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A man slowly walked within the enveloped darkness, with a lantern in hand, he decided to explore the sudden newest addition to the town. “I can’t believe a ship this size remained intact after crashing onto the shore,” he said aloud to himself. He moved the lantern around to continually study his surroundings, he figured he’d spend all day exploring the wreck.
He heard something like someone coughing from up ahead, he held his lantern high in hopes of seeing the person, but it didn’t illuminate anything.
“What was that?” he asked himself, “Is someone there?” He asked aloud, concerned for the other person. It was a wreck, after all, they could be in trouble. He heard the same sound once more and it was clearer than before, “Okay, I definitely heard someone coughing just now. Maybe it’s one of those kids from the town? But where are they…?” he theorized to himself as he continued to find the source.
He found himself in front of a set of doors after a flight of stairs and he cautiously opened the door. Walking in he saw the sight of a little girl. She had long black hair and wore a tattered white dress. Seeing a lone child in a room that was in a ruckus state on a wrecked ship caused the man to be immediately concerned.
“Hey, there you are,” he spoke in the most soothing voice he could muster; he kneeled to get eye level with the lonesome child, “What are you doing here, kid? And who are you?” he asked with a smile. “Were you a passenger on this ship, maybe?”
The girl slowly took several steps back, but the man reached his arm out towards her without thinking. She gasped, flinched instinctively, and raised her arms to defend herself.
“Hey…hey…it’s okay. You don’t need to be scared. I’m just here to help.” He kept his smile large and sincere. “Are you okay?” he asked once again.
The girl eyed him up and down several times before slowly lowering her arms.
The giant crack formed at the center of the ship, causing the ship to sink within itself. Korra’s and Asami’s bodies tensed in anticipation. It was only a second later that the entire ship exploded into many tiny pieces into the air as a giant monstrosity emerged from within it. The girls stared in absolute horror as the spirit towered over them.
“It’s…it’s larger than Unalaq!” Asami gripped onto Korra tightly.
“I...I see that.” Korra’s head raised to follow the continuing growing spirit.
“A͡͞ļ҉l̷ ̡o̴͜f̨̕ ͘͝t͢h̴̸͡i͡s̨ ̵̛į͢s…͡͞f̕͠o͜r̛͟ ͞h͢҉̨ì̡m” The little girl’s brows furrowed in anger, her eyes on the two women that tried to erase her. Her tiny figure sat atop a giant body made up of wrapped-up ghastly-looking tendrils. On each of its sides held three arms that stretched out to a giant bundle of tendrils. Spikes and many other small arms were scattered across the main body.
Korra didn’t wait and she hurtled the giant chunk of rock toward the demented spirit. It crashed against the body, it recoiled only slightly. A low groan was heard before it raised one of its arms and smashed the ground where the two were standing. They had already moved out of the way as soon as they saw the arm move upwards.
“How does your spiritbending work, again?” Asami asked frantically as they both try to find a temporary place to stand.
“I have to wrap water around its body and then focus to free the spirit.”
“I’m assuming you can’t just do that now?”
“No…” they dodged another strike from the angry spirit. “No, it’ll take some time to raise the water.”
“We better think of something.”
“I got an idea or two. Just, try to find a safe space.”
Asami nodded and tried to find the best place to not get attacked by the rage filled spirit.
Korra rushed towards the water and bent a giant ice spear that pierced through the behemoth. It screeched in pain only for a moment. It regained composure and used its many arms to pull out the spear. Korra knew that that wouldn’t kill the spirit, but she couldn’t predict that it would just toss aside the attack so quickly. “I didn’t want to do this!” Korra shouted aloud before she widened her stance and pushed a giant wave of water upwards. It reached its peak before cascading back down onto the spirt and Korra froze the water. The spirit turned into a real-life iceberg.
Quickly thinking, she began to slowly raise water around the spirit, but the ice cracked almost instantly. The water only went a few feet up from the surface, Korra had to try to hurry the process, but the more she tried to quicken the process, the more unstable the water loops became.
It was only for a few more seconds that the giant remained frozen. With a quick burst of movement, it shattered the ice surrounding it causing ice shards to rain down across the beach. With only a second to think, Korra bent the air above her and created a small cyclone to gather the ice fragments. With the ice collected, she sent them hurtling toward the spirit. They all pierced straight through the body, but the spirit didn't react. The plethora of holes were quickly filled, and two arms were raised high into the air in retaliation. They smashed the ground and Korra was stuck between them. She stumbled over from the intense quakes they caused.
A few days later the man decided to return to the ship. She definitely piqued his curiosity. She never spoke, but yet was adamant that she stayed in that room. He promised that he would be back soon, and he meant it.
He opened the door to see the girl once again standing in the middle of the messy room, this time it seemed like she was anticipating him.
“Hey there. How are you feeling?” he asked in a more normal tone, yet still soft enough for a possibly scared child. The girl didn’t respond, still, but she whimpered a little bit. “Well, your cough seems better, at least.” he offered a sincere smile once more. He kneeled once more and reached for his bag that was slung behind him. “Check it out. I brought you some bread today,” he extended his arm slowly to the girl and she watched it carefully for a second. After a few seconds, she slowly grabbed it and stared at it for a long moment before feverishly devouring it. It only took a few seconds before she began to cough.
“Whoa,” he laughed, “easy there! Geez, you must have been starving,” he continued to watch in bewilderment as the girl finished coughing and went back to eating the bread. “Well look, no one’s gonna take this from you, so just take it easy so you don’t choke on it, okay?” The girl didn’t seem to recognize his sentiment as her focus was solely on the bread. “So…what were you doing on this boat, kid? Actually, you know what? First things first: I need to stop calling you ‘kid.’ You got a name?”
The child’s focus finally seemed to move from the bread and towards the man standing in front of her. She looked at him in the eyes for only a second before she couldn’t bear to look at him anymore.
“Well, this is going nowhere fast. Let’s see…” he thought for a moment. “Hmm ...Saryu… How about I call you Saryu? Is that okay with you? I mean, it just sort of popped into my head, but what do you think?”
The girl snapped her eyes back at the man and widened in excitement, she nodded her head many times.
The man chuckled at the sight, “Heh. Guess you’re okay with it. Well, it’s nice to meet you, Saryu. My name is Hans.”
Korra pushed herself away quickly with the help of a powerful gust of air. She got up and only had one idea left. She looked at the spirit at the top and decided to try to disconnect her from the rest of her body. Korra once again raced to the water. She threw fireballs toward the small girl on top, she tried to blind her. The spirit instinctively moved her top two arms to block the fire onslaught. Korra smiled; she took the bait. She raised a solid circle of water and made it spin rapidly. Korra tried with most of her might to get it to spin faster and faster while she had the small open moment. She saw how the arms were moving away from the head and she used the small window of distraction and threw the water disk, severing the small body from the large one.
The tiny girl’s portion slowly started to slide off the giant one, but the spirit used one of her other arms and halted the movement. The five others raised up and placed the small half back to its original resting point and the tendrils reconnected themselves.
Korra watched in horror as the spirit came back to life and resumed as if nothing happened. “What…what can I do?”
“Í̸͠ ̨̕͘w͏i͜l̷͝҉̧l̶̡̀͡…̸̴́b̕̕̕̕͜e҉̴c̵̵̢̀ó̶͜m̕͞e̸̢…̸̧h̷̀u̷҉m̵͏̡à͏n͟͜͠…̸̸̵̢”
Asami watched Korra carefully. She knew she was panicking. This wasn’t normal, nothing was having an effect on the spirit. Asami began to think about how this situation could be fixed. Is there a way for this giant to just be stunned for just long enough for Korra to do her thing? She theorized that she could try to distract it, but she didn’t know how long she could actually last, if the spirit would become aware of her plan or not, and if Korra would ever forgive her for doing that.
Asami dashed towards Korra, she had an idea.
“What are you doing? You have to get out of here.” Korra shouted.
“I am…I have an idea…”
“What is it?” Korra looked into Asami’s eyes for answers. Their eyes darted at each other.
“There’s no time to explain. Just…I’ll be back…Stay alive!” Asami quickly planted a kiss and pulled back quickly. She took one last look into Korra’s eyes, trying to plead all her concerns into her gaze. She gripped tightly to Korra’s shoulders before turning around and running out of the area.
Has returned to see Saryu many times over the following weeks, sometimes multiple times a day if he could. He became aware of his growing parental feelings for the girl. She didn’t speak a word, but the way she expressed herself, it felt like they could talk all day to him.
“Hey there, Saryu. Say, where did you get that red bag?”
Saryu twirled a bit, excited about showing off her new possession.
“Found it on the ship, did you? Heh. Well, it looks like you really like it. I’m glad. Anywho, it’s good to see you. Afraid I don’t have a lot of bread today, but I did get you something else…” He procured something out of his pocket and outstretched his hand. “Here. It’s a ribbon. Let me tie it in your hair for you.” It was pristine white, he saw it in the market and immediately thought it would be a great fit for Saryu, it also matched her clothes. He kneeled and carefully tied it into her hair. Content with his work, he smiled and stood back up, “Well, what do you think? Pretty nice, huh?”
Saryu eye’s darted at Hans before she bashfully looked away at his remark. She felt…pretty…for the first time.
“Huh, what’s that on the floor?” he caught something reflective in the corner of his eye. “OH! It’s a mirror. Well, how lucky of us. Let’s check out your new look!” he said cheerfully. “If you go over there where it’s brighter, you’ll be able to see yourself more clearly.” He pointed over to where he left a spare lantern. He put out his hand to give her the little mirror.
Saryu took a few steps back and shook her head slowly, she watched the mirror as if the mirror would be the cause of her death.
“What’s wrong? Don’t you want to see?” Hans asked, concerned and confused. He came to a realization, “Oh, I think I understand. Your eyes must be pretty sensitive after spending all this time in the dark, huh?”
Saryu looked sheepishly away from the lantern.
“Well, it’s not like we can have you stay here forever. We should work on getting you out of here so you and me can go look at the ocean together. How’s that sound?”
The little girl looked back at the man and smiled widely.
There was a citizen that was still on the beach apparently. that suddenly followed Asami out of the inlet. Korra was shocked that someone was even there in the first place, the beach was an unsafe battleground. Asami didn’t notice her follower and she escaped into the tunnel first.
One of the arms moved across the beach and slammed itself in front of the tunnel’s entrance, trapping Korra and the random person. Korra took notice of the other arm that raised itself high into the air and was beginning its descent down to crush the human. Korra quickly ran to the citizen and bent fire underneath her feet to propel her faster. She caught up to the person and stopped next to her. Korra took a wide stance and bent a large gust of air upwards, trying to stop the arm’s attack. It wasn’t enough as the arm still lowered slowly towards the two.
“Get…out…of here…” Korra strained through the energy of her attack. She tried to gather as much energy as she had so they wouldn’t get grabbed or smushed. The girl ran away, and Korra could now solely focus on the air being bent out of her. Korra had the feeling that no matter the speed, the arm would definitely crush her under the weight alone. She pushed more and more air out of her hands, but the arm still came down. Her whole body tensed as she tried to give one final push. She had to try something else as a last resort, so she bent the air to concentrate into a small area. The pressurized point of air was still enough to keep the arm above her but still had to free herself somehow. She started to scream from the pressure and managed to blast an extra amount of energy that caused the air to abruptly transform into a wave and it sliced through all the tendrils in the arm.
The arms recoiled from the pain. The tunnel was now accessible, Korra turned around and yelled. “YOU NEED TO GO NOW! BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!” When she turned back to face the titan, she was already growing a new clump of tendrils for a hand that was just cut off. With her back to 100%, Korra figured there was nothing she could really do to this spirit. All she could do was stall for time. Make sure no one would get hurt. She jumped into the air and got in contact with the rocky cliffside. She grabbed hold and sent a surge of her bending prowess throughout. Suddenly, a barrage of rocks shot quickly from the entire cliffside surrounding the inlet. They continuously shot at the spirit’s body. Korra hoped it would be distracting just enough.
“W̛͢͞h̷̷̷y̢̢͘͘͢ ̶̧̡̕͠d̷̡̡͠͡o̢͢͜͞ ̷̛́͠y̶̛o͟͜͜͢͡ù̢̡ ̨͘͞t̢r̷ý̢̛͢ ̀̕͢͞t̢̢͝͞o҉̴̢̀ ͞͡s͘͝t͟͞o͜p҉̸̛҉ ̴̡̀m̴̴͟͟ȩ̛̛́́?͘͡”
Getting Saryu out of the ship was harder than Hans thought it would be, she would always sink away at the mention, but he still tried. And today would be no different, he was planning on trying again, as long as it takes.
He walked into the familiar room once more. “Hello Saryu, I got your food for today.” He tried to give it to her, but she remained still. “Huh, what’s wrong? Aren’t you hungry?” Saryu only nodded once emotionlessly, not looking him in the eyes. A pattern seemed to have emerged the more he thought about it, “You haven’t been eating much lately. Are you okay?” he asked, concerned. She nodded once more, still averting his gaze. He slowly smiled, he believed he came to the conclusion of what was wrong with her. He kneeled and spoke softly, “You know, I think I know what’s going on. And it’s perfectly normal to feel that way. Do you want to know what I do to make myself feel better?”
He stood up slowly and began to sing, it quickly grabbed Saryu’s attention. She watched in amazement as her caretaker sang, beautifully and majestically according to her ears. He only went for a few bars until he noticed the wide-eyed expression the little girl uninhibited displayed. He couldn’t help but chuckle. “Heh, sorry. I always thought that humming a jaunty tune was the best thing to put a spring in your step, you know? Songs are like a little bit of wisdom that makes the tough times easier. I love them, personally. I mean, not that I’m any good at singing.” he nervously laughed.
Saryu smiled quickly and took the same stance as her caretaker had just taken and tried to sing the same song. It was…not good, but he continued to smile to encourage her to continue. However, he was surprised at how deep her voice was.
“Whoa. Your voice is a bit rough there, but you’re actually pretty good!” he white lied. Saryu’s smile widened and she gleefully bounced on her tippy toes.
“You know, an old friend of mine when I was your age used to hum that same song a lot. We were always together when we were younger, and I guess it just kind of stuck. Of course, that was quite a while ago…before she moved away.” he couldn't stop the small frown from forming.
Saryu took immediate notice and inhaled sharply tried singing the same song once more. Even though it sounded just as bad as it did a moment ago, the man smiled weakly. “Hey, are…are you trying to cheer me up?” He chuckled, “You are a kind soul, Saryu.”
Korra entered the Avatar state and bent two sizeable chunks of rock on the opposite sides and threw them simultaneously at the spirit. They crashed together, sending smaller rock chunks into the air. A thick layer of debris covered the head, and it seemed like Korra was able to knock the spirit unconscious. Korra jumped off the cliffside and landed in front of the gargantuan spirit.
She bent a large wave straight up the spirit once more, maybe she would be able to freeze the spirit once more and get more time. As the wave reached its climax it fell back right down. Korra didn’t see the arm coming from the opposite side and it side-swiped her, hard, knocking her out of the Avatar state. She felt all her breath harshly leave her body as she flew across the beach. She crashed and rolled across the beach unceremoniously. She tried to get up, but she immediately recognized that she had a problem breathing right. She would have to heal somehow during this fight.
She looked up and saw that another arm was coming down right on top of her. She bent a blast of air from her feet to get away quickly. She air bent once more to course correct herself so she could land on her feet. Korra didn’t take much time to think as she began to pummel the spirit with fire blast after fire blast. They were shot randomly across the giant’s body. She knew it wouldn’t do much, but she could use any distraction she could use to find an opening.
With the continuation of the fire barrage, she once again went into the Avatar state and used the boost in power to increase the size of the fire blasts. She took the momentary distraction of the giant and raised her body and arms straight up, causing several large ice spears to erupt from the ocean. The spirit reeled and started to pull out the shards with its multiple arms. Korra took the opening to grab some water and placed it on her side for the small moment that she was given.
The spirit was able to pull out the last spear all too quickly and returned its attention to Korra. It roared, a soul-forsaken sound, as it raised all six arms into the air and smashed them all over the ground. Korra was able to jump into the air thanks to some well-timed firebending and she landed on top of an arm. Korra took her new opportunity and started to run up the long arm. Her best bet was to attack the small child figure at the top.
“So, were you able to write that letter? You know, now that I’ve taught you how?” Hans asked, albeit too excitedly.
Saryu slowly shook her head and hid her face in disappointment.
“Not yet, huh? Well, there’s certainly no reason to rush.” he caught that a small smile was forming on Saryu’s face. “You know, it makes me so happy that you’ve taken such a shine to me. First time we met, I didn’t have the foggiest idea what was going on in that head of yours.” Saryu nodded in agreement, she was no longer trying to hide her face. He decided then to finally express what he was truly feeling. “So, hey. I’ve been thinking,” he nervously chuckled, “How about you come live with me? It might be kind of nice to have a daughter around.”
Saryu’s eyes widened in fear and quickly took several steps back, she shook her head ‘no.’
“...Not into it, huh? Guess I should have figured. I’m sad to hear it, but it’s your choice, of course.” He forced a smile. “Listen, I have to get going, but I hope you’ll still want to go look at the ocean with me one day.”
A smile returned to Saryu’s face, and she nodded over and over again. Hans smiled back and took his leave. It broke his heart for her to say ‘no’, after all the time they spent together and the amount of time he gave to her to teach her so many things. It stung. He left the ship, trying desperately to stop the tears from forming in his eyes.
The spirit was already on the offensive as the tendrils began to shoot up from the arm, maybe this wasn’t the best idea. Korra's gamble didn’t pay off as one of the tendrils grabbed hold of Korra’s foot and she tripped. She tried to get up, but more tendrils wrapped around her body. Korra now unable to move, had to wait in terror to know what would happen next. She didn’t have to wait long as she felt the momentum of the arm moving quickly. The arm, and her, smashed against the cliffside.
All the air left Korra’s body as she crashed against the ground. She definitely heard something crack inside her. She couldn’t breathe right. All she could produce were coughs. She tried to will her body up back to a fighting stance, but she was only able to get onto her arms before she hacked up blood and collapsed on the ground once more. She managed to land in such a way that she could see the spirit.
She watched, helplessly, as all six arms once again raised into the air, but this time they held their position. It was seemingly concentrating tremendous amount of magical energy into its head. There were dark circles encompassing its head and Korra could feel it resonating throughout her broken body. The spirit’s body began to glow dark amber as the pitch of the collecting energy raised in tone. Korra couldn’t move an inch, even if she tried. Nothing in her body was recognizing the primal instinct to escape.
“A̫̫͕̜̼͕̖͐͌̿́͡l̰͍̯͊̿̃ͧͧ͜l̡ͨ̉ͨ̋̍̓ͧ҉̶͎̤ ̸̡̳͍̀̒̇I̶̩͓̱̺̯̬͉̩̓ͦ͠ ̢͎̠̳̙̺̼̓̚͟w̸̳͉̬ͫͬ̇ͨ͂̈a̗̘̙̥͚͌̂̀̓̒ͫͭn̨͉̰̭͚ͯ̇ͪ͂ͮͩ͘͞t̫̝̪͍̱̭̠̉̾̍̅̚͘͠͡ ̷̴̬̟͇̍̾ḭ̵̢̬̜͈͙͕͚͋͆̚s̸͉̲̅͒ͧ͘ͅ ̸̙͎͔̘̬̞͊̓͗̈͂͊̓̎̀͢ͅt̯͓̞͙̤̗̱ͭ̊ͣͬͯ͝ǫ̶͍̘ͦ̋̎ͤ͋̚ͅ ̜̩̬̠̲͍̎̾̔̽̏͊̑ͬb̺̹̹̙̘͊̊̀ͬͪͥ̋̂̚͡ě̛̩͖̼ͯ̀ ̛̤̭̩͔̟͎ͦ͐̇ͤ̈̇̚͢͜w̡̮͇̤̳̪̜̠ͮͧͮ̏ͮĩ̵̮̩͖͓̙̮̗͆͝ţ̴̛̻ͮͦͨͣͅh̴̵̅͌̔̏ͩ̊́ͧ҉̠̠͙͍͚͕̜͍ ̢͎̙̼̳͎̌̎̏̅ͭͅh̭̱̹̬ͫ̐̐̾ͨͭ̅͋̒i̷̗̝̪̘ͧ̄ͩ̎̽̕͠m͔̺̘͙̝̻͉ͬ̎ͭ̚͢ͅ”
Korra winced in pain and chose to keep her eyes closed to prepare her body for the attack.
“KORRA!” Asami screeched in horror from across the beach.
Korra slowly opened her eyes, she tried to not scream from the overbearing amount of pain. She looked at Asami and tried to plead with her eyes.
“...run…” was all she could quietly muster before letting her head fall to the ground, unable to hold its weight.
“Hang on!!!” Asami yelled as she revealed her electric glove in hand. The spirit paid no attention as it was gathering the last of the energy it needed. Asami smashed a particular component against one of the many stones that were scattered across the beach and quickly threw it into the ocean. The electric glove activated, and lightning encompassed the glove as it hit the water. The glove did its job and sent electricity throughout the entire body of the spirit. It groaned loudly in pain as it hunched over, the spirit’s body now smoking.
Asami ran to Korra, “I’m here, I’m here, I’m here. I’m so sorry that took so long. The car was still parked at the hotel. Can you move? Can you get up? We need to hurry, that was our only chance.”
Korra shook her head but was able to raise her hand.
“Okay, I’ll pick you up and I’ll take you closer to the water. I’m sorry if I hurt you.” Asami pulled tightly on Korra’s arm and brought her up to her feet. She then placed Korra on top of her shoulders and fireman carried her over to the shoreline. She heard Korra wince in pain a few times and hated the thought of what could have possibly happened to her. Asami got to the shoreline and carefully placed Korra back on her feet.
Hans clutched tightly the letter that he had written to Saryu. It had already been a week since he saw her last. He was just given the news about his health and his time was short. He could only stare at the door that he’d walked through over the many years. He didn’t have the courage to this time. No, he couldn’t bare the weight of saying goodbye to her, possibly for the last time. He sniffled as his vision blurred. While most people would probably never approve of his actions, he was proud of the time he spent with the forever young girl. Even though she never accepted him as such, he was glad that he was able to be a father figure for her.
After staring for eternity, he finally took the step forward. No, he thought, I must talk to her. I don’t have more chances left! He confidently strode toward the doorway and grabbed hold of the doorknob and was suddenly frozen in fear once more. How does one say goodbye to their daughter? How could he possibly explain what was going to happen to him, sooner rather than later? Should he pretend that nothing was wrong, give her the sense that everything was fine and that he’ll see her again? Put on a smile for her and make promises he had no chance of keeping? It’s…already been a week….
He slowly let go of the knob and turned away in sorrow. He hated himself that he came to this decision, but it was still the easiest. Nothing was out of place in the ship, and he taught her long ago to be self-sufficient, so she would be fine regardless. But was it the right thing to do? He approached the stairs leading down and out of the ship, thinking about this was the last time he would do this. How his life changed so drastically long ago when his curiosity took the better of him. Tears fell, his heart shattered from the pain… His chest suddenly felt like it was constricted too tightly. He broke into a cold sweat as he couldn’t hold the weight of his head. He clutched his chest as he crashed onto the floor.
“I know you’re hurt, but you got to hurry, who knows how long she’ll be knocked out from the discharge.”
Korra nodded as she slowly and painfully raised her arm. Water slowly circled around the giant spirit. It began to glow ethereally yellow as it moved up the spirit’s body. It took a few minutes, but it was able to reach above the spirit.
“Go…in…peace…” Korra quietly said as a yellow light started to slowly move up the entire body of the spirit.
Saryu felt the sensation and accepted her fate. She felt her entire body both feel warm inside and being released into the world. She gathered the last of her strength to stand up straight. She took the moment and looked at her arms. “How could I end up with such a…hideous…body…” she mourned her form for a small moment before she turned to face out into the ocean, into the sun. She felt the warmth of the sun on her body, she saw the flickering reflections across the ocean, she sighed in contentment, “And yet…this world…” She moved her head slowly, taking the sight in fully. She waited for this moment for so long, she wanted to drink it all in. “This world... is so full of beauty….”
Saryu stared out into the horizon for as long as she could. She could feel her body dissipating beneath her. The sensation crawled up her tiny frame and all that was left was her head. She didn’t dare to break contact with the scenery she promised she'd share with someone so long ago. It didn’t take too much longer for the rest of Saryu to disappear from the world forever.
With the fight finally over, Korra collapsed from her weight and passed out. Asami panicked and screamed out for help. She fought with her mind for what was best for Korra at this very second, she needed help, immediately. The only way she saw how to do so was to leave her behind and go find someone. She hated the idea of leaving her, but she knew if she tried to move her anymore, she could make things so much worse for her. She cursed herself as she carefully laid Korra down on the sand and ran to the city for help.