𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝙾𝚗𝚎

Art by me

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Chains rattled against stone. Someone coughed dryly in the darkness.

A young girl, barely sixteen, tried in vain to rub her wrist, to alleviate the chaffing of the chains in any way. She was among the dozen being held in this dry cell, and among thousands being held slave by the fire nation. They would be held in that cell until the workers outside dropped from exhaustion, then they would be rotated.

La'kea slumped against the uncomfortably warm stone wall, her mouth dry and throat aching for even a trickle of fresh water. She could not even lift her hand to run it through her tangled and dark matted hair. Her feet and hands chained together in a manner that prevented her from bending what little water was available. The fire nation was smart, for the water bending slaves they had were kept in specialized cells, even the air barely held any water.

Nobody was keeping track of how long they had been there, stolen from their homes so long ago it took effort to remember the place. La'akea was no different, but some nights, if she thought hard she could hear the wind blowing through the palm leaves, and the splash of the surf against sand. But the memories brought pain of what she had lost, she stopped trying to remember.

Whispers filtered through the cell walls, gossip and news brought from the slaves working in the palace high above them. La'kea had long since gotten over her puzzlement from how different the fire nation was from herself, but she still leaned forward eagerly whenever someone brought something new.

Stories of a cruel Fire Lord, and his two children, of his wife who suddenly vanished in the middle of the night. La'kea shuddered at the thought of what could have happened to her.

One night, she was awoken by the hushed and hurried whispers of the guards. Opening her eyes, La'kea saw someone different for a change. This person wasn't a guard, or a warden, they spoke softly, their clothes were perfectly pristine. Someone from the palace.

They seemed to be arguing with the guards, and apparently won as the guard started sliding open the cell door. Everyone else began sitting up, La'kea could feel the fear in the air, something was wrong and it involved them. Had they been ordered to work double shifts? Triple shifts?

"Which one of you barbarians here is a healer?" The guard snapped.

No one answered.

La'kea's heart hammered in her chest, but she forced herself to steady her breathing, not giving anything away. Were they finally going to start executing them? Had the efforts of keeping them in prison outweighed their labor?

"Come now," The guard sneered, "How about this, if you can tell me who here is a healer, you'll get double rations."

A swell of small pride filled La'kea as none of them budged, they would not turn on each other. Not for the people that had imprisoned them.

The guard, clearly fed up with their silent rebellion, stomped into the cell and looked around at the water benders. Fire exploded above his hands, and La'kea pressed herself against the wall farther, fully expecting her heart to give out any second. "Which one of you is a healer?" He ground out.

La'kea flinched.

"You," The guard growled, and to her horror, grabbed La'kea's arm, "You best be a healer, girl, cause if you get up there and can't do anything, well..." Flames flickered above his free hand.

There was no point in hiding it now, if only to spare someone else stuck in this cell, "I..." Her once soft voice was raspy from lack of water and use, "I am a healer."

"Good," And without another word he yanked her out of the cell, into the prison hallway and started the ascension up the stairs.

They emerged into the courtyard behind the palace, and La'kea gulped at the cool night air unabashedly, savoring the feel of the midnight breeze against her face. Without warning, she was yanked along, towards the palace, and as she walked five more soldiers fell into a formation around her.

All this for me? She thought dryly through her fear, wondering who was so important and so injured that they would dare call for a water bending healer. Beneath her terror and curiosity, there was a glimmer of awe. She had never been in the palace and fire nation architecture was completely different from what she could remember of her home.

La'kea was led to a set of impressive doors, painted red with a golden flame in the center. A guard knocked on the door, and an old man opened it slightly, peering through at the escort before opening it wide enough to let them in.

He was short, shorter than La'kea, his grey hair pulled into a topknot and dressed in fine deep red robes. For the first time in... a while, she was regarded with something other than hostility. "Are you the healer?"

The fact that he spoke directly to her instead of the guards, still pointing their spears at her, was surprising to say the least. She cleared her throat, voice raspy from lack of use. "Yes."

"Come then," He motioned for the guards to step away, and they did so hesitantly. "I'm afraid I didn't have time to brew you some tea, a most disappointing failure on my part." She barely had time to take in the impressively ornate room they were in before they were walking to a smaller room hidden behind a curtain.

For someone so important, there were not many people in the room tending to the injured person. The person in question was lying on a mat unconscious, and she was shocked to realize he was just a boy her age, with his face wrapped in bandages. Her stomach dropped like a stone as she pieced together the extravagant room, the guards, and the boy. It had to be the prince, of course she'd love to be wrong, but luck was never with her.

"My nephew," The old man cleared his throat, "It is a burn injury on his face. What can you do?"

La'kea had to calm herself down first, she could feel the heavy thud of her chest, surely loud enough for everyone else to hear. She blinked at the old man, reeling herself together as she walked herself mentally through the steps to treat a burn injury. "I- I need to look at the wound, to see how much water I'll need."

The guards surrounding her only gripped their spears tighter but the old man nodded solemnly, "Of course."

Chains rattling, she tried not to let her hands shake too much as she knelt next to the prince, and carefully unwrapped the bandages. But she couldn't stop the gasp that escaped her as she saw the entirety of the burn. The smell of melted flesh made her eyes water and she vaguely wondered if he was already dead, but his chest rose and fell as he breathed. Whatever fire nation healers had already treated him had done a botched job, or perhaps the wound was so severe it wasn't treatable.

A bowl of water was placed next to her, she looked down at it then back at the prince. "I'm going to need more water."

"You'll start with that, then you can get more," A guard snapped.

Not wanting to push this anymore, La'kea raised her hands as far as she could with the chains, bringing up the small amount of water with her. As she visualized the flow of energy in the prince and her mana, a thought crossed her mind.

What was stopping her from forcing this water down his throat, drowning him? The guards would kill her, but it was only a matter of time before she died from being overworked anyway. They wouldn't be able to stop her from hurting the Fire Lord that had stolen her from her home.

La'kea shook herself as she spread the water into a blanket that covered the burnt flesh, and steadied her spirit as the water began to glow. The back of her neck was itching.

It took many hours, and many healing sessions, but she assured the old man that the prince wouldn't die. La'kea couldn't be so sure about herself as her vision swam, ducking in and out of blurriness. She hadn't been able to completely renew the skin, there would still be a prominent scar stretching across his face, but he would get to keep his eye.

Everyone held their breath as the prince suddenly shifted, finally awakening from his comatose state. Even La'kea forgot herself for a moment and leaned closer, almost bewildered by the golden shade of fire in his eyes as he opened them. Flicking around the room before landing on her, and the ball of water hovering between her hands.

"Waterbender!" He shouted in alarm, jumping to his feet before his fists erupted into flames. La'kea shrieked something unintelligible and flew back against the wall.

"Prince Zuko!" His uncle appeared next to him, putting a hand to his shoulder, "This nice young lady has saved your life. Perhaps instead of threatening her, you should thank her."

She could see it in his angry eyes that he did not like owing a life debt to anyone, let alone a slave. "Thank... you."

Satisfied with that, the old man turned towards her, "What is your name, my dear?"

Looking between the guards, and the prince, she calculated her chances of survival. "La'kea."

"Well, La'kea," Her name sounded strange coming from the old man, "You have done us a great service, we will not forget this."

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She pondered his words as the guards led her back to the cell, and she pondered it as the guards reappeared at her cell a few days later.

"Which one of you go by the name La'kea?"

She shakily raised her hand as high as it could go.

They slammed open the cell doors and yanked her to her feet. One guard gripped her face in one hand, inspecting her as he tipped it to the light. "I can see why the general picked this one. That prince is spoiled." Dread made her suddenly nauseous.

"Forget about the prince," The other guard snorted, "I'm even jealous of the crew." They laughed as they dragged her from the prison, away from the mine and the royal city. All the way to the docks, and farther down where a ship, significantly smaller than the other naval vessels, was waiting.

La'kea didn't dare get her hopes up that her freedom would be granted, having saved the prince's life or not. Yet her curiosity was only mounting, strange as their buildings were, the fire nation boats were even stranger. She watched the water lap against the metal surface and futilely wished she could shove the guards head against the sharp bow of the ship.

After being deprived of the ocean for years, it's sudden presence was overwhelming, just standing near it filled her with renewed strength. This was also alarming, she knew the fire nation were smarter than this. Bringing a waterbender prisoner to the largest body of water available was dangerous. La'kea knew she couldn't take them all though, she was in chains, and outnumbered. Not to mention frail from years of only having scraps available.

But why had they brought her to the ship? If they were transporting slaves to a new mine, why only her?

The guards didn't give her much time to think about it as they were suddenly shoving her up the gangplank. She stumbled, chains catching underfoot as she was roughly thrown to her knees aboard deck.

"General Iroh," A guard bowed, "Is this the waterbender you requested?"

As she looked up, squinting against the sunlight, the old man was standing in front of her, smiling gently. "Yes, you may leave."

As the guards departed, La'kea stood to her feet, taking in the sight of the ship slowly. The crew was bustling around, everyone working to do something. Such activity was only present when a ship was either about to sail or in the middle of a storm. She felt so out of place just standing there in chains with a general. There was only one other person standing still, looking out at sea across the deck.

By the ornate clothing, La'kea already guessed it was the crown prince, some dangerous hope sparked in her chest. Perhaps they really had summoned her here to grant her freedom?

"I'm sure you have some questions my dear," Iroh, the general standing next to her, spoke with such a warm tone that she unconsciously let her guard down. "Let me first explain why you've been summoned here. My nephew is about to embark on a long journey and the Fire Lord..." He trailed off, "The Fire Lord thought it would be best if he had a waterbender on board, to soothe hazardous waves. I'm told your people are also naturally gifted navigators."

La'kea was shocked, was the Fire Lord really that stupid? What a horrible idea. Having a waterbender, that's been locked away for years from any source of water, aboard a ship and expect them to play along? Even in chains, there would be almost nothing stopping her from dragging this ship down to the bottom of the ocean.

Of course, she didn't voice these thoughts aloud, but apparently she wasn't at adept at keeping her emotions off her face because the old man chuckled. "I know, it is a lot to take in, my dear, but rest assured, you needn't worry. You'll have your own quarters as the ships waterbending guide and healer."

She was silent, until she finally held up her wrists, chains clacking, "What about these?"

Iroh looked at them with an expression of almost regret, but then said rather loudly, "I'm sorry, but for the safety of the crew the chains will have to stay." But he then leaned closer, whispering, "I'll slip the key underneath your door once we depart, but I must recommend that they are only taken off in your quarters."

As if her chest had been caved in before, was suddenly filled with warmth and gratefulness for this strange general, who would show kindness to a slave. She cleared her throat, trying to get rid of her rasp, "I... I can try to heal the Prince's burn again, it'll get better with multiple healing sessions."

The old man beamed, "Thank you, my dear, I will discuss it with my nephew once we depart. Which will be any second now."

True to his word, the ship suddenly lurched, steadily making it's way out of the harbor and to open sea. The farther they got from land and the deeper water they reached, so did La'kea's strength return, but as she looked out towards the shining Fire Nation palace. She thought of her fellow slaves still locked in the prison below, of her people being worked to exhaustion day by day until they dropped. Guilt gnawed at her, what had she done to deserve this freedom? There were other more capable healers that could have been chosen.

But her surrounding wouldn't let her dwell on this for long.

For general Iroh was talking to the Prince, who finally turned away from the railing to glare at La'kea.