"Suddenly, they heard something down the hall, in the dark. Oooh...it came into the torchlight, and they knew the blade of Wing Fun was haunted!" Sokka yelled before wailing, drawing his sword and waving it as he finished telling a rather terrible ghost story.
"I think I liked 'the man with a sword for a hand' better." Aang noted with a bored tone.
"Are all of your ghost stories about swords Sokka? At least throw in an axe or a scythe wielding maniac in there somewhere." I sighed as Toph wrinkled her nose.
"Water Tribe slumber parties must stink."
"No, wait, I've got one, and this is a true Southern Water Tribe story." Katara said, sitting upright a little more as Sokka sheathed his sword and sat down sceptically.
"Is this one of those 'a friend of my cousin knew some guy that this happened to' stories?"
"No, it happened to mom." Instantly everybody was focused on Katara, listening curiously to her story. "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." Changing her voice as to sound young and feeble, I saw the boys both shivering with wide eyes. "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 every one came back, Nini was gone."
Aang grabbed Momo by his ears and wrapped them around his head nervously whilst Sokka shivered behind a tree, peering at us fearfully before asking his question hesitantly. "Where'd she go?"
"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." Letting the chill sink in the air, I chuckled inwardly. I'll admit, that was a pretty good story, though when Toph suddenly pressed her hand into the ground, the boys both jumped practically out of their skins.
"Wait. Guys, did you hear that? I hear people under the mountain, and they're screaming." The others all rushed at each other to hug, scaring themselves with their stories and Toph didn't exactly help with her little joke.
"Pft, nice try." Sokka waved her off though Toph didn't admit it was a joke.
"No, I'm serious, I hear something." People screaming in the mountain?
"Maybe it's just some kind of tremor your feeling Toph." I suggested calmly as Katara nervously agreed.
"Yeah, you're probably just jumpy from the ghost stories." Pauing a moment, Toph then looked up.
"It just stopped." Aang started to chew on his nails as I yawned, starting to feel like I should go to sleep soon.
"Alright, now I'm getting scared."
"Hello, children." Cracking open an eye when I heard some old woman's voice, the others apart from Toph all screaming and diving for etiher myself or our earth bender to hide behind out of fear. The old woman stepped into the firelight as I remained lounging against my sloping rock with my hands tucked under my head, Momo and Katara having dove to hide behind me. "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 back there for some spiced tea and warm beds?" Tea?
"Yes please." Sokka answered meekly, still shaking so I got up and laughed.
"You guys, there's nothing to be scared of. Ghosts aren't real and even if they were they can't hurt you." Turning around I presented a bow to the lady, Hama, in order to thank her for her invitation. "Thank you for extending your hospitality towards us, we're all very grateful." With a pointed look behind me, everybody quickly copied my example as Hama chuckled richly.
"Such nice, polite children. It is always a pleasure to meet such interesting young people. Come, come, I shall show you the way." Hama led us to her in where she served us all a hot cup of spiced tea which I thoroughly enjoyed, picking out the flavours and thinking how I'd like to share this with Iroh one day. I'll have to ask for the ingredients and timings.
"Thanks for letting us stay here tonight. You have a lovely inn." Katara said as Hama poured her tea.
"Aren't you sweet? You know, you should be careful. People have been disappearing in those woods you were camping in." Hama said to us which made Sokka jolt nervously.
"What do you mean, disappearing?"
"When the moon turns full, people walk in, and they don't come out." The old woman spoke in a dark, ominous voice to send chills down everyone's spines before she chirped cheerfully. "Who wants more tea?" I immediately raised my hand for more. "Don't worry, you'll all be completely safe here. Why don't I show you to your rooms, and you can get a good night's rest?" She suggested, pouring me another drink of tea which I guzzled happily. I slept wonderfully since I was actually able to rest on a real bed for the first time in ages, savouring the sensation until Hama came and woke us all up in the morning, though Katara and I were already awake and getting ready.
"Oh, good morning Hama."
"Good morning dears, such early little birds. How about going to the market with me to buy some food?" She smiled at us sweetly as she woke up Aang, Toph and then Sokka who had almost fallen completely out of bed. Such an attractive sight. The market was busy even at this time in the morning, and as we walked around I took the time to look at things as Hama started to pile food into our arms, walking mostly with Katara. They seemed to get along a great deal. Whilst Katara enjoyed her time with Hama, the rest of us heard some rather disturbing rumours about the people disappearing at night which only made Sokka suspicious.
"People disappearing in the woods, weird stuff during full moons, this just reeks of spirit world shenanigans." He said with a pointed look at Aang.
"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." I looked at them in surprise.
"The spirits get mad?"
"Sure they do. Vengeful, even. One time I was kidnapped by an angry spirit who's forest had been burned down for almost two days." Sokka informed me rather studiously. "Not pleasant, I tell you. Anyway, once we find out what's made the spirits upset, you can sew up this little mystery, lickety-split, Avatar-style." Sokka said to Aang who smiled a little forcefully, clearly not too thrilled to have to go back into those woods at night.
"Helping people...that's what I do." Walking up to Hama and Katara who had stopped, the old lady turned back to us as she handed us more of the food she'd bought.
"Why don't you all take those things back to the inn? I just have to run a couple more errands. I'll be back in a little while."
"This is a mysterious little town you have here." Sokka said none too discreetly as he looked Hama right in the face who smiled cryptically.
"Mysterious town for mysterious children." Okay, now that sent a chill down my spine. Did she know something? I get the feeling she knows something. Whilst Sokka just continued to frown in confusion, I shifted the bags further up into my grasp before suggesting we take these things bag like Hama had asked us, taking everything back to the kitchen and unloading.
"That Hama seems a little strange. Like she knows something, or she's hiding something." Sokka said, convinced that something was wrong with the woman.
"That's ridiculous. She's a nice woman who took us in and gave us a place to stay. She kind of reminds me of Gran-Gran." Katara argued defensively over Hama.
"But what did she mean by that comment, mysterious children?" Katara rolled her eyes as she answered her brother with sarcasm, which usually would happen in reverse since Sokka was usually nothing but sarcasm.
"Gee, I don't know. Maybe because she found four strange kids, camping in the woods at night? Isn't that a little mysterious?"
"I'm gonna take a look around." Wait, what? Before I knew it all the kids had left the kitchen and followed Sokka whilst Katara urgently told him not to go snooping around someone's house. I quickly finished up unloading the shopping before rushing after the others.
"Hey! What are you doing? This is rude and invasive, Sokka!" I complained as he started opening every door to each room and glancing inside.
"She could be home any minute."
"Sokka, you're gonna get us all in trouble, and this is just plain rude just like Kayo said." Finding a pair of cabinet doors on the wall, Sokka grabbed hold of them and pulled, trying to force them open when they wouldn't budge.
"I'm not finished yet." With a final pull and grunt, the doors flew open to reveal several marionettes which fell forwards on their strings, causing everyone to cry out in surprise. What's so scary about these things? They're just wooden puppets.
"Okay, that's pretty creepy." Aang pointed as Katara hurriedly put them back and closed the doors before Hama could notice we'd been tampering with her things.
"So…she's got a hobby. There's nothing weird about that. Sokka, you've looked enough. Hama will be back soon." Katara said as I shrugged.
"And besides, marionettes are quite popular here in the Fire Nation. Especially for kids. Shadow puppet shows are one of the most popular things at festivals, which you need marionettes for." I explained, seeing nothing weird about the figures on strings at all. Did these guys grow up never seeing a puppet show? What a dull and incomplete childhood they must have had. Ignoring our requests to stop and pulling away whenever someone tried to physically stop him, Sokka continued all the way through the inn until he reached the attic room, blocked only by a door which was locked.
"Just an ordinary, puppet-loving innkeeper, huh? Then why does she have a locked door up here?" Sokka asked as he continued to try budging the door.
"Probably to keep people like you from snooping through her stuff!" Angry at her brother, Katara threw up her hands in frustration.
"We'll see." Squinting through the keyhole, Sokka told us that it was empty except for a little box.
"Alright, that's enough." Grabbing him by his ponytail, I dragged him back and started to berate him for his excessively suspicious and apprehensive behaviour. "You can't just go snooping around an old lady's house after knowing her for just one day, I mean, why do you even think she has anything to do with the disappearances? Maybe she's just a quirky old lady who enjoys being nice to people who need help like we did. You are being rude and I want you to apologise to Hama when you see her for acting like a total jerk!"
"But there might be treasure in there!" Toph complained as Sokka wailed and complained that I was pulling on his hair too tightly.
"Even if it was treasure, it's not ours." I answered back firmly, hand on hip as I continued to tug on Sokka's hair for good measure before he fought my hand off then drew his sword, starting to pick at the lock with the blade tip. "Did you even listen to me?!"
"Nope. I have to see what's in there." Smacking a hand to my face, Sokka very quickly worked the door open and everybody piled inside.
"We shouldn't be doing this." Aang worried nervously, glancing around as Sokka picked up the box then held it out of reach from me as I tried to snatch it from me, holding a hand against my face to keep me from getting it.
"Maybe there's a key here somewhere." Sokka searched around as I folded my arms, glaring at him as he continued to hold his hand right in front of my face.
"Oh, hand it over." At her request, Sokka handed the box over to Toph who used her meteorite bracelet to form a key before using it to try and open the box. Admittedly I was rather curious, so I observed out of the corner of my eye as Toph moulded the key whilst inside the lock to try and get it open.
"Come on, come on!" Sokka encouraged excitedly as Toph continued her work.
"This isn't as easy it looks." Aang was still uncertain about all this and Katara announced she was leaving, but when the sound of a click was heard, everyone's childish nature kicked in and we all crowded in to get a good look at whatever it was that was inside, but before we could do so, Hama spoke up from behind us causing us all to shriek.
"I'll tell you what's in the box." At first Sokka hid the chest in guilt, but when Hama walked up to us and looked at him pointedly, he guiltily handed it over to her. With her little treasure chest in hand, Hama opened the lid then lifted out a plain blue comb made from whale bone. Nothing could beat Sokka's disappointment at such a lacklustre treasure.
"An old comb?"
"It's my greatest treasure. It's the last thing I owned from growing up in the Southern Water Tribe." Sokka and Katara dropped their jaws as the rest of us blinked at her in surprise. I heard that right, Hama is from the Southern Water Tribe? No way!
"You're from the Southern Water Tribe?"
"Just like you." Hama affirmed as Katara broke out into a broad grin.
"How did you know?"
"I heard you talking around your campfire." The old lady chuckled in amusement as we all still processed this new revelation. There had been another water bender in the Fire Nation this whole time, and I never knew! This was crazy, I can't believe it.
"But why didn't you tell us?"
"I wanted to surprise you. I bought all this food today so I could fix you a big, Water Tribe dinner. Of course, I can't get all the ingredients I need here, but ocean kumquats are a lot like sea prunes, if you stew them long enough." At the mention of sea prunes, Aang gave a discreet grimace, clearly not a fan of sea prunes.
"I knew I felt a bond with you right away." Katara gushed with animation, eyes wide and practically sparkling.
"And I knew you were keeping a secret, so I guess we're both right." Sokka said smugly until his sister punched him in the arm for being such a jerk. "But I'm sorry we were sneaking around."
"Apology accepted. Now let's get cooking."
"I'll help! I've always wanted to learn some Water Tribe cuisine, just show me what to do." I immediately offered and Hama accepted with a smile, so we got to cooking a rather sumptuous feast that took the rest of the afternoon, but when it was finished, it looked and smelled amazing. After Aang had warned Toph to stay clear of the sea prune tasting ocean kumquats, Hama then asked us who wanted soup. All of us raised our hands, and to my surprise Hama actually water bended the soup into our bowls all at once in a neat little trick.
"You're a water bender! I've never met another water bender from our tribe." Katara breathed before smiling at me. "Except for Kayo of course, though we don't actually know which tribe her father came from." I smiled and waved as Hama blinked at me.
"You're a water bender as well?"
"Last I checked. I was born and raised in the Fire Nation though, that's why I don't exactly look like much of a water bender." Hama chuckled to me kindly, giving me a sincere smile.
"I thought your name sounded like a tribal name. I am glad to meet another water bender, no matter where they came from."
"So how did you end up out here?" Sokka asked as he'd already tucked into his food and I did the same. Daringly I tried the ocean kumquats, and after a taste I didn't understand what Aang didn't like about them. They were great! I'm so glad I learned the recipes for all this.
"I was stolen from my home." Hama informed us all before telling us her story. "It was over sixty years ago when the raids started." Her voice was distant and grave, remembering a painful and horrible past that must still haunt her to this day. "They came again and again, each time, rounding up more of our water benders and taking them captive. We did our best to hold them off, but our numbers dwindled as the raids continued. Finally, I too was captured." Katara and Sokka looked at each other, Katara feeling the most affected by Hama's story. "I was led away in chains. The last water bender of the Southern Water Tribe. They put us in terrible prisons here in the Fire Nation. I was the only one who managed to escape."
"How did you get away? And why did you stay in the Fire Nation?" Sokka immediately questioned, wanting to know more but Hama sobbed and shook her head, unable to go on.
"I'm sorry. It's too painful to talk about anymore." Sensitive to the older woman's pain, Katara went over to her in order to offer her comfort in an embrace.
"We completely understand. We lost our mother in a raid."
"Oh, you poor things." We all shared a moment of silence, waiting for Hama to recover a little before Katara spoke to her again.
"I can't tell you what it means to meet you. It's an honour, you're a hero." Hama smiled at her fondly.
"I never thought I'd meet another southern water bender. I'd like to teach you what I know, so you can carry on the southern tradition when I'm gone." Katara was thrilled by the offer, immediately accepting without any hesitation.
"Yes, yes of course! To learn about my heritage, it would mean everything to me." Nodding her head in satisfaction, Hama then turned to me.
"Of course, I would be glad to share my knowledge with you too, Kayo. Your father could be from the North or the South, but at the end of the day, you are a water bender. If you are willing to learn from this old woman, I would be glad to share what I have learned." Honoured that she would be willing to teach me as well, I stood up and bowed to her gratefully.
"It would be the greatest honour. It was Katara who taught me how to properly water bend. For most of my life, I had no teacher and had to learn by myself, so I had a poor foundation and very little knowledge of the other half of my heritage until Katara was able to teach me. To learn about my father's people, I can't think of anything else that I'd rather learn." Promising that we would begin tomorrow, Hama invited us all to eat as much as we could so I obligingly helped myself to several portions of all the dishes in front of me, not leaving a single bite left on my plate.
"Even if you did not grow up in one of the Tribes, you have the appetite of one of us." Hama joked as she patted my shoulder. "Clearly your tastes do not differ greatly from your father's to enjoy this feast so much despite trying it for the first time." Agreeing that it had all been delicious, Katara and I grinned at each other before we both promptly went to go get a good night's sleep, anticipating a great day of training in the morning.
