Operation Avatar

That evening Azora found herself in Jada’s personal lounge. She watched as Jada ate her supper. It was a meager meal of fish and rice – thanks to a blockade enforced by the Fire Nation resources were scarce – but it looked like a feast to Azora, who hadn’t eaten all day.

Once a month every girl was arranged to spend supper with Jada. It was a test to show what they had learned in becoming a Proper Woman. The girls were judged on their etiquette, attire, demeanor and their skills in calligraphy, poetry and music. The girls who scored higher during these nights were more likely to be married off to a rich husband. Azora never scored well during her tests, but for once she didn’t care. She wasn’t worried about her future because she knew Shen would take care of everything.

Jada seemed to sense that Azora’s heart wasn’t in the test, and because of it she was acting particularly harsh.

“Azora, I have run out of tea,” Jada said, wanting her tea cup to be refilled.

Azora grabbed the tea kettle and, while pulling her right sleeve back, poured the pale-golden tea. Some of it splashed onto the table and Jada glared harshly at Azora.

“Azora, play something on the guqin,” Jada instructed.

Bobbing her head in understanding she made her way to the corner of the room where the stringed instrument sat. It was long and flat, made of dark polished wood. Azora knelt beside it and plucked at the strings with her fingers.

Her hands felt clumsy working with the delicate strings after spending hours bending earth, but after she played a few bars her joints seemed to loosen. She felt comfortable enough to play a well-known Earth Kingdom song about a boy and a girl who fell in love under the cherry blossom trees. Azora finished the song and looked up at Jada, waiting for instructions on what to do next.

“I did not say you could stop playing.”

Chills ran down Azora’s spine when she heard the iciness in Jada’s voice. Her fingers started gliding down the strings of the guqin once more, but this time with trepidation.

After some time Jada moved to her feet and went to a cabinet behind her desk. Azora felt her stomach sink as Jada appeared to be searching for something. Azora’s fingers fumbled over the instrument, creating an awful whining noise. She noticed a deep frown on Jada’s face. Panic coursed through her body as she tried to correct her mistake, but it only caused more succeeding mistakes.

“It must be difficult to play an instrument as beautiful as the guqin after spending all day playing in the dirt,” Jada seethed.

She knows, Azora thought. Her mouth turned dry when she remembered what happened last time Jada found out Azora had been Earth Bending. She decided to feign ignorance. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Of course you don’t. Just like you don’t know what I mean when I see you climbing over the fence every day to see that wretched boy Shen. Yes, I know about that. Ah, here it is.” With a satisfied smile Jada pulled something out from the cabinet which made Azora’s stomach drop to the floor. It was a bamboo cane, four feet long and at least an inch thick. Her fingers froze over the strings and the room became dead silent.

“I really don’t know what to do with you, Azora. I try so very hard to turn you into a Proper Woman, but you are so resistant. Normal punishments don’t work with you; you are too stupid to learn from your mistakes. I had hoped it would never come to this, but after today I understand I am going to have to take a more…Physical route.” Jada snapped the cane against a spot on the floor about two feet away from her desk. “Stand right here.”

Azora, whose entire body was shaking in fright, was frozen on the spot. “Jada, you don’t have to do this. I will learn, I swear.”

Jada snapped the cane once more. “Do as I say.”

Fearful of what might happen if she did not comply Azora scrambled to her feet – still bare – and stood beside the desk.

“Pants off.”

Azora looked at Jada in horror. “I’m sorry…?”

“Remove your pants.”

With shaking fingers Azora undid the drawstring of her pants and the thin fabric fell to the floor. Azora felt she was going to be sick.

“Bend over.”

Azora was too scared to utter a single word. She bent forward, exposing her bare backside to the cold air. “Please don’t do this. Please…”

“Don’t you dare tell me what to do! I am the one who has been caring for you all your life! You were nothing but an abandoned baby with traitorous eyes when I took you in. No one wanted you, but I still took you in. I saved you, and how do you repay me? By being a disrespectful, rude, lazy, stupid little bitch!” Jada took a moment to compose herself. Azora couldn’t even identify half of the emotions she was feeling right now.

“Fourteen switches should do it. One for every year I’ve cared for you.”

Azora didn’t have time to brace herself for the first hit. She heard the bamboo cane slicing through the air and a split second later her backside burned with white-hot pain. Her knees buckled. Tears cascaded down her face and she grabbed onto either side of the desk to support herself.

“Please, please, please don’t do this,” Azora begged, but to no avail. The second hit came, just as hard as the first. She had no feeling other than pain.

CRAAACK. CRAAACK. CRAAACK.

The cane sliced through the air and hit her again and again. Azora would cry out in pain, cry out for mercy, but she soon lost her voice. Her mouth was torn open in a silent scream.

Just then a horrible wailing resonated from outside. It was some sort of siren, an alert. The noise distracted Jada for a moment, which was just long enough for Azora, who had fallen to the floor, to crawl away and hide behind the desk. She attempted to pull her pants on but her mind was so muddled she hardly knew what she was doing.

The door to Jada’s office opened suddenly and there was a frantic pitter-patter of footsteps as someone ran inside.

“What is it?” Jada snapped, displeased that someone would burst in unannounced.

“It’s the Fire Nation. They are raiding the village.”