The Little Dipper
Chapter One: Transitions
Katara was no longer the lanky fourteen-year-old girl that trekked across the globe naive to the ways of people, set out to make a difference in the world. She was now seventeen years old. A master of her element, an evolving healer, but also a heartthrob to the men in her village.
She didn't pay any mind to it at first until she undressed for her first annual physical with Yagoda. Katara initially showed up to her appointment because according to her brother, she picked up a case of traveler's sickness that should have resolved last week. Katara, being Katara, was skeptical. She was sure she would be fine after all but she honestly couldn't remember the last time she was seen by a healer, if at all.
"When last did you bleed?"
Yagoda's hands hovered above Katara in circular rhythmic motions as she laid flat against the glowing pillar in the hut. The elderly woman's hand glowed with the protective layer of water that clung to her skin. She was feeling for any tensions and binding within the girl's abdomen, something out of the ordinary.
"Uhm…I don't know, I did get burnt a couple times when I fought Azula, does that count?"
Katara thought it was a peculiar thing to ask, not sure how an injury was related to her stomach problem. It was also hard to focus when she felt a dull stabbing pain below her navel and her bare back was touching an arctic slab of stone.
Yagoda shook her head, trying to remain professional but a mild bubble of laughter managed to escape.
The elderly woman cleared her throat, "What I mean to ask when did your menstrual cycle occur last?"
Katara's blank stare told her enough.
Yagoda peeled herself back and really looked at the young woman being examined. "Oh my dear…forgive me for asking but how many moons are you?"
That is a question Katara can confidently answer, " Seventeen just last week…excuse me for asking but what does my age have anything to do with…a cycle? I came in because of an upset stomach."
Yagoda nodded her head in understanding, "No worries my dear, I will explain."
The old woman retracted her hands and kneeled in resting position. "I realize now that when we first met in the north pole you were still a child. And if I am correct, traveling with the young avatar and your brother probably took a toll on your body in addition to the stress of war… I asked because a young woman at your age now, her body starts maturing in order to one day…bring a child into the world".
Katara listened intently, while Yagoda took a moment to speak more on the matter. "You've mentioned before how you've helped your grandmother deliver babies, but do you know how that came to be?"
"Gran-gran simply told me it was love…but now that you ask I don't feel like I do".
Yagoda passed Katara a thick robe to cover herself with as she allowed the water bender to sit up and take in the discussion.
"Your gran-gran is not wrong, feelings of love can bring actions of passion which may eventually lead to being with child…however, the process isn't is as simple as your grandmother makes it out to be."
"When a young woman such as yourself becomes of age, her body goes through a monthly process where her body prepares for a child but if she is not planning on bearing children or with a partner to bear children through intercourse, then she will bleed once a month from her womb."
Yagoda knew that horrified look much like the talks she's had with her children, only difference was they were younger than Katara.
"Rest assured, this is completely natural, we all go through this until you become my age."
The veteran healer moved to her wooden desk in the hut and pulled out a diagram illustrating this newfound information. Katara took in the scriptures and thought a lot about her travels.
She remembered a moment with Suki, Sokka's girlfriend, the summer the group were tracking Sozin's comet. Katara never said anything about it but she did notice how often the two slept together in the same tent, and seeing Suki wash her red stained linen in the stream away from everyone. She thought that Suki might've had a secret ailment that she didn't want anyone to know of except Sokka.
"Before the bleeding, you may notice changes in your energy levels, mood swings, appetite, and sometimes breast tenderness, headaches, cramping below your navel, it is why when you came in about stomach pain I did not want to write it off as simply travelers sickness."
Katara nodded, things were gradually making sense. "You know, now that you mention it, I feel some cramping and my stomach felt bloated but I thought I ate something that upset me."
Yagoda took out a brush and a small scroll to jot down notes, "-And how long did you notice these symptoms?"
Katara pondered, "I believe the past three days on my way back home from the Fire Nation…"
"So, its possible your cycle could be coming between today and next week. My treatment for you is bed rest if you feel fatigue, drink red raspberry leaf tea to help your cramps, and if you feel any moderate pain apply a hot compress. Oh, and restrain from rigorous activities but if you decide to part-take in intercourse with a partner-"
Yagoda went on and on and on but Katara appreciated it. She came to realize that with the absence of her mother and the vague explanations from her grandmother that Katara was behind on knowing how her own body should be operating. Yagoda was kind enough to give her a talk that she should've already known when she was a preteen but better late than never she concluded. Yagoda also emphasizes rest and full meals.
"Stress takes a toll on the body," she said. Yagoda took note of the bony wrists of the adolescent water bender, her angled jawline and pointed chin. Her pelvic bone along the edge of her hips protruded beneath her underwear slightly, and when Yagoda instructed Katara to lift her hands above her head, the ripples of her ribs showed.
"You're thinner than most of the women in the tribe, you need to eat more especially for this upcoming winter."
That irked her. With the amount of food Katara consumes it sometimes rivaled her brother.
"You need meals that contain more protein than carbs, you're not built to be an air acolyte Katara- you are born to withstand the currents of the ocean and harsh winters that your ancestors have been able to survive. The other nations women can be thin all they want but at the end of the day you are a water bender and you are meant to walk with more curves! In a healthy range of course."
Katara frowned, " I know...but being out traveling has been hard sometimes because we didn't have much to eat. Sometimes we had no choice but forage the forest for nuts and leaves some nights. I've actually been so hungry that I ate grass."
The girl shrank in her seat, feeling ashamed at how skinny she is. No doubt she is strong but she has noticed how much smaller she feels compared to most women of the tribe who were more…curvy. Katara will admit in her admiration for her tribes women she felt a lot jealousy.
"Ohh, ohh Katara" Yagoda noticed the tears that brimmed her small face, it hurt her to admit that.
"It will be just fine. In time when you fix your diet your mood will improve too. I know this past season has been rough and you've helped heal a lot of people but it is time that the hero has time to heal too. And don't be ashamed, healing is not a linear path young one."
Yagoda went over the variety of topics, the diet plan to help her gain weight, words like "birth giving hips" that she apparently inherited from her mother, and a breakdown of a variety of herbs to assist with birth control- all unsolicited but Yagoda was sure that Katara had yet to partake in intercourse and the status of her relationship was questionable at best.
All in all, Katara is deemed healthy but there are room for improvements .
Katara left the healer's hut with fresh linen and a prescription to her nearest apothecary to collect red raspberry leaves and a blend of other herbs to be steeped and taken as needed. Her brother had fallen asleep waiting outside the hut, Katara didn't realize she was at her appointment for so long.
"Hey, are you ready to go? I'm starving! Also what took so long?"
Katara blushed at her brother's invasive questions, "uh…it's a bit to explain, but apparently there's nothing actually wrong with me, I'm just a late bloomer and I should apparently be eating more."
Sokka followed Katara in sync with her steps, his boots crunching against the snowy pavement as they walked back uphill to their apartment "but I thought you just had a stomach bug, what's to be late for?"
Katara fumbled with the piece of paper that inscribed herbs that she needed amongst other instructions. "So uh. Yagoda believes that I don't actually have travelers sickness but my symptoms are from a cycle I'm going to start having…if you follow what I'm saying"
Sokka soaked this in for a moment, listening to his sister's momentary grief. " Hmm.." He noticed the paper in his sisters hands, and reached out to read it- a list of herbs that are familiar to the ones he's foraged for Suki at times.
"Sheesh, does this mean I'm gonna have to be more protective over you than I already am on top of your moodiness? Also whatever you do, I don't wanna hear you and your boyfriend doing your activities and I better not be an uncle before 20. I refuse, and that's the same stuff Suki drank. Imma tell you right now that concoction is pretty nasty and-"
As Sokka prattled on it took him a minute to notice that his sister was silent, her head down in her furs as they marched up the cobblestone trail back to their place. Katara stopped in her tracks, sniffling.
"Katara?"
Her tears leaked down her face in thick drops, Sokka saw eyes red and a very heart heavy.
Katara wanted to scream.
Aang is distant and because mom died she didn't have anyone to tell her about what's going on with her body so she has to cope with the changes once more, alone.
That's what she wanted to say but instead she wiped her tears and made a lie about the wind or the smell of spices that made her eyes water.
Sokka decided not to press on, apologized for what he said if that possibly made her upset and they continued onward.
