The story I'm about to tell you is an old Vermont ghost story and a favorite of mine.
The fire in the hearth crackled merrily while everyone huddled together in a circle. Sokka was cracking nuts in his teeth.
"What will the first story going to be about this year? Monsters? Ghouls? The Legions of the un-dead?" he asked.
Iroh shook his head.
"No, it's about a certain part of The Earth Kingdom, called The Green Mountains. It's very agricultural, with beautiful scenery." Iroh began.
"My family has a summer home there." Toph said.
"It feels gorgeous."
"It's also home to the covered bridges. These bridges have roofs over them, like on a house and can only be found in The Green Mountains. One of these bridges, is where my story takes place. The story of Ruri's Bridge."
"Ruri was a young woman who lived in the Green Mountains in a pastoral little village. She was very beautiful and while she had many admirers, she desired only one man. His name is lost to history, but it's well known that he was a low life and her parents did not approve of him.
Her parents forbid her from seeing him, but she didn't listen and decided to elope with this man and run away. Ruri severed ties with her family completely and the lovers agreed to meet at the Gold Brook Bridge, one of many in The Green Mountains, but the only one in her village. They were to meet precisely at midnight.
Ruri arrived at the bridge on a cool night in early spring, waiting patiently for her love to come and take her away from her small village and meddling parents. She shivered in the evening air, but didn't let it bother her, she was so excited.
Midnight came and went, but her lover never came. Why it is not known, but he never arrived. Poor Ruri began to despair. She abandoned her family and ruined her honor, only to be jilted by the man she loved.
She began to panic now, to lose her mind. She couldn't go back to her family and she couldn't bear the thought of being without the man she had given up her honor for.
Sobbing, she tied a rope to a beam running down the middle of the covered bridge and hung herself.
From that day on, her angry spirit has haunted the bridge. A woman's voice is heard, calling for her lover and sobbing. Claw marks show up on the sides of carriages and coaches, leaving gashes in the sides of animals, people have been scratched by the angry spirit. Strange shadows and lights can be seen and sometimes Ruri herself is seen.
Some say that Ruri is just a tall tale, that she never existed. But I believe she is real, for I have seen the lonely sobbing figure of a woman on Ruri's Bridge, on cool moonless spring nights."
Iroh finished his tale.
"In the version I heard, was that her lover killed her," Toph mused.
"Still, it's such a sad story," Katara sniffed.
"Wait a minute!" Sokka exclaimed.
"Where'd Ruri find the rope to hang herself?"
"Who knows?" Iroh shrugged.
"It's a story that's been handed down from generation to generation. The information on how she obtained the rope is lost to us all. And anyway, when have ghost stories made any sense?"