The Longing ⇝ BOOK 1 > LOK [Avatar: TLAB-LoK Watty Awards 2018]

11

Lyra (1)

"Lyra."

I slowly opened my eyes and wearingly smiled at Mako. "Did we find Bolin?"

Mako shook his head, "Not yet." I noticed that Mako was carrying me and as I looked around, I realized we were at the park. He placed me down next to him on the grass in front of Naga. "Korra has a lead. Just get some rest and we'll fill you in tomorrow."

I nodded and laid my head on his shoulder. When he placed his arm around me and pulled me closer to him, I hummed while closing my eyes and a small smile appearing.

"You really care for her, don't you?" Korra asked him. I felt Mako nod, "More than anything. I've felt like my job was to protect her ever since I met her."

"It's nice to know she's had someone like you here." Korra said. "So why is Bolin running around with the Triple Threat Triad anyway?"

"Well, we—we used to do some work for them back in the day." Mako replied hesitantly.

"What?! Are you some kind of criminal?"

"No! You don't know what you're talking about! I just ran numbers for them and stuff. We were orphans out on the street! I did what I had to do to survive and protect my little brother!"

"I'm sorry. It must have been really hard." Korra apologized. "Can I ask... what happened to your parents?"

Mako sighed, "They were mugged by a Fire bender..." As Mako told the story of what happened to his parents, I grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. I remembered how hard it was for Mako to tell me what happened all those years ago - he was still getting over it.

"Bolin and Lyra are the only family I have left. And if anything happened to them..."

"I promised you we'd find Bolin." Korra reassured. "I don't break a promise."

Mako sighed, "Let's get some sleep." Mako placed his head atop of mine and we fell asleep like that with our hands still holding.

The next morning, I woke up a little confused at first until I remembered why I was in the park.

From ahead, I saw an older man setting up a table and a large Amon poster. "An equalist protester." I muttered to myself. I stood up and approached the man. I cleared my throat, catching his attention, "What's going on here?"

He frowned at me, "You're councilman Tenzin's daughter!"

I placed my hands on my hips, "So what? That has nothing to do with-"

"You're a bender! Benders are the enemy!"

I scoffed, "You don't know what you're talking about! Us benders aren't - ugh, I didn't come to argue with you! I have a couple questions and I'm sure you can answer them."

The man crossed his arms, "I'm not telling you anything!"

"Okay listen you old badger mole-!" I pointed my finger at him, but he raised his megaphone to his mouth and started to shout, "Equality now! Equality now! We want equality now!"

He stood up on the table and I crossed my arms with an annoyed expression.

"Nonbenders of Republic City, Amon calls you to action! Take back your city!"

"Will you just be quiet and listen to me?!"

He ignores me and continues, "It's time for the-"

I slightly jumped when I felt a hand on my shoulder. When I saw it was Mako, I relaxed. "This guy won't listen to me!"

Mako lightly chuckled, "Korra's got this under control."

When I saw the megaphone slam to the floor and shattering, I smirked. "Shut your yapper and listen up! My friend got kidnapped by some chi-blockers. Where'd they take him?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" The man said while crossing his arms. By the tone of his voice and his facial expression, it was obvious he was lying.

"Oh, I think you do." Korra slammed her foot, making the table fly up into the air. Posters came flying down. I caught one and began to read the the front, "'Witness the Revelation tonight, 9:00 o'clock' What's this revelation?"

"Nothing that concerns the likes of you three!" The man said. As Korra grabbed  him by his shirt, he yelped as she raised him in the air. "You better believe it concerns us. Spill it."

"No one knows what the revelation is! And I have no idea what happened to your friend, but if he's a bender then my bet is, he's getting what's coming to him."

"Where's it happening?"

When a whistle was blown, we averted our attention to a police officer, "Hey, what's going on over there?!"

"The Avatar's oppressing us! Help!"
The man said. I rolled my eyes, "We better get out of here."

Korra nodded, "Let's scram." She dropped the protester and ran to Naga. Mako and I grabbed more posters then hopped onto Naga and we were out of there.

>>>

While we were seated on benches at a trolly stop, we examined the posters. Mako had them laid on the floor.

"Why didn't the equalists put a location on these?" Korra asked.

"Probably because they don't want just anyone waltzing into their big revelation. Whatever that is." Mako scoffed. "I bet the information is hidden on here somehow. Look at the backs. There's four different images."

"So its a puzzle." Korra said.

"Yeah." Mako replied. "Of a map!"

I turned to the map that was hung on the wall next to us. "Hand me those posters." Mako handed me the two posters and I walked over to the map. I moved the posters around until the shapes matched. "Found it!" I smiled. "Looks like we'll be heading into this part of town tonight at nine o'clock."