Chapter Text
Chief Kya of the Southern Water Tribe wasn't the type who took any sitting down, often assigned with looking out for the village the same way her husband, Hakoda, did, as well as the responsibility of raising two children. The Southern Water Tribe always survived. Despite their lack of Waterbenders, the last one being taken long ago, they weren't the only source of survival for those in the South.
"Well, at least we're getting a big meal tonight," her and her husband's old friend, Bato, commented with a small, pained smile, on a umiak next to them, digging another net in. "Things have been really difficult lately."
"We will make it as long as we all stick together," Kya reassured with a smile in the tandem of men and women.
"As long as you let me make the meal, my love," Hakoda teased.
"No," Kya retorted plainly. "You're a good fighter, Hakoda. But a cook? No, I don't think I can trust you with that sacred job."
Hakoda let out a playful laugh. "What little confidence you have in me."
"You're not the only one with the basic survival instincts in this relationship," Kya returned tauntingly. "Sorry to tell you that."
A creaking sound made itself known, followed by a sound. They loaded up their nets on their umiaks, the sea creatures squirming predictably. They had collected a good load that would at least last them a couple of days.
All of a sudden, an ear-piercing sob erupted. She craned her head up in the direction of a nearby cave and then looked over at her husband, who returned the look and stared in the direction of the cave, the opening so big and obvious.
Thinking that she'd just misheard, she'd looked up to the rest of the tribespeople to see their heads swinging in the direction of the noise. So it was real?
"Someone is crying," Kya noted with a frown.
"What if it's some trap from someone or something?" Hakoda asked worriedly.
"If it is, it is. I'm not going to take that risk." Kya returned determinedly.
Everyone looked at the cave. "We're all behind you, Chief," Bato vowed with a nod.
Kya thought about arguing against them accompanying her, but they had been together for so long, struggling, and despite everything, they didn't leave each other behind, no matter what.
The entourage of the Southerners traveled in the direction of the cave, with Kya at the lead with Hakoda at her side, prepared for whatever may jump out at them.
"Be careful, Kya. If someone attacks you from the shadows, get behind me as quick as you can." Hakoda warned, enveloping her arm firmly.
The crying only increased in sound, and finally, they found what seemed to be the source of it. Two individuals were in the cave. She looked at the larger of them and then at the shorter one, and from what she could see, she spotted a small... child with black hair, sharp and scrunched features, and a barbed chin. A girl. The person crying was a girl. She was wearing torn and soaked clothes, hardly benefiting from this weather, her hair damped, and mostly in front of her face, her eyes closed, with tears falling down her sheltered cheeks. Her fellow tribespeople gasped at the sight, but Kya stopped herself from doing so and came closer.
'So we all were stirred up by a little kid?' Kya thought with a small smirk, before her expression became more severe. If the girl was part of their tribe, their guardians would have a lot of explaining to do! Such negligence of their youth was unacceptable!
It was a good thing that they didn't drown.
"Sweetie, are you alright?" Kya couldn't stop herself from bouncing back this time when golden eyes opened and locked upon hers.
'Fire Nation!' She recognized. The two words spiraled every protective instinct for her tribe within her body, her hand drawing down to a knife that belonged to every tribesperson on instinct alone.
From behind her, some had produced their weapons, waiting for more ashmakers out of paranoia. But none emerged.
All that came was a gasp, but from the larger mass. She — it was a woman — lifted her head weakly to stare up, her own yellow eyes flashing with pain.
"H-her name is Azu... Azula." The old woman coughed into her palm. "She's... she's... the Princess of the Fire Nation so don't you d... don't you dar-arggghhh!" She broke out into coughs.
"I don't know you! I don't know any of you!" The girl shrilled, golden eyes leaking as she looked at the Southerners. "Leave me alone!"
"I promised Ursa... I would get her... I... I..." She let out a final croak, and finally her head fell back, the body stilling at long last.
She had heard that noise many times, had recognized what it meant, and had wished she never could again. Sometimes, it wasn't the eldest among them, but younger individuals with much more sensitivity to the cold than the rest. She checked for a heartbeat, still, hoping...
'Dead.'
Forcing her eyes away from the corpse, Kya looked at the sobbing girl, still alive, the scared, frightened child. In that moment, she was stuck with a choice. Even as a neutral nation, the Southern Water Tribe did not welcome the Fire Nation. Her husband had even thought about going off to join the war with the Earth Kingdom, but wanted to stay with his family at least as much as possible.
When she was training as a Chieftain with her father, Kya had been raised with the probability that it may come down to her to make tough decisions. It was hard enough to survive out here since the Fire Nation abducted their Waterbenders.
The eyes of hundreds of her predecessors stared upon her, waiting for her next move. Every nation was expected to prioritize its own people first. Always had. Always would. Child or no, Azula could present a great threat to her people, even if she, Hakoda, and all of them just left her here.
Yet, her husband, nor anyone else, could decide this for her.
She had to make a choice here and now, or witness the possible consequences of inaction if not outright indulgence in the future.
The girl was trembling, little sniffles and sobs escaping her.
Kya couldn't blame her.
This was a very scary position to be in.
Many in Kya's place would not even think twice about what to do in this situation. They would have seen nothing else than a little runt, who lost any honor the moment she was born of Fire Nation's blood, let alone the Fire Lord's. And she couldn't exactly say that she couldn't blame them either, because every leader should preserve the lives of their people first, and everyone else second.
If the girl in front of her was a child born of the Earth Kingdom's blood, or if they weren't in this spirit-cursed war, she wouldn't even have to contemplate for a minute what to do here.
No matter her personal feelings, as Chieftain, her tribe came first, and call it inhumane, but she wouldn't put any other nation's children above her own tribe's.
A small, dutiful part of her told her that it didn't even have to be painful: all she had to do was smother her and end her life with a mere stab through her neck.
But another, a much bigger and more nurturing part of her, saw nothing more than a child at that moment. A sweet, innocent child, who certainly couldn't be blamed for the actions of the nation that she'd just happened to be born into, and especially for those who started this war.
If either Sokka or Katara had been taken from their home and disappeared amongst foreign lands, she would hope that Tui would find someone who would show mercy upon them.
The girl could not be that much older than her daughter. Thoughts of her second child, especially, replayed through her mind over and over again. She was five, but she had already decided to help around camp and did what little chores she could. She had always wanted to help even her brother. Despite her... this child, being of an enemy nation, the princess of it no less, she couldn't go back and look at her children the same if she went through with it.
Kya's hand slowly dropped from where her weapon was located on her belt. She couldn't do it.
The chieftain glanced at her husband, who glanced back, and they nodded before staring at the child again. Both of them knew what the consequences that would come next would be. To trade what must have been a vile life in the Fire Nation for another in the South Pole was what saddened the woman, for many would stare upon the child and see but another ashmaker, but wouldn't try to kill her under Kya's acquiescence if only to maintain good standing with the chieftain and not lead to a great separation.
"It's okay, it's okay," Hakoda reassured after a few seconds, coming closer and kneeling cautiously in front of her. "We're not going to hurt you."
The girl looked his way with the same fear in those yellow eyes. It was only then that Kya saw a big bruise on the side of her forehead. Azula chewed on her lip nervously, only cementing the Chieftain's choice of not ending her life further.
At that, shame entered her heart for what she had even thought about doing, 'Have this war corrupted even us? To even have to ruminate about ending the life of one so young? Are we so far removed from compassion? Azula didn't start this war. Those who did are long gone.'
"We're here to help, sweetie," Kya placed a chaste hand on her cheek. Azula shied away from her touch again. "Trust me. You're safe now."
The girl looked between the two, still cringing further unconsciously against the corpse, which was starting to smell, earning a scrunch of the nose from the woman.
"Can you stand?" Kya asked, maternal instincts leading her to that line of questioning.
"N-n-no. M-my leg hurts," Azula admitted with a broken sniffle.
Observing both legs, Kya grabbed both one at a time, earning a slight cry of pain when she'd gripped the right. She had a severe cut that made the woman wonder just how much this child had been through, but she'd disregarded those thoughts.
"Her right leg has been cut pretty deeply," Hakoda observed over her shoulder. "We will have to take her home for Kollu to look her over."
"Where is home?" Azula snuffled, her expression full of concentration. "I don't remember. I just keep seeing this... weird thingy, and then it's..."
"You probably have amnesia," Kya cut her off softly, at once. "Don't dwell on it."
"This is far from how I thought this day will go," Hakoda reflected.
"Well, at least, maybe this way, your little troublemakers could have a new friend," Bato added with levity that caused more than a few laughs.
Kya ignored her husband and his best friend, and with numbness, instead reached gently over to the child and tried to pull her over. The girl cringed, nevertheless, but the woman fondled her cold hair with her left hand, thankful suddenly for her own gloves that made the process of comfort all the easier.
The woman pulled against her back again with the right, pushing against the corpse slightly to bring the girl in completely, allowing the girl's nose to brush against her chest. Engulfed in her arms, Azula let out a series of gulps and gasps, feasibly resisting against her grip.
"You're alright now, baby. I promise you." Kya pacified, stroking her back in order to calm the tension within her body.
After a few seconds, the child relaxed in her grip, seeming grateful for the comfort. She snuggled against the woman's chest, and Kya massaged her disheveled hair as she rose to her full height and began to move away, one arm against her back, offering a nod at several of the tribespeople and gesturing back to the body with a small incline of her head, receiving shakes of the heads in acknowledgment.
With the silent order given and understood, a child born of fire in her grip, Kya left the dark cave into the light.