A/N 2020/08/16: This chapter is currently under revision.

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews and favs/follows! I read them all. Every. Single. One. And I get giddy when I do.

A young girl wrapped in heavy layers moved through the snow, carefully stopping behind a jagged icy outcrop that dotted the barren iceland to spot for pursuers. Luckily, no one followed. Katara decided they must still be too busy with the merriment to notice her absence. She uncovered her hood to glance up at the derelict ship encased partially in ice in front of her, it's shadow falling short of her by several meters.

Katara had once asked her father why it was still here, why didn't the Fire Nation just retake what was theirs or why her tribe didn't simply crack the ice underneath and let it sink to the bottomless depths below.

"Because it serves as a reminder, to both them and us." replied her father. "To them, it is a warning, that no matter what we do, victory will never be ours. To us, it is a symbol of defiance and our sovereignty, that no matter what they throw at us, we will overcome."

Neither Watertribe nor Fire Nation walked these hallowed grounds. None except her.

Out here, she was alone.

A full mile away from her village, away from her brother, away from her father, and most importantly, away from that accursed Numtak. Out here, none of that mattered, just her, the moon, the shipwreck, and a silent valley of ice. She let out a sigh of relief and stared at the moon. It was beautiful, truly it was, glowing in the night sky.

They say that a waterbender is at their strongest during a full-moon, that to challenge one under it's pale glow was a fool's folly.

Katara could understand why. Out here she felt reinvigorated, like she had the strength of ten men and the will of many more. She had half a mind to walk back to the village and give her father and the Numtak a piece of her mind!

But like the rare Summer Nightflower, the rebellious idea faded away as quickly as it bloomed.

Sometimes she wondered if the stories her Gran Gran told her of the moon were true, that it was the canoe of a celestial spirit that watched and guided all lost souls under her light.

Katara could use some help and guidance right about now.

She dropped down and began to weep. Oh how she wished her mother were here, she would know what to do! As she struggled to contain her tears, she felt a searing pain diig into her side.

Carefully she took out the blue parchment capped in brass and tied with a red string. It had been her mother's, a gift for Katara's eighth summer, a few weeks before the raiders came. It was a few inches taller than her hand, but the things it contained were so much more than any ordinary scroll.

She read it silently, like the hundreds of times prior, repeating the images abd motions through her head dozens of times before taking a stand, the cold tears on her face forgotten.

Katara spread her arms and basked in the moon's glow. She could feel it in her bones, in the landscape around her where the moonlight touched. The power! By the spirits, the power! She could feel the light snowfall around her, the vapour that escaped her lips when she exhaled, the ocean churning dozens of feet beneath the ice on which she stood and its endless expanse, safe in the comfort that it bowed to her and her alone this beautiful and cheerless night.

She inhaled, savouring it like a man who had hungered for weeks. Slowly she raised her hand, and with only the moon and stars as her audience, she danced. But this wasn't the same sensual gyrations that the older girls performed for the men of the village. This was a dance more ancient, more spiritual, more primal, with a mesmerizing beauty of its own, a dance inscripted so meticulously inside the scroll bound tightly to her bosom: the Dance of Water.

Slowly and with grace she started. The soft blanket of snow around her swept up, compelled by some unseen force. Her movements gain momentum, and soon her slow waltz had become a flurry of fluid motion, and the gentle whirl of snow became a cold tempest of ice. The storm was a living, sentient being dancing to a an unheard symphony, and at its heart was Katara.

For the first time since her father broke the news two days prior, amist snow, metal, and ice, she smiled.

And on it on it went, creating a beautiful patchwork of patterns upon the ground on which she danced, until finally Katara came to a halt, breathing heavily and face glowing, bowing before an unseen audience..

"Well done, Katara!" clapped her hidden observer, "Well done!"

The emergence of her stalker brought reality crashing back all around her and her smile faded.

"Gran Gran!" cried the young waterbender, furious that someone had seen such an intimate and personal part of her.

"Come now Katara. Did you really think I wouldn't notice my favourite granddaughter sneak off into the night during her own betrothal celebration, did you?"

The older woman raised her eyebrow, indicating that she was having none of it. Katara's head hung low in defeat, "No."

"I thought not." said the old woman, slowly clambering out from her hiding place behind a large ice pillar. "But that was wonderful dear. A truly remarkable rendition of the Dance, a bit raw but dare I say the most beautiful I've ever seen."

"You've seen it before?" asked Katara incredulously.

Kanna scoffed, "You don't live to near eighty summers without seeing a few things. Now tell me, what is a young and pretty girl like you doing out here? Wouldn't you rather be beside handsome Numtak, in awe of his manliness as he regales the tale of how he defeated the eighteen foot tall ice-bear for the hundredth time?"

Katara let out a small grin, "Wasn't it fifteen feet tall?"

"It was a week ago. But I guess like all fantastical tales, things become grander and further from the truth as they age."

The two shared a small laugh before her grandmother took a more sober tone.

"You didn't answer my question, Katara. Why are you out here all alone? It's dangerous at night you know."

"Just out for a stroll. The mead and singing was getting to my head so I decided to leave."

Her grandmother raised an eyebrow and Katara felt herself shrink into her coat. It was a weak excuse and they both knew it.

"I know how hard it must be for you. But you must understand that your father's decision was not an easy one to make."

"Easy? Easy!?" muttered Katara nearly shaking with anger, tears streaming down her cheeks, "He threw me away like a pair of striped-walrus tusks! A prize to be given away to his loyal warriors as they cheer his name!"

Her movements caused a massive fissure in the ice, ruining her beautiful tapestry.

If the older woman noticed she didn't show it, "No he didn't. Your father wants nothing but happiness for his daughter. Were the world a better place, he would have wanted you to marry who you loved as he did. But this is not that workd, and as the chieftain of our village he must put his duty to his people above his love for you."

"But why Numtak? Why a man nearly twice my age?"

"Numtak is the son of a powerful clan and a strong warrior. Should your father fall in battle, Sokka would need someone to help support his claim. By marrying you to the next strongest contender and binding his family to ours, your brother's claim will undoubtedly go unchallenged."

The young waterbender laughed bitterly, "So I'm just a pawn in some game? To be used and discarded in favour of my brother?"

"You mustn't blame Sokka, Katara. That thick-headed, lovable fool of my grandson has a heart of gold, he would have never agreed to it had he known. But this isn't about him, or you, or your father. This is about the tribe. Without Numtak on our side the whole village would tear apart at the seams to infighting and we would have done the Fire Nation's job for them."

Her grandmother took her by the hand and stared deeply into Katara's eyes.

"Your tribe needs you. You are the glue that will hold the fabric of the tribe together.

Katara nodded mutely. "If my sacrifice means that the tribe will be alright, then so be it."

"Nothing is truly a sacrifice less something of great value been lost. I'm sorry it had to be your marriage Katara, I truly am."

She felt her mouth dry. Her hand made its way to her mother's necklace, a habit she had formed whenever she felt nervous or afraid.

"It's okay." said Katara reassuringly, though whether it was directed at Gran Gran or herself she was unsure of. "I don't like it, but I don't have to. I'll be fine. The future of the tribe demands it."

Her grandmother smiled sadly at her, "I wish I had half you courage when back then. Maybe if I did I would have given those elders a piece of my mind."

"What do you mean?"

"I was but a six years older than you are now when a handsome young man with a family far more powerful than mine came up to my father and asked for my hand in marriage. I wasn't in love with him, but that didn't matter one bit to my father. He accepted the dowry and had the wedding planned the next week." she said bitterly, her face turning to a grimace, "And though I knew I would likely later grow to love him, I knew our ideas of what marriage life ought to be were the exact opposite of what each other had in mind, and I also knew that the society in which we lived in would not allow me to live how I wanted to. So I left."

"Where did you go? What happened to your father?"

"When he found out he disowned me and struck my name off the family ice-wall. As for where I went? The furthest away one could possibly get from my home. Here."

Katara's mind was racing, "You're from the Northern Water Tribe?"

"Indeed I am." grinned Kanna mirthlessly.

"But you are brave!" cried Katara, "You took your destiny into your own hands in spite what your father and your tribe. You ran away from home and built a life out here on the opposite end of the earth!"

The wizened old woman spat on the ground, "I was a coward, nothing more. I ran away from my problems instead of facing them head on like you did."

Katara deflated at that. The sudden adrenaline had worn off as reality reared its ugly head once more.

"I heard the older girls and wives say that the first night is always painful." she said nervously, her hand reaching for necklace.

"That it is. But if the spirits be good, you won't be having yours for another five years."

"My sixteenth year?" she gasped, elation filling her as the silver lining shown brightly through the grey clouds.

"Seventeenth" corrected her grandmother, "You forget your nameday is in just a few moons."

"B-but how!?"

"I convinced your father to demand this of Numtak." said Kanna, grinning as she did, "Until then you will be binded legally but not married. Numtak was not happy but of course he must make some concessions; marrying a chieftain's daughter over a decade his junior is still a prize."

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" cried Katara, flinging her arms around Kanna, showering her with wet kisses. "This is why you're my favourite grandmother."

"Well I'm glad I am, since I'm the only living one you have."

The two shared a tender embrace before breaking apart.

"Now it's time to head back to the village, less your father get worried."

"But can't we stay for a bit longer?"

The old woman shook her head, "No, I don't believe we can. If they didn't notice you gone an hour ago they would have by now."

"How did you find me anyways?"

"Please Katara, I can't very well give out all my secrets, can I? Ruins the wise-old-woman mystique."

Together the two started their trek back to their village. As the fire and smoke came nearer, Katara asked her grandmother a question that had been on her mind.

"Gran Gran, since you've lived in the north, you've seen many Water Dances?"

"Yes I have, more than I can count. The Dance of Water was not just a series of movements you see, it was a reflection of who you were as a bender. They were a rite of passage for any waterbender in the tribe, man or woman."

"So is it true what you said earlier?"

Kanna paused for a moment, "I've seen some that were more precise, more disciplined, more skilled. And all of them had years of training that you didn't have, but none were as graceful or as beautiful as what I witnessed tonight. You're a natural, Katara. You'll make a fine waterbending master someday."

The young waterbender's face glowed and she clutched the scroll at her side tightly.

"There you are!" shouted Sokka, emerging from the village. His movement was a bit sluggish, indicating that he had sipped more than his fair share of the sweet sea-prune mead. "Fa'sther was' getting worried and wa-*hic*-s about to send haf the village looking for you."

"Well we're here now." said Katara imperiously, "How many drinks did you have?"

Sokka raised his eyebrow innocently, "Jus-*hic* a couple s'hips, why do you ashk?"

Katara rolled her eyes. Knowing Sokka, he was telling the truth- he had actually gotten drunk off of a meager amount of spirit. "Nevermind, just bring us to him."

"Right d'ish way your highnesh."

Hakoda sat around a fire with his warriors when they entered, Numtak among them.

"Katara! We were so worried about you!" exclaimed her father, pulling her into a hug, "Where were you?"

"Oh, out for a stroll." lied Kanna, "All the mead and singing was making her feel nauseous, you know how young 'uns get when they do grown-up things too early."

Hakoda's eyes narrowed but he said nothing to his mother. Kneeling down he stared into Katara's deep blue eyes. Kya's eyes, he thought mournfully.

"I've talked with your grandmother and thought it best to delay your wedding until you are eighteen. It's what your mother would have wanted, and I wouldn't want her spirit to come haunt me if I did that to you."

He grinned at his own joke.

"Come sit next to me, Sokka, mother, you too. I want to share a mead with you."

Her grandmother scoffed, "I'm much too old to be drinking mead. I'll have some prune juice instead."

The fire was a warm place to sit after an hour and a half out in the cold. One of the men brought by drinks and some food.

"Must've been cold out there alone, my betrothed. Weren't you afraid? Little girly like you would make a quick snack for a wandering ice-bear." said Numtak, imitating the bite of a bear.

"No ice-bear would dare hunt so close to the lair of the fearsome Numtak, who slayed a giant ice-bear with only his bare hands!" joked Katara, not willing to have Numtak get under her skin so easily. This earned round of laughter from the men.

Kanna guffawed, "I remember the day he dragged the bear back through the village gates, leaving a bloody trail in his wake. It was eleven feet and half-starved, its ribcage visible through the fur and the foulest stench imaginable. Poor thing, it chose the wrong day to hunt go hunting when the mighty Numtak was on the prowl. But by the ancestors was it damn delicious."

Another warrior, Kormatuk, chimed in, "Old Rikeen did know how to make a good bear stew."

"Yes he did, may the spirits safeguard his journey." said Hakoda, pouring some of his mead into the fire. One by one, the warriors did the same before going back to their merry-making.

As Katara huddled close to her family, wrapped in a warm blanket next to a fire, a horn of mead in one hand and a half-eaten skewer of otter-penguin intestines in the other, she looked up through the chimney to the stars beyond and knew without a doubt things were going to okay.

A/N: Hey ladies and germs, I'm back. Didn't think I'd crank out another one didya? Well neither did I to be honest. I was working on this chapter on and off for the last several months (in fact I almost completed the second chapter two weeks after the initial publish date but I didn't like the direction it was going in so I scrapped it) before coming up with this one literally yesterday. Wrote this bad boy up in 4-6 hours and now here we are.

Little bit of a time jump here so lemme explain real quick. In this alt-universe everyone is aged up because there will be more mature stuff (other than lemons) that I feel will only be writable if the characters were older. Last chapter Azula is 8, and it was 90 AC. The timeline is mostly the same, basically here are the current ages as of this chapter:

Year is 93 AC

Aang- 14 (still frozen)

Katara/Azula/Naruto- 11

Sokka/Zuko- 13

All siblings I assume are 1.5 years apart. No bashing, I don't do that. Also again, constructive criticism please I implore you, hell even flame if you got the juice.

P.S. All of this was done on my phone, so if there were some formatting and spelling errors, blame goes to my lack of a computer right now as I'm on vacation.