Scars and Ashes (Avatar: The Last Airbender Fanfic)

Thinking of Outside

"He is definitely a firebender, but for some reason, doesn't want anybody to know about it," Katara thought to herself as she slipped back into the home of the head chieftain, glancing around before dropping back to her room and changing back into her robes. She headed over to see her grandmother, watching as her grandmother continued carving the bone.

Kanna didn't lift her head and said nothing, indicating she knew Katara left their home. Katara relaxed, watching the smoke drift up, her mouth pressed into a frown, remembering the furnaces that she never learned the purpose of, remembering the small girl who looked as if she were an average Water Tribe child, yet in Yuminio's blood ran a fire, a fire that Katara's people didn't want to accept.

Katara sighed, her eyes drifting back to her grandmother's carving. "That girl. She wears Water Tribe robes, but..." Her fingers reached up, touching the carved beads of her loops. "She doesn't have any of the traditional ornaments most of us girls have by that age. Is it because her family rejected her?" Katara took a deep breath. "Could I try my hand at that, Gran Gran?"

"Hmm?" Kanna looked up. "Is there a reason for that, Katara?"

"No reason. Well, not in particular," Katara said. "Maybe because I'm bored?"

"That's a good enough reason," Kanna said.

Trying her hand at making beads for Yuminio proved far more complex than Katara expected, as the beads were constantly breaking in her hand. "I'm not getting this right."

"Well, carving something that small takes a delicate hand, something that needs to be learned, so why not try something slightly bigger for your first time?"

"Ah, sure," Katara said, carefully carving out the objects, frowning at how one of the two ended up slightly off from the other as she held the finished objects in her hands, yet the two rather large beads looked rough around the edges.

"It will come in time, but whoever you've made the gift for will enjoy it," Hana said. "Although..."

Katara blinked, slipping the beads into her sleeve, frowning. "Did the design give me away?"

"That is a bit of an odd design, isn't it?"

"You noticed?"

"I noticed," Kanna said. "Of course, I wonder? I don't recollect seeing you that day that incident occurred, nor did Oyu. Could it be?"

Katara took a deep breath, looking at her sleeve where the bone beads lay hidden.

"Well, as long as your father doesn't find out, I'll have no need to explain what you've been up to?" her grandmother said.

"Gran Gran?" Katara said.

"He simply doesn't want to lose you after losing your mother, but honestly?" Kanna sighed. "He may be driving you away, and you do need to learn about how things are outside of this house. I just ask that you stay safe, dear."

"I will, Gran Gran," Katara said, taking a deep breath. "It should be easier to sneak out now?"

Except it wasn't, and instead ended up with the same level of sneaking around as before, as the need for Kanna and Oyu not to learn of what she was doing remained. She left the building, heading straight for the cave instead of the market, remembering Lee—

"I can't remember if he said this explicitly, but Yuminio's trauma of being abandoned will likely trigger upon seeing me." Her fingers lifted, touching her necklace, remembering how he'd shown interest in the object. She took a deep breath, arrived at the cave, and peeked in.