rock?" Mako asked.
"The water can make certain plants grow in the sand, and it did, but, because of the cracks in the earth made by the centuries of earthbending and waterbending movements on the island, more water than necessary for the dry beach sand to grow plants has now entered the area, along with mud made from the edges of the solid ground. Unfortunately, it's too much mud and not enough water to grow seaweed or other underwater sea plants. Therefore, it has created this swamp like sludge out of dirt, sand, seawater, and dying-from-over-hydration plants." Azule replied informatively.
"Azule Chang, making the world smarter one pointless fact at a time," Troy commented irritably.
"Just because your girlfriend's been kidnapped, doesn't mean you have the right to be a dick to everybody, Troy." Azule retorted.
"Wait," Tenzin spoke, "Did he say your last name was Chang?"
"Yes sir," Azule replied, "Min Chang is my biological father."
"Way to be oddly specific," Korra replied while tensing up, in case of a fight.
"You have no need to fear me. I have no ill will implemented by my father towards you. I am going to help you fight my father when you make your attack." She told Korra in reply.
"Why?" Lin demanded.
"Because the burn inflicted on my person by my father's attack on our bending school nine years ago has left my right hand completely immobile." She held up her right arm to show them the scar that covered her entire hand, front and back. The skin was slightly wrinkled and the fingers were forever in an awkward curled position.
"Spirits," Tenzin muttered in shock. Azule just shrugged in reply, and then turned to face in front of her.
X
It was only a few minutes later that they were crawling out of the swampy goo. Kai easily pulled herself up out of the sludge and onto the ground; "Finally!" she heard someone exclaim form behind her and turned to see Bolin face first on the ground making dirt angles with his earthbending, "Solid ground." The boy had a huge smile on his face and Kai couldn't help but giggle at how adorable the display was.
"So you're who keeps Kai from loving me!" Dimitri yelled out, his finger jabbing in Bolin's direction.
"Dimitri, I broke up with you six months ago, get over it!" Kai snapped at her old friend/ex.
"You and him were together?" Korra asked Kai surprised.
"He was less obsessed with 'winning my love.' Back then, he just wanted to fight everyone to prove how strong he was."
"I challenge you to a duel!" Dimitri declared to Bolin. "You and I will fight for Kai's love, and I will win! Therefore winning her back!"
Korra, Mako, Bei Fong, and Tenzin all stared at her as if she was crazy. "What?" she asked, her cheeks flaring up in embarrassment, "I thought it was endearing." She began to dig her toes into the inside of her other foot while looking down at the ground.
"I'm not going to fight you," Bolin snapped angrily. Korra, Mako, Kai, Tenzin, and Bei Fong looked back over to the two boys.
"Why, are you scared you're going to lose to the strongest earthbender on Orta Island?"
"That little–"
"Don't," Kai told Mako, cutting him off. "I'll take care of it." Mako and the rest of the group they were traveling with watched as Kai walked over to where Bolin and Dimitri were face to face. Kai stomped her foot into the ground, and Dimitri was sent flying into the air by a column of rock.
"I am the greatest earthbender on this island twerp!" Kai called after Dimitri's airborne body, "Don't you dare forget it next time!"
"You really dated that guy?" Bolin asked, ignoring the fact that she just sent him flying with one stomp of her foot.
"Yeah," she muttered, digging her toes into the inside of her other foot.
"Why'd you break up?" he asked quietly.
"Same reason I sent him flying," Kai remarked, now angry again. "He's arrogant and sexist, and I was sick of him down playing me just because I was a girl."
"But you were still friends with him after all of that?" Korra asked confused.
"Yeah," Kai, Troy, and Azule remarked in unison, "Why wouldn't we be?"
The group of travelers that weren't native to Orta stared at the group of three creeped out.