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Several Days Later
The sound of waves carelessly crashing and the smell of the fresh air with a hint of salt and perfume were the first things that she could recognize in her groggy state. It took a tremendous amount of strength, but Korra was finally able to open her eyes, albeit it was very slow. Little groggily noises escaped from her throat as her eyes tried extensively to adjust to the bright light of the outdoors.
“Korra!” she heard coming beside her. Strong sensations of someone squeezing her hand and her shoulder overflowed throughout her body and she let the feeling resonate within her. It was a soothing and warming touch she was all too familiar with. She took a deep breath before it was suddenly interrupted by a painful coughing spell. Korra automatically leaned forward into the cough, but the person next to her applied pressure on her shoulders to keep her laying down.
“Sssshhhhhhh shhhhh.” Korra heard between her coughs. “Try not to breathe in too deeply.” the voice spoke softly. Her coughing let up and she let out another involuntary sleepy sound as she turned to face her companion. Her eyes finally focused, and she clearly saw Asami crouching beside her.
“Hey….” Korra’s voice was weak and hoarse, but that didn’t deter Asami’s natural reaction to hearing Korra.
“Hey back,” Asami said with a smile as she gripped Korra’s hand tighter.
“Wha…What’s going on?” Korra asked as she now studied her surroundings. She was resting in a reclined wheelchair, there was a heavy blanket that covered the top half of her body. The setting sun made it somewhat difficult to look out into the ocean horizon, this definitely was not the hospital where she thought she would be.
Asami smiled gently as she began to explain, “It’s been a few days since the fight. I was able to rush you to the hospital after you passed out.” Memories of her panicked riddled state came flowing back to Asami’s mind, but she managed to quickly push through it. “I asked for a healer once I got in and everyone looked at me weirdly. They said they have ‘doctors’ not ‘healers.’ So, they took you away and the next time I saw you, you were cleaned and wrapped up. They informed me that you have several fractured ribs and that it would take time for you to heal or move without any discomfort. So asked if they could call in any healers from nearby towns and they looked at me as if I was speaking another language….” She reflected on those moments when it seemed like nothing she said got through to anybody in this town. How alone and isolated she felt when she was trying her hardest to get Korra the best available treatment around. She attempted so many different times, each more futile than the last, it defeated her. She kept to herself and stayed at Korra’s side.
Asami took a breath, “I spent the next few days in your room. I never left or talked to anyone. If a doctor came in, I’d listen to what they had to say and thank them. It got so lonely. The next day I decided to go back to the inlet, and to my surprise, they were still cleaning it up. I think that’s when it hit me.” She stared directly into Korra’s eyes, “No one in this town is a bender, or knows any benders, for that matter.” Korra raised a brow, “No, I thought about it too.” Asami clearly knew what was going through Korra’s mind, “Somehow, this place, doesn’t seem to have a single bender in it. The strangest part is when I was helping clean the inlet, I overheard some people complaining that we made a giant mess with…our sorcery. And that nothing would have happened to their beach if we weren’t here.”
Korra looked on as if she was insulted, “But that makes no sense?!”
“I know! With all those people eaten surely, they must have noticed that!” Asami shook her head and laughed at the absurdity. “So, that’s when I had enough. I decided that we have to get out of here. Luckily, I was able to actually get through to someone here and used one of their long-distance telephones and called in one of my airships so we can get you to a healer right away. The most shocking thing is that they just let me do it, there wasn’t any hassle.” Asami shrugged, “My crewmen said it’d take a couple of days and that’s where we are now. They should be here soon. I just wanted to get away from everyone here.”
Korra frowned, “I’m so sorry, Asami. I didn’t mean to cause all these problems for you.”
Asami shook her head, “You didn’t cause anything, Korra, you know that. I’m just so worried about you, and I want to make sure you have the best treatment right away. I don’t like waiting.”
Korra gave a tired smile, “You’re so sweet.” she lightly chuckled, she was trying to keep in mind Asami’s direction from earlier. “What should I be doing in the meantime?”
Asami leaned over and kissed Korra’s forehead, “Just relax for now. Don’t twist your body too much and don’t breathe in too deeply unless you have to. But! If you can only take shallow breaths, you have to let me know immediately!” She watched Korra as she gave her the explanation, but all Korra did was smile back at her. “What?” She asked in her confusion.
Korra couldn't help herself, “You’re cute when you’re worried,” her smile widened as Asami playfully rolled her eyes. Korra moved her hand so it was now holding Asami’s and she squeezed it. “I’m just glad you’re safe…,” her mood dropped as memories began to quickly resurface of her battle, “... after all… that.” Korra instinctively turned her head toward the ocean, remembering that was one of the last things she saw from that day. “I’m so glad you’re safe…” she repeated, more desperately than before. “I can’t believe all that happened.”
Asami’s smile slowly faded as she pulled something out of her pocket. She produced a crumbled-up piece of paper and began to unravel it. Korra’s attention returned to Asami as she heard the paper, “What’s that?” she asked, slightly concerned.
“While I was helping clean up the beach, I found…this.” She completely unraveled the paper and gave it to Korra, who took notice of her saddened expression. Korra took it and examined the notepaper. Something was written in ugly letters resembling worms more than anything else. Asami watched Korra’s eyes move all around the paper before she spoke again. “That person who wrote that letter we found in the ship definitely was her caretaker and it seems like, he was attempting to teach her how to write… she was probably trying to copy the pattern as best as she could.” She took a deep breath, “I…I know she was a monster…I know she ate people but….”
Asami didn’t have the strength to finish her thought aloud. The many doubts about if they did the right thing screamed in her mind. She doubted herself, if only she didn’t suggest using spirit bending, maybe all of this wouldn’t have happened. Maybe they could have saved the spirit in a different way. She was too hasty with her approach. She cursed herself over and over. Things could have happened so differently.
It took the sounds of the airship landing in front of them and Korra reaching over to embrace her to knock her out of her inner diatribe. She took a shuddered breath as Korra’s arms wrapped around her. She could have fought Korra about how she shouldn’t be moving like that, and even though Korra would playfully protest back, she let herself melt in the embrace.
Four crewmen came down the ramp and hurried to their sides and she finally pulled away from Korra, but not before carefully adjusting Korra’s position back to a reclined one. Three of the crew went straight past the two and grabbed all of their belongings that Asami had previously collected. Asami turned to one of the crews that passed by them and instructed him to go get her car which was at the hotel still. When asked in what direction it was, she frowned a bit in frustration, she knew it wasn’t the easiest to get to. She turned her head and looked at the note and she begrudgingly took it from Korra. She hated herself again for doing it, but she had to. Carelessly folding the paper, she took out her pen and quickly sketched out a rudimentary map. She passed the note to the crewman, and she explained her drawing.
The man quickly ran off after receiving the keys. Asami turned back around and with assistance from a crewman, they carefully and hastily moved Korra up the ramp and onto the airship to get her to the onboard healer that Asami hired in the meantime.
The crewman that was tasked to retrieve the car slowed down and studied the makeshift map, but something caught his eye. On one of the corners, the words “Thank you” were written over and over again in extremely messy lettering.