Winding Legacies: A 'The Legend of Korra' Rewrite

The Three Year Gap, Month Five: Bolin

Mako frowned as he spread out the napkin Lemaya handed to him over his legs. "We're going hiking?"

"Do you have a problem with that?" Lemaya returned, giving Mako a tense stare. Bolin didn't know what his brother was complaining for, Lemaya had given them quite a nice room to stay in and brought them very delicious food.

Biting into a warm piece of pie, Bolin mumbled, "He'll get over it. When do we leave?"

"Hmm.." Lemaya paused as she turned her wrist to look at a pretend watch on her arm. "At whatever time you guys finish your food."

Bolin nearly spat out the raspberries in his mouth.

"Wait, you mean we don't get to rest on those nice and comfortable beds in the guest house?" Lemaya shook her head at Bolin with a smile.

"No, you will."

"Later tonight when we come back?" Asami hummed, watching Lemaya with careful eyes.

"More like in a couple days when we come back, but yeah."

Mako set down his cup with a loud thud. "You've got to be kidding me. You're also taking us camping?" Lemaya shrugged.

"What? You guys act like it's the worst thing in the world."

"This was supposed to be a relaxing vacation," Bolin sighed as he savored the last bite of good food he'd get for a while, "Why are we going out into the woods at night?"

"So you can get behind hiking but not camping? Besides, it's not even dark outside yet," Lemaya said, pointing at the various open windows all letting in a warm afternoon breeze.

"But it will be. And then we'll be stranded in the wilderness, all lost and afraid."

He was being very dramatic. They were nowhere close to being stranded in the wilderness and by the time Lemaya had told them they made it to their destination, the sun was still high in the sky. Even the tents she had brought were far more luxurious than some of the nicer places Bolin and Mako used to squat in, so there wasn't really anything to complain about.

But then again, he wasn't his brother who had a weird aversion to flying bugs.

Mako yelped again as he swatted his hands in front of his face. "You know they won't hurt you if you don't hurt them," Asami said as she watched Mako helplessly try to keep himself bug-free.

"That's a lie the bugs made up to get us to lower our guards to them."

"Since when could bugs speak to us?" Lemaya asked out loud as she dropped a hefty stack of firewood between the four of them and their respective tents behind where each of their bodies sat.

Bolin leaned over to his brother and gently cupped his ears. Then, he turned to Asami and Lemaya and said, "Since the burning fever he got from a bug bite seven years made him hallucinate the ground talking to him."

Mako smacked his brother's hands away as Asami and Lemaya tried their best not to laugh. "It wasn't a hallucination. It was real!"

"Whatever you say, bro."

As the sun started to set over the ridge of the nearest mountain, they listened to Lemaya tell stories about what she'd been up to the past few months over the fire they struggled to light up. Mako had offered to just use his bending, but the others had insisted they could do it themselves. And many curses and angry shouts later, they had something to keep them warm during the long night. Not that they really needed it, the air was beyond humid in the dense forest.

"So how's she doing in the South?" Asami asked softly as she passed a marshmallow to her right. Bolin took it without much thought, more focused on Lemaya's answer than anything. He hadn't heard anything from Korra since he last saw her and though he understood why, he really missed her.