She did the one thing that he didn't expect her to do. He had expected her to use some sort of magic that the elves had said her clan was infamous for using. He was expeciting her to fight, trick and try to find a way into the barn where her weapon was. None of the above. She just turned tail and ran. Honestly, he hadn't expected her to do thart because it was the most foolish option she had. She was running through a forest that he had spent the last decade in, without her weapon, without anything needed for basic survival in the wild. She wouldn't be able to get anything in the village, as they were a bit more prejudiced against elves than he was. Where was she going to go?

She wasn't stupid. She would have a trick up her sleeve, one that would require her to be out of his eyesight. So he either stayed where he was, letting her get away and waiting for her to come back, like she would, or he went after her, not letting her get out of his sight.

He sighed, groaned, wondering why he didn't just let her leave, and broke off at a sprint after her. Her tracks were hard to follow, being that she, like all elves, had a light tread, and the ground was dry and hard, making little impressions. But he followed her as best he could, keeping up a prodigious speed. He was still in good shape and the afternoon sun allowed him to move quicker, keeping her in sight without much trouble.

They moved to one of the highest points in the forest, where the top lost all underbrush, allowing for a clear view of the surrounding countryside. He climbed up to the top out of habiot, cirling around her, letting her gain a little on him so that he could find the fastest path to intercept her. His eyes scanned quickly over the countryside, and he was about to move away from his vangtage point to continue the chase when something caught his eye.

He squinted his eyes, pausing in midstep to process what he was seeing. It was a pillar of black against the mid-afternoon sunlight, smoke rising high in the sky. It was a thin plume at first, but then it was starting to grow in thickness and strength, as the wind caught the flames and spread them. A forest fire? No, it was too far away, and while it hadn't rained in some time, the ground was too moist from underground lakes to catch any sort of fire on it's own, and certainly not spreading at that speed.

"Gods no," He whispered, altering his trajectory to abandon the chase on the female elf. The people in the village were horrifically paranoid of fire so they wouldn't let any of their buildings to catch fire, or spread in that manner. It was spreading oddly, from different points in the village, which meant that someone was setting the fires. The villagers weren't the ones setting them, so there was only one explanation.

The village was being attacked. And he had sent Korra there, thinking she would be safe. He broke the chase of the elf instantly, sprinting down the hill at a speed that he didn't know he had, knowing that he was too late, and not caring.