Katara, of the Fire Nation

Chapter 21

Katara leaves the hut the next night, in the cover of darkness, and dressed in black. She uses her bending to get close to the tribe, but when she can see the fires of the tribe, Katara stops her bending and relies on her other skill set; the skill set that Ozai taught her.

The tribe has changed since the war ended, it has doubled in size and is bustling with life; the tribe is thriving, with better infrastructure and roads, there's now a marketplace that is still bustling, even at this late hour.

But Tikali isn't responsible for this, not all of it, Katara looks to the large watchtower that sits on the coast and she smiles, it's definitely Sokka's style.

Katara slinks around the edges as the tribe starts to calm, she keeps to the darkness, her breathing slow and steady like her heartbeat. Katara moves around the village, taking note of all the water and earth benders who are clearly working for Tikali.

"Return to your homes, immediately," They say, directing the people, "Curfew has started and anyone out of their homes past ten o'clock will be taken into custody."

Katara's eyebrows knit together, Tikali has enforced a curfew for the tribe, his men push her people back into their homes.

'He's not a chief,' she thinks to herself as she remains undetected, 'he's a dictator.'

Katara sneaks around the tribe, 'it's just recon', she tells herself. She listens to conversations as she passes through the shadows, gathering information on Tikali and his plans, often the name Norouge comes up, the guards mentioning a 'little beast' in passing with off-handed comments.

"Katara," someone hisses from behind her, Katara turns quickly and unsheathes the sword strapped to her back.

Aang skids to a stop and holds his hands up in surrender.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Katara hisses under her breath as she slows her racing heart, "I told you to stay at the hut."

"I can't let you kill him," Aang says, Katara presses her finger to her lips as she can feel the ice vibrating under her feet, she can feel every word that Aang breathes, it rattles the ice and his footsteps, no matter how light, also shake the ice.

Katara sheathes her sword and then continues to slink around with the avatar at her back. Katara finds a hut that has two guards standing at the door, there is no light coming from inside and the ice tells her that no one is inside.

'Why are they guarding an empty hut?' Katara thinks, she unsheathes her sword again and moves towards it. Thankfully the hut is secluded so Katara only has to deal with the two guards, and if she plays her cards right, no one will notice.

But then Aang, stupid, foolish Aang, jumps past Katara and blasts the two guards away with a gust of wind, the guards knock heads and fall unconscious, but Katara knows, she just knows that it's going to come back to haunt her.

"What the hell was that?!" she hisses, following to the avatar as he walks into the hut.

"You were going to kill them," Aang says, glaring at Katara as she looks around the hut, "I showed you that there was another way, one that didn't involve killing, you're welcome."

Katara sneers at the avatar as she takes in the room, it seems to be a records room, there are scrolls and maps everywhere, Katara grabs several scrolls from a shelf; she only takes the scrolls that have red ribbons tied around them, labelling them as important.

"AVATAR!" a deep voice booms out, the ice beneath them trembles as power surges through it. Katara looks outside as Aang's face pales.

"How did he know?" he asks, looking at the guards who are still unconscious.