Chapter 1

The Southern Raiders

Snow crunched beneath the man's red pointed shoes. He sneered, only one waterbender left in this miserable hovel of a tribe, the snow walls of the huts literally leaned on each other for support. He and his men marched into the cold town, families shrunk into their homes, he entered the last one on the pitiful street. A woman sat on an animal skin rug with a small girl in her lap.

"Katara, go find your brother." the olive skinned woman said to the child, nudging the girl toward the door. The child turned toward her mother,

"I'm scared." her high voice shook,

"Don't be, sweetie. It'll be alright, go find your brother now, okay?" The girl nodded, the action shifting her thick blue coat, and she left.

"There's been rumors of a waterbender in this tribe, who is it?" The raider's voice cut through the cold air with dry boredom.

"If I tell you, will you leave us?" The woman's voice shook slightly, but the determination was clear, the raider nodded,

"It's me. Take me as your prisoner."

"NOO!" Katara's scream was emphasized by the whip of water that struck the back of the man's head. He looked at the tiny child, a cruel grin twisted his thin mouth. One of his men picked up the dark-haired waterbender, he turned toward Katara's mother still smiling,

"I think I'll let you live with this." She shook her head, tears streaming down her face,

"KATARA!" Fire nation soldiers held the struggling woman back as another carried the screaming child away.

"Katara is her name? Very nice, thank you." He turned and strode away, leaving the weeping woman on her knees in the center of the cold town, her futile attempts of following him blocked by the ring of fire now surrounding the town. His smile didn't falter as he boarded his ship and sailed toward the fire nation.

The Southern Raiders were one of the toughest group of hunters in the Fire Nation. They were always the ones picked for finding items that were lost, looking for a runaway or a traitor, or hunting down something that was rare. Usually the Southern Raiders didn't show mercy, although today was different. The order was to bring the prisoner back alive. This was turning out to be a pain in the but for the Captain of the Southern Raiders though. The girl was making a racket down below deck, and the whole crew was starting to complain about it and they were only only seven days into their twenty-one day trip back to the Fire Nation.

The General Zhou himself was getting a bit tense with all of this wailing and whining.

"Can someone at least try and shut that brat up!" He yelled across the deck at his crew. Zhou was not part of the Southern Raiders, he was just hand picked for the mission by Fire Lord Azulon himself. The steel ship cut through the cresting waves toward its harbor.

Katara had stopped her crying, she was sitting in the center of her cold cell. She could feel the thumping of the waves through the metal, the pulsing life of the writhing ocean just out of reach. Her thoughts drifted toward the future, or what may be left of it, her mother, her brother, her father. Homesickness opened a gaping hole in her chest, but she had no tears to spare. When the boat finally came to a shuddering stop in the harbor of the Fire Nation the massive men in dark red armor came and she shrank into the corner, whimpering. One of them picked her up and another tear spilled from her big blue eyes. General Zhou looked at her in disdain, she was indeed the brat who had ripped through the peace of his mission.

He met up with General Ihro on the dock, the other general had suffered a major defeat, and it was clear on his face. Ba Sing Se had been a prize goal of the Fire Nation for years, and to come up short. Well, it was safe to say that Fire Lord Azulon would be displeased. However, the loss of the General's son being the cause of defeat, Azulon would either take pity on his son, or be even more enraged at the loss of his grandson and the city.

"Ihro."

"Zhou." Even in the face of defeat, Ihro's voice was gentle and wise. Zhou knew that if he asked any questions it might end up in an Agni Kai so he decided against it and went straight to the point.

"We have successfully captured the last Waterbender in the Southern Water Tribe, she will bite if you get to close so please keep clear." Zaou had known that The girl Katara would bite because on the first day of the trip he had gotten too close to the girl while bragging about how she was captured and Katara got loose and bit him, hard. Zhou flinched at the memory then followed Ihro to go meet the girl on deck.

Katara glared up with the most fierce look she could muster at the first son of the Fire Lord, but the man only looked down at her with pity. This confused Katara. She was never looked at with this expression before' even when after her brother buried her in snow and almost left her all night and when her mother looked down at her. Katara's mother didn't wear this expression. The little Water Bender's fierce expression loosened as she looked back at the man with the sad expression. As she was listening to the conversation between Zhou and Ihro, the first son of the Fire Lord glanced back at her and caught her staring at him He gave Katara a big smile. At that moment Katara knew that her time here wouldn't be as bad because she had that man looking after her