Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

This is STILL a bit of an intro, but I suppose it IS necessary…enjoy.

Chapter 11: Witch Doctor Shui

"How much are these, sir?"

"Well, you look like a pretty well-clothed girl, with that pretty cloak. Four coins."

"You sold it for one to that woman just now." The girl had a low voice, and her face was covered by her hood.

"Well, she's a woman I've been fancying for some time now…Come on, a few coins aren't a tael."

"Two coins."

The green-clad shopkeeper frowned. He was a bit of miser, and seeing a young girl talk so gently made him pushy. He didn't know that his customer happened to be a waterbender.

"Deal."

The girl took one of the white, steamy-hot buns and walked away. Walking down this alley and turning down the other, she found a deserted, stone-mounted pavilion. Checking that nobody was watching, she pulled down her hood.

Her face wasn't fantastically beautiful, but it wasn't like a complete hag either. Tanned dark, it wasn't a usual sight in the Earth Kingdom, and her gently curving brows marked her as pensive. Her jaw was set, obstinate, yet positive.

The thing that marked her as striking were her eyes. You could unmistakably see several shades in them, and the light it sparked made you think of something subtle. It was enlightening.

The girl was Katara, of course. She had found a trail that pointed to the city of Omashu, which she had read about back at the old ice fort. The story was called "The Legend Of The Two Lovers", and it had been a woman who had built the huge city. Ha. That just shows how powerful we women are. Not like that man that sold me this, she looked down at her mantou (traditional Chinese buns). He was gross, leering at the woman before me like that.

In fact the village she was in wasn't Omashu, but a post-town for travellers, but she didn't any unfriendly eyes seeing her distinct Water Tribe eyes.

She leaned against one of the wooden pillars, looking up at the ceiling. For the first time in her life, Katara felt alone. Free, yes, but without the presence of another, comforting or no. Biting into the warm bun in her right hand, she tucked a stray hair behind her ear with the other.

She slid down the pillar to sit on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest. The bun was tasty in her mouth, and all she could think about was that she had nothing to do. Sooner or later, she would have to find a way to earn her keep.

Behind her she heard footsteps. Quickly drawing up her hood, she finished the bun and stood up quietly. It was two men approaching, and judging their voices, they were worried.

"He is so stupid, to get into a fight with a Fire Nation soldier. I mean, everybody knows that bunch is trouble."

There was Fire Nation here? Why hadn't she heard? I'd better get out, fast, she thought. But the man's reply made her stop and think.

"Stupid he may be, but he's my brother, and he's hurt. Isn't there a healer anywhere?"

She'd thought that healing, also one of her rare talents, would be a good 'job' for her. At least, to get money. If she was going to do this, she'd better start now.

Stepping out of the shadows, she deepened her voice and, in an educated voice, said, "You were looking for a healer, mister?"

Both men looked like they had been stuck with pins, she came out so suddenly. The brother of the hurt man said, "Y-yes, do you happen to know one?"

Clearing her throat, she took the air of a scholar as her disguise. "I happen to be an individual who has grasped the meaning of reconciling my fellow humans when they are injured or ill. However, I am afraid my assistance is not without a charge."

Both men were a little baffled, but Katara thought that they had understood the general meaning. "How much?"

"Several hundred coins ought to do, depending on the significance of the situation."

The other man beckoned for Katara to follow them, and they set off to the southern part of the village. They walked along the stone-paved walks, passing Chinese houses, strange birds flying around them every now and then.

At last, they arrived at a pretty big house. These people were probably middle-class. She was invited in by a white-haired old lady, who was wringing her hands nervously.

"Where is the patient?"

They led her to a room, divided into three sections. There was an assortment of wooden furniture: and bed with dark blue drapes. On the bed lay a man whose right arm had been cut quite deeply. His face was black and blue, with bruises everywhere.

With a quick examination, Katara asked for a large bowl of water and clean bandages. With all her equipment gathered, she asked to be alone.

The man was unconscious, so he wouldn't see her waterbending. He was quickly losing a lot of blood, in addition to the white infection within the man's flesh.

Gathering strength from her inner pool of energy, she encased her hand in the film-thin layer of water, and put her hand on the wound. She allowed more water to seep into his cut, making it force the infection out. Slowly, very slowly, she made the water open up the blocked energy paths, and felt the flesh knit together beneath her hands.

The bruises and black eye on his face were easy enough, and took less time. To make it seem like she'd done the normal way of healing, she wrapped the man's arm where it had been hurt tightly.

Done, she called the other family members back in. It had taken a whole hour, she realized, and she was tired. She hadn't practiced any of her healing skills much, since it had been a month and a half since she had left her friends and Masters.

The man was still sleeping as Katara received her strings of coins. She had an ear-splitting headache. I'm so gods-cursed weak! She thought. Booking a room at the local inn for the night, she slept. She planned to get away from the village as soon as it was light.

In the two months after that, spring turned into summer. It was stifling all the time, so Katara took off much of her clothing off, only wearing her dark skin-tight base and her cloak. The cloak was always buttoned at the front – it wouldn't do for anyone to easily determine her gender. As always, her hood was kept up.

The first time somebody found out that Katara's healing was immediate, they grabbed her and paid her more than she needed. The real Katara wouldn't have accepted all the extra money, but the scholarly healer she pretended to be, Shui, was a miser.

As it was, 'Witch Doctor' Shui was, as the name implied, suspected of using magic, but it (nobody could tell her gender, she made sure of that) was reasonable with money, and did almost flawless jobs. In the past two months, Shui became quite a name amongst the low- and middle-classes, as it was one of the rare healers that helped them, but strangely never the higher-classes.

She told her clients to keep her name a secret from the higher-ups. Katara was afraid that the more clever nobles and rich merchants would figure that there was a waterbender within the Earth Kingdom.

She was desperately afraid, in fact, for she wanted her freedom to be hers alone. She hated the Fire Nation with a deadly fire, most of all. She didn't want the Fire nobility finding out about her.

Katara's fears came true very, very, soon.