Winding Legacies: A 'The Legend of Korra' Rewrite

The Three Year Gap, Month Twenty-Eight: Lemaya

Korra had been traveling for most of the time she was gone, so even when she arrived in the North, her calls were not as frequent as Lemaya had hoped. She was beginning to call less and less the more busy she became there, so Lemaya always jumped up whenever the telephone rang no matter what she was doing. Naga curled behind her like a soft couch as Lemaya pulled the telephone into her lap and let it ring three more times before she took the receiver in her hand. "Hello?"

"I always forget how good it is to hear your voice."

Not bothering to hide the light giggle on her lips, Lemaya pushed aside the poster board she had spent the last week tirelessly putting together. Her proposal was all written and bound, but each of the aides had to make a visual component to present their findings and she had gone through about ten boards before she settled on the design she was working on now. It would all be worth it, though. She was going to be the first to turn hers in—weeks before the deadline, too—and she would not have to worry about it anymore.

At least, not until she started wondering about how'd she deal with everything if she didn't get chosen.

"Are you saying that sometimes you forget about me?" Lemaya teased as Naga softly nuzzled under her free hand.

"No, it's just.."

Lemaya frowned and curled her fingers tighter over the thick body of the phone. They had talked about a lot of things, sure, but it never felt like Korra was telling her everything that was on her mind. She said, "The North wasn't all you expected?" On the other side, Korra let out a quiet sigh.

"I wanted to connect with my Avatar Spirits and have instead found myself in the Spirit World much more than I wanted to be. It's just a lot."

Her voice was heavy, carrying a burdensome tiredness that Lemaya wished she didn't feel. She understood a bit of where Korra was at, her mind still trapped with everything that had happened even though all she wanted was just to forget about it. She wished that there was something she could do or say to help her, but she knew better than most that there were some things one had to do on their own.

"Well, if anyone can take care of things, it's you."

"Thanks, Lem."

"Are your cousins helping you?" Lemaya asked absentmindedly. One of her mistakes had been shutting herself off from others, and she was worried that Korra might do the same. She wasn't mad at the fact that Korra didn't talk about it a lot—it wasn't as if she thought she deserved to know every thought Korra ever had—she was just concerned that Korra wasn't saying anything to anyone. Just because she was doing things on her own didn't mean she had to bottle everything up inside of her until it burst.

"They have important chief business or something. I honestly haven't talked to them much."

"I thought your dad told you to practice your diplomacy?"

Korra chuckled as her voice raised a bit in defensiveness. "I have! But with the spirits, not humans."

"I guess that works," she breathed, letting the warmth from Naga keep her from drifting off into the nothingness of her room. She had been holed up there for far too long and desperately needed to get out and breathe some fresh air. "Are you going to keep working in the North?"

"I actually think I'm finished here. I was going to try and make my way back through the Spirit World, these spirits have me fixing rifts in their world. It's a little confusing and I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing, but it's good to at least be doing something, you know?"

Lemaya nodded her head fervently even though Korra couldn't see it. "Yeah, I know exactly what you mean."

It was quiet for a moment as they just took in the fact that the other was still there, safe and alive. Then, Korra asked, "What about you? What have you been up to?"