Avatar the Last Airbender: Hundred: Scenes
A/N: Why, why I am doing this to myself? I'm not in an Avatar mood and yet here I am writing…something that I hadn't thought I would actually get around to or post!
Why me?
Anyways, this is an experiment! This story is a filling-up of my rather abstract-based story Hundred, which is published (just go up, click on my name, stare at my Avatar picture, then go read my story? Maybe even review?). Essentially, I'm taking its rather skeletal form, and filling in a lot of the missing scenes and … everything that's missing.
Why 'Scenes'? Well, because I am doing what I never really thought to do and am embarking on a drabble series. Each chapter is a scene within the story (hopefully chronologically), and will therefore be short (more than 100 words, but still, short, no more 3 pages when spaced out for formatting). I'm hoping by keeping them short I'll write them more frequently and actually publish them?
Maybe…
Anyways, here is the beginning!
P.S. If at anytime you get lost, read Hundred. Certain things mentioned in that story aren't going to be mention in this unless necessary, so read it!
Hundred: Scenes
By: Strata's Stargazer
The Promise in Blood
She woke up with a jerk, gagging as she felt the blood in her throat cutting off her air, tears falling down her face. Rolling onto her hands and knees, she struggled to take a breath, the now familiar strain in her lungs letting her know it had been some time since her last one.
Clawing at the ground under her, she felt her nails pull and bleed before she gave a hard sob before gasping as her throat finally relaxed enough for the air to get in her body. Gulping in the needed air, she closed her eyes before rushing out of the tent, still on her hands and knees, barely making it out before her stomach gave a heave and she threw up the sparse contents of her stomach.
Once she stopped, she shifted away from the vomit before collapsing on the ground, still gasping for air. The ice cold air blew over her overheated skin, but it was still some time later before she found the strength to get back on her feet.
Wiping the back of her hand over her mouth as she stared around the sleeping Southern Water Tribe, she grabbed a fistful of snow to wash the remnants of her expulsion from her mouth before finally shivering as the cold reached her. Knowing sleep would again be impossible Katara grabbed her parka from inside her tent, pulling it on before heading to the outskirts of the village, her destination the small port once again filled with the boats of her tribe.
Kneeling at the edge of the waterbending-made bay, she splashed the horribly cold water over her face before flicking it off her skin with a flip of her wrist, leaving her more awake but no less shaken. Glancing up at the sky as the ground around her lightened, she took in the half-moon hanging in the sky before glancing down at her hands.
She could clearly the blood covering her hands, the wet liquid shining in the silver light of the moon and she stared at it before shoving her hands back into the sea, frantically scrubbing at the skin to try and make the blood go away.
"Its not real, its not real," she chanted softly, wincing as her fingernails scrapped over her skin, pulling open the scabs already present on the dark skin.
Shivering as a particularly strong gust of wind came in over the harbor Katara paused before looking up as a chuckle reached her ears. It was the same chuckle that haunted that reoccurring dream and she pulled her hands out of the water with a jerk, the water trailing behind them freezing as her anxiety carried over.
"Katara…"
"Go away," she pleaded, wanting nothing more than to get rid of that voice in her head.
"Life-stealer…"
"Go away!"
"Congratulations Katara…you're a bloodbender…"
"I'm not! I'm not you!"
"He is Fire Nation! He killed your mother! Let him die!"
"No!" Katara screamed and threw her arm towards the voice, watching as a large wave of snow and water built up before crashing against the ground where the image finally faded away, only leaving behind that horrible chuckling.
"I am not that, I am not that," she chanted softly to herself as she wrapped her arms around her legs, burying her face in her arms as she gulped in air to try and calm her shaking, fracturing nerves. She would never become Hama, never let hatred become so imbedded in her heart she couldn't see anything else around her.
The blood on her hands proved she wouldn't become that.
"Katara?"
Stiffening, Katara lifted her head to see her father kneeling in front of her in the snow as he frowned at her. She could see the worry in his eyes as he stared at her and she met his gaze before glancing back down at her hands.
"Dad, do you believe in the blood promise?" she asked softly and heard Hakoda stiffen across from her at the question.
There was no doubt in her mind that the Southern Water Tribe was the most primitive of the people in the world. It came from living in such seclusion at the South Pole, even before the start of the Hundred Year War, where they were more focused on surviving the harsh climates than on arts and music that defined the other cultures.
They didn't even have a written language, any type of paper too fragile to survive in a climate made entirely of water, instead focusing more on verbal stories to carry their history through the long years and harsh winters. The only reason Katara and Sokka had known how to read, as well as Hakoda and a few of the tribesman of his age, was because of Kanna's knowledge and determination that they would also need to learn to read; a belief that had saved many lives when they had all joined the war.
The blood promise was one of the strongest beliefs in the Southern Water Tribe. They were a people that believed in the ties blood represented, of family and friendship, and the most important one: the one of life. She had been surprised when she had found out there wasn't similar beliefs in the other nations, that blood was nothing more than something to be spilt in the endless war.
At least, until Hama, but even bloodbending was different than the blood promise.
"Katara," Hakoda called, pulling her back to the present and she looked to him staring at her seriously. "You know how important that is to our people. Why are you asking?"
"I have his blood on my hands, it won't go away," she explained as she stared at her hands again, feeling the blood, now invisible but still there.
Zuko had risked his life to save hers less than a month ago, and since that fateful the day that the sky had been filled with fire she hadn't been able to sleep without that horrifying dream or erase the feeling of his blood on her hands.
It was becoming harder to remember what was reality: the wound caused by his own sister bleeding, bleeding, bleeding, until he no longer moved or the skin stitching back together under the influence of her healing ability. Still, in both she felt the power awaken by Hama calling out to her, to pull all the blood from his body in a vicious flick of her wrist until he was nothing but an empty shell.
"Ugh." Twisting in the snow, Katara felt her stomach heave again at the thought, but could do nothing but choke on the air being expelled. This time she felt the strong hands of her father on her back, but once she was calmed down she kept her head bowed, thinking idly it was a good thing she had pulled her hair back in the traditional braid while visit the tribe with Aang.
"Katara…"
"I know," she gasped, reaching up to wipe away the tears freezing on her cheek. There was a strange tone to her father's voice, a mix of worry, regret, and a decision made. It was something she should have come to herself weeks ago, but she had been fighting the inevitable, hoping it would fade.
Sitting up, Katara looked back towards her small village, in the middle of being rebuilt by the combined effort of the Northern Water Tribe benders under the control of Master Pakku, and the men of the Southern Water Tribe. She was here with Aang, so short visit before he headed around the world to oversee the things an Avatar should watch, and she had always believed she would be with him.
Now, it looked like her plans had changed.
"I'm going to Ba Sing Se."
Ending A/N: Did I forget to mention this is going to be me attempting to do angst? I'll really try, but for some reason my angst comes out like a teenagers tantrums.
The next scene will be coming tomorrow or later in the week (depends on if I actually get around to it). Anyways, I'm hoping to be able to force myself to write a scene or two per week and I'll try to post it ASAP while still getting Wherever You May Be out as well.
Have I already asked why I do this to myself? Anyways, please review! I'm trying to top the 8 I got for Hundred, though most of them were about WYMB. Review?
Disclaimer: I do not own.