Rush [Sokka - Book Three]

⚝Chapter Fourteen⚝

A waxing moon hovered in the night sky, almost full. It shone down on Konno, entering her heart and her blood. Of course Yue wanted to see her tonight. She probably wanted to join in on the fun that Konno and her friends were having. Konno wished Yue could've joined her; her life would've been so much brighter if she were still alive. But if Yue was still alive, Konno wouldn't have met these people who changed her for the better. And even though she missed her sister dearly, she really wouldn't have changed anything about her life because she still found happiness in this darkness called life.

"Suddenly, they heard something down the hall, in the dark," Sokka said, his voice barely above a whisper. He leaned closer to the campfire to allow more shadows to dance across his handsome face. "It came into the torchlight. And they knew the blade of Wing-Fun was haunted!" He dramatically pulled his sword out from behind him and a wail screeched out of his mouth. Konno winced and pressed her hand to her ear.

Konno, Aang, Katara, and Toph were unimpressed. The scariest thing about Sokka's story was that wail. "I think I liked 'the man with a sword for a hand' better," Aang said with a nod. He sat in between Toph and Katara on the opposite side of the fire. 

"Water Tribe slumber parties must stink," Toph said.

Konno didn't really know if the Water Tribe slumber parties were bad or not because she never went to one. Her father wouldn't let her go to anyone's house besides Navrek's, and that was stretching it. He definitely wouldn't let her stay overnight with Navrek or anyone else. 

"No, wait, I've got this one," Katara said, her eyes sparkling in the firelight. "This is a true Southern Water Tribe story."

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

"No, it happened to Mom." Sokka grew still after hearing that, so Konno slipped her hand into his and gave it a soft squeeze. He pulled her a little closer to him, and she rested her head on his shoulder. "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, 'It's so cold and I can't get warm.'" Katara used a little girl's voice to imitate the little girl who had gone missing, and it sent a shiver down Konno's spine. "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 tried to get up to hide behind the tree next to them, but Konno held tightly onto him, making sure he didn't leave her side. Her heart picked up speed slightly after hearing that story. "Where'd she go?" Sokka asked.

"No one knows," Katara answered. "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."

Konno opened her mouth to say something, but Toph beat her to it. "Wait. Guys, did you hear that?" Toph asked, pressing her hand to the ground. "I hear people under the mountain, and they're screaming."

"Nice try," Sokka said. Even though he said that, his eyes darted around their little campsite.

"I think we should stop telling scary stories," Konno said. "It's making us more scared than normal."

"No, I'm serious, I hear something," Toph said.

"You're probably just jumpy from the ghost stories, like Konno said," Katara told her gently.

"It just stopped," Toph said, ignoring the rest of them.

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