Airi's days passed, blurring together oddly as fear consumed her. Equalists haunted her at night. Not literally, but the point was the same. The majority of her family were benders and it didn't help that she knew Amon was out, trying to 'equalize' everyone. Bending wasn't a weapon, it was a part of them and loosing something was horrific for her seeing as she could only hold on to so many things due to her memory problem. Loosing her bending would be traumatic, not to mention if it happened to her parents as well.

At night, she kept herself awake, feeling like the darkness was a cover for the evil outside the doors of her home and work. In the depths, masked men waiting to strike. In the past, she would light a small flame to see in the dark, but not, lighting the smallest flame was a signal to those evils out there. Robbed of her peace of mind, she tried to make her home a haven as best she could.

"Can you finish the last few loaves and dough?" Her father asked. Responding with a nod, she watched as her father left the kitchen and climbed the stairs to the next floor that their rooms were located. Bread making was so simple that she could remember it easily, yet complex enough to keep her mind focused and away from her anxiety. While she waited for the last loaves to cook in the oven, she folded, kneaded and pressed the raw dough into long ovals on a large sheet. In the morning, it will have risen enough to bake into the fresh, fluffy goodness that paid the bills.

The young firebender washed off the dough that stuck to her scarred arms to get on to the next portion of the night: cleaning. As she swept the floors, the bell at the front chimed and a voice sounded the room. Quickly, Airi moved from the kitchen to the store front, leaving the dusty and frail broom to lean against the wall.

"Welcome to Hitomi Bread and Goods!"

Korra smiled at the greeting as she waited in front of the counter. At least she hadn't been automatically rebuffed. Some of the shopkeepers in the big city could be a little gruff by her standards. It had taken some getting used to, but she felt more and more comfortable in Republic City every day. Not counting the Equalists. 'Hitomi Bread and Goods. That was the name.' Korra did her best to commit it to memory.

She blinked when the young woman took only a few yuans. She wasn't very experienced with prices, but that seemed low. "If you sure, then thanks!" Korra slipped the remaining money back into her pouch as she grabbed the baked goods.

She grabbed a carrying bag and slipped one loaf inside it. Using a bread knife presented for customers in the bakery, Korra cut a large slice. She then put the larger chunk inside the bag and turned back towards the woman who had served her.

Korra turned one had upright, feeling energy flow as a small flame emerged from her right hand. She held it under the bread, letting it warm up. Tenzin would have surely scolded her for the frivolous use of her Bending. 'I don't care. Like he's never AirBended his hair in place. Oh that's right... He doesn't have any!' Korra thought out the hypothetical argument with Tenzin.

At the same time as starting to warm her bread, Korra was surprised by the woman's comment. Member of the Fire Ferrets? She was, but most people recognized her as the Avatar. It was sort of nice not to be.

"Yeah, I'm Bolin's teammate and friend. My name is Korra." Korra racked her brains, trying to remember the girls name. "You're Xue... No, that's wrong. You're... Airi, right? Bolin's mentioned you a lot, I'm just bad with names." She grinned, and almost went to rub the back of her head before remembering she was holding a chunk of bread.

"I'm fine, thanks. A long day. How are you today?" Korra smiled wearily, not detailing out her day.

"Its fine," the woman reassured her customer. "I wouldn't charge anyone for bread that's been sitting around all day. Actually, most of this leftover bread goes towards the homeless, when it can," said the firebender. Moreyou than she wished it would happen, she would endlessly repeat tasks, forgetting she had already done it and ended up without a lot of energy left. Thankfully, for those times it happened outside her home, the homeless took care of her instead of leaving her to fend for her own. They were a rather nice group of people, always giving even when things were already spread too thin. For the help, otherwise tossed goods she gave to their hands.

The tanned girl in front of her lit a flame in her hand, warming up the less-than-fresh bread. A fire bender? If she remembered correctly, Bolin's brother, Mako, was the firebender of the group? Airi pursed her lips together, a slight scowl as she tried to get what was going on. Then Korra responded to her questions, though not leaving answers as much as questions. Korra, Korra... where had she heard that name before? With those thoughts, she could hardly contain a laugh when the probender tried to remember her name. "Yes, its Airi. Not a very common name, but then again, not a lot of the names in my family are. My dad's name is Nosen. We like to call him Nosey."

Korra smiled, “That's very kind of you to do. I don’t mind full price. I just meant that its kind that you give to less fortunate. When I first came here, I thought everyone was living it up. I learned fairly quick. I still have a lot of learning to do. Its very different from where I grew up.” She shrugged a little, not minding talking about her basic background. Korra missed home sometimes. She wished she could go back to the snow, cold, and the warm fur coats. This city… It was all towers and secrets. That's why she had to be here, which weighed heavily on her. Didn’t mean she enjoyed it.

“You’re a ProBender, aren’t you? Which team are you on? If I remember right, Bolin said you were the team FireBender?” Korra nodded slightly at the own flame in her hand, still not dropping that she was the Avatar. Airi probably already knew. Or would know very soon. But for a few minutes, she could just be somebody else. She laughed as Airi talked about her dad. “That's a great name. My Dad’s name is Tonraq. Sometimes we called him Rocky, even though hes not an EarthBender.” She grinned happily.

Korra nodded slightly more seriously as Airi mentioned her memory problem. “Bolin might have mentioned it. Please, don’t worry about it. Its just fine. You can call me anything you like. I respond just fine to ‘Hey, you!’. Or in Tenzin’s case, “Argh” or “Child”.” She laughed a little bit at her own self-deprecation.

Korra had finished warming and toasting her bread slice. With a relieved sigh she took a large bite out of it. Being less than fabulous with her manners, she talked with a mouth half-full of food. “This stuff is great. Hits just the spot.” She chewed happily, closing her hand to extinguish the generated flame.

Korra cocked her head slightly at the offer. Sometimes she and Bolin did fun things, but no one had really ever invited her out like this. Tenzin was so strict. And Chief BeiFong. It was always just fruitless AirBending Training, Task Force, or ProBending. More of the first two than the third. It would be nice to go out and have fun. She hadn’t even done it a lot at the Southern Water Tribe. They’d let her socialize, but when people knew she was the Avatar… They acted differently. She’d spent so much time in the White Lotus compound mastering the first three elements.

“Yeah, I think I’d like that. That could be a lot of fun!” Many young women wouldn’t go wandering out into the night. She was the Avatar, and Airi was a ProBender. There wasn’t anything for them to be worred about! Other than Amon… As soon as Korra thought of him, her heart rate escalated. She banished the thought before she started feeling too nervous.

Korra turned and jogged out of the shop. “So where are we headed?” She looked to her companion eagerly. Time to break some rules!

Airi let out a harmless laugh after she explained to her the difficulty in adjusting to modern life. "No! It's not charity, I swear. I literally meant, this bread has been out all day. There was no way I would sell that at full price to anyone,"

Korra nodded slowly, "Well, that's very kind of you to do. You've made me full up!" Korra responded as she waited outside. She took another large bite out of the bread and chewed contentedly. It was very different than the Southern Water Tribe diet, but it was very good. She'd had to forcefully expand her appetite when she'd moved in with the Air Nomad family. She still missed meat sometimes. She could go out in to the city to get it, but they didn't bring it to Air Temple Island.

"That's pretty cool. I love FireBending. I know a lot of people find it the most scary Bending, but I think its the best." She moved her hand slowly through the air, leaving a glow of yellow-orange fire in its wake. The light hit her and sparkled off her eyes, twinkling in the darkness. "Yeah, he didn't think it was funny. He wasn't mad, he'd just pout at me and my mom every time we called him it. Even the Chief started calling him Rocky." she snickered at the joke that had gotten away from her and her mother.

"Hey, whatever works I say! Argh is just fine. I must hear it a gazillion times a day." She smiled happily at Airi, joking about her own hard work with Tenzin. Even if Airi didn't know the Councilman, she hoped the joke came across all the same.

Korra rocked back and forth on her heels as Airi suddenly headed back in to the shop. She was forgetful, but she didn't mind as she kept insisting. Korra wondered absent-mindedly what it would be like to have a job. She'd spent all her days working on mastering the three elements, which was like a job... But an actual job, where you did work that didn't come naturally to you, and how well you did resulted in how much you or your family earned. It was something really foreign to her. Tenzin had started giving her a little bit of allowance, but that had nothing to do with how she performed in AirBending training. If it did, she'd be broke!

"Ouch!"

Korra started to head back inside when Airi emerged. She wasn't sure what the FireBender had said ouch about, but she guessed it had to do with the ovens. Those things were hot, even by a FireBender's standards! Korra's left arm hurt, and she rubbed it. Part of it was the chi-blocker, part of it was remembering the time she'd burnt her arm in FireBending training. Luckily Katara, the best Healer in the whole world, had fixed it up. Wasn't even slightly worse for wear.

"That sounds crazy. I didn't know there was lots of tunnels underneath Republic City, but I guess it makes sense!" Korra slipped the last of the bread back in the carrying bag. With a string she tied it to her waist. At least if they got lost they'd have food until someone came looking for them! "I think all people have to be respected, regardless of their life's earnings. All people can have honor." She felt herself repeating mantras she'd been drilled in by the White Lotus. She wasn't just a Bender's Avatar, but everyones.

"A creature? Really? What kind of creature? Maybe next time we go down, I'll have to bring Naga. Shes my Polar-BearDog. She'd probably be able to track down this thing in no time!" Korra followed Airi happily, ready to go on an adventure. Occasionally she felt her anxieties well when there was dark corners for ChiBlockers to hide in, but she quashed it.

Korra tilted her right hand up, and added her own small flame to Airi's as they headed in to the tunnels. "Wow, these are kind of creepy. I wonder what they were used for... They seem kind of empty now." A reminder hit her and she spoke up again, "Oh, did you hurt yourself? I can heal that. I'm the Avatar." she said sheepishly. With a smooth wave of her left hand, she pulled some water up from a nearby drain pipe, leaving the worst impurities behind. The water flowed to coat her left hand, and began to glow slightly. "It doesn't hurt, I promise. I learned from Katara, and it might help your injury feel better." The tigercat was out of the bag, but there was nothing she could do. Airi probably already knew she was the Avatar anyways. She just hoped it didn't make her feel weird. She hated when people felt awkward around her.

Airi nodded a few times, a smile on her lips. "Exactly! I think fire is wonderful. It keeps us warm and lights up the dark. But seeing as it could also burn down a house, it doesn't help its case." The bender sighed, biting on her lower lip. Earthbenders were starting to be known for their metalbending police and waterbenders have always had their healers, but what good side was firebending known for? The cheap labor to provide the city with electricity? Not even a lot of people knew that many poor or not-so-well-off firebenders did that kind of work. It was very under appreciated.

She added a small skip to her walking when she came back, listening to Korra talk. That was right! She was still newish. Not like she meant everyone knew about the tunnels or went down there, but someone knew to the area wouldn't spot them out right away. As a child, Airi always had so much energy of which she spent exploring, though always getting pulled back out by her mother who was worried she might not come back out. She had hated the fact she never got to explore a lot in her youth, but understood it nowadays. If she had a child, the last thing she would want them to do was to go under ground all on their own.

Upon the question of what the creature was, her imagination sparked up. There were so many different speculations of what it could be! Or, on a less exciting note, it could simply be a rumor with nothing behind it. "I have no idea what it is. I've heard this one guy- his name is Jo-lee -say it was a giant spider rat. Another said it was a bear, but that just seems down right impossible. Unless it was a platypusbear." The one thing she wished it wasn't was a turtleduck. Those things just scared her to no end. It was an irrational fear, of course, but not one she could easily overcome.

The offer to treat her burn was one too great to pass up, so, and with a likeness in her eyes, she switched the flame over to the other hand and pulled off the glove with her teeth. She held out her wrist to her new found friend (hopefully). "Thanks!"

Korra smiled, "A giant spider rat could be cool! Or a crocodile-spider! I heard they found some of those in the sewers of the Fire Nation capital once! It could just be a rumor, but those things sounded wicked cool!" She grinned, still holding out the flame to help light the way in the dark. "Katara told me that one of the Earth Kings, when she was still just a kid, had a bear. It was really weird. They said it was nice, but they always felt odd about it. It even had a name and it was the Earth King's best friend." she laughed, remembering the sillier story Katara had told her when she had been younger. She did have fond memories of some of the people were raised her. Katara was like a second mother.

"Hey, its no problem." Korra reached out with the water coated hand and pressed it gently to the burn. She felt her concentration focus as she used the water's abilities to soothe and eventually make the burn disappear completely. "I'm the Avatar, and I still burn myself occasionally. Katara was always complaining to me. She said Aang never burned himself, though he did burn her on accident, when he was still learning Bending."

She bit her lip, 'I wonder if I'm talking about Aang too much...'. It was her past life but... More than that. It was her childhood. When people talked about playing with friends or school games, all she could talk about was everything she had learned about past Avatars. Instead of crushing on a boy in school, she would learn how Avatar Kyoshi had crushed a rebellion. It was all she had for perspective. Otherwise it was snow, basic schooling, and Bending training. Only now after moving here was she starting have adventures of her own. Even those were just a function of her Avatar duties.

"Yeah, it has its perks." Korra smiled, not wanting to get down on her own status. She let the water drop, having completed the Healing. "Mainly the Bending. I love being able to Bend three of the elements. Its a lot of fun, I really enjoy it." Korra looked away at the next question, the palm-fire flickering in her eyes. "Yeah, it can be really... stressful." She let it drop there. She wasn't ready to confess her feelings of fear and isolation. Not to a baker's girl she had just met, even if that girl was very nice.

Korra did notice the flicker in the flame, but said nothing. It was probably nothing after all. "Its really hard to describe, but I'll do my best. The architecture is a lot different than the Nations we're used to. I guess its somewhat like traditional wooden Fire Nation dwellings, but its still very much Air Nomad. Theres a lot of training pavilions for the Air Acolytes, and the rooms for the girls and the boys are separated. You have flying bison and lemurs too. They have their own stable. And as Ikki will tell you, there are 10,552 trees there. So its very leafy and green too. Its a great place to relax, I'm sure Tenzin wouldn't mind you visiting." Korra shrugged. She couldn't ever be sure of anything with Tenzin, but it was probably a safe bet.

"So how far is it to where we're going? I didn't know there were tunnels, and I certainly didn't realize they were so big! Anything could hide down here." 'Like Equalists...' she finished silently, but squashed the fear down again. Someday she would have to face her fears, but not on an adventure like this.

The older of the two could only gawk at the idea of a bear. Not only that, but a friend to a king- a best friend? That was simply odd... even for her! She had already found it weird enough that people would keep platypusbears as pets, but that? She just couldn't imagine it! "Crocodile-spiders?"

Korra shrugged, seeming to think about it. "They must have been able to, if the Fire Nation had to go down and flush them out. I don't know what they ate, but other things must live down there too for them to survive. I think they'd be really creepy." she gave a silly grin, feeling as if they were telling ghost stories by the fire-light. Which in a way, they were. It felt good, to just be speaking like this. No worries. No assumptions. Just two people hanging out, telling stories to each other to make them laugh, cry, be scared, whatever! This was how the world was supposed to be! Not fighting, violence, and danger.

"I don't know. I've never really had a problem with the physical aspects of Bending. Its a little hard to Bend to really different elements, like Fire and Water, at the same time. I got used to it in time. Water is about the flow," she chuckled at her pun, "and Fire is about breath. While they might approach combat differently, you learn to blend their ideologies. I let my breath flow, the energy swimming through me. Some chakra pulls at the water, and some leaves me in the form of fire." She shrugged, wondering if explaining Bending multiple elements to someone who didn't would be like explaining snow to someone who had never seen it. "Of course, I've never been able to Bend air, willingly or unwillingly. Something about it... Its really frustrating. Tenzin says I'm just too much of a FireBender, even if I did come from the South Pole!" she gave a hearty grin.

Korra nodded, "I really do think it'd be great if you came to the island. Tenzin, who is the head guy," Korra had realized she might have to throw conversational reminders in, "is really serious. Everyone else is really calm. I guess its good for letting your chi and chakra flow but sometimes its so..." Korra gave a dramatic sigh, "boring. Let us meditate. Let us eat. Let us garden. Let us meditate some more." Korra gave an over-exaggerated impression of Tenzin. "Its like... wheres the crazy fun? Everyone gets to have fun! I guess its just not part of Air Nomad culture. 'We must preserve the culture', and all that!" Korra grinned.

"Wow, thats really far. These tunnels are crazy. I know they work for pipes and what not, but I wonder what else these were here for. They seem like really big tunnels for just pipes. Especially when you have EarthBenders in the City. Its not like they couldn't get you around underground." Korra mused at the possibility of the tunnels. What had been Aang and Zuko's motivation of this all? She knew as the Avatar she was supposed to be able to ask Aang but... she'd never heard from him before. Another failure.

"Maybe it was..." Korra lowered her voice. Having a little fun, she lowered the light of her flame. She knew the smart thing would be too brighten it. This was more fun though. More spooky. Plus, nothing could really harm them, so the 'enemy' having the element of surprise would be no big deal. She hoped this monster wasn't too dangerous...