Chapter 46: The Nightmare

The snow was now blowing hard as winds swept the area. The sky was covered with gray clouds, not an inch of blue could be seen. All the Benders had taken shelter inside as soon as they retrieved as many loners as they could find. Now the travelers' room was packed.
"We should make some loners here Benders," suggested Miguel, "so the travelers' room will be less packed."
"Well, not the ones we just got, we may not be able to trust them," Rusty grumbled. Ash knew he wouldn't want to agree with Miguel since he disliked the Border Collie.
"I know that," snorted Miguel, "I mean, like, the ones who have been here. Tiggytiger, Crystal, Flare... Y'know, them." He took one step further in risking his fur. "Surely you'd want Crystal to come, wouldn't you, Rusty?"
Ash expected his friend to jump at Miguel, but all Rusty did was glare and walk off. Miguel glared back and walked over to Max and Raoul, leaving Ash by himself. Ash trotted to the travelers' room, which contained a few loners he hadn't met before. It was indeed packed.
One of the new loners was a giant, furry creature with big black hooves. Ash couldn't tell who or what it was, he never saw it before. Another was a creature with many scales, apparently a reptile. It seemed to be a curious creature, as he had been observing Slice and Miguel when they were building a fire for the travelers' room.
Crystal was sitting next to Flare. "I hate how much animals are in here," she said. "It's less room." She sighed. "Maybe Goldwing can make us apprentices or something."
"Well, we're rather old to be apprentices..." Flare responded.
"Old?" Crystal echoed.
"Not elder-old, just... All the apprentices are way younger than us. Heck, Rusty's younger than you and he's a full Bender," Flare pointed out.
Crystal shook her head. "Well, I don't wanna remain a traveler here forever. I wanna learn and do some Bending."
"Let's try talking to Goldwing," Flare suggested. "He can decide what we can do." As Ash walked up to them, Flare turned to him. "Oh, Ash! We were discussing being full Benders... What do you know about it?"
"Just ask Goldwing," Ash shrugged. "He'll sort something out."
"Thanks," Crystal nodded, and with that they left the room and headed down the hall. Ash observed all the travelers. Everyone was either talking to each other, sleeping, or eating. Ash turned around and left the room, heading downstairs and peeked out to the yard, not wanting to step in it though. It was full of snow, pretty big. We might even get trapped in, Ash thought to himself. Gonna have to move training to indoors...
As Ash turned around, he bumped into white fur. Flinching, Ash jumped back, and grew wide-eyed as he saw he was face-to-face with Hazen. The familiar feeling of suspense rushed into Ash's body, and his mind yet again began burning with questions about why Hazen seemed so hypnotizing and familiar. "Um... Hi Hazen."
"Hello Ash," Hazen said calmly, not looking startled at all. He seemed rather relaxed, and seemed very unsociable; no one had ever talked to him. The only one who was kind towards him was Feather; which was obvious, considering she was a healer. "Are you observing the snow?" his icy voice pierced Ash's ear.
"Yes..." Ash nodded slowly.
"Very well then," Hazen nodded back, not looking like he wanted to hold a conversation with Ash. "Get back to whatever it is you're doing. I... Have things to do." With that, he walked down the hallway.
Ash stared after Hazen. What did he mean by "I have things to do?" Ash also noticed that Hazen seemed, for the first time, a bit uneasy when he told Ash he had to go. It wasn't like travelers were given jobs to do around The Bending Tower.
"Whatcha up to?" said a voice, startling Ash back to reality. He whipped around to see Twister looking up at him, eyes full of curiosity. Ash tried to relax so he could look like he wasn't troubled with thinking hard about Hazen, and as he replied, he made sure to make his voice steady.
"I was talking to Hazen," Ash said simply.
To his surprise, Twister growled. "Something about that guy makes me nervous. I don't know what it is, but he seems suspicious. His icy voice, how calm and cool he is..." Twister shook her head. "Well? What do you think?"
"Um..." Ash tried to think carefully of what to say. He didn't want to blurt out his suspicions to Twister. "I... I think we should give him a chance. We don't have any proof that he's bad. Every animal deserves a chance, right?"
Ash half expected Twister to disagree, but all she did was nod. "Hmm. Sounds fair. But I'm going to be keeping an eye on him." She began to trot down the hall, but then she turned her head and looked at Ash again. "By the way, that was spoken like Goldwing. Sounded like something he'd say. You'd make a good leader, Ash."
Ash smiled, feeling taken aback. "Well... I don't think I'd be cut out to be leader. I'm sure someday Kabu's going to be leader when Goldwing dies, he'd be much better, anyway..."
"Well, I think Kabu will be reaching his time by the time Goldwing dies, because Kabu's very senior, around Goldwing's age. I'm just wondering how long it's going to be before Kabu retires or something," Twister shrugged, and with that she walked away.
Ash suddenly realized how tired he was. He walked up the steps and into the Waterbenders' room, which was empty; everyone was preparing for the snowstorm. I'm sure they wouldn't mind me taking a quick nap, Ash thought, and he curled up and closed his eyes.
A yowl was heard, followed by a growl. Then a yelp came, and the sound of the scratching of claws against stone. Ash's eyes opened and there was a ring of fire surrounding the area. Animals were running and fighting. Many were dying all around Ash: Tiggytiger, Creature, Kabu... Ash yowled in fear, seeing all the familiar animals having blood running from their throats. Ash looked around helplessly. He moved his feet to go and help the sudden battle, but couldn't move. The area was surrounded by darkness, Ash could only just make out other animals. He recognized Airia dive-bombing on an animal, and Dust and Charlotte fighting side-by-side, pinning down a black wolf.
The Firebenders were winning.
Ash realized that with a jolt. He yowled in fear, and then grew wide-eyed as he saw the silhouette of a huge wolf, looming over everyone with an evil laugh. Ash couldn't recognize who it was. It seemed to be smirking in satisfaction at the land of torture it was at.
Ash, said a voice in Ash's head, unmistakably belonging to his mother, there's a traitor in The Bending Tower. Find them, before it's too late, or this is the fate The Bending Tower will suffer.
Ash opened his eyes, his heart beating fast.
Who was the traitor?

Author's Note:
Who could it be... :o Share your thoughts. Who is suspicious to you?