Burning Sands
A Legend of Korra thingy for Rabolin Week 2013
By
EvilFuzzy9
A/N: Pokemon Y is eating up my writing time. OTL
Prompt Three:
WATER PARK
The Foggy Swamp Monster Water Park was a scenic tourist attraction located a mere twenty-minute drive from the outskirts of Republic City. Founded thirty-some years ago by Foggy Swamp immigrant and entrepreneur Blueback Lu, this park was a revolutionary institution. More than just a place for people to swim or go on rides, Old Lu's brainchild was a cultural icon for the Water Tribe Republicans.
Though not a waterbender himself, Lu had come to Republic City with his family at a time when benders from all over the world were traveling there to learn from some of the greatest masters of their time. In particular, a great number of young benders from the Foggy Swamp Tribe had traveled to the City of Dreams in hopes of studying under Katara of the South, or else one of her senior pupils.
However, while firebenders and earthbenders could find employment at various production plants and factories, waterbenders were at a comparatively lower demand. Blueback Lu – so named for a fungal infection that had turned much of his back a stomach churning shade of brackish blue as a young boy – was one of many to notice this disparity in employment, and the relatively high numbers of young waterbenders who went jobless as a result of limited at best demand for their skills.
Unless they were healers, in which case they were likely immediately snapped up by one of the many clinics in the ever-growing metropolis.
But there were a good number of otherwise talented waterbenders forced into the gutter simply because their particular job skills just weren't in nearly as high a demand as those of earth or firebenders. Lu wanted to correct this, and one night he was struck with a brilliant idea. In his dreams, he envisioned an amusement park – which in those days were still a relatively recent and novel idea – a themed park where waterbenders could seek gainful employment, and people could go to take their minds off the daily grind.
In the plans he drew up, Lu modeled the park after his former home in the Foggy Swamps of the Earth Kingdom. He envisioned log rides driven along artificial rivers through groves modeled after the fauna of the swamps, frightful (but safe) journeys through murky bogs, stalked by "swamp monsters" made of seaweed and moss. And everything would be kept running by waterbenders, from the movement of the rivers to the mist in the air, and even the movements of the monsters.
It was an expensive undertaking, and one of questionable promise. Lu's partners insisted that this alone would not be sufficient for a successful park. They pushed for clean swimming pools, various entertainments, and a greater diversity of attractions.
It took several years to complete, and Lu had to take on loans from several different banks in order to fund the increasingly expensive construction, but when the park finally opened it was a wild success. People had never seen any thing like it, and within the year Lu had paid off his loans and tripled on his investment, making him one of the wealthiest men in Republic City.
Lu was an old man, now, living out a quiet retirement as his youngest son handled most of business matters. The Foggy Swamp Monster Water Park was one of the biggest tourist attractions within fifty miles of Republic City, and it sprawled now across a staggering twenty-four acres of land. Lu's immediate family was very wealthy, and even more distant relatives could find good employment and bargain prices there at the park.
This was why Umi, the waterbender of the Red Sands Rabaroos and fifth cousin twice removed of Lu's third son Du (it was a long story) opted to go there with her team every so often during the off season. Adi and Ula greatly enjoyed the many and varied attractions of the park, and Umi herself appreciated the family discount. Going there had become almost a minor tradition for her and the team, and it was certainly good for bonding outside of probending.
But, as for why Bolin was there with them?
Well, partly the girls just wanted someone for whom they could model their swimsuits. Although there was also a slight aspect of simply wanting to get to know the earthbender better, too.
He was a very likable guy.
"Aaah!" Bolin squealed, nearly jumping out of his seat when a long, slimy green arm burst from the foliage mere inches from his head. He was dressed in swim trunks at the advice of the girls, who had warned him that most of the rides here would come with a good soaking. Ula chortled in the seat behind him, dressed in a modest one piece suit that clung well to the contours of her powerfully built frame.
"Scared yet?" she asked him teasingly, referring to her fellow earthbender's earlier boast of coming along on this ride to provide moral support for them when they got frightened.
"N-no, of c-course not..." stammered Bolin, his face chalk white and tightly drawn in obvious fright. He was even shivering a little and Adi – seated next to Ula and wearing a rather flashy string bikini – gave a knowing smile even though he of course couldn't see it.
"Our hero," she drawled with a lilting voice. "The brave and mighty Nuktuk."
Bolin blushed shamefacedly. Then a cracked, wooden mask with a crudely drawn face, followed by an immense supporting bulk of soaked and squirming vegetation, appeared in the course of the river only a few feet ahead of them. The great waterbent figure burst quickly from the dense branches of the trees which lined the sides of the artificial waterway, overhanging fingers of which twined and bunched into a confining canopy no more than five feet above their heads.
The form moved with astonishing quickness across the river, pausing only for a second to turn its crude approximation of a head to glance curiously at them. Bolin let out an astoundingly high pitched scream, and he fearfully wrapped his arms tightly around the nearest human body in an instant of almost reflexive terror.
Then the swamp monster turned and vanished into the foliage of the opposite shore, mere moments before the hollowed out log vessel could collide with its grotesquely writhing bulk. This was the climax moment of the Swamp Monster Log Ride, one of the oldest and most popular attractions in the park. After ten minutes of slowly building tension, starting off with faint rustling of branches, building to brief glimpses of a distant figure in the river ahead, or the woods to the side of them, and nearing the highest points of tension with unearthly sounds of grunts and snarls, and arms bursting out of the forest the either side, which seemed to move at this point like a living thing, to the sudden appearance of the monster so close and so sudden, the final scare was coming near.
Everything went silent – almost eerily so – as the log drifted peacefully down the final stretch of the course. The exit point was almost in sight, and Bolin was starting to relax. He removed his arms from around Umi's intriguingly soft swimsuit-clad frame, apologizing sheepishly for that invasion of personal space. Umi, smiling with the faintest hint of pink tingeing her cheeks in the enforced gloom of the log ride, silently accepted his apology.
They were nearly at the point of disembarkation when the silence of the forest was suddenly shattered by an unearthly roar, and Bolin whirled around to see the swamp monster crashing up the river after them, its immense bulk almost completely blocking out the way they had come from, the top of its head scraping the lowest branches of the thick canopy as it barreled after them, its terrible roars echoing all around them.
Bolin would have wet himself, had he not used the bathroom immediately prior to getting on the ride. Screaming incoherently, he grabbed the arms of Ula and Adi in the back seats of the log and flung them bodily – with surprising ease – aground, yelling panickedly at them to hurry and save themselves even as he picked up Umi, slinging the modestly attractive young woman over her shoulder, and desperately leaping onto the shore before the log could properly come to a stop.
He ran through the ride's exit, heart pounding in his ears, carrying Umi over his shoulders as he screamed and screamed. When he came through the short tunnel and back into the daylight of the park, he was still babbling frantically about the monster coming just behind them and someone has to stop it before it hurts someone.
"Hahaha!" came the sound of Ula's laughter from the tunnel behind him. "I've never seen someone lose it so bad on that ride, before!"
"Bolin the Brave, indeed!" chortled Adi amusedly, laughter in every word as she walked behind him. "You do know the ride's all for show, right?"
Bolin blinked, coming down from the high of fear, and his face turned beet red when he realized that he had just made a complete fool of himself.
"Oh," he said quietly, abashed, and one of his hands unconsciously clenched, squeezed something firm and round between his fingers.
Umi let out a yelp, a short and startled feminine squeal.
Bolin's heart nearly stopped, and he reflexively dropped her onto the ground. Umi lay there a second before getting up and dusting herself off, a thoughtful look on her face, and a scarlet blush on her cheeks.
"Still a better first date than Tahno," she quietly remarked, the smallest of grins on her face.
A/N: This is a really big one, somehow. And it somehow seemed appropriate that this one focus a little stronger on Umi, like the last one did with Adi. XP
Updated: 10-30-13
TTFN and R&R!
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