𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍, sokka

one.

ᴋɪᴇʀᴀʜ ʜᴀᴛᴇs ᴛʀᴀᴅɪᴛɪᴏɴ. tradition is the reason she's stuck learning healing, and only healing, instead of waterbending. she had been able to bend water for years now, but only men were allowed to learn how to master it, and learn how to fight with it. women were expected to heal with their waterbending.

 kiereh has hated the traditions of her tribe for as long as she was able to understand them, but she never had the guts to do anything about it until now.

first, she tried to ask her mother and father why she couldn't be trained in waterbending, but she got the same answer she had been getting for as long as she could remember. "it's tradition." then kierah went directly to master pakku, to see if he would train her. as she predicted, the grumpy old waterbending master basically laughed in her face and sent her away. so, she was left with two choices; either learn waterbending without permission from anyone, and risk getting in trouble, or just give up.

kierah decides on the former. she finds a hidden alcove with a view of the training grounds that master pakku uses in his sessions, and also uses some of the money she had saved up to buy some paper, ink, and a brush from the marketplace.

***

the next day, kierah gets up a little before sunrise, quietly leaves her house, and sets up her supplies in the alcove. she has to wait only a few minutes for master pakku and the trainees to arrive. she watches them train until a few minutes before the training is set to end, sketching out a few of the forms on her paper to practice later. she then gathers her things and slips out of her alcove back to her house. right before she reaches her house, she is stopped by mianna, a girl who attends the healing lessons that kierah normally goes to.

"kierah! why weren't you at healing today?"

"oh, um, i just decided to take a break, because i was getting stressed about the amount of things i had to do," kierah says, quickly coming up with an excuse.

"oh, okay, well i hope later you'll start lessons again, we missed you today! see you later kierah!" mianna says with a smile.

"see you!" kierah breathes a sigh of relief that mianna bought her very poor excuse. she then heads home so her mother doesn't scold her for missing dinner.

  over the meal of sea prunes and seal jerky, kierah's father says, "so, did anything special happen today kierah?"

"no, not really."

"well, we have a banquet to celebrate princess yue's 16th birthday in a few weeks, so that's something to look forward too."

  kierah just nods, and her father turns to her mother and starts talking about some sort of squid shortage. that night, kierah lays awake looking back over the notes she took while watching master pakku's waterbending lesson. she doesn't dare to sneak out tonight to practice, since her parents are still up and will most likely check on her before bed. kierah falls asleep soon after, and she dreams of finally becoming the waterbender she always wanted to be.

𝚜𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚗𝚎!! 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚊 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚛𝚝, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚒 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚐𝚘 𝚊𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚙𝚞𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚑 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚘 𝚒 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚒𝚏 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚝.
-𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚢