Kat: Just a head's up, this is a reeeaaally weird chapter, but I promise I'll explain my intentions at the end. This chapter has one of my favorite scenes ever & includes my fav character (besides Katalana) - okay, most of my fav scenes involve this character, but I don't care 'cause it's cute! ;)

.

.

.

.

.

Several years dragged by, four to be exact, when something else drastic occurred. Something that no one could have ever anticipated.

Korra grabbed my shoulders and shook me relentlessly after many of the attendants had long gone to sleep. The two of us were sitting cross-legged on my bed, unable to get any rest. She squealed quietly, yet ecstatically, so as not to wake anyone. "Eek!"

Not being able to see in the dark, I reached my arms out in front of me. Finally, the faint outline of my sister came into view and I settled my hands on her shoulders in return, more to prevent my head from getting wrenched off my neck than to stabilize her.

"Okay, okay! I get it, you're excited!" I whispered.

"Of course I'm excited! My waterbending test is tomorrow!"

"Again, I know. You've told me a thousand times!"

Nothing I had said seemed to register in her mind because she continued her fantasy. "If I pass, I'll be considered a master! I'll be like Katara!"

Katara. Even that name was legendary. She was the greatest waterbender, healer, spiritual leader, mentor, friend, and probably human, of all time. Though aged 75 years, she was still as powerful as ever. What made her all the better was that she had been happily married to Aang. He brought out the best in her, and her in him. But after his death, which she accepted graciously, she joined the White Lotus and eventually became Korra's (and my) teacher and companion. She was greatly admired throughout the world and history. It was an honor just to meet her, but to know and be taught by her was a true blessing.

Another squeak escaped from Korra's lips. "I'm going to be a master! Me! Can you believe it?"

"I know! I know! I've been with you this whole time! I was there when they announced you would have a test! And remember, you still have to actually take it; so stop acting like you've already done it!"

"I know, but I can't help it!"

"Okay, but calm down a bit, will ya'?" This time I shook her – not quite as violently as she shook me, but enough to get her attention.

At that, she sat back on her knees and her shoulders slumped a little. "Right. Sorry."

I chuckled at her enthusiasm. Good grief, I thought to myself, you'd think she'd just learned how to spell "Mount Piddlpaddlopsicopolis" or something!

It was still difficult to see clearly, but I could have sworn her eyebrows knitted together into a hard glare. "Hey! I learned how to spell that months ago!" she whined.

I looked at Korra, my eyes widening. "What?"

She gave an exaggerated sigh, sat up straight, and began counting off the letters on her fingers. "Mt. Pippinpaddleopsicopolis. M-T-(period). P-I-P-P-I-"

In my astonishment I had to cut her off. Leaning forward on my hands, I looked her dead in the eyes. "Wait, you heard that?"

"You mean, did I hear what you said about spelling the name of that mountain? Yeah, I heard it. And I'm not sure if I liked it!" she replied, crossing her harms over her chest.

"But I never said that!"

"Huh?"

"The last thing I said was for you to calm down. I never said anything about spelling. I just thought about it."

Korra sat still for a moment, letting the information sink in. As soon as it worked its way through her mind, her eyes grew as wide as that shield from dad's warrior days that he hung up in our living room back home. "So...what does this mean? Did I just...read your mind?!" she asked, her voice rising.

In a flash my hands shot out and clamped over her mouth to cut off the sound. I let out a "Shh!" just loud enough for her to hear, but soft enough to remain discreet. Desperately hoping the guards didn't become suspicious, I glanced at the door. "I don't know... Let's try it again."

She nodded and I slowly drew away my hand. Next I thought of something really insane, hoping that Korra could "hear" it.

Almost immediately her eyes lit up and the corners of her lips turned up in a suppressed smile. She clamped a hand over her own mouth to keep from busting up.

"So you heard it?" I dared to whisper.

She quoted exactly what I had thought, word for word.

"So you did hear it! You can read my mind!"

Korra suddenly gasped, her arms flailing about in a sudden epiphany. "Wait, can you read my mind? Let's try it!"

I was about to agree to her proposition, but she had already squeezed her eyes shut and put her index and middle fingers to her temples. Whatever she was thinking about, she put a lot of effort into her concentration. Staring at her for a moment was how I passed the time trying to figure out whether or not I wanted to be able to read her mind. Pfft, like I wouldn't? I stared at her even harder than she had at me, concentrating just as forcefully as her, but without putting so much strain on my face. At first, there was nothing. No sound, no "thought waves," nothing. Honestly I wasn't even sure what to expect. But then...something caught my attention. I heard it. It was faint, but it was definitely there. "Pickled sea prunes fried in noodle juice."

Disgusted, I wrinkled my nose. Korra peeked an eye open, then relaxed her face into a smile. "You heard it, didn't you?"

I nodded.

"Aah! No way! This is so cool!" she thought excitedly, shaking her fists just to get out all her pent up energy.

"I agree! But..."

Her expression fell instantly. "But...what?"

"But...we probably shouldn't tell anyone about this. Not even Mom and Dad. Not yet."

"Why not?"

"Because this is still new to us. This isn't normal. We should test it more before we go around advertising it."

"Test it? How? On what?"

"Not on what, on who. Maybe we could get Matokka to help us with it tomorrow – before your test."

"Oh. Okay," she accepted gloomily. But her demeanor brightened after a second or two. She poked me as she talked – or thought, rather. (That would take some getting used to.) "You just want an excuse to go see him, don't you?"

"Well duh, he's my best friend! Besides you, of course," I added quickly, noticing her oncoming glare. "Hey, we gotta tell at least one person about this, right? If we don't I think you'll explode!"

"I guess I can't argue with that!"

Glancing sidelong at my pillow, I sighed and thought "Well, if we want any energy to test this, and for you to show off to the Order, then we should probably get some sleep."

"I don't think I could possibly sleep with all that we've found out today! But you're right. I don't want to be exhausted before the day even begins!" With a dreamy sigh, Korra slid off my bed, crawled into hers along the opposite wall, and laid her head down on her pillow. I let my head fall onto mine as well when drowsiness tugged at my eyelids. The last thing I remembered was one faint thought. "Goodnight, Katalana."

I yawned one last yawn before sleep finally pulled me under.

.

.

.

The village was quiet the next morning, and it should have been, considering it was still before dawn. The snow was thick underfoot and we had to awkwardly lift our legs up to the height of our knees to trudge through it. By the time we arrived at our destination, Korra and I were both panting, but our excitement wasn't tainted by our lack of oxygen. I raised a hand to wrap loudly on the door, when suddenly I felt something roughly grab my wrist and yank me off the ground. I didn't have to even look up to see who it was. He was laughing too hard.

I struggled in his grip, thrashing my arms and legs furiously, trying not to give him the satisfaction of being stronger than me. I may have been an Earthbender, but even with four years of training, I hadn't had enough time to build up much muscle! "Put me down, Matokka!"

The laughter only continued as the owner of the laugh raised me higher, bringing me face to face with him. Staring back at me was the mischievous grin of my best friend, Matokka. He was laying on the half-cylinder of ice blocks that served as the entrance to his igloo. One cheek rested on his palm while his other hand was clamped onto my wrist. He may have been a nonbender, but he was still pretty darn strong for a ten year old.

"Why? There's such a good view from up here, see?" He nodded his head to direct my attention behind me, unceremoniously letting his shaggy dark hair flop over into his bright blue eyes. He fluttered his lips to blow the stragglers out of his line of vision.

Even though he made no indication that he was going to let me go until I turned to look, I didn't budge; I just glared at him. "Don't forget I have a free hand. And don't think I'm afraid to use it!" I pulled back my free hand threateningly.

"Aw, you're no fun!" he drawled as he propped himself up and held out his opposite hand to pull me up as well.

Again, I didn't reach for it. "I can pull myself up, thank you very much!"

He shrugged. "Suit yourself!" And with that, he released his grip on my wrist, letting me tumble back into the snow. The powder swallowed me up, my limbs making impressions exactly where they landed.

I sat up and shook the flakes from my head, and stared up at him defiantly. "Jerk!" I teased. Snickering was my only response. Korra rolled her eyes and leaned down to help me to my feet. I accepted her invitation, then jumped and let my fingers grab hold of the ledge. To avoid a leg that I kicked up, Matokka scooted back a few feet. It was awkward and kind of embarrassing, having to struggle so much to get onto the lower portion of the roof, but it was a relief to think that it was probably easier for me to get up there than him. I was taller than he was, so I had the advantage on that one.

"You two are so stubborn," Korra chided as she took my outstretched hands. Before I could make a retort, she kicked off the door frame and nimbly swung herself up. "See? Now that's the way to do it!"

Matokka and I exchanged looks. I chuckled a "Pfft, whatever!" while he muttered, "Show off."

Leaning back against the dome of his house, he tucked his arms behind his head lazily. "So, what brings you two out here on such a cold, frostbitten morning?"

I shifted over to the middle of the roof and dangled my feet over the side before replying. "Okay, first off, every morning is cold and frostbitten," I said sarcastically, though it was hard to keep the excitement out of my tone. "But we do have two juicy announcements for you!"

Instantly his whole countenance glowed with excitement. "Ooh! Tell me, tell me!"

I glanced at Korra, who was situating herself so that she straddled the ice blocks. "Should we tell him?"

She thought for a moment, playing along. Matokka tugged on his hair impatiently. "Oh come on! You brought it up already, so now you gotta tell me!"

We intentionally waited a few more agonizing seconds before we continued. We wanted to make sure he was about ready to make himself bald with curiosity before we revealed anything. "You tell him one, I tell him the other?"

"Works for me!"

"Guuuys!" Matokka complained, now leaning forward on his hands in anticipation. Obviously, Matokka was not the most patient person in the world. But then again, was there even a patient ten-year-old boy in existence?

"Oh, come ooon, you can't wait a few more minutes?" I teased.

"No! Just tell me! Out with it!"

"Okay, okay! Hold your ostrich-horses! Good grief, someone's impatient. Korra?"

The two of us turned to her expectantly. "Alright," she began dramatically, barely able to control her excitement. She held out her palms like she was about to say a magic incantation or something. "Okay, so you know how I'm the Avatar right? How I've been learning to professionally waterbend?"

"Yeah...? So...?"

"Katara and the White Lotus are going to test me today – I'm going to become an official master!"

Matokka sat back again, suddenly losing interest. "What? That's it? You're all excited about one little test?"
Korra's face fell like a bomb dropped. "What's the supposed to mean? This is a huge test!"

"I mean that's cool and all – for you. But that doesn't really affect me one way or the other." He waved a careless hand for effect.

"Does it have to? You can't just be happy for me?"

"Well yeah, I mean, I'm not saying that it doesn't matter, I'm just saying it doesn't matter all that much to me."

Korra and I rolled our eyes. "You are such a boy."

"Huh, imagine that!"

"One day, I'm gonna be able to bend all four elements – and you're really gonna wish you hadn't said that!"

"Riiight. I'll remember that."

"Whatever. Okay, Katalana. Next secret!" she said, tapping my leg repeatedly with her palm.

Matokka perked up again, his eyes shining mischievously at the word "secret".

"Okay, but-" I pointed an all-serious finger at him to make sure he knew I wasn't joking. "You have to promise to keep it a secret. Promise promise promise not to tell – in any way, shape, or form," I went on, emphasizing each promise more and more.

He eyed me suspiciously for a minute, deciding whether or not he wanted to trust me. He had made a verbal promise – with God and Korra as our witnesses – but that wasn't the end of it. Whenever Matokka and I made super duper major promises, we had to do something disgusting beforehand, so that if either of us broke that promise, then the person who broke it would have to do that disgusting act three more times as punishment. And no matter what all we came up with, every time, without fail, the worst thing that we could possibly think of doing...was kissing. Not a real, (gross) lovey-dovey kiss, but, uh, just a quick one, on the cheek.

Matokka kept eyeing me, still mulling it over. But as I predicted, curiosity got the better of him. He leaned forward and gave me a lightning fast peck on the cheek before immediately gagging and furiously wiping his mouth on his sleeve. While he took a a full over-exaggerated minute or two of that, I simply swiped the sleeve of my parka across my cheek, just once, and then he lifted his gaze back to us. "Okay, now that that's over with, what's the secret?"

Korra and I glanced at each other. "At the same time?"

"At the same time."

As agreed, in unison, we said in a hushed excitement, "We can read minds!"

Matokka stared blankly at us for a whole ten seconds before he doubled over, laughing uncontrollably. "Wow, you really had me going there for a minute! I thought you guys were serious! Of all the crazy things...!" He trailed off, his hysterical smile deepening into a furious frown. His cheeks blushed a brilliant shade of red – or as red as it could get in this freezing weather. "You made me promise for that? You made me kiss you for that? Of all the horrible, stupid, idiotic, embarrassing, humiliating pranks! And you came up with this?!" He laughed sorely. "I'll admit it Katalana, this is good, this is just great! This has got to take the cake. This tops it all! This..." His rant went on for who-knows-how-long before we finally cut him off.

"Enough!"

The force of our shout was enough to knock him clean off the igloo. I was surprised we didn't wake up Makita [muh-KEEY-tuh], Matokka's mother, who was still sleeping soundly inside. Although, I guess Matokka probably would have woken her up first with all his ranting. But our order was enough to make him shut up for two seconds. I didn't think he realized that we could muster that kind of power in our nine-year-old girl lungs. "Matokka, we're not making this up."

His eyes narrowed menacingly. I returned the stare just as darkly, if not darker.

"We're not making this up," I repeated. "I wouldn't make you promise anything without a good reason. And I sure wouldn't make you super promise for some stupid prank."

His stare held mine for a moment longer, then, he slowly let his eyes return to their normal shape, and his mouth turned from an angry frown to just a slightly suspicious one. "You're serious?"

"I would have eventually admitted if it was a joke," I grumbled bitterly.

To my surprise, Matokka lowered his gaze and sighed, almost apologetically, then looked up at us again. "Okay. Here's the thing – I want to believe you, I do, but reading minds? Isn't that bordering on impossible?"

"Not any more so than bloodbending or metalbending. Those were considered impossible less than seventy years ago."

"Good point. But how can you prove it?"

"Here, I'll show you." I leaned over to whisper something in his ear, but as I drew nearer, he jerked away suddenly, his cheeks growing two shades redder again. "What? I'm trying to tell you something! Now come here!" I ordered, waving him closer.

He let himself relax, looking somewhat embarrassed, then scooted forward to listen. After giving him my example sentence, I turned to Korra. "Okay, try to 'hear' what I said."

Korra scrunched up her eyes and nose, pressing her fingers to her temples again. Moments later her eyes snapped open and she repeated exactly what I told Matokka.

"Okay, I'm impressed, I'll admit. But how do I know that you didn't already know what Katalana was going to tell me?"

I sighed. I hadn't thought of that. "How about this? How about you tell me something, and I'll have Korra read that?"

Matokka reluctantly agreed, then sat and thought of something he could say – something that he didn't think that we would think that he would have said. "Oh! I've got it!"

"So just tell her already!" Korra pressed anxiously. She wanted to prove our new-found ability to him just as much as I did.

"Alright, alright!" he said, waving her complaint away. Then he leaned forward and whispered his question.

Korra resumed her "mind reading face" and concentrated hard. Her eyes popped back open. "What kind of question is that? Go Otter-Penguin-sledding with you? Uh, yeah! Of course we'll go!" she said as though the answer was obvious – which it was.

That answer must have convinced him, because his lower jaw probably just cracked in two by how hard it hit the icy roof. "No. Stinkin'. Way."

"We tooold yooouuu!" we sang together.

"Whoa." He put his hands next to his head, fingers pressed together, then pulled the hands away and spread the fingers apart. "Mind. Officially. Blown." He paused, letting the full impact of this revelation sink in. "And you don't want to tell anyone about this?!"

"No!" we yelled, still in tandem.

"And you super promised!" I objected, pointing a shaky, accusatory finger at him.

"I don't know... It's almost worth it...!" he mused aloud.

"You tell and I swear I'll-" I stopped short when I realized what he was doing.

Shooting me a satisfied smirk, he continued. "So, you said you needed help with this. How so?"

I shot him another glare. Korra took over for me. "We wanted to see if we can read the minds of other people."

"Other people... You mean me?"

"No, Chief Unalokk – yes you!" she retorted.

"Well, what do you want me to think about?"

I rolled my eyes. "Well if we told you anything, then it wouldn't work!"

"Oh. Right. Okay, I got-"

"Don't think about the same question you just asked!"
"But how did you-"

"No, I wasn't reading your mind. That was just a guess." I folded my arms across my chest. "Just think of something else, okay?"

"Fine," he grumbled. "Okay, this time I really got something."

Staring straight at his forehead, I sat up straight and willed his thoughts to transfer into my own head. Wow, that would have been really scary once I stopped to think about it. All of my energy was focused on his mind. None of our worried mattered right then; not the cold, not the fact that we were sitting on a roof, not having to avoid waking up Makita, but...nothing came. With a glance back at Korra, it was obvious that she was having the same luck that I had had. I faced Matokka again. He was staring back at us expectantly. "Anything?"

I shook my head. Korra copied. Matokka grinned. "Looks like I can still think anything about anything and yooouuu'll never know what I'm thinkin'!"

"Who says we wanted to?" I shot back. "This is just a test run, and you're the only one we trusted enough to help us – if you could call this trust, that is."

"Anything else you need me to do?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Nooot that I can think of at the moment," I answered, still thinking as I said it.

A mischievous grin crawled across his face again. That wasn't a good sign. I wish I'd realized his intentions sooner, for he reached over and shoved me off the roof again, creating in the snow a brand new imprint of sprawled limbs.

"Race you to Otter-Penguin Slope!"

"Hey!" Korra called as he took off and as I gathered my wits. "No one pushes my sister off of a roof except for me!"

.

.

.

.

.

Kat: Chapter number 2 is complete...! At 2:00 AM...! When I say complete, I mean that it's already typed on my computer, but I have to re-read, edit, revise, re-read, re-edit, re-revise and so on about 3-5 times just to be safe and then post it here while adding/subtracting weird spacing issues that throw off the format (which is incredibly irksome).

Awwww! Little kids are so mean, but so adorable... Sorry. Is it sad to fawn over your own characters? I feel a little vain doing that... Awkward... :/

Anyway, I bet y'all are wondering as to why I made Korra & Katalana able to read each other's minds. Right now, and through the next few chapters, it won't be all that significant, but once they reach Republic City, it will take on a HUUUUGE role. Mostly I use it when the sisters are in different locations at the same time and I need to tell both stories. Since the story is from solely Katalana's pov, the mind-reading helps her know what's going on without actually being there. Does that make sense? Well, it will later (b/c this ability connects more than just their thoughts, as you will soon discover)...

Also, my format for the dialogue may be kind of confusing to some, so let me explain that too...

Regular speech/dialogue: "It will look like this."

Mental/thought conversations: "It will look like this."

When one of them thinks to themselves: It will look like this.

Voice over a radio/microphone: "It will look like this."

Again, hope this makes sense to everyone!

Credits: Avatar World + some characters (i.e. Korra & Katara) = not mine. All of the scenes & additional characters I can proudly call my own.

Okay, well this may be all I have for a while. Tomorrow I have a holiday off from school, but I've got a tooooooooon of homework that I've gotta do. So...yeah. I'm sorry to say that this may be it until Spring Break - if that! Maybe these last two chapters can keep y'all busy until then. Idk. Glad y'all enjoyed it! Please leave a comment/review/PM w/ your CQC's & I'll get back to you As Soon As I Can (ASAIC)! (Lol! that's a thing, right? Well, if not, I just made it a thing). ;)