What if Zuko's father had made him go on the fire nation raid in the south pole when Katara's mother was killed? What if they became friends? How would the story change? How would their lives cross?
There was black all around her. The snow falling from the heavens was a dark shade the color of the night sky instead of the normal white. Katara couldn't explain how thrilled she was to see a color other than white dot the ground. She dropped the firewood she had been carrying and ran back into the hut to tell her father about the black snow. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to be as excited for the change as she was. He ran outside and seemed to panic, running around the village and waking the men. She was thoroughly confused. What was the problem with black snow? Katara began to freak out when she saw how frightened the burly warrior men were. Maybe the world was falling apart. She ran inside and asked Sokka what was going on.
"The fire nation troops are coming! Don't you know anything? Those are the black ashes from their boats!" he said as he pulled his boots and helmet and little wooden boomerang out of the brown box in the corner of their hut. "Now stay here. I'm going to go help daddy save the village from the fire nation." She could tell he was scared by the way he kept dropping his boomerang and fumbling with the leather straps on his boots. The helmet their dad had given him was much too big and kept falling down on his head, making it impossible to see. It was obviously not made for an eight year old boy. He raced out of the hut to find their father. Katara, feeling quite helpless, decided to go find her mother. As she walked out of their home she saw a giant ship, bigger than a hundred of their canoes put together. Fire nation troops began pouring out of the boat. Some were riding giant lizard creatures that looked quite vicious to Katara. The women of the tribe began grabbing the children and running for the huts. Katara spun around in the mass confusion as she tried to catch a glimpse of her mother or older brother. Somewhere along the way she was lifted off her feet and carried into a nearby hut by one of the other women. While the women tried to calm the children who were crying in the hut, Katara saw her chance for escape. She had to find her mother and make sure she was okay. She slid out of the hut unnoticed and ran through the village, dodging fire nation troops and warriors. As she was running, she spotted one of her father's friends hit a fire nation troop with a boomerang. She believed his name was Bato. When he caught sight of the little seven year old girl running through the village, he shouted at her, telling her to get inside a hut. That is exactly what I plan to do, she thought. After I find my mother. She peeked inside every hut, looking for her mother who would hopefully be sitting inside one just waiting for her. As she rounded a corner and poked her head inside a small gray hut, she heard her mother's voice saying something to a very large Fire Nation man about water bending. She became excited since she had succeeded in finding her mother. Wait a minute, had she just told him that she was a water bender? Katara was the only water bender in the entire village, why had her mother said that to the man? Katara was about to step forward and tell the man that she too was a water bender, she did not want to be left out, when she was yanked by the hood of her coat out into the snow.
"Hey!" Katara yelled. She picked herself up out of the slush and brushed her pants off. She was quite irritated that someone had made her new pants wet with snow and ash. She turned toward the person who had pulled her from the hut, hands on her hips, and froze, eyes wide. It was a young fire nation boy, not much older than her. His straight black hair was pulled into a tiny ponytail on the top of his head and he wore a fluffy red parka.
"Why did you pull me out of the hut?" she asked the boy curiously. He looked down at the ground, suddenly very interested in his shoes.
"Um, well...you shouldn't talk back to a fire nation soldier. He could become very angry." why was he acting like some scared kid who was caught doing something bad? Katara smiled at him, hoping to make him feel better. He tilted his head at her, confused. Why was she smiling at him, he thought. Maybe he was supposed to smile back at her. He really didn't smile often, especially around his father. He tilted the corners of his mouth upward, forcing himself to smile. He was concentrating so hard on smiling, that he didn't realize his eyebrows had knitted together to form a frown. Katara giggled at the ridiculous expression on his face and immediately felt comfortable with him.
"I'm Katara" she said confidently. He nodded at this and continued to stare at her. She realized she would have to make him talk. "So...what is your name?" she asked encouragingly.
"Oh!" he said, "right, I'm Prince Zuko". Suddenly, a boomerang whizzed by his head and hit a fire nation man square in the chest. They finally realized that they were both standing right out in the middle of the battle. She grabbed his bare hand with her small gloved one and dragged him through the village to a large stone building. They ran behind it, trying to control their now ragged breathing. He leaned up against the stone wall and a giant snow drift that had gathered on the ledge just above his head plopped right onto him, almost covering his entire body. Katara laughed and helped dig him out. He looked very disgusted as he stood up and began to glare venomously at the snow. She noticed that his uncovered hands were starting to turn blue and his teeth had begun to chatter.
"Why didn't you wear gloves?" she asked.
He tucked his hands under his armpits, trying to keep them from freezing.
"I-it's w-w-warm in the f-fire nation. I d-don't h-have any" he chattered, barely audible. Katara slid off her fuzzy blue gloves and put them onto his hands. She noticed that his parka and thin red pants were still soaking wet from the snow. With a flick of her wrist, the water was pulled out of his clothes and into her hand. His eyes immediately widened and his jaw dropped. "You are the water bender?" he asked incredulously. She dropped the water into the snow and looked up at him confused. Why had he referred to her as the water bender instead of a water bender.
"What's wrong?" She was always used to people congratulating her and praising her for being a water bender. Why did he seem so frightened all of a sudden?
"Well, the reason the fire nation has come to this village was to kill the last water bender from the south pole". Katara suddenly paled, very afraid. Wait, her mother had told that man that she was a water bender, not Katara. Oh no! Realization suddenly washed over her and she turned on her heel and began to run towards the hut she had seen her mother in earlier. She was faintly aware of Zuko's voice calling her name over the sound of the wind and the battle. She had to get there before her mother was hurt. Maybe if Katara got there in time, she could show the men how great water bending can be. Then Katara wouldn't be killed and her mother would be safe. There it was. Just a few more strides...whoosh! She was knocked off of her feet by something hard. She landed in a snow drift after flying a few feet through the air. Darkness began to creep into the edges of her vision. She struggled to stay awake, but was unable to keep her head up. Soon her eyes began to close, plunging Katara into a sea of black...