A New Struggle (zuko x male reader)

ch. 4: the puppetmaster

   in the past days katara saved a whole village by pretending to be a spirit, sokka became a sword master, we all held hands after learning about roku and sozin's story, toph became a bit of a scammer and now we're in the middle of the woods and sokka is telling us a scary story.

"something came down the hall in the dark ooooOOooO" sokka started. "it came into the torch light. the blade of wing fung was haunted!" sokka draws his sword, yells, and then points his sword at the fire.

"i think i liked the man with a sword for a hand better." aang says. "yeah me too." i say with a giggle. if we're being honest, none of these stories were really scary.

"water tribe slumber parties must stink." toph told us. "no wait! i've got one! and this is a true southern water tribe story." katara says looking at us all. "is this one of those 'a friend of my cousin knew some guy that this happened to' stories?" sokka asks.

"no, it happened to mom" katara says.

after she says that sokka stiffens aang and i sit up at the same time and look at each other.

"One winter when Mom was a girl, a snowstorm buried the whole village for weeks. A month later, Mom noticed 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!'" after katara mimics nini sokka stiffens up even more. the whole group is tense and scared. "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."

"where'd she go?" sokka asks from behind a tree trunk. "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." katara answers. "i wonder happened to her" i say. "me too" says aang.

"Wait! Guys, did you hear that?" toph exclaims. " I hear people under the mountain. And they're screaming."

"toph if you're trying to pull a prank it's not funny" i say holding onto sokkas arm. "no i'm serious! i hear something!" toph says. toph says it in a way i kinda believe her. but i'm not sure if she's just a good liar.

"You're probably just jumpy from the ghost stories..." katara assumes. "it just... stopped." toph says. "alright now i'm getting scared" aang whispers.

"hello children" a woman's voice calls out. we all scream and hug toph. if anything toph can take this woman down in seconds. as i'm holding onto toph i hold onto a knife i received from sokka's sword master who knew i needed something to protect myself. it's a silver blade with a purple hilt.

"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 says quietly. i look at him with wide eyes. yeah we're all scared but this is just some random woman who came out of no where and is letting us sleep at her house. everyone else wants to go so it's not like anyone would agree with me and my suspicions.

we all sit a table and the woman named hama is pouring us all some tea. "Thanks for letting us stay here tonight. You have a lovely inn." katara tell hama as she puts her some tea. "Aren't you sweet? You know you should be careful. People have been disappearing in those woods you were camping in." she tells us. "oh great" i say under my breath. "what do you mean 'disappearing'" sokka asks.

"When the moon turns full, people walk in and they don't come out." hama stands up and holds the teapot up. "Who wants more tea?" she asks with a smile. we all stare in confusion since she barely explains this and then blows it off. "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?" she says.