"Leave them and take me instead."
That was the only voice I heard before it drowned into mumbles. We were running now and before I even had time to process anything, we were at a small dock with an equally small boat. My father's voice snapped me out of my racing thoughts.
"Raja, listen to me. I need you to go to the Southern Water Tribe."
"What?" I asked. "Why?"
"I need you to stay safe, my panda lily. I am going to bring your mother back."
"How in the spirits are you going to do that?" I questioned.
"I...I don't know! But I will think of something. I won't let the Fire Nation take her away."
He looked at me with eyes filled with sorrow and dread. I so desperately wanted to protest, to tell him to take me along, but I knew he wouldn't agree to that. He just lost his love and trembles with the thought to lose his only daughter to the Fire Nation as well.
"...Alright. I'll go to the Southern Water Tribe." I said, defeated.
"It will be okay," he reassured me, "Our sister tribe will take care of you until I return with your mother by my side." I was not too sure about that...Would they really take care of me, the daughter of a Fire Nation mother and a Water Tribe father? Someone with the blood of the treacherous Fire Nation in them? What if they believe me to be a spy? I suppose I will have enough time to think about it on my journey there.
"I will be thinking of you every step of the way," my father claimed, "Your mother and I love you more than anything."
"I know. I love you too." I said, holding back the tears in my eyes while his fell like a waterfall.
After our farewells, I got ready and, dreadfully, made my journey to the Southern Water Tribe. Nothing could prepare me for what was going to take place there...