Freedom

Chapter 50: The Inn on the Hill

Hama woke them up all bright and early, as groggy as they were. She, very chipper, told them that they needed to go shopping.

But as they were walking out the door, Zuko spoke up, "Actually I'm not feeling very well... I think I'll stay back"

Katara gave him a confused look, "Are you sure?" She reached up and gently felt his forehead, checking for a fever, "I suppose you do feel a little warm..."

"Probably just a little fire nation bug..." Zuko mused, "But you guys carry on, don't let me spoil the fun"

Katara watched him carefully, but nodded. She could never seem to tell when he was telling the truth. But she decided to trust his judgement, no matter what it might be.

Hama and Katara went off to do the grocery shopping, while the others ran off somewhere else. Katara probably mused they had ran into a street vendor and got distracted from there.

"That Mr. Yao seems to have a thing for you. Maybe we should go back and see if he'll give us some free komodo sausages?" Katara reasoned. Hama immediately had a look of disappointment and seriousness on her face, "You would have me use my feminine charms to take advantage of that poor man?" she asked, but her face instantly lightened a pause later, "I think you and I are going to get along swimmingly!" the woman said.

Katara's eyes light up with a smile. She often thought of doing these things with her mother; galavanting around the town square shopping and talking about boys. She also remembered it was never something they got to do. But Hama started to fill a void she hadn't felt in a long time, even in just a few hours.

Meanwhile Aang, Sokka, and Toph wandered around the town when they overheard a conversation.

"You won't have any ash bananas till next week?" a villager asked, slight annoyance in his tone. His hands were on his hips in disapproval, huffing his chest.

The man behind the stall sighed and shook his head, "Well, I have to send the boy to Hing Wa Island to get them, and it's a two day trip" The shop owner told the man. The villager's face melted into one of understanding, "Oh, right. Tomorrow's the full moon"

Sokka, Aang and Toph exchanged a look, peering into the villager's conversation more intently.

The shop keeper leaned in close, intent on no one else hearing his statement and not knowing that others were listening in, "Exactly. I can't lose another delivery boy in the woods" he whispered solemnly.

Sokka scratched his chin, "People disappearing in the woods... Weird stuff happening during full moons... This just reeks of Spirit World shenanigans" he held onto his sword, thinking of the possibilities for the disappearances. He shrugged his shoulders, "Not our problem... we have somewhere we gotta be"

Aang sighed, "Sokka, you know that's not the case..." he looked around at the people milling about, doing their daily shopping, "I bet if we take a little walk around town, we'll find out what these people did to the environment to make the spirits mad" Aang suggested.

Sokka thought this over for a moment before nodding, "Well alright, and then you can sew up this little mystery lickety-split, Avatar style!" he exclaimed. Aang smiled proudly and stuck out his chest a little, "Helping people ... that's what I do."

Zuko creeped out his bedroom when he was sure they were all gone. He tip toed out, checking around the corner to make sure no one was watching.

As soon as they arrived at the little inn, his stomach felt unsettled and his nerves were on edge. He could just tell something wasn't right with the quiet innkeeper.

He walked into the hallway and looked towards an old cabinet. The wood was worn and it sat on the uneven floor. He pulled on the door gently but it didn't budge. He pulled a little harder and forced it open, but came tumbling out was several puppets, dressed as fire nation villagers. He gasped as they fell towards him.