We Meet Again

It was a true battlefield out there. Shards of ice were flying everywhere. Water-whips came from every direction. Everything was nearly impossible for the waterbending master to avoid. She dodged one obstacle, just barely missing the next. Rather than surrender or put up any sort of fight, she egged her opponent on.
"Faster!" she commanded, "Keep your focus!"
One would expect attacks from someone with such high bending skills to be a full grown adult, or at the very least someone in their late teens. Alas, this was not the case. This wild string of waterbending forms came from none other than a nine-year-old girl. Of course, she was no ordinary nine-year-old. She was the Avatar- Avatar Korra, to be exact-, and she was in the middle of a training session with her waterbending instructor, Kya.
"Excellent forms!" Kya commented, "You ready for a break?"
"No!" Korra declared, "I'm just getting started!"
Kya didn't expect anything less from her young student. As young as she was, Korra was always eager to fight and train. This was just one of the many ways she was the exact opposite of her predecessor, Avatar Aang, who also happened to be Kya's father. While being revealed as the Avatar at a young age overwhelmed Aang, it only seemed to motivate Korra. Having known both Avatars, once as her father and now as her student, it truly amused Kya just how different they were.
A little over an hour later, Korra's training session was done for the day. Ever since the "incident" a few months ago, she and her sifu had grown accustom to training a few miles away from the village. Sure it was a long walk, but as long as it prevented anyone else from nearly losing a limb, it was necessary.
"I'm very happy with your training, Korra," Kya said to her as they walked home, "You're extremely close to mastering your element."
"How much longer until I fully master it?" Korra asked, partially distracted by the flame she was playing with.
"Hard to say, exactly. At the rate you're going, I'd say at least a few more months."
Before more could be said, Korra accidentally made her flame too big. She jumped back and squeaked slightly, and Kya quickly ducked down, but not quick enough to prevent a partial of the ends of her hair from being singed.
"Your firebending on the other hand could use some work," Kya noted. She spun herself up. "Be careful with that, Korra. We wouldn't want another accident, now would we?"
"No," Korra grumbled.
A distant noise suddenly caught her attention. Without warning, she started running towards it, much to the surprise of Kya.
"Korra, where are you going?" Kya called out, going after her.
Once reaching the edge of the hillside, Korra ducked behind a pile of snow. Kya quickly caught up to her.
"What are you doing?" her teacher asked, puzzled.
Korra paid no mind to the question. "What's that?" She pointed at something down near the end of the hill.
Kya looked to see a ship docked on the edge of the ice and a team of ten men loading full crates and nets aboard.
"Looks like pirates to me," Kya explained, kneeling down next to Korra, "They're from the Earth Kingdom. I can tell by their ship. My guess is they're after valuables."
"Valuables?" Korra asked, confused.
"Special things, like certain artifacts or animals."
Korra looked back at the pirates. "Like that?"
She pointed at a man carrying some kind of animal under his arm. Kya looked closely and couldn't believe her eyes.
"That's a baby polar bear dog!" Kya gasped, "That would definitely be valuable. They're not exactly something you come by easily, but they're supposed to be very loyal. I've never actually seen one before, but I've heard about them. That one down there can't be more than a few months old. I wonder how they managed to get it away from its mother…"
Korra kept her eyes locked on the animal. "What do they want with it?"
"Hard to say. There's a chance that they're taking it home as pet for their child or girlfriend or something, but most likely they're going to sell it on the black market."
"What's a-"
Before Korra could complete her sentence, the man with the polar bear dog under his arm suddenly let it drop to the ground. Kya put her hand over her mouth in horror and Korra gasped as they saw the poor puppy get kicked in the ribs by another pirate. Its cries of pain were so loud that Korra and Kya could faintly hear it from where they were hiding out. The baby animal was kicked some more until the pirates were sure it wouldn't run off while they finished loading the ship.
Without taking her eyes off the animal, Kya removed her hand from her mouth and began to speak.
"Korra, stay right here," Kya demanded, "I'm going to get the polar bear dog. I don't know what these men are capable of, so be sure to stay-" She looked, but Korra was no longer next to her. "Korra?"
What she saw next made her blood run cold. Korra was already halfway down the hill, running towards the polar bear dog.
"KORRA!" Kya shrieked in panic.
She started sprinting after her. Before she could even slightly catch up, Korra had already made it to the distressed polar bear dog. As soon as she picked it up, one of the pirates turned and saw her.
"HEY!"
The other pirates looked up and saw her too. They all hurried to circle around her. Korra showed no fear as she took a fighting stance, carefully cradling the puppy in her left arm.
"Put the beast down, little girl!" the pirate who appeared to be the captain demanded. Korra responded by melting some of the snow around her and water-whipping him in the face. He still stood tall, but was extremely angry. "Wrong move, little girl!"
As he attempted to walk toward her, he fell flat on his face. Kya had used a string of water to pull his feet from beneath him.
"Don't even THINK about touching her!" Kya exclaimed.
The captain got up, and the circle expanded to form around Kya too. Both benders moved towards each other so that they were facing back to back, ready to fight.
"I'll give ye each one more chance!" the captain spat, "Put down the dog, and neither of ye get hurt!"
"You should be more worried about you not getting hurt," Kya smirked.
"What, are you two goin to hit us with tasty sammiches?" one of the pirates taunted.
"Taste this!" Korra exclaimed.
She bended a three foot wide water bubble out of the ocean that was just a few feet away, and blasted it against the sexist pirate, taking two others out with him. Two more pirates came charging towards them, weapons in hand. Kya quickly took care of them with a single blow of water.
"Not very smart to fight two waterbenders next to the ocean, huh?" Kya taunted.
"Why ye little-" Four more pirates came at them.
With the new attackers approaching, Kya bended more water from the ocean and used it to form eight whip-like limbs around her and Korra. She used two of the limbs to throw two pirates out in the open water. The other two ran back on to the boat.
"Cowards!" the captain yelled at his crew.
Kya let the limbs splash to the ground. The captain turned his attention back to her and Korra.
"Come on at me!" the captain dared, "I ain't scared of no water, and I ain't scared of no girls!"
"How about fire!?" Korra shouted.
She clenched her hand into a fist, and blasted a ball of fire at the man. His eyes widened in shock, and he just barely managed to dodge the flame. While he avoided being burned, Kya reanimated one of her water limbs, and used it to throw the captain into the open seas. Having won the battle, the two benders took off running, the polar bear dog still shaking in Korra's arms.
Once they made it safely back to the village, Kya and Korra took the polar bear dog to Kya's hut. The baby animal had a broken paw, a broken leg, and a few cracked and broken ribs, but thanks to Kya's healing powers she was up and walking around again within the hour.
"Well that was an interesting training session," Kya noted, "I've very proud of the way you stood your ground, Korra, but I have to tell you that running right up to those pirate like you did was a very stupid thing to do. I know you wanted to save the polar bear dog, but you could have gotten hurt. If they tossed her around like a rag doll, imagine what they could have done to you."
Korra didn't pay any mind to her teacher's scolds. She was too amused by watching the baby polar bear dog happily jump after the piece of blubbered seal jerky that was in her hand to pay attention to anything else.
"Korra, are you listening?" Kya asked.
"No."
Kya sighed. "At least you're honest," she mumbled.
The polar bear dog finally managed to snatch the jerky from Korra's hand. She happily curled up next to the young Avatar and started gnawing on the meat. Korra pat her head.
"We'll keep her in the village for a couple days, to be sure the pirates are gone and won't come back for her," Kya declared, "After that, we can try and return her to her mother, considering the pirates hadn't hurt her or the rest of the litter."
Korra finally looked up from the puppy and looked her sifu in the eye. "Do we have to take her back?" she asked in a sad tone, "I like her."
"I'm sure you do, but she's still just a baby. She has a mother, Korra. A family."
"Why can't I be her family now? Please Kya! I wanna keep her."
Kya sighed and closed her eyes.
"I'm not your mother, Korra. If you wanna keep her, talk to your parents."
"Ok!" Korra shot up and ran out of the hut.
Kya snickered. "Children and animals…"
The polar bear dog suddenly lost interest in the jerky and scampered over to Kya. The waterbending master smiled and scratched the animal behind the ear.
"Hello to you too," she said to her.
The polar bear dog then jumped up and licked Kya's face. Suddenly Kya flashed back to when she was about Korra's age. She was sitting cross-legged on a grassy field, playing marbles with her sister. They were playing next to Appa, and he suddenly licked her face.
The flashback ended. Kya looked down at the animal the stood before her now.
Is…Is it possible? she wondered to herself.
Korra ran back into the hut.
"My mom said she wanted to see Naga before she and dad decide if I can keep her or not," Korra explained.
Kya smiled. "You named her already?"
"Yep."
Naga yapped and then scampered after Korra. The two left the hut, leaving Kya alone.
"I should have guessed that dad and Appa would meet up again," Kya said to herself.