Before we start, I must give a trigger warning for torture content in this chapter.
Anyway, let's proceed.
Prologue 7: A Dying Light
The prisoners were completely silent over the next few days.
They had all been left shocked, speechless, and devastated by the death of Uki.
No one took it harder than Katara, though. She had latched onto Uki's presence and had viewed the elder as a second grandmother, which was something truly special, having only ever known one grandparent her whole life. With Uki's death, she had all but lost yet another member of her family.
Her soul felt empty.
Every day, she spent hours weeping quietly, staring over at the empty cage beside her.
Every morning, she woke up, hoping that, by some small chance, a miracle had happened and that she would see Uki's warm, gentle smile again.
She never did.
It was at the end of another week when she woke up, her head no longer drowning in sorrow, and her heart no longer bleeding, that she finally felt the ugly, burning fire inside of her.
The desire for vengeance. The overwhelming urge to destroy the enemy, through whatever means possible.
If that was what it felt like to be a firebender, then it was no wonder why they were monsters. Cruel, savage, malicious and destructive monsters.
They had brought down so much pain upon her and her people.
She vowed to make them suffer, as she had suffered.
She took her morning rations of bread and water without any defiance, for she would have to be nourished enough to survive the very possible ramifications of acting out against her captors.
At noon, she quietly ate her bread slice without the slightest sign of complaint. Afterwards, she silently sat close to the door of her cage, waiting for the restraining guard to show up.
He would be the first enemy that she would defy.
A few minutes later, he did indeed turn up, a bunch of manacles slung over his shoulder.
He stopped beside her cage, before sharply barking to her in his tenor voice, "Alright, brat. Time to move."
Behind the bars, Katara stared up at him, before slowly shaking her head.
"Come on, you little bitch! Move away from the door!" he snarled.
Again, Katara shook her head.
The soldier dropped the manacles he was carrying. The restraints crashed to the floor of the walkway, clattering loudly. He stepped closer to the child's cage, glaring ominously at her. Katara barely managed to stifle a terrified whimper.
"Do you want to play games with me, little girl?" he asked, the faintly sweet tone in his voice belying the dangerous venom in his words.
Katara didn't know how to answer that, so she kept silent and still, only continuing to stare him in the eye.
He suddenly roared and kicked at her cage, causing it to lurch on its chains. Katara shut her eyes, and held on tight, clinging to the bars with all the strength that she had. When the swaying of the cage had ceased, she opened her eyes to find the soldier right in front of her face. She almost screamed, her heart hammering against her ribcage, her breathing quick and shallow.
"You blasted little scut! Move!" he roared.
And she almost, almost did. But she stayed put.
That's when he unsheathed his sword.
The metallic scrape of the blade sliced through the heavy silence of the prison, the audible sound of imminent danger piercing the thick veil of anxious terror.
None of the prisoners dared to move an inch.
Angling his blade to the side, the soldier leaned closer again.
"Do you want to continue trying my patience, ice mutt?" he growled.
Katara didn't answer. She just tightened her grip on the bars and raised her eyes to meet his gaze.
For several long agonizing moments, nothing happened.
The tension made each second feel like an eternity.
Suddenly, the soldier swung the sword.
Katara released the bars and jolted back, crying out in fear.
The blade slammed against the metal rods, releasing a shrieking crack that echoed throughout the prison.
All of the prisoners cringed at the noise.
"I will not ask you again, scum. Move!" the soldier snarled at her.
Still cringing in fear, Katara forced herself to slow down her breathing, and to inhale steadily. Her heart was hammering against her ribcage and she was tempted to yield in submission out of a desire to not get punished.
But she felt the coldness in her heart mix with the fire in her blood, and that renewed her resolve, and gave her more reason to fight.
For every minute of the rest of her life, she would fight.
Her eyes still closed, images of home flashed through Katara's mind. Her grandmother, standing tall against the brutal cold of the South Pole. Her father, leading the rest of the tribe's warriors in a charge against the relentless soldiers of the Fire Nation. Her mother, ready to give her life for her family and tribe, even after being forced on her knees to face the cruel and brutal malice of a firebender. Her brother, reaching out for her, trying to rescue her despite everything, fighting to get to her even in the face of impossible odds.
Perhaps, in the end, it was her big brother who she loved and admired the most.
I have to be like Sokka. I have to be brave.
Sitting up straight, she opened her blue eyes, and faced the raging fire in the soldier's amber gaze with the power of the ocean in her own.
"No," she answered, her voice cold, her single word as sharp as a blade of ice.
Despite the suffocating heat of the prison, her defiance lingered long afterwards, as if it were frost in the air.
Seconds seemed like minutes.
Suddenly, the soldier yelled out in fury and thrust a fist forward, releasing a wide horizontal arc of flame.
Katara screamed in terror and lifted her hands to defend her face. She shut her eyes, cringing for all she was worth. But even with her eyes closed, a white, burning light filled her vision.
Time seemed to slow for several long moments.
And then she had only a second to catch her breath before the stinging began.
And then another second after that, the stinging transformed into something worse.
Overwhelming pain swept from the tips of her fingers and all the way around to the front and back of her hands.
Her hands.
Her hands.
A wave of agony engulfed her and she screamed.
Writhing, she fell onto her back, bursting into tears. Her head crashed against the metal floor and pain exploded in her mind again.
She lost control of her voice and throat, giving herself over to screaming and crying.
That was all she could do.
Her vision went red from the excruciating pain.
Her world was reduced to torture and tears.
The one responsible for her suffering, however, saw only another spectacle to relish in.
His amber eyes glinted with cruel pleasure as he watched the small child writhe and scream in agony.
Only when her thrashing started to degenerate into broken crying did he finally have enough. For now.
"Arrogant little bitch," he sneered smugly, laughing as he walked away.
The disparagement barely registered in Katara's tortured mind.
Her hands wouldn't stop hurting.
She wailed and screeched and screamed and cried. She let her tears drip onto her burned hands, and nuzzled her lips against her seared skin.
It didn't help. The pain only got worse, and her hands began to throb. Blisters were forming themselves out of the streaks of angry red skin, and everything seemed to be spinning.
She closed her eyes tight, trying to resist the urge to throw up, begging her body to just go to sleep instead. It didn't work. The pain was just too much. It seemed like her hands were still on fire, and the burns felt like they were spreading all the way up her arms.
She screamed again, crying in pain for all she was worth.
Through her tears, she saw the steel bars of her cage, and her heart thundered faster at the sight, her shattered mind painfully reminded of the reality of her lowly, inhuman, and imprisoned existence.
Her soul longed desperately to be free, to have access to a tender hug, a loving touch.
But she would never receive that. Not here. Not in this cruel cage.
She wanted her family, her tribe, to free her, to rescue her, to take her home and raise her and protect her and love her again.
But they were gone.
Just like her mother.
Oh, how she missed her mother.
How she longed for her mother. To feel her loving touch, to be caressed by her gentle hands, to be wrapped in the arms of her protective embrace…
"Mama!" she screamed desperately, despairingly, tears still flowing down her face, "Mama!"
She wanted her mother. She needed her mother.
But her mother was already dead.
Just like her hope of ever getting out of this place.
Somehow, that almost stung just as badly as the burns on her hands did.
She screamed in agony again.
She cried for hours. She screamed until her voice was hoarse.
She didn't touch her evening ration of bread. She couldn't.
Even when they were chained up for their evening drink, she continued weeping, her weak, mewling cries echoing throughout the prison.
It was music for the soldiers who stood guard.
But for the prisoners, to hear their youngest member in total distress was heartbreaking.
One of the elders, Patu, looked at the nearest soldier who stood outside his cell. The old waterbender leaned forward, as far as the chains around his wrists would let him.
"Please," he begged earnestly, his ancient voice trembling, "At least let one of us heal her."
"Hmm… No," the soldier drawled smugly, before walking away.
The agony of second-degree burns didn't go away overnight.
She cried in pain for days.
The burns would take a long time to heal.
The child only stopped her crying when the need for sleep became too great for her and she blacked out during the night.
The guards always had a lark about it, revelling in her physical and emotional distress, while the other prisoners dreaded the sounds of her weeping, wilting in their own cages and seeming to lose a little bit of life every time they heard her cry.
They wanted so badly to do something, anything, to help the poor child. But they couldn't.
They could only sit in their cages and watch their youngest member waste away. All while the soldiers in the prison sneered and scoffed and laughed.
That was the way things were for the next couple of days.
But eventually, after a while, the guards started to grow irritated.
It had been almost two weeks since the incident when it happened.
It was a little while after the prisoners had been given their first drink of the day.
The restraining guard hadn't been at all gentle or sympathetic with Katara, roughly grabbing her burned hands in order to chain up her arms. The other prisoners supposed that he had probably done that deliberately, on purpose.
Putting aside whatever his intentions had been, the resulting consequences were the same.
The poor little child had started crying again, her continuous sobs echoing throughout the prison. She had cried throughout their drinking time, she had cried while being unchained, roughly again, and she was still crying while they were waiting for the next few hours to pass until they would be given their lunch rations.
The guard who was currently making his rounds was a young one. Only a few years into his twenties. As he wore a helmet that fully enclosed his face, the only aspects that one could draw an inference for his age from were the sharpness in his eyes and the smoothness in his voice.
Katara was huddled in the center of her cage, hugging her legs, face pressed into her knees. Her hands ached, the blisters on her skin throbbed in agony, and she could feel wet spots on her knees from where her tears had soaked the fabric of her pants. She was trying to muffle the sounds of her crying. She had already been yelled at by several of the guards over the past few days for her constant sobbing, and by now she was desperately trying not to cause anymore trouble for herself.
But her body was nowhere near ready to comply with her frantic begging.
After several more minutes of pained weeping, the edges of her peripheral vision darkened as a shadow approached and loomed over her. As the figure came closer into view, inky blackness gave way to a metallic, skull-white face. Amber eyes glared fiercely at her, a raging firestorm ready to unleash itself.
Katara whimpered.
"Shut up!" the soldier snarled, "You've been crying for days!"
The gruff hiss in his voice… the dangerous flash in his eyes… the way that the threat behind his words seemed to make the very shadows grow ever darker…
The cruelty and malice of this young soldier seemed frighteningly familiar to the other prisoners.
Then it hit them.
It was the same guard who had burned Katara's hands. It was the same monster who had thrown flames at the little girl and had laughed at her agony afterwards.
And now here he was, his sadism unchecked, his savagery shining from his eyes like the deadly flames he wielded. He looked ruthless and unhinged, and yet, he also looked terrifyingly sane.
And that was what scared the adult prisoners the most.
A raging fire was difficult to put out, but it could be avoided. A sudden blaze — a wild, spontaneous spark that erupted into something completely unpredictable — was far more dangerous.
Katara started to cry harder. The soldier unsheathed his sword and slammed it against the bars of her cage.
"Shut up, you damned little mutt!"
The child shut her eyes, and started to wail and shriek. She couldn't stop herself from crying and now she was going to be punished. Now she was going to be burned.
Burned again.
"Cowardly brat! I said shut up!" the soldier roared, striking the bars again with his blade.
Clang!
And still she cried.
"Pathetic weakling!"
The other prisoners were starting to murmur anxiously, but they fell silent when a flash of light through the darkness heralded the combustion of chi into flammable energy.
"Little crybaby bitch! I will burn you if you don't shut up!"
Katara, momentarily opening her eyes, found herself staring into the face of hatred. She quickly shut them again, and raised her hands to cover her face. She started to scream. Everything was going to hurt — hurt so much again — and there was nothing she could do about it.
Suddenly, somebody shouted.
"Stop it!"
All of the other prisoners turned their heads to look at Ambo, who had rallied himself to his knees and was tightly grasping the bars, as if he could break out of his cage with the right amount of strength. He looked furious.
The soldier turned to stare at Ambo. The waterbender stared back defiantly.
"What did you say, swine?"
"Stop it," Ambo repeated again.
The soldier barked with laughter.
"You have no authority over me, dog. You lost your birthrights when my comrades defeated you in combat and handed you over to us."
The firebender turned back to Katara's cell, a flame igniting over his right palm again.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I have another one of your fellow ice rats to punish."
"No!" Ambo shouted, even louder this time, "Stop! You can't!"
The soldier glanced back at him with a twisted light in his eyes.
"I can't?" he asked mockingly, his voice dripping with depraved joy, "Why ever not?"
"She's only a child!" yelled Ambo, refusing to back down, "There's no need to be cruel to her!"
The guard turned and walked down the aisle until he came to Ambo's cell. He looked up dismissively at the prisoner, before shaking his head condescendingly.
"She's nothing but dirt on the face of this Earth," he remarked disdainfully, "Just like the rest of you. You have no freedom, no dignity, and no rights."
"And you have no honour," Ambo replied, bold and unyielding.
The soldier's fists tightened.
"No honour, did you say?" he inquired, sheathing his sword.
"You heard me," growled Ambo with unconcealed scorn.
In one fluid motion, the soldier reached for a set of keys on his belt, and thrust one of the implements into the lock of Ambo's cell.
Seeing his chance, Ambo moved to make his way to the door, but his muscles, weak and aching from years of inactivity, failed him. His legs gave out and he was forced to throw out his bony arms to catch himself.
The cage door swung open, and the soldier leapt inside, snarling like a predator over the body of its prey.
Ambo tried to bring his fists up to defend himself, but again he was too slow and too weak to react in time.
A flying fist smashed into his face, reeling him back against the bars. Pain exploded through Ambo's head, but he refused to stay down. Getting to his knees, he managed to catch another punch with his right hand, and swing his left arm to deflect the next strike.
Unfortunately, that was all he could do before the soldier countered by headbutting him in the face. He fell back and slumped against the bars. A choked grunt escaped him as his opponent seized him by the throat, lifting him off the cage floor.
"Firebender bastard…" rasped Ambo, fighting for breath. Even choking and asphyxiating, he snarled with contempt towards the guard, defiant to the last. His adversary promptly turned and slammed him into the floor. His vision beginning to go grey, Ambo continued struggling to move, still fighting to take in air through his throat, but it was no use. The soldier's grip on him remained as firm as steel.
The other prisoners were forced to listen to the horrible, drawn-out sounds of Ambo's choking. The scuffle went on for over another minute, before the waterbender's defiant grappling finally turned into desperate pleading, his arms trembling as he reached up towards the firebender's chest in a silent gesture of surrender, an anguished appeal for mercy.
The firebender gave him none.
Another fist slammed into Ambo's face. The soldier followed it up with a knee to the stomach. Followed by another fist, this time to the chest. And another strike. And another. And another. And another.
By the time the flurry of strikes ended, Ambo was a bruised and bleeding mess, lying face-down on the floor of his cage.
He was still breathing, miraculously, and now that he wasn't having the life strangled out of him, he put all of his remaining strength into trying to get back up.
The firebender shook his head. "You don't know when to stay down, do you?"
"You don't know how to shut up," Ambo weakly rasped.
The soldier snorted through his helmet, before seizing Ambo from behind, yanking him up by his shoulders and wrapping one arm around his upper limbs. Ambo struggled for a moment, before the soldier clasped a hand tightly over his mouth, and upon summoning his chi, he started burning the waterbender.
Ambo cried out in agony, his screams deadened by the makeshift gag that simultaneously burned away at his face. He tried to move his legs in a desperate attempt to flee, but the soldier was heavier and stronger, forcing the waterbender to remain on his knees.
He tried lifting up his arms to pry the firebender off of him, but his opponent's arm maintained a vice-like grip on him, keeping him trapped within the burning hold.
Ambo screamed again, and this time several of the other prisoners reacted.
The elders begged the guard to stop. The younger adults cried out to their friend in vain. Katara, never having been exposed to such brutality in her short life, cried harder and screamed in fear, curling up on the floor of her cage. She was a sobbing, shuddering wreck, but in spite of witnessing all of this, the firebender refused to stop.
Ambo's violent thrashing soon degenerated into frantic, feeble flailing. The waterbender was still fighting for his life, but so much of it had already been taken away.
Where there was life, there was water. But this prison belonged to the Fire Nation, and was dominated by its flames. It was only a place of death and despair.
And death was to be the fate of one more prisoner today.
Though the callused hand of the guard tightly clamped down on Ambo's mouth, his muffled screams still thundered throughout the confines of the prison. Some of the prisoners now followed the lead of their youngest member, withdrawing into a very troubled and very traumatized fetal position. Others kept their steely yet despairing gazes trained upon the horrific sight of mindless, savage cruelty.
Katara pressed her hands to her eyes. The painful blisters on her skin stung even more upon contact with the salty water of her tears, and her tortured cries soon mingled with her horrified screams and her terrified sobs.
Why?
What did she do to deserve this?
What did Ambo do to deserve this?
What did any of them do to deserve this?
A long, final, muffled scream escaped from Ambo, before the guard's hold loosened around him, and his body slumped to the floor of his cage, devoid of life. To the prisoners who weren't looking away out of terror, the resulting sight was a horrific one.
His mouth was blackened and charred, his teeth scorched and tainted with the ashes of what had once been his lips. The front half of his tongue had been cooked by the heat, while the rest of it was a half-melted and bloody mess. His neck looked even worse, with the flesh on the front where the guard's hand had been now melted and burnt off, with the black holes of hollow cavities, the gaps in his now-exposed windpipe, in plain view for all to see, along with the beginnings of charred bone.
Some of the prisoners dry-retched, wanting desperately to vomit, but unable to spew up any liquids due to their dehydrated states.
The guard, on the other hand, just gave a harsh laugh before leaping out of Ambo's cage.
"You poor, pathetic fools," he sneered with spiteful amusement.
He turned to walk down the aisle, but stopped beside Katara's cage when he still heard her crying. She was beside herself with fear, overwhelmed with horror, and she shivered in fright.
What little patience the guard had with her was now just about to run out. The short fuse of his temper was already lit, sparking and burning from the depraved, cathartic rush of murder, and his resulting anger would be explosive and thunderous, with devastating consequences for all of those on the receiving end.
And now Katara was his next target.
He stared up at her, his amber eyes alight with savage malice.
"Fine!" he roared, "You want to keep crying so badly? I'll give you something to cry about!"
He snarled balefully at her as he started towards her cell. Katara cried out and whimpered, terror crushing the air from her chest.
The soldier grabbed his key ring and shoved one of the keys into the lock, twisting until a metallic click sounded and the door swung open. He climbed inside, the cage lurching on its chains, before slamming the door shut behind him.
Now he had cornered his prey, the soldier slowed his advance, taking the time to relish in the terror of his next victim.
Katara screamed, crying helplessly as the soldier approached, desperately but futilely trying to seek out mercy.
The firebender gave her none.
"You! Little! Bitch!" he bellowed, punctuating each word with a strike at the child. He threw a devastating punch to her face, following it up with another to her gut, and yet another punch to the side of her head.
Katara crashed to the cage floor, winded and dazed. She gasped for breath, a throbbing pain hammering at her head. Her vision blurred with her tears. She was suffocating, struggling to breathe. Frantic thoughts of terror and horror raced through her mind.
Get up!
He'll kill you!
You have to fight!
You must get up!
She managed to prop herself up on her arms, but before she could even think of doing anything else, the soldier struck again.
He struck her in the stomach repeatedly, before lifting her by the shoulders and slamming her back against the bars. She crumpled to the floor.
But the soldier wasn't finished with her yet.
This time, he picked her up and threw her against the other side of the cage. Katara barely managed to bring up her arms to protect her face from the crash. She screamed in agony as she collided with the bars. She screamed again as she landed face-down on the floor.
Pain exploded in her back and her screams were cut short. The soldier had slammed a fist against the rear of her midsection, knocking the wind out of her. She felt her world spinning violently as the soldier flipped her over, landing a heavy blow to her chest. Her vision exploded with white and red as the horrible sensation of pain thundered throughout her body. She heard herself screaming again.
A terrifying haze of darkness started to cloud her vision, and the world began to fade away. She was still lucid enough, however, to feel the soldier yanking her by the arm and hurling her off the ground. She crashed into the other side of the cage, and this time, unable to summon the strength to raise her arms, her head struck the bars upon impact.
She screamed as she fell.
She landed heavily on her side, the momentum of the crash rolling her onto her back. A heavy blow to her stomach winded her, silencing her screams once more, before a fierce kick sent her sprawling again.
Now on the verge of blacking out, Katara lay on her back, with her eyes closed, the only signs of life coming from the uneven fluctuations of her chest, caused by her faint and erratic breathing.
But despite her body's battered state, the vicious beating wasn't over yet.
Though her eyes were swollen shut, through the suffocating veil of blackness she could faintly feel bruising blows being dealt to her face by the soldier's fists. He hammered punch after punch after punch on her head, and with each strike, she felt the world slipping farther and farther away from her.
The air was crushed from her chest as the soldier punched her in the gut once more. Then she felt her head crack against the metal floor as a final, devastating punch to her face heralded the end of the beating.
Rattling gasps escaped her body, her chest shuddering as she struggled to breathe. Her stomach ached profusely, but she couldn't curl up in a huddle. Her body was crippled with pain. Her eyes were sealed shut, and they throbbed with agony.
Terror spiked in her heart, and fleeting, fearful thoughts raced through her mind. She wondered if she would ever be able to see again.
But those thoughts quickly vanished from her mind, replaced with a more pressing and urgent concern. Frantic and hysterical, she kicked out weakly with her bare feet, desperately trying to put as much distance between herself and the soldier as possible.
Despite her best efforts, it was all for nothing. She couldn't scramble away, and a cruel glint entered the golden eyes of the firebender once more.
He spent several moments watching the young girl squirm and writhe, before casting his gaze down at the bare feet of the child.
His eyes flashed with a dangerous and ominous intensity.
Reaching out, he took hold of the child's feet, one in each hand.
Then, summoning his inner flame, he began to scorch her skin.
Though she was inches from death, the searing agony was excruciating enough to elicit one final bout of screaming from her.
Pain overloaded her senses, torment engulfing her entire being. She could feel herself burning, burning, burning. She could hear herself screaming, screaming, screaming.
But she could do nothing about it. Her strength was no more, and despite an overwhelming sense of terror, she could no longer move. She could no longer fight.
It wouldn't have made a difference in the end anyway.
Just give up…
It's easier for you…
Just give up…
Just let it stop…
Let it stop…
Let it stop…
Let it stop…
Let it stop…
All of a sudden, she didn't feel so thirsty anymore. The hot air was no longer suffocating. It was soothing now, tranquilizing and sedative.
Her body started to slacken, her tired, tortured mind slipping off into a sweet state of repose that she had desperately sought for so long.
She groaned, choking as she tried to draw in breath. Her body convulsed with pain, and she found herself coughing violently. She could feel something sticky in her throat, and as she coughed again she tasted the metallic flavour of blood. She painfully hacked up the coppery fluid, feeling it spurting from her mouth.
Oh no… Oh no…
She tried once more to move, to even just open her eyes at the very least, but she was simply too crippled from the injuries that she had sustained.
She started to drift off again, for real this time. The last shreds of her consciousness begged with her, pleaded with her, not to give in.
You might never wake up again…
She should have been scared of that.
She should have.
But she wasn't.
She was too hurt to care about that anymore.
As she finally gave herself up to the darkness, the last thing she felt was her body going completely limp as her mind slipped away into nothingness.
She was fully comatose by the time the soldier had jumped out of her cage and had locked the door.
He turned to address the prisoners in the other cells.
"Now…" he drawled, "Any of you other pieces of scum feeling brave?"
No one dared to answer his question.
The guard took full satisfaction from their terrified silence.
"Don't you ever lecture me about my honour again," he finished.
Pleased with his work, he turned and walked away.
The prisoners were left to dwell on the aftermath of the brutality, and its terrible consequences.
A horrible wave of guilt and despair descended upon them all.
"Oh Tui and La, forgive us," Mayumi sobbed.
"That monster," snarled Tavaki in a tearful rage, "Why, that monster…!"
Some prisoners on the other side of the cell block begged for details.
"How bad is it?!" Miruko called desperately, "You've got to tell me how bad…!"
"Do not bother with that, Miruko," Anibik spoke up, her voice wavering with despair, "You cannot get to her. There's nothing you can do."
"Poor child," said Kesuk to no one in particular.
"What happened to her?! How is she?!" Eramiha cried out, frantic and full of dread.
"Tell us what's happened!" yelled Manaki.
"We can't see her from here!" added Tamati.
"You don't want to!" Arihi yelled back, weeping. And it wasn't her words, but the mere fact that she was crying, that got the grave message across.
Elder Immilik, tactical and tactful, spoke next.
"Let us not ask then. Let us not burden ourselves with that knowledge," he said to the waterbenders around him, doing his best to stay strong, even as he felt his own heart breaking, "All we can do now is pray."
Those who were listening to Immilik knew the wisdom in the words that he spoke. But even so, that was of little comfort to them.
"Why…?" cried Sinaya, weeping with anguish, "Why?!"
"Oh, Ambo!" Leilani howled, unable to tear her gaze away from the scorched remains of her friend.
"Sister!" Kailani cried out, wanting so desperately to console her older sibling, to alleviate her of the trauma and turmoil she was facing. But she didn't know how to do that. She didn't know where to even begin. Not when she was so traumatised herself.
"There's nothing we can do for Ambo," said Amihan solemnly, looking over at Kailani, "It's Katara we have to worry about."
"So what do we do?" asked Nanuk, dire urgency in his voice.
"What can we do?" Nasak questioned in return, sighing sadly, "We can't even fend for ourselves, brother."
"We have to do something!" cried Heriko. He rallied himself to his knees, making his way over to the door of his cage. He rattled the bars, throttling them with all of his strength. The door didn't budge. Frustrated, Heriko banged his fists on the bars, letting out an angry cry.
Malia shook her head sadly. She closed her eyes and waited for the end.
Ayuko was crying, completely depressed and utterly inconsolable.
"We can't let it end like this," said Kaito, but though his face was grimly stolid, his voice betrayed the feeling of hopelessness deep within him.
In the cage beside Kaito, Elenoa wilted once more. Not out of physical affliction or ailing health this time, but from total despair and utter misery. She would have given anything to trade places with Katara. To spare her from the soldier's wrath.
But even an aspiration as noble as that remained a hopelessly unattainable fantasy in this horrible place.
"I can't see her from here," Laika murmured despondently, tears trickling down her face, "Is she alright?"
The prisoners closest to Katara's cage peered over from their own cells.
The child was a pitiful sight. There were lacerations all over her body, with bruises marring her skin. Blood trickled from gashes where the soldier's armour had cut her flesh. Both of her eyes were blackened from the brutal strikes to her face. Her bare feet were covered in angry red welts, with serum seeping out of the burn wounds. Blisters were beginning to manifest all over her feet. Only the slow rise and fall of her chest indicated to the other prisoners that she was still alive, if just barely.
But even her breathing was laboured. Her breaths were slow and weak, with her body just clinging to life. And the rest of the waterbenders were still trapped in their own cages. They wouldn't be able to get to her. They wouldn't be able to heal her. They wouldn't be able to save her.
After what felt like an eternity, Sikota finally answered Laika's question.
"She'll live. But no…" she murmured, trembling with sobs, "No… she won't be alright…"
I am sorry for this.
PUBLISHED ON = 09 / 01 / 2024