Kya walked quietly through the streets of the colony at a strictly fast pace. She had to be careful the Fire Nation soldiers were all around looking for any reason to arrest or beat any of the colonists. A new order had come down from Firelord Azulan that all the new born boys in this colony were to be killed. The previous year's harvest had been poor, he said, they needed to know the severity of their actions. The child in her arms has not her own but she had protected him as though he was. The boy's mother was one of the rare slaves from the Fire Nation that had died in child birth. She prayed to the ocean spirit and the painted lady to protect the boy as she placed him in a basket on the river. Her adopted daughter Maya hid in the reeds ready to follow.

"Hush now, my baby

Be still, love, don't cry

Sleep as you're rocked by the stream

Sleep and remember my last lullaby

So I'll be with you when you dream," she whispered to the sleeping child as she placed the cover on top and let him go.

She watched Maya begin to sprint through the reeds following the basket downstream. Soon waves began to crash over the little basket and she began to whisper a prayer to the river.

"River, o river

Flow gently for me

Such precious cargo you bear

Do you know somewhere

he can live free?

River, deliver him there..."

Maya followed her baby brother down the stream. Kya herself had no blood children but she had become the mother of the orphaned children of the colony. Maya's own mother had die working for the Firelord and his supposed glory. So many had died in the same accident but the Firelord changed nothing. Only one person could change the world she had grown up in and that was the Avatar. The only problem with that hope was he had vanished almost a century ago leaving them defenseless to the armies of the Fire Nation.

Suddenly Maya crouched down in the reeds as the basket floated up to a luxury boat. A woman on the boat had seen the basket and pointed it out to a guard who reached down to fetch it. Upon seeing the child in it took it back to the woman. She gasped and picked him up to cuddle him. Maya smiled lightly.

"Brother, you're safe now

And safe may you stay

For I have a prayer just for you:

Grow, baby brother

Come back someday

Come and deliver us, too..."

With that she disappeared back into the reeds. Kya would want to know he was safe and they both had their own work to do. The baby would be safe from the pain the slaves would face but one day he would come back for them, he would deliver them to the lands of their ancestors. Maya prayed to the spirits that he would fulfill that destiny and bring all of them to safety.

The hearts of her fellow slaves echoed her prayer as she joined them in their work.

"Deliver us

Send a shepherd to shepherd us

And deliver us to the promised land!"

Two years later Kya gave birth to the only child of her own blood, Katara, whose blue eyes promised her the power of her ancestors. The boy that Kya had let go on the river was named Zuko, the second child power of the second son of the Firelord. His Uncle by adoption, General Iroh failed in his siege at Bah Sing Se and let go of his claim to the throne and moved to the colonies an exile. There he found Kya and bought her freedom when she began to fall ill. Kya died four years later, long before she could see her plan unfold.

So, what do you think? I thought of this while watching some stuff on youtube.