Our Farewell – Within Temptation

The Fire Nation – powerful and victorious in all its splendour…The Fire Nation never falls back down when they are struck; they withhold the worst and live through the better. From their hands have men fallen, bloody ashes upon solid ground. Pervasive are them who lead the nations by their conquests. The Fire Nation held the home and heart of fire…The Fire Nation was the reason for my existence.

Thirteen Years Ago, Southern Watertribe

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Hollers of despair and screams for refuge enclosed the ears of the villagers in a hazed attempt at survival. The deaths of warriors came in a package of numbers as the Fire Nation stormed the icy grounds of the tribe, diminishing the very last of the South. The strength to endure the end of your love's survival had lashed at the thick shell of Hakoda's heart. It was him who ordered her to escape with the children, knowing farewell of her refusal. It was him who should be the first to die of his tribe, yet he sat solid, inside his walls of ice.

Hakoda glanced desolately at his children whose youth still overcame them. They sat across from him, awaiting the message he requested to state. Sadness overwhelmed him as the screams chilled from outside…soon they'd come for the chief and scavenge the land for the rest who hid quiet.

"Father, is there a reason for such screaming outside?" Katara had questioned.

A loud exhale of breath flew from the swollen lips of the chief, before he finalized his decision. He shook his head twice in response and returned his gaze to his eldest child. "Sokka, I plead you to take Katara with you on a canoe through the tundra. Go behind the icy shores and leave the village for…a couple hours. Don't protest my request, just do it. Take the back end of the igloo to the east shores."

"But Father, Gran-Gran says the east shores are not to be canoeing in. There are high glaciers that will hide us from your field of view. We-"

The pressure of footsteps pounded viciously towards the igloo and Hakoda's eyes widened sharply in worry. "Sokka, just run with Katara and leave!"

His children hastily exited the back of the igloo, just as ten men in red entered it. He was contemplating as to whether he should fight and wait for the rest to kill him…or to surrender and be killed at once. Painfully, Hakoda fell to his knees before them as he awaited the quick strike of death, but he was stunned when they grabbed hold of him and brought him towards a warship. They carried him down an unstable staircase and into a dark pit to die. When the door locked him into darkness, he realized the death he would die. It would have been better to have fought them all and died a death of a warrior…but to die slowly and have no absolute awareness of your children's being...would be a death he'd never suffice. Hakoda pressed his head against the cool ground of the pit and allowed the rocking of the boat to soothe him into a slumber.

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"Sokka, you always sit in the front. Give me a chance!" cried Katara as she shoved Sokka away from the canoe and stepped in first.

Sokka rolled his eyes and sighed, "Whatever, I'm still older than you…and I don't even think it matters."

Sokka stepped into the canoe after Katara and they began canoeing from the eastern shore. Provokingly, Katara said, "You're so stupid Sokka, just because you're older… you think you have to sit in the front and-"

"Will you be quiet, Katara!" he breathed in a hoarse whisper. His eyes travelled to a dark misty object moving towards them. The object created a raucous humming sound and as the object approached their tiny canoe, the sound grew louder.

"K-Katara…what is that?" Sokka inquired as nerves awakened within his body and nearly exploded when he saw what had come up into view. The Fire Nation. "Oh my - Katara, it's the Fire Nation!"

"What should we do? They won't hurt us, will they?" questioned Katara as Sokka pushed her to the back of canoe and plunged the rod into the water as he rowed hastily towards the village. The Fire Nation ship followed behind them as they parked against the eastern shore and hurried into the hushed village. They both came to a sudden stop as their eyes wandered the horror around them. Blood stuck to the icy sheets of the village and bodies laid immobile on the ground. Impulsively, Katara ran directly into the igloo to find their Father gone.

In frightened shock she ran back outside yelling, "Sokka, father is gone! He's not there. What should we…do?" Katara came to a stop when her eyes wandered to the place her brother once stood. She staggered to a body on the ground and thought of it as her brother…but it was not.

"Sokka?" her voice echoed throughout the empty land as she fell to the bloody grounds. Her eyes stared at the crimson-stained grounds for a long period of time before she screamed in anger and her small fist came down at the red snow. Her screams were muffled by a large hand clamping over her mouth and another hand enclosing around her neck. Moisture filled Katara's eyes as she screamed against the mouth, allowing her legs and hands to thrash at the stranger.

The stranger carried her into a ship, throwing her body and desperate cries to the dusty grounds of the Fire Nation vessel.

"Quiet, you dirty peasant!" the man in red ordered as her screams stifled to a low whinge. "You're lucky the Firelord decreed a better suffering for you. Your whole tribe was dismissed and quite easily, at that - but you're still breathing. Follow our ways and believe our words and your end will not come as quickly as the rest of your people's did."

Katara's head drooped slowly into a nod as the stinging in her head blanked the sudden events, into a hazy memoir.

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Author's Note: This is part one of the prologue. The following chapters will not be in third person, but mainly through Katara's perspective. You read…now review.