A/N. Content warner : In this chapter, they discuss subjets like genocide, rape and murder.
I hope you are ready for my take on Hama's backstory. Warning. Not kid friendly. Or even adult friendly.
I don't own Avatar the Last Airbender.
Hama led them back to the kitchen, with the box in her hands. Sokka walked behind the older woman, head hung low. The innkeeper had not yet shown them what was inside it, saying it would be better to do so with some tea, and sitting.
So, when they entered the kitchen, Katara quickly went to the fireplace, hanging the teapot over it filled with water. She felt they had done this kind old lady a terrible unkindness. First, they, or rather, Sokka, had gone through her house, without her permission, and then, they had actually broken into one of the rooms that were clearly private. Alright, it was a bit weird to have a locked attic room with just one chest inside it… But everyone had the right to keep secrets, as long as it didn't hurt anyone…
Take herself, for example. Her relationship with Aang was still a secret, even if it was not really a secret, for her brother and Toph probably knew something was up… But still, everyone had a right to privacy.
"Sit down child." Hama spoke softly, gesturing to the chair next to Aang, who seemed to try and disappear under the table. Unluckily for him, his length didn't quite make that possible. But Katara understood his embarrassment. The old woman had caught them in the act of prying into her most private things… Spirits, how horrible they were…
The waterbender sat down, with her eyes cast down, feeling shame churning in het stomach.
"I am not angry with you children." Hama began, as she opened the small box, and looked inside it, sighing. Katara couldn't see what it was, but she was surprised by the fact that the old woman stayed so calm.
The innkeeper put her hand in the chest, and pulled out… a comb.
A comb? Just that? What?
But as Katara looked closely, she was surprised by the colour of the handle. You didn't see much ocean blue in the Fire Nation… And the teeth of the comb… Was that… antler? The colour indeed suggested it, but the white specks over the yellowish surface made her think of Snow-Leopard Caribous… But that was impossible. Katara had only seen those once in her life, when her dad had taken her and Sokka with the hunt once, deep into the tundra…
But that was in the South Pole.
"It is my greatest treasure." Hama began to explain, and the waterbender heard the unshed tears in the woman's voice, "It is the last thing I owned from growing up in the Southern Water Tribe.
Wait, what?
The Southern Water Tribe? But… That was impossible! How could a Water Tribe woman find herself so deep in Fire Nation territory? The surprise was apparently clear on her face, because Hama chuckled.
"Yes, I'm from the South Pole… Just like you."
Katara cast a look to her brother, who was looking at the woman with his mouth wide open in surprise. And yeah, she shared the feeling. How did Hama know they were from the South? It was impossible to differentiate the Northern and Southern Water Tribal people…
"How would you know that?" Sokka asked in a high-pitched voice.
"You talk loudly. I heard you from nearly half a mile away when I found you in the forest. But I didn't know that Nini story, so that must have happened after I… went away." Hama sighed, looking at her with a strange look. One of wonderment, mixed with a… sadness? Yes, that was the emotion that was etched on the old woman's face…
"Why didn't you tell us this the moment you knew where we were from?" Katara asked, beginning to feel a little suspicious. Why would anyone, and certainly someone from the Water Tribe, hide themselves away from their own people?
"Well, I wanted to surprise you…" Hama smiled, gesturing at the bags of supplies that she had probably bought after they parted ways in the village, "I bought all this food so I could fix you a big water tribe dinner! Of course, I can't get all the ingredients here, but ocean kumquats are a lot like sea prunes."
At the mention of sea prunes, Katara heard Aang groan softly. She knew he hated that dish, even if he tried to hide it in front of her and her brother.
"I knew it! I felt a good bond with you from the start!" Katara answered, smiling at the older woman. In the Water Tribes, everyone in the village was family, even if they weren't by blood. Everyone helped each other, lived together and knew each other. And Hama had done exactly that when she had seen some people from her homeland. Helped, gave a place to stay and put some effort into learning more about them.
"And you did keep a secret! So, we were both right!" Sokka smiled tentavily, but she kicked hum under the table, "Alright, alright! I'm sorry for sneaking around…"
"Ah, don't worry about it, young man, I can understand mistrust in the world, such as it is nowadays. But come, let's get cooking!" Hama stood up, rather effortlessly, and began to empty the bags on the table. Katara saw the rather enormous quantities and swallowed thickly. That was going to be… Well, work.
"If the young lady." The innkeeper nodded to Toph, "would be so kind to make tea while we do this, then everything will go splendidly"
Katara grabbed a knife from one of the drawers and began to clean the vast quantity of vegetables, as Aang came to sit next to her to do the same. In the meantime, Sokka began to cut the meat for the several dishes Hama wanted to make.
"So, Miss Hama… Will there be any other dishes than sea prunes?" Aang asked innocently, but Katara knew exactly why he asked. Looking at Sokka, she saw her brother trying to suppress a grin.
"Oh yes young man! I'll have five flavour soup like they used to make in my village. The herbs are found everywhere, even in this place." Katara didn't miss the well-hidden bitterness when Hama spoke those last words. This place. She hated it here. Katara hadn't seen it before, but everything in Hama's look screamed that. The clothes were not as bright res as most were in this place. There were slashes of blueish grey underneath the screaming red fabric. As if to show that there was something hidden underneath the Fire Nation persona that she had created.
The waterbender didn't comment on this change of attitude she saw for the blink of an eye. She couldn't judge, because why ever Hama was here, so deep in Fire Nation territory… Well, it was surely for a good reason.
The preparations took most of the afternoon. Water Tribe food was not exactly the easiest to cook, for it required patience and skill, which the old woman clearly had. But yet, it was only halfway through the evening that they sat down at the table to eat.
Sokka sat down next to her, like he had always done when they ate with their grandmother. Her brother smiled softly at the display of food. It had been a long time that they had eaten something… from home. When they had spent those three weeks with the water tribe warriors, Katara had not really enjoyed eating, and whatever she did eat was water tribe cuisine, with the wrong spices, and cooked by Bato… Only thinking of his cooking skills made her skin crawl.
Aang and Toph sat down in front of them, and Hama fell in the chair at the head of the table, clearly happy about the food that they had made. Katara heard the airbender whisper something to Toph, while looking at the ocean kumquats. Judging by the small wrinkles that appeared around the blind girl's nose, the waterbender assumed that Aang had told her about his encounter with sea prunes.
Suddenly, the soup appeared in her line of sight, and not in the pot… But as a stream through the air…
Water… bending?
No way!
As the soup fell down in the bowl, Katara looked up hopefully, and saw that indeed, Hama had her hands raised and smiled sadly.
"You are a waterbender!" She couldn't contain her joy at that revelation! She wasn't the only one… there was another Southern bender! "I never met another bender from our tribe!"
Hama raised an eyebrow slightly, and Katara realized that she had actually not told the older woman that she was a waterbender. So… a surprise for both of them!
"I'm not surprised." Hama's voice was thick with emotion, "That's because the Fire nation wiped them all out."
Silence settled around the table, as Katara tried to process that information. Wiped out? Spirits… What?
Casting a furtive look at Aang, the waterbender saw that his face was lined with shame and concern. And that his own eyes were not on the older waterbender at the head of the table, but on her… He knew what it felt like to be the only one.
"How did you end up here then?" Sokka asked apparently as gentle as possible as not to hurt Hama's feelings any further than they already were.
"The raids on the South Pole…. Started sixty years ago. I was a young girl, barely fifteen, when the first ships came. Of course, the waterbenders of my tribe defended themselves, but the Fire Nation was ruthless and efficient. First, they began by attacking the outer settlements…" Hama began to explain, and Katara felt her stomach tighten. In one sentence, the older woman had told them about the destruction of probably hundreds of villages… For that was one thing Katara knew, thanks to her grandmother. The Southern Water Tribe had been great once…
"These attacks forced the survivors into the centre of the tribe, the capital of the federated villages. A great city of igloos and walls…" Hama continued, and was suddenly interrupted by a rather dry cough from Aang. Katara looked at him, and saw how pale the airbender had got.
He knew that place.
"When finally, the whole tribe was at the same place, the town swarming with refugees, who had no choice but settle in front of the walls instead of behind them… They attacked in force. That first raid killed most of the male refugees, while the women and children… Well, death would have been a better lot in life." Hama spoke bitterly.
Katara realized what had happened. The fighters had been killed, while the women and children had been taken into slavery. As raids mostly did.
"But… Why didn't the waterbenders defend them?" Toph spoke up. Katara nearly sighed in relief. She had been asking herself the exact same question, but hadn't dared voice it, in fear of hurting Hama…
"Well, child, they didn't want to risk it. You see, even before the raids, we weren't the most populous bender group. So, the Council decided to do… nothing. Hide behind their walls. And for a few years, this worked. As I grew up into quite a good waterbender, we were forced to repair the walls, make them higher and thicker. Until… The Fire Nation attacked in force once again." The older woman stared into the flames in the fireplace and stayed silent for at least a minute. Katara and the other didn't say anything.
"I was twenty years old when the first great battle took place. The Fire Nation fleet breached the walls with their siege engines, and began ravaging the town. We pushed them out through the breach only after at least half of the town was laid to waste. Like most of the waterbenders. There were only forty benders left after that attack."
Forty. Forty waterbenders, and that was after the first real attack… Spirits, how few had they been in reality? Her Gran Gran had talked about the time that there had been benders in the South… And she had made it seem that those people had been capable of moving entire icebergs… It had sounded so… so good. So good to know that her home had known better days… But these better days… Those were the days that Hama was now telling about. It didn't sound better. Actually, it sounded like torture.
We did our best to defend the tribe, but the raids began to capture the waterbenders that were left. It was a good strategy. Like that, the benders weren't able to marry and give birth to others. If they just killed us, the spirits would have provided something to make up for the losses. If they just captured us, the South would be vulnerable."
Katara knew that that wasn't the reason why the Fire Nation had taken the benders captive. No, they had been afraid that the Avatar was among them, passed down to the Water element as Aang was supposed to have died during Air Nomad Genocide. They had hoped to capture the Avatar.
"But they didn't attack the North like that, so it couldn't be for that reason…" Sokka voiced his own concern, and Katara was afraid she knew the answer to that as well… Aang had told her that Roku had said that each Avatar was reborn somewhere meaningful to the previous one… So, maybe the Fire Nation had thought that Aang had liked the South Pole for some reason?
Looking at the airbender, she saw he had his eyes locked on the table, not looking at any of them… He had probably had the same train of thought…
"Well, it doesn't matter why it happened. It did. I was the last to be taken. As I was put in shackles and pushed onto their ship, I managed to get one last look at my homeland. A frozen wasteland, the proud city replaced by pitiful ruins and tents." Hama sighed, and yet again, began to stare into the flames.
Katara tried to imagine it… how horrible it would be to never see her home again, all the while being imprisoned a world away from the frozen tundra's that were so familiar and comforting… Tui and La, she didn't want to imagine it…
"Of course, that wasn't the end of my story… The voyage back to the Fire Nation were some of the most horrible weeks I have ever lived through. The few waterbenders were kept in cages, forced to drink twice a day while the sailors held us down. We weren't meant to die, but they didn't want us to be able to bend, you see. So, we were kept alive. Barely. And… well, I imagine I don't have to explain what happened to the female waterbenders." Hama's words were met with an eerily silence.
No… She didn't need to explain. Hama had been abused. As had the others. Probably each day and night… And Katara knew that the voyage by sea to the closest Fire Nation Island from the South Pole was at least a month.
Hama had certainly been traumatized by that experience, because the old woman didn't look at them, and kept her eyes on the ceiling above them.
"After we arrived, they put us in prisons. It didn't get any better after that. It… It was difficult to be able to see yourself as human."
Katara didn't know if she should hug the old woman, or get to the gates of the Fire Nation Palace to shout for Ozai's head. Putting a hand on the wrinkled old fingers of the innkeeper, Katara pressed then gently in her own palm. Hama looked her in the eyes, smiling softly.
"How did you… Get out of prison?" Sokka asked, and she could hear the disgust in his voice. Disgust at the actions of the Fire Nation. Disgust at what had happened to their people. People they considered family, even without having met any of them.
Hama just shook her head.
No… They shouldn't pry. It had probably been a horrible experience, that had forced her to do things she wasn't proud of. So, they shouldn't force her to tell them. Katara shook her head slightly in her brother's direction who nodded curtly. Yeah, Sokka knew, sometimes that was, when it was time to shut up. And now it was such a moment.
"Tell me… Tell me about the South Pole please… What has happened after I went away?" Hama's voice was thick with unspoken emotions, and Katara looked, once again, at her brother. Should they tell her? The destruction of their tribe? Well… Hama had been open and honest with them about her capture… The least they could do was do the same.
"Well, the South got a little rest after that last raid I believe…" She began. It was true. Her grandmother had told them that the raids on their homeland had stopped at least thirty years before either of them had been born… So, that was some good news… That after the last waterbenders had been captured, the Fire Nation had stopped attacking. Probably because everyone in the age class of potential Avatars were either dead or captured.
"There was one raid after that, nine years ago… We lost our mother in that one." Katara gestured to Sokka and herself, before feeling a hand on her shoulder.
"Poor things, I hope you managed…"
Even after everything that had happened to the poor woman… She still found it in her heart to think of others. How did she do it? Katara was sure that if she had been put in her place… Well, she would have broken a long time ago.
"I can't tell you what it means to meet you…" That was true. A waterbender from the South Pole, having survived all the horrors of war imaginable… And still be kind. That was not only good, it was heroic. Many others would have become bitter and angry at the Fire Nation… But no, Hama lived here, probably unable to return home… And had said screw you to the Fire Nation. She had built her own life, her own business… That was the biggest middle finger to the Fire Nation's constant war and destruction that Katara had ever seen.
"Well… I never thought I would meet another Southern waterbender once again…" Hama smiled at her, patting her hand softly, "If you want… I want to teach you what I know. So that the Southern style doesn't die with me."
Learn… southern waterbending…
Yes. Yes! Katara felt a big smile appear on her face, but tried to suppress it as much as possible, for it seemed so out of place after the story they had just heard.
"To learn more about my heritage? Yes! I mean… It would be an honour!" She felt her heart thump harder in her chest. When she had been younger, she had longed for a teacher to appear from the tundra to teach her waterbending… And well, in a way, he had. Aang had not appeared from the tundra and hadn't taught her waterbending. But they had found him, and his arrival had permitted her to learn everything she knew… But to learn it from someone from her own tribe? That was the dream.
"In that case, you should get to bed and sleep. I'll show you a thing or two tomorrow." The older waterbender smiled and gestured towards the stairs. From the corner of her eye, Katara saw her brother stand up, say a soft goodnight and disappear towards the upper floor. Toph followed suit, but Aang hung back a bit, waiting for her. Or rather, making sure no one would see him get in the room Toph and Sokka supposed was just hers.
"Ehm… Miss Hama? Could I say something?" It was the first time Aang had spoken up, and Katara knew he was probably feeling very guilty about the role his own disappearance had in her tragedy.
"Of course my boy."
"Well… I know this doesn't change anything, but I'm sorry for what happened. More than you could ever imagine." The airbender's head hung low.
"It doesn't, for it doesn't matter anymore my boy. Everything is in the past." Hama turned her head towards the fireplace, clearly not planning on talking about it anymore. Katara felt her heart ache at the sight of the small silhouette, edged by the light from the flames. She looked so alone and sad… But there was nothing they could do to help her, at least not tonight. Not with a story like that fresh in their memories.
"Goodnight then." Katara stood up, and couldn't help but put her arms slightly around the old woman. She didn't press Hama hard against her body, but just enough to show she cared.
Releasing her, Katara walked up the stairs, into her own room, followed by the airbender. As soon as the door fell close behind him, she heard the sigh from his mouth.
"Spirits… That was horrible…" He whispered, clearly distraught. And she couldn't help but share the feeling. For the first time that night, the full truth hit her.
Her people had been enslaved. Murdered. Grinded into dust. Raped.
Her people had been wiped off the face of the earth. Just like Aang's had…
They were the last remnants of lost civilizations, people who had suffered horrible things at the hands of the ambition of the Fire Lord. First Sozin for the Air Nomads… and then, Azulon for the Southern Water Tribe…
"Do you… do you think there are any more left?" She whispered as she sat down on the bed. It was a futile question. But she needed to hear it from the one she trusted the most.
"I… I don't think so. Hama was captured at the end of the raids… And she barely survived… I… I fear she is the only one. Except you." He whispered, sitting down next to her and putting an arm around her shoulders. Katara put her head against his shoulder, feeling comfort at the knowledge he was there for her… For anyone who would need comfort actually.
"Yeah… I fear so too…" Her lot was to be the last true Southern waterbender… Like his was to be the last true Air Nomad…
"Come on… let's get some sleep." He spoke up, releasing her and standing up to undress. She stood up to do the same, knowing that any plans they had made for tonight were put on hold. Neither she nor he were in the mood after the story they had just heard, and to be frank… Katara feared that that was going to last their whole stay. She wouldn't dare to do anything like that under the roof of someone who had been… Well, who had suffered.
"Would you hold me?" She whispered as they lay down on the bed. Aang didn't answer, but she felt his arms around her. Here, she was safe. Here, he was safe. They were there for each other.
P.S. If this chapter bothered you, please message me, and I will change it. I don't want to make someone relieve things they would rather forget.
Answers :
Kalaong : Indeed, Hama is a tragedy, and I really wanted to show that what happened is understandable. Her life s a horrible story, and certainly with what I put her through here… But I still think that Katara is not going to like bloodbending. She hasn't been traumatized in the same manner, and will consider it a bit too far.
CoyoteLemon : Hey, good to see a review from you again! I will go down the whole book 3, even if I touched on the end in The Path After the Battle. So, we still have the Invasion, the Western Air Temple and Ember Island to go through! I do not know what I will write after this!
Rak : Indeed, I really want to show how trusting and relaxed they are becoming, at least in private. With the others, it will still be awkwardness galore!