when the darkness creeps in

[braavado]

[Things seem to go relatively well for the first few days. They make it to the next town over and purchase the two ostrich horses that carry them through the rough terrain of the Earth Kingdom.

After they make camp on the fourth day, and the campfire's died to embers, trouble finally begins to set in. Their sleeping bags keep them warm enough, but Korra begins shivering violently an hour or so after she first dozes off. That's easy enough to ignore. The distressed tossing and turning that follows the shivering isn't as much.

She can see them, hear them taunting her as the poison works through her body. It burns, leaving a dull ache wherever it touches. The pain is easier to ignore than the insistent presence she can feel pushing back at her resolve, though. Raava's worried, and Korra can feel the spirit trying to push her into the Avatar State, but she can't give in this time.

Let go, the faces of her past enemies tell her, you're too weak to resist.

Raava's light begins to fill her vision, and this one time it's completely unwelcome.]

No!! [Korra cries out as she wakes from the nightmare, jolting herself into a sitting position. She forgets that Ryan is only a few feet away as she sits there, eyes unseeing, as she tries to focus on her breathing and not on the cold sweat she's drenched in, or the trembling of her own body.]