𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝑵𝒐𝒕 𝑨𝒍𝒍 𝑹𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒔

Chapter 1

Kataras early life
I do not remember my mother or father. I do not remember their faces, their voices, or their touch. They are two of the most important people I should have been able to know and love like so many other children, but never did. They are non-existent entities, two faceless, mindless ghosts I never met.

I do not long for them.

For how can one miss what one never had?

I remember the Master and the Mistress. It would be applying an unneeded emotional attachment to say that they were my figurative "parents". However, they were certainly two of the most important guiding adults in my early life. They found my brother and I, took us in, fed us, clothed us, and sheltered us. They taught me many things that would determine the course of my life. I'm not sure, to this day, whether there was any love involved. Mayhap it had just been a situation that benefited both of our needs.

I remember Suki. She was the Master and Mistress's daughter, and my earliest playmate during my childhood.

I remember my brother Sokka. There is probably something to be said about him being the only surviving blood relative I had, but being brother and sister renders all the rest of it meaningless.

I remember Kyoshi Island, my one true home. I have no memories of a life before Kyoshi. It encompassed my whole world as a child.

Although I knew from an early age that I had not been born there, I grew up expecting that I would live there until I died of old age. I would participate in all the old traditions of the Island, and would marry a boy who would give me children to continue the surviving population.

We were an illegal people. The last outpost of a surviving rebel group still foolishly resisting Fire Empire rule. It wasn't till I was older that I realized how stupid we all were. Kyoshi had all of five thousand residents and supporters on that tiny island. The Fire Empire had the rest of the world. Really, how could we resist their might? Our warriors, trained in our traditional manner, were among the best in the world. But what were a few highly-capable fighters against an enormous army of millions that the Fire Empire possessed?

It wasn't something that concerned me overmuch as a child. It was the Master and Mistress's duty to contemplate large problems such as that. I focused on playing and sleeping and eating, ignorant of the matters of the world.

It was probably the greatest gift anybody could ever give me. The gift of a carefree childhood life, unburdened with responsibilities and worries.

No such life lasts forever.

"You can't play with us, Sokka." Suki said confidently, sitting on the straw mat next to me. I twined a piece of my doll's straw hair around my index finger and said nothing. Suki was the leader, the big kid, and made all the important decisions, like the rules which governed our playtime.
"Why not?" Sokka whined. He was a dark figure in the doorway of bright light. He shifted, one foot scratching the back of the other leg.

"Because you have boy germs!" Suki laughed, making her own doll leap through the air until it came to a rest next to mine. "Right, Katara?"

I was silent. I didn't like choosing sides. I never did. I wanted so badly to play with Suki, because she was a year older than me, and I thought she was an idol worth worshipping. But the rejected expression on my brother's face hurt as well.

"Maybe..." I whispered. "Maybe Sokka could be the guard soldier for the dolls. To protect them from the monsters."

I held my breath, waiting for something to happen. Would Suki sniff in derision and abandon me? Would Sokka dismiss my idea as a stupid one?