(Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, myself, nor I.)
This Present Darkness...
1
Boar
Darkness. Complete darkness. She sat there and waited for the sun to come up. She slept, but there was no sleeping. All she did was just lay there... eyes, and ears, open. The shadows on the tent reminded her of those gruesome-looking things... The more she found out about them, the more she thought the world was turning into a scary story. There was no thinking to be done... only watching. Watching for any movements, hearing for any sounds, and making sure that none of them come her way.
She was in the Li Mei Forest. The objective was to get to a local village as fast as she could, but the "infected" roamed the forest. They were nocturnal, which was probably why they died out at that medical camp. She didn't want to think about the medical camp or the hostage cave; the last two places she thought she'd ever be at.
She found a name for those things. Ants. She thought that word was short for Anthanicitis, which made it perfect. She got the tent from the medical camp, just before she left, and also packed some food and water. Plenty of fruits, she contemplated.
It was almost dawn. She felt a little more relaxed. Her eyes were tired. Her head was unclear. She let out a very long yawn. Then slowly, very slowly... she fell into a deep sleep.
-
Loud scurrying from the outside forced her eyes to pop wide open. It took a second or two to remember where she was, then she opened her ears. More scurrying... it was getting closer. Katara started to breathe heavier. She tucked her knees into her chest, hugging herself. Please... let the sun rise...
The waterbender didn't want to be afraid anymore.
A distinct shadow formed in front of her tent. Suddenly, a shade of orange light began rising. She looked up at the tent walls, watching the distinct shadow circle around the tent.
The shade of light grew bigger, and soon turned into a tangerine color. The shadow let out a long growl, then abruptly left the scene... the occupier let out a soft whimper. She waited inside the tent until it was completely filled with light outside.
Around high noon, she got out of the tent, and looked around. She was petrified... stray red marks were stained all over the tent. She pulled herself together, packed her tent into the knapsack, and gethered her belongings. She left on foot and went towards a dirt path that led straight through the innards of the forest... she was one-hundred-and-ten percent sure that no Ants roamed the outside world during daytime.
But where else would the Ants be? That question was what scared her the most. The infected ventured around in the darkness, looking for any food that lay around the forest. She knew that Ants didn't consume any humans or complex animals... but they did eat meat and lots of it. She had seen many bloody footprints engraved into dirth paths that she had walked on.
The waterbender focused on the path. Out of nowhere, a fork erupted from the path. She noticed a torn sign on the ground. She picked it up. Tiny critters underneath the sign scattered away. She read it...
BOAR VILLAGE.
SOUTHWEST FORK.
South was exactly the direction that she wanted to go to. South led out of this eerie forest. She followed the fork, going towards the village. Warn the local villages, she remembered. Warn a local village. Let them warn everyone else...
She hoped that disaster didn't strike the direction she was heading towards. Boar village... it sounded like a terrifying village to the waterbender. She hadn't seen many titled villages in her life, besides the water tribes and the cities in the Earth Kingdom.
Her stomache growled. She hadn't eaten any real food in days... just fruits and grains. She opened the canteen and drank the remaining sips left in the canteen. The place she was heading to hopefully had clean water. The waterbender was running scarce on food, too. She scurried through her bag... only two apples remained.
It has been nearly three days since her depart from the medical camp; two weeks since her visit at the torture facility; and three and a half weeks since she last saw Aang, Sokka, Toph, Appa, and Momo. As the waterbender walked down the path, she fell into a trance...
The four of them were camping out at a clearing today. Sokka tried several attempts to make fire out of the handy wood, finally succeeding, as Aang set up the tent. Toph, as usual, lay next to Appa inside her makeshift rock tent. Appa sat next to the warm fire as Momo wandered around Appa's saddle.
The waterbender thought of herself just sitting on a soft patch of grass, watching the gang enjoy their leisure time.
She looked up at the clear sky, watching small clouds drift on the light shade of blue. She smiled.
"Hey, Katara!" Sokka called out. "I know you're enjoying whatever you're doing right now, but could you help set up camp?"
She smiled. It was the first time she smiled in a long time. When she reunites with Sokka, she'll hug him and never let go. She'd even hug Toph. She'd hug Momo and pet Appa for hours.
This experience made her open her eyes; and just comtemplate the past, which kept her going through these macabre three-and-a-half weeks. She wouldn't hug them... she'd hold them. She'd feel warmth wrap around her body. She'd rest her head on her brother's shoulder as she thought of nothing but her friends.
The waterbender hoped that once she reunited with her friends, she would forget about this disasterous shit-awful situation. But, she knew that it would be impossible. The scars that were scattered throughout the bender's body would take a long time to fade away, and it wouldn't fade any time soon.
-
She concentrated on the path ahead of her. The waterbender finally reached the village gates, which were torn up and hanging from its hinges. She stopped right in front of the gates.
Are the Ants here?
No, she attempted to comfort herself. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she entered the village, desperately looking around. No one was in sight. She entered the market row. It looked like a deserted village. But, it wasn't...
Out of nowhere, eight men jumped out of the abandoned market stalls and surrounded the waterbender, yielding spears that were pointed towards her body. She froze in fear.
"Is she infected?" a man managed to say.
A different warrior lowered his spear, encouraging others to do the same.
"No," the warrior said. "She isn't."
"What is your name?" a man holding a spear yelled out to the woman, keeping a distance. Everything was silent. The sky was silent. The forest was silent. The eight men were silent. Everything was silent as the world tuned in to listen to her.
The waterbender spoke, "...Katara."