She was born just after Yue. In fact they were twins, though no one really expected her to survive after what had happened to her older sister. That full-moon night when her father had rushed Yue to the Spirit Oasis, her mother was torn apart in body and mind, weakened from birth, and it was only by pure luck that a nurse realised that there was still another baby to be delivered. But her mother was exhausted, and grieving over her first born daughter who she was sure had died. She had neither the strength nor the will to push the second baby through, and it seemed like she would lose two children that night. The nurse was a skilled healer and water bender, who knew if she didn't act quickly, her lady would die along with her unborn child. In an instant of epiphany, the nurse used her bending on the woman's body, actually using blood bending to move the muscles into the contractions needed for the girl's mother to push her out. Immediately after the baby was born, her mother finally passed out from the exhaustion of the whole ordeal.
Unfortunately, though the nurse had saved the lives of both child and mother, she knew she had committed a terrible sin against all water benders. Blood bending had been realized by the healers of the Northern water tribe and found dangerous, so it had been banned for the last hundred years. Since then, many superstitions had arisen about the affects of blood bending, and it was said that any person who had their blood bended by an evil water bender would be forever cursed and bring bad luck wherever they went.
Even as a princess of the Northern Water tribe, the girl would be considered a horrible omen, and most likely put to death, along with the nurse for cursing the child and her mother. Fear filled the young woman's heart, but her mind remained clear. She quickly cleaned the blood and birth water from the scene, as well as the screaming baby, which she put to sleep with a bit of medicine on her finger. She bundled the sleeping child in heavy blankets and tucked the bundle in a large skin bag she used for her medicines. She took the bag and the bucket she'd cleared the refuse into, and walked away from the scene, quickly finding a lower ranked healer and leaving orders to watch over the princess until her husband returned with her daughter.
"Where are you going? What's in the bucket?" The healer asked, suspicious.
The nurse—whose name was Hanna—put on her saddest face, "there was another child—a twin girl who was still born. The princess doesn't know that she ever existed, since she was delirious with pain. If Yue lives, then it may be best that she never knows. I am going to bury the body with the rest of the afterbirth to save her some small amount of grief."
"The new princess has been named already?" The woman asked.
Hanna shook her head. "If she lives, they will name her for the spirit that saved her. She is Yue, she is moon."
"I wonder what the other would have been named." The woman wasn't much younger than her senior, but she acted like it. It frayed Hanna's patience to a thread.
"Yagoda, you must go now. I will bury the remains, and you must swear to never tell a soul about this. I want you to succeed me as Head Healer, and you must know when to keep a secret for the safety of others."
Yagoda's eyes widened. "Do you mean it?"
"Yes, yes, now go!" Hanna commanded, and watched as the woman scrambled to do her bidding. If only she could actually see this one become the Head Healer. It was a shame she would not remain to watch her grow and mature.
In the turmoil the entire tribe was going through, no one noticed an old woman flit past the crowd and head down to the docks. Even the guards were back at town square, waiting patiently to see if their future leader would live to see the day they would lead. It was a simple matter for her to bury the bucket nearby and then steal a small boat and leave the city with her medicines, some food, and the newborn baby princess she'd stolen away from the city.
"I will take you to the Earth kingdom." She whispered to the sleeping bundle. "There will be danger from the Fire Nation, but if we stay here, we will both die." Hanna used her water bending to move fast and silent.
The bundle moved once in a while, but Hanna knew what to do. She had a water skin of breast milk from a mother seal. She fed the baby but never stopped moving the boat southward, and after the baby slept again she ate a few bites of the food she'd brought with her. This pattern continued for the rest of the night and most of the next day. By midday on the second day, Hanna had truly exhausted herself and knew she could not move on until she'd gotten some rest. She looked all around her to be sure there were no ships following her, and caught sight of a small island towards the east.
Amazed at her good luck, Hanna pushed herself towards the island at once. Hopefully there was a town on the island, with an inn she could spend the night in. After they rested and refreshed what meagre supplies they had, Hanna would keep going on to Ba Sing Se, where she and the child could be safe.
As if on cue, the moment the boat banked, the baby awoke and began to cry. Hanna fed the girl the last of the seal's milk, but there wasn't enough to fill her. She screamed impatiently, even as Hanna unloaded the boat into what she could carry. She was also out of the medicine that made the child sleep, and the sound was making her head pound. She was almost about to give up, throwing herself into the ocean and beg for a merciful death, when they came; four figures in green robes, with heavy makeup.
"Do you need help? We heard a baby crying." One of the figures called from the other side of the beach. The site of people relieved Hanna so much that she actually fainted right there in the sand, keeping the baby above her so she wouldn't get squished.
When Hanna woke up, it was to the smell of a hot meal and the sounds of a crackling fire. She was laid out on a bed in what looked like a wooden house with a fireplace over which sat a pot of some kind of broth that Hanna had smelt. There was a woman sitting beside the pot, stirring it occasionally, and when Hanna sat up, she looked up and smiled.
"Oh, you're awake, good. Have something to eat. I'm Mako, healer for Kyoshi Island and a member of the Kyoshi Warriors, I was in the group that found you." The woman ladled some broth into a bowl and gave it to Hanna with a spoon. It had some vegetables floating in it and Hanna ate it quickly, not having had a hot meal for days.
Then she realized something. "Where is the child?" She asked, terrified that something may have happened to the princess.
"She is with Suka, another of the Kyoshi Warriors. She also has a newborn, and is able to feed them both with her milk." Mako looked at Hanna curiously. "We were quite curious to see a boat from one of the Water Tribes on our island, let alone a lone woman with a newborn baby. You must have quite a story."
Hanna said nothing, only closed her eyes in relief that the princess was safe.
"The child isn't yours, is she?" Mako asked.
"She was my sisters, she died in childbirth and her father has also left this world." The lie came to Hanna's lips easily. She'd practised it in her mind many times on the trip here.
"Why did you come here?"
This woman was persistent. Hanna decided to tell at least partial truth. "To save the child, I used a form of water bending that is forbidden. I was banished, and the child was sentenced to die. The night before I was to leave, I took her and escaped in a small boat, I hoped to take her somewhere safe from the Fire Nation, and safe from my people."
The other woman dipped her head. "You and your sister must have been close, for you to care for her daughter so."
"There was no saving her, but as long as the child lives, then all was not for nothing." Hanna stood, feeling her strength return after the rest and food. "Her name is Yuri, after her mother, and I would like to see her."
Mako nodded and led Hanna out of the small house across a dirt road to another one just like it. The woman knocked on the door and a middle-aged man answered it. "Mako, it's good to see you. Are you here to see Suka?"
The woman smiled. "Yes and no." She gestured to Hanna. "This is Hanna, we're here to see Yuri, Hanna's niece, who Suka's been taking care of."
The man stepped aside and let the two in. "I'm Daru, Suka's husband." He said. Off to the side was a large central room, with the same large fireplace and bed off to one side. Beside the bed was a wooden cradle, and beside that on a rocking chair a woman who looked about Hanna's age, almost too old to have a newborn child. Inside the cradle were two babies, both bundled warmly and sleeping peacefully, and both with fuzzy patches of dark hair on their heads.
"Your daughter is quite well behaved, and very beautiful." The woman said. "I am Suka, and there is my daughter Suki.
Hanna smiled and introduced herself. "I'm afraid Yuri is not my child. She was born of my sister, now deceased."
Suka bowed her head. "I'm sorry for your loss. I hope that Yuri will grow up strong under your care."
Hanna bowed her head back. "Thank you." She changed the subject. "Suki is also a very beautiful child. Her hair may be dark now, but it will lighten to a reddish brown like autumn's leaves, like you."
Suka blushed heavily. "You think so?" She asked.
"I was a healer back in my tribe. Mostly I delivered babies, and I could always tell what they would look like when they were older."
Hanna pulled up a chair next to Suka and they talked for hours, about babies, about growing up as girls, about Daru, and about the man Hanna would have married when she was young, though he'd died in a boating accident. The two became close friends, and Suka asked Hanna if she would be staying on Kyoshi Island.
"I have been thinking about it. I wonder if there is a space of land where I could build a house for Yuri and I, just outside the village. I would need the space to practise my bending, and so would Yuri, once she's old enough." Hanna's eyes got a faraway look in them.
"Was Yuri's mother a bender?" Suka asked. "Is that how you know she'll be one?"
Hanna smiled knowingly. "No, but these things sometimes skip a generation. I can feel the power in her, her chi is saturated in it, and flows through her like a river, as young as she is. She will be a great bender, and not be held down by the traditions and restrictions of her homeland."