WHALE BONE KNIFE ── sokka

o. ────── prologue

It was the dead of night when the child was born. Her screams filled the gaps between the trees. A tall man dressed in red - nothing short of a Fire Nation soldier - runs to the left of the woman. A newborn clutched tightly to her chest.

The night air stings their faces as they run as fast as they could through the trees and bushes. The light of the Fire Nation burned brightly against the black of the night. The woman struggled to hold back her tears as she prepared to give up her child for good. For better or for worse, it was the right decision to make.

The man, Masato, held a small crate in one of his hands as he ran just a few steps in front of the woman. Stepping into the clearing, the castle loomed over them. They watched the guards at the entrance; scared they'd get caught, the pair left the infant at the bottom of the stairs. The woman wrapped her arms around her baby, hoping to give her all the warmth in the world.

Stuffing their respective uniforms into the crate, making a makeshift bed. The woman, Uma, cried out as her baby was ripped from her arms, placing her into the crate. The first and the last time she would ever see her parents.

The infant's eyes began to close as she stopped her wailing, her body cooling down faster than her mother could keep up with. Soon she would die, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

Uma and Masato ran back into the forest, as tears streamed down both their faces. Did they really do the right thing for their daughter? Or was it just the right thing for them to do?

***

The night raged on, the fire burnt out. The infant screamed for her parents, disturbing the perfect sky. She screamed and screamed for someone to find her, only, she didn't expect it to be the Fire Lady to find her.

Her dark hair cascaded over her shoulders as she bent down to pick up the baby in the crate. "Oh, what are you doing out here?" She asked, despite being unable to receive an answer. Usra looked around before clutching the infant to her chest, filling her with warmth.

The infant screamed as she was brought back to the land of the living. "Shh, shh, little one. It's okay." Ursa whispered as she rocked the child in her arms, however, it didn't help. She continued to scream, this time alerting the guards posted around the outside. How they didn't take notice of her before was beyond Ursa.

Four guards came rushing towards her, holding spears. "What do you think you're doing?" A guard asked her, not realising who she was.

Ursa turned around, facing the guards, still holding the infant close to her chest. The crate was left abandoned off to the side; there was nothing but old clothes inside it. "Wait-" she tried to say before she was cut off by the guard.

"Give me that child." A second guard made a move for the infant, and before Ursa could do anything to stop it, the baby was ripped from her arms.

"NO!" She screamed, reaching out for her. "Please, give her back to me."

"What are you doing with this child?" The first guard asked again, looking from the child to the Fire Lady.

"I-I fou-nd her l-like that," Ursa sobbed, unable to contain herself. She didn't know the baby, but she knew what it was like to have one. Zuko, her first born. "She was j-just there." Her voice broke every time she spoke, her eyes stung with tears.

Ursa stumbled back as the other two guards walked closer to her.

"What is happening here?" Fire Lord Ozai's voice boomed overhead, startling everyone. He looked between the guards, the infant, and his wife.

"Your wife was found with a baby."

"N-no. I found her like that," Ursa spoke up, disobeying her husband's rules. "S-she was nearly dead when I found her in the crate. Please, just let me take care of her."

"Search the crate," Ozai ordered the other man. And he did. The fourth guard rummaged through the small crate the infant was left in. He threw the old Fire Nation uniforms onto the ground with a soft thud; going through the clothes, looking for any weapons or something they could use to identify who this child was.

Something rattles to the ground. Everybody's attention falls onto the object just as the infant begins to cry in the guards arms. "Make it stop wailing." Ozai told the guard.

"H-here," Ursa choked out, her throat dry from crying. "Give her to me." The guard looked back to the Fire Lord, asking for permission to which he gave a curt nod. The guard handed the baby over to Ursa and she immediately calmed down.

"What is that, on the floor?" Ozai asked, motioning to the thing that fell onto the floor. A guard picked it up, examining it in his hands. "Fire Lord, it's a whale bone knife."