Avatar: Princess Izumi

V - The Spirit World

"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth." -Buddha

Izumi runs as fast as she can through the heavy snow. She runs for a while and then she uses her fire bending to propel herself. She figures this way is best just in case she's not back by morning, so she can't be tracked through her footprints. The further away she gets from the village she can feel a stronger spiritual energy. She's getting closer to the portal. When she is close enough she lands just a couple of feet away from the portal. The light coming from the portal is intimidating. Izumi takes a few apprehensive steps forward and then confidently steps into the portal. She feels herself land and takes another few steps forward and she is in the spirit world.

Izumi grips tighter onto her bag as she takes in her surroundings. Spirits are flying freely, the tree of time, and just past the tree she sees the Northern portal, and the Republic City portal. Getting to the spirit world is the easy part, now Izumi has to find what she is looking for. Izumi feels lost. She doesn't know where to begin. This can take days, weeks even. She could get lost. She has the urge to return to the material world. As Izumi mulls through her options, dark, ominous clouds start to roll in. It reminds her of when her father told her about the arranged marriage. It isn't her bending that's causing the storm... it's her emotions. Izumi closes her eyes and tries to calm herself.

Sure enough the clouds roll away. Izumi takes in a few more deep breaths and starts to walk. She walks by the tree of time, and although she has never been it feels familiar to her. She places one of her hands onto the tree and she sees visions of Korra sitting inside of the tree meditating. Izumi proceeds to climb up into the tree, sits down, and crosses her legs. She closes her eyes and thinks about the couple that occupies her mind. She sits there for a while before opening her eyes. She's startled when she sees small spirits are surrounding her. Izumi calms herself. The one closest to her asks, "Hi, what's your name?" The small spirit is green, has four arms, and two leaves, one on each side of its head.

Izumi smiles at the spirit, "Hi, my name is Izumi."

"I feel Raavas energy in you. Are you the Avatar?," The green spirit asks.

Izumi nods, "Yes, I am."

All of the spirits gasp and awe, "Wow, so what brings you to the Spirit World, Avatar," the same spirit asks.

Izumi smiles, "Yeah, maybe you can help me! I'm looking for a man and a woman— a couple. The man has gold eyes and a scar around his eye and the woman has blue eyes. I keep seeing them in visions, so I'm guessing they're important," Izumi explains.

The green spirit has a wide smile on its face, "Oh! Yes! We know who you're looking for. We can help," all of the spirits inside of the tree huddle and whisper among themselves. They then start to file out of the tree and the green spirit signals for Izumi to follow. They all gather outside and out of nowhere a giant spirit comes flying in. It lands just a few feet away from them.

The green spirit tells Izumi, "This is a dragon bird. It will take you exactly where you need to go."

Izumi smiles to the spirit, "Thank you so much, kind spirit." She then climbs onto the dragon bird and holds on.

"Dragon bird, please take the Avatar to the Valley of Zutara," the green spirit tells the Dragon bird.

Izumi is confused, she begins to ask, "The valley of Z-" but is cut off when the dragon bird squawks and takes off. Izumi is in awe of what she sees. She feels a sort of familiarity as the dragon bird flies. The ride is long, but it doesn't feel that way. The dragon bird slowly descends into a field. Izumi climbs down, pets the dragon bird's head and thanks it. The dragon bird flies away. Izumi takes in her surroundings. It's the same field she has been seeing in her visions. There are two, small houses next to each other. In front of the homes there is a table. It is set with plates, cups, a teapot, and a cake. Izumi can hear voices coming closer to her. She sees the couple, walking hand in hand and they're headed in Izumi's direction. The couple spots Izumi and they smile at her. Izumi slowly creeps over to them.