HOME | DD

Description
Title: When the Mask Comes Off
Series: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Rating: Pg-13 (for some violence)

-------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
Prologue:

The Good Morning Surprise

Katara could still smell the storm in the air when she woke up. Her sleeping bag was damp from morning dew and she shivered. Half considering going back to sleep, she made sure her arms weren’t exposed to the frigid morning air.

One slow glance around camp told her she that was the first one up. Knowing that some movements could wake Toph, she didn’t shift any more than to reach for the parka beneath her head and wrap it around her upper body.

Getting out of her warm cocoon seemed too horrible a thought to even consider but Katara also realized that if she didn’t start a fire she would be cold until someone else did. Looking up at the sky and figuring that it was around mid-morning already, she decided that breakfast should be first on her list of daily chores.

Suppressing a yawn, she looked through tearing eyes for her clothes and shoes. They were bundled beside her and she grabbed them, pulling them on over her under garments within the small confines of her cocoon before slipping out into the freezing air around her.

The storm had rolled in almost immediately after the sun had set, and shortly after that rain had pelted the group, forcing Aang to land their tired and now wet ten ton flying friend.

The forest that surrounded their camp was thick with trees. They all seemed as tall as the sky and Katara had no idea what they were called, but their needle-like leaves were a pain to sleep on. It had taken the group nearly an hour to find a suitable place to land Appa and by the time they had landed they were exhausted. Instead of making a fire that would just extinguish in the rain they had turned in.

Katara walked past Appa’s giant, snoring form and over to the large saddle beside him. She rummaged through bags until she found the moose-deer jerky that Sokka had managed to make over the last couple of days. By mixing it with the brine from the other supply of meat and a little fresh water, she’d be able to make a nice soup for breakfast in very little time. If she managed to find some nuts and a hardy supple of berries, Aang could eat something fresh.

She could feel the pull of a nearby water source and -picking up her cooking pot- she made her way in that direction. It was perfect because during the early morning she and Aang could practice waterbending, and then while Toph’s lessons of earthbending took over in the mid-afternoon, she and Sokka could bathe.

Blessed with a fairly accurate sense of direction she made it to the river and back to camp with little trouble. She even managed to find a few suitable berry bushes to gather from, and had pockets them. Though the water was heavy in her arms she knew that she had gotten a lot stronger over the past few months.

This was a good thing for the Fire Nation was still searching for them night and day. Luckily, though, they had finally arrived at a point where there were more allies than enemies in the towns they came across.

After setting the heavy pot on the ground near where she planned on making a fire, Katara used some nearby rocks to outline a fire pit, worried that even wet, the slightest stray ember could set the whole forest ablaze. She managed to get the fire started, the heavy lifting making her hands much more usable now that her blood was pumping through them.

As she placed the pot in the middle of the roaring fire she couldn’t help but feel that something was off. For one thing, Toph -almost always up as early as she was- had yet to come out of her own small rock tent. Katara shredded jerky and poured a bit of brine into the pot. She warmed herself and then realized that something else was bothering her: Momo was no where to be seen.

She took a deep breath and gulped, hoping that her pounding heart and sweaty hands were all an overreaction. Shaking her head to clear it, she decided to wake up her brother; a little company should help ease the bad feeling in the back of her mind. Standing and moving towards his bed she noticed that he was turned away from her... that all of her companions had their faces hidden. The bad feeling very quickly established itself as spine tingling fear.

She reached for her brother’s shoulders, shaking him slightly. Two times she did this, the second time was much harder than the first. “Sokka,” she grumbled at him. When he didn’t even make a sound she leaned closer to check if he was faking it. That was when she saw the red staining his hair and skin and she realized that he wasn’t sleeping at all: the large and bloody cut forming at his hair line was the cause of his unconsciousness.

Katana stood up so quickly that her foot almost skidded out from under her in protest. The trap that had been sprung around her was painfully obvious now. Fire Nation soldiers spring out from behind trees, and outnumbered ten to one, she fought them off with the now boiling water from her pot for as long as she could. The battle was a pointless one though and when the business end of her brother’s stolen club met with the back of her head she drifted off into darkness knowing that she had failed.

Description
Title: When the Mask Comes Off
Series: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Rating: Pg-13 (for some violence)

-------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
Prologue:

The Good Morning Surprise

Katara could still smell the storm in the air when she woke up. Her sleeping bag was damp from morning dew and she shivered. Half considering going back to sleep, she made sure her arms weren’t exposed to the frigid morning air.

One slow glance around camp told her she that was the first one up. Knowing that some movements could wake Toph, she didn’t shift any more than to reach for the parka beneath her head and wrap it around her upper body.

Getting out of her warm cocoon seemed too horrible a thought to even consider but Katara also realized that if she didn’t start a fire she would be cold until someone else did. Looking up at the sky and figuring that it was around mid-morning already, she decided that breakfast should be first on her list of daily chores.

Suppressing a yawn, she looked through tearing eyes for her clothes and shoes. They were bundled beside her and she grabbed them, pulling them on over her under garments within the small confines of her cocoon before slipping out into the freezing air around her.

The storm had rolled in almost immediately after the sun had set, and shortly after that rain had pelted the group, forcing Aang to land their tired and now wet ten ton flying friend.

The forest that surrounded their camp was thick with trees. They all seemed as tall as the sky and Katara had no idea what they were called, but their needle-like leaves were a pain to sleep on. It had taken the group nearly an hour to find a suitable place to land Appa and by the time they had landed they were exhausted. Instead of making a fire that would just extinguish in the rain they had turned in.

Katara walked past Appa’s giant, snoring form and over to the large saddle beside him. She rummaged through bags until she found the moose-deer jerky that Sokka had managed to make over the last couple of days. By mixing it with the brine from the other supply of meat and a little fresh water, she’d be able to make a nice soup for breakfast in very little time. If she managed to find some nuts and a hardy supple of berries, Aang could eat something fresh.

She could feel the pull of a nearby water source and -picking up her cooking pot- she made her way in that direction. It was perfect because during the early morning she and Aang could practice waterbending, and then while Toph’s lessons of earthbending took over in the mid-afternoon, she and Sokka could bathe.

Blessed with a fairly accurate sense of direction she made it to the river and back to camp with little trouble. She even managed to find a few suitable berry bushes to gather from, and had pockets them. Though the water was heavy in her arms she knew that she had gotten a lot stronger over the past few months.

This was a good thing for the Fire Nation was still searching for them night and day. Luckily, though, they had finally arrived at a point where there were more allies than enemies in the towns they came across.

After setting the heavy pot on the ground near where she planned on making a fire, Katara used some nearby rocks to outline a fire pit, worried that even wet, the slightest stray ember could set the whole forest ablaze. She managed to get the fire started, the heavy lifting making her hands much more usable now that her blood was pumping through them.

As she placed the pot in the middle of the roaring fire she couldn’t help but feel that something was off. For one thing, Toph -almost always up as early as she was- had yet to come out of her own small rock tent. Katara shredded jerky and poured a bit of brine into the pot. She warmed herself and then realized that something else was bothering her: Momo was no where to be seen.

She took a deep breath and gulped, hoping that her pounding heart and sweaty hands were all an overreaction. Shaking her head to clear it, she decided to wake up her brother; a little company should help ease the bad feeling in the back of her mind. Standing and moving towards his bed she noticed that he was turned away from her... that all of her companions had their faces hidden. The bad feeling very quickly established itself as spine tingling fear.

She reached for her brother’s shoulders, shaking him slightly. Two times she did this, the second time was much harder than the first. “Sokka,” she grumbled at him. When he didn’t even make a sound she leaned closer to check if he was faking it. That was when she saw the red staining his hair and skin and she realized that he wasn’t sleeping at all: the large and bloody cut forming at his hair line was the cause of his unconsciousness.

Katana stood up so quickly that her foot almost skidded out from under her in protest. The trap that had been sprung around her was painfully obvious now. Fire Nation soldiers spring out from behind trees, and outnumbered ten to one, she fought them off with the now boiling water from her pot for as long as she could. The battle was a pointless one though and when the business end of her brother’s stolen club met with the back of her head she drifted off into darkness knowing that she had failed.