Chapter 2, The raid.
Katara was a happy, joyful and hopeful girl who had just turned 8, she would always try to see the positive side of life and tried to see the best in everyone, she often spent her time playing with her brother Sokka who was 1 year older than her.
Katara would also play with the water that she could slightly control however with no one to teach her how to waterbend it was unlikely that she would ever be a master, despite this Katara was still eager to learn all that she could.
Katara's mother and grandmother had told her stories about waterbenders and how they had been able to do amazing things with the water, some people in the village hoped that Katara would one day reach this level but her family knew that that was unlikely to happen.
Still Katara had a happy life, her brother was often silly and funny, her parents was loving and caring and her grandmother was wise and had many stories to tell.
However little did Katara know that her entire life was about to change.
Not too far from the village there was a small fleet of Fire nation ships heading their way, the leader of this fleet was a man named Yan Rha who was hungry for a promotion.
Yan Rha was standing on the deck of his ship when one of his subordinates walked up, "Sir we will reach our destitution in about one hour" he said, "Very good, prepare the men for combat" said Yan Rha.
"Do you really think that there is a waterbender at this village sir" asked the solder, Yan Rha smiled "My source was reliable, she said that there is at least one waterbender left in the South pole and we will find whoever it is and kill them" he said.
After half an hour the Fire nation ships was now close enough so that they could see the Water tribe village with there telescopes, Yan Rha and many of the others was all watching the village closely for any signs of defence but it was clear that this village was small and barely standing as it was.
Yan Rha was about to put his telescope down when he just saw something move, Yan Rha adjusted his telescope to get a better look and saw that there was a small pile of snow that was moving by it's self, "So it's true, there is still a waterbender here" he thought.
Yan Rha looked around trying to find the waterbender who was bending the snow and that was when he saw her, he saw little 8 year old Katara bending the snow with a happy smile of her face.
Yan Rha was stunned for a moment, he had expected a fully grown adult to be the waterbender not some little child, this gave the man something to think about, as much as Yan Rha wanted that promotion he wasn't sure if he could kill a child.
The Fire nation used to take waterbenders alive in the hope that one of them would be the Avatar, however after a waterbender had escaped from one of their prisons many years ago the waterbenders was judged as too dangerous to be kept alive and they was simply killed instead.
However this girl was only a small child and she clearly had almost no skill in waterbending, "Sir what's wrong" asked one of the solders who had noticed Yan Rha's odd behaviour, "There's been a slight change of plans" said Yan Rha.
Katara was happily playing with the snow, she was making it move up and down, Katara smiled at what she could do but then she felt something cold hit her in the back of the head.
Katara turned around and saw Sokka standing there with a few snowballs in hand, "I got you" he said with a goofy smile on his face.
Katara wasn't about to let her brother get away with this so she knelt down and scooped up some snow that formed into a rough ball shape thanks to her waterbending, Katara throw her snowball but Sokka dodged out of the way.
What followed was a fun snowball fight between the two siblings, as the fight went on Sokka made a huge snowball that he could barely lift above his head, however before he could throw his creation Katara waved her hands down and the snow fell apart and landed on her brother's head.
"Hey no fair, you can't use magic" said Sokka as he wiped snow off of his head, "It's not magic it's waterbending, Gran gran said that her best friend could do it" said Katara, Sokka would always say things like this about Katara's abilities however what he would never admit to was that he was secretly jealous that his sister could do things that he could never even dream of.
Suddenly something happened that neither of the two children had ever seen before, the pure white snow that was gently falling turned black as coal, the two looked at the black snow Sokka with curiosity and Katara with fear.
"I'm going to find mum" said Katara as she ran away towards their home, Sokka stayed behind and watched as all of the warriors of the village grabbed their weapons and ran to the village walls while everyone else ran in the opposite direction.
Soon multiple Fire nation ships came into view, they was made of metal and was bigger than anything that Sokka had seen before, the ships rammed into the village wall breaking through the snow easily.
Seconds later more Fire nation solders than Sokka could count jumped off of the ships and ran straight into the village, the fighting started immediately the warriors of the Water tribe vs the Fire nation solders.
Some of the Fire nation solders was armed with swords and spears while others was firebenders and simply used their abilities to fight, the Water tribe warriors on the other hand only had their weapons made mostly of whale bones to fight.
Despite the clear disadvantage the Water tribe warrior was holding their own, however little did they know that this was only a distraction while Yan Rha carefully made his way into the village unseen.
Katara ran as fast as she could (which wasn't very fast) all the way home, but when she got there she found Yan Rha standing in their igloo speaking to her mother, Katara was so frightened by the strange man that she completely froze.
"Where is the waterbender" demanded Yan Rha, "There aren't any waterbenders here, the Fire nation already took them all away" said Kya calmly trying not to show any fear, "Don't lie to me, I know there's one waterbender left" said Yan Rha threateningly.
"Mum" said the terrified Katara finally finding her voice, Yan Rha turned around and smiled as he saw his target, "Nether mind" he said to Kya as he reached for Katara and grabbed the girl's arm.
"No, she's not a waterbender, she just a child" said Kya now fully panicking, "Don't try and fool me, I saw her waterbender already" said Yan Rha as he picked up Katara and put her under his arm as the girl punched and kicked but to no avail.
Kya jumped to her feet and ran at Yan Rha, "No Katara" she screamed as she tried to save her daughter, however the only thing that she received was a backhanded punch to the face from Yan Rha, "Mum" cried Katara as she watched her mother fall to the ground unconscious.
Yan Rha carried Katara out of her home and through the village being careful not to run into anyone along the way, "Let me go, Mum, Dad, Sokka help" Katara screamed at the top of her lungs, however no one could hear her over the sound of the fighting.
Yan Rha boarded his ship and gave the order to leave.
Sokka was still watching as the warrior of his village battled the Fire nation, Sokka throw snow at any nearby solders even though he wasn't really doing anything to help.
Then suddenly much to both Sokka's and the warriors surprise the Fire nation began to retreat back to their ships, Sokka was so happy they'd done it, they'd driven the Fire nation away, however he was completely unaware that his little sister was on one of those fleeing ships.