Part two of five; Katara-centric.

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Gentry

Peasant?

Katara is not a peasant.

She is not even a commoner. She is the daughter of a chief, not that the general populace around here would equate that to anything on their level; she is the representative of one of the remnants of a formidable bending art that finds very few students these days, no-thanks-to the Fire Nation's efforts in fairly recent history. In fact, she's a master waterbender, and if that doesn't at least garner basic respect in this black-and-white world of backwards favor-currying where force is power, certainty means authority, and councilors and advisors and generals say everything but what they mean, then she doesn't know what does.

But the days of old long before there were comets and before there weren't any more air nomads are long gone, and the fact remains that Katara has to prove herself at every turn. It doesn't matter what she's done, who she's saved, or how she's helped-- it is back to square one for this disgruntled waterbender and she is under a magnifying glass. And feeling the heat. Not that there are light rays burning her to bits, but whether it's from all of the fire, or the glares of the noblewomen, or simply the layers of formal wear, she might as well be under a giant focusing lens.

Getting a tan.

Speaking of which.

Back to the original point! Her darker complexion doesn't automatically signify that she's a peasant! Whose bright, bigoted idea was is to find all the dark-skinned people in the nation and label them peasants? If a Fire Nation citizen were stuck in either of the Poles and exposed to the kind of sun that her people cope with generation after generation, they'd-- actually, since they're so quick to call them peasants, could they be called firebrands? tomatoes? rednecks? Peasants, honestly. There's not even any farmland on ice. And skin color doesn't mean a thing! If everyone had standards of beauty numbskulled as those of the Fire Nation citizens, they'd all look like clones, and besides, what do you mean that--

"Katara, you're ranting again," says Sokka, "and I don't much think Zuko minds any of that, unfortunately."

She automatically reaches up to the enameled flame in her hair and blushes.

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Reviews are welcome. :P