Korrasami Tale

Ride The Waves of Life

Even as she watched, it circled her, slowly, blood streaming from the wound in it's head, the knife sticking up prominently. It regarded her, a frightening intelligence in its big round eye as it stared at her. But a more pressing concern soon made itself known within Korra's body…Air. She needed air, and fast if she had any hope at all of surviving this situation. She needed to get to the surface. The only thing stopping her? The forty-foot predator currently out for blood…her blood. It had already gotten a taste, and she had no doubt it would soon be back for more, the knife having only presented a small irritation to it. But with the knife lodged firmly in the shark's head, her only deterrent and weapon to fight this killer was gone.

With a kick, sending painful reverberations through her body, she started her slow journey towards the surface. Her right arm did not respond. It hung limply, uselessly at her side, and so despite her broken ribs and torn flesh, she forced her body to move, clawing with her left arm and kicking with her legs. After what seemed like hours, but in reality, could only have been moments, her head broke the surface of the water, and she sucked in a glorious, yet painful, breath of air. She bobbed on the surface of the water, each breath she took sending painful jabs through her body that made her want to pass out. But she knew she couldn't do that. No, to pass out in this situation would mean certain death.

She bobbed on the surface, managing to keep her head above the waves despite the pain coursing through her body. Circling, she looked for the shore. She had to get out of the water, this much she knew. Land meant safety. Land meant survival. If she could get to land, she would be ok. The problem was getting there. With her injuries, and the forty-foot killer circling below her, it would be slow going with no guarantee of success. But there was really no other choice for her. It was either die here doing nothing, or try for land and possibly live to see another day. Weakly, she clawed and kicked her way towards the shore, but it was so far away. The shark had dragged her farther out then she had been, and she now found herself near the entrance of the bay, being buffeted by the waves coming in from open water.

And all the while, she wondered why the creature below was allowing her to do this. Had it been made wary by her desperate attack with the knife? Or was it simply toying with her, exalting in the thrill of the hunt, enjoying itself as it played with her, allowing her to think she had some slim chance at survival before cruelly and brutally yanking it away?

Even as the thought struck her, something else did as well, from below, closing in around her legs like a vice grip on a pneumatic press, and dragging her down beneath the waves once again, so quickly, in fact, that she barely had time to let out a scream.

It was the beast again. When she was able to open her eyes, she found herself once again in the shark's jaws, this time, with her legs jutting directly in to the creature's mouth. Perfect position, she reckoned, for the thing to swallow her whole, should it so desire. She stared at the shark, looking directly at its nose, and past to the eyes. Those eyes again, which as before, were regarding her with something beyond the beast-like intelligence she would've expected from a non-human creature such as this. And it frightened her. Frightened her so much, in fact, that for several moments, she did nothing, simply staring at her attacker as it dragged her deeper and deeper under the waves, and further and further out to sea, away from shore and safety. Once again she could feel the fish's teeth, like serrated steak knives, ripping in to her legs and holding her fast in its maw.

Once again, her body reacted on instinct and she beat at the shark's nose with her free left hand. However, her weak punches from her weakened body didn't seem to faze it one bit, despite the myths associated with punching a shark in the nose. Instead it only seemed to make it more determined. With a jerk of its head, it took a more firm grip on her legs, drawing her farther in to its mouth. Then with a large bite, it clamped down harder than ever on her injured limbs. It did it again, and then again, and then began shaking its head vigorously from side to side, causing her to scream, resulting in a trail of bubbles mixing with the blood coming from her body. Then, with a sickening crunch, and a wave of pain like nothing she'd ever felt before, the monster ripped her legs directly from her body, sending her tumbling through the water once again.