UPDATE:I replaced Amon's name with his original birth name, Noatak. I finally figured out what Amon would want from the gorillas besides the money from their pelts and so he's known as Noatak for now and will be later revealed to be Amon.

Prologue

Korra owed her life to the spirits. They lead Kala to her in the abandoned Treehouse when she was an infant. Her parents had been brutally slaughtered by Sabor the leopard but Kala found her and took her in as her own child to replace the one she had lost. Even though Kala's mate Kerchak strongly disapproved of Korra, Kala loved her and raised her. But despite Kala's love, Korra grew up a stranger in her adopted family.

Then the spirits returned and told Korra of her destiny as the Avatar. A being able to control the four elements and contact the spirit realm from the mortal plain. They lead her to the collection of books and scrolls that had once belonged to her parents and their people. An entire library's full of knowledge about the Bending arts. Why her parents had so many of these books baffled Korra but she ignored the questions that surrounded the thoughts. Instead she focused on her training. For even though the spirits had disappeared once again, she knew she had to train. She knew she had to fulfill her destiny.

On top of training, of course, she had to blend into the gorillas as best as she could. Even though they spurned her, she loved them. She wanted to be part of them more than anything else. They were her family. So she came up with her own tricks to keep up with them. She learned how to swing from the vines of the African jungle and built her own tools to protect herself and gather food with.

Eventually things began to fall into place. Into a sort of rhythm. But it all changed the day Sabor returned.

Part 1

Korra snuck out from the leaves behind her mother. Slowly, very slowly, she crept up on her as Kala broke open a hard, yellow fruit and took a bite from the soft insides. Then, just as she had practiced for years, Korra drew in a deep breath for her patented elephant imitation.

"It's not going to work, Korra," Kala said without looking behind her.

Korra let the breath out through her lips and slumped forward.

"How'd you know it was me?" she asked.

"Because I'm your mother. I know everything. Now where have you been all morning?"

Korra laughed as she picked up a fruit with her foot and brought it closer. "I thought you knew everything."

Before Kala could reply, a rolling bundle of dark hair barreled into Korra and knocked her from the branch. Looking up from the ground she could see it was her childhood friend, Terk.

"Hi, Auntie K!" Terk said cheerfully. "You're looking remarkably well groomed today."

A smile spread across Korra's face as she readied herself to spring back up to the branch and exact her revenge. Using the power of the earth, she launched herself upwards and straight into Terk.

"Excuse us!" Terk called to Kala as they tumbled downwards through the group of resting gorillas who all made way for the pair.

They landed at the bottom of the hill and bumped into Tantor the elephant.

"Oh dear, oh dear! Not again!" he fretted as he watched his best friends tumble through the dirt and foliage.

They wrestled and fought, twisting this way and that and ended up rolling into a clearing with Tantor right on their tails still voicing his incessant worries.

"You know it's all fun and games until someone breaks a bone!" he pointed out just as Korra gathered Terk up into a headlock.

Then she paused having felt something. They weren't alone in the clearing.

"Hey! Down here! Can't breathe!" Terk called breaking Korra from her reverie.

"Oh… sorry," she replied and released her friend. She looked around the clearing and up into the trees. "Something's not right."

Just then, Sabor burst from the foliage and charged at Korra with his claws fully extended. Korra kicked her foot out and sent Sabor flying through the air just as she had flown. Only Sabor couldn't control his path through the air so he ended up crashing hard through the bushes behind the trio. The feeling of victory was short lived, however, when they heard the roars of Kerchak fighting off the intruder.

Panic flooded through Korra and she quickly climbed a tree to get a better look at the situation. Sabor had Kerchak pinned beneath his massive paws and there was blood pooling beneath them on the leaves. Rage now replaced the feeling of panic and Korra extended her arms to bend water from the leaves beneath Sabor and Kerchak to be launched at Sabor. This served to knock the leopard from her adoptive father and opened an opportunity for her to attack with a burst of fire.

Startled cries met her ears and she realized her family would be in more danger if she used her power over fire. Instead she hurled rocks at Sabor and drove him back. Then he turned and launched his own attack against Korra, but she was too quick. She lead the leopard away from the gorillas and through the trees. They followed from high in the trees where Sabor couldn't reach them.

When Sabor and Korra stopped in another clearing, they gathered around and watched as they screeched at Sabor and cheered Korra on. The fight raged on through the clearing and into the bushes and even the twisted roots of the trees until they finally collapsed down a hole covered by vines, leaves and roots over the decades.

A single flash of fire signaled the end of the battle and Korra emerged from the hole with the dead body of Sabor draped over her shoulders. She gazed around the clearing at the incredulous faces of her family before lifting the leopard above her head and letting loose and mighty cry that rivaled even Kerchak.

Only when her friends surrounded her and congratulated her did she remember Kerchak. He was their leader and she had claimed his kill, even if he was doomed to lose the fight. Once more, she heaved the body over her shoulders and made her way over to Kerchak to lay the offering at his feet. At first he looked enraged so she backed off a little and bent her head forward.

Then something new shone in the old gorilla's eyes. Something she had never seen in him before when he looked at her. Respect. The moment of silence was broken by a sound never before heard in the jungle. It split the air and startled every animal in the vicinity. Puzzled, Korra looked back to Kerchak for guidance.

"Go," he ordered at last. "Scout the area."

With a nod, Korra summoned the vines to her and took off.

Part 2

Mako was tired of the heat. Especially the humidity. The way it clung to his skin and refused to dissipate. Then their guide aimed at something unseen in the bushes and fired his gun for the umpteenth time.

"Noatak! If you keep making noise, you'll scare all the gorillas away!" he shouted in frustration.

"Yeah," Mako's younger brother, Bolin, agreed snapping shut his field journal. "We hired you to protect us! Not scare away our subjects!"

"I am protecting you, boys," he pointed out smoothly. "By scaring away any would-be attackers." The next second, he spun the gun in his hands and fired. The shot just barely missed Korra who was hiding in the leaves.

She didn't know which shocked her more. The strange power the larger man with short, black hair and piercing blue eyes wielded or the fact that the trio looked more like her than any of the gorillas ever would. Recovering from the shock of seeing these strange beings that were so like her, she inched forward slowly and quietly to listen to the noises they made. She didn't know what it meant, but the two younger creatures seemed agitated at the larger man's lack of respect to the wildlife.

"We have to be careful!" Noatak insisted.

"We are being careful. We let you bring all that vile weaponry with you on this expedition," Mako retorted. "We're trying to find the gorillas, not kill them."

A look crossed Noatak's face and the next instant he smoothed out his features. "Fine, we'll do it your way."

Suddenly, Bolin gasped. "Mako! Look! It's just like in dad's journal!" he called.

"What is it?" Mako asked excitedly.

"A nest! Look where you're standing! We found a gorilla's nest!"

Mako gazed down and saw what his brother was talking about. There it was. A near perfect circle flattened in the leaves covering the ground and a little ring of leaves and vines surrounding it. Dark, coarse hair stuck to some of the branches and leaves in the nest.

"It is just like dad's book," Mako breathed.

His golden eyes softened in a way that made something deep in her heart tug. Oh how she longed to reach out to him. To touch the pale skin of his forearms and the strange material that covered him up.

She watched as two of the men turned to leave but the one with golden eyes stayed behind to sketch in his book. When a baby baboon hopped into the nest with Mako, he quickly flipped to a fresh page and drew a hasty sketch of the baby. Things only went downhill from there.