Katara POV

I hated this cursed land.

Of course, I had no choice but to live here, for when the Fire Nation had infiltrated my defenseless home tribe, they had taken the women and children back to their nation as a victory prize.

The general had his pick of all the women, and chose my mother. When she wouldn't leave me, he tried to force her, but she pulled out water on pure instinct, and so he killed her.

Just because she could bend.

I didn't know if I can waterbend or not. My father couldn't, and my brother can't, so maybe I could. But I wouldn't dare try. When we were on the ship, the soldiers told us that anyone caught bending from there forward would be slayed immediately.

They've taken everything. My freedom, my home, my family. It hadn't mattered what I wanted. But that doesn't mean I can't hate them. Even though I am a simple servant at the palace, given as a gift along with many other people of my home, I could still hate the men who forced me to this country, hate the noblemen and women who wouldn't even spit in my direction. Sometimes I would hate the people who talked of home endlessly, constantly reopening that bitter wound. I would sit and burn with hatred as they would talk of the inconstant snowfall, stabbing cold, the purple tinted mountains, and sleepy blue pines, found in the taiga. I would hate them, because they would make me remember.

I was knocked out of my stupor with a hard smack. Luin had the soapy spatula raised to strike again. "Stop daydreaming, filthy girl! Continue drying the dishes as I hand them to you, or can you not even do that?"

I immediately returned to the task at hand, rubbing my smarting forearm and resenting being assigned to help Luin in the general's kitchen. I swallowed back the sour remark that bubbled up from my chest and grabbed the saucer from her water-wrinkled hand.

As I felt the cool water sliding down the porcelain plate, I felt the insatiable urge to be surrounded with water. I often felt this feeling, this inexplicable attraction; it could be so strong, then it would ebb away, then hit me with its force. Like the tides.

Luin noticed my hands slowing in my work. She had been looking for an opportunity to find fault in me. Looking back, I realize that she acted out of jealousy, for even though she was two years older than me, many of the general's male staff would gawk at me, no matter how much of her mother's makeup she would wear. I noticed a couple of times that she would wear blue contacts when going out, trying to garner the same attention I get for my cerulean eyes, but they didn't have the same effect.

She grinned in triumphant satisfaction as she watched me brace myself for another blow. "You disgusting savage! You lazy pig! Did they not even teach you to clean yourself properly? You are so inept! Just call Fei in; she can actually do a job correctly, unlike you."

My ears went hot with embarrassment and anger at her names. "I'm not a savage," I cried out angrily, trying to defend myself.

Her face twisted into a gleeful grin. "Oh, I'm SO sorry, Princess Katara. Please forgive me," she said, her tone drenched with sarcasm. She bowed mockingly, and that was her mistake. I knocked her onto the ground when she bent over, arms and legs flailing.

The look of cheeky jeering turned to bewilderment, then anger. "You little wench! I'll get you for that!"

But I wasn't listening to her anymore. I was frozen in the moment where I knocked her down. I was reliving the sight as I ran from the kitchen, heart pounding, half from fear and half from joy.

I had knocked her over with waterbending.

I was a waterbender.