Chapter 3, Caged.
Katara was taken below deck and forced into a cage that was usually used for holding animals, she was trapped and so scared, the cage was so small that she could barely move, it was dark, cold and damp.
With nothing else to do and no way to escape Katara began to cry, however this turned out to be a mistake as one of the guards noticed her tears and opened her cage only to pick her up by her parka.
"Stop that now" demanded the guard terrifying Katara even furtherer, "Stop crying" shouted the guard, but Katara didn't stop she was far to scared to stop her tears.
The guard then slapped Katara across the face causing her to cry out in pain, "I know what your doing, don't even thing about trying to bend your tears to escape" he said as he throw Katara roughly into the cage and locked it again.
Katara who was now both afraid and in pain curled up into a ball and tried to stop her tears before she was hit again, she didn't understand why the guard had hit her she didn't even know that she could bend her own tears and even if she did it wouldn't matter, Katara knew so little about waterbending that she couldn't escape even if they was to give her a full bucket of water.
Katara didn't know what to do, she wanted to go home and be with her family, she wanted her mother to hug her, she wanted her father to protect her, she wanted her grandmother to tell her a happy story and she wanted Sokka to make her laugh.
Hours passed and nothing happened other than the guard leaving and being replaced with another equally scary one, no one came to give her anything to eat and they certainly didn't give her anything to drink.
At one point Katara who was now very thirsty made the mistake of asking for something to drink and received another slap across the face.
Curled into as tight of a ball as possible Katara tried to ignore her rumbling belly and her dry throat as she closed her eyes and hoped that she would wake up at home and discover that this was all just a horrible nightmare.
Yan Rha was in his quarters filling out his report on the successful raid on the South pole, while it was true that he had capture the waterbender instead of killing her like he was ordered to he doubted that it would make a difference, he was still likely to get that promotion.
Just then the door opened and one of the man entered, "Sir we have a problem" he said, "What is it" asked Yan Rha annoyed at being disturbed, "It's the Water tribe, their following us" said the solder, "Show me" said Yan Rha as he stood up and followed the solder to the deck of the ship.
Yan Rha grabbed a telescope and looked out to sea, there in the distance he could see three Water tribe boats following their ship.
"Should I have the men prepare for combat" asked the solder, "No, increase our speed and let me know if they start to gain on us" ordered Yan Rha as he handed the telescope to the solder and returned to his quarters.
The Water tribe boats was small, wooden and powered by their sails, while the Fire nation ship was big and powered by coal, Yan Rha knew that they should be able to out run the Water tribe boats.
Far away in the Fire nation there was a small village and in this village there was an inn being run by an old lady named Hama.
Everyone in the village knew Hama as a kind old lady, but there was something that none of them knew and that was that Hama was really a waterbender who had escaped from a Fire nation prison many years ago with a special waterbending technic that she had invented called bloodbending.
With bloodbending Hama could control the liquid in a persons body and make that person do whatever she wanted, however Hama could only use bloodbending during a full moon when her powers was at their peak.
Ever since she had escaped Hama had used her bloodbending to get revenge on the Fire nation for what they had done to her and her people, she would take control of a resident of the village every full moon and force them to walk all the way to a mountain where Hama had made a dungeon to imprison them just like what had been done to her.
Unfortunately during the last full moon the person who she had taken control of had proven to be difficult and he had fought against her bloodbending long enough for the sun to rise and Hama had lost her grip on the man.
Hama didn't think much of this however, the man had ran from the village screaming that a spirit had attacked him and Hama knew that no one would believe him.
However what Hama didn't know was that the man in question had run to the Fire nation capital and had told everyone what had happened, and while most hadn't believed him the Fire lord had gotten word of his story and had sent some of his men to investigate.
These men after doing research for several days had finally found Hama's secret dungeon and learned from the prisoners that she was the course of all of this, they didn't know how she was able to take control of people but they was sure that she was responsible.
Hama was in her kitchen making tea when suddenly her door was kicked down and half a dozen solders stormed in, "What's going on here" asked Hama as the solders entered her kitchen, "You are under arrest for kidnapping, surrender now and we won't hurt you" said the lead solder.
Hama wasn't sure how these solders had found her, but she wasn't about to go back to prison, one of the solders stepped forward with a set of handcuffs and Hama made her move.
Hama bended the water from her kettle and used it to slit the solders throat clean open, "She's a waterbender" shouted another solder, one solder tried to tackle Hama but the old woman send an icicle into his forehead.
However Hama's luck didn't last for very long as while she was killing a third solder another one had grabbed a nearby pan and thrown it at Hama's head, a few years ago Hama would have easily dodged this but age was starting to catch up to her and she failed to move in time.
The pan hit Hama in the head knocking her out, the old waterbender fell to the floor as the remaining solders recovered from what had been a nasty surprise, "Tie her up" said the lead solder.
Back at the South pole Sokka was sitting on what remained of the village wall looking out to sea, when they had discovered what had happened to Katara his father and the other warriors had quickly readied their boats and gone after the Fire nation ships.
It was now night and it was becoming very cold but Sokka remained where he was, he didn't want to go home until his sister was back.
Kya came up and put a blanket around Sokka, "Sokka it's getting late, you should come to bed" she said to her son, "Not yet mum, I'm waiting for dad and Katara to get back" said Sokka.
There was no doubt in Sokka's mind that his father would save Katara, his father was the best warrior in the village and could do anything, Kya on the other hand was not so sure, she knew that unless the sea was very favourable to them there was little chance of her husband and the others catching the Fire nation ships.
Kya sat down next to her son and pulled him close for a hug, she wanted Sokka to go to bed not only become of the cold but she also didn't want him to be here when Hakoda got back just in case it was bad news.
Just as Kya was about to ask her son to go to bed again he saw something that brought a smile to his face, "Look their back" said Sokka excitedly as he spotted the Water tribe boats returning to the village.
Sokka jumped out of his mother's arms and ran up to his father's boat just as it reached shore, Sokka was ready to give Katara the biggest hug in the world the second that she got off of the boat, however Katara didn't get off of the boat only the warriors did and they all looked depressed and defeated.
Sokka spotted his father who looked sadder then any of the others and ran up to him, "Dad, dad, where's Katara" he asked, Hakoda hadn't expected Sokka to still be awake at this time and he dearly wished that his son was asleep right now.
Hakoda knelt down and placed his hand on Sokka's shoulder, "I'm so sorry Sokka, we did everything that we could, but we couldn't keep up with their ships" he said holding back his own tears for the sake of his son.
Kya stepped forward, "I'm so sorry, I should have done something, it's my fault that he took her" she said while her eyes started to water, Hakoda pulled his wife into a hug and held her gently, "It's not your fault, you did all that you could"He said.
Sokka couldn't believe what had happened, his sister was gone, taken by the Fire nation, Sokka promised himself that one day he would make the Fire nation pay for what they had done.