31. Eve

"Winter is here." Katara said to herself. "And I don't know where to go, really. This was stupid, Zuko, letting me go. The gesture was nice, though. There aren't homes for runaway Waterbenders from the Three Nations Academy of Good Fortune."

Luckily, she was in the Earth Kingdom, safe from the Fire Nation. Unfortunately, the Earth Kingdom snowed, whereas Katara was used to the warmer climate of the Fire Nation, where it didn't. She managed to buy a warmer cloak from a merchant at Full Moon Bay by trading a stolen pot from Hama's (she doubted they would have taken Fire Nation money; she still had some of Zuko's money—she had used ten silvers to buy herself a cabin on aboard a Fire Nation ship to sail her to the Earth Kingdom and one silver for white powder, hoping they'd overlook her eyes). She was lucky to have hitched a ride with a kind pair of future parents and the husband's sister to Full Moon Bay, where she was stuck. She had no passport.

She tried, though. Katara had explained that she was from the academy, that she'd escaped, that she needed to get to Ba Sing Se to be safe, because they would be looking for her.

The big-nosed attendant had laughed at her "elaborate fable" and told her to "wait like all the others." Katara, at this point, was cross, hungry, and tired and had begun to beg, then move onto demanding, eyes darting around the room as if the soldiers would pop out any moment.

Her mistake was trying to bribe the woman. The gesture was bad enough—looking around, she saw dirty rags, hollow cheeks, dull eyes, and soft groans—but she realized, too late, that the shining gold and silver and copper coins in her outstretched hands were boldly stamped with the Fire Lord's insignia on one side or the flame on the other.

The woman had sucked in her breath, her eyes wide. "You—Fire Nation—"

"No, I'm not—I'm a Waterbender, it's just, someone gave me—"

"You will stay; I do not care if it is winter—you—Fire child—"

"Fire...?" Katara felt as if her breath had been knocked out of her. "I'm not...I'm not a Fire citizen or...or...an illegitimate child! Look—" She quickly drew water out of the air, swirling it around her fingers—"I'm a Waterbender, from the South—"

"Get back, or I'll call security, girl!" Katara finally backed away, unable to look anyone else in the eye, and slowly walked towards the back.

Should she stay? She didn't know whether she'll get a ride at all, much less before winter ended. But she didn't know if she could leave, either. She had no money that would, well, be accepted and wouldn't have even gotten to Half-Moon Bay in the first place if it weren't for the nice couple and the sister. Katara bit her lip, but refused to look around for aid, thanks to the scene she had caused with Zuko's stupid money.

"Hey," a cool voice cut her off from any other thoughts. "What's a pretty girl like you traveling alone?"

Katara placed a hand on her (stolen) waterskin; it was lucky she could freely use her Waterbending, now that she was in the Earth Kingdom. Whirling around, expecting to face a dirty, lecherous old man, possibly backed by with equally disgusting cronies, she found herself staring into warm brown eyes paired with darker, scruffy hair and crooked eyebrows. Katara looked at the boy's hodgepodge of armor and clothes—somehow it fit together, and silver weapons gleamed from his back, the blades curved like fish hooks.

"What sort of swords are they?" she asked, avoiding the question carefully.

The young man drew them out with a slick ringing sound, and Katara instinctively stepped back. He smiled casually and began to demonstrate in the air against an imaginary opponent. "Hook swords. They were my father's."

Katara didn't ask where his father was. She already knew the answer. Peering behind him, she saw two other boys—a taller, skinner one with a straw hat, a sheath of arrows and a bow, and a blank look on his face and a shorter one with matted hair, red-striped face paint, and some daggers strapped onto his belt.

"Who are your friends?"

He put away his swords expertly, though with a bit of an over-the-head flourish coupled with a slight twirl, and gestured towards them, leaning back with an easy hand perched on his hip. "These are my Freedom Fighters...or what's left of them. The taller one is Longshot; he's an archer, if you hadn't noticed. The smaller one is Smellerbee; she's really nimble and good at these daggers."

"Ah." Katara said politely. "And who are you?"

"I'm Jet." He smirked at her, clearly waiting for her to ask. "Leader of the Freedom Fighters. And I hear you want to go to Ba Sing Se?"

Jet had passports—while he was chatting up the pretty ticketmaster, the two "Freedom Fighters" quickly pushed her on board and hid her among the crowd. Once the boat launched itself away from the stone docks, he was taking Katara by the shoulders and showing her the direction of Ba Sing Se.

"That's where I can start anew."

"Anew?" Katara tapped her fingers and gently played with the waves. "You mean a new life?"

"Well, partially. Do you know Chameleon Bay?"

Katara shook her head. "Well, no." They'd really only gone over the Fire Nation, and once, a few classes of the rest of the world, but those were for trading and exports and the like, and Chameleon Bay wasn't on there.

Jet took that opportunity to pull a map from his belt and point to a little area that was marked in tiny blue characters. "It's near the northern waters of the Eastern Sea in the north-eastern Earth Kingdom. It's actually a mouth of a river that leads directly to the outskirts of Ba Sing Se, where we are heading."

"Oh, stop the dramatics, Jet," Smellerbee said, coming back with bowls of...brownish soup with gray lumps in it. "Here, it's lunch. To tell the truth, I rather eat woodlice and bark again."

Jet winced. "That bad, huh? Here—" He gave one bowl to Katara. "Sorry, no utensils, I suppose. Cheers!" They both drank, and Katara gagged. it tasted worse than the winter at the academy, where the supplies ran low, and all they had were odds and ends of vegetables and picken intestines and a spoonful of partially expired red pepper, in hopes it would taste better. But food was food, so she choked it down. Jet did the same, although he poured the rest of the contents overboard.

"Foul! Absolutely foul." Jet smiled at her. "It looks like you have an iron stomach...ah...?"

"Katara."

"Katara." He set the bowl down on the deck and pointed to the map again. "As I was saying, we're going to Chameleon Bay because of something we found out from a Fire Nation soldier."

Smellerbee laughed harshly. "Longshot pinned his arms to the tree with his arrows. You should have seen his face!"

"Chameleon Bay is where a small ragtag army is. A rebel army. Good thing: they have ships. Bad thing: well, they're small. But we can add to their numbers. I hear they have benders, good ones, and even..." his breath tickled his ear. "the Avatar."

Katara jerked away. "The Avatar? You're joking." Nevertheless, she pushed aside her disgusting stew. "No one's heard of him for a hundred years."

"Well, he's out of hiding now. But we're going there, Avatar or not. We're going to take out the Fire Nation!"

The Waterbender gave up on her lunch and poured it overboard, just as Jet had done. "Does this include me?"

Jet cocked his head. "Well, you are a Waterbender. Which reminds me," he leaned forward ever so slightly, his arm splayed oh-so-off-handedly along the railing. "you have an interesting tale to tell us. a Waterbending girl, traveling alone, with Fire Nation coins and Fire Nation clothes under your pretty green cloak."

Katara flushed and tossed her head. "You would know if you'd listened to me...ah, barter with the passport lady."

Jet patted her hand. "You sure have the fire to challenge her; she reduced an Earthbending man, about a foot taller than me and the psychical strength of a armadillo bear to big, sobbing tears. Remember that, Longshot?"

Longshot had come upbehind her so silently that she hadn't noticed, and he nodded. Smellerbee laughed. "That's right, he talked funny, too, like the Boulder is moved by your unpitiful pysche!"

Katara smiled briefly, but dropped it. "I don't know you. I don't think...I can tell you, really."

"Not for the person who snuck you onboard to Ba Sing Se?"

Katara realized his hand was still on top of hers and yanked it back. "If you try to get me thrown off, don't you dare. I'm a Waterbender, and a powerful one, and I am surrounded on all sides by the ocean. I have been through enough for the past few days, and if you so much as open your mouth in the direction of one of the sailors, I'll educate you about frostbite."

Smellerbee started forward, hands on her knives, while Longshot reached for his bow, but Jet raised his hand and waved them off with a short laugh. "I believe you, Katara. You're going to be an excellent Freedom Fighter."

"I will not join your group." Katara snapped, starting to walk away. "Thank you for your help, but all I want is to go to this Chameleon Bay and join the rebels."

Katara found out that the refugees had to sleep on deck, which seemed unfair, since the wind was chilly in the Earth Kingdom and was even more so at sea. She claimed, at least, a spot under the rafters and one of the blankets they passed around, so she tried to make the wooden deck as comfortable as she could. Katara thought about using her cloak as a pillow, but her breathy Fire Nation clothes were not suited for another continent's winter, so she crossed her arms on the floor and rested her head on them, making sure to keep a firm grip on the itchy blanket. Luckily, she'd heard the journey was only for a day, so this was a small burden to pay for a ride to Ba Sing Se.

Unfortunately, she barely remembered falling asleep when a rough hand shook her shoulder. She gasped and hit the person as hard as she could with a water whip, emitting a curse and a "Katara! Do you want us to draw attention?"

She inherently pulled the blanket up to her chin, even though she wasn't dressed indecently. A lantern flashed in her face, and once she recovered, she saw Jet standing above her, and thankfully, with Longshot and Smellerbee.

"What? What do you want?" she hissed, looking around. There were no guards nearby, and everyone else seemed to be sleeping, despite the gentle shower of rain beginning to start.

"Do you remember that foul gruel they tried to serve us on the first day?"

"W...yes. If you woke me up just to ask that, I'll—"

"Hear me out! Listen, the captain is eating like a king in his quarters. Smellerbee scouted and counted lots of poultry, cooked dumplings, and the like. Why should these poor refugees fleeing from this war and the Fire Nation suffer by his greediness? Is that fair?"

Katara was awake now; she sat up and pulled her cloak closer around her body, shaking her head. Her loose hair fell around her shoulders. "No, of course not!"

"These people deserve better. I know you rejected my offer for joining the Freedom Fights, but can you help us at least give these people a nice meal for breakfast before they go to Ba Sing Se?"

She began to tie her hair back with a broken-off piece of twine from the blanket. This strangely felt like one of the early resistance runs, the same urgency and excitement, but more important—not like graffiti or painting the Fire House. "All right. But we have to be careful."

Longshot and Smellerbee had kept guard as Jet and Katara swept through the storage room. They had stolen sacks from one of the closets, and Jet was tossing cooked meats in pell mell and stacked the dumplings in their neat little containers, while Katara rapidly filled canteens with water or tea, snatched a few treats, and got some chopsticks, cups, and bowls for the refugees. Now, the Freedom Fighters and Katara were carefully passing out the "liberated" (as Jet called it) fare to the hungry and grateful passengers. She smiled when a girl Kita's age delightfully sank her teeth into a custard bun, but worried silently. Was everyone okay? Did they all escape?

Jet was waiting for her. "That was thoughtful, bringing something to cheer the kids up."

Katara smiled slightly in return and broke the string that was loosely holding her hair together; most of it was in her face by now. "It was a good idea in the first place."

The Freedom Fighter grinned back. "I'm glad that—"

"Ba Sing Se sighted! Ready your belongings!"

Katara turned away to follow the instructions, but realized, again, she had no possessions, save the bag of coins on her belt (which were really useless, but could come in handy) and her cloak around her shoulders. "I guess we better eat before we land. We have a journey ahead of us."

The checkpoint was annoying to get through, but Katara stood away a little (there was more checking of the passports) and bought a cup of tea, albeit a cold one. Jet, again, picked a booth where a young woman who blushed every time he winked at her and got their passports stamped for approval before she finished. (She was beginning to sense a trend here) Katara followed the group out the gates.

"Now what?" she said, as they walked right past the sign that said Monorail to Ba Sing Se and quietly slipped out of the enclosed building.

"Now," Jet sighed. "Walking."

Chameleon Bay was farther than it looked on the map, but then again, things usually were. Jet, at least, had the foresight to keep some of the food they stole from the boat's captain with him in case they didn't find any food, and Katara was at least thankful for the technique Hama had taught her—drawing water out of plants and air.

"It's completely safe," she assured them and drank it, trying to ignore the stares and Jet's whistle.

Katara had never really gone outside of the school, except for Hama's inn and to the ship and Full Moon Bay, where people took care of her if she didn't know how. She didn't know of any helpful plants for eating, and her hunting attempts were shoddy. Jet and his friends seemed to know everything—starting camp, setting and springing a trap, where to find berries, tracking an animal, the useful herbs, hiding their tracks, making the caught meat and herbs into a decent meal, and what trails to avoid.

Jet claimed that were now only a day's away from Chameleon Bay and lay down on the ground. One thing they had neglected to bring were bedrolls, but all of the Freedom Fighters seem used to it. The moon is full and bright in the sky. Katara looks at the stars, trying to memorize Jet's lessons about finding their way with them, but gave up and began to pick apart familiar but vague constellarions of her people. There was the otter-penguin, Sedna rising from a wave, a warrior racing through the sky with spear, a bull-elephant taking on the first chief of the Water Tribes, the mooncrab...she murmurs the stories to herself, but finds out that she can't remember a lot of the details. It makes her quiet, sneak a glance at the sleeping figures, and finally turn over, her chest tight.

She watches the embers of the campfire dim softly in the night and curls up further into her cloak, eyes already closing...

A knee was suddenly digging onto the small of her back, and with dim horror reegistering in her mind, she realized her hands were being restrained by wide, calloused hands fumbling with thick, wiry rope. She screamed as loudly as she could, kicking hard, and managing to hit her captor in the back of his head with a waterskin-full of freezing water when her hands were temporarily free by the startled man. She started to stand up to regain her stance, but was shoved against a tree. Jet was already down; someone had taken his hook swords, and he was cursing them with eveything he had while trying to thrash his way out of their hold. Smellerbee was biting and squirming on the ground, held by two men, and Longshot was as silent as ever, but still putting up a good fight, despite that they'd taken his bow and arrows away.

"Let go!" Katara panted, trying to break free one last time. "We don't have any thing of value; let go!"

A hand was then on Katara's face, covering her mouth and clenching her cheekbones so hard that she thought they might bruise. "What are you doing here, and how did you know the location of our camp?"

Okay, I so skimped on the actual "journeying" and food raid. The rest of the storyline will be continued in the constantly mentioned extended fic.

I really enjoyed writing the very first Zutara Month; I cannot wait for next year! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, followed, and read this! Your support truly means a lot to me!

I've been having trouble with title names for the extended fanfic of this story, so...whoever comes up with a winning title gets credited and a oneshot of any topic you choose. Huzzah!