The Warrior's Gambit (Zutara)

XXIII

Katara yawned widely the next morning, shuffling her feet as the girls walked to the dining hall. They'd be having all their meals with the factory workers.

While Katara knew that all these men individually were not bad people, she still could not help the feeling of anger that was growing, festering, inside her stomach as she looked at them. Her hatred for this entire factory made it difficult to focus on much else, but at least it distracted her from how weary and exhausted she was.

She'd spent the whole night healing people and separating out mud from water, leaving buckets of clean water at doorsteps. Her fingers were aching and her head was pounding. She was starved.

Luckily, Ratana was also yawning so no one assumed anything amiss. Though, from the dark circles and her puffy eyes, Katara knew she'd likely been crying all night.

They got in line for food, and as Katara was waiting for some coffee, there was a commotion down the line. One of the factory workers was arguing with a cook.

"What do you mean there are no scrambled eggs, man? I always eat eggs!" he cried petulantly.

"I don't know what to tell you," the cook said tensely, rubbing his face. "We don't have any."

"But, you always have some!"

"Not today, alright? I must have misplaced the batch of eggs that we got the other day and some jerk down in town bought all the rest from that batshit insane man. No eggs today," he said firmly. "We're also out of lettuce if you're going to make a fuss about that."

A factory worker near Katara snorted, "Baby."

Katara got her food and sat at a table with some of the workers she'd 'befriended' last night.

As they were chatting lightly over their morning sustenance, a man tiredly slumped into a seat.

"Oh, he's one of the watchmen. His shift just ended," A worker informed Katara. "Anything good?" he teased, "Or boring as usual?"

"Actually," The watchman frowned, "It wasn't a usual night. There's some activity going down in that stinky little town."

Ratana perked up two tables over.

"Oh, really?" Katara said, encouraging him on, giving him a wide smile.

"Yeah. Don't know why they decided to get off their asses today, but it seemed like they were cleaning that old statue of their stupid goddess or whatever. Lots of people seemed...healthier." he said, shaking his head. "Like something just came in the night and healed a bunch of people. It's insane."

Ratana dropped her mug. "She heard my prayers!" she said.

Jin jumped up, grasping her mug from the floor. As she stood, she hugged Ratana and placed her head on her shoulder for just a second.

"Thank the spirits," Jin murmured, a soft smile bobbing on her lips. Avizeh was pleased too, and while it was clear the factory workers looked uneasy, no one dared argue with these beautiful girls in front of them.

Katara tiredly sipped her coffee, trying to hide the grin on her face.

XXxxXX

The day's activities took the girls on a tour of the facilities with an in-depth explanation of how the weapons were made. If Katara were not so put out with the entire factory, she'd find it terribly interesting. She tried to remember a bit of it, knowing that Sokka would have been like a kid in a candy store here. He'd always discussed wanting to make his own weapons, and he would have asked a million questions. There were times that Katara almost forgot she was supposed to be hating the factory, such as when they got to see hot steel being poured into the molds and Katara was asked to use her bending to help by pouring hot water over the steaming molds and it made such a satisfying sound, but she regained her stony composure when she saw how much waste was poured down the drain.