Winding Legacies: A 'The Legend of Korra' Rewrite

The Three Year Gap, Month Twelve: Lemaya

"You're about to love me so much after this."

Lemaya jumped as Ta dropped a hefty box onto her wooden office desk. Swiping the pounds of dust that lifted into the air out of her face, she asked, "Did you personally dig this up from a time capsule buried at the start of the Hundred Years War or something?"

"Yeah, right after I tunneled my way to the Fire Nation to climb into the Fire Lord's bed and ask for his opinion on fireworks. Just look at it."

"Don't you think it's a little confusing that we always call former leaders by their title even if a new person is actively using that title in the present?" Lemaya asked absentmindedly as she carefully peeled open the top of the box and grabbed the first scroll she could get her hands on.

"Actually, I do. It's my drafted proposal for Tonraq and the Council of Elders."

Lemaya lifted a brow. "You plan to just call the Chief 'Tonraq' when he retires?" Ta opened his mouth to respond, then decided it was maybe better if he didn't.

"That was a trick because why would I ever tell you my actual intern proposal," he said hurriedly.

"Maybe because I told you mine?"

"You're just too trusting. The bid for chief is very cutthroat here in the South. We critique each other's essays and everything."

With a snort, Lemaya quickly roamed her eyes across the scroll, her eyes flickering back up the page every so often to see if she was reading it right. "There's no way you actually found out more information on what Wolf Cove used to be like."

"You know, just casually the best second-in-command ever."

Lemaya had begun to enjoy the monotony of archive filing with Ta ever since she got back from Kyoshi Island. Talking to Katara had lifted a weight off of her shoulders, but she still held a lot of guilt about everything so for the time being she was taking a break from thinking about bending. At the very least, it gave her things to look forward to instead of anxiously waiting for her grandfather to send her new fans.

Though, for all the great moments she had when she wasn't a bender, revisiting all the problems they still had was not the most smile-inducing task. While he hadn't told her his actual proposal, Lemaya knew Ta's rested somewhere along that wavelength. When she made her original topic request, Tonraq regretfully informed her that someone was already doing it—and though she loved and respected the other aides, she knew none of them would be willing to tackle an issue like that besides Ta.

"You really want that job, don't you?"

"It would make my parents very proud," Ta said as he pressed his hand sincerely to his chest. Lemaya would never admit it, but despite his jokes to the contrary, Ta had a really good chance at being the elder-chosen chief successor. And, she couldn't even be mad because he had great ideas and would no doubt do as much good as she could for the tribe, if not more.

"I'm going to re-read this, and if I actually find something useful, then I'll owe you one."

"More like you'll owe me twenty," Ta said flippantly, "But who's counting?

Lemaya had never met Ta's family, and she hadn't planned on meeting them that day. But, she had found something rather intriguing in the archives that Ta had pulled for her, and Ta was very persuasive in his attempts to convince Lemaya to investigate it that same day. Probably so she wouldn't forget that she now owed him, but she didn't mind either way.

He lived in the heart of the city, something that virtually no one did unless they had a shop there or really enjoyed the loudness of the hundreds of people in the streets. His family was the latter, and they were as eccentric as one would expect for such a lifestyle.