Agni Kai [2] Zuko

1

"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! Aah-ah..." Sokka dramatically pulled out his sword and wailed at the group watching him. The gAang had decided to take a break and camp in the middle of the woods. All 4 of them looked at Sokka unimpressed.

"I think I liked "the man with a sword for a hand" better." Aang spoke from beside Katara, bored with Sokka's storytelling.

"Water Tribe slumber parties must stink." Toph said in Uzume's arms. Uzume nodded in agreement, "The Fire Nation stories are way better... but that may be cause th scariest people alive are from there." Uzume's voice trailed off.

"No, wait, I've got one, and this is a true Southern Water Tribe story." Katara jumped up with inspiration.

"Is this one of those "a friend of my cousin knew some guy that this happened to" stories?" Sokka asked his sister.

"No, it happened to Mom. 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," Katara changed her pitch in her voice, "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 anxiously held Momo's ears, Sokka hid behind a tree trunk, and Uzume held onto Toph tighter than before

"Where'd she go?" Sokka nervously asked.

Katara shrugged, "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."

All of them sat in silence until Toph jumped up from under her shared blanket.

"Wait. Guys, did you hear that? I hear people under the mountain, and they're screaming."

The group, minus Uzume who gazed up at Toph from the ground, huddled together and trembled until Sokka regained his composure.

"Toph, are you okay?" Uzume asked the frightened girl.

"Pft, nice try."

Toph stared straight ahead, eyebrows furrowing as she tried to focus on the screams, "No, I'm serious, I hear something."

"You're probably just jumpy from the ghost stories." Katara helplessly offered.

"It just stopped."

"All right, now I'm getting scared."

"Hello, children." A voice came from the woods. The entire group threw themselves on Toph, huddling away from the trees the voice came from. The person stepped out and the fire revealed a harmless old lady, "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?"

"Yes, please." Sokka said, spooked from all the ghost stories. Hama smiled and began to lead them to her inn. Once all of them were settled in the quaint place, she began to pour them tea.

"Thanks for letting us stay here tonight. You have a lovely inn."

"Aren't you sweet? You know, you should be careful. People have been disappearing in those woods you were camping in." Hama mentioned casually. Uzume choked on the tea she was chugging at the mention of people vanishing in the woods they were just in.

Sokka was the first person to voice concern, "What do you mean, disappearing?"

"When the moon turns full, people walk in, and they don't come out." Hama spoke ominously."Who wants more tea?" She switched her tone to a cheerful one. She frowned when she noticed all the scared looks, "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?"

Toph ended up stubbornly  telling Uzume that she was scared and didn't want to sleep alone. Uzume smiled to herself. For once, someone was looking up to her and not the other way around.

"Of course, Toph. I'll keep you safe." She teasingly poked the shorter girl who slapped her hands away, "Watch it knock off Kyoshi."

Uzume furrowed her eyebrows at Toph's choice of nickname, "Knock off Kyoshi?"

"Yeah cause you use your fans to help you airbend." Toph pointed out that it was the most obvious thing ever. Toph jumped into bed and fell asleep, leaving Uzume to stay up and overthink Toph's words.

Airbend?

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This chapter is so short but it's an introductory chapter. so some background on Uzume's 'airbending'. I hinted at her using fans to blow things back like Kyoshi in the first book. (prominently in the chase and chapter 11)

If you don't like the thought of her airbending, dont worry, Aang is the last airbender. In order to be a full airbender you need to be fully spiritually realized. Kyoshi's mom was an airbender but lost most of her abilities because she started to commit crime (or something else i cant remember.) So she used fans to help her bend. Kyoshi's fans are her moms.

Uzume is like that. She isn't a true airbender because she doesn't descend from any true airbenders like Aang, which is why she's in the Fire Nation (she's an airbending descendant).

So long story short, Uzume can bend but only with her fans like Kyoshi's mother.