Avatar Zuko

Chapter 43

The cool night hung low in the air, mist seeping around their campsite like a phantom. The crackling fire burned dully, its light swallowed by the shadows of the spidery trees, whose branches were cracked and grey. All of the group sat in a circle, shivering but not from the chilly breeze that blew at them gently. Instead, it was Katara’s soft murmurs of a worn story that seeped into their bones, shaking each of them to their very core.

“-And she said: ‘I'm so c- cold’.” Her whispers were met with uneasy silence, the girls companions shrinking into each other.

“It didn't have to be that scary.” Whined Sokka, face buried so deep in Zuko's chest he must have been able to hear his heartbeat. “Why couldn't you just tell us about evil vampires or something?”

“I'm sorry I scared you all.” Katara said in a placating tone, but she smiled wickedly at her shaking friends nevertheless.

“Psh, stupid stories don't scare me, Sugar Queen.” Toph rolled her eyes, still clinging onto Aang's arm.

Katara rolled her eyes right back. “Uh huh, sure.”

Conversation settled into dead silence for a few moments then, not even cricket-flies chirping could be heard in the distance. Up above laid the almost full moon, maimed through the middle by a pale cloud, one which was barely visible through the darkness of the sky. Katara shivered too.

“Hello, dearies.” A soft, female voice cut through the lingering quiet, causing their group to collectively squeak and shoot up into a standing position.

There was too little light to see perfectly, but Katara could still make out the woman before them. She was elderly; hunched over painfully, as though her spine were warped and twisted. The shadows on her face made her eye bags more severe, stretching them. Watery blue eyes studied the children meticulously, whilst a thin smile greeted them pleasantly- yet the unwelcome feeling that she looked like a corpse gnawed at Katara’s brain.

“Wha-” Sokka screeched loudly after a second of the two parties regarding each other, immediately beginning to wrench his sword out of its sheath, fumbling.

Zuko stepped forwards, “Tell us who you are or-” He lit his palm with jumping flames. “You'll be very sorry.”

The woman's face soured further, but she turned to regard Katara with a kindly expression. “I apologise, I didn't mean to scare you. I simply heard your voices and worried that, well, this forest was up to its old tricks again.” She chuckled, her misty breath pushing grey strands of hair out of her face, the thin locks billowing a little.

“What old tricks?” Katara asked, relaxing her stiff defence position. She doubted this sweet old lady would try to fight her.

“Ah, well,” The woman's face slackened, looking off into the vine strangled trees distantly. “This place, always around the full moon, snatches people up- I couldn't bare to see such a horrible fate come to such young people.”

Aang muttered something inaudible to Zuko, who nodded sagely. “If this place is so dangerous, why are you out here?” Sokka questioned, face a little pink with blush and a hand gripping his boyfriend's bicep.

The lady let out a breathy laugh that sounded hollow. “The forest only snatches up firebenders, sweetheart, like your friend there.” She explained, wrapping her torn cloak around herself more tightly. Katara hoped she hadn't been outside for too long- the woman looked as if she would crumble to dust at any moment. “Anyway, I would feel much better if you four- sorry, five- had somewhere to stay. Do you want to stay with me for a few days? I assure you, you'd all be most welcome.”