Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar, the Last Airbender.
A week before the Solar Eclipse, Aang and his friends had set up camp during the night of dusk. Appa had relaxed inside of a cave while Aang and his friends sat at a campfire and told each other horrifying stories.
Toph sat and listened to Katara's scary story until she suddenly heard screams through the Earth, then gasped. "Wait! Guys, did you hear that?"
Aang, Katara and Sokka huddled up together as a scared trio with Momo in Katara's arms.
"Huh? What's wrong?" Zuko asked Toph.
"I hear people under the mountain. And they're screaming!" Toph had informed her friends.
"Screaming? Where? I don't hear anything." Zuko said.
Sokka laughed it off. "Pfft. Nice try."
"No, I'm serious. I hear something." Toph said.
"You're probably just jumpy from the ghost stories." Katara assumed as she continued to hold Momo in her arms.
"Now, it just stopped..." Toph said.
Zuko stood and walked over toward Toph. "What direction did it come from?"
"I-I don't know..." Toph replied to Zuko.
"Okay, now I'm getting scared." Aang said.
"Hello, children."
Without warning, Aang and his team were spooked and ran over to Toph when they heard a spooky feminine voice come from a dark area of the woods. Only Zuko was not scared of the spooky voice... but was alerted. He then drew out his broadswords to prepare to duel the upcoming stranger.
"Show yourself!" Zuko demanded.
An elderly woman with silver hair had approached the group of teens as she walked loser to the campfire light.
"Sorry to frighten you. My name is Hama. You children shouldn't be out here in the forest by yourselves at night." Hama said as she glanced at each of the group of teens down.
"Wait, then what are you doing, here, by yourself?" Zuko curiously asked Hama before placing his dual broadswords in his sheath.
"I have an Inn nearby. Why don't you come there for some spiced tea and warm beds?" Hama kindly suggested.
"Yes, please." Sokka said in an intimidated voice, also feeling a bit relieved.
Hama smiled then walked back toward her Inn. Aang, Sokka, Katara and Toph were looking at each other and slowly walked after Hama.
Zuko stayed where he was and called upon his team. "Hey. Hold on a second." His voice reached the ears of his team, which caused them to stop moving for a second. "Who's going to stay and watch Appa?" Zuko asked thinking about Appa.
Toph paused, then thought of an event that happened in her life.
Brief Flashback
Toph Bei Fong was in the middle of Si Wong Desert attempting to stop Wan Shi Tong's tower from sinking while her friends were inside of it. As she Earthbended to the best of her abilities... a group of Sandbenders from the Si Wong Tribe had arrived and abducted Appa against his will. Toph felt powerless for when she couldn't stop Appa from being restrained and taken away.
"I'm sorry." Toph mumbled and cried. Seconds before Wan Shi Tong's tower would sink into the sand.
End Brief Flashback
That incident had been on Toph's guilty conscience ever since, then. "I'll stay and watch Appa." Toph had volunteered as she raised her right hand in the air.
Aang looked at Toph with concern for a bit. "Okay." Aang nodded.
Aang, Katara, Sokka and Zuko then followed Hama in the dark forest until they were led to an Inn, like Hama said. There was also a barn big enough for Appa to stay in. While there, Hama had made tea for the adventurers.
"Thanks for letting us stay here, tonight. What a lovely Inn." Katara commented on Hama's Inn.
"Thank you. Aren't you sweer?" Hama happily replied before sitting down. "You know, you should be careful. People have been disappearing in those woods you were camping in."
"Disappearing?" Sokka asked.
"Just how many people disappeared." Zuko raised his right brow.
"A lot." Hama nodded then raised her cup of tea. "When the moon turns full... people walk in, and they don't come out."
"And just how do you exactly know this?" Zuko rose from the table.
"Because I was the only one who made it out, safely." Hama replied, then changed her mood when she held her tea kettle. "Now, who wants more tea?" She looked at the young adventurers to see them staring at her, strangely. "Don't worry, you'll all be completely safe here." Hama then clapped her hands, together. "Why don't I show you to your rooms where you can get a good night's rest?"
Zuko kept staring at Hama as she had felt uneasy vibes from her. As if she was hiding something. He didn't glare at her.
Aang had suddenly risen from the table. "If it's okay with you, Hama, I'm gonna go bring my other friends." Aang referred to Appa and Toph.
"Sure. Bring as many friends as you like." Hama smiled.
"Thanks!" Aang then quickly ran out the Inn to find Toph and Appa.
Later that Night
Zuko lied in an Inn bedroom where Hama let him stay for the night. As he tried to sleep, peacefully, he kept hearing the wood creak all around him as if something... or someone were trying to come after him. As when Zuko thought he heard a footstep, he quickly grabbed for his dual broadswords which was lying next to him and pulled it from its sheath. He looked around the room to see that nothing was there. "This is so annoying!" He grunted, then put his broadswords back into their sheath, lied back down on the bed and covered his face with a pillow.
The Next Morning
Aang's friends such as Katara, Zuko, Sokka and Toph went shopping into town with Hama, while Toph continued to stay in the woods and watch over Appa. Katara and Hama decided to walk together and get to know each other as Aang, Sokka and Zuko just tailed along and carried baskets and bowls filled with food. As the boys continued to walk behind Hama and Katara, they heard rumors about people in their town disappearing left and right. Zuko wore his disguised eyepatch in public and kept his hair short.
"People disappearing in the woods, weird stuff during full moons, this just reeks of spirit world shenanigans." Sokka said.
"I bet if we take a little walk around town, then we'll find out what these people did to the environment to make the spirits mad." Aang suggested.
"You think that spirits are involved with people disappearing?" Zuko asked Aang.
"Maybe... but it wouldn't hurt to try and investigate." Aang replied.
"And when you do, then you can sew up this little mystery, lickety-split. Avatar-style." Sokka said.
"Helping people. That's what I'd-"
Zuko quickly sat the big pot filled with food down and quickly covered both Aang and Sokka's mouths with his hands. Leaving them muffling. "Shh!" Zuko shushed both Sokka and Aang. "Did you two forget that we're in public?" Zuko whispered.
Aang and Sokka quickly looked at each other, then shook their heads not to Zuko.
Zuko sighed. "Just be careful, will you guys?" Zuko asked then picked up and carried the big pot filled with food in it, again. The boys then caught up with Hama and Katara.
"Why don't you take those things back to the Inn? I just have to run a couple more errands." Hama kindly asked.
"A couple of more... errands?" Zuko questioned, then looked at the bowls and baskets of food that they were carrying. He hoped that Hama doesn't have them collect more food.
"Yes. I'll be back in a little while." Hama said.
Sokka then approached Hama, face-to-face. "This is a little mysterious town you have here."
"Mysterious town for mysterious children." Hama said, then left to do more errands.
During The Afternoon
Sokka snooped around inside Hama's Inn, which led to Sokka discovering her set of puppets in a closet and also, her attic and discovered a box inside of a room. After Sokka had opened the attic door with his meteorite sword, he had asked Toph to Metalbended her meteor bracelet and conjured it into a key that fitted the lock.
"Come on, Toph!" Sokka whispered.
"I'm trying! It's not as easy as it looks!" Toph whispered.
"Guys... I don't think we should be doing this." Aang suddenly felt doubt within his guts.
"Just hang on, Aang. Toph almost has it." Zuko whispered.
"This is crazy! I'm leaving." Katara had detested snooping around, but Sokka did not listen to her.
"Suit yourself." Sokka told Katara, then looked at Toph. "Do it, Toph."
Suddenly a click sound had been made when Toph had unlock the treasure box. Toph smiled. Aang, Sokka, Katara and Zuko quickly rushed toward the treasure box smothering Toph. And as soon as they were about to open it...
"I'll tell you what's in the box."
Aang, Sokka and Toph screamed as they heard Hama's voice from behind. Then, the gang all turned toward Hama who stood at the attic door. As Hama walked closer, the group-excluding Zuko had felt ashamed and decided to give the treasure box back to Hama. Hama then opened the box and slowly lifted... a blue comb in front of the group of adventurers.
"Um, what am I looking at? Because I can't see." Toph commented as she has no knowledge of Hama's comb.
"An old brush?" Sokka's expectations were too high as he flipped.
"It's my greatest treasure. It's the last thing I owned from growing up in the Southern Water Tribe." Hama said.
Katara and Sokka suddenly gasped in shock and surprise.
"Wait, you're telling us that you..." Zuko pointed at Hama. "You're actually from the Southern Water Tribe?"
"Yes. Just like you two." Hama said as she looked at both Sokka and Katara.
"But, how did you know?" Katara asked.
"I heard you talking about it around your campfire, last night." Hama said.
"But why didn't you tell us?" Sokka asked.
"I wanted to surprise you. I bought all this food today so I could fix 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." Hama laughed.
Aang gauged, due to his dislike of meat. "Great." Aang lied.
"I knew I felt a bind with you when we met." Katara smiled.
"And I knew you were keeping a secret, so I guess we were both right." Sokka smirked and crossed his arms in front of Katara.
Katara punched Sokka in his upper shoulder.
"But, I'm sorry for sneaking around." Sokka apologized feeling guilty.
"Apology accepted." Hama smiled. "Now let's get cooking."
As Aang and his friends followed Hama down to the Inn kitchen, Zuko couldn't help but wonder something mysterious about Hama.
Later That Night
After Aang fed Appa and Momo cabbages, the group sat down with Hama at the kitchen table.
"Who wants five-flavored soup?" Hama asked, then bended the soup liquids into the bowls of Aang, Katara, Top, Sokka and Zuko's.
Katara felt amazed when she saw Hama bend soup into her bowl. "You're a Waterbender! I never met another Waterbender from our tribe."
"That's because the Fire Nation wiped them all out." Hama said in a depressing tone.
"Then, how did you end up here?" Zuko asked.
"I was stolen from my home." Hama answered, which earned gasps. Hama then told them about her life in the Southern Water Tribe and how she was abducted by the Fire Nation.
Listening to Hama's story made the group take pity on Hama. Especially, Zuko who was banished and is now branded a traitor to the Fire Nation. But he still had his conspiracies theories about Hama.
"They put us in terrible prisons here in the Fire Nations." Hama said.
"But if you were in imprisoned, how did you escape?" Zuko asked.
"And why did you stay in the Fire Nation?" Sokka asked.
"I'm sorry. It's too painful to talk about anymore." Hama said in a painful voice.
"We completely understand. We lost our mother in a Fire Nation raid." Katara said.
"You, poor things." Hama said, pitying Katara and Sokka.
The Next Day
As Hama is teaching Katara in some ways of Waterbending... Aang and his friends had already began their own investigation. Sokka was sniffing flowers, Zuko was looking around bushes and Toph was just standing in place.
"This has got to be the nicest city in the Fire Nation. I don't see anything that would make a spirit mad around here." Aang said as he viewed the scenery from a hill.
"Maybe the moon spirit just turned mean?" Toph assumed.
After sniffing some flowers, Sokka had felt grouchy. He heard what Toph said and had taken it, personally as he thought of Princess Yue from the Northern Water Tribe. "The Moon Spirit is a gentle loving lady! She rules the sky with compassion! And..." Sokka paused as he thought of something. "Lunar goodness!"
Toph did not turn to Sokka.
"I take it that you... met the Moon Spirit, before?" Zuko asked as he and Aang stared at Sokka, awkwardly.
"Yes! And if you must know, Prince Lord, the Moon Spirit happened to be my first girlfriend!" Sokka then turned around and crossed his arms.
"That's rough, buddy." Zuko said.
Aang heard and saw a Fire Nation man walking pass by them and quickly approached him. "Excuse me, sir. Can you tell me about the spirit that's been stealing people?"
The Fire Nation citizen replied and answered Aang's question. "Only one man ever saw it and lived. And that's old man Ding."
"Where does old man Ding live?" Toph asked as she approached the Fire Nation citizen.
Later That Night
"Oldman Ding?" Aang asked, which distracted Ding from hammering in a nail.
"Eh?" Ding turned his head around to see four youth people such as Aang, Sokka, Toph and Zuko looking at him. He missed the hammer and hit his left thumb instead. "Ow!" he groaned in pain. "What? Can't you see I'm busy? I got a full moon rising. And why does everyone call me that? I'm not that old." Ding then grunted as he tried to lift a seven-foot plan to help seal his door but is too physically weak to lift. "Maybe not at heart."
Zuko sighed, then walked over and helped Ding lift the seven-foot plank.
"I'm not ready to get snapped up by some moon monster, at least." Ding said as he and Zuko placed a seven-foot plank over a window.
"We wanted to ask you about that." Sokka said as he grabbed a hammer and a nail. He then started hammering in the nail to help cover the window.
"Did you get a good look at the monster that took you?" Aang asked.
"I didn't see no spirit. Just felt something come over me, like I was-um, possessed!" Ding then pointed at the top of the Mountain in the city. "The Monster forced me to start walking toward the Mountain!"
"The Mountaintop?" Zuko stared at the Mountain top, then back to Old Man Ding.
"I tried to fight it, but I couldn't control my own limbs. It just about had me into a cave up there. And when I looked up at the moon, for what I thought would be my las glimpse of light."
Sokka felt terrified as he gripped on a hammer, tightly.
Zuko's face had an expression that said, "This couldn't be real." He kind of felt embarrassed.
"But then the sun started to rise. And I got control of myself, again! I just high-tailed it away from that mountain as quick as I could!" Ding said, proudly as he stood tall.
"Why would a spirit want to take people to a Mountain?" Sokka asked.
Zuko placed his right hand on his chin and thought of something. "Unless..."
"Oh no!" Toph yelled, which scared Aang, Sokka and Zuko. "I did hear people screaming under the Mountain! The missing villagers must still be there!"
"Then, let's go! We have no time to waste! Lead the way, Toph!" Zuko ordered.
"Right." Toph started running toward the Mountain, first. Then following Zuko.
"H-Hey, I'm supposed to be the leader!" Sokka pouted as he watched Toph and Zuko run.
"We don't have time for that, now. People are in danger!" Aang said as he then ran after Toph and Zuko.
Sokka sighed, then ran after Aang. Leaving old man Ding behind."
The four adventurers continued running toward the Mountaintop with Toph taking the lead. They ran for twenty minutes, straight. Toph stopped for a second and felt the ground with her palm on the grass.
"I can hear them! They're this way!" Toph stated as she heard them screaming through the Earth. The four kept running for a good five minutes, until they met a dark cave. "This is the place."
"A cave? But how are we supposed to see down there?" Zuko asked.
Toph then grabbed Zuko's right wrist. "That's why you have me. Let's go!" Toph then jumped while holding Zuko's wrist. Aang jumped after them. Sokka sighed, then held his breath and jumped in afterward. As they jumped and landed inside of a cavern, they were met by a metal door which stood in there way.
"There's a metal door, here." Zuko stated as he stared at the door.
"Pssh," Toph then kicked the ground and pushed the metal door to where it broke off the wall.
"Wow. That was amazing." Zuko commented.
"You've never met someone like me before, have you?" Toph smirked for a second before things got serious again. "Now come on!" Toph said as she led the way. The four ran until they found a bunch of Fire Nation citizens tied to rocky pillars.
"We're saved!" A Male hostage cried.
"I didn't know that spirits made prisons like this." Aang said feeling confused.
"That's because it wasn't a spirit who did this. Someone's been kidnapping them." Zuko told Aang as he walked closer to the hostages.
"He's right. It was a witch." A Female hostage had informed the group.
"A witch? What do you mean?" Sokka questioned one of the hostages.
"She seemed like a normal old woman. But she controls people like some dark puppet master." A Female hostage explained while Toph freed her from chains.
Zuko and Sokka then thought back of what happened the day prior.
Brief Flashback
Sokka snooped around the second floor of the Inn, searching for clues.
"Sokka, you're gonna get us all in trouble! And this is just plain rude!" Katara told Sokka while she and her friends were following them.
Sokka tried to open a small closet. "I'm not finished, yet." Sokka grunted as he tried to pull the doors open to a small closet.
"Sokka-"
Zuko cut Katara in her tracks. "Hold on. Sokka might be up to something."
"Come on..." Sokka yelled as he grunted and pulled on the handles tightly until he heard something break and the closet doors finally opened. As the doors opened, a number of puppets suddenly hung out of the closet. The gang excluding Toph were spooked after seeing the puppets in the closet. Sokka jumped back to the wall with his sword pointing directly at the puppets.
"Now that's just plain creepy." Aang said.
End Brief Flashback
"Hama!" Zuko and Sokka yelled.
"Yes, the Inn keeper!" Another Male hostage spoke out.
"I knew we couldn't trust her!" Sokka yelled.
"We have to stop Hama!" AAng yelled to Sokka.
"I'll get these people out of here!" Toph said.
"I'll stay and help out!" Zuko said, giving Toph a helping hand.
"You guys go! We'll catch up!"
"But do any of you know why she's doing this?" Zuko asked the hostages.
"She stole all our money!"
"And our food!"
"And all of our prize possessions!"
The hostages begun talking all at once and it started to irritate Zuko.
"Enough! One at a time!" Zuko said as he and Toph begun working on freeing the hostages inside the Mountain.
Twenty Minutes Later
After releasing all the hostages in the Mountain... Zuko and Toph and all of Hama's hostages had run into the forest looking for Hama with Toph leading the way. They had just arrived to see Katara restraining Hama with Bloodbending. Zuko and Toph happily reunited with Aang, Sokka and especially, Katara as the five had group hugged. The missing villagers had locked cuffs on Hama's wrists as they then took her away.
"My work is done." Hama then looked back to Katara, one last time before being taken away to Fire Nation's Authorities. "Congratulations, Katara. You're a Bloodbender." Hama then laughed while being taken away be her former captives.
Katara had broken in tears after learning of her new ability. Katara's brother and friends then comforted her in pity as they then knew Katara didn't want to be a Bloodbender.
Katara continued to cry.