A/N: Sorry I took so long to update. I kept getting this stupid error message. But thank you to all that patiently waited for this.
Final Word: Thanks to my first reviewers: Legacy of the Avatar, Zutara Lover, and yourmaster. I always give credit when credit is due. Thanks, LOTA, for all the help. This one's for you!
"Stupid Sokka and his stupid sexist mind," Katara muttered while attacking a berry bush and stripping it of anything edible. "You'd think that after Kyoshi…"
She and her brother had gotten into yet another sibling argument, which normally consisted of her minding her own business until Sokka opens his big mouth and says the wrong thing, and ends up with her retaliation by remarking or glaring. That, in turn, launches into a vocal battle, one that Aang normally had to intervene into if it was ever going to end.
Unfortunately, Aang, for this argument, could do nothing about it. He had come down with some form of ailment that made it hurt to talk, eat, and swallow. That made it so even if he were conscious, which he wasn't, he still wouldn't be able to actually do anything to dissipate the problem, unless he "charades" out what he wanted to say. However, that would've just made them even more frustrated, if that was even possible at the moment.
Eventually, the argument ended with a fuming Katara, a Sokka ice sculpture, an amused Toph, and a still unconscious Aang. Still livid, Katara created an excuse of gathering food for the others to leave the camp, which provided an excellent escape from socializing to soothe her inflamed temper.
At least the fight wasn't between her and Toph, again.
Suddenly, Katara heard a twig snap, not that far away, and she immediately got into a defensive stance with her flask open, the berries forgotten an the ground near the foliage.
She waited in the silence, and was rewarded for her efforts with the sounds of a surprised squeak followed by a grunt of pain.
Katara leaped into the clearing and regained her pose, only to drop it after she saw what it was that made the sounds.
It was a child, from the looks of it, and she guessed from the attire the child wore that it was a girl. It was impossible to distinguish what nation she was from, seeing that she was covered from head to toe in mud. 'And blood,' Katara noted with a shutter.
The girl moaned and pushed herself, as though with much effort, to her hands and knees, indicating that she was still cognizant to the world around her. She held that position for a few seconds before collapsing back down in the ground.
Anger forgotten, and with curiosity getting the best of Katara, she drew closer to the dirty child. She noted that the closer she got, the tenser the child seemed to get.
'Whoever she was running from must've been pretty cruel if this is how she reacts to me,' she thought, slowing her approach slightly, as to not startle the little one more than she had to.
As Katara knelt down, the little girl began to whimper, more out of fear than pain.
"Shh," Katara whispered soothingly. "It's okay. You have nothing to fear. I just want to help you."
The she-child's body didn't move, but she did stop whimpering. Katara took that as a good sign.
"Where are you hurt?" Katara asked.
The child mumbled into the ground.
"What?" Katara asked, leaning in closer.
"My back and my tummy," she said, a little bit louder and clearer than before.
"How?" The question slipped out of her mouth before she could restrain herself. For some reason, though, the little girl didn't seem to want to respond to that question, and that was okay with Katara.
Deciding not to say anything else that would make their situation more awkward, Katara proceeded to roll the girl over so that she was laying on her back rather then her belly. She moaned, but made no attempt to stop Katara from what she was doing.
Katara closed her flask so that she wouldn't spill any of her water. She then slid her left arm under where her knees connected the thighs to the calves, or rather the back of her lower legs, and her right arm snaked slowly under the child's neck.
She clasped her hands together and lifted the girl up, shifting her as she rose so that her head rested on her shoulder.
The girl hissed in what was evidently pain and gripped Katara's clothing tightly, but she still didn't make any verbal objection.
Katara retraced her steps until she came to a river. She didn't stop walking until she was waist deep in and she lowered the girl into the rushing waters, breathing deeply and calling upon the therapeutic properties of her powers.
The water around the two girls glowed a light blue, and at the same time all the muck and grime on the girl was beginning to be washed away.
The first thing that was mud-free was the girl's garments, if they were even worthy of being called that now. They were tattered and dilapidated; the skirt of her dress was slit on the right side, exposing almost her entire right leg, (which was in the process of being healed), the bodice was torn in several places, and it no longer had and sleeves. In spite of the fact that it was now semi-clean, it was still brown, with a hint of green on the bodice. Earth nation clothes.
"Hold your breath," Katara calmly said to the girl. When she complied, Katara lowered her under the water…
…And got the surprise of her life!
She realized that as the muck was washed away that the child had red hair.
RED hair!
'Oh, boy,' she mentally ridiculed herself. 'If only Sokka could see me now…Me, healing a Fire nation child who's parents are probably-'
The said child exhaled through her nose, blowing air bubbles out as she did so, catching Katara's attention. Katara then lifted her up out of the water and carried her to the bank.
The girl's eyes then fluttered open, slowly, as though awakening from a deep slumber. Pure gold orbs locked onto cobalt blue ones with an untainted gaze of pure gratitude and adoration, not at all the hateful glare of spite and undying rage that Katara had come to know from seeing from that blasted prince or those girls that followed them from Omashu.
The child smiled and snuggled closer to Katara, mumbling her thanks in a tired voice.
Deciding against her better judgments, Katara once again retraced her steps back to camp, arriving to a halfway-thawed Sokka, a bored looking Toph, and a conscious Aang.
Sokka's mood, so it appeared, hadn't lightened at all in Katara's absence. Rather, it only seemed to be substantially worse than before.
"It's about TIME you got back! Unthaw me!" Sokka shouted as soon as he saw her.
"Sorry, Sokka," Katara said back in a cheery manner. "My hands are full. I couldn't possibly bend at the moment. Besides, you seem to be doing just fine on your own, anyways…"
Toph's smile returned to her face. She could actually FEEL the anger vibrating off of Sokka due to Katara's remark. She lived for moments like this, that and proving that she was just as good as any bender out there, even though she was in fact blind.
Sokka stopped yelling long enough to notice the child in Katara's arms. The red hair was pretty hard to miss, honestly.
"Katara, what is a fire nation kid doing in our camp?" Sokka asked, uncharacteristically calm.
"She was injured," Katara replied, in an equally calm way. "So I decided to help."
"She's Fire nation!" Sokka exploded, getting back into character.
"She's a child and has needs, just like everybody else in the world! Including you, Mr. Six-Stomachs!" Katara retorted with a sharp edge in her voice, setting the fire nation girl down.
Aang sighed and began to study the appearance of the girl. Seemingly satisfied, he smiled at her and patted next to him on Appa's tail, inviting her to sit. With a slight bow of the head she obliged.
She sat quietly trying to drown out the sounds of the two water tribe members arguing. Sighing out of boredom she turned to Aang.
"So… how long does it take for the fighting to stop?" she asked in a honey like tone, hoping to get on the good side of at least one more member of the group.
Aang shrugged and began to rub his temples, obviously starting to get aggravated.
"Can't you do something to stop them?" the child asked, still quiet, but the wavering of her voice proved that she too was loosing her patience. Aang looked at her dejectedly before shaking his head. He then brought a hand to his throat and gently gripped it under his chin.
She looked confused, but only for a second, and then her face lit up. "Do you have a bowl handy?"
Now it was Aang's turn to look confused. Seeing that he didn't understand, she brought out a loosely knit bag with something in it. "Hot tea is good for sore throats," she explained.
Understanding, Aang airbended onto Appa's saddle. He then slid back down Appa's tail with a bowl in hand.
She looked at him in surprise. "Wow," she breathed. "That must be cool, being able to fly like that…" Her eyes got a faraway look to them, but she was snapped out of it when she saw Aang bend some water from the lake near their camp into the bowl in his hands. "Wicked," she whispered in amazement, setting the bag down on her lap.
Calmly and carefully she took the bowl from Aang's hands. Then she stared at the water, furrowed her brow and exhaled deeply. Her hands, from under the bowl, began to smoke. Seconds later, the water was steaming.
"Pick up the bag and put the bottom part of it in the water," she told Aang quietly, as to not alert the others. Aang nodded and placed the bag down in the water. He moved it up and down in the water when she told him to until she said to stop, and he placed the bag back on her still damp skirt. She insisted on him doing so.
She then handed the steaming bowl to Aang, who gripped near the top, as to not burn himself. He took a nervous breath and took a vigilant sip, all the while with the girl watching him like a hawk.
His eyes widened at the taste of it. It tasted almost like ripe peaches, and he suspected that she had put in crushed peach leaves to better the flavor. He smiled against the bowl and began to gulp the hot tea down. When it was gone, his throat began to tickle, and the pain subsided, if only slightly, but it was a definite improvement. He nodded his thanks, still not trying to talk.
She smiled contently nonetheless and ran her slender fingers through Appa's fur, gently scratching him, which he responded to with a happy groan. She let her mind wander while she continued to comb the soft fur.
When she finally came back to reality after stroking Appa, her fiery temper kicked in after hearing the word content that Sokka was using in insults to Katara.
Exhaling steam through her nose, she stormed over to Sokka, leaving behind an Aang that was rapidly growing more and more anxious.
Then, without warning, she thrust a punch in Sokka's direction, letting a fireball fly. The amount of fire used was surprisingly large, as much as what Zuko could come up with, and Sokka was freed instantly.
"There," She said, weariness and annoyance evident in her voice, all traces of the sweet tone she used with Aang gone. "You're free. Happy now?"
Sokka sputtered, to shocked from her actions to say anything intelligent (A/N: Not like that's stopped him before…), and too surprised to move from his spot.
She turned to Katara. "Is he always like this?"
Katara nodded. "Daily, just about."
The girl ran her fingers through her layered shoulder-length hair. "Listen, about what you did earlier, thanks."
Katara smiled. "Don't mention it. It's the ways of my people to be-"
"-Merciful. I know. Still, you didn't have to. Like your…" She looked decisively at Sokka. "…brother said…he IS your brother, right?" When Katara nodded, the girl continued. "Like your brother said, I AM a daughter of the Fire Nation, and our nations ARE supposed to be enemies…"
"If there's one thing I've learned in this stupid war it's that anyone can be an enemy." Katara then shuttered. "I learned that one the hard way…"
For a second the girl's eyes glazed over before returning to normal. "Oh, I see…" She appeared to be in deep thought at the moment before seemingly remembering something important.
"Oh! I never caught your names! Could you please?" She smiled sheepishly at Katara.
"Sure," Katara smiled. "My name's Katara. That's my brother Sokka…" She pointed towards Appa. "The big walking carpet is Appa. He's a flying bison. Next to Appa is Toph, and that's Aang on Appa's tail." She smiled. "And that's Momo on Aang's head with Sokka's fish…"
She took two seconds to digest this information before-
"MOMO! Come back with my fish!" Sokka dove for Momo, but he missed and ended up bowling over Aang. Toph promptly started laughing, mainly to make "Snoozles" mad, and Katara and the girl quickly followed the suit.
After the excitement was over, Katara looked at her once again. "We never heard your name…"
The she-child smiled apologetically and mumbled something that wasn't cohesive.
"What?"
"Makayla," she said, a little bit louder. "My name is Makayla. I am seven years old and I like spicy foods, friendly spars, and listening to witty banter, and I don't like it when people take one look at me and automatically assume that I'm evil."
She stopped talking long enough to take a breath and looked at Katara's bewildered face. "I have a big vocabulary," Makayla explained. "I picked it up from my dad."
"And what was your dad, a scribe?" Sokka asked, semi-eaten fish in his grasp.
"Actually, he's a cook." Makayla said with a big smile on her face.
That surprised everybody, but that was nothing compared to the aftershock of when she added, "As well as a mercenary…"
(A/N: Were this an actual anime, everybody would've abruptly fallen over in surprise.)
"A cook and a mercenary!" Sokka's outburst pretty much summed up what was on everybody's mind.
She nodded. "And a doctor, too." She then shrugged at their still-shocked faces. "Fighting is what he considers his hobby. Cooking is his job. He comes up with new and better cures for sicknesses all the time while he cooks. It's what he does."
"So…" Toph came out of shock first. "He's not a soldier?"
"Nope!" Makayla chirped with a goofy grin on her face, one very similar to Aang's. "He just likes sparring. And watching spars. And having us try his new recipes. He likes a lot of things, actually, just not the war." She sighed and shook her head. "Anyone who's SANE doesn't like the war, but obviously nobody told that to the people of higher power…"
"Like Ozai?" Aang said, speaking for the first time all day, in a voice that sounded only slightly coarse now. His question earned him stares from Katara and Sokka, and a surprised expression from Toph.
"Yeah," Makayla said in an almost whisper. "Like Ozai…"
Disclaimer: Makayla is MINE! I am officially (tm)'ing her. I currently own nothing else in the story, but then again, this is only Chapter one...