change of fate

Soot.

Instead of pearly white snow its ashen soot that lands on Katara's tounge. It tastes like smoke and char and her nose wrinkles, snow is not supposed to taste this way. Beside her Sokka is staring upward, his tanned skin pale and a look of dread on his face. While Katara has never seen it in her six short years shes heard the Warrior's stories of black snow.

"Sokka?" Katara asks her voice a small and fragile thing. The black snow contiuines to fall, heavier now, painting the village a coat of chalky grey.

Sokka doesn't respond to her and the fear that shines on his face takes root in her belly. He looks to the ocean, his mouth setting into a firm line and his shoulders rising. Katara knows that hes never seen black snow either.

"Go find mom," he tells her, his voice far too sharp for an eight year old.

Katara doesn't move. Her boots are rooted to the spot, she wants him to come with her, she wants her big brother to protect her.

"Go! Now!" He yells when she doesnt move. He grabs her by her coat and shoves her a few steps, Katara stumbles on wobbly legs. The orders take this time and she finally turns to run. Taking one glance back at Sokka, whose running towards the sea.

Katara sprints as fast as her legs will allow, dashing through the village that only moments ago was calm and white washed. Now men storm toward to ocean, shouting at each other in hard voices. They're all holding their weapons. Tomahawks and spears and clubs. She presses herself as close to the walls of passing igloos as she can to keep from being stomped over.

Her heart is racing and her breath comes in rapid puffs of fog in front of her face. When she finally reaches her home a fresh wave of fear rockets through her blood.

"Mom!" Katara calls, she stumbles forward. The entrance to her family home is half melted, the furs that hang over it as a door are stomped into the ground and charred.

"Momma?" She asks entering. Katara stops short, her feet frozen in the doorway. Two men in Fire Nation uniform crowd her mother, Kya sitting on the furs sneering up at them. Her coat and hair are disheveled like she had been fighting before she ended up on the floor.

Kya's eyes go wide when they land on her daughter and both men turn. Katara's sight of the two skull faced monsters in front of her goes blurry as her eyes fill with terrified tears.

"Momma?" Katara sobs meakly.

"Perfect," the shorter man says, he snatches Katara by her arm and pulls her in from the entrance. Even through the layers of fur in her coat she feels heat radiating from the man's palm. Katara crys out like a kicked seal- bear cub, and tries to claw out of his grip.

The soldier ignores her cries and yanks Katara around violently before shoving his other hand in front of her face. The heat coming off of his skin is so intense that Katara begins to sweat immediately.

"Now," the soldier growls, "you will behave and tell us who the Water bender is."

Kya, whose heart sank in horror when the soldier had grabed her baby, feels desperation and painic claw up her throat. The soldier must have seen it in her face because he jostles Katara again and pulls her out of Kya's reach. Katara chokes on another fearful sob.

"Its me!" Kya says, desperate to save her baby, though she doesn't dare move. "I'm the water bender! Its me! Please, let my child go!"

The soldier holding Katara lossens his grip and Katara starts to cry harder. She understands at once what is happening. That her mother is lying to these men to save her. She can feel the temperature of the igloo go up, and it feels like she'll choke on the heat.