Kat: Yay! Another chapter uploaded! I gotta say, this one is relatively short compared to the others. It's still technically part of the backstory, but it gives a little more insight to the girls' more immediate problems. Hope this doesn't deter you from reading because the next chapter is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE CHAPTER OF ALL TIME. Like NO JOKE, all time fav. So, please, go read it. It should be up within the next few days. I'm dying to know what y'all think! :D

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Another four years flew by without a second thought, and again much more changed. As it turned out, Matokka knew his mother pretty well, because her rant was not as extreme as it would have been once she knew the whole story – and she her heart melted at the sight of Khani and allowed her son to keep the pup. And over time, Matokka had healed and was back to his usual self, although he did tend to be more careful after that incident. Not a whole lot, but a little.

And he wasn't the only one. Korra and I changed more as well.

Appearance-wise, we were basically the same. We were born fraternal, but no one could have guessed that unless they studied us closely. We really did look identical. We had the same cocoa-tinted, Water Tribe skin; the same graceful heart-shaped faces; the same rounded eyes; the same narrow, oval noses; the same thin-lined lips; the same medium-ash colored hair, naturally straight, cut just above our elbows when left loose. With so many congruent physiognomies, hardly anyone could tell us apart. The most "noticable" difference between our appearances was our eye color. My eyes were forever a constant, emerald, Earthbender green. Korra's eyes were...a little more interesting. Her eyes changed colors, depending on which element she had most recently used. If her last element was water – as it most commonly was – then her eyes would be the most vibrant, Waterbender blue. Or, if she had last been firebending, then her eyes would fade into a luminous, Firebender amber.

But Korra's eye color was not the only thing that changed. As the two of us grew older, our personalities developed as well. We did not grow apart, but our differences did set us apart. Korra had grown strong and rebellious both physically and mentally – meaning that her teenage actions usually yielded unwanted consequences. On the other side of the spectrum, I grew strong, as she did, but I had learned to control my strength. My childish toughness mellowed, and, as so many adults put it, I had matured and blossomed into a beautiful young lady.

And one particular night, my and Korra's sixteenth birthday, was a night that we had long awaited, and where we would be seen as official, respectable young ladies...

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"Korra! Korra? You in here?" I asked, knocking lightly on the door to our room. After unbolting the heavy metal lock via bending, I peeked inside. As suspected, Korra was lying horizontally on her bed with her legs kicked up against the wall and her head hanging over the edge. She was still in her everyday clothes – a fitted, powder blue top, baggy steel blue pants, tan sealskin boots, and a triangle-patterned arm band wrapped around her right humerus. "You're still not dressed?"

Her hair swept the floor as she craned her neck to look at me up-side-down. Then she lifted her hands and swept them over her stomach like I'd said something incredibly stupid. "I am dressed."

Only slightly annoyed, I gave her an exaggerated eye-roll and rested a hand on my hip. "For the party."

Waving a careless hand she replied, "I'll get up in a minute."

"Korra, there are tons of guests waiting down the hall already."

"They can wait." She flipped over on her stomach and propped her head up on her hands. "Was there something you needed?"

"Oh, nothing in particular," I said coyly, looking conspicuously toward the far corner of the room. Korra raised a suspicious and interested eyebrow. "Okay, yesterday Matokka told me to wait for him by the gate late tomorrow evening – meaning tonight."

"Later tonight?" she asked, confused. "Why didn't you invite him to the party?"

"I did, but he said he wanted to surprise me with something. He didn't want me to see him until afterward. Can't imagine whatever for," I added with a slightly disappointed huff. "This is one of the biggest nights of our lives and he doesn't even want to come to the party? And if that wasn't enough, he wouldn't even come just because I asked him. What's up with that?"

Korra shrugged a little too carelessly and rolled over onto her back again. "Beats me."

My expression tensed into a suspicious glare. "Do you know something that I don't?"

"No."

"Are you sure? I'll be able to tell if you're lying."

Irritated, she flipped onto her stomach again and gave me a hard stare. "You really need to pull that on me? I don't know anything." Her gaze softened, almost apologetically, as her eyes fell to the floor. "Nothing solid, anyway."

"What do you mean?"

Sighing, she shook her head. "Look, I have a hunch about something, but I couldn't and wouldn't tell you even if I wanted to."

"Why not?" I demanded.

"It would ruin everything!"

"Ruin what? How so?"

"I can't answer that."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I can't say! Katalana, please, just leave this alone," she answered finally.

I opened my mouth to make a retort, but I closed it again. Something about the desperation in her voice stopped me. She never sounded desperate. Even when we wrestled as kids and I had her in a choke hold she never sounded desperate.

Finally, I did as she said and dropped the subject. Brightening up the mood, a smile broke out across my face when an idea hit me. "Hey, do you want to come with me later? It could be the three of us together again, just like old times. How about it?"

For a moment she hesitated, still stuck on our previous conversation. She settled on a cordial, but tired reply. "Nah, I think I'll stick around here for a bit. But go have yourself a good time, alright?"

Ignoring her lack of enthusiasm, I hooked a thumb over to our room divider. "Fine, but you should too. It's our birthday. You should at least try to enjoy the party. I mean, after all, we are the guests of honor!"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm going, I'm going! But you should too! Now get!"

"He told me not to come until the party was over – or nearly over, at least."

She gave me a look.

I rolled my eyes playfully and raised my hands defensively as I turned and left the room. "Alright, alright! I'm gone!"

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The dining hall was filled to the brim with people when the two of us joined the party a short while later – which mostly consisted mostly of servants, guards, upper-level White Lotus members, and a bunch of other people we didn't really know. But, at one of the low-lying tables on the far right side of the room sat a happy group of people we did know, and knew very well. They were huddled together, smiling and laughing and making a friendly conversation when Korra and I approached them. Nearest to us were our parents, still young and happy and deeply in love, ready to celebrate their daughters' special night. To their left was our "headmaster" of sorts – the man who came to see Korra's demonstration all those years ago. Next to him sat Katara, and beside her was her family, or most of it, anyway. Beside her was her youngest son, Tenzin [TEN-zin]. He was certainly the tallest man that any of us knew, and towered above the rest of us, even sitting down. He had a long, narrow face with a sharp, pointed chin and nose, with an even sharper jet-black beard. His head was bald, but not vacant. A very familiar, sky blue arrow tattoo – a familiar Airbender tattoo – came over his shaved head to rest between his thick eyebrows. In the opposite direction, the arrow stem led down his back, arms, and legs, to end in arrowheads on the back of his hands and the tops of his feet. But of course, all but his head and hands were covered in flowing robes of red and gold. Pema [PEM-muh], his wife, sat patiently to his left, across the table from their three children – Jinora [jih-NOR-uh], Ikki [EEK-ee], and Meelo [MEE-low]. The group looked up when we sat down with them and gave us a round of "happy birthdays!" and "congratulations!". We all had a grand time talking and mingling with the throng of guests until about eight o'clock, when our headmaster tapped his glass with a knife to make an announcement. All eyes turned to the front of the room.

"Good evening," he began, then coughed to clear his throat. "Good evening. For those of you who don't know, I am Hankota, the Master of this compound, and I would like to say a few words."

Korra leaned over to me and thought, "Well this should be interesting. Him, making an announcement? I wonder who he's going to offend this time."

Grinning, I shushed her and led my eyes back to the front of the room.

"Tonight, as we all know, is a very special occasion. Tonight is the night we celebrate the sixteenth year of the company of two very special girls – Avatar Korra, and her sister."

There was a polite, yet exuberant burst of applause throughout the room.

"Ding ding ding! We have a winner!" Korra laughed, clapping along half-heartedly. "He didn't even care enough to use your name. You're just 'her sister'."

"Oh, it's not that big of a deal. It's not like I'm not used to it."

"True, but I mean, come on! This is a 'very special occasion'. You'd think he'd use a little common courtesy."

I simply rolled my eyes and continued listening to Hankota [hawn-KOH-tuh].

"But, even more importantly, we have a very special surprise for you girls. Would you two care to come up here?"

"No, not particularly," we thought together, but we both stood up and made our way to the stage.

"Now ladies, we know that you both have trained very hard for these past twelve years-" His statement was interrupted by a moment of cheering. "And we would like to congratulate you on that achievement-" More clapping. "But, your journey is not over yet. Korra, you have learned to master water and fire, correct?" Korra opened her mouth to answer, but he continued his speech without a pause for reply. "And for some unknown reason, you have failed to learn earthbending – unlike your sister. We would like to correct this problem, of course, so we have come up with an interesting solution."

"Ooh, a two-for-one special!"

"We – The Order of the White Lotus – your parents, and others, have agreed to send you to Republic City. Master Tenzin has graciously allowed you and Katalana to live on Air Temple Island to learn Airbending under his instruction."

That announcement was enough to make me and Korra scream – in a good way. After over a decade of incessant and repetitive training in water, earth, and fire, we were aching to move on to something new. A new subject, a new technique, a new element. Our last element. We were finally getting a chance to see another part of the world – another part of the world that wasn't buried under twenty feet of snow and ice. Aaand we would get the opportunity to learn from not only our friend and son of the former Avatar, but the only Airbending master left in the world.

"Republic City?! Train with Tenzin?! Can you believe it?!" Korra thought to me excitedly.

"Hardly. It'll be difficult leaving our home, but if we can live out our dream, travel the world, and see you become a fully-realized Avatar, then I'm willing."

"That's good to hear."

Hankota had one last announcement: "You leave in two days."

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Kat: So...hope that wasn't too short or boring of a chapter. It kind of is for me until I get to the parts with Korra's sarcasm. Lol! The next chapter is seriously my fav. It's really really really super duper long, so get ready for roller coaster ride of feels! Like seriously. Read it. Please. CQC and lemme know what you think! :D

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This isn't really related to the text, but with views. I'm still kind of new to the whole 'having people look at my published stuff' thing, so I find it kind of confusing when (just to pick random numbers) 15 people have viewed the first chapter, 6 people have viewed the 2nd chapter, and 9 people have viewed the 3rd chapter. Is that normal? Anyone wanna explain that to me?

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I do not own Avatar or any of it's characters, settings, themes, etc. I can't claim anything of Hankota's as my own except for his name - which is never mentioned in the show as far as I know. I've seen Season 1 like 10+ times, so I think I should know, but idt it's mentioned, so...yeah. Thanks! :D