pulling on your heart to push my luck

The Southern Lights

Travelling by sea was something that I was used to, something that I had once really enjoyed, but this time around keeping my eyes open was proving to be a trying task. My father had taken me on countless business trips when I was younger, but he hadn't ever brought me with him until after the break-in. Both of us were too scared to leave me home alone, no matter how many bodyguards were there to protect me.

The first trip we took together was probably the first time either of us had felt happy since Mom's death. It was a few months after it happened–it took both of us a while to get back into our old routines, and his hesitation to leave me alone kept him from travelling until I offered to tag along. We only went to Harbor Town, but we felt like a family again. I was so determined to see an elephant koi that I spent the whole journey on the deck, craned over the railing as I watched the water below me. My poor father was seasick the whole time. He tried to explain to me that we were too far away from Kyoshi Island to see elephant koi, but I was just a kid. I didn't know any better and if it wasn't impossible, then it would be stupid not to try.

But it quickly became a tradition for us to watch out for the elusive elephant koi, just in case. And every time we didn't see one he'd promise to take me to Kyoshi Island someday.

We never got around to it. There just wasn't much business for us there. Kyoshi Island was a quiet and largely kept to itself but I had wanted to go ever since starting self-defense classes. As it turned out, I liked fighting, and I wasn't too bad at it, either. I wanted to get so good that I could live there for a while and train with the Kyoshi Warriors. Nobody ever heard much from the island, except that women took the lead on everything. Women were celebrated there. Women were safe there. Who wouldn't want to go?

Again, I never got around to it.

This time I hadn't looked for the elephant koi at all. I was probably just tired after being at sea for a few days, and towards the end of the trip I couldn't go out on the deck anyway. The water was unforgiving and the weather was so bad that the captain actually ordered us to stay inside. Aside from the risk of being thrown off the deck or being struck by lightning, stormy seas often irritated spirits. It wasn't uncommon for agitated spirits to take innocent sailors. If it could happen to the Avatar, it could happen to anyone.

The storm got so bad that we had to change course. I was supposed to arrive at the South Pole in the afternoon, but it was already later in the evening and I still hadn't made it. I killed the last few hours curled up in my cot, chewing on ginger drops as I tried to keep warm.

I guess the civil war and the narrowly-missed apocalypse distracted me from the cold last time, I thought as I let my eyes stay shut for a few seconds, on the condition that I would definitely open them again.

But they stayed shut longer than I'd promised myself and I had to force them apart. In ten seconds, I'll close them for 3 seconds, then open them again.

Ten, nine, eight, I yawned, where was I? That had to have taken a few seconds.

Five, four, three, two-

Something bright tore across the sky and I shot upwards. The Southern Lights. We had to be close.

"Attention passengers," the voice on the intercom announced, "we are approaching our final destination. Please prepare to disembark. Thank you for sailing with us, and enjoy the South Pole!"

I rushed out of the cabin and out onto the deck, trying my best to ignore the cold biting at my nose. I needed to be first off the ship and get to Korra's house before it got too late in the evening, before she would call it a night.

I scanned the crowd as I descended the ramp onto the dock. The ship had been almost completely booked with tourists traveling to the South Pole for the festival, and the dock was packed with Southern Water Tribespeople waiting to be reunited with returning family. I slowly made my way through people hugging and laughing and bumped into a group of tourists pointing at a map, arguing over which way they were supposed to go.