Rebel Spirit - Part 2

That night, Elira sat around a table with her family in a grand hall. She was staring down at her plate, which was left half-eaten in front of her, in deep thought. She didn't even react when Meelo thought it would be funny to start throwing peas at her and their sisters from across the table, resulting in the three arguing.

"Who I train with should be my decision, Dad, not yours or Tenzin's!" The sound of Korra snapping at her father finally made her look up. The Avatar was sitting with her parents, Unalaq, and his children at the head table.

"Looks like someone's trying to take your place as the Avatar's stick-in-the-mud mentor." Bumi teased Tenzin, elbowing him slightly.

"Bumi, don't pick on Tenzin. You know he's always been sensitive." Kya smirked

" I'm not sensitive!" Tenzin scowled, crossing his arms defensively.

"Sure, and Dad wasn't the Avatar" Ursa teased, poking Tenzin's side as they all laughed.

From across the table, Zira watched as her children and niece teased each other, holding a sleeping Rohan in her arms.

"They're as bad as you and your siblings were...Still are as bad" Katara whispered from beside her

Zira let out a small chuckle "I don't know what you're talking about, Tara."

Unalaq stood up from his seat and the room fell silent. "As your chief, it is my honour to speak at this festival, which was founded to bring our tribes together and restore the ancient balance between our world and that of the spirits. But I am saddened to see what it has become: a cheap carnival that celebrates greedy and trivial humans. I feel the time is fast approaching when the North can no longer stand idly by while our Southern brothers slip into total spiritual decay. Angry spirits are already attacking ships in your waters. I only hope we are not too late to change course."

The hall began muttering amongst themselves as Unalaq sat down, and Varrick stood up to give a speech of his own. "Chief Unalaq, everybody, always great to have him in town. Now, let's have some fun with Wacky Wushu's Dancing Otter penguins!"

A man dressed in purple with his face painted with clown make-up danced onto the stage and bent a stream of water onto the platform. Three otter penguins slid along the water before sliding back, stopping in front of Wushu, and all four of them took a bow.

*

Later that evening, Elira was back at the festival grounds accompanied by Bolin, Mako and Korra. She was marvelling at the beautiful festival lights around her. Mako fed Korra some cotton candy, which she greatly enjoyed, before feeding some back, much to Bolin's annoyance, who was eating some balled food off a stick.

Bolin turned his head away, and his eyes widened when he spotted Eska and Desna standing beside each other alone, surveying the people walking past.

Bolin cleared his throat and smirked, nudging Elira with his elbow to get her attention. "El, be my wingman?"

"You mean, your wing-woman" The airbender corrected teasingly

"That's what I said."

"I-I don't know about this time, Bo", Elira muttered, playing with her hair

"Please, El", Bolin begged, giving the airbender puppy eyes

Elira sighed in defeat. Why could she not say no to this boy? "Okay, fine. But only because I know you can't flirt to save your life."

"Yes!" Bolin cheered before handing Mako his food. "Wish me luck. I'm making my move!"

He took a stance as if he was going to dash away before running off with his arms spread out. "Whee!"

Elira just chuckled and hurried after him as he approached the royal twins.

"Hey, I'm Bolin. This is El, we're friends of Korra's! You're, uh, Eska, right?" Bolin asked the princess, " Wow, I'm just, I am loving these robes."

The twins turned to look at them, and Eska hissed!

Elira and Bolin shared a look, somewhat taken aback before Elira cleared her throat. "So, you are from the North, right?"

" Cool, that's, like you know, that's my favourite direction", Bolin added

"I think he is trying to establish some kind of bond with you based on your geographic point of origin," Desna said to his sister in a monotone voice.

"Perhaps it would be interesting to spend time with people whose ways are so rough and uncultured", Eska replied in the same tone. She turned to Bolin with what El could only describe as a creepy smile

"You amuse me. I will make you mine."

"What?" Elira shared another glance with Bolin

"You mean like a boyfriend or like a slave ...?" The earthbender asked

"Yes. Win me prizes" Eska snatched Bolin's collar, who began laughing nervously as she dragged him away.

Elira stood there for a moment, completely speechless, before she turned to Desna, who had for some reason not followed his sister and was stood staring at her again with a curious look.

" Um, hi, it's Desna, right? I'm Elira, everyone calls me El, though. But I guess you already knew that since Bo said my name was El." She smiled sheepishly, rubbering the back of her head

"Man, this is awkward" Her eyes widened, and she quickly backtracked "Not you're awkward! I'm awkward. You're gorgeous--Wait, what?"

Elira looked away, internally kicking herself, but Desna did not seem fazed at all by the girl's rambling

"You are welcome to accompany us, Elira. I would enjoy your presence as I feel my sister will be more occupied with your companion," He offered

"U-Uh...yeah, sure, why not?" The airbender smiled "It'll be fun"

*

It was not fun. In fact, it was so boring, that Elira would have rather sat through one of her father's lectures. She had been following Bolin and the twins around all evening, standing awkwardly beside Desna, watching as Bo won prize after prize for Eska.

As they approached another carnival game, Elira looked deadpan at the chibi targets of her grandfather and the lemur figures above them, who she guessed was meant to be Momo, Aang's flying lemur. The whole aim of the game was to shoot the water from squirt guns into Aang's mouth and get Momo to rise to the top first.

Staring at the targets a moment longer, Elira let out a small snort as a sudden thought came to mind. Her laugh caught Desna's attention beside her.

"May I ask what is so funny?" He questioned in his usual monotone

"It's the targets",  The airbender giggled "I know they're meant to be my grandfather when he was young. But I can't help but think they look like my little brother, Meelo. It's the ears, I reckon."

"You are close with your siblings?" Desna asked

"Well, Rohan is still a baby, so I won't know for sure until he's older. But Ikki, Meelo and Jinora, yeah, we're close. Of course, they annoy me from time to time, and we do argue. But I mean, all siblings argue, right?" Elira chuckled before noticing the prizes hung above the carnival game.

She gasped and smiled when she noticed a giant flying bison plushie meant to be Aang's bison, Appa.

"Look, how cute! It's a plush Appa," She cooed, pointing at it.

Zira had, of course, told her grandchildren all about Appa, who they all would've been completely lost without. She even told the story of when the beloved bison was taken by sandbenders in the desert and how badly it affected Aang. Elira couldn't blame him. Appa was his best friend. If someone came along and just took Pichi or Bolin from her, she didn't know what she'd do.

"Man, Grandpa Aang was so lucky. I wish I had a bison," Elira declared

Desna glanced at the airbender briefly before walking over to Eska and Bolin closer to the game.

"I, too, would like to participate in this attraction," He said

"Very well. Let us see who will be victorious," Eska replied, moving to stand beside Elira, who glanced at her awkwardly.

The boys took their places, each taking a water pistol. As the water went into the mouths of the Aang targets, a bell rang, and his eyes and arrow lit up as the Momo figures above their head started to rise. Desna had his usual bored expression on his face while Bolin had stuck his tongue out slightly, his eyebrows furrowed as he concentrated.

Elira couldn't help but smile softly. He looked adorable.

Desna suddenly waterbent a big water stream out of his squirt gun, hitting the chibi Aang's figure's head full-on and causing the Momo cut out to quickly reach the top of the meter, thus winning the carnival game and leaving Bolin and the other players speechless.

"We have a winner!" The game guy announced, handing Desna the Appa plushie.

The prince took the toy and silently walked back over to El.

"I believe this is the prize you desired?" He held out the plushie to her, and Elira felt her cheeks heat up.

"Thanks", She muttered, shyly taking the toy from the prince.

*

It was the middle of the night, and everyone was peacefully sleeping in huts a little ways from the fairground. But that peace was broken, however, when Naga started howling!

"Naga, hush!" Korra quickly ran out of her hut to try and quieten her pet as she stood on the edge of the cliff, howling

"Quiet, Naga, you'll wake everyone up!"

Naga just licked Korra's face and continued to howl loudly

"Dude, what is with the noise?" Elira complained, coming out of her hut, her hair sticking out everywhere in tangled curls.

Bolin and Mako soon emerged from their huts, having also been woken up

"Uh, What's going on?" Bolin yawned

In the distance, Korra noticed a purple creature with glowing yellow eyes appear "What is that?"

It was a spirit! And an angry one!

The spirit quickly made its way toward the Avatar and knocked her back, prompting Mako and Bolin to run toward them.

"El? What's going on?"Ikki and Jinora appeared behind Elira from inside the hut in their pyjamas.

"Stay here!" Elira cried, rushing after the boys

The spirit pinned Korra against a wall and snarled at her as she struggled against it.

Mako threw a blast of fire at the spirit, distracting it and making it let go of Korra.

He sent a few more blasts before Bolin earthbent the ground at the spirit.

"Got it!" The spirit jumped out of the way and charged at the trio

" Don't got it! "

The spirit slammed into the two brothers, knocking them down the hill.

"Yo, Mr Spirit?" Elira waved her arms to get the spirit's attention. "Why are you attacking us?"

The spirit growled at the airbender, charging at her, but the teen swiftly jumped out of the way. "Please, I don't wanna fight you!"

The spirit went to charge at her again but was suddenly hit with firebending as Korra had finally gotten back on her feet.

The spirit charged at the Avatar, who attacked the entity with firebending, but the spirit was too fast, and her blasts failed to hit.

The spirit reared up and dived at Korra, but she managed to jump out of the way in time.

" Korra!" Tonraq appeared, riding in on a mass of ice

He used his bending to move around the spirit and encase it in ice.

Elira ran to Korra's side, helping her up as the spirit appeared to have been contained.

Suddenly several tendrils broke through the top of the ice, grabbing Tonraq, Elira and Korra and throwing them into the air. Tonraq crashed into one of the huts and fell down while Elira and Korra were thrown down the hill, closer to the fairground.

The tendrils receded, and after a moment, the ice exploded as the spirit broke out completely.

Tenzin jumped up the hill and called out to the creature, "Spirit, why are you angry with us? What have we done to offend you?"

His attempts to converse with the spirit had no success, and the entity batted him away.

At the bottom of the hill, the two teens were slowly getting up. Elira lifted her head, still on the ground, and watched as Korra punched her palm and entered the Avatar State.

This caught the attention of the spirit, and it charged toward Korra once more.

Korra lifted into the air, and Elira dashed to the side to dodge its attack, causing the entity to crash through the fence into the festival market behind them.

Korra shot a number of fire blasts at the spirit from atop her air spout, but her attacks seemed to have no effect, and the spirit grabbed her with one of its tendrils, slamming her into a nearby stack of boxes.

The spirit stood over the Avatar and prepared for another blow.

"Korra!" Elira began to charge in, intending to try and help her friend when a stream of water suddenly started to encircle the spirit causing it to cease its attack.

Elira skidded to a stop, looking over her shoulder in amazement as Unalaq continued to bend the water so that it encircled the entity entirely.

The water started to glow, casting a heavenly light across the area, and the spirit changed colour. From deep purple to glowing gold. It was beautiful.

As the water fell to the ground, the spirit began to walk away calmly.

"Go in peace," Unalaq said as the spirit disappeared, and Korra ran up to him, watching in amazement.

*

"Korra!"

"Elira!"

Tenzin and Tonraq quickly ran over.

"Are you alright?" Tenzin checked over his daughter

"I'm fine", The teen muttered, still in awe over what she had just witnessed.

"How are you able to control that spirit when no one else could?" Korra asked her uncle

"As your father could tell you, I have spent my life studying the spirits and learning their ways. All of this knowledge is lost in the South, but I could teach you everything I know." Unalaq explained

"Chief Unalaq", Tenzin cut in. "Clearly, you are very knowledgeable, but Korra still has much to learn about airbending. And I hope that going to the air temples will help her connect with the past Avatars."

Korra rolled her eyes at this.

" The air temples will teach her nothing. Only I can give her the training she needs to be a complete Avatar," Unalaq stated bluntly, and Elira scowled at his tone.

"I've told you that will not happen!" Tonraq snapped at his brother

"Hey! I'm right here! Anyone want to ask me what I think?" Korra cut in, looking annoyed

"Korra, please listen," Tenzin said

"I'm tired of listening to you. Both of you. You keep me locked up, telling me you know what's best. But both of you were powerless against the spirit attack," Korra yelled before pausing. "I think it's time I had a new teacher."

"I'm sorry, what?" Elira scoffed, now getting defensive. "Korra, the whole reason you even came to Republic City in the first place was so that Dad could train you! But now you're turning your back? Just like that?"

"I'm not turning my back! Unalaq has proven he's the only one who knows what I need to learn. I have to go with him." Korra argued

This only made Elira angrier " My dad had worked day in and day out with you! And we all know you're not the easiest to work with!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Korra narrowed her eyes

"My dad was chosen as your teacher for a reason. Not Unalaq" Elira turned her glare at the chief

"Korra, please, I know you're angry, but we've come so far together," Tenzin begged

"I'm sorry, Tenzin. This is as far as we go." Korra crossed her arms and turned away as Tenzin looked hurt for a second.

"So it would seem", Elira scoffed and stomped back up the hill passed the boys and her family, watching.

*

The next morning, Elira was silently helping her father load the last bags onto Oogie as her mother and siblings were already on board. Zira, who was joining them on the trip, walked up to them.

"I think you're forgetting a couple of things." She gestured to Ursa, Bumi, and Kya, standing beside Katara.

"Mother, I think I need some time alone with my family right now" Tenzin grabbed a sack and turned towards his bison.

"This is your family, Tenzin. And you agreed to let me come along, didn't you?" Zira smiled. "Ursa, Bumi and Kya are as much your family as I am."

"Your mother's right, Tenzin", Katara cut in " When you get to be our age, you'll be thankful for the time you had with your siblings."

Zira glanced over her shoulder at her sister-in-law, her eyes slightly sad. She quickly turned back to her son and smiled. "Besides, I think it's important if we visit your father's home together."

Bumi went and playfully punched Tenzin's shoulder, wrapping his arm around his brother. "Come on! It'll be fun."

"I'm dying to see that laid-back, Vacation Tenzin I've heard so much about," Ursa smirked.

"Tenzin laid back? That'll be a first," Kya laughed

"All right, hop on!" Tenzin pointed to the bison before hugging Katara

"Goodbye, Aunt Katara. We'll see you soon, and say hello to everyone back in the Fire Nation for me."

"I will... And, Kya?" She called to her daughter, making her turn her head. "Behave for your aunt and be nice to your cousins."

Kya rolled her eyes playfully. "Yes, Mom"

Bumi was having trouble getting on Oogi, so Tenzin created an air current under his brother to bring him up to the top of the bison, making Elira snort.

She then went to jump onto Oogie herself, but Tenzin stopped her.

"Elira, I've been thinking that maybe you should stay and go with Korra," He said

Elira scowled, placing her hands on her hips. "And why would I do that?"

"Well, I...You said so yourself; you've been to the Air Temples more times than you can count and..." Elira raised an eyebrow at her father, not believing him one bit.

Tenzin sighed. "Alright, I was hoping you'd keep an eye on her for me. Help guide her and things like that, seeing as I won't be here to do so."

"Dad, she's made it pretty clear she doesn't want our help", Elira huffed. "Besides, I have nothing else to say to her. Not after she so easily turned her back on us."

" I understand that you're angry" Tenzin laid a hand on Elira's shoulder. "But you are still a member of Team Avatar. You should be with them."

Elira rolled her eyes. "Why've you gotta use my own words against me?"

"Not so fun to be on the receiving end, is it?" Tenzin smiled, recalling all the times his daughter would do the same to him.

Elira just stuck her tongue out at her father, crossing her arms.

"Are you sure about this?" She then asked, "What about when we go back home? Who's gonna be in charge of the island and make sure everything is running smoothly?"

"You will", Tenzin replied

The teen looked at him in fear. "Dad, last time you left me home alone with the kids so you and Mom could have a date night, I almost burnt down the kitchen trying to make dinner! And that was with the Acolytes helping me."

"Yes, well..." Tenzin cleared his throat" That was all in the past; I am confident this time will be different."

"I don't know, Dad. What if something goes wrong?"

"Elira, I believe you've learned from past mistakes, and I have faith that you will keep everything in order until I return. Besides, it will be a good learning experience for you," Tenzin explained. "So? Will you stay?"

Elira looked away, still unsure, before she sighed, "Fine, I'll stay."

"Thank you" Tenzin pulled her in for a hug

"Wait, aren't you coming, El?" Jinora, Ikki and Meelo peered over the side of the saddle, looking down at their sister with questioning looks.

"Not this time, guys. Dad's right. Even if I'm annoyed with Korra, I'm still a part of Team Avatar now. I need to stay with them," Elira explained, and the kids looked down in disappointment.

"Hey," El said, making them look up at her again. "Think of it this way. When you get back, I'll have some pretty good bedtime stories for you."

"Yay!" Ikki and Meelo cheered while Jinora just smiled

Elira then stood by Katara with her bags and Pichi, waving to her family as they flew away.

"Bye, El!" The kids waved

"Stay safe, sweetie!" Pema added

"Don't go kissing any boys!" Bumi yelled teasingly, making Ursa hit his arm as Tenzin glared at his brother over his shoulder

Elira just laughed and continued to wave until the bison flew out of sight. She sighed to herself.

Praying she hadn't just made a huge mistake.