When I started this chapter many months ago, I was binge watching Dare Devil, hence the reference to Stick. I actually wrote the ending to this story years ago (and then wrote a supposed side fic called, The Dragon and the Wolf). Tying everything together has proven difficult, and then of course, LIFE gets in the way. All of that to say, I know where I'm headed... it's just a matter of getting there! To anyone still following the trilogy, thanks again for sticking with me!

"So, Stick is blind?" Katara placed her hand in front of the polar dog's giant muzzle so he could smell her. A gust of hot breath and a slick welcoming tongue signaled approval, although she stumbled back a few steps to keep from falling down. Katara laughed in spite of herself, remembering a childhood friend with a polar dog pet. She also thought briefly of Appa… and Aang… and her mirth was suddenly overshadowed by a pang of sadness.

Things were much simpler… during the war. I miss… the simplicity.

Before she had a chance to dwell on this disturbing notion, a series of high-pitched giggles brought Katara back to the present.

"Yeah, he is. But he doesn't know it." Sura scratched the tufts of scraggly white fur behind Stick's ears. "Come on, boy!"

Sure enough, the polar dog bounded after his owner as if everything was normal, pummeling enough snow in his wake to bury Katara up to her waist. From a few steps behind, Siku effortlessly bent the snow away, casting an exasperated expression in her sister's direction.

"He's doing much better, actually," she said softly.

"Better? Was he sick?" Katara asked.

"It was pretty bad before we came to the city. He could barely walk. Dad said—" Tears began to brim the older girl's pale blue eyes. "We were going to do a burial at sea. But then he started getting better."

"Hmmm." Katara mused, reflecting on her recent visit to Siku and Sura's village and the peculiar illness that plagued people there. "What about you and your sister? Or your Dad? Have you been sick, too?"

"No, only Mom." Siku bristled as if the conversation made her very uncomfortable.

"What about your brother?"

If discussing her mother was difficult, then this topic was clearly painful, if not unbearable. "He's not there," she said after a beat through gritted teeth. "He left… a long time ago."

Katara knew she shouldn't press further, but she really wanted to know more about this prodigy bender—Hama's grandson... and her cousin? Katara had been so caught up in Zuko's discovery of the egg and the telling of the Legend of Makenna, that she hadn't had time to fully process Gran Gran's story from the other night.

They continued to walk in thoughtful, albeit awkward silence, until they caught up to Sura standing at the edge of a snowbank. She lifted a gloved hand to her furrowed forehead, seemingly searching for something in the distance. "I guess I threw the fetch too far this time," she said.

Katara quirked her brow. "Fetch?"

Siku let out an exaggerated sigh. "The dog's name is Stick, because he thinks the stick is called a fetch."

Katara, still dumbfounded, looked back and forth between the two girls.

Sura giggled. "Like if you say, 'Go get the stick,' he'll just stand there. But if you say, 'Go get the fetch…"

As if on cue, the dog gamboled toward them with the stick—fetch?—in his mouth. He skidded to a halt, placed his prize as Sura's feet, and sat back on his haunches.

"It's cute," Katara said with a smile.

"Well, it's better than the name Koko gave him." Sura shook her head disapprovingly. "Pup. Short for Puppet, I think? Koko wasn't very nice to Stick, either, so when he left, we decided to start over with a new name."

"Who's Koko?" Katara dreaded the answer. The mentioning of a puppet made her shudder, knowing it couldn't simply be a coincidence.

"He's our brother," Sura said without hesitation. "I called him Koko when I was a baby, because I couldn't say his name. He hated it, though."

"Sura!" Siku hissed under her breath, a redness rising to her cheeks.

Katara sensed that her suspicions were true, especially with the mixture of fear and fury that befell Siku's features. Sura seemed oblivious to her sister's discomfort and quite willing to talk about their estranged family member. Katara still had many burning questions, but figured Sura didn't remember Koko as well as Siku did. So she heeded the warning to drop the subject for now.

"Can I play with him?" Katara gestured toward the stick that was still sitting in the snow at Sura's feet.

"Of course!" the younger girl exclaimed, and though she couldn't be sure, Katara thought she heard Siku sigh in relief.

Admittedly, the simple joy of playing fetch was more fun than anything Katara had done in a long time, especially since arriving back at the South Pole. Sura's giggles were infectious, and even surly Siku allowed an occasional smile to grace her otherwise solemn demeanor. Katara understood all too well—some kind of sorrow or suffering had left this girl guarded and untrusting, whereas her sister had likely been too young to remember.

Katara imagined herself as more happy and carefree before her mother's murder, her own personal trauma. And with everything that had happened since, she felt uncertain and unstable with so many family secrets suddenly coming to light. She didn't blame Siku for not wanting to speak of any horrors she'd seen or heard. She grew up believing that waterbending was a curse, after all.

After nearly an hour of nonstop fetch, the polar dog collapsed in exhaustion and rolled over on his back.

"He wants a belly rub," Sura said as she plopped down in the snow next to Stick.

Katara knelt at the dog's other side and happily obliged. "Who's a good boy, huh? Good boy, Stick! So good at fetch!"

Then an idea struck her. "Can I… try healing him? Or at least see what the sickness might be?"

Both girls went wide-eyed. "Can you make him not blind anymore?" Sura asked, her expression hopeful.

"No, I don't think so. But maybe I can—"

"Just do what you can."

The abruptness in Siku's tone gave Katara cause for hesitation, but a spark of curiosity danced in the girl's somber blue eyes. Katara nodded resolutely, then sheathed her hands in water while both onlookers marveled at its pearlescent glow. Stick whimpered slightly under her touch, so Katara went very slow, feeling the push and pull of his lifeblood under snow-matted fur and thick rippled muscle. She closed her eyes to concentrate.

The same foreign substance was there, although its traces were very faint in comparison to her other examinations. "Has he… always been blind?" she asked.

"No, only just recently. He was fine until he got sick," Siku answered, barely above a whisper.

"And he got better when you came here? To the… city?" Katara still struggled with what to call this place that only somewhat resembled what she remembered of home.

"Yes."

Katara also remembered Siku saying the sickness hit after the end of the war. Clearly there was a new contaminant present among the villagers, but not everyone had been affected. She had attributed an environmental cause, and felt further justified in her claim that whatever it was, it wasn't contagious.

It also wasn't responding to her waterbending, so what could it be? Something earthen—a mineral perhaps? She had witnessed Jeong Jeong restore functions of the nervous system with firebending, so it wasn't too far-fetched to believe that earthbenders could access the body's mineral stores. Dr. Yang had taught her a little about Earth Kingdom medicinal practices which mostly involved herbal treatments and mineral supplements. She now strongly suspected something dietary, as that would explain the sickness' apparent selectivity with its victims. While Katara pondered all these things, she felt the dog finally relax beneath her fingertips.

"What does he eat?" Katara must've been lost in her thoughts for a while, because when she spoke, the girls seemed to jolt back from their own reveries.

"He eats everything!" Sura chirped.

Siku rolled her eyes. "He'll eat anything."

"Yeah, sometimes we feed him—"

"Siku! Sura!"

Stick's ears perked up at the sound of a deep voice in the distance, and he gave a bellowing bark in response. Recognition also registered on the girls' faces, both going slightly pale.

"I didn't realize it was so late," Siku murmured.

"We'd better go!" Sura quickly pushed herself to her feet and scurried in the direction of the summoning with a bumbling polar dog at her heels.

The older girl lingered a few moments longer, looking warily at where her sister had just disappeared beyond the snow bank and then back at Katara.

"Are you trouble?" Katara wondered if she needed to speak with someone regarding their whereabouts after waterbending lessons. She hadn't even considered that their guardian might be worried about them.

"N-n-no," Siku started. "I just wanted to say—"

"So, this is the infamous Katara?" a man queried assertively as he walked toward them, hand in hand with a smiling Sura.

"Errr, yes sir?" Katara squinted at the approaching figures, silhouetted against the hour's twilight glow. It was getting late, she'd just realized, which made her less inclined toward introductions. The hunting party should be back by now, and dinner would be starting soon. As if on cue, her stomach rumbled loudly.

"I'm Nilak." The man extended a hand. "Siku and Sura's father."

"Pleased to meet you," Katara said dutifully but instead of returning the gesture of his greeting, she bowed, Fire Nation style. Nilak quirked a brow at her, withdrew his outstretched arm, and shrugged. Katara realized her mistake a second too late to make up for it, but also gasped in shock at how naturally she recalled the Fire Nation traditions—almost more readily than her own. How long have I been gone? Have I… lost myself along the way somehow?

An awkward silence followed, one that Nilak finally filled by clearing his throat and continuing, "The girls told me about you. We should… have you over for dinner sometime. You know… if Stick approves."

Katara nodded and instinctively reached out her hand toward their oversized pet. Decidedly, Stick could knock someone over with that tongue of his, or perhaps with his dog breath alone. They all laughed at his antics and bid each other the farewell formalities, Water Tribe style this time, just as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon's silver lining.

Katara walked back to Gran Gran's hut in a state of stupor, overwhelmed by confusing thoughts about the day's events. She knew a conflict warred within her when it came to reconciling her heritage as Water Tribe and her future in marrying the Fire Lord. She also harbored a sense of betrayal and festering doubt when faced with certain realities about family members and their secretive pasts. But it was easier to push all of that away and focus on trying to fix a problem—why were people in Hanna's village so sick? She didn't think she'd be welcomed back there, especially when Kian recognized her bloodbending, but perhaps, if she were careful, she could get some answers from Siku, Sura, and Stick.

When she arrived within a few paces of the hut, she saw Sokka burst through the door in a frantic state. "Katara! There you are!"

"What, Sokka? Can't wait to eat your precious meat?" She did feel bad about being so late, but she also hoped they'd prepared dinner already. She was famished from all the fetching and healing and tiresome thinking.

Surprisingly, Sokka rushed to her side and grabbed her elbow, practically dragging her back to the door. "No, Katara! It's Dad. He's been bitten by a… a wolf leopard or something! He needs a healer!"

When she saw the mangled flesh and the paleness of her father's face, she dismissed her pressing hunger and its accompanying wave of exhaustion.

Whatever style of waterbending she was capable of, regardless of its damning implications, there was work to be done.