Hello! I'm back! This time I promise to complete this story as I have written the entire thing and will update each week, possibly twice a week. It's been six years since I wrote my first ATLA fan fiction and since Korra is coming out again, I realized I missed my Zutara stories haha. SO, I do not own ATLA, and thank you for reading :)
"Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be."
No matter how hard I tried to stop the bleeding from my fingers it would not let up. I had the awful habit of chewing them down until the skin around them turned hard and tough. This developed when my father, the chief of the Southern Water Tribe, summoned me to tell me the news of my future. I ran my fingers along the cravings of a bracelet made by my grandmother. She had craved wooden beads into animal shapes that were passed down to me. I lay in my blankets and listened to the howling of the wind. Though many would think the Water Tribe was a cold place that was unforgiving, my people had survived for many centuries doing their duties. These are the words my father had repeated to me.
Two months ago he had sent a messenger to me and when I visited the meeting tents, he had told me my duty. The duty I had to the tribe and the duty that I had as a daughter. My first reaction was to scream and argue but I could sense that he was not going to stand for any of that. "Katara, you are my only daughter, strong willed and brave like your mother was." He eyed me and I bowed my head in respect. My mother was murdered after saving my life. Lying to the fireguards that had attacked our village. She had told them that she was the last water bender and they had slain her for it.
"Your mother had done her duty when she married and gave birth to you and your brother." He paused and placed his hand on my shoulder, and I looked up and his tired eyes were worn out by the ongoing war. "You are to be married to the ruler of the Earth Kingdom, King Kuei." My fists clenched and I stared into my father's weary face.
"I cannot just be traded."
"You are to obey what I say, it is a match to strengthen the relations between our nation and theirs. He is in need of a wife and you are the best option to create a stronger bond. We need the Earth Kingdom to be fully on our side. It is no time to be selfish. They are powerful and more resourceful then we are, with their nation still producing benders..." My heart broke in two when I realized that my father had been so drained from this war that he was making decisions to marry off his only daughter.
"Father, what about Yue, she is the daughter of the Northern Tribe and raised with better intentions to serve-"
"You know that Yue is ill and has been since she was an infant. Do you think that I want to part with my only daughter? King Kuei's advisor, Long Feng still does not work side by side with the Water Tribes, and King Kuei is not strong enough to remove him from his advising position. My lovely daughter," he paused and briefly touched my mothers necklace that hung from my neck, "you are strong and can show the Earth King that the our nation is brave and in need of his help. You are brave like your mother," he said and ended the conversation. I knew he was saying this to show me that I had no choice but to listen and be respectful without throwing a fit.
Upon hearing my father's news I had grown quiet and hurt by the betrayal of my Water Tribe people. I felt like all of the other generals and men could easily agree with my father's choice since their daughters were safe in their huts. My brother saw my pain at first and tried to reason with my father, telling him that there are other ways to get to the Earth king. But he would not listen and tell Sokka that he needed to be a man and listen to his father's wishes.
Eventually Sokka came to yell at me for not being a better daughter in a time of war. "What about free will! What about love! You loved my mother!" I shouted one day at my father when we were eating. His face was hurt for a moment, but it disappeared when a messenger came to the table and whisked father away. I had never seen or heard much of the Earth king. What if he was spineless and mean, or was old and fat and made me do everything for him. My heart ached at the scenarios that I made in my head as the days to the wedding grew closer and closer.
Almost everyone was to take the trip to the Earth Kingdom and be present for the wedding. Plans had already been made for me, and I had nothing to do but sit and watch my future being taken away. I had many fits and cried more than I ever had, so to calm myself I practiced my bending. Tonight the moon was full and I ventured out into the snow and watched the stars glitter high above me. Was I really going to be marrying this man that I had never seen. The fact that it was my own father who agreed with this plan still shocked me. My father had changed with the war, but the world did not.
It was less and less heard of in our tribes, that someone was forced into an arranged marriage. Though it happened I never even dreamed that it would happen to me one day. I kicked the snow pile in front of me and watched it crumble into the ocean below. This ledge was one of my favorite places to come and sit as it had the best view. "Beautiful, -" I turned at the sudden voice and saw my grandmother's tiny figure making her way across the snow. I had rarely spoken to her since the news, and she had kept a distance from me. "It is time that I tell you a story," she said and sat down next to me. We looked out at the dark ocean and the bright sky filled with light that reflected off our faces.
"It is one that I think you should know. When I was close to your age, sixteen, I was entered into an arranged marriage. His name was Pakku…" she said and sighed. "He was a waterbender, young and strong, and in love. He was thrilled that we were to be married, but was obsessed with the old customs of the Northern Tribe. Women were not allowed to train and practice their waterbending because it was forbidden as women were second to men." I listened to my grandmother and looked at her in a new light. This was a story that I had never heard before, though I knew she was born in the North. "He could not stand to see me in any other position but his wife, though he loved me, he would not give me that freedom. My granddaughter… I felt trapped and smoldered by his plan for our future. So I ran."
She looked at me and took my face into her hand. "I ran to the South and lived a life that was mine." Gran Gran reached for the necklace and ran her finger over it. "It is tradition to crave a necklace for your betrothed, and I took it with me." Her eyes filled with tears and I saw a side of her that I never knew.
"You ran and made a life for yourself," I whispered and she sat back. "Are you telling me to run?" I asked sounding naïve.
"I am telling you a part of my life that changed my future forever. Had I stayed I would have been dressed up like a doll and shut away from the world. But by leaving I had disgraced my family and was forbidden to return. There is so much to lose in this life by following your heart," she sighed and we sat in silence for a long while.
"This marriage would do our tribe well, and we would be stronger with a large ally on our side. You could do great things for our world in that type of position of power, one that I was never able to have. But you are my granddaughter and I cannot help but feel the same sadness that I experienced." She stood and I felt tears in my eyes that stung my face once they ran down my cold cheek. "Leaving to a new place had done me good, maybe it shall be the same for you," she said and left so quietly I did not notice I was alone until I was so tired from crying that I picked myself up and went to sleep.