not from around here | Zuko X OC

| chapter forty nine |

The fire glowed and illuminated the dark night sky that surrounded us.

"Suddenly, they heard something down the hall in the dark. Oooh... It came into the torchlight... and they knew the blade of Wing Fung was haunted! OOOHHAAYYHOOO!!" Sokka exclaimed, jumping to his feet and pointing at the fire in front of him with his sword.

We all deadpanned at him, not amused at all by his story.
I yawned loudly, tired from the day of travelling and all of the ghost stories.
"I think I like "the man with a sword for a hand" better." Aang said, unamused.

"Why are all your stories sword related?" I asked, stifling another yawn.
"I just like swords, I think they're neat." He said shrugging and sitting back down next to me.

"Water Tribe slumber parties must stink." Toph said.
"No, wait! I've got one! And this is a true Southern Water Tribe story." Katara said, drawing the attention to her.
"Is this one of those "a friend of my cousin knew some guy that this happened to" stories?"
Sokka asked, rolling his eyes.

"No, it happened to Mom."
I saw Sokka's body language completely change as he was suddenly a lot more interested in what Katara had to say about their mother.

"One winter when Mom was a girl, a snowstorm buried the whole village for weeks. A month later, Mom noticed she hadn't seen her friend Nini since the storm. So Mom and some others went to check on Nini's family. When they got there, no one was home. Just a fire flickering in the fireplace. While the men went out to search, Mom stayed in the house. When she was alone, she heard a voice. "It's so cold and I can't get warm!" Mom turned and saw Nini standing by the fire. She was blue like she was frozen. Mom ran outside for help, but when everyone came back, Nini was gone."

Sokka jumped behind me and put his hands on my shoulders, trembling and using me as a shield against any danger.
"Where'd she go?" He asked, his voice shaking.

"No one knows. Nini's house stands empty to this day, but sometimes, people see smoke coming up from the chimney, like little Nini is still trying to get warm." Katara finished.
Even I felt my heart rate pick up and I could feel fear in the pit of my stomach.

"Wait! Guys, did you hear that?" Toph exclaimed, putting her hands on the ground to get a better feel.
I jumped and grabbed onto Sokka as he grabbed onto me, Katara and Aang instantly joining the huddle as we all shook with fear.
"I hear people under the mountain. And they're screaming." Toph told us.

I felt Sokka's grip relax as he realised Toph was probably joking.
"Pft! Nice try, Toph." He said, laughing.
"No, I'm serious. I hear something."
I felt my heart rate pick up even more and I gripped onto the others tighter.

"You're probably just jumpy from the ghost stories..." Katara suggested hopefully.
"It just... stopped."
"All right, now I'm getting scared." Aang said.
"You can say that again." I said, glancing at him.

"Hello children." I creepy voice from behind us spoke and we all jumped.
"AGHH!" We all collectively screamed and jumped back, Toph joining our huddle.

"Sorry to frighten you. My name is Hama. You children shouldn't be out in the forest by yourselves at night. I have an inn nearby. Why don't you come back there for some spiced tea and warm beds?"
"Yes please." Said Sokka, still not quite over his fright.

ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ

"Thanks for letting us stay here tonight. You have a lovely inn." Katara complemented.
Hama gently placed down her teapot on the table.
We were in Hama's inn where she also lived, sat around her table drinking tea.