The Puppet-Show

-In which we see a puppet-show and feed turtleducks.

I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or The Legend of Korra, but I do own a Twitter, come and drop me a line! Candle_22

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Katara was woken by the sound of giggling. She moaned and rubbed her eyes tiredly, she felt like she had been asleep far longer than she should have been. She looked around her room and saw it was empty. 'Aang and Kya must have already gotten up' she thought as she washed and dressed herself for the day.

When she was ready to face the day she emerged from her room. When she opened the door the sound of giggling grew louder and she quickly traced it to Azayla's room. Azayla's door was open and when she walked in she saw Kasami and Azayla playing together confirming her suspicions that it was the girl's laughter she was hearing.

"Sorry for not waking you, but from experience I know you have had enough sleepless nights and early mornings to last a lifetime" spoke a voice from the doorway. Katara span around and saw Mai standing there with Zayu asleep in her arms.

"That was very thoughtful of you, thank you" she replied, grateful for the extra sleep.

Mai made a sound in her throat and moved to turn around but Katara spoke again

"Do you mind if I take Azayla and Kasami out today?"

"No, I'm sure they will like it. Azayla is always talking about Kasami" She spoke with slightly more enthusiasm than when Katara met her, but if you saw her talking to her husband of children it was like it was a completely different person.

Katara nodded a reply, because any words she spoke would have been drowned out by the excited girls yells and laughter.

"Have you girls had breakfast yet?" Katara asked after watching Mai walk away

"Yes Aunty Tara" replied Azayla with manners you could only acquire from being raised as royalty.

"Mummy, it's almost lunch!" exclaimed Kasami which caused Azayla to go into fits of giggle, which Kasami very soon joined her in.

'Did I sleep in that long?' Wondered Katara "Well how about we go out for lunch?" She asked and was answered by yet more yells and giggles.

"Ok, we'll leave after I get you both dressed" she said after realising they were both still in their pyjamas, and that they must have been playing with each other since they got up. She got one of Kasami's dresses out of the bag she had bought and one of Azayla's from her wardrobe. She brushed their hair and tied them in identical braids at the children persistence. Then she helped them put on some sturdy shoes and led them out of the palace.

As she was walking out on the grounds she spied Aang and Zuko Firebending against each other, Tenzin and Gyatso were going crazy cheering them both on and screaming whenever anyone landed a hit. They were both equally matched and Katara wondered if their spar would ever end.

Kasami and Azayla ran ahead of her, Kasami had gotten better at walking and running but she stumbled and fell more often than Azayla whom Katara knew declined her parents help to carry her a lot of the time and had more practise walking. Kasami asked Azayla if she knew how to skip, Azayla didn't so Kasami took it upon herself to teach her. Kya had shown Kasami how to skip but she still hadn't quite gotten the hang of it. The 2 girls took each other's hands and held on while they both attempted to skip at the same time. Katara was glad they were on grass otherwise it would have really hurt the amount they were falling over! But they were determined and as they left the palace grounds they had gotten into a rhythm and the only trouble they were having was how to stop at the same time.

Katara led them down the main streets amused by the looks of sheer fascination and excitement on their faces. They were having such a good time running to each of the shops and looking at the stalls that lined the streets that when Katara took them to have lunch, she picked a restaurant with out-door seating so they would still watch everything that was going on.

Not many people recognized their young princess without her parents or elaborate clothes. Katara was grateful for this; she didn't think she would have had as much fun if they did.

After another round of skipping through the streets the girl's legs were getting quite tired. Katara noticed this and pointed to a puppet show a little further down the street they were in.

"Do you girls want to sit and watch the puppet show?" she asked

She didn't even get a reply, she didn't know where they got their energy from all of a sudden but they flew off towards the puppet show before Katara could even take a breath. She hadn't had the best experience with Fire Nation puppet shows before but she couldn't imagine that this one was going to be about the Fire Lord defeating the Avatar, not in this time of peace.

The girls took their seats next to a girl who looked just a bit older than them. She introduced herself as Arisa. The girls chatted as they waited for the puppet show to begin. Katara assumed Arisa had a cold because she kept sneezing. 'I hope the girls don't catch that' she thought but before she could do anything else the curtains lifted and the show started.

Katara assumed that the puppet show was a re-telling of a Fire Nation bedtime story, because all the Fire Nation children seemed to know what was coming next, Kasami had never heard the story though she enjoyed it nonetheless.

The story was about 2 dragons that loved each other but could not be together because one was the daughter of the most important dragon, she was red, and one was just a common dragon, he was blue. They met up secretly each night, but one day the girl didn't come. She had been captured by an evil purple dragon. The blue dragon searched the whole world until he found her and rescued her. When he returned home with her, her father was so happy that he allowed them to be together.

The show lasted about 15 minutes and ended with an impressive scene of the 2 dragons breathing fire to form a love heart. When it ended Katara looked at the sun, its position told her that Kasami was overdue for a nap, and she assumed Azayla probably had a nap at a similar time. Sure enough, when the girls walked back over to her they were yawning but assuring her they weren't tired.

As they walked back to the palace the girls started bickering. Katara placed them both in their cots knowing that when they woke they would be the best of friends again.

It was strange to not have to do any cooking or housework here, she offered but Mai quickly told her that if she caught her doing any housework she would find out if she still carried knives on her, but when Mai saw her expression she let out a small laugh, which Katara took to mean that she was joking.

She walked around the grounds for a while, enjoying the nice weather they were having- especially with it being winter- until she spied Kya sitting by a pond full of baby turtleducks and their mother. She had a chunk of bread and was throwing crumbs into the water, and then she was using waterbending to slowly move the crumbs around. She stopped this when the mother came out to peck her but Kya scrambled up a tree just in time. Katara walked over to her

"You know you shouldn't tease them honey"

"I know, but she shouldn't have tried to peck me!"

"That's just what mothers are like" she replied as she helped her down from her awkward spot atop a tree branch. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Zuko staring at them with a strange look in his eyes. Upon eye contact he seemed to snap out of it and continued walking toward the palace.

"Hey" said a voice right behind her, she jumped, startled

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, are you ok?" Aang asked, Katara blinked twice before confirming she was fine. They swapped stories of what they had done that day as they made their way back to the palace. Aang assured her he won the spar with Zuko but she thought that if she asked Zuko he would have said he did.

As they neared Azayla's room they heard a scream from both girls, it wasn't an over excited scream, it was one of terror. They looked at each other for a second before bolting to her room.

A/N ooooo, cliff-hanger! What do you think happened next? Please review, I will have the chapter out soon if you do! Promise!

Arrows the wolf: Haha it makes me laugh too! Thanks!

JustAGuy: Thank you so much, thanks for your advice! I am thinking about doing a Korra story like this…maybe when season 1 ends