Well here we go, another chapter. This chapter and some future chapters are going to have stories based off of the popular internet meme known as creepypasta. Creepypasta often consists of either short or long stories of a rather disturbing nature. They seem to have originated on 4-Chan's /x/ board. Any creepypastas I use, will have minor details changed to the story, mainly for reasons of artistic liberty, and to avoid the plagiarism plague.

As soon as Toph finished speaking, before anyone could let the gravity of her words sink in, Sokka jumped to his feet, and brandishing a finger about the room, began to shout vehemently:

"No! Don't even think about it! We're not going to have another awkward silence in this room! It's been happening all night! And it happened last year! Someone says something serious, and then everyone goes silent and looks around at each other. Theeeeen, someone says something meaningful, regarding the situation and we all have a special moment, and everyone feels closer to each other and I…I die a little inside!"

And then there really was an awkward silence, which was broken by Zuko and Toph chuckling, and quite soon everyone was laughing.

"You die a little inside, Sokka?" Katara snorted, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes.

"Well…I exaggerated a bit about that…" he said sheepishly.

"But, tell you what, let me tell the next story…"

"In our village, it's believed that there is a certain stretch of tundra that contains benevolent spirits. The spirits can grant insight and warning to whoever visits them at night, when the sun is entirely gone, and the sky is as black as ink. It's a right of passage in our village to be sent there, on the eve of your 18th birthday. Betrothed couples also visit on the night before their wedding, in order to predict whether or not their union will be a success or not. The elders also often go out to this place in order to speak to the spirits, especially if they're ailing.

When I was a baby, shortly after our mom found out she was pregnant with Katara, a young waterbender from the North that had heard of our special tundra. He was intrigued, and wanted to see and communicate with these spirits for himself. So he traveled all the way to the South Pole, and took one of our sleds out to the tundra where he waited for a vision.

The reason I know the details of this incident, is because after the fact he related it to the village elders.

He waited for hours, bundles into his parka, sitting on the sled, wondering if perhaps, the spirits were nothing more than old legends.

He heard the spirit before he saw it, it sneaked up on him, footsteps crunching in the snow, shattering the silence. Startled, he jumped off the sled and spun around to face it. Before him, stood a shrunken, hunched man with gray skin. Sunken, yellow eyes stared at him miserably, set inside a skull from which sprouted sparse, greasy hair. His breathing was labored, and rattled his ribcage with each shaky breath and one of his arms looked mangled, as if it had been broken, and badly set. He had marred, badly splayed legs, and sores on his flesh. He stared at the young man, wheezing, and hacking. Finally, whatever it was vanished into thin air.

The Waterbender searched for the sickly man, but he was gone, except for a pair of bloody footprints. Terrified, he hopped back onto the sled and raced back into the village, where the elders were waiting for him.

As soon as he returned, he got off the sled and starting screaming at the elders:

"What is so benevolent about these spirits? What is so great about them? How in the name of Tui and La are they supposed to help people?"

Seeing the fear in the Waterbender's face, one of them asked:

"What did you see?"

"I saw man, horribly sick and disfigured! It was awful!" He screamed.

When he saw the elders step away from him and turn pale. Frightened by their reaction, he cried out:

"Why do you back away? What does this all mean?"

"The spirits show only one thing." An Elder explained.

"They show their visitors. A year into the future,"

Sokka, leaned back, surveyed the disturbed expression on his friend's faces. Now this, this was a silence he could savor. Not the awkward silence brought on by a serious comment, but the shocked silence brought on by fear.