Freedom

Chapter 49: The Screams Beneath the Mountain

The next morning, the group was eager to keep moving. Toph and Zuko told the group about the scam artist and no one was wanting to run into him again. Toph tried to convince everyone to let her have one more go, to scrounge up a little bit more cash, but it fell on deaf ears as the others had already begun to pack up Appa.

The gang traveled for another three days before stopping in a dense forest, about a mile away from a coal mining town. Their supply of food didn't last as they long as they hoped. Everyone needed to keep their strength up for the days ahead. It was important for everyone to be at their best. But it caused them to have to stop once more on their way to Chameleon Bay.

They sat around a fire, nobody finding the will to sleep. As they grew closer to the invasion, they had trouble willing themselves to sleep, instead lying awake and thinking of everything that could go wrong. It wasn't healthy for anyone.

Instead, they sat up late, sitting around the fire and exchanging old ghost stories. There was many times in their travels where they forgot about the war and felt like friends just camping in the woods. But as the looming invasion came closer, they had trouble finding those times.

But now, they sat around the fire, letting it warm them as they exchanged tales from their kingdoms. Sokka was the first to go, telling a rather lackluster story about a man with a sword for a hand.

When he received a dim response, he backtracked to tell another story, also about a sword.

"Suddenly, they heard something down the hall in the dark. Oooh ... It came into the torchlight ... and they knew the blade of Wing Fung was haunted!" He ended with pulling out his space sword and giving a yell.

Sokka was met with silence from his friends as they stared back at him, not at all frightened by the tale. Aang huffed, "I think I liked the man with a sword for a hand better" he told them. The watertribesman sat back with a groan, "Somebody else go then" he pouted.

Katara turned to Zuko, "Any fire nation ghost stories?" She asked him. He thought for a moment before speaking, "I mean there's the story of the Kemurikage"

"The Kemur-what now?" Sokka asked confused. Zuko rolled his eyes, continuing, "The Kemurikage, it was a old tale that parents used to spin to make their children behave"

Aang furrowed his brow, "I think I remember Kuzon telling me about it... He told me that the Kemurikage were going to abduct him in his sleep because he didn't eat his cabbage"

"That's about right" Zuko told him, "But it wasn't just a myth..."

The group looked at him intently as he began to speak, "Long ago, before the Fire Nation was unionized, the islands were separate. This caused a lot of warlords to rise into power, the worst of them all was Toz..."

"Toz was ruthless..." he continued, "A take no prisoners kind of ruler... He laid command over several villages on the island and he made sure to profit from each one"

Sokka frowned, "What like taxes?"

"A lot worse then just taxes... he would take just about everything they had for himself" Zuko told them, "Once a year, he would come and take as much as he wanted... not caring what became of the village because of it"

"One village couldn't meet his reparations..." he was silent for a moment, "Toz and his men went through the village raped, pillaged, and abducted every single child from the town..."

Everyone's faces grew somber, "What happened to them?" Katara asked.

Zuko shrugged his shoulders, "They were never seen again..."

Everyone was silent, as if mourning the children before he continued, "The mother's wept for 3 days before they all died from their grief..." he told them, "But after a few weeks, Toz and his men began to see black figured cloaks with white masks lurking in the shadows..."