Boomerang (Sokka x Fem!Reader)

Ch 15: Uneasy

A few days later...

Y/n POV

Our on the run lifestyle landed us in a forest for a little while, and what do you do in a forest? Tell ghost stories.

I had made us a campfire and we all sat around in a circle, taking turns telling stories under the almost full moon in our shadowy cave.

"Suddenly, they heard something down the hall in the dark. Ooooh~ It came into the torchlight, and they knew...the blade of Wing-Fun was haunted! OOOO-WAAAAA!" Sokka yelled dramatically, but the story didn't scare anyone. 

"I think I liked the first one better, Sokka," I told him, remembering his early story about a man with a sword for a hand.

"Water Tribe slumber parties must stink," Toph said. Katara piped up then. 

"No, wait, I've got one. And this one's a true Southern Water Tribe story," she introduced. Sokka sat down next to me up against a tree root with a raised eyebrow. 

"Is this one of those 'a friend of my cousin knew some guy that this happened to' stories?" He asked and Katara shook her head. 

"No, it happened to Mom," she replied and that made all of us lean in to listen. "One winter, when mom was a girl, a snowstorm buried the whole village for weeks. A month later, mom realized 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." The atmosphere was starting to take affect and we all listened with rapt attention. 

"'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."

I pulled my knees up to my chest nervously. Sokka hid behind the tree root behind us and peaked his head out carefully. 

"Where'd she go?" He asked. Do we even want to know? 

"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 ominously. No on dared speak until Toph gasped. 

"Wait! Guys did you hear that?" She asked. The four of us rushed to hold on to each other in fear. "I hear people under the mountain, and they're screaming," Toph finished and my heart skipped a beat. 

"You're probably just jumpy from the ghost stories," I said, though I don't know whether it was to convince everyone else or myself. 

"It just stopped," Toph said and I instinctively held onto the arm Sokka had around the others and I. Never mind the embarrassment, I'm freaking out. We all sat in silence for a few more moments before we heard a voice that scared us stiff.

"Hello children. Sorry to frighten you, my name is Hama," an old woman said as she came out of the shadowy treeline. "You children shouldn't be out in the forest by yourselves at night. I have an inn nearby, why don't you come there for some spiced tea and warm beds?" The old woman offered. 

We all stared in somewhat relief before we agreed. We packed up our personal things and followed her back to the inn. We were taken straight to a dinner table where she came through on her promise of tea. 

"Thanks for letting us stay here tonight," Katara said on behalf of all of us. Hama smiled before frowning.

"You know, you should be careful. People have been disappearing in those woods you were camping in," she warned us.