Avatar Katara

The Firebender

A/N Jeong Jeong's gone. Sorry.

Katara inspected the notice board at the edge of Dozoko Village. "This should give us a good idea of what to find here."

"See if you can find a menu," Sokka called. "I'm starving."

"I bet we'll find something to eat here," Rina said excitedly. She pointed to a colorful flyer. "The Fire Days Festival. Fire Nation cultural exhibits...jugglers, benders, magicians. This might be an opportunity for Katara to study some master firebenders!"

"You might want to rethink that." The two girls turned to look at the collection of wanted posters that had caught Sokka's attention. There was one for the Blue Spirit, one for an older man, one for an older man Katara didn't recognize, and one for Katara herself. "A wanted poster. This is not good."

"You don't say," Katara said sarcastically. "We should probably keep moving. But...this might be my only chance to watch a master up close. We'll be careful. And wear disguises."

"Seriously?" Sokka asked, incredulous. "You want to go to a Fire Nation festival, where they're all fired up with their...fire?"

"If there's trouble, we'll leave," Katara promised.

"Oh, yeah. Because we always leave before we get into trouble."

---

A masked woman watched the trio head into town, which was full of people. Children ran around frolicking, revelers wore ornate costumes, and everyone wore a mask.

"I think we'll need new disguises," Katara whispered. The three had pulled cloaks up over their heads, but they stuck out among the masked partygoers.

"Get your genuine Fire Festival masks here!" a merchant hawked. They looked at each other and purchased masks.

"That was easy," Rina remarked.

"Shh! Every time you say that, something bad happens!"

"And that's why you get the dour mask," Katara teased from under her own mask.

They walked around, examining the booths selling masks, trinkets, and 'flaming fire flakes.' Sokka tried some fire flakes, which was why he was running around with smoke coming out of his mouth while the girls laughed.

"Hey, look at this!" Rina pointed to a puppet show, where a bunch of children were watching a puppet of the Fire Lord.

"Don't worry, loyal citizens. No one can surprise the Fire Lord!"

An earthbender puppet with a rock appeared behind the Fire Lord, and the children cried out warnings. The Fire Lord turned around and torched the earthbender.

"Let's move on," Sokka whispered, dragging the girls away.

The three inched away from the puppet show and towards a large crowd. "What do you think this is?" Rina asked.

"Knowing the Fire Nation, it's probably an execution," Sokka remarked, his voice dry.

They wove their way through the crowd and got a full view of the stage, where a firebender was performing. Katara leaned forward.

"For my next trick, I'll need a volunteer from the crowd," the firebender said. Children flocked towards the stage, jumping and shouting in an attempt to get the firebender to pick them.

"How about you, little lady?" It took a moment for Katara to realize that the firebender was pointing to her.

"Oh, uh." She tried backing away.

"Aw, she's shy! Come on, folks. Let's give her some encouragement." The crowd cheered wildly and someone pushed Katara forward. She had no choice but to climb up to the stage.