anghraine

Eh, I'm a completist.

title: The Girl in the Iceberg (4/idk)
verse: Korra is the Avatar in the iceberg, the Water Tribe siblings who find her are Noatak and Tarrlok, and everything else leads to or follows from that

CHAPTER FOUR: SHADOWS OF THE PAST

A hundred and thirty years. A hundred and thirty years.

Korra tried to make herself think about anything else, and couldn’t. Over a hundred years. Every person she’d known, every person she’d ever met, they were all dead. The people she hadn’t met too - every single living person, millions of them, were dead. Sozin was dead. And there’d been three more generations of Fire Lords, one right after the other. When she asked, Noatak said that Fire Lord Azula was fifty or sixty by now.

She hadn’t just failed to stop Sozin. She hadn’t done anything. The world had needed her, needed its Avatar, and she hadn’t been there. Maybe the sages had been right, after all. They would have found a way eventually, wouldn’t they? Not as soon as they should have, but not a hundred and thirty years late, either. Korra dropped her eyes to Naga’s head, and absently scratched her ears. At least she still had Naga with her. It wasn’t like she’d had any other family, anyway - not since she was a little girl.

Maybe it wasn’t that bad, she thought hopefully, then remembered the Fire Lords again. Not that bad for her, personally. But it’d been awful for the entire world. She was the worst Avatar ever.

Korra blinked back tears, glancing around at the near-featureless landscape. The sages had always spoken of the Northern Water Tribe as a glorious place, the heart and the pinnacle of the Water Tribe. This wasn’t the capital - and from what Noatak and Tarrlok had said, that was still standing, anyway - but still, it seemed so … empty. Not really any different from the wide open spaces in the South Pole, snow and ice for miles on end.

She wondered if the southern tribe even existed any more.

“Stop,” Noatak ordered.

It took her a second to realize he meant Naga. Korra’s initial dislike reasserted itself. He talked to her just like the sages always had, but at least they’d been, well, sages. Noatak was just a kid like her, only he wasn’t the Avatar. Korra glared over her shoulder at him, her world starting to right itself. She might be a terrible Avatar, but she was still the Avatar. Who did he think he was?

Noatak didn’t seem to notice - he was gazing away, towards the sea. Tarrlok stared in the same direction, his face screwed up in concentration.

“What for?” said Korra.

Noatak finally looked at her, and scowled. “Look, I don’t care who you are or where you came from. Here, I’m in charge of hunting and you need to do exactly what I tell you.”

Korra, furious, opened her mouth to snap back.

“Shh - keep your voices down,” said Tarrlok in an undertone, surprisingly bossy. “We found a tigerseal down there, Korra.”

“Why didn’t he just say so?” she muttered, but pulled Naga to a stop. She didn’t even know how they could have seen one from this far - she didn’t see anything. Maybe they were just more used to looking for danger, growing up with the war so much worse. And if it was that, it was her fault, too.

The hunt, and Noatak’s personality flaws, were all that managed to distract her from her failure. The former, however, wasn’t near as exciting as she remembered from home. The tigerseals in the South Pole were so large and fierce that it took an entire hunting party to bring them down; this one was positively docile, hardly moving even when the three waterbenders froze it in place. It didn’t feel sporting, somehow. Korra used the spear they’d given her to stab it - Noatak’s spear, though he and Tarrlok controlled their ice spikes so well that she wasn’t sure why he bothered with it.

Afterwards, the journey to wherever they were going was just long and boring. Noatak hardly spoke, and when he did, it was almost always to his brother. Tarrlok was only a little chattier, though at least he seemed friendly when he did speak. Korra liked him, anyway, even if he wasn’t quite as impressive; Noatak carried the tigerseal on a giant block of ice, not even seeming to tire from the constant waterbending. Korra definitely wanted to finish her waterbending training with his teacher, even if she was a century and then some too late to defeat Fire Lord Sozin with it.

There was always Fire Lord Azula, after all.

Even though it felt like they’d been riding through the snow forever, they were approaching the brothers’ village by dusk. At least, Tarrlok said so - Korra didn’t see anything different, but she guessed he would know.

“Finally!” she said.

Tarrlok peered up at the sky. “Actually, I think we’re early. Mom’ll be thrilled!”

“The polar beardog sped things up,” said Noatak coolly. Korra guessed that was what passed for thank you with him.

“Gee, thanks, Korra,” she said. “It’d have taken twice as long if you hadn’t given us a ride on your amazing animal companion! No problem, Noatak, it’s my job as the Avatar to help people.”

“Well, it’s not our job,” said Noatak. “We could have left you stranded on the ice. Or trapped in the iceberg for another hundred years. Maybe you’d rather have stayed there.”

“I’m starting to think so!” Korra retorted.

Tarrlok snickered. Then, sobering, he said, “Noatak, shouldn’t we … um … warn her before we get home? About Dad?”

“A firebender burned our father’s face,” Noatak said. “Try not to stare.”

“That’s not what I meant,” said Tarrlok. He hesitated. “Well, not all I meant.”

Noatak sighed, his body shifting slightly behind Korra. She did her best to ignore it, peering around for any sign of life. As hard as she strained, she couldn’t see anything but snow and more snow.

It was almost a whole minute before either brother spoke.

“Our father … our father’s a fugitive from the Fire Nation,” Noatak said. “Mom really is Northern Water Tribe - she grew up in the city - but one of Dad’s ancestors was banished generations ago. His family lived in the South Pole for awhile, then moved to the Earth Kingdom once the Fire Nation started carting off Southern waterbenders. That would have been around your time.”

Korra swallowed. “Yeah. It’s what happened to my parents. My dad wasn’t even a warrior.”

“I’m sorry,” said Tarrlok sincerely, and Noatak made a noise that might have been sympathetic.

“Thanks. So your dad’s people were all waterbenders?”

“Yes,” Noatak said. “They discovered a new kind of waterbending - the most powerful form of bending in the world, Dad says - and went to Ba Sing Se and started a business there. By Dad’s time, they were some of the most important people in the city. Even when Sozin’s Comet returned and the Fire Nation finally conquered Ba Sing Se - “

“What?”

“Oh,” said Tarrlok. “She wouldn’t know about that, Noatak. It happened when Mom and Dad were kids.”

“Thirty years ago,” said Noatak. “It was a hundred years after Avatar Aang died, to the day.”

“Happy birthday to me,” Korra muttered.

“So anyway,” said Noatak, “even when the Fire Nation took over, things didn’t much change for Dad and his family. But the business was really a cover. They hired people out in secret - for the resistance, for anyone who could pay, except the Fire Nation.”

“What did they do?”

Noatak paused. “All kinds of things. Sabotaged Fire Nation construction projects, smuggled people out of the city - mostly earthbenders and rich merchants - passed information, killed firebenders now and then. Dad personally assassinated the most feared admiral in the Fire Nation navy when he was only twenty-one.”

Korra whistled. She thought she was starting to get an idea of what sort of people they’d been. Criminals. “But they didn’t do any of that for the Fire Nation?”

“Nah,” Tarrlok said. “They hated the Fire Nation.”

“And besides, it’d be far too risky to let anyone in the Fire Nation know they were waterbenders,” said Noatak. “They worked for just about everyone else, though, and of course, eventually someone sold them out. There was no trial or anything, the Fire Nation just razed everything to the ground. Our grandparents and aunts and uncles died in the fire, but Dad was on a business trip at the time and they had to search all over the Earth Kingdom for him.”

“It took over a hundred firebenders to bring him down,” added Tarrlok, his voice oddly cold - more like Noatak’s than his own. “That’s how he got burned.”

Korra blinked. “Over a hundred? Really?”

She promptly altered her opinion of the man’s “business.” After all, did crimes against the Fire Nation really count?

“Really,” said Noatak, and he sounded proud. “And then he escaped their prison, and got some doctors to change his face some, and came here, to the Northern Water Tribe. That’s where he met our mother. But he’s never forgotten what the Fire Nation did to him and his family. He still wants revenge.”

“Well, so would I!” Korra said.

“All he wants is revenge,” said Tarrlok, in the same colourless tone as before. “It’s all he cares about. He’s been training us to help him ever since he found out we were waterbenders. If he discovers you’re the Avatar, he’ll want to use you for it, too.”

Korra bit her lip. She couldn’t remember her parents. She hardly remembered her family at all; she didn’t really know what parents were supposed to be like. She was pretty sure, though, that that wasn’t it. Still, she did remember boys practicing with boomerangs and spears and clubs, watched over by older men - their fathers and teachers. They’d grow up to fight for the tribe someday, and they had to begin as soon as they could. The Fire Nation wasn’t going to wait for them to have a nice childhood first. Weren’t Noatak and Tarrlok better off, knowing how to protect themselves now, even if it’d been hard for awhile?

“But I want to fight the Fire Nation,” said Korra. “I mean, I need to - I’m the Avatar. It’s my job to stop them and restore balance to the world. If that’s what your dad is working for, then I’ll be happy to help him.”

Besides, she wanted revenge, too.

“Dad doesn’t care about balance,” muttered Tarrlok.

“He cares about defeating the Fire Nation, though,” Noatak said. Even though he sounded calm, his fingers were digging into Korra’s waist, and she could feel his body tensing as they got closer to their village. “It’s just … be careful around him, okay? He has a bad temper sometimes, and he’s been sick. You don’t want him getting angry at you. And you shouldn’t agree to anything you don’t actually have the guts to go through with.”

“I’m not afraid of anything!”

“Or if it’s, um, against, uh, the will of the spirits,” said Tarrlok hurriedly.

Korra slumped. “I wouldn’t know. The sages said I’m supposed to be the great bridge between the spirit world and this one, but I’ve never heard a peep from the spirit world. All I’ve got is bending.”

“Well,” said Tarrlok, “bending’s pretty cool. Except - ow!”

Korra was about to glance at him when something caught her eye: a small dark smudge up ahead, and then another and another, all growing larger as they approached. She promptly brightened.

“Hey, is that - “

“We’re the third tent on the right of the main path,” said Tarrlok, and added, “We’re home!”

“Finally,” said Noatak.

Korra wrinkled her nose, then realized he couldn’t see her, and blew a strand of hair out of her face. He was just some snotty waterbending kid from the north, she told herself loftily; she could ignore him. Korra focused on the distant smudges, which quickly resolved into tents, and then fires and blue-eyed, blue-clad men and women. They looked just like the people back home - many of the men had the same wolf-tails, and the women the same loops of hair, and their anoraks and leggings looked like hers. She supposed she should have guessed from Noatak and Tarrlok, but she - just hadn’t.

If everything had gone right, it’d have been a terrible disappointment. As it was, she just felt relieved. Not everything had changed. The Water Tribe, at least, was the same everywhere. And everywhen.

The villagers stared and gasped as Naga thumped into the village. A little boy shouted and pointed. Korra waved awkwardly, trying to keep Naga from knocking anything over. It was weird - nobody said anything to Noatak and Tarrlok, and they didn’t say anything either, unless she counted a mutter from Noatak that she didn’t bother trying to make out.

Korra drew Naga to a stop by the third tent, just as a pretty woman, her loops neatly braided, ducked out. She didn’t look much older than thirty, but she had Tarrlok’s eyebrows and Noatak’s pointy chin.

The woman’s jaw dropped.

“Hi, Mom,” said Tarrlok. Before Korra could do anything, he jumped off Naga’s back, twisting some snow into an icy ramp and sliding down.

“Tarrlok?” The woman lifted her eyes - purple eyes - to Naga’s back. “Noatak? What …”

Noatak jerked back from Korra and sprang down himself, landing lightly beside his brother. “It’s a long story,” he said.

Tarrlok just grinned. “Did you see, Mom? We’ve been riding a polar beardog! It’s Korra’s. Um, this is Korra.” He gestured up at her.

“Hello,” said Korra. She jumped down and held out her hand.

The woman blinked several times. Then she shook the outstretched hand heartily, smiling and shaking her head. “Where are my manners? My name is Tamaya. Welcome to our home, and thank you for giving my boys a lift. Are you a friend of theirs?”

“No,” said Noatak.

“Yes,” said Tarrlok.

“They found me in an iceberg,” Korra said. She glanced at Noatak, who was frowning at the ground, his shoulders stiff and his hands clenched tightly behind his back. “Um. It really is a long story.”

“Well,” said Tamaya, “any friend of my sons’ is welcome here. Please, come inside. Dinner is nearly ready, and you must all be famished.”

“Thanks. Just let me have a word with Naga, and I’ll be right in.”

Korra took Naga aside, firmly instructing her to stay put and not eat anything or roar at anyone (“unless it’s bandits or something”), while Noatak deposited the tigerseal behind the tent, encasing it in ice with an ease she couldn’t help but envy. They walked in without a word to one another.

Inside, the tent was airy, spacious, and brightly lit, but otherwise very like the ones she remembered. Korra smiled at the familiar trophies hanging from the walls, the smell of freshly stewed sea prunes, the shields and spears lying haphazardly about.

“Well, come on,” said Noatak impatiently.

They made their way to a long wooden table, where Tamaya was already ladling stew into bowls. Korra gladly took her place between Tarrlok and Tamaya - they won’t give me indigestion, anyway.

“This looks wonderful, ma’am,” she said honestly.

“Well, thank you, dear,” said Tamaya. “Eat as much as you’d like, I made far too much.”

Even so, she looked a bit surprised when Korra came back for thirds and fourths.

“Korra hasn’t eaten in a hundred and thirty years, Mom,” said Tarrlok.

Tamaya frowned. “Tarrlok, really, there’s nothing wrong with a healthy appetite. I just wish you and Noatak - ”

“It’s true,” Noatak said, not even looking up. “She’s the Avatar.”

There was a soft thump - no big deal, Korra would have thought, but Noatak stiffened further, Tarrlok froze, and Tamaya’s face lit up. Then the hangings parted, and a tall warrior limped out, his long, grey hair obscuring his face.

“What’s this about the Avatar?”