A/N: So it has come to my attention that (Y/N) is at the wrong age. He is currently 12, about to be 13. He is supposed to be 14 but I miscalculated while writing the story. So I changed a detail in the chapter "Before" and "The Runaway". (Y/N) ran away when he was 12. So when he found the family on the farm he was twelve. Making to where when he left he was fourteen. So now that's fixed let us continue the story.
No One's POV
It was night as Team Avatar were sitting around a campfire in some woods. Everyone was listening to Sokka as he was telling a scary story, "Suddenly they heard something down the hall in the dark. OoooooOOOoOohh. It came into the torchlight and they knew the blade of Wing Fu was haunted!" Sokka stood up to pick up a wooden sword, "OOoooOAAAAA!" Everyone else was laying down as they seemed bored for Aang to turn his head at Sokka, "I think that I like the man with a sword for a hand better." Toph looked incredibly bored, "Water Tribe slumber parties must stink." (Y/N) used his bending to keep the fire lit, "We surprisingly told a lot better scary stories at the Palace."
Katara decided to try and make the night better, "I've got a scary story, and this is a true Southern Water Tribe story." Sokka sat down, "Is this one of those "A friend of my cousin knew some guy that this happened to" story?" "No, it happened to mom." Everyone became intrigued as they all sat up to face Katara as she started her story, "One winter, when mom was a girl a snowstorm buried the whole village for weeks. A month later, mom realized that 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 flicking 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." ." Sokka and Aang started to get creeped out, to which Katara noticed as she continued, "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."
Aang had Momo on his head as he pulled the anima's ears around his head, Toph was sitting normally, Sokka was hiding behind a log, as (Y/N) was leaning forward as he was enjoying the story, "Where did she go?" Katara stared into the campfire, "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."
When the story ended Toph eyes widened as she gasped, "Wait. Guys, did you hear that?" Sokka and Aang to quickly hug Katara from fear, as Toph stood up, "I hear people under the mountain, and they're screaming." (Y/N) stood up, "Pfft. Nice try Toph." "No, I'm serious, I hear something." "You're probably just jumpy from the ghost stories." "It just stopped." Aang clung onto Katara, "All right, now I'm getting scared." They then heard an old lady's voice behind the Avatar and the siblings, "Hello children."
All five of them screamed as they huddled together and hugged each other close to look opposite from them. The old lady walked out from the shadows into the light of the campfire, "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?" The five looked at each other for Sokka to rub the back of his head, "Yes, please."
The six arrived at the inn for the children to sit at a table as the lady made them some tea. As she poured the tea Katara looked relaxed as she rested her head on her hand, "Thanks for letting us stay here tonight, you have a lovely inn." The lady set the kettle down, "Aren't you sweet." She then sat down, "You know, you should be careful. People have been disappearing in those woods you were camping in." Sokka rested his arm on the table, "What do you mean, disappearing?" "When the moon turns full, people walk in. And they don't come out." She then stood back up with a smile, "Who wants more tea?" The children did not respond though as they all were stricken with fear. The lady tried to reassure them, "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?"
Everyone liked the sound of that and went to a room each for (Y/N) to undress in just his boxers to go under the covers. He put his hands behind him under the pillow as he was a little freaked out, "I don't know if I'll be able to sleep tonight." He then remembered the times when him and Azula would have slumber parties. He shrugged to close his eyes and pull the blankets over him, "I've been through worse."
The Next Morning
(Y/N) was sleeping peacefully for him to hear his door open. He sat up and rubbed his eyes to see Hama, "Good morning. It's time to go shopping." She then shut the door for (Y/N) to get up and put his clothes back on. After a while he was out shopping with the others for Hama and Katara being the ones doing the main shopping, as the others carried the groceries. As they were walking the four in the back overheard some men talking about not sending a delivery boy out today as he would be caught in the woods during the full moon tomorrow. Sokka was holding a stick that carried buckets of bread on the ends, "People disappearing in the woods, weird stuff during full moons. This just reeks of spirit world shenanigans." Aang looked around at the citizens of the village, "I bet that if we take a little walk around town we'll find out what these people did to the environment to make the spirits mad." "And then you can sew up the little mystery, lickety-split, Avatar style." "Helping people. That's what I do."
Hama then stopped to look back at them, "Why don't you all take those things back to the inn? I just have to run a couple more errands. I'll be back in a little while." Sokka walked up to her, "This is a mysterious little town you have here." Hama smiled at him, "Mysterious town for mysterious children." Hama then walked away for the children to head back to the inn.
When they made it Sokka was the first to walk through the door and set his baskets on the table, "That Hama seems a little strange. Like she knows something, or she's hiding something." Katara came in after him, "That's ridiculous. She's a nice woman who took us in and gave us a place to stay. She kind of reminds me of Gran-Gran." "But what did she mean by that comment "Mysterious children"?" "Gee I don't know, maybe because she found five strange kids camping in the woods at night? Isn't that a little mysterious?" Sokka looked at (Y/N) who picked up a peach to take a bite of it, "What do you think (Y/N)? You used to live with, well you know."
(Y/N) thought for a bit, "I've definitely had my fair share of people hiding stuff from me, I've done it a lot too." He pointed at Katara, "Hama is definitely hiding something." He then pointed at Sokka, "However she has shown us hospitality and helped us when she didn't need to. So she may be hiding something to protect mysterious children from getting themselves hurt by trying to solve a problem." He leaned on a dresser next to Katara, "I say we stay until after the full moon then get back on the road." He took another bite of peach for Sokka to walk away, "I'm gonna take a look around." He went up the inn's stairs for the rest to follow as Katara told him, "You can't just snoop around someone's house."
Sokka waved it off, "It'll be fine." Aang followed him up the stairs, "She could be home any minute." The other three walked up for Katara to walk behind Sokka, "Sokka, you're gonna get us all in trouble. And this is just plain rude." Sokka grabbed a pair of pantry doors, "I'm not finished yet." He had trouble opening it making him grunt, "Come on." He opened the door for a bunch of puppets to nearly fall out making Sokka scream. He jumped back and pulled out his sword for Aang to look at the puppets, "Okay, that's pretty creepy." Katara closed the pantry, "So she's got a hobby. There's nothing weird about that. Sokka you've looked enough. Hama will be back soon." Sokka went up to the attic for (Y/N) to follow, "You're really pushing time here Sokka."
Sokka tried to open the door in the attic for it to not budge, "Just an ordinary, puppet-loving innkeeper, huh? Then why does she have a door up here that's locked?" Katara walked up, "Probably to keep people like you from snooping through her stuff." "We'll see." Sokka looked through the keyhole, "It's empty except for a little chest." Toph gasped, "Maybe it's treasure." Sokka got his sword in hand to begin lockpicking the door with it. Katara was getting extremely agitated, "You're breaking into a private room." Sokka looked back at her, "I have to see what's in there." The door then opened for Sokka to walk up and grab the chest to see that it was locked, "Is there a key somewhere?"
Toph held out her hand, "Give it to me." She used her bending to take her metal bracelet off and mold it into a key that would fit. She tried to turn it as she made the key into the perfect shape. Sokka was next to her, "Come on. Come on." "This isn't as easy as it looks." Aang was becoming worried, "Guys, I don't know about this." (Y/N) was anxious, "We've already come this far." Katara started walking away, "This is crazy, I'm leaving." They then heard the key unlock the box making everyone try to open it as curiosity took them over, until they heard Hama, "I'll tell you what's in the box."
The five children turned around with shame written on their faces, as they bowed slightly. Sokka held the chest out for Hama to take it and open it. She reached in to pull out a comb. Sokka tilted his head as his face was one of disappointment, "An old comb?" Hama looked at the comb, "It's my greatest treasure. It's the last thing I owned from growing up in the Southern Water Tribe." Sokka and Katara were surprised as Katara was the one to tilt her head a little, "You're from the Southern Water Tribe?" "Just like you." "How did you know?" "I heard you talking around the campfire." Sokka crossed his arms, "But why didn't you tell us?" "I wanted to surprise you. I bought all this food today so I could fix you a big, Southern 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." Katara became extremely happy, "I knew I felt a bond with you right away." Sokka also became happy, "And I knew you were keeping a secret. So I guess that we were both right." Katara hit his arm for Sokka to hold it, "But I'm sorry that we were sneaking around." Hama smiled, "Apology accepted. Now let's get cooking."
Nearly an hour later the group cooked an entire Southern Water Tribe feast for (Y/N) to end up sitting at the end with Sokka on his left and Toph on his right. Aang whispered to Toph and (Y/N), "I'd steer clear of the Sea Prunes." Toph raised her head a little in concern, "I thought that they were Ocean Kumquats." "Close enough." (Y/N) grabbed one to eat it without having a reaction. Aang looked at him for the older boy to shrug, "It helps with muscle training." Hama sat down on the other end of the table, "Who wants five-flavor soup?" Everyone raised their hands for Hama to use water bending to get the soup in it's big bowl into all of their bowls. This made Katara extremely excited, "I've never met another water bender from our tribe."
Hama hung her head a little, "That's because the Fire Nation wiped them all out. I was the last one." Sokka ate a spoonful of the soup, "So how did you end up out here?" "I was stolen from my home. It was over 60 years ago when the raids started. They came again and again. Each time, rounding up more of our water benders and taking them captive. We did our best to hold them off but our numbers dwindled as the raids continued. Finally, I, too, was captured. I was lead away in chains. The last water bender of the Southern Water Tribe. They put us in terrible prisons here in the Fire Nation. I was the only one who managed to escape." "How did you escape? And why did you stay in the Fire Nation?"
Hama started to cry, "I'm sorry. It's to painful to talk about anymore." Katara got up to comfort Hama, "We completely understand. We lost our mother in a raid." "Oh, you poor things." Everyone hung their head as (Y/N) felt guilty for what his people had done. Katara hugged Hama, "I can't tell you what it means to meet you. It's an honor. You're a hero." "I never thought I'd meet another Southern water bender. I'd like to teach you what I know. So you can carry on the Southern tradition when I'm gone." Katara stood up, to have a big smile, as she clasped her hands together, "Yes, yes, of course. To learn about my heritage, it would mean everything to me." Hama smiled for everyone to continued donner, for Katara to notice that (Y/N) looked down through out the feast.
When it was time for everyone to go to bed Katara asked (Y/N) to have him make a fire in the lamp as she got used to sleeping with a light next to her due to sleeping next to so many campfires. He was happy to do so, for them to hear a creak outside of her door. They looked down the hall to see nothing, so (Y/N) shrugged, "Probably just the house being old." He then walked out of the room, "Good night Katara." Katara got on her bed, "Goodnight."
(Y/N) walked towards his room for him to hear Hama behind him, "Oh, dear are you going to bed?" (Y/N) looked back at her, "I was about to." "Before you do can you help me gather firewood for the stove. I want to breakfast for all of you in the morning." (Y/N) gave a thumbs up with a smile, "Sure thing." "Thank you. There should be some near the barn where your giant animal is." (Y/N) went outside to grab some of the wood from the barn to bring whatever he got inside. It took him a few trips, but he got enough. Hama was in the kitchen, "Oh you didn't have to get that much." "Well I though it would help if I got enough to last for a few days. So that you don't have to keep going back and forth." "How thoughtful of you." She then handed the boy a cup of tea, "Here, for your troubles." (Y/N) took it, "Thank you."
He went to take a sip but stopped when he smelled something, however he could not remember what it was. He brought it down for Hama to look worried, "Is something wrong?" (Y/N) shook his head to smile, "It's nothing." He drank the tea to set the cup on the counter, "Good night Hama." He headed towards the stairs, but when he was walking he fell to catch himself on the table. His body felt weak as he was having trouble standing as he now recognized the smell from the tea, Valerian. A plant that people would eat to help them sleep. Hama walked in front of him to watch the boy fall as he closed his eyes, "Goodnight fire bender."
Z~ "I hope you enjoyed this chapter, but I have a quick question for you all. Do you guys like the anime, "Seven Deadly Sins" from Netflix?