under the stars

[anatural]

WHO: Korra & Hei
WHAT: Their first night in the Spirit World and their first chance for an actual reunion. (nsfw)

[They trek for hours without saying anything, over terrain that varies with neither rhyme nor reason. Sometimes in a desert, other times in a forest, other times across a plain that seems to stretch for miles until suddenly a mountain appears. Hei doesn't ask why they're going the direction they are, for which Korra is grateful because she doesn't know the answer. She doesn't know anything. They're walking not to get anywhere in particular, but to give Korra a chance to figure out what to do, because she can't think while standing still.

Where would Raava have gone? Is there some way she can communicate with the light spirit? Is there anyone in the Spirit World who doesn't completely despise her?

Evening starts to fall, offering no answers, only a reminder that her body is human and, like it or not, needs rest. Luckily(?) they're in a forest. Plenty of material to make camp with.]

We should stop here for the night. [She has to cough a little mid-sentence; her voice rough from disuse.]

Comments

[mortemscintilla]

[ Throughout their trek, they've stayed in a dimple of silence. Many questions tiptoe along the edge of each moment, but Hei refuses to let them tumble off his tongue. Their objectives are as clear as can be, given the murky situation. What matters is momentum. Kinesis. Refusing to be sitting ducks for malicious spirits; fighting off inertia. The terrain of the Spirit World is fantastical, unpredictable. But in its own way, beautiful, as unsullied nature merging with phantasmagoria can only be. An exercise of diversity: windswept scrublands, a jagged haze of mountains, the green fragrance of forests. Everything harsh but unspoiled: no candy bar wrappers or open sewer grates issuing noxious fumes, no gutter rats scurrying beneath the trees or pigeons roosting on shit-spattered boughs. ]

[ A remote sense of calm settles over Hei. A sense of Zen forbearance, as his body marshals its reserves of strength -- knowing, in advance of his mind, that he'll need every ounce of it over the coming hours or days. Distantly, he's reminded of Heaven's War. Even more distantly he wonders about his and Korra's reinforcements: Tenzin, Mako, Bolin, Asami, Korra's folks -- all in bed, probably, sleeping uneasily but with no earthly idea what is happening out here. ]

[ Late in the evening they enter a glade of enormous quasi-oaks. It is dark and heavy in here; the forest greenness tints the air. When Korra rasps about stopping, he nods -- terse, operational. Gestures to a circle of scrubland ringed by tall trees -- a sheltered spot, but with a strategic view of the vista. ]

This will do.

[ Somewhere nearby, there's a sound of rushing water. So sly -- an almost imperceptible gurgle that knits with the rustle of the leaves. ]

I'll get water and firewood.