Chapter Text
Into the Depths
Chapter 1: Voyages and Vegetables
Desna bowed to his father and again to his waterbending master. With a breath, he slid into the first pose, reaching out with his chi. Water, all around him. In the air, in the waterskins at his sides, and below, beneath the hull of the ship. It was heavy, volatile and powerful. Silent, he twisted and turned, striking out at invisible opponents with ribbons of water and spears of ice.
He knew the forms like he knew the stories of his people, like the languages he had been taught. The connection with the element ran through his spirit, so sharp and strong it made him ache with joy. This was true power, true spiritual communion.
He could feel his father's watchful gaze, filling him with pride that did not falter, even when his footsteps did.
He wasn't perfect. His ribbons had frayed edges, his spears left trails of mist in the air, and sometimes he slipped on his own ice.
What mattered was that he tried. Each day, he grew and became more, and did his father proud.
Korra leaned over the rail of the ship and waved at the crowd on the dock, one hand on Naga's collar to keep her from jumping overboard. Asami and Bolin were there, madly waving back alongside air acolytes saying goodbye to the airbenders and reporters hoping to get one last question in.
As much as she was going to miss Republic City, she was glad she wasn’t going to see any more reporters anytime soon.
The last few weeks had been hectic, stressful and wonderful. She'd spent her evenings at Asami's mansion, listening to her complain about finding qualified people to hire and just being supportive in any way she could. Which had, amazingly, included a lot of kissing.
She’d had her Avatar duties to deal with too—training with Tenzin, helping out around the city, and talking with the reporters, who always managed to twist her words in unexpected ways.
But her time in the city had come to an end. She only had a matter of months to find a spiritual teacher and commune with Aang's spirit at the Southern Air Temple, and she had to take Mako to see Master Katara to heal him and restore his bending.
Of all the casualties left in Amon's wake, Korra felt the most guilty about that one.
Chief Beifong had gotten hurt too, but she was an officer who had always known her job might put her in harm’s way. Korra hadn’t been the one to drag her into it. And besides, she wasn’t here on the boat. In the end, she had decided to stay in the city and keep working, and would only go visit Master Katara if she managed to heal Mako first.
Korra glanced at Mako, who was leaning against the rail next to her, watching the city slip into the distance, clearly lost in thought.
“Have you ever left the city before?” Korra asked.
He blinked. “Couple of times. Went up to the mountains to train with Zolt.”
Korra winced, though Mako didn't seem to notice, still watching the city shrink. She assumed that losing his bending was a... touchy subject for him. Even though he put on a tough face when the topic came up, she didn't want to make him feel bad. And worse, remind him of Zolt!
She coughed, unable to think of a good way to segway into a new topic of conversation. “So! Asami gave you a bunch of books for the trip! What will you read first?”
Mako blinked, glanced at her for a second. “I dunno. I haven't looked at them yet.”
“Haven't looked at them?” Korra was aghast.
Mako just shrugged. “She thought I'd like them. If I don't, I'll find something else to do.”
Korra shook her head. Books were one of the best ways she knew of to keep from worrying, and Mako had plenty to worry about. Didn’t he know just how great it was to lose yourself in the pages and forget about all the pressure and stress of the outside world?
“You have to at least read the Intro to Southern Water Language textbook. And fill out the workbook.”
Mako raised an eyebrow at her. “I already speak Low Earth Dialect and the Fire Tongue. You really think that won't be enough to get by?”
Korra laughed, nearly doubling over before realizing he was serious and taking a breath to calm herself down.
“What?” Mako asked, offended.
“I'm sorry. You're from Republic City. I can see why you might think that. And maybe in the South Pole that might be true. If you spoke Kyoshi Island Dialect. But we're not staying at the South Pole. We're going to a rural village five hundred kilometers from there where the only people who speak anything besides SWL will be everyone on this boat plus Master Katara and my dad.” And maybe the White Lotus, if they were still there? None of her age-mates had seen any use in learning foreign languages, despite all the foreigners in the village.
Mako shoved his hands in his pockets and scowled. “So I just won't talk to anybody.”
“Oh, come on. Learning languages is fun. Here. This is how you say, brr, it's cold! in SWL. Alappaa!” Korra rubbed her hands on her upper arms for effect.
“Alapa?”
Korra nodded encouragingly. “Longer. Alappaa! It's easy to remember, because it sounds like Appa, which was the name of Aang's sky bison and it's cold in the sky. Alappaa.”
“Alapaa.” Mako tried again, closer this time, but he looked confused. “What do sky bison have to do with it?”
“Nothing, it's just a memory device. Have you... not learned a language before?”
Mako hesitated. “Yes. When I was a baby.”
Korra's heart sank a little. This was going to be harder than she had expected. “Do you know what an affix is?”
He gave her a flat look. “I assume it's something to do with words.”
Suddenly, Korra's plans of books in the sunshine vanished and four weeks aboard the boat didn't seem like that much time at all.
Korra stood on the bow of the ship, basking in the post-training glow of sweat and endorphins, watching Tenzin’s children fly alongside on their gliders.. “Hey, Tenzin? Did Aang have a spiritual teacher?” Korra asked.
Tenzin stroked his beard. “He had many over the course of his life. But the one who helped him master the Avatar State was Guru Pathik.”
Korra felt her heart rising in her chest. “Do you know how he did it?”
“My father said it was an... intense process. One that involved a series of questions that made him look deep within himself, face truths about himself that he would not have faced or even known to look for on his own.”
“What questions?” Korra asked, trying not to sound too desperate. But she needed to know.
“I think they were personal to him. Questions about his past, his relationships. His place in the world. Things he found difficult to talk about.”
Korra's heart sank. “So you don't know the specifics.”
Tenzin gave her an odd look. “Well, no. Like I said, they were personal questions. I didn’t want him to relive that pain.”
Korra frowned, stared off into the horizon. She was disappointed, even if it made sense. She hadn’t ever asked her parents those kinds of questions either. She knew about the sadness and pain in their pasts, but it wasn’t something she wanted to prod them about. Like Tenzin, she didn’t want to make them relive that pain.
“How did Aang find Guru Pathik?”
Tenzin thought for a second. “I think the Guru sent him a letter.”
Korra groaned and flopped over the rail, letting her arms dangle. No one was going to magically send her a letter out of the blue.
“I don't get it,” Mako said, “I can't keep track of it all.”
Korra sat next to him at the big galley table, going over verb affixes. She had made a chart for him, neatly drawn out on a piece of lined paper, with colors to highlight where the similarities lay.
“It's not that hard. There's a lot of overlap between the different paradigms. See, the only difference between the animal and the diminutive is in the second person. And all the plurals end in t.”
Mako only scowled at the paper.
“Do you wanna take a break?” Korra offered.
“Sure.”
Korra followed him out of the galley and up onto the deck. They were out of fjord country now, the mountains becoming smooth, rolling hills, dotted with towns and cities. A barge laden with timber passed by and Korra waved at the crew on board. Soon they would leave the land and the other boats behind and go out into the ocean proper.
“I think I'm too old to learn it,” Mako said.
Korra snorted. “No, you're not. How old are you? Nineteen?”
“Twenty.”
“Asami was still in school when she was twenty! Well, not school. University.”
“That's different. I don't know how to do this... book learning. I haven't been to school since I was eight.”
Korra winced, struggled to find a way to redirect the conversation away from dead parents and gang inductions. “Um, that's okay. Maybe we can focus more on conversation--”
“You always do that,” Mako said, frowning at her.
“Do what?”
“Cringe. Change the topic.”
Korra's mouth fell open in surprise. He'd noticed?
He scowled. “I'm not dumb. You don't wanna talk about certain things. That's fine. I can watch what I say.”
“What? No!” How had he made such a wrong assumption? “I don't want you to feel bad if I remind you of bad things.”
He looked at her for a second, let out a little snort of laughter. “You don't remind me of bad things. You remind me bad things are over.”
Some sharp emotion caught in Korra's throat.
Mako glanced at her and looked away. “That came out sappy.”
“I don't know what <sappy> is.”
“Good.”
They stood in silence for a long minute, watching the distant hills.
“So, I've been wanting to ask for a while... Why is your nickname The Shark? It'd make sense if you were a waterbender.”
Mako laughed. “I bit Zolt's hand one time as a kid. I think he was trying to teach me to breathe fire. He's still got the scar.”
Korra sat on a deck chair with her legs folded underneath her, trying to remember the earth characters for <Future Industries>. It sucked that Asami had so many responsibilities and so few people who could help her with them. At least she had Bolin. Even if he didn't know business things, he could still be moral support.
Korra's letters could be moral support too.
She sighed, scratched out a sentence that didn't sound quite right. This was for Asami and it had to be perfect! Just the right mix of encouragement without making assumptions, of happy things without making Asami jealous, of fears about the future without making her feel bad.
Korra gnawed on her pen, then jumped as someone flopped into the deck chair beside her. It was Tenzin's brother Bumi with a bowl of ice cream.
“You want some?”
“Yes, please!”
Bumi handed her the bowl and once her hands were full, snatched the letter off her lap.
“Hey!”
Bumi stood, keeping one hand outstretched towards Korra, fending her off while he read the letter.
“My dearest Asami... I think of you every day... Why'd you cross this out? It was good!”
“Give that back!” Korra scrambled after Bumi, trying not to drop the bowl or spill the ice cream, only to get blocked by Bumi's deft movements.
“Just needs a little...” Bumi pulled a pen from his breast pocket and pinned the letter against the wall.
That was too much. Korra set down the ice cream and tackled him, wrestling for the letter.
“Oh, Avatar! You're... too... strong!” He collapsed dramatically and Korra grabbed the letter back.
“So, who is this Asami?” Bumi asked, brushing himself off before settling down in one of the deck chairs. He picked up the bowl of ice cream from the floor and took a bite.
“A friend, back in Republic City.”
“A friend? I've written letters to friends before. Doesn't usually cause me that much... stress.” He gave her a meaningful look.
“Maybe more than friends,” Korra admitted. “But that only started a few weeks ago. And now I'm not gonna see her again for months and months. What if I get back and she doesn't want that anymore?”
Bumi closed his eyes and nodded sagely.
“I'm sure you had to go on lots of long trips in the military. Do you have any advice?”
Bumi placed a hand over his heart. “I was always married to the sea. Never left her side, except for those years I spent in the desert. I didn't write her any letters, but she took me back in the end.” He blew a kiss out towards the water.
Korra rolled her eyes.
“Write your letter. Don't stress about it. Maybe send her some of your hair. I hear that's a thing people do.”
Korra recoiled in disgust. “What?”
Bumi just shrugged and got to his feet, ruffling her hair as he passed. “See ya later, Pop.”
The day after they crossed the equator, Tenzin gathered everyone in the sweaty galley. The table wasn't quite big enough for everyone to squeeze around, so Meelo sat in Bumi's lap and Jinora stood near the door, keeping the air circulated, but it still smelled of too many people and the cooking oil from the stove.
Korra sat squeezed in the middle next to Ikki, who knelt on the seat to play with Korra's hair.
Tenzin tapped the table with his knuckles. “Now, so that everyone is aware, there will be a Welcome Ceremony when we arrive in the South Pole. Mako, you are not required to attend if you don't wish to, but if you do, you're more than welcome. Pema, I know it's not your favorite--”
“I'll go,” Pema sighed. “We’ll need to find a sitter for the boys.”
“I wanna go to a party,” Meelo whined.
Bumi patted his head. “A boring party for old people? With a bunch of talking and sitting still?”
“Nooo,” Meelo moaned.
“Right,” Bumi said, speaking loudly over Meelo's continued moans. “I vote we bag a whale or two and call it a day. What Tribe are we representing anyway? Mom's originally from the South Pole, so maybe we don't have to bring anything at all! Or are we Republic City Tribe?”
“I think, in honor of Avatar Korra, and the fact that our mother hasn't lived in the South Pole for many years, it's best and most accurate if we represent Nannuqimmiriq Tribe. And we're not killing a whale. I'm not bringing a gift I can't eat.”
“C'mon, Tenzin. Look at these teeth!” He bared his teeth and tapped a canine. “Teeth like these and you think Humans shouldn’t eat meat?”
“Should does not mean must,” Tenzin said dryly. He turned to Korra. “Have you given it any thought?”
In the crowded, smelly room, Korra was feeling a little overwhelmed. “I don't know. Usually I do a spirit cleansing, but I don't have the whole ritual memorized right now. Maybe I could offer some healing? I'm not the best healer, but...”
“Ooh, Korra! You should tell a story!” Ikki said, tugging on Korra's ponytail.
Korra pulled Ikki's hands out of her hair. “I dunno...”
Tenzin stroked his beard. “It's not a bad idea. It would give you the chance to petition the Elders for guidance in looking for a spiritual teacher.”
Dread and hope coursed through Korra in equal parts. She nodded. “I'll do it. Is it enough though, especially if I'm going to be asking for something?”
“No, you're right. We'll need more than that.”
“Then it's settled,” Bumi announced. “Avatar Korra will tell the epic tale of how she rescued Republic City and the rest of us will buy a bunch of vegetables from Kyoshi Island.” He stood, handed Meelo over to Pema and strode off, ending the meeting.
Mako caught up with Korra as she headed back to her cabin.
“I didn't want to ask, but what is a Welcome Ceremony?”
“It's like Meelo said. A party. Kind of.”
“A boring, sitting still party for old people?”
Korra laughed. “No, not at all. But there will be old people. And food and music and things. Do you want to go?”
“Yeah, I'll go. Do I need to bring something?”
Korra waved away the thought. “No. Tenzin and Bumi will take care of that. You'd be going as a foreign guest, not a foreign representative, so you don't need to bring your own gift. You just need to show up. And be quiet during the List of the Missing, and be sure not to eat the last of anything, and...” Korra frowned. Actually, there was a lot Mako needed to know. “Don't worry. I'll explain everything. We've still got almost two weeks before we get there.”
“Thanks.” Mako smiled and left Korra alone in her cabin. She sat on her bunk and got out a pen and notebook.
Two weeks to prepare a story. A story for the most important leaders in the whole South, in the home of the biggest, most important Tribe. Korra gulped as she put the pen to the page.