[Closed]

[braavado]

| characters | Fuu & Korra

| date/time | 4/20, early afternoon

| location | by the quest mirror

| rating | pg

| summary | tentative friendships



With the mist limiting the space they could explore, there were only a few places that Korra made a point of visiting when she was feeling antsy. The branch that held the quest mirror was one such place, especially now that they knew another riddle had appeared. Two riddles, actually. Korra pulled her legs up to her chest as she sat in front of the mirror. Though she had liked working with everyone to solve the first riddle, she wasn't so sure they should jump at solving the new ones. What if they just led to even more trouble like the spiders? True, defeating the spider queen had freed the tree spirit in the end, but Korra couldn't help but wonder if the next one would be even more difficult to take down.

Stuck in her thoughts, Korra didn't immediately hear Fuu approaching until she was a little closer. She tensed, then relaxed when she glanced over her shoulder and saw who it was. "Hey," Korra greeted, not exactly surprised to see Fuu there. She was the first one to notice the riddle last time after all. "Came to see the mirror, too?"

Comments

I'm so sorry

[braavado]

Korra turned her head to give the mist circling around the tree a considering look. Though Korra wasn't too sure about it playing a role in the tree's troubles, Fuu was right about it being unnatural. There was clearly some kind of magic or other power involved.

"But the ant queen and her followers got through it without a problem," she said, still not making heads or tails of the whole thing. "Maybe we should just, I don't know, list all the things we do know. It might be easier to see a pattern."

If only there was some way to write the list down and compare notes.

Not to worry! It happens

[monster_san]

"And the squirrels," Fuu said, nodding. "It seems like there's something about us that the mist is reacting to."

She sighed and gave Korra a rueful smile. "I have been keeping a mental list, but there are so many strange things, they tend to run into each other. I think that so many of us are fighters is deliberate. And the force that brought us can reach through different worlds, different times. Two large groups of people have been brought in about... a month apart, and both times it's numbered a few dozen. Maybe the Tree is just throwing people at its problems to see what works? Like throwing noodles at the wall to see if they're done."

[braavado]

Korra made a face at the metaphor (That's a waste of noodles, and messy, too.) but Fuu brought up a good point. "It just doesn't make sense," she said after a beat. "Why would they need our help when they're powerful enough to transport all these people from different worlds?"

A chill traveled through her. Unless there was an enemy that they were supposed to face later on--an enemy that was seemingly more powerful than even their captors. Korra hoped that wasn't the case; fighting someone that powerful in her current condition sounded like a nightmare.

[monster_san]

"It doesn't," Fuu agreed, with a faint little smile at the face that Korra made. Deliberately silly comparisons? She would never. "It's possible that Chime is lying or the full truth is something she can't convey in yes-or-no answers. But... a person can have immense power and still be helpless." Her hands clenched unconsciously. Helpless to love, for example... but also to things more physical, like a person laid low by tiny bacteria. "Maybe it's something that saps, and we have to fight it like--like the way the body's cells fight off germs."

She had almost said antibodies, but she didn't know how advanced medicine was on Korra's world. Magic and high science didn't seem to go together for some reason.

[braavado]

It was a good point. All this time, Korra was thinking of something they could fight, like the spiders. She hadn't even considered the problem might be something they could fight in the traditional sense.

"You mean like some kind of...sickness," Korra said slowly, considering the idea. The tree didn't seem ill to her, but she had also never seen it before. "It makes sense. Sometimes you can't fight off a cold, no matter how strong you are physically."

[monster_san]

"Yes, exactly. If the tree is ill, it might need us to heal it, either by fighting things like the spiders or finding the root cause and neutralizing it somehow." She cupped her face in one hand. "I wonder how I would put that on my resume--tree doctor, or tree vitamin?"

She knew that comment would probably get a groan out of Umi and Hikaru, and with them it would have sounded utterly sincere, but she kept her tone light this time.

[braavado]

The corner of Korra's lips kicked up in a grin. "I kind of like the sound of tree doctor. It's catchy," she said with an innocent look that spoke of trouble to those who knew her. "Besides, calling yourself a tree vitamin just sounds too much like tempting fate after those spiders tried to eat us. Ugh."

Then she seemed to settle down a bit, staring at the mirror pensively. "I don't know the first thing about healing trees, though. Especially one that looks like this."

[monster_san]

Fuu laughed. "You're right, I don't want to do that. We'll consider ourselves very tiny arborists."

She stepped closer to the mirror, tracing the glowing letters with one finger. "If we're solving riddles to help it, I don't think the normal means apply--no pruning and pesticides. Crystal growths aren't a problem I've ever seen in the garden. I do know that crystals can be used as power or conduits in magic, though." Through fantasy stories, granted. But might that be the same here? And how else would a tree sprout such an abundant formation without some kind of magic?

[braavado]

Korra's eyes followed the progress of Fuu's finger across the mirror, still smiling a bit. She'd forgotten how nice it was to just talk to someone and have company like this. Especially someone who wasn't grumpy like a certain earthbender.

"I haven't seen crystals growing in trees like that before either, but it doesn't look like it's hurting the tree," Korra said. "Whoever built the houses for us put the newest ones between the crystals, too."

[monster_san]

"That's true. If it was hurting the tree, we would probably see sap or galls, or some other kind of wound. The cause may be higher up, then."

She tapped her fingers on her chin. "Hm... either the crystals grew after the houses were added, or whatever's responsible for the crystal growth deliberately left gaps." It brought Fuu back to the question of who had prepared the Tree in the first place, and if it had been made this way specifically for them, or if there had been previous residents who had gone for some unknown reason. "I still wonder if we were the first people here."

[braavado]

"The ants were here before us," Korra said, though she looked a little contemplative now. "I guess they were living in a different part of the tree.

"And that's the thing. If there were people here before us, that means some of the floors were sealed up after they left." She paused; the next thought wasn't one that she liked. "This place was too clean when we got here. If anyone lived here, something must have made them pack up and leave."

[monster_san]

Fuu nodded. She wished she had managed to speak to the ants, but she'd watched a nature special about army ants in the Amazon once that left her quite reluctant to meet them at her current size.

"It was all very neat and tidy--not as though people had left in a rush," she agreed. "Possibly it was an orderly, well-planned evacuation, leaving houses full of furniture--possibly it was prepared for us in advance, but that still leaves why in either case." She drummed her fingers on her chin. "We should ask Miss Chime if there was anyone here before us."

[braavado]

"There's a lot I want to ask Chime," Korra said with feeling. It was even accompanied by a rather emphatic gesture of her hand.

"She seems to actually know what's going on...The only problem is, we can't understand most of what she's saying." Korra frowned. "There's only so much we can guess at in her answers before we start getting some of it wrong."

[monster_san]

Fuu nodded in agreement, glad to see how determined Korra was. The origins and purpose of the tree were far more important than the riddles, in Fuu's mind, but there were a lot of challenges in the way of those answers.

"Indeed, communicating only with yes-and-no questions has its limitations. If we could figure out her language, perhaps she could give us clearer answers. But..." She considered for a moment. "The riddle said she was the servant of the Tree. I wonder how much she does know."

[braavado]

Korra's frown only seemed to deepen as Fuu presented another potential problem they might run into.

"You think she might not actually know why we've been brought here?"