The Forsaken Hero

"Shopping?" I echoed, my voice laced with disbelief.

It had been an hour since our impromptu meeting in the inn’s common room, but everything since then felt like a hazy dream. The constant hum of the sunpurge, the agonizing reminder of my injuries, made it difficult to focus on anything else.

"Of course!" Korra said, "It’ll take the army at least a day or two to mobilize, so we might as well take advantage of the time to relax a bit. Besides, don’t you want to see how well the city is doing? We might even find someone you can help or heal!"

"Maybe," I said hesitantly, rubbing my aching horn. "But should we really be doing something like this?"

She chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. Relax a little. Just because we’re in a war doesn’t mean we can’t find small moments like this to enjoy ourselves. In fact, I think that makes it even more important. Right, Gayron?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," he muttered from behind us, a scowl etched on his face. "But I don’t see why I got dragged along too."

"We’ll need someone to carry the bags," Korra replied matter-of-factly.

"You can carry a mountain if you want to," he grumbled.

She grinned at me conspiratorially. "And we need someone to tell us which outfit looks just right."

He was quiet for a moment, and I almost looked back to see if he was still following. "Fine," he finally conceded, "but only for an hour. I’ve got better things to do than play dress-up."

"Are any places even going to be open?" I asked, looking around the street we were following.