Katara woke with an incredible headache.
She tried to make sense of her last memories, but none of them made sense, and she dismissed them as a wild dream. Maybe she'd come down sick again, and the fever had seeped into her brain. Yes, that was logical.
She recognized the Fire Nation heat bearing down on her, tempered by the night. She laid face-down on the sand - no, stone. Probably the courtyard. She must have gotten dizzy and fainted after the argument with Aang. Of course.
Her muscles ached, and she tried to bring her arms up to summon her water and heal herself, but her arms wouldn't budge. Something bound them at the wrists, she realized. Her ankles, too.
She rolled onto her back, staring blearily up into the night sky, and felt a strange sense of dread as she realized none of the constellations were correct.
And there were two moons.
Was she seeing double? No, the moons were different. One familiar, large and white; the other small and blue. A new moon spirit? Some phenomenon they hadn't noticed in the planetarium?
A heavyset figure loomed over her, blotting out the moonlight. She gasped at its shocking, inhuman appearance - and suddenly remembered what had happened. A strange, desert land. Stranger green monsters, coming at her with weapons and bending. The sea leaping toward her. It came in broken pieces, but she could put those pieces together into a working narrative.
The green, tusked man grunted something she didn't understand, and two more of the things approached, a male with top-knot and sideburns resembling Fire Nation style, and the robed female bender from before.
"Who are -" Katara started to ask, and the top-knotted one silenced her with a boot to the side of the head.
"Do not mistake this for 'mercy', human," he growled. "You live only as long as you are useful."
She dared not attempt to speak again, only looking up at them questioningly and fearfully. She glanced quickly side to side, trying to see any water, a puddle, a plant, a jug, anything.
"Tell us the locations and plans of the Alliance in the area!"
"A-Alliance?"
"Don't play stupid, spy! Your Northwatch dogs are obviously still skulking about."
"Northwatch?" Katara shook her head in confusion. What was even going on? Who did they think she really was?
His foot met her ribs this time. "Pah! For a mage, you make a convincing fool."
She let out a groan of pain. She surprised herself by wishing Zuko were there - if only for the torches and bonfire in this dustbowl that he could make use of. She spotted only a scraggly plant and knew it would not be useful.
No, wait - the smell of fresh stew hit her nose. She pretended to roll onto her side with pain, using it as a chance to look in a direction she hadn't seen yet.
Aha! A huge cauldron full of boiling water!
"Let's turn her over to the Warchief, Kaltunk," said the first male, with an axe on his belt. "She'll spill the name of every enlisted human from here to Theramore!"
"And we'll look incompetent for failing to get anything out of her first!" spit the one with a top-knot, apparently named 'Kaltunk'.
"I'll talk!" Katara said. She tried to think quickly. She just hoped this all worked. "I- I was part of a small, elite force. We camped in secret, o-on the coast, and, we're supposed to meet with warriors from all the nations, and strike the capital during the eclipse!"
She had just described the Day of Black Sun. Assuming this was a different world - or at least a vastly different region - they'd hopefully not notice.
The creature-people exchanged looks. "I'll send scouts along the coast," Kaltunk said with a nod. "And inland, in the likely chance this girl is lying."
"We should warn the capital," the robed female said.
"We would have heard of an all-out assault on Orgrimmar!" said the one with an axe.
"Obviously you don't know what 'in secret' means!" she rebuked.
"I'll send a runner," Kaltunk said. "Or more. Wouldn't want any Alliance scum ambushing our messengers on the road."
Had the lie actually worked? Katara couldn't believe it. In the moments while they talked to each other instead of at her, she used the cover of darkness to twist her wrists, curl her fingers, do what little she could with her limited mobility...
The stew swirled readily. The cook standing near it jumped back in alarm as the cauldron tipped over, droplets of stew splattering on the dust with loud sizzles.
Kaltunk and the others half-turned to look over at the sound. Katara wrenched her arms as hard as she could, and the stew flew up like a snake, lashing them all across the torsos. They shouted in pain as the scalding liquid caught them. She rolled up to her feet.
She was about to see what she could do with two moons.
