peacekeeping- zuko

Sketchy Old Lady

Katara and Toph were having a problem with each other again. I now have a severe headache. Toph had been scamming people and the mom in Katara was not having it. I groaned. "Can't you guys shut up for one second?! My head hurts!" I shouted, throwing a pillow at Toph. She caught it with a huff. Katara started again, yelling for no reason. I groaned again, stuffing my face into my pillow. I am so done with their crap. "SHUT UP!!" I yelled, catching Katara's attention. "Can't you stay out of this? I'm just trying t"- I cut her off by bending some ice around her mouth. I rubbed my temples as she bended it off. I forgot she was a water bender, too. "Young lady, how dare you shut my mouth?! I was talking to you!!"

I screamed into my pillow, clutching it around my head. I think my headache just got worse. I felt like pounding it against a rock. Aang and Sokka were sitting on a rock, watching the chaos. "Stop yelling at her! Why do you have a problem with everyone and everything?!" Toph defended. I stood up going to a rock, as Toph and Katara finally separated, scoffing. I slammed my head against it continuously. Honestly, it did kinda help, but it also worsened it. Aang gasped, pulling my head away from the rock. "What you doing?" I turned to him, brow furrowed. "What do you think?" I mumbled, turning back to the rock. Aang dragged me away, by the back of my shirt. "Just...go to sleep or something." He offered. Sleep. Sleep sounds nice. I nodded, heading into my tent.

*********************

"Y/N WAKE UP!!" I heard someone yell after they slapped me. I rubbed my face, "Owww..what do you want?" Sokka was kneeling in front of me, covered in dust. "Katara wanted to pull a prank with Toph, but then they got captured by a guy who blows things up with his mind, I call him Combustion man and we almost died!" He rushed. I sunk deeper into my pillow. "So what? Leave me alone." I shot. Sokka paused for a bit. "You feeling okay?" He mumbled, placing the back of his hand on my forehead. "I'm fine! Leave me alone." I mumbled into my pillow. "No, your not. You're sick!" He yelped. "Could you stop with the yelling!!" I yelled myself, blowing some wind at Sokka and throwing him back a couple feet away from me.

"Sorry, but we have leave, Y/N." I sighed into my pillow. "Fine, let's go." I got up, not wanting to at all. "Y/N's sick." Sokka informed everyone. I felt very tired and droopy. "We'll stop somewhere else tonight, then." Aang decided. We got on Appa, packing up our bags. Katara and Toph weren't fighting anymore so that was a good sign. I leaned against Katara, not wanting to stay awake. I don't know how long we'd been flying but we landed when it was dark. I was feeling a lot better now, having just taken a 'little' nap. It was four hours long. We didn't bother unpacking. I made a fire, with the little fire bending I still had left. Sokka had started telling us a scary story. Cool. I was hugging a pillow, sitting beside Aang.

Sokka finished and Katara scoffed. "I think I like the 'man with a sword for a hand' better." Stated Aang from beside me. "Water Tribe slumber parties must stink." Toph shot, crossing her arms. "Wait, I've got one! And this a true Southern Water Tribe story." Katara exclaimed, jumping up. Sokka groaned, "Is this one of those 'a friend of my cousin knew some guy this happened to' kinda stories?" Katara shook her head. "No, this happened to mom." Oh, Raava. Sokka stiffened. I sensed Aang moving beside and turned to see him sitting up straight. "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."

Sokka hid behind a broken tree trunk, starting to get the creeps. "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 out for help, but when she came back, no one was there." Aang shivered, pulling Momo onto his head. I hugged my pillow closer to me. "W-where'd she go?" Whispered Sokka. "No one knows. Nini's house stands empty to this day, but sometimes, you can still see smoke coming out of the chimney."

Toph gasped, placing a hand on the ground. I felt some energy shuffling around beneath us. "Wait! Do you guys here that?! I hear people under the mountain! And they're screaming!" Sokka 'pfft'd. "Nice try." "You're probably just a bit jumpy from the ghost stories." Katara offered. "No, I feel their energy. Wait, hold up. It just changed. It's all the same, now." I whispered. "Alright, now I'm getting scared." Aang said, huddled into Katara's side. "Hello, children." Said a voice not belonging to any of us. We all screamed at the top of our lungs, huddling together. An old lady stood there. Her energy seemed very...off. It was powerful, yes, but it was also..controlling, if that makes sense. "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 by there for some nice tea and warm beds." She offered.

A part of me said, haha, no thank you, I ain't tryna die. I got people to save. But the other really wanted some nice, warm, tea. We agreed, and decided to stay at her inn. It was also kinda..rusty. I don't like this. It's very sketchy. The lady told us about people disappeared in the mountain. That's weird. She told us that it only happens at full moon too, which is also weird. We went to sleep there, even though I didn't like it. I closed my eyes, drifting off to a state of dreams.

A heard a knock on my window and got up to see who was there. Prince Zuko stood there, wearing a cloak and another one in his hands. "How you doin?" He smirked, jumping in. "What you doing here?" I wondered. "I found a really nice tea shop yesterday and since we can't go there as royalty, I thought we'd sneak out." He informed, handing me a spare cloak. "Okay. Anything for tea." I laughed, pulling it on. We jumped out of the window, heading to the tea shop. I stumbled, almost falling into an alleyway from the rooftops. A hand grabbed my hood, and turned me around. "Y/N! Don't do that!" Zuko scolded, throwing his arms around me. I laughed nervously, "heh. Sorry."

We walked around town, collecting groceries for the lady's inn in the morning. I told Aang about her energy while she and Katara talked. "Maybe you should tell her about it. I'm sure she'll let you check it out." Aang consoled. I shrugged, humming a 'sure'. A shop owner talked about his delivery boy disappearing in the woods. "People disappearing in the woods, wide stuff happening during full moons? This just reeks of Spirit World shenanigans." Sokka said, carrying a package attached to his sword. "I bet if we took a little walk around town, we'd figure out what these people did to make the spirits mad." Aang offered. I shook my head. "No. It's not the spirits. I would feel them if it were."

Sokka was getting kinda suspicious of the lady himself with his 'Y/N also thinks somethings off' and 'what about that mysterious children comment'. He ended up searching the lady's house much to Katara's disapproval. We searched her attic and found a comb. The lady found us but she didn't mind. "It's the last thing I have from the Southern Water Tribe." She explained. "You're from the Southern Water Tribe?" Asked Katara. Water tribe? Her energy did have a hint of it but it just seemed so..different.