Daughter of the Moon - Book 1: Water

Chapter 5: A New Life

- Elara -

After several long weeks trapped in the Yu Dao province, I had yet to find a way to escape. It was my fault entirely, though, because had I not tried to run away on the journey to get to Yu Dao, my master wouldn't have known that I was a waterbender, and he wouldn't have kept such close surveillance on me (serves me right for not thinking my plans all the way through). For the meantime, my only option was to keep on the down-low until my master forgot about me, and I could only hope was that it wouldn't take too long.

For now, I was stuck cleaning his house. I was one of the lucky ones, though, because the other slaves (especially the boys and earth benders) had to work in the mines to harvest materials for the Fire Nation war efforts. It was a very dangerous occupation, and it was not uncommon for someone to not make it back at the end of the day.

Of course, working in my master's house wasn't all sunshine and rainbows either. My master was a raging alcoholic, so you had to tread lightly if you don't want to get beat or burned. I had successfully evaded all forms of abuse up to that point, and I intended to keep it that way. Some of my fellow workers, on the other hand, had not been so lucky, and you could see a lifetime of pain through the burns and scars that littered their bodies.

I often found myself stuck scrubbing the floors, and my pig of a master regularly elected to watch me. Cleaning the floors without waterbending was hard enough by itself, but having him watch just added unnecessary pressure to the job.

"Well, well. Looks like I don't have to beat the spirit outta ya after all," he slurred as he watched me.

I just told myself to keep scrubbing.

My master stood up, and I prepared for the worst. I had seen what he could do to people, and it wasn't pretty. Not in the slightest. He walked over to me, and I braced for impact. However, violence never came. He simply kicked over my water bucket. I watched as the water flowed everywhere, even on the floor I had already cleaned. I desperately wanted to shoot some of that water so far up his nose that it would hit his tiny, stupid brain, but I forced myself to just keep scrubbing.

"Pfft. You're no fun," he said as he stepped closer to me. "What's it gonna take to get a reaction outta ya?"

"Master," I heard another slave say as she entered the room (saving me from further embarrassment). "Your lunch is ready."

The woman (I think she had once told me that her name was Jade) carried a platter of food over to our master's desk before standing fearfully to the side, waiting to be dismissed. Jade had been a slave here for many years, and she had been hurt many times by our master. She would never speak ill of him, of course, but the scars that decorated her body told another story entirely. I even saw her flinch a little when our master walked over to where she was standing (some kind of gut reaction, I suppose).

"Finally! It's about time I got some food," our master growled as he excitedly picked up the goblet and took a big drink. A look of confusion crossed his face as he tasted the beverage, and he immediately spit it out all over my (previously) clean floor. 

"What in the spirits name is this!?" master yelled.

Jade spoke very quietly in response. "Master, that's jasmine tea. Your wife wants you to drink it—"

"DID I ASK FOR JASMINE TEA!" he roared as he threw his goblet down, spilling the remaining tea on the floor (at this rate, the floors were never going to get clean, although, there were probably more pressing matters at that moment).