Chapter Text
It’s been a few years since the one-hundred-year war was won. It took time and a lot of work, but together team Avatar made immediate improvements to the balance of the world. Territories were relinquished, and borders were redrawn.
For almost one hundred years only three nations have even been on our maps; however, after the war, Aang surprised everyone when he announced in a meeting of the three nations' leaders, when land disputes were still in early session, that he wanted all of the Air Nation land returned from before the war started. Both the Fire Nation, and The Earth Kingdoms had to give up land, and the announcement had thrown quite a wrench in the proceedings, and it had taken weeks longer to settle anything because of it.
It wasn’t really a surprise to anyone that Aang got all the lands restored to him. He used two of the ancient four temples, the one to the west, in the northern Fire Nation mountains, and the one to the east, in the Earth Kingdom. Aang oversaw the development of them into cities, much like the temple to the North, where refugees had made their home. Aang was much more aware of preserving the ancient history of the original Airbenders than when the Northern Air Temple was settled. The Temples became the three ‘air cities’. When the War ended, there was a large number of people who were left displaced, refugees who didn’t have to hide anymore, people from the colonies, and released prisoners of war who didn’t have anywhere to go, all became citizens of the ‘Air Nation’.
What with Zuko being the fire lord, and Sokka taking his role as the next chief of the Southern Water Tribe seriously, the Gaang split up. The first few years of peace were so hectic that it hardly felt like peace times. During that time out Gaang didn’t meet up as much as they would have liked, they were tired and pressed thin.
It’s been years since that was the case though. The whole Gaang sees each other all the time, and at least four times a year, no matter what on the Solstices and the Equinoxes, Aang, Toph, Sokka, Zuko, and Katara would meet up. They normally had a large party and many more people would come, however the five friends mostly just cared that the five of them, who had become almost family, were together again. Aang, with Appa, was able to travel rather freely and faster than almost anything else, he would often just drop by the Fire Palace with Sokka and or Toph in tow, just for a visit.
As the Southern Water Tribe Ambassador, Katara traveled the four nations professionally, she herself now had friends all across the world and often found that she could find friends in any town. Katara’s ‘home port’ you could call it, was Caldera, specifically in the Fire Palace. It started that way because it was necessary. For years Katara seemed to constantly filter from one Nation or town back to the Fire Palace to discuss something of urgent importance with Zuko, only to rush out again. Over time things slowed down, and most ambassadors went home or became more permanent residents.
Katara still traveled often, but somehow found herself spending most of her day-to-day life in the beautiful red city. Slowly, she came to love the hot bright city and the strange customs that would always feel a little foreign to her.
An Average day for Katara in the Fire Nation consisted of something like this: As the first rays of sun greet the sky, Katara and Zuko meet up to spar and train together. It's a habit that neither one could quite give up, they grew up in wartime and hoped never to see it again, but they would never drop their preparedness or let their reflexes wane. Both benders contributed their development as masters of their own elements to their morning sparing.
After a few rounds, the pair would sit down at the breakfast laid out for them in the small gardens beside the arena. After eating they each had separate things to attend to until lunch. They would again meet for another private meal and discuss openly anything on their mind, and the upcoming court session.
After lunch on most days, Zuko would sit court and hear problems and disputes, as well as settle internal affairs. Katara often went with him. In the days after the war, when Zuko had been a new Fire Lord, many people had sat with and around him on the dais where the Fire Throne sat. In those years, Zuko had never raised the firewalls that were traditional to separate the Fire Lord from everyone else. All of the Gaang had sat up there with him, all of Zuko’s advisers, his uncle, and even many of the White Lotus members. As time settled, only Katara still joined Zuko upon the dais, now two thrones sat behind the firewall
During long sessions, Katara and Zuko would take breaks from the court and walk or have tea while discussing the cases together. After the Court was closed for the day, they attended dinner.
Dinner was almost always an event in the fire palace. Visitors, traders, generals, and others always joined the Fire Lord for dinner, at the Lord’s Table. The table was long and stood in a tall, yet narrow cathedral-like room. The table could hold over fifty people, thankfully, on normal days only a small portion of the room filled. The conversation was always a bit stuffy and felt a little like work as they sat for several courses of food with ‘the most important’ people in the Fire Nation. Long days in the palace often ended in a moonlit stroll through the inner gardens for Katara.
Life was really good, everything was feeling like the pains of war had finally become a distant ache and life was moving forward into the next age, an age of peace. Katara’s peace, although she didn’t know it yet, was shattered by the arrival of one of her oldest and dearest friends, Aang. Aang arrived at the Fire Palace for a surprise visit. On this day, Katara had elected, like she did most days, to join Zuko in court, it was rather a slow day, and the two of them were mostly chatting quietly to one another when the Announcer clearly called “The Avatar, Monk Aang” as the door swung wide as Aang practically bounced forward, Staff in hand.
“Aang!” Katara cried out, excitement clear on her face. Aang grinned back so wide his smile seemed to split his face cleanly in half as he extended his arms wide as if to hug them on his place below them and the firewall.
“Katara, Zuko!” Aang sounded every bit as excited as Katara had. Zuko stood as Katara had, waving his hand so that the firewall died down, and split a path for them to descend. Aang hugged them both tightly and immediately launched into an amusing story that truly only the Avatar could have gotten himself into.
Too soon, the announcer said that the next case was ready to present their case, and were standing outside the large doors. Zuko turned to Katara and asked if she would like to relax with Aang or finish out the session.
Katara was torn, she was intrigued by how they would present the next case but also didn’t want to waste the time she would have with Aang. Aang seemed to understand her dilemma as he said quickly that he ‘didn’t mind waiting’ in the throne room for an hour or so.
Zuko smiled and nodded, offering his arm to Katara. She took it and together they walked back up the steps to the two imposing chairs on the raised dais. The fire grew in heat and ferocity behind them, as they took their seats,
Karata's eyes settled on Aang as he casually leaned against the pillar. The group of people that entered gave Aang curious and almost scared looks until he said “I’m just observing the court today.”
Something about seeing Aang thoughtfully listen and never once give his input to the proceedings made Katara think, She herself had asked several clarifying questions and Zuko had asked her opinion quietly on what she thought of the dispute. After Katara had given her thoughts, Zuko replied that he partially agreed with her. They debated, as they always did, in quiet whispers that could not be discerned over the roar of the fire.
Everything she did was completely normal behavior, for her, but as the last guest of court left and the court was closed for the day, Katara found herself saying she wasn’t feeling well, and that a bit of fresh air would do her good. Aang and Zuko immediately decided that a ‘fire only’ bending match would be great way to unwind after the long court meeting, so the three of them went to the privet arena for the fire lord and his family, the place where Katara and Zuko practiced every day.
Aang and Zuko immediately went head to head, Zuko’s colorful dragon fire batting away Aang’s red. Katara watched as she wondered slowly in the adjourning garden, her mind also wondered. It traveled back to earlier that day. She had been almost expecting Aang to speak in the meeting; however, the more she pondered it, the stranger she realized that would be.
When Katara visited other nations she would never interject or interfere with the workings inside another nation. As Katara thought about it, she came to the strange conclusion that even in the Southern Watertribe, she would not aid the Chief, or offer her father or even her brother advice, unless asked. So why then was a mere ambassador to another nation sitting with Zuko, the Fire Lord, questioning and all but passing judgment on the Fire Nation's citizens?
Katara's mind raced as she finished her walking and returned to her room to change into her dinner attire. She wore a traditional Fire Nation dress in a dark purple color, a color of the southern water tribes, similar to the color her Gran Gran favored. Her Royal attendant Ki-Lai, fussed over her hair, placing an ornate golden hairpiece, in the shape of a golden jasmine flower, in her hair.
Katara looked over herself in the mirror, the beautiful silks and gold that adorned her wrists and hair glistened and glowed in the candlelight. “Gifts from the fire nation” Zuko had called them. Katara stared at her reflection and wondered why the Fire Nation had bought her a brand-new dress night.
When Katara had first become Ambassador she had continued to wear her clothes from the Southern Water tribe, but after some time, Zuko – the Fire Nation had given her dresses and clothes from all over the world, no matter the style or where the dress came from, they were always in the Southern water tribe colors of Whites, Blues, Purples, and Grays.
Zuko said it was so she could feel confident in her duty as she was a public figure, he said it was also a reward for all she had done to help the Fire Nation. The Southern Water Tribe didn’t exactly pay their Ambassadors well, She hardly made any money at all. The beautiful dresses, robes, bangles, and hair ornaments that Katara wore would just appear in her wardrobe, besides finding them beautiful, she never mentioned or questioned why she had them.
Katara realized that she was late to dinner as her mind was full. Dinner was sure to be a large affair tonight, with the return of the Avatar. She was an embarrassing ten minutes late when Katara arrived at the large door to the Lord’s Table. The doors opened as the announcer said “Lady Katara has arrived for dinner.” Katara walked with her head high in imitation of the regal attitude nobles of the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom used, instantly she realized something was off, but couldn’t place what was strange. She smiled favorably at a few generals, who all had a somewhat amused smile for her in return.
It wasn’t until Katara was sitting down in her usual spot — and the only seat left untaken, next to Zuko, When she realized what was weird: The food had not been brought out. Katara was just about to ask where it was when Zuko spoke softly to her. “Are you alright? I just sent someone to make sure you hadn’t gotten worse.”
“Oh, really, I’m fine” Katara reassured him before glancing down the table and then back at Zuko, “Where is the feast?”
“We waited for you, of course,” Zuko said like it was the most normal thing in the world. Katara blankly stared at him and felt her cheeks flush. She looked down the enormous table at the sixty or more important people, Generals, Sages, Nobles, and a few other people, Aaang leaned back and said he was hungry, not acting like anything weird had been going on.
Katara smiled and tried to take it in stride, saying an apology to the rest of the table. Zuko gave an amused little chuckle and gestured to the servant to start bringing out the food. Katara was annoyingly reminded of when she had insisted on thanking all the palace attendants for every little thing they did. Zuko had laughed the same way, even if now Zuko thanked his attendants more than he used to.
Katara’s thoughts swarmed over the events while eating, completely ignoring Zuko and Aang’s conversations. Why had Zuko made everyone wait for dinner to be started Surly it was highly irregular for such important people to wait for one Southern Water Trible Ambassador. Yet, no one looked surprised. Was this another thing like the clothes and her unusual position within the palace? Her mind turned on her, were there other things that she had grown accustomed to that might actually be odd?
“Are you listening?” Katara shook herself as she realized she had zoned too far out. She did her best to enjoy the rest of dinner and stick with the conversations. She wasn’t surprised after dinner when Zuko extended his arm with an offer of a walk in the gardens.
They didn’t say anything for a while a comfortable silence lay between them. “You’ve seemed down since Aang arrived, is everything alright?”
Katara nodded and quickly assured him saying “Oh, yes, everything is fine, I just had a lot going on in my head right now.”
“What has your mind so full? Perhaps I can lend an ear.”
Katara smiled and patted his arm, “I’ll let you know just as soon as I figure out what exactly is in my mind.” Zuko nodded a soft smile and easily changed the conversation, “Aang’s beard looks like it’s finally fully grown in, you were right, it makes him look more…. Avatar-ie”
Katara snorted and said “I said I thought he would be taken seriously more often.:
“I would take him more seriously,” Zuko said with humor.
“I wouldn’t,” Katara said, “No no hairdo could convince me.”
They continued the walk for a short while until Katara retired to her chambers. While out for dinner a message from the Chief of the southern Water Tribe had arrived.
Katara read over the message and left first to speak with Ki-Lai and then to Aang.
Katara was on time for her customary morning spar with Zuko; however, before they could start Katara said “Last night during dinner a message came from my father, the tribe has begun a large trade deal with a company in Ba sing Sei, father is worried that the deal won’t go in our favor and I need to go and see if I can secure it, the deal would mean a lot more money for the tribe.”
Zuko nodded and asked when she would be going.
“Today, Aang agreed to take me all the way to Ba Sing Sei, apparently Toph is in the city right now and Aang doesn’t need a reason to see a friend.”
“Today? Wow, that’s fast, but of course. What do you think? Two, three weeks?”
Katara nodded and said, “Yes, I think I’ll be in the city for around three weeks, Then I’ll travel to the southern Air temple with Toph, Aang wants some of Toph’s opinions on structural soundness.” Zuko nodded and Katara sighed and said, “I’m overdue for a visit to the Swamp Tribe, and as I’ll be right there…”
“Ohh, your kin.” Zuko grinned.
“Don’t call them my kin!”
“My bad,” Zuko said still amused “You are going to be gone for a long time this time. At least two months.”
Katara looked away before saying, “I haven’t been back to the South Pole all year.”
Zuko clearly tried to hide his disappointment, “Yes, of course.”
They sat for breakfast and talked about Katara’s travel plans that had sprung up overnight. After breakfast, Zuko walked Katara out to where Appa was already saddled and packed.
Katara and Zuko hugged tightly as Katara said “I suppose I won’t see you until the summer solstice.”
Zuko cocked his head to the side and said “Western Air City right?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll look forward to the longest day even more than I normally do.”
They hugged one more time and Aang landed from the saddle and hugged Zuko goodbye saying, “I didn’t get to see you much this time, so maybe me and Toph will swing by in a few weeks!”
Zuko smiled the way he only did around his friends and said “That would be fantastic, it always gets quiet with Katara gone.”
They scramble atop Appa and take off with a “Yipp yipp.”
Katara was glad for her hasty departure when she arrived first in the city before the delegate from the tribe. She was able to introduce herself and do some customary ( to the Earth Kingdom) exchanges. The people in the Southern Water tribe were very honest people, and thus, expected the same from others. Katara loved this about her people but found that sometimes their brashness was taken for rudeness and their honesty taken advantage of. As a diplomat, Katara had learned how to temper herself, and to recognize her opponents' true position. The envoy from the southern water tribe was probably a poor young person eager to prove themselves.
When the Emissary arrived, Katara’s suspicions were confirmed when it was revealed that Tenia was the one to arrive to solidify the contract. Katara was glad to see him. Tenia had been one of Sokka’s “worriers”, and a boy she had known since his birth. Tenia was relieved to see her and said as Katara wrapped him in a hug, “ They didn’t say you would be here Master Katara, I’m glad you are.”
“Is this your first time away from the pole?”
He nodded and said, “It’s been a long journey.”
Katara laughed and wrapped her arm around him determined to take him to a nice noodle hut and then back to her house in the upper ring so he could rest and said “The world is so much bigger than you realized isn’t it?”
Tenia looked at her with a crooked grin and nodded saying “I felt silly for not realizing.”
Katara led them forward saying “I remember when I first left the pole, I had no idea there were so many people, how big and different everywhere really is.” She gave Tenia a grin and said “No matter where you go, nowhere will quite replace the feeling of sitting around the fire with a bowl of sea prunes as the elders tell stories.”
In the end, it was a very good thing that Katara had come to the city. The merchants were very shrewd and it took lots of back and forth before an agreement could be made.
When Katara wasn’t working on the new trade deal, she was with Toph. Toph was in the City trying to get the logistics of her school up and running.
The school was located far away from any city. Toph hated cities, but her school didn’t need to be in a city to gain traction, the best earth benders across the nation would travel to attend Toph’s school of ‘advanced earth and metal bending techniques’. There was not a shortage of people who wanted to learn from “The Blind Bandit”. The actual school was in the southern portion of the earth kingdom, a mountain’s throw from Aang’s monastery.
For the very last meeting with the merchants, Katara debated as she looked at her robes to wear. For the past few weeks, Katara had been wearing her blue Earth Kingdom robes. They were normal and suitable for bargaining with merchants. Katara ran her finger over her clothes across her closet and bit her lip.
Before she could change her mind, Katara took her Earth Kindom tunic off and decided to do something she never had done before. The sky-blue silk of the Fire Nation dress was the most current style in Caldera for the upper echelons of society. Katara found the dress to be gorgeous. It was blue, the color of her tribe, but while her tribe normally trimmed things in silver, this dress was trimmed in gold, and it was rather bold.
Katara fixed her hair in the traditional water style and walked out to the meeting. As she walked through the upper ring of Ba Sing Sei Katara turned heads. As the feeling of Fire Nation silk glided over her skin Katara smiled. She knew she looked strange in her dress, but found she didn’t care, and just enjoyed the feeling of being back in flowing silks.
The last of the negotiations went quickly, and finally, after three weeks and four days, Katara and Toph were both finished with their business in Ba Sing Sai. After waving goodbye to Tenia Katara came home took her beautiful blue dress off, and put on her traveling clothes. Neither she nor Toph really wanted to stay in the city another night if they didn’t have to so they headed off that night, going southwest on foot. As they walked away from the large ringed city Katara was not surprised that her mind reminded her that Caldera was to the east, yet she was walking still farther away; she already missed it: the shining red city.
Katara and Toph travel easily together nowadays. They were still at odds sometimes, but overall they both enjoyed the journey, which took them five days to reach the bottom of the sheer mountain where the Southern Air temple was located. Aang met them at the bottom of the mountain and took them to the top of the sheer cliffs where they joined the monastery. Toph and Aang got straight to work devising the best way to build access to non-benders.
For a few days, Katara roamed the beautiful buildings, she had only been to the ancient building for a single day when she was fourteen. Now she looked at the intricate carvings and fading stone paintings. In her letters to Zuko, she found herself writing line after line detailing the beauty she found in the ancient monastery.
Too soon, Katara’s time to move on came, and Aang gave her a ride to the center of the living swamp. It was only about an eight or ten-hour flight away, he dropped her off and her ‘kin’ showed up soon after. They always knew when a visitor arrived in their swamp. They took her to the village where she got to work on a number of problems.
Years earlier, Katara had allowed herself to be talked into being the Swamp Representative because really, she thought it wouldn’t matter, they had gone hundreds of years without trading or having any meaningful contact with anyone else, so why would they now? It did, unfortunately, make a difference. Many of the Swamp folk liked things they found while fighting in the war, and so they, like the southern water tribe, began exporting skins and pelts and importing spices and foods. Katara had to oversee much of it and deal with complaints and disputes. She brought her paperwork with her and got straight to work.
While living in the jungle, Katara took a leaf out of Aang's book and only ate fruits, vegetables, and nuts, but even some of those looked suspect to Katara. Using her trusty Carrier hawk, Katara was able to send and receive letters regularly from her friends. It was mostly Zuko, but some letters from Sokka as well as Aang and Toph arrived for her.
The largest and hardest-to-solve problem arose after Katara had only been at the camp for a week, Yenna, the only other person in the camp who was an outsider, came from the Northern Water Tribe. She was here to teach the swamp tribesmen healing. She hated it in the swamp and after only two months, packed her things and said she would travel to the southern water tribe where she could practice her bending and not sweat to death.
Katara decided to pick up Yenna’s lessons; thinking, that if she could get a few people to be able to do basic healing then she could leave until another teacher could come from the Northern Tribe.
By her third lesson, Katara was at her wit's end. The Swamp folk understood the body differently than… everyone else. The firm belief that everything was nothing and nothing was everywhere made it impossible for them to sense injury, even if they could sometimes accidentally heal themselves or each other from time to time. So, Katara was relieved when Aang and Toph arrived to take her to the Western Air Nation City. She left with them knowing she would be back to the swamp too soon.
Aang, Toph, and Katara landed and were ecstatic to see that Sokka and his girlfriend Konna, as well as Zuko, were standing waiting for them. Katara hugged her brother and his girlfriend tightly before crashing into Zuko, He looked relieved to see her and Katara realized only after their hug had ended that it lasted significantly longer than everyone else’s.
Even now as her friends and family stood around the bonfire, Zuko casually had his arms over her shoulder, leaning against her as he and Toph snickered at Sokka’s loud story. Katara looked around at her friends and felt at perfect ease, the stress and worry of the past few weeks melted away, and she made the conscious decision not to think about it too much right now, to just enjoy the moment and for a while she got to just be with those who mattered the most to her.
The week went by too quickly, and Aang was dropping her off in the Swamp and then dropping off Toph, then Zuko. Katara was able to direct Appa to the camp from the sky this time and landed right next to her lean two on stilts. The longer that Katara spent in the jungle the more she began to like it; just because she liked the jungle more didn’t change how truly terrifying it was.
Katara considered herself to be a well-traveled person now, having seen most of the world, even so, she considered the most challenging place to live the two poles. The Southern and Northern Water Tribes had settled there, and done well. The freezing winters and storms and the enormous and deadly monsters that hunted the icy arias, not to mention how hard it was to get food in the snowy biome, made them unwelcoming to all.
The Foggy Swamp was what Katara considered the next most difficult place to build a community. The swamp was a dark and highly spiritual place, and no matter how long Katara was there, the swamp still played tricks with her sight and mind. Like in the Poles, a dangerous animal always lurked just out of sight, ready to pounce, strangle, or drown an unsuspecting victim. It was also incredibly easy to get lost and turned around in the swamp.
The ancient swamp, after some time, began to show the beauty it held to Katara. The Swamp was the opposite of the South Pole in some ways, in others it was very similar. Water was everywhere. Most of the day was spent in the slues or in the huts above the water. Water and life coursed through the thick foliage and plants. The air in the Foggy swamp was heavy with water as well. It was very different from the ocean, snow, and ice that Katara was used to, but she found that swamp, vines, and fog could make her feel at home as well, and she could understand why water benders might choose to stay in the swamp despite how hostel it was.
It had been three weeks after the summer solstice when Katara wrote a desperate letter to Zuko. She didn’t know what to do, she was a master waterbender who had instructed the Avatar as well as many others in waterbending over the years. But the healing was not transferring to the foggy swamp benders, and although she had seen for herself several of the Water benders heal themselves, just as when she did it the water glowed blue and absorbed into their skin, leaving healed flesh behind. She knew they could do it, but it was extremely difficult to teach how to do it on command, reliably.
Katara had thought to herself more than once that perhaps she could just leave and the tribe would be fine by themselves. However, she had saved the lives of three hunters and one little boy’s arm, as well as healed countless less intense injuries. The tribe's people seemed to get hurt a great deal. Katara was currently attempting to teach, while also unofficially being the village healer, and it was a lot of responsibility and work and took a great deal of time. Katara knew it wasn’t really her responsibility, but if she could help the people here, she would stay and do her best, at least until a replacement came.
She must have sounded more distressed than she had intended in her letter because Zuko sent her some interesting advice, that after some inner debate, she decided to follow.
Zuko had suggested, that Katara take a break from teaching, and healing, and instead meditate on what the people had shared with her about their beliefs and that perhaps if she understood them more, then she might be able to communicate with them.
Katara took his words to the extreme. She packed her bag and borrowed a slew. She took the foggy swamp stance and rotated her hands in a circle, propelling the boat forward. Katara traveled all day to the very center of the jungle to the large tree that she had once visited with Aang. There on the enormous branches, Katara spent four days thinking and meditating. As she woke with the sun on the fourth day after leaving the camp, she connected to the bows, and she could see. The jungle lay out before her, and the words from Huu many years before came to her mind, "his whole swamp is actually just one tree spread out over miles. Branches spread and sink, take root, and spread some more. One big, living organism. Just like the entire world.”
Katara could feel it, she could feel the entire tree, feel the paths, that flowed threw it, just like she could with a person. For the rest of the day, Katara felt the tree, the whole swamp, and realized something. She could feel what was happening all over the swamp, and the tribespeople could feel the swamp, many used its knowledge for things like catching fish, and Katara realized with a smile that this was how they always knew when visitors entered the swamp, and this was how she had never seen a villager get lost in the maze that was the swamp.
When Katara went back to the village the following morning, she started by having all her students breathe together. She talked to them about how they were all the same, and just like the jungle and the world, they could feel the life of individuals.
The tribespeople had difficulty limiting their scope when they started to look at the life force of a person, it blended in with the life all around them, and they could not identify the problem directly in front of them. Now that Katara understood the problem wasn’t a lack of senses, but an overabundance, she was able to help them focus on individual aspects, and they began to start basic healing.
After another two weeks, when the replacement finally came, the village healers were well on their way to becoming good healers, and Katara guessed that someday they would be even more efficient than the other tribes healers.
Katara stayed with the new Healer, Ako, for a few days, but soon loaded all her things into a slu that the tribe had given her and began moving threw the wet lands. The villagers gathered around her and waved and called goodbyes. Katara was ready to leave the stifling swamp, but she knew a part of her would miss it.
Katara headed south. Traveling by boat was significantly faster than walking, and after a few days when the swamp turned more into a wide slow moving river, Katara would continue to drift towards the ocean while she rested. Katara ended up sleeping– rather comfortably too– in the shallow slue most days, eating fruits and things that didn’t need to be cooked as she traveled.
When Katara reached the ocean, the shallow skiff wasn’t going to survive the waves. With a bit of inspired water bending, Katara froze a large hall around her skiff to displace the water, and she also enclosed the back of the boat as well as making an ice keel turning the slue into a miniature sailboat without a sail.. Another problem with her boat was that she had to go over and re-freeze the ice about every hour. In order to keep it thick enough so it didn’t crack.
Katara only sailed for about ten hours on the ocean before pulling into a port. She fastened her boat to the dock and let the ice melt off her boat leaving only a shallow skiff. She was able to find lodgings for the night, and a ship that was traveling farther south that she could ride on.
Katara had to ride several more ships, but within another two weeks, she was stepping off the boat and onto the frozen ice at the Southern Pole. “This is home.” Katara thought to herself. The ocean to her side, the ice she walked on and the snow on the bank, her breath in the air around her, water was everywhere, and Katara felt right at home, back in her element. It was easy for Katara to sink back into her role in the Southern Water tribe. It was considerably different from when she was young, the tribe was much stronger after the war, and there were even more water benders, as many from the Northern water tribe had gone down to the South. There were especially a lot of young women from the northern water tribe, they had crossed the world to learn bending from Master Paku when they realized he was following Southern Tradition while in the South, thus, teaching women.
Katara woke every morning with the sun, just as she did in the Fire Nation. It wasn’t uncommon for everyone, save the hunters, to stay indoors until a few hours after sunrise, just to warm the frigid land a fraction. Katara didn’t though. She would rise each day and watch the sun and the dusty gold beams of light peaked through. The Gold of the morning sun and the gold that reflected off Katara’s golden hair ornaments were the only gold in the blue landscape, and they always made her think of the golden and red palace that she missed so much.
Even different as it was, most of what Katara did was help the other women of her tribe accomplish trivial day-to-day things, washing, cleaning, mending, and cooking. Everything was so familiar, Katara felt right at home. Still, Katara’s mind drifted far away to the fire nation and the red and gold city.
Katara was skinning a hide in the frigid air but her thoughts were hundreds of miles away. She missed Caldera, yes, but it wasn’t really the city she was missing. There were tons of places that Katara loved to visit, it was her routine that Katara missed: sparing in the hot and humid air, she missed breakfast in the gardens and cute turtle ducks, she missed warm nights, and wearing her silken dresses outside in the garden to bathe in the silver moonlight. She missed jokes under the cherry blossoms, and the way Zuko’s eyes crinkled when he found something truly amusing. Katara’s heart gave a little falter, and she missed him. She missed his cocky smile when he managed to land a hit during sparing, she missed the way he leaned over with a completely blank face during court to whisper a sarcastic comment in her ear, the easy way they could communicate without saying anything.
Katara was flooded with a warm feeling as memories of her favorite moments in the Fire Nation went through her, and she thought again, “This is home.”