"The bravest thing I ever did was continuing my life when I wanted to die."
— Juliette Lewis
Prologue 4: The Imprisoned Family
The little girl was sleeping peacefully, suspended in a state of blissful reprieve from the hopeless world of the prison.
There was no pain here. No agony. No suffering.
She would have been content to just sleep forever, but the sounds of scuffling permeated her consciousness.
She awoke with a start.
It was dark inside the prison.
She could only see the shadowy outlines of metal bars around her, confirming the grim reality of still being caged up like an animal.
But suddenly, there was a quiet hiss. It spread throughout the prison, the whisper of air slowly building up, until it became a whistling gust.
As the winds increased, there was a bright flash of white light. It temporarily blinded all of the prisoners. The girl and a few others groaned.
A metallic clunk caught her attention. As her vision returned to normal, she could see that the door to her cage had been unlocked, and was now slightly ajar.
Her heart began to race, ecstasy and hope bursting through every fibre of her being.
Scrambling over to the opening, the little girl leaped out, jumping the gap between the cage and the walkway and landing firmly on the aisle with her hands and feet.
A bit winded, she stumbled a little when she stood up straight, caught off-guard by how sluggish her muscles felt. Her limbs ached a little, but that didn't cause her too much distress.
She was out. Free from that cage at last.
And the others were joining her, too.
The same light appeared from before, further down the prison chamber.
The little girl rubbed her eyes and blinked.
The brightness lessened, and visibility increased. The light pulsated gently and welcomingly, as if to reassure them of their safety, and guide them on their way out.
They followed it.
They walked unhindered through the inner pathways of the prison. There were no guards in sight to stop them. However, some of the waterbenders still clung to each other though, huddling close for the collective safety that could only be found in numbers.
The young girl held the hand of one of the men who reminded her of her father. Her small hands held on tightly, as if her life depended on it.
Eventually, they came to a set of iron doors. Though the doors were shut, the light shone through the gaps from behind them. The prisoners came to a standstill, staring at the obstacle which barred their way to freedom.
After several moments, two of the older prisoners acted. They strode forward in front of the group, and summoning their determination, they placed their hands on the doors and pushed.
The metal doors swung open with a creak.
The prisoners felt the gentle breath of a cool breeze caress their dry skin. The light bathed them lovingly in its soft glow. As they stepped outside, their bare feet left behind the metal floors of the prison, and met the soft grass and dirt of the Earth.
Above them, the moon shone brightly, illuminating the darkness of the night like a guiding lamp. The stars twinkled in the sky, as if the spirits themselves were spurring them on in their escape.
The wonderful sensations of the open world stirred within their hearts the feelings of elation and joy, as pure and as deep as the sea.
The little girl scampered through the mass of her fellow prisoners, making her way to the front.
The adults and the elders looked down at her, grinning with parental fondness as she scuttled by. She returned their smiles with her own, unable to contain her delight at seeing each of her brethren walking freely beside her. She came across the old woman from before, the one who had sang to her to calm her grief and her fears, and she couldn't help giggling as the elder affectionately ruffled the top of her brown hair with a wizened hand.
As she took the lead several paces in front of the group, she spotted him.
There, a little way ahead of them in the distance, stood the source of their salvation.
A boy, several years older than she was, stood with his staff at his side. He had arrows on his forehead and hands, and he glowed a bright brilliant blue, the light radiating not only great hope, but also great warmth and compassion. A saviour's love.
The girl ran over to the boy, stopping only a few feet in front of him. She smiled up at him gratefully, her heart bursting with admiration and gratitude.
"Thank you," she found herself saying, without even needing to think, "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!"
The boy regarded her, his eyes shining, and the small smile on his face growing upon hearing her jubilant thanksgiving.
His heart soaring, the boy glowed brighter, and he started to ascend. He rose up towards the sky, his miraculous light intensifying.
The girl raised an arm to shield her eyes, but she kept on staring, watching as the boy who was the salvation of her and her people disappeared with a brilliant flash of light into the heavens.
"Thank you," she whispered into the empty night once more, the wind carrying her praises up to the skies and beyond.
An ethereal feeling of warmth filled her heart, and spread throughout her body. She suddenly felt tired, but had no cause for concern yet. Unlike the hot air of the prison, this warmth was gentle, and it felt good.
She sank to the soft grass beneath her, and laid down on her back.
Closing her eyes, she found sleep as the darkness overtook her.
Katara's eyes fluttered open as the warmness around her intensified.
When her vision cleared, she saw the metal bars above her that formed the top of her cage.
She sat up and choked out an anguished sob, feeling breathless and overcome by fear.
She should have known.
That dream was too good, too ideal, and too pure to have ever had a chance of happening.
She shuffled over to the bars in front of her and clutched them with her hands, letting her head slump against the metal rods. She shut her eyes, moaning in anguish.
"Bad dream?" a voice whispered from beside her. She turned to regard the old woman in the cage next to hers. She shook her head, placing a hand on her chest and emphasizing her breathing. She panted shallowly, her airways feeling constricted. The elder's eyes shifted a little in realization.
"It's the heat, isn't it? When you wake up, sometimes it feels like you can't breathe. Is that right?"
Katara nodded slowly, her gaze dropping sadly to look at the chasm between their suspended cells.
"Those will only get more frequent over time," the woman continued, "But you'll get used to them, child. Eventually."
The truth, even as gently broken as the old woman could have put it, did little to appease the upset girl. And truth be told, though she did trust the wisdom of an elder from her tribe, she doubted she would ever get truly used to the heat in the prison.
"Who… who are you?" asked Katara at last, her voice rasping harshly with the effort. A cough escaped from her throat. Those were the first words she had spoken ever since her arrival in the prison a few weeks ago. Her throat was sore from dryness and disuse.
"I am Uki," the elder replied, "Once, I was a waterbender warrior from the South Pole. Then, I was captured during the raids that the Fire Nation conducted on our tribe."
Uki's eyes glazed over, the faded old blue in her orbs glistening with tears that threatened to spill. She regained control of herself, however, and continued her recollection.
"Your parents would have been around by then to see all of that. They would have been around your age, if not a little bit older."
Katara flinched when Uki brought up the subject of parents.
Her father… how was he coping with her capture? He must be missing her terribly, just as she missed him. But surely he would come for her eventually. Would he not? He and the other warriors would come to save her, and these people too. They just had to.
But a dark voice in the back of her mind whispered to her that she would never see her father again.
The same way her mother would never open her eyes again.
Katara bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut to hold back the tears.
Uki noticed the shift in the child's demeanour and readjusted her control of the conversation.
"Now, I am a prisoner, held captive by the Fire Nation," she continued, "But while my body has been caged, my soul has not. The spirits have blessed me with a new purpose in life. Teaching you."
At this, Katara's eyes snapped up to meet Uki's.
"What… what do you mean?" the little girl asked, a quiver of anticipation in her voice.
"Little one, our element is Water. And like how a small stream finds its way to the ocean, Water finds a way," Uki said, smiling resolutely, "Even in this cage, with no water to bend, that cannot stop me from teaching you what I can. It will not stop me from passing onto you what I have learned. I will teach you all that I know, if you want to learn."
For the first time since the Fire Nation had taken her away from her home, Katara found herself brightening up.
"Yes," she whispered softly, delicately, her soul timid and shy, yet very much filled with eager excitement, "I want to learn."
Uki's smile was now rapturous.
"What is your name, little one?"
"Ka…" the child rasped, her throat dry and her name practically a distant, foreign memory. She coughed before trying again.
"Katara."
"Katara," Uki repeated warmly, "My, such a beautiful name for such a beautiful little girl."
Katara blushed, and for the first time in months, she smiled.
The first thing that Katara learned early that morning was that any conversation conducted between prisoners had to be done as quietly as possible.
"Don't speak in a voice that is louder than a whisper, lest the guards hear you," instructed Uki, "If you have to talk to someone further away, speak in a hushed voice and spread your words from cage to cage, if you can. The soldiers won't tolerate anything more than silence from us."
Katara nodded solemnly.
Then Uki moved on to teaching the young waterbender about the names of the other tribespeople who were in the prison with them.
"Runik was our leader. There was no one else quite like him," the elder recalled with a sad smile, "Dimika was my combat partner. She always looked out for me when we fought against the Fire Nation, and I did my best to return the favour. She was practically my sister…"
There was a thoughtful silence as Uki briefly averted her gaze, looking wistfully into the empty cage that Dimika once inhabited. Katara gave a small, respectful bow of her head in remembrance for her teacher's friend.
Memories of her own friends back at the tribe surfaced in her mind. Water Tribe children spent most of their childhoods in creches. Though blood families carried a significant amount of importance, one's friends and playmates were practically their brothers and sisters.
Katara was the youngest of the Southern Water Tribe children. Her best friend was a girl called Niyok, and Niyok had an older sister by the name of Nutha. The sisters were the only girls in the tribe who were close to Katara in age, though they were still a few years older than her.
Though Nutha envied her for being blessed with the gift of waterbending, Niyok always loved it when Katara did tricks with the snow.
Right now, Katara wondered if they were thinking about her.
After a few minutes, Uki continued. She pointed at one of the cages in the third row, a little further down the line.
"Ambo is a young warrior. But he's fierce and loyal. If we ever get out of here, he would be the obvious choice for leader, and he would guide us back home. He's brave, like Fendo, his older twin brother, who died many years back. Ambo always looked up to Fendo, and after his brother's death, he felt lost. He thinks that he can never measure up to his twin, even though he's stronger than he believes. Ambo has got the potential to be a leader, but yet he is the only one here who cannot see his own talents."
Katara managed to catch sight of the young man, who was hunched over, hugging his knees, and staring down at his feet. He was a sorry sight, but Uki's words repeated in her head.
"You're braver than you believe," the child thought quietly to herself, trying to silently encourage the man who now reminded her of her father and brother. Dad was always modest and humble. Sokka was always brave.
A painful feeling stirred in Katara's heart.
Oh, how she missed them terribly.
Fortunately, Uki continued before her heartache got the chance to worsen.
The elder pointed to the cage in front of Ambo's. Inside it was a young woman, with long, brown hair very much like Katara's own. The expression on the woman's face was grim, but also determined.
"Arihi is a warrior of very few words. She is comfortable in the silence, yet there is a quiet strength that burns within her, a courageous resolve that's far more brighter and powerful than any flame that a firebender can produce. Sometimes, we all look to her to observe her resolve, because in such a gloomy and depressing place, a little tenacity goes a long way."
Once Uki had finished speaking, Arihi looked over at Katara's cage. The woman nodded and gave a two-fingered salute to the child. A silent gesture that non-verbally communicated her greetings and support to the young waterbender.
Katara nodded back, trying her best to muster her own nascent sense of courage and resolve.
Uki proceeded with the next introduction.
"Old Anibik, and her talented young apprentice, Miruko, are the best healers the Southern Water Tribe has ever had. You can't see them from here, as they're at the far end of the cell block, but they'll probably be the ones to teach you about the art of healing, when we get out of here."
"Healing can be an art?" asked Katara, in awe of this revelation.
"Anything done for the good of others, and for the benefit of life in general, is an art, dear child," Uki smiled, before the reason behind Katara's naivety in this subject hit her. "Oh yes, I forgot. You were the very last waterbender, weren't you, little one? You were born long after all of us had been taken. You have never seen the wonderful, miraculous way that waterbending can be used to heal."
"Wow…" murmured Katara, her young voice laced with childish wonder.
"Now, Patu and Laika are two of the kindest people you'll ever know. They're smart and brave, and they always have something nice to share. Whether it be a little smile, words of wisdom, or some kind encouragement, they'll give it out unconditionally."
Uki pointed a wrinkled finger at the second cage two rows across. Inside that cage was Patu, an old fellow, quiet and unassuming. But he was one of the nicest among the lot, Uki had said.
Laika was in the last cage further down Katara's row, so it was hard for the little girl to spot her. However, the young woman sat up as tall as she could in her cage, and waved up a hand as high as she could to signal where she was. At last Katara caught sight of her, and sure enough there was a gentle, if careworn, smile on her face.
The little girl smiled back, her spirits a little more lifted. She gave a cute little wave of her own.
"You know something, little one? You cheered Laika up a lot just by waving back to her," Uki whispered happily, "She was the youngest prisoner before you arrived, and now she has someone to look out for. That can do a lot to raise one's spirits. Now, Malia and Sikota are resilient and dependable. And they never, ever give up. Although, the last time that Malia tried to escape, the guards punished her harshly. She's still hurting, even though she'll never show it."
This time, Uki gestured to the first cage in the sixth row. Inside the cage was a woman, around Mom's age, with the same skin tone and the same black hair. For a moment, Katara could see only her mother, before she reminded herself of the painful facts that the woman's name was Malia, and that aside from sharing the same hair colour and skin tone, the woman's facial structure was different from her mother's. Katara had inherited her mother's facial structure, a face that was round and soft and friendly. Malia's features were sharper, and her jawbone longer, though her expression of torment looked eerily similar to the expression that her mother had worn when she had been busy trying to distract that Fire Nation soldier, trying in vain to protect her youngest child.
Mom…
Katara gasped out a sob before burying her face into her hands, tears of remorse and sorrow soaking her dry skin.
"Katara," a young, steady voice whispered in a hushed tone. "Katara, please look at me."
The little waterbender briefly lifted her hands away from her face, looking across to the source of the voice. It came from the cage beside the empty one that used to hold Runik.
Another young woman sat inside, looking at Katara with blue eyes that were as bright as a cloudless sky on a sunny day.
"You must try not to cry so much," the woman advised, "Your body needs to retain as much water as it can."
"I'm sorry," Katara stammered through her tears, "It's just… this… this is all my fault…"
"Why do you believe that so?" the woman gently asked.
"I… I wasn't careful. I didn't listen… I tried to fight, when I should've ran…" Katara moaned, her voice clogged with grief and self-hatred.
"Child," Uki intervened, a kind but sad smile on her face, "Sikota is right. You're not responsible for getting yourself captured. You're not responsible for getting yourself imprisoned. The Fire Nation are the ones who want to conquer the world. They're the ones who won't care about whoever gets hurt in the process. They are the ones at fault. Not you."
"Katara," Sikota beckoned once more, "Try and promise me one thing."
Katara nodded, unsure of herself but willing to try.
"Do not blame yourself for bad things that happen out of your control," Sikota went on, "Life has its ups and downs. What defines us is how we respond to all the good and bad things that come our way. Water is adaptable, and open to change. Do not dwell on what could've been. Instead dwell on what can be right now. You're a waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe. You fought to defend your people. Take pride in that, and know that the Fire Nation is wrong in what they're doing."
"Wise words, Sikota," praised Uki, before returning back to the topic at hand, "Tavaki and Sinaya are our best warriors. They're right beside us, in fact, which will come in handy when it's time to teach you how to fight."
The two young warriors in question were in the first two cages of the row on Katara's left. They both gave a small wave of hello to her. She waved back.
"They were trained by Unnuk, one of our oldest warriors. He's somewhere near Anibik and Miruko. He's stubborn and amazingly persistent, otherwise he would not have survived everything the Fire Nation has thrown at him so far. Amihan is another good old-timer. Like you, she fought to protect her tribe and her family. She sacrificed her freedom for their lives. Her husband and children live on, thanks to her. Suluk and Ligaya also gave all they had, but sadly their children, who fought alongside them to defend the tribe, were also captured. Kesuk is Suluk's son, and Ligaya's son is Kaito."
Uki paused to point to a pair of cages a little further down their row. "Ligaya and her son have been imprisoned next to each other, but Suluk and Kesuk were separated when we were brought here. The sisters Leilani and Kailani were caged up separately from each other too. However, the twins Nasak and Nanuk were locked in cages beside each other, so at least not all families were separated in this horrible place."
Then, the old woman gestured to the cage right behind her. "This is Mayumi. She is Laika's best friend, and was known in the tribe for her cooking skills. She doesn't believe it's possible to get out of here, but one day we all will, and then we'll all return home."
"No we won't," Mayumi said simply. There came a hushed flurry of whispers further down the line, before Ligaya, who was caged behind Mayumi, whispered to her.
"Laika says 'cheer up, pal'. Do it for her, she says."
"Alright."
Uki chuckled a little. "Sometimes, Katara, you can find things to laugh about even in the darkest of times. It's a special skill to learn. Heriko is at the other far end of the cell block. Like Mayumi, he doesn't say much. In fact, he says even less. But sometimes, silent perseverance can give you your best chance for survival. You must know when to pick your battles, and both Mayumi and Heriko are wise in that regard, in spite of their young age and pessimistic outlook."
Katara dwelt on this advice. Silent determination and choosing her battles wisely were skills that she decided she needed to learn quickly.
It wouldn't be easy. Back home she was known for her screeching voice and fierce tantrums whenever the other children did something to upset her. Patience and stolidness were virtues that she was still foreign to, often to her brother's annoyance, and her grandmother's concern. But prison could give her the opportunity to try and rectify that. After all, she had been here for several weeks already. How bad would several weeks more be?
It wasn't like she was going to be here forever, right?
"Ayuko is quite the opposite of Heriko and Mayumi. Even surrounded by hopelessness, she prefers to wear a smile on her face, and she'll often try to make others smile too. With her jokes."
Katara giggled a bit. Sokka had liked to make others laugh too.
"Ayuko's older cousin, Tamati, is in one of the cages in the second row. He's… not as good of a jokester as his cousin, but he enjoys a good story, especially spooky ones. He's therefore fortunate, in a way, to be imprisoned near Kesuk."
Katara moved about in her cage, trying to spot Tamati, but Uki put a stop to her searching.
"You won't be able to see him from here. He's on the far side of the cell block. Now, Tahi and Immilik are two more of my closest and dearest friends, aside from Dimika. Though Tahi is the youngest elder present here, she is one of our best benders. And despite her great skill in combat, she is very humble, merciful, and compassionate. Her cage is behind Elenoa's, located in between Miruko and Laika. Immilik is knowledgeable in battle tactics, a subject that both Manaki and Eramiha have an affinity for. So, for the two younger warriors, it's a small consolation that they're caged up near Immilik. That way, all three of them can plan how we're going to strike back against the Fire Nation and find our way home once we get out of here."
The fantasy of escaping the prison and travelling back home to the South Pole made Katara's heart flutter with excitement and longing. She could almost see herself and the other waterbenders making their spectacular entrance back into the village, their fellow tribespeople hailing them with emotional greetings and joyful acclamations.
Uki's voice gently pulled her back to reality.
"Akari and Elenoa are best friends, and they're just as close as sisters. They were fortunate enough to be caged up beside each other. Their cells are in front of Tahi's, behind the cage where Dimika once was."
From her own cage, Katara could just see where Akari was, but Elenoa's cage was too far away for her to see the waterbender in it clearly. And it was only because Dimika's cage was empty that she could just manage to make out Akari's features from afar, with no other person in the cell between Sikota's and Akari's to get in the way.
"Sanita is Miruko's best friend. While she's not locked up next to Miruko, she is at least located in the same row as her. She's a great dancer, a highlight of our tribe's ceremonies and celebrations, and she's incorporated some of her dance moves into her fighting style. This makes her a particularly unique master, a waterbender with an eye for innovation and creativity. I think you'd particularly enjoy learning from her. If only you could communicate directly with her…"
There was a heavy silence. Uki looked wistfully at Sanita's cage, two rows across. She could just see the young adult inside, lying down on the floor of her cage, fast asleep by the looks of things. The elder then looked over at Katara's cage. The child had been trying to direct her gaze to where her mentor had been staring at, but there was no chance for her to be able to catch a good look at Sanita. There were too many obstructions in the way.
"Maybe once we get out of here, she can teach you her own special style," Uki surmised, placating their plaintive longing for proper social interaction with some hopeful speculation.
Uki then pointed to one of the first cages on the other side of the cell block.
"Last but not least, there's Tulok. The oldest and wisest among us, he knows more about the history of our tribe than anyone else. When my generation was younger, we teased him a bit for that, but now it'll come in handy for teaching you," Uki finished. And just in time, too.
"Guards," hissed Tavaki.
"Now you know our names, little one, that's our first lesson for the day finished," Uki quickly whispered to Katara, before quieting down, "Now we must behave ourselves."
Several guards came to distribute the morning rations of bread slices.
"Alright, you miserable vermin. Start eating," one of them drawled.
Their morning drinks and lunch rations were distributed as normal, and once the guards had finished the first of their patrol rounds for the afternoon, Uki commenced the start of Katara's waterbending education.
"What do you know of waterbending, little one?"
"Oh," said Katara as she bit down on her lip, trying to force her tired mind to think, "I know how to bend a little bit of snow, and make puddles splash by themselves."
Uki smiled wistfully at the innocence exhibited by the young child, and the carefree ways that she had made use of her bending. Playing with the snow itself was a major part of many a waterbender's earliest memories. But alas, those childhood memories were merely fantasies of the past now, unreachable in this horrible prison.
But Uki had personally resolved not to lose anymore of her morale. Now she had something to live for. Katara's arrival had brought despair and disheartenment, yes, but the sight of a youngling, the presence of a child, the embodiment of new life, and the faint yet tangible promise of a future — it had also brought fresh determination, a sudden will to live, and the sweet sensation of hope made anew.
For the child's sake, the adults couldn't lose hope again.
"Well, there isn't any water that we can freely bend here," Uki replied quietly, "But the philosophies and the disciplines behind the art can be taught to you. Tell me, what do you know of Tui?"
"Tui? He's the Moon Spirit," answered Katara.
"He's more than that," continued Uki, "The Moon was the First Waterbender. Our ancestors learned from Tui the art of pushing and pulling the ocean tides, learning how to form their own waves, until eventually they were able to move as one with the water around them."
Katara listened intently, enthralled by the way Uki gracefully recounted the origins and history of their shared gift. As the only waterbender back home, she had never had anyone, any teacher to educate her on how her bending had come to be, and how she could make the best use of it. All the other members of her tribe, the adults and the elders in particular, only had the memories of relatives and friends who had long since been taken by the Fire Nation. They couldn't connect to her on this special level, the way these surviving prisoners could.
"Waterbending is more than just manipulating our native element," Uki said with added emphasis, "It is about feeling the water around us. It takes each of the four elements to create life, and to sustain it. All life is dependent on water, just as they are on the other elements. Every single one of us, waterbender or not, calls to it, relies on it. To advance from the basics, you must try to feel the water that surrounds you, no matter how little it is. Do you think you can do it?"
Try to feel what little water there was in such a hot and dry place like this? They were only given water by the guards when it was time for them to drink, and they were chained up tightly before they could do so.
Still…
"I… I'll try," Katara replied in a small voice.
But it would be hours before their next drink.
A little while later, when there was another break between the guards' rounds, Uki struck up another conversation with Katara.
"So, child, what were you dreaming about this morning?"
"Someone…" Katara began, pausing to dwell on those moments of bliss, reflecting on the visions of freedom that she could only temporarily reach in her dreams, "Someone rescued us. He was a boy, a bit older than me. His eyes glowed with power, and he had marks on his body that glowed too."
The prisoners in the cages closest to Katara straightened upon hearing her words.
"He freed us," Katara went on, "And he came from the sky."
"The Avatar…" breathed Sinaya, full of awe.
"And from the way you described him, he seems to be an airbender," Uki murmured.
"An airbender?" asked Katara, "But I thought they were all wiped out by the Fire Nation."
"And that is what our tribe must probably think of us too," continued Uki, "But with dreams like yours, Katara, there is always hope. Hope that the Avatar will return. And hope that one day, we may walk free again once more."
"Hey! Shut up, scum!" a soldier barked at them as he strode up. He slammed his sword against the bars of Uki's cell, before leaning closer to hiss at the inhabitant inside the cage, "Don't even try to formulate any new plans for escaping, old swine. You and your fellow vermin will be punished before you can even think of making the first move."
Uki nodded silently, slowly, before turning her gaze down to her lap. Satisfied with her compliance to yield, the soldier turned and walked away.
Uki turned to the other adult waterbenders that she could see from her cage. She nodded silently at each of them. They got the message.
Uki then turned to Katara's cage, and held a finger in front of her lips. While the child had been confused at the silent interactions before, now she understood what Uki had meant.
Enough talking for now.
Night came several hours later, and after the waterbenders had eaten their bread rations, Katara sat up in anticipation and waited for the restraining guard to come along, as he would soon be followed by the guards responsible for giving them water to drink.
But they never came.
Feeling tired yet strangely restless all at once, Katara looked up to see the moon rising through the bars of the small grate high above her cage.
The moonlight seeped into the prison, entered her cage, and brushed against her skin. She felt a surge of strength, and she groaned.
Fresh energy was flowing within her, and the cramped space of her cell now seemed overwhelmingly claustrophobic.
Her heart started to beat faster, and her breathing quickened. However, she still found herself gasping for breath, unable to get enough air.
She looked around desperately, her heart thumping frantically, her limbs heavy with panic.
Help. She needed help. And the only ones who could give her help in this place were her elders. They would give her what little love and care they could manage despite being locked up themselves.
Katara crawled over to the side of her cage and clutched the bars tightly.
"Uki?" she whispered in the darkness, frantically listening for a reply, "Uki?"
Several long and tense moments passed.
Finally, the old woman replied.
"Yes, little one?"
Relief flooded through Katara's small body, and she managed to regain control of her nerves and slow her breathing down.
"Where are the guards?" the child asked, "The ones who are supposed to give us water?"
Uki's face fell a little as she sadly answered, "The Moon is full tonight, child. When the Moon is full, our waterbending is at its strongest. For that reason, the guards do not give us water on full moon nights."
Katara looked down miserably at the chasm between their cages.
"But I'm thirsty," she finally mewled, after a few long moments of painful silence. She couldn't keep the pitiful quiver out of her voice.
"I know, baby," Uki soothed sadly, "I know."
Somewhere further along the aisles, a prisoner coughed, their throat so dry and itchy. In another cell, someone shifted in their sleep, moaning in discomfort as they subconsciously felt their body ache.
These gloomy occurrences did nothing to help Katara's mood, and she slumped even further.
She was so thirsty.
She was always so thirsty all the time now, but she could do nothing about it.
It wasn't fair.
They were already helpless and locked up, far away from their homes and families. Why did the Fire Nation still feel the need to torture them some more?
The little girl shuddered, trying to hold back her tears.
Several cages away, Ayuko noticed the child's depressed demeanour, and she beckoned across to Laika in the cage beside her.
Over the next few minutes, the atmosphere around the waterbender prison cells was filled with hushed whispers, along with the occasional chuckle, before Mayumi whispered something to Uki and the older prisoner turned around in her cage to pass on the message to Katara.
"Katara, do you know why the Fire Nation soldiers wear helmets that cover their faces?"
Looking up from her fetal position, the young girl shook her head.
"Why?"
"Because they're as ugly as arctic pigs," the elder answered mirthfully.
At that, Katara gave a small burst of laughter. Hushed though her giggles may have been, they were genuine reflections of her joy and ecstasy. The lift in mood would be brief, and her short spurt of happiness wouldn't last long, but for now her morale had been boosted.
"Thank you, Uki," she whispered, wiping away the few tears that she had shed. Now that she felt a little better, the young waterbender also found herself feeling tired and weary. She gave a cute little yawn.
"It is no trouble, little one," replied Uki, smiling warmly, "You just sleep now, okay? I'll pass on your thanks to Ayuko."
Katara nodded half-consciously as she made herself comfortable on her cage floor, before she closed her eyes completely and drifted off to sleep.
A Full Moon lasts for three days.
Katara had already survived the first two nights of her first Full Moon Experience, and the last day of the lunar phase was spent on listening to stories told by the other elders, but mostly just finding a bit of enjoyment from the jokes invented by the younger adults.
Ayuko was responsible for creating most of the prison humour, and Katara briefly mused that if — no, when — they got out of here, she would introduce Ayuko to Sokka once they made it back home.
She had also learned more about the old legends of her tribe. When their ancestors from long ago had ventured from the North, on the last leg of their journey to the South Pole, a clan of airbenders had given them aid in navigating through the tempestuous waters of the South Sea.
There were other tales of adventurous waterbenders who had looked beyond the icy horizons of their home, and had embarked on quests by themselves around the world, battling sea serpents, and improving the agriculture of the Earth Kingdoms by assisting earthbenders in carving rivers throughout the massive continent.
Suluk was a wondrous storyteller, and his son Kesuk had inherited his talent. Together, they regaled their fellow prisoners with as much tribal stories as they could recall — which was no mean feat considering their tired, dehydrated states, and the rule of silence that the guards brutally enforced whenever they were around.
Despite the constant agony of their living conditions, the prisoners drew upon one another for strength, and that made life in the prison a bit more bearable.
Still, there were frequent reminders of the Fire Nation's brutality.
It happened the next evening.
The prisoners had all just been given their dinner rations, and now that the full moon had come to pass, they were currently sitting around in their cages, waiting to be given water.
They were all much more fatigued than usual due to their reduced amount of water intake over the past few days, but that was always the case during the full moon phase of the monthly lunar cycle.
That knowledge didn't make it any easier to endure, though.
And the bodies of some prisoners handled it less well than others did.
Mayumi was sleeping on the floor of her cage when the restraining soldier came around. He had already chained up Katara and Uki, and now it was Mayumi's turn.
When he saw her sleeping, he gave a fierce, rough kick to her cage and she was startled awake by the sheer power of his brutality. The force from the blow had left her cage swaying on its chains.
"Wake up, scum! Come on! Get up! Move!"
Mayumi, currently lacking the strength to comply, looked down at the floor from her prone position and took a deep breath. The soldier didn't care for her physical frailty, however.
"Move it! Come on!" he bellowed, pressing his face to the bars. Mayumi cringed back, flinching away from the savage snarls of the firebender. She wasn't fast enough though — while she was in the midst of propping herself up with her arms, the soldier sent a spark of flame at her.
A scream erupted from Mayumi's cage.
Chained up in the center of her cage, Katara shut her eyes tight, cringing in fear. She wished she had her arms free so that she could cover her ears.
Feeling her left cheek stinging, but her eyes otherwise unhurt, Mayumi looked up. The amber eyes of the soldier glinted down at her with cruel malice.
"Maybe that'll be an incentive to hurry up next time, ya stupid bitch," he sneered smugly. When Mayumi finally fell back into the center of her cage, he unlocked her cage door and clambered inside, seizing Mayumi's wrists and fastening them behind her back with the manacles. Once he had finished, he slammed the cage door shut behind him and moved onto the next cell.
There was a painful silence as the soldier chained up the rest of the waterbender prisoners, filled only with the soft hisses of pain and quiet weeping that emanated from Mayumi's cage. When the soldier finally left after restraining the last prisoner, Ambo whispered across from his cage.
"Mayumi? Will you be alright?"
"I'll… be fine…" Mayumi whispered tearfully, her shackled arms aching.
Arihi was in the cage opposite from Mayumi. As she raised her head, she spotted a dark red burn mark on her older comrade's left cheek. It was a small wound, but a painful one, and it would definitely leave an ugly scar.
"You will," she tried to reassure her, "Just stay strong."
"It's hard to," murmured Mayumi.
"Why did they do that?" Katara asked sadly, "She did nothing wrong."
"The guards will find any excuse to hurt one of us when they can. It doesn't matter that we're helpless," Uki sighed gloomily, "That is why, child, you must try not to give them any reason to attack you."
"Guards," whispered Sikota urgently, and once more, they all fell silent.
Katara soon found that punishments with extreme prejudice usually occurred when the guards were bored. When the guards were bored, they were irritable. And when the guards were irritable, flames would start flying.
It seemed to be a periodic occurrence. By the end of the month, Miruko, Amihan, Heriko and Ayuko were all also sporting painful burns. Amihan and Ayuko had been burned on their lower legs, while Heriko and Miruko spent their waking hours nursing their forearms.
As it turned out, all of the adults had burn scars of their own. Uki's scars were located on her right shoulder and her right lower leg. The scars were just hard to spot in the ever-present darkness of the prison.
This was normal, the adults told Katara. One didn't survive for over a decade in these prisons without one of the guards marking them as some sort of prize.
The burnings happened at random, and were usually the result of a prisoner being too tired, too slow, or too weak to obey a guard's orders in time.
All of this was unsettling news for Katara. So far, she had been lucky that the guards had found no reason to punish her. She supposed that it was because she was relatively quick to comply with their commands. Either that, or the guards did have an ounce of honour and humanity within them, and that while they would imprison her under torturous conditions, they wouldn't hurt her too much.
Yeah, right.
The first possibility was more likely.
She had also learned more about how Malia had been punished. The grates in the ceiling had retractable metal covers that could be closed on rainy days.
"What's rain?" Katara had asked Sinaya.
The woman had replied, "Think of it as snow, in liquid form. In this part of the world, it's too hot for there to be any snow, so water just falls from the sky as is."
Now that Katara knew about rain, the other adults told her that one time, the guards had been slow to close the grates when a rainstorm had suddenly formed. Some of the downpour had seeped through the open grates, and Malia had sought to use the newfound source of water in an attempt to break out of her cage. Unfortunately, the guards had been quick to react, and she was swiftly overpowered with several bursts of flame, leaving her arms and her hands badly burned. Seeking to punish her further, however, the guards had burned her abdomen the next time she had been chained up for drinking.
She had never made another escape attempt since.
Trying to get her mind off all of these morbid thoughts, Katara looked up through the bars of her cage, up towards the nearest ceiling grate. Beyond the grate, there was a bright blue sky, with nary a hint of clouds.
Lost in the tantalizing glimpse of beautiful, wonderful blue, Katara could only see the faces of her people, shambling about their icy home in their woolly blue clothing when she closed her eyes.
There came a sigh and a soft whimper from her. A silent, non-spoken imploration.
Please… help me…
Please don't leave me here…
Save me…
Save us…
There were still other horrors to be discovered in the prison, though.
Katara was sleeping, lost in her dreams of family and friends back home, when in the midst of her unconsciousness, she felt a sharp pain in the extremities of her foot.
She squirmed, opening her eyes and craning her head up off the floor to find a small, strange creature nibbling on her toe.
For a moment, she stared wide-eyed at it, gazing straight into its small, black, beady eyes. It detached its snout from her toe, before turning the front half of its body to face her directly, tilting its head quizzically at her.
She screamed.
She started to scramble away, and her flailing foot caught the creature in its face.
It was a feeble hit, though, from a weak and debilitated child, and the furry little animal was only pushed back a short distance.
It recovered, and got up on all fours, before scampering away, leaping out of her cage, onto the walkway, and disappearing into the gloomy darkness.
"Uki…!" Katara cried, her voice trembling, "Uki!"
The old woman startled at the sound of her voice, shifting quickly in her sleep to force herself awake, scrambling to the bars so that she could see the child who had come to depend on her. The child who had just now cried for her help.
"What is it?" she asked calmly, quietly, trying to soothe the panicked child, "What is it, sweetie?"
Katara looked up shakily at the old woman, blue eyes meeting blue eyes.
"Something bit me," she mewled, "It was small and furry and really scary."
"Ah," said Uki knowingly, "You've just had your first encounter with an elephant-rat. These little animals live and thrive in the dark depths of the prison, far away from the sight of humans. They like to nibble on things when they're curious, but they're ultimately harmless."
"But it bit me," Katara mumbled quietly, stroking her throbbing toe with her fingers. There was a red mark on her toe where the skin had been chewed through, and blood was slowly streaming from the open wound. A few tears ran down her cheeks. She was still frightened, and the fact that she had never experienced this kind of trauma and pain before didn't help to settle her mind one bit.
"Only because it thought you were dead," Uki told her, "Once it knew that you were alive, it left you alone."
Katara looked at the elder, heeding her words, yet all but still lost in her terrified thoughts.
The old lady continued, "I know they're a weird and scary sight for the first few times that you'll see them, but they're really nothing to be scared of. In fact, biting aside, they'll probably give you the most excitement you'll ever get in this place."
Katara stared down at the floor of her cage. "I don't understand…"
"Just think of it this way," said Uki, "They are the only living beings you can come into contact with who won't put you in any danger. And second, just imagine what it is like to be them. Not locked up behind bars, able to enter and exit cages as they please, even able to wander outside and far away from this prison, if they so wish. From the fish to the birds to the rats, every living creature has its purpose. And we can all learn something from them."
Uki stopped to dwell on her own thoughts, before continuing.
"Even with all of our power, all of our strength, all of our bending, we are helpless in these cages, at the mercy of the Fire Nation soldiers who watch us. But the rats, though small in size they may be, are able to come and go as they please. And they don't even need to utilize the elements to do so."
Katara looked up, meeting Uki's eyes. The child was all but lost in her thoughts over the elder's teachings, only being aware enough to register and comprehend the old waterbender's words when she next spoke.
"Child, this is a lesson you must always remember: sometimes even humans, whether they be bender or non-bender, are powerless next to the forces of nature. Our bending, for those of us who are blessed with the gift, is merely a glimpse into the natural ways and workings of our world. It is only a mere fraction of what the spirits can do with their power."
"But the Avatar is one of those spirits made flesh. That's why he can bend all the elements," Katara stated, recounting an earlier lesson passed on from Tulok.
"Indeed," smiled Uki, "You listen and reason very well, for a child your age. Now we should go back to sleep. The guards might not care about the rats breaking the rules, but we still have to wake up when we're told to."
On days when the prisons were extra quiet and orderly, the guards would commend and compliment each other on a job well done, before proceeding to take an extended shared break.
It was during one of these breaks, on one of these days, when the younger adult prisoners would scan the peripheries of the prison chamber, and once the coast was confirmed to be clear, the rest of the prisoners would proceed to engage in practice. They would practise their training katas and physical exercises, running through the motions of their distant memories of waterbending, trying to remember what it was like to be free. The exercises consisted mainly of stretching, due to the cages being too small to stand up in, and their bodies being too weak to be capable of anything more rigorous. The katas, meanwhile, were practised so as to help the adult waterbenders remember their forms and bending movements.
Katara, having been too young to have ever done any serious and sustained waterbending in her short life, was instead trained by Sinaya and Tavaki in the movesets required for waterbending. Though leg movement and footwork couldn't be practised in the cramped spaces of the cages, arm movements could be executed, and so that is what Tavaki and Sinaya taught Katara.
"Bending is as much a mental task as it is a physical one," Tavaki instructed the child, "As long as you maintain the thoughts of flowing water in your mind, each movement of your limbs will give a command to your element."
Sinaya, meanwhile, was making small continuous weaving loops with her right arm.
"This is a basic exercise for maintaining an active and continuous flow of water," the woman said, "Water is always changing. Never is it still. Even the calmest surface of water is affected by the slightest ripple. To be an effective and efficient warrior with your element, you must be ready to flow, change and adapt just like the water. Now, copy my movements."
Katara made simple looping movements with her right arm, just like Sinaya.
"Good," said the older waterbender, "Now we're going to try a move called the Icy Comets. This requires you to twist the upper half of your body left and right, letting your arms flow back and forth to the rhythm of your twisting. This move combines a great counterattack and a solid blocking stance into one continuous combo."
Sinaya and Tavaki twisted to and fro, whipping their arms back and forth in perfect unison. Katara followed their example, trying to get her body used to continuous movement again. Her arms felt loose and weak and floppy, but she wasn't going to let that stop her from training effectively.
After a minute of continuous movement, they stopped to rest their aching limbs.
Sinaya spoke again after catching her breath. "Ideally, when you perform the Icy Comets with actual water, you are attacking with an ice flail when you swing one of your arms forward, before converting it back into water for defense when you pull back your arm. As your other arm moves forward, the water that you are bending with that arm should become the next ice flail to attack with, before turning it back into water for your defense and repeating the cycle all over again."
Tavaki spoke next. "Now we're going to try a more powerful move. It's still basic, but this type of attack is a heavier one. It's called the Water Surge, and you execute it by raising your hands up…"
The warrior demonstrated the movements with his own arms.
"Then by pushing out like this," he continued, shoving both his hands out, "When you do it with actual water, it should look like you're making your own smaller version of a tidal wave. Push and pull, that is how the Moon controls the tides, and that is how we as waterbenders control the waves."
Katara raised her arms. She closed her eyes, and tried to imagine a wave of water slowly rising at her command. Then she opened her eyes and pushed out, fantasizing a strong wave of rushing water surging forth. She even felt a tingling in her limbs, as if her blood and her chi were flowing throughout her body under the influence of her own will.
This was the closest she had ever gotten to waterbending during her time in the prison, and despite the lack of water, she nearly felt ecstatic.
Sinaya and Tavaki taught her two more offense moves that day, before the guards returned and the prisoners had to quickly settle back into silent inactivity again.
During a later interval between the guards' rounds, Sikota spoke to Katara.
"That was the first exercise us old-timers have had in years," she whispered across to the child's cage, "You were a big help to us today, Katara."
"She's right," added Uki, "It is the responsibility of the previous generation to pass on what they have learned to the next."
A few moments passed before the younger woman continued.
"Child, you and your friends are the warriors, the masters, and the leaders of the future. That is the reason why our tribe treasures children so much. Your new, young lives bring fresh perspective and life to the world, and so you must be raised right. Your mere existence has innate value. Your life has so much potential. No matter who you are, or where you come from, you have a bright destiny ahead of you, and one day, you will get there, as long as you make the right choices. That is why our tribe protects children and cherishes them. You are our future."
"I know this might not mean much to you, Katara, because it is a lesson that you'll come to understand only with age and experience," Uki said earnestly, "But just the simple fact that you are alive and that us adults have the opportunity to teach you makes many of us immensely happy. You bring us hope. You bring that little bit of light into the darkness of our lives."
Those lessons and words from Uki and Sinaya would stay with Katara forever.
And then there were days when nothing happened.
Nothing, except the usual events of the prison schedule. Rations of bread received at morning, noon and night. A drink of water following each meal. And the guards doing their rounds of patrol all in-between.
Too much of the time, the days in the prison are like this.
During these days, security is so tight to the point that the waterbenders can feel the oppressiveness like a leash. Or an extra pair of shackles.
They are only left with their own thoughts, their own worries, their own doubts, and their own fears, from the moment they wake up, to the moment when they fall asleep, only to wake again the next morning to experience the same torturous cycle all over again.
Time becomes incomprehensible. Seconds pass all too slowly, and the long, hot hours feel like an eternity to the waterbenders.
It is during times like these that they all are forced to live with the knowledge, with the reality, that without their element, they are helpless.
Useless.
Worthless.
It is during times like these that some dark, sinister voice in the back of their minds questions whether or not this kind of existence can even be called living.
Is it worth the effort to cling on to some small hope that we might walk free again one day?
Will anyone even come for us?
Will this ever end?
Why can't it just be over?
These were the agonizing thoughts that plagued Katara as she sat silently in her cage one night.
She was sitting with her back against the bars, with her legs splayed out in front of her.
The prison had been quiet for several days at this point. The guards made sure that the silence was never broken. They accomplished this by dealing out burns to a few unlucky prisoners. Immilik, Unnuk, Tulok, Ligaya and Kaito were the victims.
Perhaps the guards figured that it was the elders, for the most part, who were the pillars of strength for the rest of the captives.
Well, they weren't completely wrong.
The first one to be burned this time was Ligaya. Her throat had gotten so dry and raspy that she couldn't stop coughing.
One of the guards had torched her cheek for that.
Kaito was enraged and upset by the guards' treatment of his mother, but he subsided after they had burned him as well.
After that, Uki had signalled to Katara to remain as quiet as she could.
Katara obeyed.
Her obedience and silence kept her safe.
But days of silence were taking its toll on her now, reminding her of her first few weeks here.
She had felt so isolated and alone, even though her brethren were with her. She had gotten to know them eventually, something which she had previously thought would never be possible, but the price of that had been her freedom.
No one should have to go through this.
Her arms and legs ached from disuse. She stretched in an attempt to rid them of stiffness, but she felt a sharp pain in her back. She stopped her struggling and slumped again.
She was too debilitated to even perform basic exercises.
Some waterbender she was.
She closed her eyes, and tried to regulate her breathing.
When she opened them again, she looked around.
The sky outside was dark, and around her, the other prisoners were asleep. Some were snoring lightly, their breaths as soft as whispers. Others gave off raspy wheezing as they respired, even now still struggling to breathe in the hot, dry air.
It was suddenly remembering her shortness of breath that caused Katara to feel even more weak.
She was tired, so tired, but her mind was far too much on edge.
Her body begged for sleep, but her instincts were screaming. Screaming at her to do something, anything, to find a way out of here.
She trembled all over. The stress on her body was tangible now, evident for all to see.
"I'm gonna die here," she thought despairingly, "Oh spirits, I'm gonna die here…"
A wave of panic and torment crashed down on her, and for a few terrifying moments, she couldn't breathe.
She wanted to scream, but she knew that would only bring trouble, and would very likely seal her own fate.
Her instincts, however raw and inexperienced, told her to calm down — for her own sake, calm down — and think of something else before the desperate scream really escaped her throat.
She wiggled her toes, trying to occupy her mind with a simple physical activity.
It didn't work. Panic and fear were settling in her chest again, and she was finding it difficult to breathe. Her throat felt tight and it wouldn't work.
Shutting her eyes, she forced herself to take a deep breath, one after another. Her body trembled with the stress, and if she didn't calm herself soon she knew she'd go hysterical.
Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale.
Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.
Simple tasks. Simple things to give her purpose — and keep her going.
Just keep breathing. Just keep living.
Just stay alive… just stay alive… just stay alive…
She still couldn't stop herself from trembling.
Oh, what's the use?!
She wept, despair a heavy burden on her soul.
There was no chance of escape. They were goners. She was only prolonging the inevitable.
She had nowhere to go. No escape from the nightmare.
She curled up on the metal floor of her cage and cried herself to sleep.
PUBLISHED ON = 17 / 10 / 2021