Mai's face crumpled in disappointment. She was sure Zuko would still find her stories amusing. It couldn't be her fault. No, it was that Water Tribe girl. She had bewitched Zuko with her strange stories from the South Pole…or maybe he was right. They all grew up and everything changed.
"I know a story scarier than that!" Toph said with a light cackle.
"I over heard the maids tell it once,"
"Two young women shared a small apartment in Ba Sing Se. One of them worked late night at a Tea Shop,"
Iroh grinned, remembering how much he enjoyed working at the teashop.
"One night she came home very late. The Apartment was pitch black, but she didn't light a candle, not wanting to disturb her sleeping roommate. She could hear strange noises coming from her roommates bed, but ignored it figuring that her friend had a companion for the night,"
"What does that mean?" Aang asked.
"What were her and her companion doing that would make so much noise?"
Everyone coughed and looked around at anything but Aang.
Toph, who had eavesdropped on the servants and thus knew all about the particular subject replied to him:
"Aang, if you don't know I am not going to tell you"
The Avatar looked bewildered and a little peeved that Toph was withholding information.
"Not wanting to interrupt and too tried to care, the girl tried to sleep. Eventually the noises went away and she fell asleep.
In the morning, the girl woke to a horror. There was her roommate, lying in her bed, decapitated, lying in a pool of sticky congealing blood. Written in blood on the wall were the words: "Aren't you glad you didn't light a candle?"
"That was pretty good," Zuko said.
"I'd never heard that story before."
"Can someone tell me what the girl thought her roommate was doing!" Aang exclaimed, his face red.
"Tomorrow," Iroh said.
"I will explain everything you need to know, but for now I am telling a story,"