Sound Bender (Avatar: The Last Airbender) #Wattys2017

||Chapter 22 - My Joy||

Himoko's POV

"D-Daddy?" I questioned, staring at the figure before me, the spirit of my father. The spirit stayed silent, not moving a muscle- Eh, wait, do spirits even have muscles anymore? I took a few steps forward, my lips quivering before coming to sudden halt when he disappeared at the slight brush of wind passed by us. I shook my head, blinking rapidly. Am I seeing things?

"My Joy..." Yep, I'm definitely going crazy. I turned around, managing to catch sight of him floating away

"Hey, wait!" I called, taking off after him. I ran through the forest, following the blue glow of my father's spirit. My mind forgetting of what I originally came out here to do. But now, all I focused on was following after him.

The leaves and twigs crunched under my boots, the wind blasting in my face, keeping my black hair out of my face. Come on! I came to a halt, losing sight of him

"Where did he go..." I questioned to myself in a whisper, looking around at my surroundings. There was no way he could just up and- No, stop. He is a spirit, he can just do exactly that!

I huffed, blowing my bangs out of my eyes before I heard the mere whisper of the nickname

"Joy..." I looked over to my side, once again catching sight of him but instead stayed put. Where the hell was he trying to lead me to? I was acting blindly. I regained my senses, sighing deeply, remembering Sokka and Aang, the ones that I was actually out here for. I stared at the spirit of the man I loved dearly since childhood. It held it's translucent hand out towards me, offering for me to take it. I softly shook my head, It is in the past. I have to focus on the present. I took my back and walked away, ignoring what my heart really wanted to do, run into his arms, cry, wish for him to be here... But I instead walked away and continued on my search for Aang and Sokka.

(Time Skip)

I searched all night, ignoring all signs of the spirit that watched me as I searched, calling out their names, trying to find trails but came up with nothing. I blew air out of my nose in displeasure

"Where did they go? How could they have just dissap-..." I stopped myself, trailing off. I looked over my shoulder at the spirit that still patiently waited for me to come to it, 'Disappear... That's it!' I took a few steps towards the spirit, eyes narrowing

"Do you know where my friends are?" I asked him. He stayed silent for a moment before whispering, "Come... My Joy..." Another creepy response, great. I took another step

"Can you please give me a clear answer? I need to find my friends, they were taken by the forest spirit dude, Hei Bai?" I told him uneasily, almost forgetting the name of the spirit. The spirit slowly nodded

"Come..."

"Okay, why do you want me to come with you- Oh." I slapped my cheek

"You want me to come with you because you know where they are at! Dang, I'm dumb." I muttered to last part to myself, walking towards him to take his hand.

My fingers lightly met his, sending a chill to run down my spine as I suddenly felt colder all the sudden. A sinister smile almost got past me, my eyes widening

"You aren't my father." I reeled my hand back, ready to run when the spirit lunged forward, grabbing hold of my wrist with enormous strength

"My Joy!" The voice was no longer gentle, it was unnerving and cracking. Fear rose up from the bottomless pit of my soul as I fought against the spirit's hold

"Let... Go!" I shouted, managing to slip from it's hold for a moment before it latched back onto me. I used my other hand, trying to pry myself away from it when a sudden fireball came hurdling in front of me, causing the spirit to disappear. I lost my balance, falling backwards onto my behind with a hiss

"Ow..." I blinked, furrowing my brows. Wait, that was a fireball... wasn't it?

"Good, it didn't manage to latch onto your soul." I jumped up to my feet, hurdling my fist before thinking. I felt it impact, cringing when I saw who it was

"Adrian?!" I yelled out in surprise, yelping when I realized that I punched his face. Ouch!

"Heh, yeah. Hello to you too, Sass Princess." He lightly chuckled, holding onto his cheek that looked to be already swelling

"I'm so sorry! I didn't know who you were and-"

"Reacted on instinct? Yeah, I know. I'm fine, don't worry about me. The good thing is that the Yumi didn't latch onto your soul."

"Okay, what the hell man." I rose my hands up in front of me, "Latching onto my soul?"

"Yeah, spirits are not to be messed with. What are you even doing out here so close to it being the solstice? It is dangerous!" He asked me, briefly looking around us

"I thought I would go for a nice little walk and try to find a friend in a spirit-"

"Don't sass me, Himoko."

"Okay fine. I'm out here looking for Sokka and Aang. Sokka was taken by Hei Bai and Aang went after him, and I followed in suit." I shrugged. He gave me a look

"That was idiotic of you." He deadpanned

"Hey! It was in the spur of the moment! I didn't realize I was going to be- Wait, what would even have happened if the Yimi latched onto my soul?"

"It's Yumi. And the spirit first takes the form of the person you miss, presumably dead. Which makes you vulnerable into thinking that they are there to rekindle something with you. Then when you get close enough to them, and grab a hold of their offered hand, they slowly latch onto you, take you somewhere, before consuming your soul and using your body as a vessel." I blinked, taking in all of the details

"How do you know all of that?"

"Because I spent way too much time reading folklore. Also, they are deadly afraid of fire which in my case-" He lit a small flame on top of his index finger, "-Is lucky to have someone who knows how to bend fire."

"But why did it come after me?"

"You are vulnerable, and it was easier for it to maintain your loved one's form as the solstice is..." He paused for dramatic effect, watching the sun slowly rise behind me, "... Tonight. Oh yeah, we better get you back to the village before the Yumi comes back." He grabbed a hold of my hand and dragged me away. I struggled against him, pulling on his arm to free myself

"Hey! I still need to find Aang and Sokka-"

"I would rather if you stayed alive, Himoko. They will be find. If anything, the two are probably just in the Spirit World."

"Spirit World?!" I shouted and he nodded with a small shrug, "Aang is the bridge between two worlds while Sokka was, dragged into there by Hei Bai, right?" I nodded in confirmation

"So you got nothing to worry about."

"Pfft, yeah right. I'm still going to worry!" I began to yank of his arm again. He groaned, shaking his head

"So hot headed... And I'm the firebender..." Without warning, he pulled me into him before throwing me over his shoulder

"Adrian!"

"I will put you down if you stop trying to run."

"That's not fair."

"Sorry Princess, but I can't risk you being taken by the Yumi again. That was way too close for comfort." I huffed, blowing my bangs out of my face as I crossed my arms

"Fine..." He gently placed me down, but still refused to let go of my arm just in case I were to suddenly take off. I pinched the bridge of my nose with my free hand, sighing deeply. This was an eventful night/early morning.

To Be continued

Ayyyyyy~ Adrian is back for the party! Please let me know in the comments of what you thought of this chapter, it took me long enough to write it than usual because I was busy for all of October and jeez, I can't believe it is already November... November 7Th to be exact! At my town we had our first snow and apparently, it is still technically Fall since Winter doesn't start until the solstice which is on December 21st this year... I DIDN'T KNOW THIS UNTIL IT LOOKED IT UP TODAY. Anyways! Thank you all for reading and I will talk to you all later! -Golden