Dear Readers,
Thank you once again for following and faving my story. I hope you're all enjoying, even though the last chapter was quite… How can I put this…? Tragic? ^_^
I do not own the Legend of Korra franchise, but this story and all the original characters I own! ^_^
Chapter 5
Kya was still physically protected in the confines of the bubble, but internally, she was facing a battle she had a difficult time fighting. Resurfacing the memories of her late husband had reopened the grief she had felt the first time she experienced them. Her chest tightened from her pulsating hear beat. She started to sweat uncontrollably, as tears flowed from her cheeks. The memory was so powerful, that even in her suspended state she can taste the grief and salt in her tears. Her hands trembled at the side of her head. It was as if they were telling her to stop, but Kya was not done with the procedure. Letting go would cause her to be in shock which can cause her to drown. She steadied her breathing and allowed her memory to flow.
Once the white light vanished, it left her in a moment she held dearly. It was freezing cold on this particular night. The icy winds howled outside the tents. Even if the moon was glowing in the dark sky, no one dared to step out of their homes and be swept away from the powerful winds. But even if this hazardous weather, Luka dared to fight the winds to fetch two of Katara's most talented pupils from their houses, and brought them to Kya's home. Luka had to beg them to come with him because on this night, Kya was going through a difficult time in labor.
Kya was not expecting her baby for two more months, but due to the sudden changes of the weather, the schedule had to be compromised. Katara had been with her daughter for almost eight hours coaching Kya through the pain. When the baby was ready, Katara held her daughter by the hand and ordered her to push. Kya could not recall how many times she had to do this, but she remembered how painful it was. She was sweating all over. Her body tightened each time she heard Katara scream. Her heart was racing, and her body was hot from all the energy she was exerting. On her final push, she felt something warm stream in between her legs, and her visions and hearing became hazy. But the final sound she heard before she passed out was the loud cries of her child.
When Kya regained consciousness, she looked at the window by her desk and noticed that it was still dark. She sat herself up and rested her back on the head of the bed. Looking around, she saw that she was alone in her room. There was an oil lamp blazing on her bedside table, on her desk laid wet towels. She heard voices coming from outside her bedroom, and was at ease when she heard her baby crying and Katara's constant hushing in the next room. She opted to get out of bed to greet her child, but her head was throbbing in pain that all she did was let out a soft groan. The voices from the other room suddenly faded and the sounds of footsteps heading towards her room were heard.
"Ah, I see that you're finally awake." Katara entered the room silently. "There's someone here who wants to see you." She cradled the baby in her arms who was wrapped in a soft yellow blanket. She sat next to Kya and carefully placed the baby in her daughter's hands. "Watch the head." She reminded.
Kya wrapped her arms around her new born and gently cupped the back of her baby's head. The baby looked small in her arms that the blanket was covering almost half of her baby's face. Her baby had a full head of dark brown hair, but her eyes were still shut. This little gem of dark slept peacefully in her arms. She moved the cloth away from her baby's face and started to tickle her baby's nose. "Hi!" She whispered happily. "We weren't expecting you."
"You have a baby girl." Katara uttered.
Kya paused for a moment and beamed a smile at her mother. "A girl... We have a baby girl!"
Katara watched as she saw Kya cover her baby with caresses and kisses. It has been a while since she has seen Kya genuinely smile. A thin smile drew upon her face as she remembered the first time she held Bumi in her arms. It was a pleasant, and special time that should be shared between mother and child. She then stood up and walked towards the door. "If you need anything, Luka, Tala and I are in the kitchen." She looked at her daughter, and did not expect her to answer. She took a peek at the baby once more, and left quietly.
Now that the room was all to herself, Kya brought her baby closer to her chest and softly drew circles around the baby's soft round cheek with her finger. "It's good to finally see you!" She continued playing with her baby's cheeks, when she heard her baby gurgle. It was the first time she had heard her baby make a noise besides crying and smiled. "Hey, it's okay. It's just mommy." She giggled. She then led her finger to her baby's mouth and began outlining her baby's lips. The baby thought that her finger was a tasty treat, and sucked it when she had the chance. Kya let out a soft laughter and admired her baby. But even though she had her baby wrapped safely in her arms, she knew that there was someone missing in the picture. "She's here Konan." She uttered. "Our little Anana's finally here… I wish that you could hold her." Her voice began to croak. "She's so beautiful. She even has your nose. I hope she has your eyes." Tears started welling up in her eyes. She knew that she was talking to herself; she was not crazy. But facing the reality of Konan's absence was tough on her. "I miss you Konan…" Kya started to cry.
Anana looked so innocent sucking her mother's finger; but when she heard her mother starting to cry, she released the finger from her mouth and cried as well.
When Kya heard Anana's cries she wiped the tears from her face and started to rock her gently back and forth. "Shhh, don't cry. Did mommy disturb you? Shhh, it's alright now." But Anana continued to cry.
"Maybe she's hungry!" Katara suddenly hollered from the kitchen.
"Oh, dear, how can I forget?" Kya quickly raised her top and fed Anana. "Sorry, darling. Mommy's fairly new at this." She said jokingly.
Kya watched Anana, happily sucking away. Holding her baby girl in her arms, she tried to pursue letting out a smile. She thought that she would be prepared once the baby is born, but she always imagined it with Konan being by her side. She could not help but cry silently. She was a single mother now.
The memory was soon engulfed by the white light and slowly disappeared. A few seconds later, the white light dissolved and uncovered the next memory.
A five year old Anana is seen rummaging through the chests in Kya's room. There was mucus dripping from her nose and she tried snorting it back into her nostrils. She constantly wiped her eyes to rid of her tears and coughed whenever she felt like she was about to let out a cry. Kya heard Anana running to her room and caught her in the act.
Kya held her hips and gave a disappointed to see that her room was turned upside down and look at her daughter. "Sweetie, what are you doing?"
Before Anana turned around, she rubbed her face clean from any extra liquids. "N – nothing!"
Kya knew her daughter was lying. She grabbed a handkerchief from her pocket and knelt in front of Anana. "C'mon, tell me the truth, Anana." Using the handkerchief, she wiped her daughter's face. She then wiped her nose, which was filling up with mucus, and told her to blow. Once Anana looked presentable, Kya tucked her daughter's hair behind her ear and sighed. "What's the matter?"
Anana lowered her head and started swaying back and forth like a dangling top. She brought her hands closer to her chin trying to shrink herself from her mother. "Keana, and Dyami are teasing me again." She uttered in a very low voice.
Anana's voice was too low to hear, that Kya could not understand a word she said. But just looking at her daughter's face, she understood that something was bothering her for Anana wasn't smiling like her usual self. "Speak louder, Anana. I can't help you if you don't tell me."
Anana hesitated for moment; averting her gaze from her mother's eyes, but she could not let this opportunity pass. She looked at her mother with all seriousness, took a deep breath, and in one long, fast, and loud sentence, Anana revealed to her mother what had been bothering her.
"Keana and Dyami invited me to go penguin sledding but I told them that I didn't know how but they promised me that they'll teach me but when they started teaching me I kept falling off and they kept laughing at me so I thought they were doing that on purpose so I yelled at them and told them to teach me how to ride correctly but they kept telling me that they were but I didn't believe them then they told me maybe the reason I keep falling off is because I'm too fat and ugly for the penguin… They said I was too fat and ugly for the penguin, mom!" Anana started to cry. Like running water her tears poured down her face and mucus dripped uncontrollably from her nose.
Kya pitied her daughter for having a miserable time playing outside and consoled her in her arms. "Shh, stop crying, Anana." She felt her daughter's warm mucus slide to her shoulder but she did not care. "I'll have a little chat with Luka and Tala about their kids." She said to herself.
"You don't think I'm ugly… Do you mommy?"
Kya looked at her daughter and planted a long kiss on her forehead. "Of course not, sweetie." She parted Anana's bangs to reveal her slime riddled face and wiped it clean with the handkerchief. "You're the most adorable little girl in the whole world!"
Kya hugged her daughter by the waist and propelled her towards her bed. Once Anana landed on the soft bed, Kya did not give her the chance to move and started tickling her. Anana burst out laughing and begged her mother to stop.
Anana always found it difficult to make friends because the children kept teasing her on the way she looked. Unlike the children of the South, Anana was big boned, just like her father. This made her look bigger than most children. She loved keeping her hair shorter than the other girls, because she believed that if her hair was beyond her neck, bugs will be able to live in her hair. She got teased for that too because all the girls in their village distinguished girls from boys from the length of their hair. And earlier that day, Anana lost a tooth, so whenever she smiled there would be a gaping hole in the top row of her front teeth.
Kya ceased tickling her daughter and caressed Anana's cheek. She gazed into Anana's cerulean colored eyes and smiled. On the day Anana was born, she wished that her daughter would acquire her father's eyes. Her wish was granted. And every time she would look into Anana's eyes, she would always be reminded of her late husband.
Anana held her mother's hand and smiled. "Sorry that I was touching stuff I wasn't supposed to." She said. "But, mommy, I found something cool inside that chest!" Anana jumped out of the bed and scrambled towards the chest. A few seconds later, she took out a red box filled with old photos and an old camera box that had been coated from collecting dust. "See!" She brought the camera box closer to her face and looked into the lens. "It's a funny looking box. I tried opening it a while ago so I can put stuff in it, but it doesn't want to!"
Anana kept pulling the camera box apart, hoping that if she pulled hard enough the box would open. The camera box started to rattle in the child's hands. The sound of the wooden box slowly separating scared Kya. She grabbed the camera box from her daughter and examined and checked to see if the box had sustained any damage. "It's not that kind of box, sweetie." She then gave out a sigh of relief. "It's not broken." She said to herself with a smile.
"Then; what is it?" Anana was intrigued with the camera box and continued to stare.
Kya looked at the photos lying on the floor, and shuddered. She believed that this was a sign. A sign that that told her it was about time she told Anana about her father. "Pick up the photos from the floor. It's time for me to tell you."
Both mother and daughter found comfort on the soft bed. Kya rested her back on the head of the bed and wrapped her arms around her daughter. Anana sat in front of her mother, holding the camera box and photos in her tiny plump hands and scattered the photos on the bed. Anana spread the photos around with her hands and picked random images, which she thought was very pretty even though they were all in shades of brown or gray. Kya, on the other hand, picked up three images from the pile and showed them to her daughter.
"Anana, that box you found, was a camera box." Kya explained. "It was used to take these." Kya showed her daughter the three photos in her hand. "It was your dad's favorite thing to do." She said to herself.
Anana held the three photos in her hand. She examined the first image in her hand and saw her mother wearing an elegant dress made out of fur and a crown around her head. Next to her was a large man who had his thick arms wrapped around her waist. The man wore a traditional Southern hunting garment. He had his hair tied to a high pony and his beard was so long that it was tied as well. Both her mother and the man looked at each other with a loving smile. "Mommy, who's that?" She asked, pointing at the man in the photo.
Kya brought her daughter closer to her and took a deep breath before answering. "He's your father, sweetie. His name is Konan."
Anana brought the photo closer to her face. She ran her fingers on the photo and circled around her father's face. "He kinda looks like me."
"Yes, he sure does." Kya kissed the back of her daughter's head. "He was my childhood friend you know. He was a funny and sweet, and very creative; just like you."
"Really?" Anana was excited to know more about her father and switched to the next photo. "What about them? Are they my daddies too?"
Kya laughed at her daughter's question and took the photo from Anana. "No, you can only have one daddy, and it's only him." Kya pointed at Konan in the photo who was standing outside Lao's kitchen with a group of his friends. "These are you father's friends from Republic City. This guy's name, is Atka." Kya pointed at a man who looked six foot three in the photo. His hair was short, and he wore loosely fitted pants dark pants and shirt. Kya could not make out the colors because of the brownish hues of the photo. "Your dad used to live with him when he was working in the city."
Anana was amazed with all the photos her father has taken. She dropped the photos in her hand, and searched through the pile on the bed. She picked up a photo of someone she knew and showed it to her mother. "Look, mom. It's uncle Bumi on his ship." Bumi was standing on his ship's nose and pointed towards the sky in a valiant and proud fashion. "You think he'll be back with another doll so that my Earth Kingdom doll won't be so lonely?"
"I'm sure he will!"
Anana picked up another photo of her father, but this time it was with a man with no hair and an arrow painted at the top of his head. "How about this guy?" She pointed at the bald man. "Who's he?"
"Ah!" Kya grabbed the photo and raised it above their heads. "That's your uncle Tenzin."
"Ohh, so that's what he looks like." Anana exclaimed.
"Yeap. I'm hoping by next year he'll be able to visit so you can finally see him in person." Kya uttered. "I've been telling him to come, but he's too scared to leave."
Kya and Anana bonded over the photos for hours. Anana would pick up a photo and ask her mother who or what was in the image. Kya would happily answer her daughter's questions and fill them with stories on how Konan was able to take such beautiful photos. Once she was done explaining, Anana would throw the photo on the floor and pick up another one from the bed. There were only a few photos left when Anana suddenly noticed something.
"Mommy, why am I not in any of these pictures?" Anana asked.
"Oh? But you are, sweetie." Kya grabbed one of the photos which Anana had laid earlier and showed it to her. "You're right here, see?"
In this photo, Kya was sitting on a chair, while Konan stood at the left side of Kya. Both husband and wife looked into the camera smiling pleasantly in front of their home. Konan had his arm around Kya's shoulder while Kya had both of her hands on top of her stomach.
Anana looked closer at the photo and was disappointed. "I'm not in here, mom."
"Oh yes you are." Kya pointed at her stomach in the photo and smiled. "You were still inside me when this photo was taken."
Anana was shocked. "You ate me?"
Kya started to laugh and started tickling her daughter. "No, silly. I didn't eat you. You were not born yet."
Anana started laughing at her mother's playful hands until she couldn't breathe. She rolled around in her father's photos until Kya stopped. Then, she grabbed a handful of the photos and placed them in front of her.
"You think dad would come by and teach me how to take photos someday?" Anana asked.
Kya's smiles started to disappear. She felt a familiar ache in her chest when she heard her daughter. But she did not want to lie. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. But your father… He can't."
"How come? This looks like fun."
"Anana, your dad; isn't here." Kya explained with a slight croak in her voice.
"Then, where is he? Is he with uncle Bumi?"
"No, sweetheart…" Kya hugged her daughter and brought her closer. "He's up there, in the sky."
"In the sky?" Anana looked at the ceiling and was puzzled.
"Yes. He's been there, for a long time. And he's always watching over us, and protecting us up there. He can't come down here, because…" Kya couldn't finish her sentence and let the tears flow down her face.
Still looking at the ceiling, Anana raised her right arm and waved. "Hi daddy." She exclaimed. "I didn't know that you've been protecting me and mommy for a long time, so thank you. I'm also sorry for messing with your stuff while you're not here. I did not know they were yours." She looked at the rest of the photos lying on the floor and smiled. "You're very good at taking pictures, by the way. I want to be in them too."
Kya wiped the tears from her eyes, and put on a brave face for Anana. "Maybe we can ask your uncle Luka to help. He's better at it than me."
A triumphant smile beamed across Anana's face as she gave her mother a tight hug. And just like that, the white flashed had engulfed the memory. It took some time before the white light dissolved into another memory. Unlike the other memories, which transitioned easily from one another, this memory kept itself from being completed. Kya forced the memory to flow. There was a reason why this memory was difficult to channel.
The South Pole had been affected by an unknown epidemic which affected both children and adults. The infected all had similar symptoms. A sudden loss of appetite, high fevers, dehydration; which caused the infected to look like their life was slowly being sucked out by this unseen enemy. Healers and doctors from around the planet have been searching for a cure. Already, a handful of southerners have died from this epidemic.
Anana started to show the symptoms a few weeks ago. Kya had thought that it was just a common fever, and treated it like one. But as the days had gone by, Anana's temperature got higher. She started to eat less, and her eyes slowly sunk. Now, Anana is bed ridden in her mother's room. Unable to move from muscle pain, and constant vomiting.
What used to be a room for rest, Kya had transformed her bedroom into a one roomed hospital. She had two cluttered tables filled with herbs, clear bottles filled with strange colored liquids, and crumpled pieces of paper. There was another table solely for boiling the herbs and liquids together. The only table that was used correctly was the bedside table, where an oil lamp flickered next to Anana's pale colored face.
Kya stood beside the bed and placed her hands above her daughter. She looked Anana, who was half awake at that time, and smiled. "Don't worry, this will only hurt a bit." She started bending her fingers, and was able to control Anana's body.
It was her first time blood bending. Kya had done an extensive study that blood bending could be used as a medical tool rather than a dangerous fighting style. She slowly rotated her hands encouraging the blood to circulate in a calm speed. Anana felt her warm blood rush throughout her whole body, making her feel relaxed, but when her muscles started cramping, Kya accidentally tightened Anana's arms causing her daughter to cry out in pain.
"Ow, mommy, it hurts. It hurts! Stop!"
Kya quickly released her daughter and stood in horror to what she had done. "I'm sorry." She trembled. "I promise, I won't do that again."
Kya heard someone knocking at the side of her bedroom door. When she turned around to look, she saw Bumi letting himself in. Kya was overjoyed and instantly greeted him a hug without uttering a single word.
"It's good to see you too sis." Bumi whispered as he stroked the back of Kya's head. He then raised his head to look at Anana. "Hiya, squirt."
Anana tried to life her head to greet her uncle, but she was in so much pain that even a slight movement would send her to tears. All she could do was hold a smile for half a second for Bumi. Bumi's heart ached, seeing his niece in such critical state.
"Here, put this on." Kya grabbed a medical mask that had been lying on the shelf and handed it to Bumi.
Putting the medical mask over his mouth, he saw how Kya was handling Anana's case. She ran from one desk to the other, crushing leaves and seeds of different colors and sizes before stirring them in a boiling pot of unpleasant smelling fluids. Kya's hands quivered each time she would pick up another ingredient to add in the pot. Her hair was unkempt, her clothes overly stained by unknown spills, and her eyes bloodshot. Bumi knew that Kya lacked sleep, but he never thought that it had gotten this bad.
While Kya was still pounding her ingredients in a bowl, Bumi stepped in and held Kya by the arm. "Kya, please. Just take a moment and get some sleep. You haven't slept in days."
"Weeks actually." Kya corrected. She looked at the mixture in her hands and dropped everything on the desk. "I can't stop now!" She then looked at her daughter who was observing them from her bed, and waved at her before speaking to Bumi. "Look at her, she's getting worse by the hour." She uttered in a low voice. "Many healers in the village have given up finding a cure and it isn't helping. This morning three more people died because of this, this… Whatever this is, and I am not giving up until Anana's cured. I can't let her die, Bumi… I just can't!" Kya suddenly broke down in tears. For weeks she has been experiencing failure after failure, and she was started to get frustrated. People are dying from this epidemic every single day, and whenever she would think of them, she worried that her daughter could be next.
Bumi knew how much Anana meant to his sister and knew how devastated she would be if she was to lose her. He wrapped her in his arms and rocked left and right to console her. "That's why you need to take a break." He uttered to her ear. "Anana needs you to be well once she gets better. At the rate you're going, maybe you'll be lying in bed tomorrow. I need you to rest, Kya. Please, for Anana's sake."
"Thank you Bumi." Kya laid her head on her brother's shoulder until her tears ceased to flow. "I guess I just needed to hear that from you."
"This is unlike you, Kya. You disobeying mother's orders?" He joked.
Kya let out a quick laugh before turning to her daughter. "But, what about Anana?"
"Leave it to me!" Bumi waltzed next to his niece and knelt before the bed before he gently held her hand. "How ya feeling squirt?"
"I've been… Better." Anana breathed heavily.
"Ah, you've been feeling quite under the weather; I see, I see. Maybe this will make you feel a bit, better?" Bumi dug into his right coat pocket and brought out a small gift for his niece.
When Anana saw the gift dangling in front of her eyes, her pasty colored face lit up for a moment. It was a doll made from the Fire Nation. The doll had a red wrapped skirt around her waist and a matching red tube top. She wore a crown adorned with flowers of orange and gold, and her cheeks were dabbed with circles of pink. Bumi placed the doll on Anana's chest and placed her arm on top of it.
"There! Now you have someone to sleep next to you." Bumi expressed with a soft smile.
Anana looked at the doll, and could only express what her body could let her do. "Thank you, uncle Bumi." She uttered.
"Now, why won't I tell you about one of my adventures, while your mom makes herself a cup of tea, huh?"
"Okay. Mommy also needs to rest too."
Bumi gave Kya a subtle nod, telling her that Anana will be under his watchful care. Kya slowly walked towards the door and thanked her brother with a slight bow before leaving.
"Now; have I ever told you how my men and I faced the mighty Snake Shark at sea?" Bumi asked with a gleam in his eye.
Kya trusted her daughter with Bumi and had the entire kitchen to herself. She was sitting at the kitchen table with a hot teapot at her disposal. With a hot cup of tea in between her hands, she would take minor sips to ease her nerves. She convinced herself that Bumi was right, and that a little rest would not harm her or Anana. She was about to pour her fifth cup, when a familiar voiced called out to her from outside her home.
"Kya?" A male voice sounded.
When Kya looked up, the man had slightly let himself in and smiled with his eyes when he saw her in the kitchen. "Tenzin! What are you doing here?"
"I came here to see you and Anana." Tenzin grabbed a chair beside his sister and sat himself down. He readjusted the medical mask he had been wearing in irritation. "I had no idea that it has gotten this bad. The doctors in the city were not kidding."
Kya stared into her empty cup and started to tighten her grip around it. "If you want to see Anana, you may, but stay out here. I don't want you interrupting Bumi's story."
"Bumi? He's here?" Tenzin stood up and walked towards the bedroom door. Bumi was sitting beside the bed, with his back faced at Tenzin. He was his usual self, exaggerating his stories with bizarre arm gestures and voice modification, while an expressionless Anana was listening intently to his stories.
"She looks… Awful. Nothing like the photos you sent me." Tenzin uttered. "And why is Bumi telling her lies? You know I can do a better job than he can."
"If you were here a few months ago, maybe you would have." Kya spat.
Tenzin was surprised the treatment he received from his sister. "What? I just got here, and now you are mad at me?"
"I'm sorry." Kya ran her hands to her face trying to chase the lack of sleep away. "I haven't slept in weeks, and I'm starting to think I'm losing my mind." Kya poured another cup of tea and raised the cup on front of her.
"Kya, maybe you should stop." Tenzin suddenly uttered.
"Stop at what? Going crazy? I think I can't do that –"
"No, I mean stop whatever it is you are doing to Anana."
Kya stood up and dropped her cup of hot tea which shattered on the floor. "Excuse me?"
"Look at her, Kya. Your methods aren't working. Mother had told me what you have been doing to her, and I'm starting believe that maybe that's the reason why she is not getting any better."
"How dare you!" Kya felt her hands turn into fists. "How dare you, come to my home and tell me all these things? You haven't even met Anana and you've started thinking about…"
"It's for her own good Kya. I have been in countless hospitals in Republic City, and whenever the doctors and nurses face similar cases, sometimes it is better just to let them go." Tenzin explained.
"What is it with you and Republic City?" Kya questioned. "Here in the South we do things differently and letting our patients go, even if they still have a fighting chance will never be an option. Why are you telling me all these things, at this moment?"
"Because, Kya, I do not want your efforts to be wasted with a lost cause!"
Then, there was silence. Realizing what he just said, Tenzin began to regret opening his mouth. Kya gave him a wolf like snarl.
"Are you telling me, that my daughter is a lost cause?"
"No, I didn't mean it that way." Tenzin paused for a moment and chose his words carefully. "Kya, all I meant was that, if you keep experimenting on her, she might die sooner."
"Get out!" Kya growled, but Tenzin was still standing in front of her, expecting her to change her mind. "I said, get out!"
Using her bending, Kya harnessed a stream of hot tea from the teapot's spout ant hurled it towards Tenzin. He raised his arm over his face to block the scalding hot tea, and winced in pain. Just as Kya was about to hurl more hot tea towards Tenzin, the white light flashed before the memory like lightning and vanished into another of Kya's memories.
When the white light was done with its transition, it left Kya in familiar ground. She is seen kneeling in the middle of her bedroom with a bucket of water before her, and a headline of a newspaper that was printed four days ago. It read: Republic City Doctor Has Found Cure for Southern Epidemic! There was no one in her bed, and on the bedside table, an oil lamp that was half filled lingered, and two dolls from different nations were lying side by side. The sound of a little girl's footsteps after playing outside disappeared. And her laughter which used to fill the walls of her home was now empty. Kya was alone. Anana had passed on.
Images of her daughter's funeral pyre kept flashing in Kya's head. She remembered how she was not allowed to touch her daughter's body before the fire was lit. She remembered how Anana's was laid on a pile of wood, with her eyes closed and her arms above her stomach. She remembered how the fire swiftly engulfed Anana's body. These memories of her daughter, being burned in front of her were too much for her to handle. She ran out of tears to shed and bellowed herself to sleep every night. Her body could not handle the stress and grief she carried. She had to release herself from these memories.
Using her bending, she raised the water from the bucket and wrapped it around her head. She placed her hands at the side of her head and gradually placed force. The white light on her head circulated around her head and started getting faster. She knew in her heart that what she was doing was unspeakable. But she could not take the pain any longer and fought herself. Tears started to flow from her eyes.
"Kya?"
A familiar voice called her name, but she decided to ignore it.
"Kya?"
The voice got louder.
"KYA!"
A sudden force had released her from her hold. The white light was no more.
To be Continued…
