[Her eyes cut to Nami, sharp and quick, and the decision to trust her is made almost as quickly. Katara settles a little further back in her chair.]
The thing that you have to understand is that my world has been at war for a hundred years. The Fire Nation has done terrible things to people. The Air Nomads were destroyed first. Not just the benders... their entire civilization was just... gone. Burned away, because the Fire Nation was afraid of the next Avatar, scared that he would stop their plans. [And they were right to be afraid. Aang would stop them. Had stopped them. It's a bitter victory, but oh - is still sweet.]
Once they thought that the Avatar had been taken care of, they started to expand. My tribe at the south and the west-most part of the Earth Kingdom were attacked next. [Once her people had been as proud as the people of the North, as prosperous, their waterbending as powerful. Now... Katara's hand goes to touch her mother's necklace.] Their soldiers have no mercy. It didn't matter that no one had ever done anything to them, or that the people they attacked weren't soldiers. They just... came through and burned. My own village... they only left after they were sure we couldn't be a threat to them.
[There's a sudden sharp smile here.] They underestimated us. Two years ago, my father took the men of our tribe to war against the Fire Nation and stood between them in their attempt to conquer the Earth Kingdom. It would have fallen long before now if it wasn't for him - so many lives would have been lost.
Because they didn't care if they were attacking villages or soldiers... they left a lot of orphans behind. [The hand touching her necklace falls into her lap.] Jet was one of them.
[Action]
The thing that you have to understand is that my world has been at war for a hundred years. The Fire Nation has done terrible things to people. The Air Nomads were destroyed first. Not just the benders... their entire civilization was just... gone. Burned away, because the Fire Nation was afraid of the next Avatar, scared that he would stop their plans. [And they were right to be afraid. Aang would stop them. Had stopped them. It's a bitter victory, but oh - is still sweet.]
Once they thought that the Avatar had been taken care of, they started to expand. My tribe at the south and the west-most part of the Earth Kingdom were attacked next. [Once her people had been as proud as the people of the North, as prosperous, their waterbending as powerful. Now... Katara's hand goes to touch her mother's necklace.] Their soldiers have no mercy. It didn't matter that no one had ever done anything to them, or that the people they attacked weren't soldiers. They just... came through and burned. My own village... they only left after they were sure we couldn't be a threat to them.
[There's a sudden sharp smile here.] They underestimated us. Two years ago, my father took the men of our tribe to war against the Fire Nation and stood between them in their attempt to conquer the Earth Kingdom. It would have fallen long before now if it wasn't for him - so many lives would have been lost.
Because they didn't care if they were attacking villages or soldiers... they left a lot of orphans behind. [The hand touching her necklace falls into her lap.] Jet was one of them.