Camille was born as the fifth member of her household. Her mother and father were both water benders. Her father, Sucota was a strong man, 6' 2''. Her mother, Kari was a caring, intelligent young woman, who was 5' 6''. They both took care of their kids well and trained them in the skill of water bending.
Camille also had two older siblings. Dro, her older brother was seven years older than her and her sister, Palla was five years older than her. Both Dro and Palla could water bend along with their parents.
Dro, like his father was moderately tall at about 6'1'' and was fairly strong. He had a good sense of humor and constantly teased his younger sisters, though he stuck up for them if anybody tried picking on them. Dro loved learning water bending, discovering he could at the age of five. He trained and trained and became quite good by the time he was 18. Dro and Camille were very close even though there was seven years difference in age. Camille believes it was because her brother and her both enjoyed water bending. Dro helped teach Camille when her parents were busy with other things. He always pushed her harder than her parents would because he knew she was strong enough.
Palla, was of average height at 5'4''. She was a very passive and quiet. She disliked fighting and only saw fit to use her water bending skills when it was absolutely necessary. Palla was kind of a late bloomer, she first found she could water bend when she turned 11. Since she didn't train a lot, Camille surpassed her in water bending when Camille was 9.
Camille led a pretty happy and normal life for a water bender. She always excelled at water bending, mostly because of what she learned when she practiced with Dro. She is still not a master though and still needs improving, since she never got the chance to train with a master.
Barely after Camille had turned 11, it was beginning to get a bit warmer in the spring, not that it got all that warm in the south pole. One morning she saw smoke in the distance and some strange looking ships she'd never seen. All around her people were rushing to and from. At first nobody would explain what was going on until finally her brother told her with quite seriously that the fire nation was coming, and not just for a visit, but to attack. Camille wasn't sure why though.
In order to keep all the children safe in the village, they were brought to a cave a good distance from the village. Dro and Palla went with her to the cave. Palla was going to stay with her, but Dro was 18 now and wanted to help fight against the fire benders. Camille was already upset about the fact that her parents weren't with her, she didn't want her big brother to go to. He smiled at her and kissed her on the forehead.
"Be strong and brave Cam." Were the last words he said to her before leaving the cave.
Camille looked around there were some other kids there as well. All were younger than her except Palla. The only other bender besides Palla and Camille herself, was a girl a year younger than her, Nakaia. Although Nakaia claimed to not be able to bend and so her new friends believed so. (Another story for another time) There was enough food here for all of them and other supplies too, thankfully. Camille wasn't sure how long they'd be in there.
As night fell they could hear great booms and some screams. Everybody was asleep, or at least they were trying too. Soon Camille heard someone walking past her sleeping bag. Opening her eyes, she saw Palla walking out.
"Palla!" Camille had whispered, standing up. "What are you doing?"
"I gotta go help them Cam. I'm only two years younger than Dro." Palla said to her, completely serious and then hugged her sister tight. "I love you." She gave Camille one last smile and then left. That was the last time Camille would see her sister.
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For three days Camille and the rest of the children from her tribe waited. Finally a tired looking man who turned out to be Nakaia's father entered the cave and told them the that the fire benders had left. Camille wondered why her parents hadn't come to get her, or her siblings. Nakaia's father looked extremely sad and broken. It turned out Nakaia's mother had pasted away in the battle.
Camille rushed out of the make-shift safe place they'd been hiding, and ran toward her village. Once she got there she stopped looking at the remains of what use to be the southern water tribe. Everywhere she saw people, young and old crying. There were bodies everywhere, lying in the snow. The fire nation had left, but along with them they'd taken the happiness from the water tribe.
Camille saw most of the igloos were destroyed, including her families. The young water bender searched and searched for her parents. She kept asking the villagers if they'd seen any of her family, but no one would answer, they only looked at her with sad eyes and shook their heads. Finally Camille made her way to the outer part of the village, on the edge of the water.
The first body she found was her sisters. Shocked and unable to handle it she continued to look for the rest of her family. She found her father's body not to far from Palla's. She fell to her knees and began to cry. She shook the empty body with no success of waking him from his eternal slumber. She never found her mother's or her brother's body, but some of the other people had told her that some of the fire benders had burned the water benders' and fighters' bodies before they'd left. How cruel....
After a two weeks Camille started talking to other people again. She acted different though, older, colder and less fun-loving. She found out that she was the only water bender left in the southern pole. There were only about 30 people left in their village. Half of them were either children or elderly, but the other half were able to leave on boats and go off to war leaving Camille, Nakaia and another young teenager boy to take of the village.
Camille trained by herself, trying to improve herself, which she did, though not as much as when she had trained with someone else. Finally when she was older she told Nakaia that she was leaving to go to the fire nation to find the Avatar. Nakaia wanted to come too, but Camille asked her to stay and watch over the village. Camille's best friend agreed and let Camille go by herself.
So Camille left on a little water tribe boat. This was probably not the smartest thing to do since she had no map, but she headed north, knowing she'd hit land eventually. She knew that the next Avatar was suppose to be a fire bender, but there had been a myth going around that the Avatar had not been reborn. Camille didn't buy that though.
One cloudy night while she was sailing, her boat was struck by a fireball. She couldn't see where it had come from, so she began using her water bending to quickly put it out, but before she got too far someone had grabbed her from behind and carried her off her boat onto fire nation one.
Once on the ship, Camille was thrown into a empty cell and her hands were chained to the floor so she wouldn't be able to move them to water bend.
"You won't be water bending yourself out of this one little girl." Said the leader of the ship. Camille later found out his name was Johnathan Paris. She immediately disliked the man.
Twice a day he'd bring in food to her personally. He loved to make fun of her. First he'd undo her cuffs and lay the food in front of her, if food is what you want to call it. It usually consisted of moldy bread and a glass water.
After being in the boat for about a week, the Captain seemed in an unusually hateful mood as he brought her food. "Aren't you going to eat, you pathetic water bender?" he scoffed looking down at Camille. The water bender looked at her moldy bread and then at her glass of water.
She had a plan. In one fluid movement she whipped the water in the glass, knocking the fire bender off his feet. She ran to the door, opened it but as she made her way out of the doorway she ran right into another fire bender. There were four other guards as well. The one that she'd ran into shoved her back into the cell. She would have fallen flat on her butt except her back hit something hard and solid. She felt herself being spun around and large hot hands grabbing onto her wrists.
“Let go of me" She said to Paris, who was leaning down, his face only a few inches from hers.
"Not likely," he smirked, his hands getting progressively hotter.
"Aahhhhh" Camille let out a loud scream. The fire bender had let blue flames escape from his hands, burning her skin. The pain was too much, so the water bender's legs gave out. Captain Paris released her arms, letting her sink to the floor.
"I wouldn't try that again, if I were you." he said with a dark chuckle. He grabbed her wrists again and slammed them to the floor. Camille made sure not to give him the satisfaction of screaming again, although she wanted to. Johnathan Paris locked her hands back up and then took the moldy bread and empty glass away.
"Since you weren't hungry, I'll just take this." he said and then left her cell.
Her wrists hurt immensely and she wished she could heal them. Camille could do nothing, but deal with the pain.
Camille didn't know when it was day or when it was night after a while, and so she wasn't sure exactly how many days passed.
When they brought food again after her failed escape attempt, it was not Paris, but another fire nation soldier. He too unlocked her cuffs and set them set the same food in front of her. She drank the water, but didn't touch the bread. The solider waited a few minutes.
"What our food not good enough for you, tuna?" He laughed deeply and then locked her back up. Before he picked up her food, he kicked her in the side, waiting for a reaction. Camille simply stared at the wall across from her. She wasn't going to give the fire bender the satisfaction of her reacting. With another laugh the fire bender closed the door, leaving Camille by herself once more.
The only time Camille was left let out of her cell was when she was allowed to go relieve herself. She didn't usually eat any of the bread, but always drank the water. The captain never came to visit her after that either. She was grateful... not many people scared her, but he did. As time passed she grew skinnier. The cuffs were never tightened though, and Camille counted herself lucky that no one had noticed. She could almost fit her hands through the metal shackles.
After what seemed like forever, Camille felt the ship stop. Someone came and got her, walking her through the boat's interior until they reached the outside.
"So good to be home in the fire nation after six months" said the guard, leading her away from the ship, pulling her behind him by a chain, to another guard. The water bender realized her sixteenth birthday had passed while she'd been on the fire navy's ship. Camille listened and followed the soldiers, hearing them talk about random things. Apparently Johnathan Paris was suppose to go right back out to sea, but he'd decided to go home to see his sons, Tommy, and J... Camille hadn't quite caught the other name.
Camille walked and walked. Waiting for the right moment to slip her hands from the cuffs. When she did, neither of the fire benders noticed up ahead of her. Quickly she slipped down an alley way to her right. After about ten seconds Camille heard shouts. She began to run, knowing she needed to change out of her water tribe clothing.
Camille found a little clothes shop and ran in. When the owner wasn't looking she took some clothes and walked about. She found a place to change and put her other clothes into her pack..
As Camille walked through the small town she looked down a her thin wrists. On each wrist she had burn marks that were in the shape of large hand prints. She'd have to wear gloves from now on. Good thing she'd stolen a pair of bracers from the fire nation.
She'd pick pocketed people passing by and gotten enough money to get something to eat and find an inn to stay at. After that day she'd begin her short search for the avatar.
UPDATE COMPLETE...
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