Hama's Diary
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Avatar The Last Airbender or characters herein. All credits go to Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino.
It's the soot. That's always how you know they've come.
My name is Hama. I am a 23 year old girl and I live in a very small village with my older sister, Haku.
My entire family was killed in the war with the Fire Nation. I had two brothers and two sisters. Parents. I learned to waterbend at 10 so I've pretty much mastered it now, healing and combat.
But both only ever got so far.
I couldn't heal my older brother quick enough when he took a direct hit from a fireball sent from their ships. I couldn't even stop my younger sister from being raped and burned alive while my little brother watched.
After they had finished with her, they drowned him in front of me. My oldest sister was lucky enough to have been fishing that day outside of the village.
When she came back, the two of us cried all day and night until we were throwing up.
So I started training harder, especially at night during the full moon. I felt myself getting stronger and stronger. My true test of strength was soon to come.
One of their vessels arrived to take more prisoners, but this time we chose to resist them. We gathered to perform our battle haka:
Kauhoe, waewae
Kauhoe, waewae
Mena ka ora ahau, ka ora ahau!
Ki te mate au, ka mate au!
Ae ra!
Ko te kaikaho ko taku matua!
Ko te moana toku whaea!
Ae ra!
Homai ki ahau tau kawenga, maku e pikau!
Homai ki au mate, a maku e rongoa!
Mena kua makariri tou ngakau, ko ahau hoki hei whakamahana!
Ma te Wairua Marama e ara, ka ara!
Ae ra!
The crew never even left the ship, they were terrified of us and our culture. Savages all, that's what we were to them.
We created an iceberg to trap the ship in its grave, where it has stayed ever since.
There was a dreadful afternoon when my best and oldest friend was captured. Before she was hauled away, she gave me her most prized possession; her comb.
Funny. It was my 24th birthday that day.
One, by one, by one...all killed or disappeared into Fire Nation custody, including my older sister. Finally, my day had come as dozens of Fire Nation troops surrounded me. There was no way to fight them all.
By now, I was the last waterbender in the Southern Tribe.
I tearfully told the rest of my village goodbye and to be safe. For one day, we would all have our time to stand above the Fire Nation for what they did to us.
The interior of the Fire Navy ship was dark and stunk, barely lit by candle lanterns. Just like the holding cell they threw me in for our voyage to the Fire Nation. I was bound by all fours tightly whenever fed, especially when they gave me water. I was mostly given scraps of bread and very rarely, a small bowl of rice. Once, a sailor pissed on me while I was chained up. Their commanding officer made sure it was thoroughly cleaned so I couldn't have used their own urine to kill them, which would have been glorious.
I lost about 17 pounds on that ship in only a few weeks.
Arriving at the Fire Nation prison, I was pushed back and forth by guards and taunted relentlessly. I was told to strip and bend over, then cough. The guards, all men, chuckled at me and said awful things while the search was being conducted. I was numb. I couldn't cry. Couldn't feel anger.
Just numb.
My cell on the ship was much like the ones here. Still cold as all hell, but this time with rats. I had never seen too many rats in my life, but these ones were by far the largest. Then I thought to myself...what makes them so large? The things they consume. And like all creatures, we consume things to eat...and drink.
Was it possible to bend the blood in these rats? My answer to this would come very quickly.
For a few months, I practiced bloodbending on the rats. Now, it was time for the men. The same men who locked me in here would become the instruments of my liberation.
My puppets.
The guard turned the key and opened my cell. He was shitting his pants as I caused him to have a heart attack and go into cardiac arrest. To this day, I'm not sure how I did it. I just focused on his chest and imagined the hatred I had for him and inflicting it on the precious organ pumping his blood.
The rest of the guards, well, I simply made them kill each other for my entertainment.
I left the captain alive until we had gotten to the port, and then I made him throw himself overboard with his hands and feet chained. The rest of the people at the dock began running away after I had cut through their security guards and soldiers. I grabbed some clothing from a locker in a warehouse nearby and started my new life in the Fire Nation, never to return to my home in the Southern Water Tribe.
But it won't be in vain.
I will do the same to them as they did to my family, friends, neighbors and my home. I will torture and imprison every single Fire Nation citizen I can, because that's why I was born. It's why I was left alive and so many others weren't. Water is life, but to live, you must die. So will they.
I wonder if they'll fucking like how that water will taste?
END
*Author's Note: The haka performed by the waterbenders is spoken in the Maori language and roughly translates to English as follows:
Swimming, wading
Swimming, wading
If I live, I live!
If I die, I die!
Indeed!
The iceberg is my father!
The ocean is my mother!
Indeed!
Give me your burden, I will carry it for you!
Give me your ailments, I will heal them!
If your heart has grown cold, I shall be the one to warm it!
With the Moon Spirit, I rise!
Indeed!