It would take two days to cross the strait and get onto the rocky shore of the old Air Nomad land. The first day passed quietly. Katara felt the taut string that connected her to Sokka over the distance of water between their rafts. Sensing that anxiety, one of the more spry grandmothers slowly shifted the rudders to move the raft closer. The shepherds had done the same and the rafts were within seeing distance by evening.

And that was when they met the blockade.

A small fleet of ships patrolled the strait between the Water Tribe village and the old Air Nomad settlement. A lieutenant and a handful of sailors would examine the rafts, extract a toll, and they would be sent along. It was a boring post, but cushy for the officiers. The grandmothers on her raft talked about the fat Capitan Watanabe who had been posted here for twelve years. He had all of the Fire Nation arrogance, but relished that he hadn't been sent to Ba Sing Se or some other Earth Kingdom holding.

"He likes our food." One woman said and a few others tittered with their dry laughter.

The larger metal ships stopped the rafts and Katara watched as a few men were lowered in a dinghy. They made it straight to the lead craft and Katara listened as the women on the raft sighed.

Then two more dinghies were lowered. Katara immediately felt the prickle of anxiety and her head turned about in rapid arcs. More and more soldiers approach clusters of rafts. One stopped right next to the rafter holding most of the shepherds.

The raft holding the most supplies and the most older boys.

The raft Sokka was on.

Their string snapped even tighter and Katara was at the edge of the raft before she could even blink. Kanna was right behind her, trying to pull her back.

"Capitan, there are men here." One soldier called out. Katara looked to the lead raft and saw a tall man standing like a pole. He was thin and lean, with a helmet that caught the moonlight in broken glints.

"I don't know him." A grandmother said and ice started to form in Katara's chest.

"They are but boys, sir." The grandfather in the first raft said. The helmet swiveled much like a catowl.

"I understand that my predecessor was lax in his duties, but I will not continue his indulgent practices." The tall, lean man said and turned back to the other soldier. No other part of his body moved as he went on. "Men of sixteen are not to make the crossing."

"I'm nine!" A boy squawked.

"You're a bit big for nine." The soldier said and grabbed the boy by the scruff of his shirt collar.

He was young. He was painfully young. And Sokka was older.

Katara saw the boy's face pale and how the other shepherds shifted, both trying to fight back and at once holding each other back. They surged over each other like hungry waves crashing on a metal shore.

"This is ridiculous. He is obviously a child!" The grandfather yelled.

"You and your kind are animals. You breed young and age faster than the rest of the world. That boy might be nine but he'll be a snarling, snapping cur tomorrow." The man said. "However, I have learned that the animals here don't tend to swim well until they're adults." The man made a motion with his hand and the soldier holding the boy suddenly launched the youth into the water.

It was a known fact that most Water Tribals couldn't swim. The water was too cold and the shock of it would sink a man faster than any rough sea. Katara watched as the cold shock set in and the boy promptly sucked in water as he sank.

As the grandfather began to scream, the new captain was stepping onto his boat. Other soldiers took up bags and pouches before getting into their own boats.

Katara reached out and Kanna grabbed her wrist, squeezing it so tight that she felt a tingle of nerves in her fingers.

If she saved the boy, she would die.

A splash made Kanna let go and Katara started to scream as well.

Sokka popped up in the water and all of the others began to yell. Ignoring them, Sokka dove back under the water. He was ten, he was scrawny, water would weigh both of their small bodies down.

But Haida had been near a volcanic pool. They had swum in large red craters filled with green water that perpetually steamed and created snow.

Katara threaded her fingers together and started praying. She couldn't tell if her heart had stopped beating or if the seconds had begun to lengthen into eternity. Katara was unable to count how quickly his air would run out, or how far down he was being dragged.

As she squeezed her hands together harder and harder, she held her breath for as long as he did. Her hands hurt and throbbed as her lungs did. She needed to breathe but she knew, if Sokka didn't come back, she would never breathe again.

The Fire Nation dinghies went back to the boat and the water next to the shepherds' raft broke.

Voices and hands pulled the pair of bodies just as ropes pulled the dinghies up. Katara jumped from her raft to the next, running to the other corner as Kanna called out for her. A few more jumps, and Katara got sloppy. As her foot hit the water, she turned it to ice and sprinted over to the shepherds' raft.

Lucky. Even though ice didn't break free as often in the dark season, the water was warmer here and the large Fire Nation ships often sheared off icy patches. In the darkness, her bending could have been just a very lucky coincidence.

Katara landed on the wooden raft and immediately went to Sokka. He was breathing so she turned to the other boy. Someone else was pounding on his chest and Katara used the confusion to pull the water out of his lungs through his mouth. They all kept their backs to the Fire Nation boat, but they were still stopped in the strait. It would be easy to see what she was doing as Katara made slow, repetitive movements.

When the boy began to cough, the blockade was slowly drifting away. Katara rolled the boy over and he coughed up lungfuls of water onto the wooden planks. The rafts began to move and Katara looked up as they passed a boat. Masked soldiers glinted like stars in the darkness. Torches snapping in the breeze painted patches of them as red, and Katara knew they were human. They could be killed.

"We need to get them warm." A boy said.

"Wait until we pass." Katara said and stared down at the half drowned boy. He had begun to shudder violently in the cold.

"We just need to wait." She murmured and put her hand on the boy's chest. His heartbeat jumped under her palm and Katara knew something, deep inside of her. In time, it would come out. She just had to wait.