Korra's Point of View

It had been days since Appa had last landed on solid ground, and over a week since the battle at the Air Temple. We were all roughed up from the battle; I don't think I've ever seen a dead body before then. But we were all going to have to get over it.

We were becoming travel-weary as well. Even Appa was beginning to become tired of flying for more than half the day, and resting on freezing ice. "When'll we get there?" Sokka moaned as he stared out at the ice, "I never knew there was so much water in the world,"

"We'll get there eventually. Wanna train again?" I answered. Sokka and I had been practicing by battling each other, and I had gotten significantly better at my dao blades.

"Nah. We trained an hour ago and Appa was lurching again." Sometimes Appa became a little unbalanced when we started shifting weight, and it was never a good idea to push his balance too much. I sighed.

"Katara, waterbending forms?" I asked hopefully.

"Maybe later. I'm just not feeling it. Or anything for that matter," she replied.

"Ugh. I'm dying out here. Why can't we go somewhere?" I moaned, and Sokka snorted.

"That's what I was saying a minute ago," he said.

"Well, now I'm saying it," I snapped. We were all silent for a minute and then I got up. Finding a good point of balance, I started to go through forms.

This time, they weren't waterbending forms - I was too tired of those – but instead, firebending forms. It was an ancient set that was hardwired into my muscles and going through the forms felt good. "What on earth are you doing?" Katara asked.

I turned towards her, a little upset that she was interrupting my thing, and stated, "Practicing firebending. I can't forget anything."

"Well, don't you think that isn't the most intelligent of things while we are on the way to the water tribe, whose enemy is the Fire Nation?"

"No. No I don't. There isn't a soul out here, Katara, and we are never going to find the Tribe."

"Not at this rate," grumbled Sokka, who was listening to our argument.

"What'd you say, Sokka?" called an angry sounding Aang from the furry head of the bison, "'Cause I thought I heard you say that Appa was going to slow."

"I did. He's poking along, and look how close he is to the water," snapped Sokka back at Aang.

"I can't believe you. Why don't we all pile on your back and have you drag us to the North Pole?"

"I can't believe that you can't make him go faster!"

"I can't believe that you are complaining about Appa, who is the one towing us across the ocean."

"I can't believe that-" Sokka was cut off by Katara's angry voice.

"You idiots! We have been traveling for days on end with nothing but ocean, and the worst thing that you two can do is argue. The end," she snapped, "We are all tired of this, and the sooner we get to the Pole, the better for all of us."

Sokka turned to his sister, "Get to the Pole? We are never going to make it! Not on-" That was when they struck.

There was a whizzing sound and a cord of ice flew over Appa's neck and landed on the other side. It was like magic, all of a sudden, there were two barges beside us, one on both sides; and they did not seem friendly. Another whizzing sound was accompanied by another cord, this one across Appa's butt, and there were battle shouts from the barges as the men down there used the cords to pull Appa into the water.

Katara and Aang assumed their bending stances, Sokka grabbed his club-thing, and I reached for my blades when the first of them came aboard. He was a man in his late twenties, and was wielding water like he had been doing it all his life – which he probably had. These were Northern Water Tribe members, and they weren't being nice. He turned to face Sokka, who was coming at him with the club-thing, and waterbended the stuff from his waterskin into ice freezing Sokka's feet. That unbalanced him enough that he fell over, allowing the bender to waterbend his hands to the saddle using ice. Then he turned his attention towards me; I was now armed and ready to go. And man, I needed to be ready. It wasn't easy fighting a bender one-on-one when you are not the most experienced with your weapons, and this bender was no exception. I ended up dodging a tendril of ice and whacking him on the head, throwing him to the ground. While he was reeling from the hit with the flat of my blade, I took the opportunity to scream in his face, "We are on your crazy side, for the love of waterbending."

I felt some water creeping around my wrist, just iced enough to pull, and water enough to be flexible; I spun around and screamed again, "We are on your side!" There was water everywhere, there must have been ten benders, and at least five were focused on me. There were ice tendrils everywhere, I spun around with my blades, slicing and hacking at the water until all that was left was small little ice cubes on the ground. But, there were always more.

The short battle was over soon, ending with an unconscious Katara, Aang in ice handcuffs, Sokka frozen to the saddle and I was in an ice block that left my face open to the air, my swords frozen in a position above my head as I reached up to kill another ice snake. Damn. I was close with the estimating, there were twelve waterbenders there, and they all looked both guarded and desperately curious.

"Who are you, what are you doing here, and why did you claim that you were on our side?" asked the man in the most elaborate fur coat, the man who must have been the leader.

"I need to learn waterbending," Aang started explaining, "And, as the Avatar, I was expecting a warmer welcome."

The man paled when Aang said the word 'Avatar', but quickly grew defensive again. "The Avatar? The Avatar has been dead for over a hundred years, you might want to think up a better cover story."

As a response, Aang glared at him and used his cuffed hands to create a sort of airblast that blew him fifteen feet into the sky. The look on the man's face was priceless when Aang landed softly on the saddle, hands now cuffed in front of him. "Can you please remove these? I can show you what I can do with waterbending, prove that I'm the Avatar, and we can go onto the Northern Tribe."

In a daze, the man turned the cuffs to water, and Aang used one of the simplistic forms that I taught him to bring water up in a small snake-like form and twirl it around his body. I have to admit, I wasn't the best or most patient of teachers. Once the man was satisfied, he spoke, "It is an honor, Avatar, to escort you to our city." And we were off.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Chief Arnook can definitely throw quite the party. There is this huge celebration going on welcoming the Avatar and celebrating the Princess Yue's sixteenth birthday. I feel off saying her name, because the Moon Spirit's name is Yue, and usually people don't name their children after spirits, not directly. An acceptable name could be Yunee, or Yulie, but naming a child directly after a spirit can be taken as disrespectful. That is why you never run into any firebenders named Agni, or waterbenders named La, either. But no one here thinks it is odd at all. Anyway, Sokka has been making goo-goo eyes at her for hours, ever since he first saw her on the canal way on the way in. I overheard him asking her if she wanted to 'do an activity' together sometime. I don't know how that charmed her, but she giggled softly and said that she would love to.

Katara and Aang are more interested in watching the performing waterbenders. The Waterbending Master, their future teacher, was performing for the Avatar and the Princess with some of his more accomplished students, including the boy who I'd smacked on the head when we were fighting. From the announcing Waterbending Master Pakku did, it seems like his name is Timian, and he is a very good bender. He smiled at me when he was doing a water-ball, and I looked away, blush creeping up on my face. For the love of firebending, why am I acting so awkward? He's handsome, yes, he looks familiar, yes, but where is the blushing coming from? He has a strong face with thick eyebrows, and is wearing a blue scarf wrapped around his neck. When I close my eyes, I can see myself talking to another guy. He looks different then the waterbender, but close enough. He has a red scarf on, and I suddenly get a name… Mako. The waterbender looks like Mako.

"Mako," I say, trying the name out on my tongue, it feels familiar, like I've said it before.

"What was that?" Katara asked from her seat next to me.

"Mako. That waterbending boy up there looks like Mako," I smiled. I wasn't forgetting anything! I could remember his name still! Did that mean I could go home, and get my bending back?

"Who's Mako?" she asked, giving me a funny look; but as soon as she saw the grin spreading across my face, she understood and grinned, too. "You can remember? Everything?"

My face fell. I couldn't remember everything, just Mako's face. I couldn't tell her that Aang was going to defeat Fire Lord Ozai, or that the world would be free. For all I know, I could have been a prisoner in the Fire Nation that spans the world, but I doubt it. I just have a good feeling about Mako. "No, just his face and his name. But that's a start, isn't it?"

She looked at my hopeful face sadly, "Yea, it is."

Then, the performers finished with a watery flourish, and Katara and Aang began clapping their heads off. The three of us got out of our seats and went over to where the waterbenders were shaking hands. "Ahh, the Avatar," said Pakku as we walked up to him, "I hope you don't expect any special treatment, because I treat all my students the same. I expect you at the practice field at sunrise tomorrow, bright and early - don't be late." He walked off after that surprising statement, leaving the three of us staring after him in shock.

Katara was the one who spoke first, "Well, he certainly seems like a jerk."

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

You know Katara's comment last night, the one stating he was a jerk? Well, he is the supreme ruler of jerks. For the love of firebending, how on earth did the Northern Water Tribe establish that kind of a rule? Katara and I were walking towards a small structure in the middle of town on the canal, and we were extremely pissed off by it.

We had just gotten to the practice field, Katara, Aang, and I, when Pakku arrived. "I can't wait to learn from a real waterbender! I'm going to become a real waterbender!" Katara was gushing, like she had for the past half an hour. I on the other hand, just wanted to get my bending back. I figure, with enough practice, the water should just start following my movements again.

Pakku shattered all hopes of learning again. "You girls don't honestly expect to be taught, do you?"

Katara was the first one to look shocked, "What?"

"I'm not teaching you two girls. The end," Pakku said as he turned away, walking a very confused and angered Aang to the other side of the field.

I stepped forward, "But, why?"

He stopped and turned around, "In our tribe, it is forbidden for women to use their waterbending to fight. Go to Yugoda, she should be in the healer's hut, and attempt to project your waterbending into something… useful," he finished distastefully.

Aang broke away from him. "If you won't teach them, you won't teach me," he said determinedly.

Pakku gave him an indifferent look, "Fine by me." He turned around and started walking off to the other end of the field by himself, leaving Aang in the middle of him and us.

"No, Aang," I said as I looked at his torn face, "You need to learn waterbending."

"Yea. Go and learn waterbending. Korra can keep teaching me," Katara ordered, and Aang turned around with a sad look and ran after that jerk of a waterbending master.

And that is how Katara and I ended up walking into Yugoda's hut an hour late for the healing lesson. She was gracious about it, as kind old women tend to be, and ordered Katara and I to sit down next to the ice body with water-canal things crisscrossing it. Katara sat down quickly next to Yugoda and a small child who looked to be four years younger than Katara, maybe six years younger than me. Yugoda smiled at me, and moved to the side, opening a spot next to her. "Sit,"

"I'll just watch, thanks," I said awkwardly as I back up against the wall.

She made a confused face, and asked, "But you came here to learn, didn't you?" The whole class of around ten including Katara was looking at me; they were all wondering what was going on in my head, Katara was wondering how I was going to explain this.

I reached up and scratched my head nervously. "I… I lost my bending a year ago. I just want to see if I can get it back." There it was. Out in the open. Up until then, the entire tribe must have assumed I was either a waterbender or a waterbender-wanna-be; the truth comes out.

Yugoda's face softened and she looked sympathetic, "Alright then, you may watch."

The lesson was fantastic, you could clearly see that Katara understood the material, and she was a naturally gifted healer, as shown by her burns out a Jeong Jeong's . After the class, during which I felt no waterbending revelation come upon me, Yugoda was talking to Katara. I waited to head over to their corner until every last small child had left the healer's hut, every single one of them giving me a sympathetic look as she left. Spirits, I hate it when people look at me as weak. I did catch the tail end of Katara and Yugoda's conversation, though.

"She left… anyway, I'm glad you are here," Yugoda finished and Katara smiled at her.

"We ready to go?" I asked Katara, and she nodded.

"Bye, Yugoda. Thanks for the lesson," she said as we left, looking over her shoulder at the smiling woman.

"What was that all about? Who left?" I questioned as we started walking down the canal way.

Katara gave me a wry smile, "Evidentially, my grandmother, Kanna, was born in the Northern Water Tribe, this was her engagement necklace from a man she didn't love," she said as she touched her blue necklace with her gloved hand. "She left the tribe and went south because she couldn't stand their sexist traditions."

I snorted, "She sounds awfully familiar."

Katara beamed, "That's a good thing,"

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

We were all miserable that night. We met up in the little house we were allowed to use, and were all stretched out in our sleeping bags when everyone started complaining.

"Bending lessons are no fun without Katara in them, too."

"Be glad you get bending lessons, Aang, I don't get to learn to fight."

"And what am I, chop liver? Are bending lessons no fun without me either, or am I a fart to bend with?" I asked.

"You can't even bend," Sokka moaned, and I leaned over and slapped his face. He thought he could say that and get away with it? No way, not as long as there is ice at the North Pole.

"Tui and La, that was uncalled for, Sokka," Katara admonished. Tui and La? I've never heard that one before - must be a past thing.

"Well, I had a rotten day, too," he snapped as he pulled some snow off of the wall and held it to his face.

"And what was so rotten about your day?" I snapped right back, "You didn't go the whole day in a bending community, still wishing you could bend and tell everyone to stop giving you those pitiful looks."

"Princess Yue and I met on a bridge, and one minute she liked me, and the next minute she was running away. I didn't even say anything! I mean, how right is that?" Sokka finished with a wild hand gesture, "And if you guys are so keen on learning, then why doesn't Aang just teach you two whatever he learned in the day at night?"

Katara brightened, and her eyes lit up, "That's a fantastic idea! Everyone is happy!"

"I'm not happy," Sokka groaned.

I glared at him, "You're never happy, and right now, none of us really care," I said in my angriest voice. He deserves everything I give him for that comment about me not being able to bend. "Let's go!" I said turning towards Katara and Aang. This wasn't as good as my other plan, learn waterbending from a waterbending master who could bring my bending back, but learning waterbending from an Avatar who was learning from a waterbending master might just work, too.

We managed to find an out-of-the-way ramp down into the water, one that wasn't too high up or in the open, and Aang began teaching. And just for the record, Aang is about as good of a teacher as I am. I mean, I have no idea of how Katara managed to pick anything up from that; he was just demonstrating over and over again. But she was doing oddly well, and was very proud of herself. And she seemed to take it upon herself to add little awesome flourishes that would be hard for even me. And then the water started twirling around her, and she just stood in the center; that wasn't her bending. It was Pakku's, as revealed by his overly-dramatized making of ice spikes that stuck in around his feet. "Avatar. You have disrespected me, my city, and our customs by teaching the ancient art of waterbending to these females. You are no longer welcome as my student," he said in what must have been his angriest voice, because it seemed to ricochet off the icy walls of surrounding buildings and hit us again in the stomachs after he left.

"I… he…" Aang stuttered while staring into space, his eyes focusing on nothingness.

"I'm sorry," Katara whispered gently, and I'm not sure if she was talking to Pakku, who had left by now, or Aang, who seemed nonresponsive. And hey, I'd be, too, if my chances of learning waterbending were taken away from me and I had to fend for myself. I looked at the ice spikes in the balcony above us, they were sharp and vicious; not at all like I envisioned waterbending once I was able to do it again.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

The next morning, we, Aang, Katara, and I, marched ourselves over to the audience hall of Chief Arnook to demand that Aang be accepted back into his lessons in that sexist cow-pig, Pakku. And what-do-you-know, the sexist cow-pig was actually in the room.

"You wish to be accepted back into Master Pakku's classes?" Arnook asked after Aang and Katara explained the situation to him, I just stood in the background so as not to ruin their good diplomacy skills.

"Yes, Chief, sir, I would be honored to, and will not disrespect your city's customs in the future," he was doing some serious buttering up, and it seemed like it was working decently well.

Arnook smiled down at the cow-pig in question, encouraging him to accept. It seemed that Pakku, however, couldn't let it be. "I will accept the Avatar into my classes again," he stated sternly, and Katara let out the breath she was holding, "When the two females in question apologize for their curiosity in the male-only art of fighting through waterbending, and vow that they will never again attempt to dabble in said art."

The. World. Stopped. Right. Then. And. There. He wanted us to apologize? For wanting to waterbend? For the love of firebending, even the Fire Nation treated girls as mostly-equals. And let me tell you something, I was not going to stand for it. Even as I felt Katara bristling up beside me, I stepped forwards to look Pakku in the eye.

He gave me a little smirk, "Go on."

I took a deep breath, and closed my eyes, breaking the eye contact and tilting my head towards the floor. "I…" I paused, was I really going to go through with this, and forever ruin Aang's chance of learning waterbending. As I opened my eyes and looked back up into his gloating ones, I knew the answer. Yep. After all, I couldn't be that bad of a teacher. I let my mouth twist into a wry smile as I glared up at him, "I will never apologize to you, you sexist cow-pig. If that is your opinion on female prowess, you deserve to be roasted alive by demonic firebenders," I paused, but not to think about what I was saying; to smile up at his astounded face as deviously as I possibly could. "And I'll be outside, just waiting to prove you wrong, you sour old man."

That felt really good. I walked out of there, loosening the dao swords on my back as I did so, but feeling kind of bad about it, too. Aang now had to learn from me, which shouldn't be a huge amount of fun, especially since I can't waterbend.

"What was that all about?" I heard someone ask as I sat down on the steps outside the audience hall with my arms crossed. It was Katara, who'd run out of the audience hall after me.

"What was that all about? Are you seriously asking me that question? He wanted me to not only admit that he was right, but vow never to use waterbending for fighting again. When I get home, I don't want the Spirits holding me to that vow," I snapped right back at her.

"Now Aang has to learn waterbending from you, and no offense, but you aren't the best teacher. And right now, it's all about Aang. I'm sure Tui and La will forgive you lying to make sure Aang learns waterbending," she tried to reason.

I looked up at her face, defiant, but once again confused by her use of the names Tui and La. Who in the name of waterbending is this Tui fellow? And why is he so frequently being mentioned with the Ocean Spirit? "Don't you dare tell me that you weren't thinking of doing the exact same thing," I spoke harshly.

She looked exasperated, "Well, yea, but I didn't exactly act on it, did I?"

"Is me acting on it a bad thing?" I snapped right back, and her face hardened.

"Yes, Korra, it is. You were stupid. Spirits, what is it with Avatars and just messing everything up?" she looked to the skies, like she was talking to the Spirits above.

I looked at her, making eye contact and letting her see my anger. "I am going to choose to ignore that one." Just behind her, I saw the doors opening, and someone coming out. Pakku.

"No, Korra, don't. You practically ruined Aang's chances-"

"But it isn't always all about Aang, is it? Sometimes, you matter, too, Katara. And now, if you'll excuse me, I have something to attend to," I said coolly as I got up, hands on the sheath at my hip.

I stood at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for the sexist cow-pig to finish stumbling down them for what seemed like an eternity; once he finally got to my level he just walked on past. He didn't even spare me a glance. And that pissed me off.

As he walked off to who-knows-where, I shouted at him, "What in the name of waterbending are you doing, you coward, walking away from a fight?"

He didn't stop at those words, either.

So, I drew my swords. The sound of metal on metal certainly seemed to show him I was serious, and he stopped walking. "Girl, it seems like you are just begging to be taught a lesson," he turned around slowly, his white hair catching the wind "And, lucky for you, I am more than happy to oblige."

And that was when it sunk into me exactly how deep I'd dug myself a hole. He pulled some water up from the ground, giving himself the jelly-arms I always despised. He wasn't much for battle chatter, so we didn't say much; he attacked, I defended. It wasn't much of a fight, either. He sent ice-snake after ice-snake crawling through the air towards my body, and it was all I could do to cut them out of the air. He knew that this was what I could defend against, and so he kept me hanging there, hacking at the strands of ice like my life and dignity depended on it. I was slowly losing my dignity. A crowd of people gathered to watch the expo on 'How to Beat Up a Non-Bender with Waterbending' , and some of them certainly seemed like they were enjoying it. I caught Timian's eyes, and he gave me as sympathetic look, even though we had never been formally introduced. I wish he was Mako. I just have a feeling that Mako, his red scarf blowing in the wind, would jump in and save me. But Timian wasn't Mako, and no one tried to help me.

After there were enough people in the main square, and he felt that I had been thoroughly humiliated, Pakku began to send ice creeping up my boots, freezing my feet to the ground. As I panicked over my loss of movement, he sent one of those nasty tendrils of ice and hit my back, causing me to lose my balance and topple to my knees. He simultaneously unfroze my feet as I fell, allowing me to fall without breaking an ankle, and froze my knees, and shins to the ice below me as soon as they touched. My arms weren't far behind, and soon I was frozen spread-eagle on the ground, my blades still clutched in freezing fingers.

"And this is why females do not fight. They always lose," he preached to the crowd as most of them gave me sad, sympathetic looks. I could practically see their thoughts written on their faces, "Look at that foolish girl. She thought she could face a waterbender when she can't even bend." He must have positioned me like this on purpose, so I could see the crowd's disapproving faces. Then, much to my delight and surprise, a snowball hit that cow-pig, Pakku, on the back of the head. It was followed by a twirling water spout that wrapped around his torso, and I knew, without a doubt, that it was Katara finally standing up for her right to waterbend. It was on.

I couldn't see much of their fight, but the part I did see was epic. And when I say epic, I mean epic. Pakku was dodging flying ice-disks, and getting his hair trimmed by them. They kept moving, though, and soon all I could see was the astonished faces of the crowd as they moved out of the way of a spurt of water. I could hear Katara and Pakku sliding around on ice, and the collapse of water as it returned to the ground when it wasn't being bended anymore. At one point there was a huge sound of something big, tumbling, and the audience's eyes flew open; a light snow began to fall for a few seconds, and I realized that Katara had blown the ice containers that were stacked up at one end of the courtyard into tiny snowflakes. "You. Can't. Knock. Me. Down," Katara yelled and there was the sound of ice cracking. I tried to move my head, but I was still stuck here, frozen in the ice. I was extremely proud to hear the sound of cheering from the crowd, all female voices standing up for their right to waterbend how they wanted.

But setting Katara, a girl who knew practically nothing about bending, up against a waterbending master like Pakku was never a good idea; it really was a miracle that she'd lasted this long. I must be a better teacher then everyone thought. Then the grunts of her failings began to come out. She was straining, I could hear it every time she cried out in pain or frustration, and she backed up so she was right beside my face.

She was beat up. Her hair had fallen loose and her cheeks had turned a flaming red as she attempted to deflect all of Pakku's blows; she looked terrible. She glanced down for a second and caught my eye, giving me a look of pure defeat and humiliation. That glance was a mistake; in that second, Pakku launched his ending attack, ice spikes. They landed in a circle around her, trapping her hands and rendering her unable to bend. I practically growled in frustration, and I could feel my whole body heating up. Katara practically screamed, "Where are you going? I'm not done with you yet!" and I could only assume that Pakku was walking away with that haughty look on his face.

"I think we are done here," he replied smoothly, and the crowd in front of me cowered at his angry glare. My whole body was vibrating, it felt like my anger had seeped from my soul to my body, and for some reason the ice holding me to the ground was gone.

I took a deep breath and got up, my whole being buzzing. "I'm not done with you, Pakku," I felt myself saying, like my brain was not connected to my mouth; my voice echoed in my head, filling me with confidence.

He turned to me, surprised at my ability to get up off the ground. "Oh, really?"

"Yea. Really," I said as I stripped off my gloves and heavy winter coat, shivering slightly as the cool air touched my burning skin. I was just in a tank-top now, and I should be freezing, but I just absorbed the cold; it felt good.

He tensed up, like he was about to begin bending, but I reacted first. Dropping my swords to the ice, I acted on instinct, pulling my hands up into the air and clenching them into fists. And miracle of miracles, I felt a push in my gut as the water beneath him melted and rose, forming a giant column of water that constantly pushed upward. I looked at Pakku's face and smirked; then I realized I was bending.

It had just come so naturally, like I'd been bending for the past couple months, no problem. I didn't even realize that I had been bending until I saw Pakku's surprised and angry face. I dropped the column the minute I realized it, leaving him on the ground, dripping and cursing. I, on the other hand, just stared at my hands. I had bended. I could bend, Yue and La I could bend!

Pakku, it seemed, was not interested in sharing my happiness, as it took three seconds for him to recover and send a gush of water my way. I ducked and rolled quickly, then stood up as it went over where my head and just been. I took the water, ripping it out of Pakku's control and circling it around my body once before sending it back at him. It was perfect, and I was elated. I was on top of the world as I grabbed my swords from the ground and started to bend water around them, moving through waterbending poses with the swords manipulating the water for me. It was beautiful. I felt graceful, but he was fighting back.

We whirled and ducked, twisting and molding the water into the desirable shapes and forms. My body instinctively knew what to do when he sent a projectile of water, when to dodge and when to block were seemingly punched into my memory; but the longer blasts of water were harder. Once he picked up on that, the battle went from hard to crazy hard – like taking on the Fire Lord hard. But despite the sweat trickling down every inch of exposed skin, I was on top of the world.

He shot a longer water blast, a straight gush that I failed to block and took me right in the chest; it didn't stop. It kept going, pushing me back and back until I was flat against the wall, trying to duck and escape the water hitting my body. It was getting in my eyes and I was forced to shut them, which blinded me and didn't let me see whatever he threw at my head.

Katara's Point of View

That cow-pig Pakku just doesn't give up. He and Korra, the miraculous waterbending Korra, fought for quite a while before he pulled that geyser trick on her. I knew the theory behind geysers, like the one Korra trapped Pakku in earlier. The vertical geysers take a lot of concentration, moving water up to a certain point, then letting it fall off the sides where you picked it up to resume the upward motion, but Pakku's continuous stream was even trickier. It was like he was feeding a rope through Korra's chest; he would thrust one hand forward, while bringing the other up with the rest of a cord of water. Not fair at all. Cow-pig.

After he had abandoned the geyser, he brought up a chunk of ice no bigger than my fist and slammed it into Korra's poor head. Jerk. Her eyes were closed! But anyone and everyone in the crowd could see the sweat dripping down his face, the battle against a mere girl was taxing him, and he knew it. He took a big breath as he walked towards me; I did my best to look defiant. "It seems I misjudged you. You both," he said. He had started the sentence staring at Korra's unconscious frame, but turned to me at the last phrase. "I will accept you as a student, Katara. It doesn't look like Korra needs the training," he smiled as he said those words, those beautiful words that indicated that he had gotten over the sexist customs of his tribe. It wasn't a real smile, but sort of a wry 'I admit you were right' smile, one that packed just enough emotion into it to seem real. As a response I stared up at him, my thick hair falling in front of my eyes as I did, and I had to shake it out of the way; I was still imprisoned by the ice-spikes.

"Thank you, Pakku," I stated, looking into his icy blue eyes that were several shades lighter than mine. He gave me a dissatisfied look as he motioned for his spikes to drop to the snowy ground, "Thank you, Master Pakku," I said with conviction, and bowed my head.

The bowing of the head maybe was a little too much because my mother's necklace, the ties loosened from my hard-fought battle with Pakku, fell off my neck at that movement and to the ground. As I bent down to pick it up, I heard Pakku gasp. A small geyser of water shot out of the ground, sending it flying into his waiting hands. I stood up straight as fast as I could, not wanting to seem like I was bowing to the man who had pissed me off no more than an hour before. Pakku's voice was strained as he spoke, looking more at the necklace than me, "Where did you get this?"

I took immediately to the defensive, "Give it back. It was my mother's."

He had this lost look in his eyes as he stared at the engraving on the sapphire stone, "I made this necklace. For the love of my life." He what? How did his necklace make its way into my mother's hands? That cow-pig better not be planning on keeping it. He whispered the last few words, "For Kanna."

I recoiled in shock, Kanna? As in my Gramma Kanna-From-The-Northern-Tribe-But-She-Left Kanna? He was the man my grandmother was supposed to marry. "Kanna is my gramma. She left because of your tribe's silly sexist customs, and gave that necklace to my mom." I held out my hand, and he gently set the stone in the center of my palm.

"I will teach you."

We carried Korra's unconscious body to our temporary house in the downtown area of the tribe, and laid her on the bed. She was in some sort of Spirit-World induced slumber and wouldn't respond to Yugoda's healing water. I wandered the streets until then, trying to find some sort of a shop I could go into or a library where I could learn to read better (my father taught me and Sokka, but he wasn't the best of reader's himself). There was nothing. Absolutely nothing. Despite it's grandeur, the Northern Tribe was pretty much all practical; there was the building where seal leather that was harvested from hunted seals became our warm fur coats, and there was the hunter's lodge, where a group of waterbenders had just returned from a successful hunt. There were no pleasure shops, no little out-of-the-way boutiques, no bars or pubs or even restaurants in the Northern Tribe. It was really just like the Southern at heart, just over glorified and with waterbenders. I just walked around until dark, where I returned to the house to find a very upset Sokka and a completely out of it Korra. Aang was still running around bothering Chief Arnook or Master Pakku, and wouldn't be back for a while.

"Why? Why does the love of my sorry life have to be… be…" Sokka griped for the umpteenth time, "ENGAGED! She's engaged!"

"Yes, Sokka, we've established that," I muttered back at him; I was annoyed by the constant whining even though I was trying to be more sympathetic.

"I'm going to rip the throats out of whoever-"

"Whoa, there, buddy," I called out, cutting off that undoubtedly graphic statement, "Let's not threaten anybody's death. That is most certainly not the way to get on Arnook's good side."

"You're right! I need to suck up to Arnook more! I can just think of-"

"No butt-kissing. That is not the way a Southern Water Tribe Warrior would act, Sokka. Maybe a Northern one who wants to marry the princess, but not a Southern one." He just needs a boost of sisterly confidence.

"You are right yet again! Maybe if I-"

I sighed and turned my attention to the waterbending scroll I'd received from Pakku after today's escapade. He told me to study up on it, and I'm glad he gave me one with plenty of pictures. Learning to read better officially goes on my list of things to do.


Long time since my last post... blame life and stuff. And Criminal Minds. I'm becoming... god forbid it... obsessed. Eeek. There. I said it. I have obsession difficulties. Anywho... There it is. Korra got her waterbending back :)... but the key question is... will she keep it? :O You have no idea how many times I rewrote this chapter. I was going to have her kick Pakku's sorry butt... but I couldn't bring myself to. In the original, she does, but it seems like I forgot Pakku was a Waterbending Master, and he doesn't go down easily. Uh-oh for Korra. So I rewrote it a couple times. In a few Korra began firebending... lets just say that I couldn't go may places with that.

And for Review Responses...

Engineer4Ever- Thank you as always :) You are such a great supporter, and very good at inferring what will happen next :)