Hey! Make sure you've read ch 24 first as I uploaded 2 chapters at once! Also, I'm going to be staying with my grandma for a week and half and she sadly doesn't have internet, so it'll be a bit before I can update again (about August 4th ET), hence the 2 chapters now to make up for it. Anyways, enjoy!
For once, Korra needed to use her hood. Traversing the Everstorm was more daunting than either her uncle or her father led her to believe. She couldn't see much beyond Naga's snout as the winds whirled drifts of snow around. It was worse than any blizzard she'd seen in her seventeen years of living in the Southern Water Tribe. Thankfully, Asami had a spare pair of goggles that kept her eyes clear, which was important the deeper they waded into the storm.
Dark spirits were rampant, appearing in brief clearings and disappearing in the blink of an eye. She and her uncle already sent two away that got too close. Despite their disagreement last night, Korra's dad smiled fiercely at her as the spirit dissolved into pinpricks of golden light. But they suffered the loss of most of their supplies in the process, so they'd have to make the journey back to Harbor City today. Which meant Korra had to open the spirit portal quickly. But no pressure or anything!
Asami tapped her arm and gestured ahead. Dark smudges could be seen through the white-gray mess around them. The smudges turned into solid, brown blobs but ti wasn;t until they were upon the shapes that Korra saw they were on the edge of a forest of twisted trees, the roots and rocks rimed. The ice glistened despite the cloud cover, and the howl of wind was fainter here, the worst of the storm behind them.
"We're here." Unalaq shouted over the weather.
Korra slipped down from Naga's saddle. Her uncle's words were unnecessary; she felt the portal gate pulsing through the ground. If she reached out, she might feel it in the very air. "I'm going in." She took a deliberate step forward.
"I'm going with you." Asami climbed down from Naga and matched her gait. She held her head high. There would be no convincing her to stay behind.
"Me too," Mako said, running over to them. "If there's more spirits inside, Asami and I will hold them off while you do your Avatar thing."
"Guys, I don't know," Korra said. She didn't want to put them in any unnecessary danger.
Bolin looked like he was going to join them, too, when the snow at their feet erupted. A dark spirit with six legs scuttled out of the ground, black and purple spikes on its back throbbing. It swung around and roared at Korra but before it could leap at her, a slab of earth shot up in front of it. "Go!" Bolin's voice called from the other side. "We'll take care of this guy…or girl. Uhhh, how do you tell if a spirit is—"
Korra didn't stick around to hear the rest of Bolin's words. Mako and Asami ran alongside her through the icy trees until it gave way to chunks of ice that formed maze-like tunnels. Just when Korr started to feel like she knew where she was going, a bunch of tiny, black spirits shot out from cracks and crevices ahead of them.
Mako sent a blast of fire at the same moment as Korra. Some of the spirits wilted, retreated, but most formed up and…and merged into a larger purple serpentine spirit. It roared and spiraled towards them, snapping its jaws. Asami barely ducked in time as the tail slashed over her head.
Korra wanted to turn and fight but something kept pulling her forward, like an invisible string reeling her in. She assumed it was the portal. "Just keep running, I think we're almost there!"
Mako and Asami grunted and chased after her. Then, Mako yelped and Korra felt heat on the back of her neck. She spun and saw Mako dangling by his foot from the spirit's tail. He tried firing quick blasts but it only angered the spirit, as it snaked its head to bite Mako.
Korra acted fast, melting some of the ice around her and refined the edge to slice Mako free. He fell hard but scrambled to his feet immediately, preparing to fight back. Instead, Korra gathered more water and created a barricade of ice, sealing the spirit off from them. It bashed against the wall but the element didn't give, so it soared off down another section of the forest.
They ran unimpeded for a solid minute before Korra felt it. The portal. Then, she saw it. I giant ball of white-blue energy swirled just underneath the cracked frosty forest floor. "There it is!" She put on a burst of speed but was jettisoned sideways as the serpent spirit squeezed through a crack in the wall to her right and slammed into her chest.
"Korra!" Asami and Mako yelled.
She barely stood before the creature snapped at her again. The angry writhing spirit screeched, undulating in the air above her head. It followed every move Korra made until a snowball bounced harmlessly off its side. "Hey!" Asami yelled, waving her hands. "Over here!"
Its eyes locked on Mako and Asami and, to Korra's horror, it dove at them. Both of her friends crouched. Fire daggers shot out of Mako's hands. Their bodies heaved with exertion though, so Korra wasn't sure how they planned to fight the beast. The portal was ahead. All she had to do was bend it but she couldn't do that and protect her friends at the same time. So she turned the ice beneath their feet into water, watched them slide back into a cave-like section of the forest, and sealed them inside. The spirit screamed and wheeled around to face her. Korra booked it for the glowing blue ball beneath the ice a few feet away.
Asami slammed her hands against the ice wall, not caring if it bruised her palms. The ice was translucent enough to see through, but the thickness warped the image of the battle raging on the other side. A jet of flame missed the writhing black and purple spirit and glanced off the ice. Asami jerked back out of habit but felt none of the heat.
"You won't be able to break through. That's probably a foot thick." Mako ran his hands over the opposite wall Korra erected, encasing them completely in ice.
"Can you melt through it?" She asked, eying his hands. If he could generate enough heat…
"Maybe." Mako frowned but stripped off his gloves.
He crossed the space to Asami and placed his hands on the ice. He took a deep breath, his chest expanding, then exhaled, a great steam cloud trailing from his lips as he did so. Asami watched his eyebrows slant down, his jaw clench. Small rivulets dribbled between Mako's fingers and dripped to the ground.
On the other side, Korra shouted just as a painful pressure wrapped around Asami's arms. "Mako," she gasped. "Can you go any faster? Korra's—" The constricting sensation spread to her waist and legs.
"I'm trying!" He was staring ahead through a patch of unmelted ice. Continuous streams of fire shot out from his hands, boring through the ice but not fast enough.
Asami pressed her face against the wall in time to see Korra completely wrapped up in the spirit, thrashing to get free. Only her fingertips were free. Puddles of water hovered into the air, twitching towards her, but without full movement, Korra couldn't bend it properly. The spirit screeched again as its body tugged Korra closer to its glowing mouth. Her arms pedaled towards the ground. Fire shot out of her feet shooting her only a few more inches closer.
Then the cavern pulsed with a weird energy. Korra's eyes lit up and suddenly she was gaining more ground, pulling her arm free enough to reach towards the bright orb ensconced in the ice where they'd all been standing moments before. Korra's hand shot out, the spirit's tethers falling away. Time slowed down, or maybe Korra was moving incredibly slow as a single finger on her hand brushed the ice above the glowing mass.
A ripple made the entire forest cavern shudder. The ice walls vibrated around Asami as rings of light sliced through everything, passing harmlessly through trees, rocks, even her and Mako. The, A column of brilliant blue light exploded, shooting straight up to the sky, engulfing Korra.
"Korra!" Asami slammed on the glass-like barrier but it didn't budge. A scream tore through the air. Asami's heart skipped but she relaxed an instant later when she saw it was the spirit, merely a black tendril now, drifting away like a wisp of smoke. But then everything was too bright. Her eyes slammed shut but the encompassing light cut through her eyelids like the sun.
"K-Korra!" she yelled again, and Mako echoed her.
She shook hard, not sure if it was because she had no idea where Korra was or because she couldn't see or if it was the cold seeping into clothes, into her skin and bones. She tried to walk but her feet pedaled in the air. It took Asami a moment to realize she was on the ground and not standing anymore. Mako called for her somewhere to the left and she groped around him, her hands sliding off the element around her.
A shadow fell across her and she tensed. "Mako?" Asami held her breath, hoping she wouldn't be greeted with a screech as she cracked open her eyes.
Instead, she was met with the most beautiful sight. Korra loomed over her, smiling, her hair messy and falling out of her wolf tails but otherwise unharmed. "Disappointed?" Korra helped her up.
"Never," Asami breathed and crushed Korra into a hug. When she pulled back, Korra's face was burning. "I'm so glad you're okay." She hadn't felt anything when the light swallowed Korra but that didn't mean she was unscathed. Spirit energy was still a mystery to Asami.
"I should help Mako. He looks like a flipped over turtle duck," Korra said, ducking out from Asami's arms.
Asami kept her back to the thrumming portal as her eyes adjusted to the new light. Mako hugged Korra, too, though it was quicker. Korra suggested they make their way back to the others, in case they were still dealing with dark spirits outside the tree line. Yet as the three of them marched back through the forest without running into a single threat, the sheer quiet was overwhelming. No winds roared, no spirits cried. The only sound came from their treads.
Finally, the gnarled trees gave way to the tundra. The remains of the their group were clustered together, their heads inclined. Bolin spotted them first, running as best he could in his tattered snowsuit. "Guys! You did it!"
He tackled them all in an attempt to hug them. Asami laughed along with Korra, while Mako griped that Bolin was hugging, "too hard."
When they were eventually released, Bolin hopped up and down, pointing to the sky. "Look!"
Asami craned her head up and froze. Above them, shimmering green, blue, and pink lights danced. The clouds were gone, leaving an expanse of clear sky. "Beautiful."
"I can feel the pure spiritual energy. It feels good. Right." Korra said. Asami tore her eyes away from the sky to look at her friend. Korra's head was inclined towards the sky.
Asami smiled. "I'm glad." In front of her, Unalaq stared serenely at the lights. Hardly the portrait of a villainous schemer, though Asami couldn't shake her suspicions.
"Hey." Korra tugged on Asami's coat sleeve. "The green lights are the same color as your eyes."
"You think so?" Heat crept into her cheeks.
Instead of a response, Korra squealed as her father lifted her up. "I'm so proud of you, Korra!" He set her down a second later. "I'm sorry if it seemed I was so against you. I was wrong."
Korra smiled. "Thanks, dad."
Unalaq strode forward then, and Tonraq bristled. "Yes, well done, Avatar Korra. But I'm afraid we mustn't linger. We should return to the city before nightfall. The dark spirits might be gone for now, but they're not the only dangers that lurk out here."
Tonraq sighed. "My brother's right. We should get going. It's a long ride home."
Everything was gathered hastily and in no time, Asami was back in the saddle, seated behind Korra. One minute, Asami was enjoying the sway of Naga's quick pace; the next, she was being shaken awake. "Asami, we're back. Asami?"
"Hmm?" She mumbled into something hard and warm. Opening her eyes revealed she had her face pressed against Korra's neck. She jerked back, almost falling off Naga.
Laughter set Korra quaking. "You were out. I thought I was going to have to carry you back. That is, if I could pry your arms off of me."
"Sorry," Asami said, flushing. "I didn't really sleep last night."
The laughter died out. "Really? Why?" Because you told me you're glad we're soul mates and you touched my lips, Asami didn't say. "You were asleep when I started to drift off." Korra fidgeted with her fingers.
"I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't fall back asleep. I was worried, I guess." Not a complete lie, but Asami had been more preoccupied with the way Korra pulled her tight against her body as she slept.
Korra nodded. "Well, now that you're awake, we can catch up." Naga's easy jaunt turned into a run.
Asami took in her surroundings. They were almost back to Korra's home city. The others were farther ahead and Asami was grateful she hadn't woken amid Bolin and Mako's gibes. In seconds, they were racing camel yaks to the top of the hill overlooking the city. When they reached the top, Korra pulled hard on Naga's lead and they skidded to a stop. "Uncle, what's going on?"
Asami peered over Korra's shoulder, down into the harbor where a handful of Northern Water Tribe warships were docked. On the shore stood lines of blue-clad soldiers. Unalaq sidled up next to Naga on his camel yak. "The spirit portal cannot be left unprotected. My troops are merely here to protect it and to ensure the spiritual rejuvenation of the Southern Tribe goes smoothly."
Asami's stomach churned and she tasted acid in her throat. Was opening the spirit portal a pretext for invading the Southern Water Tribe? But Unalaq was already Chief of both tribes. What game was he playing, then? Korra huffed and gripped Naga's reins hard. Then, so quiet Asami wasn't sure if Korra muttered it or if she was imagining her thoughts aloud: "That better be the only reason they're here."