Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender or the characters.
It came time for the group to go to sleep, and that meant it was time to decide who got the first watch.
"I'll take it," said Katara.
"No Katara, I've been asleep for three days. Let me take it," yawned Aang.
"You still need to rest. There is still healing that you must do," said Katara
And with that she led him to the stone tent, and laid him on his bed, and kissed his cheek good night. She walked out of the tent to find the rest of the gang asleep already. She sighed and walked over to an old tree stump on the opposite side from the river and hidden a little ways back in the trees. She did not see the blind earth bender creep into Aang's tent. Katara reached the stump. The heavy water skins she took off and hung a branch a few feet away from the stump. She sat down on the stump and looked back at the clearing, and smiled. Her friend was ok and everything was close to normal. Just then she heard a crack of a stick. She jumped up and looked into the woods behind her. She saw nothing at first and began to slowly reach for her water skins, but they were gone. She turned to look at the ground under the tree where she had hung them and found nothing. She spun back around and saw two glowing amber orbs smoldering in the darkness. What ever they belonged to blinked. And they disappeared.
Katara readied herself to call out to her friends, when two hands came from behind her. One gripped her arm and the other gripped her mouth. She tried to scream but couldn't. A scarred cheek brushed against hers and hot breath seemed to set the back of her neck on fire as a face leaned over her shoulder.
"Don't move," hissed Zuko, "The camp is surrounded."
With the hand that clenched her mouth, Zuko pulled her to his chest, and held her there with that arm. He released her arm with his other hand and snapped his fingers so that a small flame flicker on them. All around the camp similar flames began to appear. At least another twenty firebenders must have been hiding in the woods around the camp.
"You see? Now you are going to come with me and I won't hurt your friends," whispered Zuko.
Katara's head slumped and her eyes closed. She knew what she had to do… it was her job to protect the gang. No matter what.
"Smart choice," said Zuko. He let the flame extinguish, and gripped her arm again. Surprisingly his hand was no hotter than normal. He tried to force her to walk, but Katara would not give up that easily. She twisted and dug her feet into the ground and tried to scream. Zuko stopped and pulled her to his chest again. He flashed a flame with his free hand in a series of complicate shapes. A signal to call for others. A soldier stepped out of the shadows and walked toward Zuko with a bow.
"Give me your sash," hissed Zuko to the solider.
The solider nodded, untied the sash, and handed it to Zuko. Zuko quickly turned it into a gag on Katara. Now free to use both hands, he picked Katara up and threw her over his shoulder. He began to run. Katara kicked and struggled with even more ferocity, but only managed to bruise herself on Zuko's armor.
Zuko made a circular path around the clearing, and to Katara's surprise, he headed to the river. Maybe she could water bend if they got close enough. Once they reached the river, Zuko turned west, heading toward the ocean. He held Katara's arms close to his shoulders. Water bending was impossible. Zuko ran for fifteen minutes, until he reached a docked ship. The soldiers saluted Zuko as he passed, but he paid them no attention. He walked down to the cells in the hull of the ship and roughly threw Katara into one.
Katara quickly pulled the gag off and started to yell at the fire nation Prince. Zuko looked back at her, smirked and left her alone, in the dark cell. Katara looked around and continued to yell until exhaustion over took her, and she feel into an uneasy sleep.