Chương 67: Vol 1. Anger Management Issues:

Korra rushed down the hallways towards her mother's chambers. Three servants were guarding the outside of the room.

"Oh!" one of them said.

"My lady! Your mother, she is…" The servant let out a startled oof as she was thrown onto her backside.

"Get out of my fucking way!" Korra snarled. She forced open the doors to her mother's resting chamber.

"Mother?" Lying on a bed twice their size, palatial in its ruddy vibrancy, was Lady Gurra Seran—technically the true head of the Seran household. She lay nude beneath a thick blanket, her chest heaving heavily as the frail old woman coughed and choked. Korra ran and fell to her knees, clutching her mother's paws in hers.

"Mother?" Korra said softly.

"Mother?" Gurra said nothing. Korra pressed her muzzle against her mother's ear.

"Mother, it is me. It is Korra, remember?" Gurra said nothing, continuing to dry heave.

"Mother, you remember, right? Remember when I was a cub, when you used to sit me down and read me the Codex of the Prophets? Remember?" Gurra still said nothing.

"Mother, please say something, anything!" Gurra opened her maw but closed it again. Her already lifeless eyes went even duller. Her chest fell still.

"Mother?" Korra shouted.

"Mother! Mother!" Tears welled in Korra's eyes. Her grip became tighter, and in ire she shouted behind her:"Someone get a physician in here, right fucking now." A physician did so, but she only placed one paw on Korra's shoulder.

"I am… sorry, my lady."

"Out."

"She was—" The physician caterwauled as fresh claw marks were cut into her skin.

"I said out, now!"

"Y-yes, my lady." The door shut behind the physician. Korra immediately turned back towards the bed.

"Mother?" she said softly. Still nothing. Of course there was nothing. Why would there be anything? She placed two claws beneath Gurra's jaw. Korra was not quite sure what it was she was looking for: a pulse, maybe? Something. No, there was nothing.

"Mother," Korra said softly again. She squeezed her paw… gods, it was so small. It was microscopic and thin compared to Korra's thick, large paw. Had her mother's paw always been that small? Korra could recall that, as a cub, her mother's paws had seemed enormous to her. She remembered distinctly one of them smacking the back of her head whenever she grew distracted during her lessons, and it always hurt considerably. Now? She doubted it would even feel like a feather. Korra's ears flattened.

"Mother? By Seroth, you are Lady Gurra fucking Seran," she whispered.

"You were meant to die in a blaze of glory, not… not like this." She waited. Nothing. Of course nothing happened. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. Knock, knock, knock. Someone creaked open the door.

"My lady?" Korra didn't look back.

"What?"

"We should… we should probably begin preparing her for the funerary rites." Korra's claws slid free.

"No."

"My lady, tradition requires that the body be—""I. Said. No." Silence for a moment, and then:"Of course, my lady." The servant disappeared. Korra remained where she was. Nightfall quickly came. Korra simply knelt in front of the fresh cadaver that had once been one of the most powerful people in Avion—her role model, her lifeline as a child, the one person she did everything for—her mother. The moonlight slid past the curtains. It was quiet. Eerily so.

That quiet was broken by the door creaking open as a servant entered.

"I am… sorry—" Korra stood up and unsheathed her sword.

"Do I have to cut your head off?"

"N-no—sorry, my lady. I have important news to tell you."

"I don't care."

"It concerns… her."

"What is it, then?"

"Something happened in Elarin." As the servant relayed the story, Korra's paw tightened around the hilt of her sword. Her breathing became fiercer and more audible. She growled like a wolf. Fire twinkled in her eyes. Her ears were completely flat.

"And so…"

"Is there a criminal scheduled for execution?"

"Uh, one, yes. A bandit. Why?"

"Bring them to me. Now!"

"Yes, my lady." # Raska did not know where she was being taken. She growled and cursed herself for being an idiot and getting caught. After her crew had been slaughtered by that… whatever that thing with the repeater was, she fled up from Orien to Seran. It had just happened to be her luck that when she had tried to rob someone, it was in front of a guard belonging to the Seran estate. Raska was forced onto her knees. Against… polished marble? The bag was taken off her head.

"Here she is, my lady." Lady… Raska looked up, and immediately, she froze in terror. She had pridefully considered herself a rather intrepid person, but the sight before her triggered a primal, stomach-churning terror deep within her soul. She was not religious, not at all, but in that moment, she was beginning to pray for the Dual-Gods to save her. Before her was a Kharani woman, bare-breasted, with a towel tied around her hips to hide her delicate parts below.

She was of large stature, taller than Raska, and far, far sinewier than any Kharani she had ever seen. She had only one piercing amber eye, with an eerie open socket where her other eye should be. She knew of only one person of that description. Sure, she had never seen her, but everyone knew what the main royals looked like. Lady Korra. She gulped.

"M-my lady!" Raska said reverently.

"I am terribly sorry for the crimes I have done. Please, do—" Raska's vision flashed white as she was roundhouse-kicked in the face. It suddenly became hard to breathe through her nose. Blood trickled from her mouth.

"Do not talk, thief." Raska, defiant or just being stupid, said, "Please, I would rather have that Human…"

"Human?" Korra said sharply.

"Where have you heard that word before?"

"It was just some vagabond…" Raska heaved again as a paw kicked her in the stomach, claws scratching her.

"Tell me the truth, or this will be a lot more painful."

"He was a vagabond, a feminine guy…"

"What did you do when you saw him?" Raska grunted. There was no point in not telling the truth. She was about to die either way.

"I tried to kill him."

"Congratulations," Korra said while cracking her knuckles, "you gave me something even more enjoyable to take my anger out on." # Hours later, a servant approached the door to the spare room.

"My lady?" Korra opened the door. The servant nearly fell backwards. In front of her was Korra, covered head to toe in blood and guts.

"Did… are you okay, my lady?"

"Get three more servants," Korra said evenly.

"Uh, why? Is the body large?" The servant gulped.

"There is no body, just bits lying about in need of disposal."