Story [Avatar:The Last Airbender] Inherit the Earth (Kori Decathlon)

Title: Inherit the Earth

Author: devilinthedetails

Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender

Genre: A variety of genres.

Characters: Kori Mori****a; Mayor Mori****a; Mori****a's wife; Zuko; Sneers; Izumi.

Summary: A collection of stories written for my Kori Mori****a Decathlon.

Author's Note: Kori Mori****a is a character from the Avatar; The Last Airbender comics. She is the daughter of a Fire Nation mayor of the first colony, Yu Dao, and his earthbender wife. She is an earthbender herself. Oh, and she tries to assassinate Zuko. All of that makes her super fascinating to me. I've wanted to write about her and Yu Dao for awhile, and I'm finally doing it. I hope readers will enjoy exploring Kori's character as much as I do.

Index of Entries:

A Statue at the Yu Dao Wharf. 100 Word Sprint. Kori Mori****a; Mayor Mori****a. Post #2.

A Marriage of Fire and Earth. 110 Word Hurdle. Kori; Kori's Mother; Kori's Father. Post #4.

Colonial to Capital. 200 Freestyle. Kori; Kori's Father. Post #6.

First Duty. 400 Word Cross Country. Kori; Kori's Father. Post #8.

Love without Fear. 4x100 Relay. Kori; Kori's Father; Kori's Mother; Sneers; Izumi; Zuko. Post #10.

A Letter to Parents on Leaving Yu Dao. Water Polo Poetry. Kori; Kori's Father; Kori's Mother; Zuko. Post #12.

Ruby and Jade Fireworks. Single Sentence Shotput. Kori. Post #14.

 

Title: A Statue at the Yu Dao Wharf

Genre: Family; General

Characters: Kori Mori****a; Mayor Mori****a.

Event: 100 Word Sprint

Summary: A young Kori learns about the history of Yu Dao at its wharf.

A Statue at the Yu Dao Wharf (100 Word Sprint)

“Yu Dao was a backwater before the Fire Nation colonized it,” Father said over the salty wharf-wind whipping their clothing and tearing their topknots.

Kori was five-years-old, clinging to her father’s hand, afraid of the bustle as sailors loaded and unloaded their vessels.

“Now it is one of the wealthiest cities in the world.” Pride ringing in his tone, Father led her to a statue carved from red marble. A towering man in robes a hundred years out of fashion. “Your great-grandfather. First mayor of Yu Dao. Appointed by Fire Lord Sozin himself. Our family has ruled here ever since.”

 

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha Thank you so much for reading and commenting on my Kori Decathlon since I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested in a character from the comics, and it makes me so happy that someone was!Yay!

The pride that Kori's father felt in their city and in the history of their family were things I really wanted to convey in this fic and I'm so happy they came across to you as a reader. In the comics, I could understand how Kori's father was proud of how the city of Yu Dao had grown from being a sort of out-of-the-way backwater into a prosperous port, and how he could see the spot as his home after the important role that his ancestors played in his development and after he spent his life there and raised his daughter there. Colonization is obviously wrong, but I didn't see Kori's father as being all that evil especially because it didn't seem like the Earth Kingdom citizens of Yu Dao hated him, so I suspected he was probably a fairly good mayor to them all things considered. At least that is sort of my head canon for him.

And I really wanted to capture that wide-eyed sense of wonder with young Kori here, so I'm so happy that came across to you here!

I hope that you'll enjoy the next glimpse into Kori and her family's life

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Title: A Marriage of Fire and Earth

Genre: General; Family; Romance; Fluff.

Characters: Kori; Kori's Father; Kori's Mother.

Event: 110 Word Hurdle

Summary: Kori asks how her parents fell in love.

A Marriage of Fire and Earth (110 Word Hurdle)

Her parents’ marriage of fire and earth wasn’t unheard of in Yu Dao, but it was still uncommon. Rare enough that she assumed it had been a wild love match from the beginning.

Yet when she asked her mother, “When’d you fall in love with Father?”

“After we were married.” Mother smiled and kissed her on the forehead. “After you were born.”

Seeing the shock on her face, Mother elaborated, “It was an arranged marriage. Your father’s father decided it would be wise to bind a family of prosperous Earth Kingdom merchants to his. My father determined it’d be good business to agree. Good business always rules in Yu Dao.”

 

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha As always, thank you so much for reading and commenting!I definitely head canon Kori's mom and dad as being very much in love with each other and being loving parents to her, so I couldn't resist making them a sort of love match even if they started as an arranged marriage for political reasons. Arranged marriages that turn into love matches is a trope I have a soft spot for. Maybe because it has a "happy ever after" feel to it.

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Title: Colonial to Capital

Genre: General; Family.

Characters: Kori; Kori's Father.

Event: 200 Freestyle

Summary: Kori visits the Fire Nation capital for the first time with her father.

Colonial to Capital (200 Word Freestyle)

Kori was seven the first time she accompanied her father on his yearly voyage to the Fire Nation capital where he would present a personal report to Fire Lord Azulon on the state of Yu Dao--it’s economy and it’s order--in the throne room that was the axis of power around which their empire orbited.

When she stepped off the steamship ramp, her father’s soldiers marching behind her, her eyes widened as she saw how small and insignificant Yu Dao was in comparison to the capital. The buildings were so much taller in the capital than in Yu Dao, where nothing rose above a second story.

Her gawking at the palaces and pagodas drew scornful stares and mutters about ignorant, backward colonials.

Kori’s cheeks flamed, and she opened her mouth to shout to the capital that she wasn’t ignorant and backward. That she wasn’t inferior to its citizens. That she was equal to them in every way.

Her father laid a stilling palm on her shoulder, and through it she could feel the stiffness in his spine. “Don’t worry about it, Kori. We are loyal subjects of the Fire Nation. Fire Lord Azulon knows and appreciates our value. That is enough.”

 

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha As always, thank you so much for reading and commenting on my Kori Decathlon!I did picture that sort of contrast of emotions in terms of amazement and excitement at being in the Fire Nation's capital (like how cool it can be for an American to see Washington D.C. for the first time) with her feeling sorrow and a sort of defiant shame at the disdain and condescension she experiences from the Fire Nation citizens in the capital. I did get the vibe from the Fire Nation teacher at the school Aang attended that Fire Nation citizens might look down on the colonials, so I tried to capture that aspect here in this fic. And that element of the colonials being scorned by other Fire Nation citizens will likely reappear in this story and Kori's life.

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Title: First Duty

Genre: General; Family; Drama.

Characters: Kori; Kori's Father.

Event: 400 Cross Country

Summary: Kori wonders how she can love the Fire Nation when it hates her for being an earthbender.

First Duty(400 Word Cross Country)

Kori knew she wasn’t supposed to creep out of bed on whisper-soft feet late at night and listen to her father speaking with his guest, a government official from the Fire Nation capital.

“It’s a shame the girl takes after her mother,” the official remarked, his tone so casual in its contempt that it took Kori a heartbeat to understand that she and her mother were being disparaged by a guest under their own roof. A man who had eaten winter-melon soup and salted duck egg on lotus leaves at their table. “Inheriting that barbaric earthbending instead of your own firebending.”

The blood pounded like a war drum in Kori’s ears. Too loudly for her to hear what reply her father made to this. Eyes burning with salty tears, she fled to her bedroom, not caring about making her footsteps inaudible to her father and his rude visitor.

Let the man know that she had heard his words. That they had cut her like knives. Let him be embarrassed as she was.

She collapsed onto her bed, wrapping herself in a blanket as a silkworm would a cocoon. Pressing her face into her pillows. Hoping they could soak up her tears.

Her door slid open. A river of yellow light from the candlelit corridor streamed in, casting her father in equal parts light and shadow as he entered. She lifted tear-stained cheeks from her pillows as he sat beside her.

“You shouldn’t eavesdrop,” he scolded gently, wiping the tracks of her tears with his thumbs. “You never hear anything good about yourself that way.”

“You’ve told me that I should love the Fire Nation with all my heart.” Kori’s lip trembled. “You’ve taught me that is my first duty.”

“I have.” Her father nodded though she could see in the light from the hallway the nonplussed furrows creasing his forehead. “Because it is.”

“How can I love the Fire Nation when it hates me for being an earthbender?” Kori demanded, chin lifting defiantly.

“I am the Fire Nation’s representative in Yu Dao, not that empty-headed official.” There was a rumble like thunder in her father’s chest as he dragged her to him in a hug. She could feel the crushing weight of his love for her. “And I love you very much indeed. Is that enough for you?”

“Yes, Father,” she murmured, because she knew it would have to be.

 

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha As always, thank you so much for reading and commenting on my Kori Decathlon! I'm so glad that you found this piece sweetly consoling since I wanted to show Kori's father bringing her comfort and I couldn't resist the details of the golden lit corridor, so I'm so happy that detail resonated with you. I have a soft spot for golden candlelight and just have to include it in my stories sometimes!

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Title: Love without Fear

Genre: General; Family; Romance; Friendship; Drama.

Characters: Kori; Kori's Father; Kori's Mother; Sneets; Izumi; Zuko.

Event: 4x100 Relay

Summary: Through the years, Kori discovers what it means to love without fear.

Love without Fear (4x100 Relay)

Order and Affection

As she grew up, Kori saw how deep-rooted her father’s affection for Yu Dao was and learned how uncommon it was amongst mayors tasked with governing Fire Nation colonies carved from what had once been Earth Kingdom territory. She saw, too, how this affection for Yu Dao and its citizens was returned to her father in the respect and obedience of its residents whether of Earth Kingdom or Fire Nation blood.

He taught her this affection made it easier for him to rule. Meant he didn’t have to maintain order through force and fear that might provoke its own revolt.

Intimacy across Classes

Her parents had found love--unlooked for and unexpected--in an arranged marriage they had promised her from the time she had been old enough to feel her first crushes on boys--infatuations flickering and fleeting as the tails of lightning bugs dashing across summer skies-- that she could marry for love and not for profit.

Still, when her body and heart found themselves entangled with an Earth Kingdom boy, dirty as he was scrappy, who had once been a member of an outlaw gang, she wondered if her parents would be able to accept this love, this intimacy, that crossed class lines.

Irony of Friendship

Kori was a guest of honor at Zuko’s birthday as she had been every year since she tried to kill him--an irony of their friendship-when Izumi asked her, “How did you become my father’s friend?”

Before Kori could laugh out an awkward explanation of it being a long, complicated story, Zuko answered wryly, “Kori tried to kill me. That is how we became friends.”

“You aren’t serious?” Izumi was serious posing this question. That was her charm.

“Deadly serious.” Zuko chuckled. “You’d be surprised how many of my greatest friendships started with attempted murder on one side or the other.”

Charity and Mercy

Kori hadn’t anticipated that Fire Lord Zuko would show her charity or mercy when she sought to assassinate him. She hadn’t been planning on offering him anything as soft as mercy or charity when she attacked him with her meteor hammer.

That was why when he granted her clemency in exchange for her solemn oath to never try to assassinate him again, he earned her love and allegiance in a way he never could have by force and fear. He was trying to rule the Fire Nation differently than Azulon or Ozai, she finally understood. Governing through love, not tyranny.

 

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha Thank you so much for continuing to read and comment on my Kori Decathlon!I'm so glad that you found that description comparing infatuations with lightning bug tails so lyrical because as soon as it came to me, I knew I had to include it, and keep it in even when I was editing down the drabble to fit the 100 word count for that section. It just seemed so beautiful an idea that I wanted to preserve it no matter what else had to be cut.

I definitely wanted to let Kori be free to find a love match and for her parents to want that sort of freedom to find love for her. So it makes me so happy that you love that detail.

I did get a chuckle out of writing that irony of friendship entry so I'm happy to hear you got a laugh out of it as well, and I can understand why your mind went to Luke and Mara.

I think the idea of governing in love and inspiring obedience with a firmness that is not tyrannical or absolutist is going to be a big thing for Zuko and the Fire Nation going forward, and I believe it is one of the major distinctions that will be drawn between Zuko's reign and those of Fire Lords who ruled by fear and intimidation tactics like Ozai, Azulon, and Sozin. So I did want to focus on that idea in this fic about the different types of love and how love can be a more powerful force than fear.

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Title: A Letter to Parents on Leaving Yu Dao

Genre: Poetry; Family; Drama

Characters: Kori; Kori's Mother; Kori's Father; Zuko

Event: Water Polo Poetry

Summary: Kori leaves her parents a letter before she sets off to assassinate the Fire Lord.

A Letter to Parents on Leaving Yu Dao (Water Polo Poetry)

A letter to her parents,
her Fire Nation father
and earthbender mother.
Abandoned like an unwanted child
on the rumpled bed
she has slept in all her life.

Written in midnight-black ink
on a furled, moon-white scroll.
Care drawn into every character
so her parents will have something
to hold onto when she is gone.

Something to remember
and eulogize her
because she knows
the nebulous and omnipotent
they will never allow her to live
after she assassinates the Fire Lord.

That it will be the death of her
as much and more than
it will be the death of him.
That she and the Fire Lord she hates
will be linked together in history,
in infamy, by their deaths.

Characters hewn from a heart
she has made rock-hard
so the salt of her tears
doesn’t blot her words
when she proclaims
how she loves them.

How they couldn’t have loved
her better but how she wants
more than anything
for them to move on
when she is gone.

The essence of her life
vanished like smoke
wisps in the wind
as if she had never been.

How she hopes they can forgive her
for what she has to do
to preserve her home
and protect her family
from Fire Nation
and Earth Kingdom alike.

How she knows what she’s doing
isn’t right but is necessary
because she cannot back down
even from a fight with a Fire Lord.

Because they won’t get to keep their home,
their shining jade-harbor city,
by backing down from anyone.
Then she disappears like a ghost,
like a spirit of a byone era,
into the enfolding night.

Heading to the dark docks
where she will board
a ship belching steam
that will carry her
to the glittering-ruby capital
of the Fire Nation.

 

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha Thank you so much for commenting! I'm so flattered that you found this piece beautifully heart-tugging as Kori contemplates a course of action she feels is necessary. I really wanted her love of her parents and her home to shine through in this poem as well as her resolve because those are some of the qualities I found most endearing about her in the comics, and I really wanted to explore those and hopefully be able to do those traits justice here.

And in this next installment we might see how Kori's love and resolve ultimately paid off in a big way for her (although not in the way she expected when she wrote the letter to her parents, because life can be unpredictable like that).

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Title: Ruby and Jade Fireworks

Genre: General

Characters: Kori

Event: Single Sentence Shotput

Summary: Kori watches fireworks burst over Yu Dao.

Ruby and Jade Fireworks (Single Sentence Shotput)

Kori felt her heart swell with pride at everything she had achieved as she watched fireworks explode ruby and jade in the night sky over Yu Dao, proclaiming to the whole world that city’s independence from Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom alike.