A/N: It is important to note that the traditional Chinese mourning color is white.
Set Seven: Bittersweet
Part Two: Celebration
The skies are clear! The sun blazes in the afternoon and the dark clouds pass. They give way to a clear, starry night, a night of great joy and celebration in the Fire Nation Capital.
The celebration for the end of the Great War (as it is called by the Earth Kingdom—in the Fire Nation, it is known as the Sozen's War or the Comet War; and in the Water Tribes, the Century War of the Nations) goes on for many hours into the night. Acrobats and contortionists perform in front of crowds of delighted children (of whom the youngest are already asleep). Music floats on the breeze; all sorts of music, from the melancholy sound of the flutes and panpipes of the Water Tribe to the blaring brass of the Earth Nation to the eerie, ritualistic percussion of the Fire Nation.
Sweet smells of delicacies and candies pass by; footsteps and stomps come from an area where people are dancing. Men gather in a circle around two Benders from different Nations; bets are placed and shouts pierce the air.
Katara witnesses all of this, but she is perfectly happy to stay out of the festivities. She sits on a balcony of the upper floor of a tavern inn. She recalls that Sokka had dragged her along, excited for the merrymaking. Katara, however, had been just the opposite; she rented a room and stayed there by herself, still stays there. She cannot be happy, for she is still grieving.
She stares out at the joyous city, and wishes that it would be adorned in nothing but white.