The Gaang had finally stopped for a break.
They had landed next to a small stream to gather water, for both drinking and bending purposes. That, and Appa was in need of a good bath.
"This is ridiculous," Sokka mumbled to himself. "You bathed him three days ago! He'll be fine for another week, or…six…"
"Why do you hate bathing Appa so much?" Aang asked, somewhat puzzled at Sokka's sudden irratibility.
"Because, it takes so long, and there's hair everywhere, and I always end up getting soaking wet and nearly drounded by your guy's silly magic splashing, and-"
"I told you, it's not magic, it's waterbending." Katara said, getting annoyed with Sokka's complaining. "Besides, you have no room to complain. Sometimes you go off to take a bath, and your gone for hours!" She said, exasperated. "What are you doing down there, anyway?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Hey, not in front of the kid!" he quickly said, glancing at a very confused looking Aang. "And no, I do not do that. I simply have very good hygiene." He stated, matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, not good enough…" Katara said, and mockingly plugged her nose with her fingers, getting a laugh from Aang and a glare from Sokka.
"Ha! You're hilarious! And you know what? Just for that, I'm not helping you bathe Appa!" he said with a gleeful smirk.
Aang replied, "That's ok, you can't bend, so me and Katara can get it done more quickly without you."
"Thanks Aang, I appreciate it." Sokka said sarcastically. He shook his head when Aang shouted a welcome back in reply.
He turned around and grabbed his pack. "I saw a town on the other side of these trees, I'm gonna head over there to buy some supplies." Sokka told the two benders.
"Okay, don't take too long, o king of hygene!" Katara shouted in reply, and she and Aang fell apart with laughter."
Sokka shook his head and want on his way to the town. "Damn waterbenders." He mumbled to himself.
Aang and Katara had just finished drying Appa when they saw Sokka returning from his shopping trip.
"Find anything interesting?" Aang asked as he ran up to him.
"You could say that." Sokka said, deep in thought.
"Well, what is it?" the avatar asked as he fed Momo a leche nut.
"Yeah, you mind showing us?" Katara said while she rifled through Sokka's pack.
"It isn't an item, it's something I heard." Sokka said, irritated with all of the questions.
"Okay, so, what did you hear?" Katara asked, wanting him to get to the point.
"As I was paying for the supplies, the clerk asked me where I was traveling. I just told him I was heading up north, to get away from the war." He explained. "Then, he warned about something, rather, somewhere we should beware of on our journey up there."
"What is it?" Aang wondered in anticipation.
"The clerk said that beyond those mountains," he motioned toward the peaks to the north, "there is a dense forest." Sokka remembered what the shopkeeper had said." The locals call it 'the forest of demons'."
"Why is it called that?" Katara inquired.
"He said that the place is haunted by evil spirits. He called them 'yautja'."
"What does that mean?"
Sokka leaned in and, for some reason, quietly whispered the translation to his sister and the avatar:"He who hunts men as trophies."
At his answer, Katara and Aang felt chills run down their spines.
"He who hunts men as trophies… " Katara recited. "Why would anyone name something a name so horrible?"
"I'm not sure," her brother answered, "but he told me something even more interesting. He said that a few months ago, a small army of fire nation troops came through the town. They said they were going to investigate the forest, and they left a small garrison of about three dozen men there to provide security." Sokka paused, for dramatic effect, and to catch his breath. "The rest of the army left for the forest, saying they would return in two days. They never came back."
"What about the garrison?" Aang asked. "What did they do about their missing army?"
"Hold on, I was just getting to that. Anyway, the entire garrison left after about three days to find the rest of the army. They never came back either."
Aang and Katara exchanged nervous glances. "Wow, that's some story." The airbender said with a little nervous laughter.
"Yeah, kinda creepy too." Katara agreed, looking out over the mountains. "What if it's true?" she thought to herself. "What if there are some kinds of evil, man hunting spirits in that forest?"
She shuddered at the thought. "Great, I'm going to have nightmares for a week."
"Yeah, I thought it was a pretty cool story." Sokka said, yawning and stretching. "Well, if you guys are done washing Appa, we should go ahead and get out of here. Bad to stay in one place for too long with the fire nation on your ass."
"Good idea, but before we go too far…" Aang said, climbing on top of Appa, "I'd like to check out that forest of demons."
Katara turned around, startled by the avatar's suggestion. "Why would you want to do that?"
"I don't know, I just think that anything that significant seems worth investigating. Besides, I'm the avatar, and I'm pretty sure it's my duty."
Sokka stared at him open mouthed. "Are you nuts!" he shouted. "Were you not listening to the story? An entire army of fire nation soldiers disappeared in there! The three of us probably won't last five seconds!"
"For once, Sokka's right." Katara told Aang. "We have no business going there and putting ourselves in unnecessary danger. Besides, we have more important things to do. We still need to get to the North Pole so we can master waterbending."
"Yeah, and if you go get yourself killed over a stupid hunch, the entire world is baptized by fire!"
Aang thought about it for a second." What if these 'demons' can be negotiated with? I am good at talking to people. Maybe they would join our side if I just-"
"You can't negotiate with demons, genius!" Sokka exclaimed.
"They're probably not demons!" Aang argued. "The only reason people are suspicious about this forest is because no one has ever seen who or what they are that live there!"
Sokka and Katara looked at each other worriedly.
"Come on, you guys!" Aang urged on." I stopped a rampaging spirit from destroying a town! I am destined to defeat the firelord and bring peace after a hundred years of war! There is nothing to be worried about!"
Katara sighed" Well, I can see that we can't change your mind. I guess we can take a look."
Aang whooped in celebration, and jumped atop Appa."Alright buddy, let's go make nice with some man-hunting demons! YIP-YIP!"
"Great." Sokka thought. "We're all gonna die."