It was all a game.

A very popular game that the boys of the Southern Water Tribe would group together and play every morning, sometimes lasting until lunch and continued afterwards to dinnertime.

It didn't really have a name. Katara called it the Game of War, and some of the other boys called it Battle, while parents and the oldest boys called it training.

Either way, Sokka thought it was the most fun he'd ever had. All guys, all fighting, all adrenaline. Sometimes the men of the Tribe would watch, and there were plenty of times when someone would come up to him and say how "special you are, you're going to do some great things, Sokka."

It didn't really have any rules. The only thing that was mandatory was to have two teams (they didn't have to be even- in real life they almost never were).There was also the unspoken rule of 'No Girls Allowed', but if Gran-Gran ever figured that one out, she'd have their heads.

A few years ago, for the first time in history, the second (unspoken) rule was broken. By Katara. She snuck in during all the fighting, all the chaos, and played the game with the rest of them. Sokka was actually surprised to find that this new fighter was his sister. When someone knocked her down she didn't cry, and she gave some heavy blows despite her size.

She was good.

But she caused outrage. Sure, she was good, but she was also a girl, and she wasn't allowed to play! She was only nine!

But Hakoda had seen her play. Hakoda and Gran-Gran and Bato had seen her play, and seen that light in her eyes that left when her mother died. And it was Hakoda (one of the most respected warriors) who made a new rule.

No girls are allowed to play- except Katara.

Gran-Gran was only informed of the second part.

So it started. The boys were always meaner to Katara (they were just sour that a girl was better than them) and made her be on the Fire Nation side. The losing team.

No matter how many people played, no matter how long the battle lasted, no matter how hard the 'Fire Nation' tried, the Water Tribe always won. That was the third rule.

It wasn't so bad, either. The kids preferred it this way, actually. They took turns, one day you'd be Water Tribe, the next you're Fire Nation. Everyone liked to see the Fire Nation fall, even if it was their team that day.

Even Katara enjoyed her loss; everyday, in fact, seeing as how they never let her be the Water Tribe.

Sometimes, if there were enough kids they'd create an Earth Kingdom team (they mocked Katara for weeks that time she suggested a team for the Air Nomads) but everyone liked the Water Tribe the best.

And it was played like this for years and years. The Game of War never ended; there was always anther battle to be fought.

Everyone was courageous in battle; it was kind of like a code of honor, mainly because of the fact that they weren't actually supposed to physically hurt each other. Kids came home with cuts and bruises anyway.

And everyone knew (though no one dared to say anything out loud) about the time during that one game where the boomerang was headed straight for Katara's head, and would've left her with a nasty bump if Sokka hadn't knocked it out of the way first. Or about that time Katara fell down and Sokka helped her up, even though it was one of his teammates who'd knocked her down in the first place. Everyone knew that the little one on the battlefield was Sokka's sister, even if no one said it.

But there was a day when everything changed.

The men went off to war (Katara had bitterly noticed no women went with them), and left the rest of the village alone. The Game of War lost many players ('kinda like in real life,' Sokka thinks) but the remaining children, for the sake of hope, for the sake of pretending nothing changed, kept playing. For a while, at least.

A day passes.

Sokka goes out to round up the boys; Katara doesn't feel like playing.

A week passes.

Katara is playing again, she's hitting and hurting with a ferocity she never had before. Sokka notices, and he knows she knows. He also knows she's beyond caring.

A month passes.

Word comes from the men overseas, and it doesn't sound good. They've been defeated in another battle, many wounded- a young man dead.

Sokka blocks another boomerang, Katara takes a time-out to cry.

A year passes.

No word from the men in far too long a time. The worst is feared.

The rules have changed. Katara isn't speaking often, and Sokka and the other boys worry about things too big for their age. On this day, the one-year anniversary of the day the men departed, for the first time in the history of The Game of War, the Fire Nation's team wins.

Everyone takes a time-out to cry.

Note: Lately dreams seem to far off and hard to reach…