Scars and Ashes (Avatar: The Last Airbender Fanfic)

In the Village

Freedom felt—

"So invigorating," Katara thought to herself, making her way away from the dwelling of the head chieftain, at first glancing back to see if anybody noticed but finally realizing she'd managed to make a clean break away from her father's home. She took a deep breath, taking in the icy air around her, rid of the smoky air around the fireplace with her grandmother, or the smoky air around the fire pits next to the inner pond used for cleaning the family's robes.

Taking a deep breath, a memory of her mother working with Oyu on the robes lingered before Katara shook her head, touching a gloved hand to her throat where her mother's necklace was now.

"Things would be so different if she were still here."

Taking a deep breath, she headed further into the village, taking note of the going ons of women weaving nets and older men sharpening their weapons. Still, as she did so, she took a deep breath, relieved to see her people—people other than just her own family, Bato included, given his close friendship with her father, which garnered him the status of uncle to Hadoka's children.

A group of children hurried past her, playing tag, resulting in a grin erupting across her face, remembering when she'd played tag with Niyok and Nutha or forced Sokka to play a game of chasing them down after she'd used her water bending on him, to freeze his robes even though her mother would follow up any such adventure with a lecture about picking on her older brother with her bending.

"As a non-bender, it's not fair to him," Kya would say.

"So it would be fair if he was also a bender," Katara said, her mother always giving her a look indicating, no, using bending on her older brother still wouldn't be okay. Yet, that lecture never came as Kya never came home; someone had stabbed her from behind, killing her, fulfilling one of her father's worst fears while also leaving the entire village giving, with some saying the grief spread to other villages given Kya was the wife of the head chieftain. "But those from the other village didn't know her."

And at that moment, she thought to approach some of her mother's old friends, wishing to hear about her mother, only to not do so, knowing this would give away the fact she'd sneaked out of her father's abode with the entire village seeming to side with her father when it came to banishing her inside.

"As if I'm some kind of special snowflake," Katara shook her head, moving on to another part of the village, still watching, remembering how her mother would walk her through the village, telling her what everyone was doing, somehow remembering almost everyone by name, or so it seemed.

"When do you think Sokka will be back from the hunt?"

At the sound of Nutha's voice, Katara quickly ducked out of sight, leaning against one of the family dwellings, drawing in her breath. "Then there is an actual interest in Sokka."

"Hey, do you think you can ask his sister to join us?" another voice, one of Nutha and her sister's new friends, spoke up.

"Why? You and the other girls said you were leery of making friends with her, given she's the head chieftain's daughter. You didn't want to say or do the wrong thing, particularly..."

"Her older brother's Sokka, though, and when she comes around, he does as well," the other girl said."

Katara sighed, reaching for one of the two strands of hair that hung as loops at the side of her head, fiddling and twisting it between the fingers of her gloved hand, biting down on her bottom lip. "So first, I'm an inconvenience, as I thought, because everyone is so worried about getting on father's bad side if they displeased me, but then they want me around so that they can see Sokka?"

"Haven't you asked Niyok as well, Kahoyi?" Nutha said whatever was said next was lost as the girls moved past, allowing Katara to escape hiding.

"Doubt I want to that answer," Katara muttered, shaking her head.

"Hey!"

Katara heard someone call out, her head turning, swallowing upon recognizing one of Sokka's friends, Rarlak, coming her way. "Wait? Does he think I'm Sokka because I'm dressed in Sokka's robes? No, I picked Sokka's robes because they stood out less than my own, at least I think. He doesn't recognize me?"

She sucked in her breath, dodging behind a house, not wanting to give Sokka's friend a chance to recognize her, quickly hurrying through the dwellings as Rarlak called out again, confused regarding why she'd not responded to him calling, and instead took off, his voice growing distant.

Eventually, she found herself away from anywhere she'd been before in the village. Yet, she'd recognized the area, having looked at the place from the outside when she was younger before she found herself confined to her father's abode. "Ah. I'm near the merchant's area, the place we were always told was off limits for playing when we were younger, that they were too busy for—

Katara's eyes blinked as a group of children hurried by, almost coming close to the border where the area the Fire Nation and Southern Water Tribe merchants set up shop, only to stop short, as if the boundary were something they shouldn't cross, much in the same manner she, Nutha and Niyok ever crossed. Yet, these children hesitated from the other side of the border, drawing Katara's curiosity.

And then one of the children took notice of her staring, pointing. Still, at that moment, she caught sight of their eyes, the ember eyes the Fire Nation was known for, while their skin was the warm browns of her tribe, and she realized the children were a mixture of the two nations, some entirely of one, and others a mash-up of the two.

They took off, making a loud din, yet not informing their parents of the stranger, as if they were used to the eyes of strangers from the village watching them, taking in their features. Taking a deep breath, Katara stepped further in, sighting merchant stalls and various buildings that were a mixture of ice and wood, not something seen in other places in the village, something nobody ever told her existed.

And yet, here this wonder existed in the village, the smell of the sea breeze blowing in, the sight of the merchant ships that Katara always saw from the windows of her father's abode, high up and centralized in the village so that the head chieftain could see all that went on, remembering how her father and Bato would sometimes bring her or Sokka something from afar, brought in by the trade ships, but not often.

A variety of smells mingled with the salty sea air, including the scent of herbs, reminding her of the healing herbs used by the healers, something she'd quickly mastered and grew bored of, simply because she wanted to do so much more with her bending despite everyone telling her the commodity in her bending lay not in the other skills, but healing.

She followed the scent, half expecting to see a place of healing, but instead saw a bustling little shop where women from the village entered; her mind realized as she'd headed in that the women of the village made a path to and from the place, but her eyes also took in the building, how it and the building it stood next to were done in a completely different style.

"Huh," she said, turning and deciding to explore more rather than explore a place where one of the women from the village might recognize her. She headed instead towards a building where smoke billowed up. Still, as she drew nearer, she couldn't help but feel as if the place were becoming warmer, making her want to remove the hood of her robes, only for her not to do so, lest someone recognize her.

But when she arrived at the building—

Katara gasped, seeing individuals firebend into furnaces and metals being smelted. Her eyes blinked, but then...

"What are you looking at?"

Katara turned her head, seeing a child with brown skin and blue eyes glaring at her, but without hesitation, she said, "Oh. Hello."

"You're a stranger," the child said firmly, still glaring.

"Well, yes," Katara said.

"You're a stranger," the child repeated, a fireball forming in her hand, catching Katara off guard as she thought the child completely Southern Water Tribe from the way she looked, nor was the child pleased with the stranger watching her, not hesitating to throw the fireball at her, catching her off guard.