Chapter 41

Episode 8, The Puppetmaster

So, after Katara and I were back, we all were sitting around the fire and telling scary stories. Sokka tried to make his story scary but he failed. And I snorted when he made ghost noised.

"Man, water tribe slumber parties must stink," Toph said.

"No, wait," Katara quickly said as she hugged her knees, "I've got one and it's a real water tribe story." She looked at all of us.

I raised my eyebrow and slighly tilted my head to the side. Do I know the story?

"Is this some of the 'a friend of my cousin knew some guy that this happened to' stories?" Sokka asked and rolled his eyes.

"No," my twin replied seriously, "It happened to mom."

Now she had all my attention and the others' ears percked up as well. We all sat up straight and looked at Katara waiting for her to start with the story.

I crossed my legs and leaned slightly forward. This is about to get interesting.

"One winter, when mom was a girl, a snowstorm buried the whole village for weeks," Katara started, "A month later, mom realised 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."

Holy nations, what's going on. Katara made a small pause and looked at each of us. I leaned even closer to her with wide eyes.

"While the men went out to search, mom stayed in the house."

That's stupid, everybody knows that you shouldn't stay alone in an abandoned house. I get goosebumps from only thinking about that situation alone.

"When she was alone, she heard a voice," Katara's tone got higher, "It's so cold, and I can't get warm." She looked directly at me and I leaned back again quickly and grabbed my brother's arm.

"Mom turned and saw Nini standing by the fire. She was blue, like she was frozen. Mom ran outside for help but when everyone came back, Nini was gone."

Sokka and I hugged each other while Aang hid behind Momo, only his eyes peeking out between Momo's ears.

"Where'd she go?" Sokka asked slowly while I bit my lip.

"No one knows..." Katara said and I held my breath, "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."

There was a very silent silence. Like even more silent than just that normal one. It was unbearable and creepy.

Toph gasped and touched the ground with her hand while I flinched and hugged Sokka tighter. "Wait, guys, did you hear that?" she asked and I only watched her with big eyes.

"I hear people under the mountain," Toph stood up from the ground and looked around, "And they're screaming."

Sokka let out a scoff and let go of me, "Nice try."

"No, I'm serious. I hear something," she insisted and I had a feeling that she meant it and was not trying to scare us.

"It just stopped," Toph whispered after a few heartbeats. I looked around the forest which seemed to be more creepy and darker than before.

"All right, now I'm getting scared," Aang said and I nodded.

"I don't want to sleep here, the forest freaks me out," I whispered and looked at the others.

"Hello children," the voice of an old lady reached us from behind.

We all screamed like little babies and jumped up from the ground. An old lady came into the light and smiled at us. Nope, I'm out of this, she's creepy.

"Sorry to frighten you. My name is Hama," she introduced herself. "You children shouldn't be out here in the forest by yourselves at night."

Yeah, we know that but we are kind of the Fire Nation's enemies. So we can't just show ourselves everywhere.

The others relaxed visibly but I still had a bad feeling about her.

"I have an inn nearby," Hama said. Yeah no, we'll pass. "Why don't you come back there for some spiced tea and warm beds?"

I shook my head and glanced at the others. They won't accept that offer would they?

I face palmed when Sokka sheepishly smiled and scratched the back of his head, "Yes, please."

We made our way into the town and towards her inn. Once we were in the building, Hama led us to the kitchen where she poured us some tea.

"Thanks for letting us stay here tonight. You have a lovely inn," Katara sweet talked and gave the elderly woman a closed-eye smile.

I clenched my jaw and grabbed my cup tightly. "Aren't you sweet?" she cooed and returned my sister's smile. Her face turned to worry and sadness as she sat down at the end of the table. "You should be careful. People have been disapperaing in those woods you were camping in."

I almost automatically glanced at Toph and remembered her saying that there were people screaming under the mountain.

"What do you mean, disappearing?" Sokka asked after taking a sip from his cup just as I did. But I put the cup back down; that's not as good as Iroh's.

"When the moon turns full, people walk in and they don't come out," Hama said and looked on the table as if she was deep in thought.

Leaning back on my chair, I eyed her closely. She was way too mysterious for my liking.

"Who wants more tea?" she suddenly asked and stood up. Her smile faltered when she saw the expressions on our faces.

"Don't worry, you'll all be completely safe here," Hama reassured us but it sounded wrong to me coming from her mouth. I don't know why but there was someting about her that didn't seem right. Her warmth towards us seemed to be faked somehow.

"Why don't I show you to your rooms, and you can get a good night's rest?" she suggested and we all agreed.

The night was horrible. My sleep had been better. I decided to persuade the others of leaving as soon as possible tomorrow morning.

Yeah, that didn't work. Katara and Hama took all of us shopping on the market first thing in the morning.

While Katara and Hama walked ahead, the rest of us carried all the stuff, following them. As we walked past a fruit booth, some people were talking about the full moon and how the booth's owner can't lose another delivery boy in the woods.

I shot a glance in Toph's and Sokka's direction. Seriously, what's wrong with this town?

Aang thought that maybe the people angered the spirits and that that's the reason why they all disappear.

Hama stopped and turned to look at us. "Why don't you all take those things back to the inn?" Her smile creeps me out. "I just have to run a couple more errands. I'll be back in a little while."

Sokka put the bag down and walked up to the old woman with his chin between his fingers. "This is a mysterious town you have here," he said and got closer to her face.

She just smiled at him and seemed like to look through him, "Mysterious town for mysterious children." With that she turned around and left us standing there.

With an eerie feeling and goosebumps all over me, I glanced at my friends. I just wanted to get away from there.

Once back at the inn, we put all the stuff in the kitchen. "That Hama seems strange," Sokka said and put the bag down, looking at us, "Like she knows or she's hiding something."

I snapped my head up and smiled, "Finally someone who feels the same." I'm glad someone is just as suspicious as I am. That's my brother, you go Sokkii!

Katara had that disapproving look on her face. "That's ridiculous. She's a nice woman who took us in and gave us a place to stay," she had a scolding undertone in her voice. "She reminds me of gran-gran."

Sokka, who leaned against the counter with crossed arms, raised and eyebrow and my jaw dropped. That woman was way too creepy. You know, there are these cute old woman who have that warm and safe aura and then there are these who have that creepy witchy like vibes. (Stranger danger kids, never go with and/ or stay at a stranger's house and stay safe, even if they seem nice. The world is a dark place)

"But what did she mean by that comment 'mysterious children'?" Sokka challenged and walked up to Katara.

"Gee, I don't know," she sighed, "maybe because she found four strange kids camping in the woods at night? Isn't that a little mysterious?" Katara sassed and put her hands on her hips. She may has a point there but still.

"I agree with Sokka, there's just something weird and creepy about her. I think we should just leave as soon as she comes back," I said but Katara only shot me a glare.

"I'm gonna take a look around," Sokka told us and walked out of the kitchen.

"Wait, I'm coming too," I called and jogged after him.

"Jasmine!" Katara gasped and followed after us.

Sokka and me went upstairs and looked in all the rooms and differents drawers.

"Sokka!" Katara called, "What are you guys doing? You can't just snoop around someone's house."

"It'll be fine," Sokka waved it off and continued. 

"You're gonna get us all in trouble. And this is jsut plain rude," my twin exclaimed.

"Better we're rude now and get away if we find soemthing than being killed by some overpowered old woman," I said as Sokka opened some cabinet.

When it finally opened, a couple of puppets came flying out. I flinched and stepped back immediately and let out a breath when I saw that it were only puppets.

We contiued to look around despite Katara's protests. Things were getting interesting when we found a locked door on the attic.

We opened the door and saw that the room was completely empty except for a little box.

I took the box in my hands and shook it but I couldn't make out what was in there.

Katara scolded us and was about to leave when Toph managed to open it. My sister came back immediately, also curious about the content of the little box.

"I'll tell you what's in the box," Hama said from behind us just when we wanted to open the box. We all screamed and turned around, Sokka hid it behind his back.

When the woman approached us, Sokka looked down in shame and handed her the little chest.

She opened it and took out the thing that was in there. I slightly narrowed my eyes and knitted my eyebrows when she showed us an old comb.

"An old comb?" Sokka asked and his face fell and his shoulders dropped.

We all eyed the comb in her hands and if I'm not mistaken that thing looks like it's from a water tribe.

"It's my greatest treasure," she told us and smiled, "It's the last thing I own from growing up in he Southern Water Tribe."

I stumbled back with wide eyes. You've gotta be kidding me.