Chapter 9 – Taken

The moonlight shone down on Korra and Asami as they slept. Korra lay slightly over Asami, her arm draped over her and her leg on top of her. Korra stirred lazily, rolling over onto her back away from her girlfriend. The bushes around them rustled as a shadow emerged from behind them, the twisting figure crawling closer to the women, it's thin needle pointed legs digging into the ground as it scuttled forward, walking around the women, inspecting them. The bottom of it's eerie white face showed a grin exposed by a small ray of moonlight. The eight pincers in front of its face stabbed through Asami's shirt, then proceeding to drag her out from inside the sleeping bag. It released Asami's shirt, sliding it's pincers under her softly, then pulling down its top pincers. Asami groaned, moving slightly but never awaking. The creature lifted her off the ground and turned around back toward the bushes, the moonlight shone on Asami, cradled in the jaws of the creature's pincers, it blinked as a wave of brown hair cascaded down over Asami. An woman's laugh could be heard as the creature scurried hastily into the darkness.

Korra moaned lazily as she awoke, rolling over to greet her girlfriend good morning. She lifted her arm up and forward in order to hug Asami, her arm came down expecting to contact a body any second eventually hitting the ground. Korra opened her eyes, a confused look on her face as she sat up quickly scanning the surroundings for any sign of Asami, the morning sun just peaked over the horizon, slowly rising. Asami's usual clothes were laid on the floor and her bag thrown over away from their sleeping bag. Korra let out a huge yawn and scratched her head "she must have gone to get washed up or put on her make up or something. It's early, I guess I can have 5 more minutes while she finishes." Korra fell down onto her back, falling down onto the pillow. She wriggled down into the sleeping bag, rolling onto her side and pulling the cover in close, tightly over her.

Her eyes opened lazily as she lifted her hand up in front of her face to keep the brightness of the sun at bay, it flew overhead, high in the sky, it had obviously been a few hours since Korra awoke the first time. Korra sat up, squinting her eyes and looking around for any sign of Asami but everything was as it was before. "Asami?" she enquired. No answer came. Korra stood up becoming increasingly worried with every passing second. Grey clouds began to swirl in the sky as Korra paced around their camp and through the surrounding trees searching for Asami. "Asami!" she felt the dull throbbing nervousness, "what did I do? Where's she gone? I thought everything was ok after last night. Why would she leave?" Korra continued searching each moment becoming a little more desperate and a little more frantic. Her eyes widened, thinning again almost instantly as she turned to look back at Asami's things, a puzzled look on her face "and if she left why would she not take her stuff with her?" Korra walked over to Asami's bag then lifting it up in one hand and searching around inside to check if she had taken anything with her, "makeup, food, clothes..." Korra checked through, finding nothing out of place.

"There she is!" a familiar squeaky voice yelled. Korra looked around confused, seeing no one there. "Whoa! Whoa! Slow down!" A loud smack echoed through the trees around the camp as the sound of leaves being torn through came from behind Korra. "Ow, ow, ouch, why did you do that? I told you to slow down."

"You said she was here so I brought us down, ok?"

Korra smiled at the sound of the voice, turning around to face the direction the noise came from. A small green spirit emerged through the bushes, a relatively small bird spirit lagging slightly behind,

"Avatar!" The green spirit yelled as he bounced on the spot excitedly. He extended his arms running over to Korra as fast as his tiny legs could carry him, nearly tripping multiple times along the way. Korra knelt down on one knee holding out her arms, the spirit jumped into her and swung his stubby arms around her stomach and burying his head.

"It's good to see you too Shiju" Korra smiled warmly, "but what are you doing here?"

"I..." Shiju began, the bird spirit swooped in front of him, lifting it's wing in front of his face.

"We're here to help, Avatar Korra" the spirit bowed, "it is my honour to be in your presence"

"Quit kissing up to her Zhidao. We know where Asami is! And we're gonna take you to her! Isn't that great!" Shiju beamed a huge smile at Korra, who in turn gave a small grin back, her grin quickly turned to almost a frown "so she did leave."

"I... thanks but if she's left me she has a good reason, I don't want to annoy her, if she doesn't want to be around me I'll just... I don't know, go home" Korra looked down at the ground.

"Avatar, your love did not leave you" Korra looked up at Zhidao, "she was taken"

"What! By who!?" Korra stood up, looking down angrily at the bird spirit, her brow furrowed as she clenched her fists tightly. "where is she!" Black clouds formed overhead and thunder could be heard in the distance

"Avatar, please remain calm, we're here to help you find her, but we can't do that with you affecting our minds... calm down" the spirits voice was soothing to Korra, she felt her anger almost melt away.

"I'm sorry, I just... please take me to her" Korra said sadly, her voice becoming higher with each word.

"It would be my pleasure."

"Just let me grab our things" Korra quickly stuffed all of their belongings into her own and Asami's bags, then throwing one on each shoulder. "Okay, lets go"

Zhidao raised his wing, gesturing towards a small thin path through the trees as he turned, flapped his wings and slowly glided towards the path. Korra began to follow but felt a small tug on the bottom of her pants. She looked down seeing Shiju looking up at her enquiringly

"Can I.. uhm.." he jumped up at Korra and she giggled slightly,

"You want me to carry you?" Shiju looked up and nodded.

"I'll get left behind otherwise, I'm not fast enough to keep up." Korra smiled lovingly down at the small spirit, twisting her foot to slowly bring up the ground under him to her shoulder height,

"Climb on" Korra leaned down to just below the platform, allowing him to clamber down onto her shoulder, immediately sitting down and swinging his short stubby legs playfully. "We wouldn't leave you behind"

"Thanks Avatar"

"Shiju, we're friends, stop with the Avatar stuff, just call me Korra"

"We...we're friends?"

"Of course we are" She smiled at him and he returned the favour shortly after as they set off to follow Zhidao down the path to Asami.

After a while of walking the trees along side the path gradually became more and more thin and black, the previously luscious canopy now completely barren. Korra's stomach twisted and turned like the branches of the trees and her heart ached with a dull throb making grey clouds swirl overhead.

"Ava- Korra?" Shiju said, a sickly tone in his voice, "I don't feel good... are you ok?"

"Sorry" Korra looked at Shiju, moving her hand up to rub the back of his head, "I'm just worried, what if she's not ok? what if they're not where we're going? What if she's hurt? What if.." Shiju stood up on her shoulder and slid down onto her chest, throwing his arms around her neck, embracing her. Korra stopped walking and brought her arms up to him, placing them both on his back and pulling him in close,

"It's going to be ok, Avatar" he whispered, "I promise, she's going to be ok" Korra swallowed a lump in her throat and smiled.

"It's going to be ok" Korra repeated placing her hands around Shiju and lifting him up in front of her, "Thank you, I... I needed that"

"That's what friends do" he let a wide grin form on his face. They continued walking, following Zhidao's lead but Korra stopped almost instantly, a slightly confused look on her face,

"How did you saw you knew where Asami is again?" she asked. Zhidao turned and hovered a few feet in front of Korra,

"I was flying over here last night and I saw a human woman being carried down this path by a huge spirit, it seemed strange so I followed them, I couldn't get too close to try to help because I couldn't have done anything, I'm not much of a fighter. I tried to find out where it was taking her. I thought it would be better to find you and get you to help her since Shiju mentioned that you were here." he landed, bowing his head, "I beg your forgiveness, had I known she was your companion I would have searched you out immediately"

"It's ok, you did all you could"

Zhidao turned his head around, looking behind himself to see a large dead tree in the centre of a large barren plain. "It appears we have reached our destination" Korra walked to the end of the path and stared at the tree determinedly, "underneath this tree there is a cave, I have never met the spirit who lives there and, if the stories are true, I would never want to" Zhidao flew up to Korra's head height, "good luck Avatar"

Korra's eyes narrowed as she focused on the small hole almost hidden under a large root poking out above the ground. She walked toward the cave, stopping just outside and lifting Shiju off of her shoulder placing him on the floor, "stay here buddy, I don't want you getting hurt, I'll be right back. Just... try not to hurt yourself while I'm gone."

As she walked slowly into the cave Raava's voice echoed in her head "Korra, be careful here, I don't know what exactly is in here but it feels... strange... it feels... powerful"

"I will, don't worry" Korra said, walking down into the darkness. She lifted up her hand and flicked out her fingers, a small flame coming to life in her palm. Korra looked around cautiously. An eerie scuttling noise came from behind her. Korra turned. Nothing. She turned back around and continued deeper into the cave. The scuttling returned, although this time more quietly. A blank white face peered over Korra's shoulder. It's eerie voice echoed throughout the cave as it spoke,

"Well hello there Avatar" it quickly dashed around to face Korra, "I've been expecting you" Korra's eyes widened as she allowed all expression to drain from her face, her stomach flipping with nervousness.

"Koh"