Hey, everyone. I am so sorry to have kept you waiting for so long, but things have been stressful lately and I haven't had a whole lot of time to focus on my writing. On top of that, I've had immense writer's block. Plus, I was in a car accident a couple weeks ago (that really slowed down my writing). Thankfully, it wasn't too serious. I'm a bit shaken and I have had some whiplash, and my car is going to need some work on where I got hit, but everything's fine besides that.

Anyway, I'm just glad I managed to get a spooky chapter done in time for Halloween.

Warning: Scary stories will be told. Lots of dark themes and some violent imagery.

Dead of Night

Sokka had to be the biggest idiot that it was ever Zuko's misfortune to know.

Actually, considering the stupidity of the villagers in Makapu, Zuko would probably rank Sokka a bit higher than them. At least he didn't base his entire life around the words of a crazy old lady. Regardless, his decision to handcuff them together would go down in history as one of the stupidest ideas ever conceived. Not only did it make completing chores excruciatingly more difficult, the fact that they had to go everywhere together was something that would haunt Zuko's nightmares for years to come.

Sokka's insistence that going to the toilet together wasn't weird because they were both guys did little assuage Zuko's ever-increasing anxiety and discomfort.

"Don't worry, Zuko," Katara said. "We'll find a way to get those handcuffs off. Just be patient."

He was trying. Agni, help him, but he was trying.

Trouble was, Zuko had never really handled 'patience' well. If he felt something was important enough, it was paramount that it be taken care of as quickly as possible. The fact that others often didn't understand why he needed things done right away often left him with the sense that he was being dismissed. The most frequent issues arose with his crew and their habit of slacking off or ignoring his orders when it was vital that they be carried out as soon as possible. It was a slight to his authority and, worst of all, left Zuko with the bitter realization that they still only regarded him as a spoiled child.

This was a different matter. Zuko was not in any sort of position to make demands of Aang, Katara, and Sokka. The most he could do was complain about the inconvenience and listen to vague promises that it would be taken care of at some undefined, nebulous date.

It wasn't that Zuko couldn't bust out of the handcuffs on his own. His physical strength and firebending would make quick work of the old, worn-out metal. It was just that Sokka wasn't exactly heat-proof and a misplaced fireblast or just melting the handcuffs would more than likely result in him getting hurt. Not that Zuko cared about Sokka or anything, he just didn't want to listen to him gripe about it endlessly.

"It can't be all bad," Aang said in his frustratingly optimistic way. "I mean, at least you always have a friend with you."

Zuko's eye twitched so hard that he felt it reverberate through his whole body.

As they continued on their journey, the irritation only grew and Zuko and Sokka began to get into a contest of who could make the worst of the situation. Sokka took every opportunity to sharply raise his hand so that Zuko's arm got yanked in the process. Zuko, for his part, responded in kind while Sokka was trying to sleep, which Sokka declared an unforgiveable offence. It got to the point that both of them tried to do this while the other was eating.

"For pity's sake, you two," Katara snapped. "If you keep this up, I'm going to pray for King Xook to take both of you away."

"Who?" said Zuko.

"King Xook. He's a shark spirit who prowls the ocean and abducts troublesome people back to his lair to turn them into shark warriors for his army."

"Come on, Katara," said Sokka. "That's just an old wives' tale."

"Just for the record," Aang spoke up nervously, "I'm a good person. I had nothing to do with this fight."

"Weren't you literally kidnapped by a spirit monster a few weeks ago?" Zuko asked Sokka. "You said it dragged you off to the Spirit World."

"That's different."

"Seriously, I'm very well-behaved," said Aang. "And I hate fighting."

"How is it different?" said Zuko. "You said that thing carried you off and imprisoned you in an endless bamboo forest. And you're skeptical of a shark monster?"

"Sokka's just pretending to be tough," said Katara. "Whenever spiritual matters are brought up, he acts like he doesn't believe in them."

"That's not true!" Sokka exclaimed.

"Really? You told me you don't believe in reincarnation despite Aang having hundreds of past lives."

"I mean it," Aang interjected. "I would make a terrible shark warrior."

The argument went round and round for a while until everyone finally had enough and sat in a sulky silence.

Katara had just about had it with the fighting.

It didn't help that another surprise storm had forced them to change route and start heading northwest along the coastline. Everyone was getting irritable. Even Aang wasn't his usual peppy self thanks to all the negative energy. It took a good deal of Katara's self-control not to launch into a furious tirade of her own, as getting angry wouldn't help matters.

Instead, she'd taken to bringing up threats of shark spirits and other mysterious dangers to warn everyone off getting too combative.

"King Xook likes it when people fight. It's how he picks the right men for his army."

"Ooh, don't get too close to open water when you're having a feud with someone."

"Bad energy feeds wicked spirits."

"If King Xook doesn't get you, then the Shadow People will."

"Katara, will you knock it off!" Sokka snapped at long last as they all sat around the fire. "Seriously, you're even worse than Old Akna with that spirit stuff."

"Who's Old Akna?" said Aang.

"Oh, that's right, you didn't really get to talk to our elders other than Gran-Gran," said Katara. "Elder Akna," she continued, giving a pointed look at Sokka, "is our village's angakkuq."

"What's an an…ank…aga…?"

"An angakkuq is a kind of, well, most people outside the South Pole just call them 'shamans' but that's not exactly an accurate comparison. They're keepers of tribal history and legends. They commune with spirits, pacifying them when they're angry or asking them for blessings. They teach healing and medical arts, mediate conflicts, lead ceremonies-"

"He gets it," said Sokka. "We all get it, Katara."

"You really should learn to appreciate the role of spiritual experts, Sokka."

"They can have whatever role makes them happy as long as I don't have to hear about it."

"You're just salty because Elder Akna's stories always freak you out and keep you from sleeping."

Sokka scowled at her.

"I think I know where you're going with this, Katara. And I'm warning you now, you better not take this where I think you're taking it."

"You guys wanna hear some real Southern Water Tribe spirit tales?" Katara shot a grin over at Zuko, who was trying not to smirk back at Sokka's obvious unease.

"Sounds like fun," said Zuko. "The scarier the better."

"Uh, right," Aang stammered. "That's a…a great idea. I love scary stories."

"You sure, Aang?" Katara said. She didn't want to give him nightmares or anything. Even if she really wanted to mess with Sokka, she wouldn't do it at Aang's expense.

"It's fine, Katara. I'm not scared. Besides, I'm the Avatar. I need to learn all I can about spirits."

"All right, then. I'm going to tell you the legend of the Shadow People." Katara affected her spookiest storyteller voice.

Sokka made a grumbling noise, but Katara ignored him.

"Many centuries ago, there was a wicked warrior of the Tiger-Seal Clan. He started with petty things, like leaving boats uncovered or not showing thanks to the animals he slew when hunting or not facing northward when chewing blubber. They might seem like small issues, but even these transgressions are enough to merit a curse on the best of days."

Sokka shifted awkwardly in his seat. Zuko noticed and poked him in the side.

"You haven't been breaking taboos, have you, Sokka?" he said. "We don't need anyone getting cursed, right now."

"I would just like to stress that I don't even eat meat," said Aang. "I never have and I never will. There's no reason for me to get cursed or dragged off to become a shark warrior."

"Ahem, my story?" said Katara. They all shut up and Katara gave a short nod. "Thank you." She resumed her spooky storyteller voice. "As time went on, the man found that these small taboos were not enough to satisfy him. When the old clan chief died, the wicked warrior became greedy for the power of the title, but everyone wanted to elect his brother, instead. Filled with rage and envy, he invited his brother out on a hunting trip and murdered him. Murder is already one of the greatest sins, but to murder your own kin is something so heinous that it can never be forgiven. Seeing that no spirit had struck him down for his crime, he decided to go even further. On returning home and becoming the new clan chief, he broke the law against incest and married a woman who was not only from his own clan but was the daughter of the brother he slew."

"Aw, man, gross," Sokka said, gagging. "Seriously, just, ewww."

"Even this was not enough to satisfy his evil nature. He ordered his clan members to raid their neighboring clans, killing all the men and carrying off the women and children."

"Why would he carry of the women and children?" said Aang.

Katara paused, suddenly remembering that Aang hadn't been brought up hearing about the realities of war and the evils that people in power inflict on innocents. In the Southern Water Tribe, you had to grow up quickly and the tribal elders made sure that children learned those hard truths as soon as possible so they understood what was and was not acceptable behavior. It had been her mother who first introduced Katara to scary stories, but after her mother's death the elders felt that Katara and Sokka needed to hear the darker tales so that they would be ready the next time something that terrible happened. Not even if, but when.

Even so, knowing all these horrible truths was not the same as having to explain them to someone else. The awfulness of it all twisted in her stomach and made her that much more unwilling to reveal that ugly side of humanity to Aang. To rob him of yet more of his childish innocence that had so recently taken a major hit from what he'd seen at the Southern Air Temple or when they were helping Earth Kingdom villages. She'd already described some truly gruesome things in her story without sparing a thought for how Aang might react to them.

She was beginning to regret choosing this particular tale.

"To force them to do all the work," Zuko spoke up. "That's what happens to most prisoners of war. They get sent to forced labor camps."

He glanced over at Katara and his expression was so easy to read it was like he was speaking directly to her. It was a look that said, 'Let's save that discussion for another time. There's no need to make things uncomfortable for yourself.' Katara felt a wave of gratitude wash over her.

"Right, exactly that," she said. "Thanks, Zuko."

"Wow," said Aang. "That's awful."

"It is, but the man still wasn't satisfied. He began to commit acts that directly challenged the spirits, themselves. He desecrated ceremonial objects and performed mock versions of sacred rituals. He killed his tribe's angakkuq and spat vile words against the Southern Water Tribe's guardian spirits.

"Finally, the spirits could no longer stand his evil polluting the world-"

"And it only took him killing and abducting a bunch of people," said Sokka in that dry tone of his. "Really, they should've dealt with him a lot sooner."

"Maybe they were waiting for the humans to sort it out," said Zuko. "Not sure if you noticed, Sokka, but no one else in the tribe decided to deal with him, either."

"Thank you, Zuko," said Katara, giving a triumphant smile.

It always grated on her nerves whenever Sokka complained that spirits didn't do more to help humans. Spirits had their roles in the world and it wasn't their responsibility to handle human matters unless they were, themselves, provoked into action. They operated on something different than logic and Sokka's extremely logic-centric mind couldn't accept that. Her father once described spirit morality as seeing things in "blue-and-orange" as opposed to "black-and-white."

"As I was saying, the spirits decided that something needed to be done about this evil man. So, the guardian spirits of the tribe approached one of their most hated enemies, the Waning Moon Spirit. Long before humans reached the South Pole, the Waning Moon Spirit treated the icy tundra as his personal territory and warred with the Water Mother. Other spirits were often drawn into their conflicts and grew to hate those two great spirits. But, with the presence of such an irredeemably evil man, they knew that no one would bestow a more fitting punishment than the Waning Moon Spirit."

A chill wind rustled through, causing everyone to shiver.

"When he heard of the actions of the man, the Waning Moon Spirit took on the form of an icy fog and crept into the village on the darkest night. The entire place was wrapped in the fog and, when the villagers awoke the next morning, no one could get out. The day turned into a week and then into a month. The Tiger-Seal Clan was beginning to starve and their evil chief was growing more and more paranoid.

"From the first day trapped inside the fog, the man began to notice little things out of the corner of his eye. His shadow appeared to move on its own. The man would turn one way and his shadow the other. It would grow so dark that it seemed to open into an endless void, only to disappear completely on a second look. It would appear in front of him when there was no light at his back and could even be seen at night when there was no fire at all. The man became thinner no matter how much he ate and the fire wouldn't warm him. If another human touched him, he became violently sick. He turned his entire family out of his igloo so he could be alone; but when he tried to sleep, he felt arms wrap around him to hold him as tight as if he was trapped in iron bands.

"Then, one night, the fog suddenly lifted and moonlight shone into the village so brightly that it burned with the intensity of the sun. And the man realized that the burning was in his skin. A searing blaze that made every part of him scream in torment. Then he held up his hands and what he saw wasn't flesh and bone.

"It was nothing but empty shadow."

The others stared at her for a while. Aang was clearly trying his best not to tremble, but was not succeeding. Sokka just showed his normal stoic face that he always wore when he really didn't want people to see how he was feeling. Zuko, though, just looked impressed.

"That…really was very creepy," he said.

"But not scary enough?" Katara replied, feeling her confidence sink.

"No, no! It was very scary. I'll probably have nightmares about it."

"You don't have to humor me."

"I'm not. It's just, that guy got what he deserved, so I don't feel as threatened as I would if the spirits had attacked someone who didn't have it coming."

"Well, the story doesn't fully end there. You see, he wasn't the only one turned into a shadow. The entire clan was. Even to this day, no one dares claim association with the Tiger-Seal Clan. The man was evil, there's no doubt, but his clan members were considered equally guilty for allowing him to continue in his crimes. The only ones who were spared were the people he took from the other clans. It's said that the Tiger-Seal Clan now wanders the tundra forever as shadows. Never able to feel anything except a burning ache inside them. A longing to become human again, no matter what it takes.

"Even if they have to steal other people's bodies."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," said Sokka. "That's quite enough, Katara. We don't need to hear about the body-snatching stuff. We're freaked out enough, as is."

"Well, heh, at least they're only out on the tundra," said Aang. "They couldn't find us out here, right?"

"So, you're willing to admit you're scared of spirits?" said Katara.

"I said, 'They couldn't find us out here, right?' Guys?"

"No, I'm not scared of spirits," said Sokka. "I just don't want to hear any more about the Shadow People."

"How about you tell a scary story, then?"

"Hey, wait, I've got a better idea. How about Zuko tells a scary story?"

"What?!" Zuko choked.

"Oh, yeah, that's a great idea," said Aang. "The Fire Nation has some really amazing stories. Kuzon used to tell me all kinds of spirit tales when we had sleepovers."

"Uh, I'm not much of a storyteller," said Zuko.

"Just give it a try," said Katara. "I'm sure you'll do fine."

"Well, okay. There is one scary story I remember reading as a kid." He cleared his throat and began. "Once, there were two hippo-cow herders, Takumi and Yuji, who were heading up into the mountains for a couple months to let their animals graze. It was a dull job and they always got very bored whenever they had to do it. Once they reached the pasture in the mountains, they decided to kill a bit time with a project. Searching through the barn, they found some old grain sacks and some straw, so they started to make something from that. When they were done, they had managed to craft a large scarecrow. They felt satisfied with the result and set it up in the field so they could see it as they tended their herd. They even named it 'Hajime' after another herdsman whom they were not particularly fond of and laughed to themselves about it.

"Things were fine for a few days. Every now and then, the men would stop and talk to Hajime the scarecrow, ask him how he was doing that day, and pretend that he was real. They would even bring him into the house to sit by the fire with them as they ate their dinner. But the men got tired of just talking to Hajime and began to insult him, saying to him what they wanted to say to his namesake. Soon, just insults weren't enough and they began to get violent towards the scarecrow.

"They would hit him, kick him, stick him with the pitchfork, slap mud on his face, anything to vent their frustration. One night, Takumi smeared some of the congee from dinner onto Hajime's face and, all of a sudden, the scarecrow let out a grunt. Yuji said Takumi was imagining things, but the two men became wary and left the scarecrow in the house all the next day and did not inflict any further abuse on him. However, they began to notice Hajime twitch and grunt, but told themselves that it was just bugs rooting around in his straw stuffing.

"Then, one morning, Hajime suddenly stood up and walked past the men. He didn't touch them, though. Instead, he walked out the door and climbed up onto the roof, thumping around all night. When the sun came up, Hajime got down and walked to the far corner of the pasture and just stood there, staring at Takumi and Yuji while they nervously went about their work. As the two men grew more and more fearful of what the scarecrow might do to them, they decided to lead their herd back down the mountain early.

"They had gotten a good distance away and began to feel safe, when they realized they'd left their milking stools behind. The two men didn't have much money and the stools would cost a fair bit to replace, so they agreed that one of them should go back to fetch them and hurry back. Neither one was willing to go, so they drew straws and the task fell to Takumi. Yuji continued the descent and eventually looked back to see if Takumi had caught up.

"But there was no Takumi. Instead, what he saw was Hajime standing on the roof again. And what Hajime was doing made Yuji's blood run cold. Hajime was stretching out rolls of Takumi's flayed skin to dry in the sun."

No one spoke for a while. They just sat there with their mouths hanging open.

"…Well, I won't be sleeping tonight," said Sokka. "Or ever again."

"Honestly, I toned it down from the original version," Zuko said with a shrug. "That one's even bloodier."

Aang made a gagging sound and looked very green.

"I don't remember hearing anything that gory when I last visited the Fire Nation," he said. "The scariest story Kuzon told was about ghosts kidnapping kids who misbehave."

"Maybe people's tastes have changed since then, Aang," said Zuko. "A lot of the stories I heard growing up have at least a little violence in them."

"Well, I think that story definitely takes the lead," said Katara. "It was way creepier than mine."

"Actually, Katara, I thought yours was scarier. Hajime only killed one person, after all."

"I suppose it's a question of what's more horrifying. Getting your skin stripped off or turning into a shadow monster that steals people's bodies."

"Can we please stop talking about this?" said Aang.

Zuko looked embarrassed, as if he, like Katara had, only just realized that Aang wasn't used to such grisly and gruesome tales. Things that were normal for them were very strange and disconcerting for Aang.

"Sorry, Aang, I should've known that would be a little much," said Zuko. "How about you pick the next story?"

"Oh, uh, sure," said Aang. "Well, Air Nomads don't have that many scary stories. But I do know one involving ghosts."

"Go ahead, Aang," said Sokka. "We're all ears."

Aang tried not to let his discomfort show.

He didn't generally like scary stories. Spooky stories were fine. Kuzon used to tell him lots of spooky spirit tales that sent a few shivers down his spine, but nothing as violent as the stories Katara and Zuko had told. Air Nomads didn't generally focus on violence, preferring legends and lore that taught moral and life lessons. Some of the older disciples at the temples liked to talk about spirit monsters and ghosts during the dark months, but even they didn't go into grisly details.

Still, Aang didn't want to be left out of his friends' scary story time. Besides, Katara seemed to like stuff like that and Aang didn't want her to think less of him because he was scared. He'd already seen real spirits and even traveled to the Spirit World. He was the Avatar, after all. He needed to be able to handle a few dark and gory tales.

Besides, the Air Nomads did have a few spooky stories of their own that Aang remembered.

"This story is about the Hungry Ghost Festival," he said. "A long time ago, there was a young airbender monk named 'Sonam' that the other airbenders thought was strange. See, every seventh month of the year, he would sit on the ledge of the highest balcony each night and stare down into the darkness below. Sonam was even punished by the elder monks when they found he'd been throwing rice grains out into the darkness, as that was wasting food. One night, while Sonam was sitting on the ledge and throwing down rice grains from his dinner, his master came in to ask him why he did these strange things.

"Sonam continued to stare into the darkness as he answered his master. He said, 'I'm watching the people coming and going from that massive cave down below.' His master looked down but didn't see anything and told Sonam that there was no one there, but Sonam insisted that there were millions of them. Sonam then told his master that the people were always crying out about how hungry they were and he felt bad for them and wanted to help. And there was something else that troubled Sonam. He looked at his master and said that one of the people he heard crying out was a woman. A woman who called out curses on the monks. She said that, because of them, her only son was taken and she died in despair. The master went pale and tried to urge Sonam not to listen, but Sonam said that there was something familiar to him about the woman's voice. Finally, his master was overcome with guilt and shame and told Sonam the truth.

"Sonam hadn't been born in the Air Temples. His mother was an Earth Kingdom woman. When she realized her child was an airbender, she asked the monks for help in raising her child. Instead, the monks took the child away and barred her from seeing Sonam again."

"That's horrible!" said Katara. "Why would they do that?"

"Airbenders are supposed to be raised as monks and nuns," Aang explained. "They aren't supposed to have attachments that could distract them from reaching enlightenment."

"But to steal a child from his mother? That's just monstrous."

"The monks probably thought they were doing the right thing. Most airbenders who have children send them off at around five or six to begin training."

Katara's outraged expression didn't change. If anything, she looked even more furious. Aang wasn't sure why, but an unpleasant twinge jabbed at him. It wasn't like the Air Nomads were going around stealing children from their families in Aang's time. One of the lessons from the story he was trying to tell was that it was wrong of the monks to take Sonam without his mother's consent. There were even some Air Nomads who couldn't bring themselves to part with their children and chose to oversee their training personally before sending them to the temples. The Air Nomad way was to cause as little harm as possible and to separate oneself from attachment to the things of the world.

"Anyway," Aang said, trying not to sound annoyed, "Sonam's mother was angry at the monks for taking her son and decided to get revenge. She managed to intercept the delivery of their rice supply and replaced it with bags packed with maggoty rotten meat. When the monks realized what had happened, they placed a curse on her that she would be forever hungry. The curse was powerful, and Sonam's mother was driven mad from starvation and threw herself from a cliff to end her suffering. But not even death could ease her pain and she was condemned to the realm of the hungry ghosts."

"Sheesh, you Air Nomads don't play around, do you?" said Sokka.

"It was karmic retribution, Sokka. All the monks did was return the bad energy of her actions back at her."

"Can you blame her?" said Katara. "They stole her child. Of course she was going to be angry and want payback."

"Katara, revenge isn't the answer. All it does is create more resentment."

"I don't know, Aang," said Zuko. "I kind of have to agree with Katara on this one. Compared to kidnapping, I don't think swapping rice with maggoty meat is that bad."

"Could I please continue with my story?"

The other three nodded and thankfully went silent. Aang tried not to let himself get angry over it. They just didn't understand the nuances of the story. It wasn't condoning kidnapping; it was just illustrating that repaying evil with another evil only leads to suffering.

"Sonam was very upset by his master's confession. Then, ignoring his master's pleas, he grabbed his bowl of rice and jumped down into the abyss below. When his feet touched the ground, he saw that he had entered the land of the dead, where souls are purged and cleansed before they reenter the cycle of reincarnation. As he approached a nearby gate, he saw a terrifying demon-spirit with sharp fangs, blue skin, and three burning red eyes waiting in front of it. The spirit introduced himself as the guardian of the dead and asked what Sonam wanted.

"Sonam explained that he was there to bring an offering to his mother. The spirit agreed to let him pass and even gave Sonam a small glass orb filled with blue ghostfire to light his way and a staff to open the different gateways. Sonam went deeper and deeper into the underworld until the only light that could be seen was the blue fire in the orb he carried. It was in the lowest level that he found his mother. She and all the other ghosts in that realm were ragged, filthy, and in terrible pain. Their stomachs were bloated but their necks were almost as thin as needles. He wasn't sure how he recognized her, but Sonam knew which one was his mother and immediately offered her the bowl of rice. She wept and tried to eat, only for the rice to burn her mouth as if it were hot coals."

"That does sound really terrible," said Sokka. "Like, given the choice between that and the fates of the people in those other stories, I can honestly say it would be a tough decision."

"It's kind of a coin toss between that and becoming one of the Shadow People in Katara's story," said Zuko. "Compared to that, what happened to Takumi was nothing."

"What, you're saying you'd rather be skinned by a scarecrow?" said Katara.

"Well, yeah, at least that has a pretty clear end to the suffering. It's painful and terrifying, but it'll eventually be over and done with. The other two fates just go on forever."

"Guys, can I please continue?" said Aang. "I'm almost to the end."

"Right, sorry about that, Aang," Zuko said, giving Sokka a nudge. "Stop interrupting the story, Sokka."

Sokka jabbed him sharply with his elbow.

"So, after seeing all that," said Aang. "Sonam returned to the first gate and cried for his mother and all the human souls trapped in that horrible place. The guardian spirit who had let him in put a hand on his shoulder and his frightening appearance melted away to reveal a beautiful woman who called herself 'Miaoshan.' Miaoshan said that she had been waiting for a compassionate soul to make this journey and see the horrors of the underworld. Sonam begged her for a solution to help his mother and the other hungry ghosts who were trapped there. Miaoshan told him that, every year, the seventh month should be a time of reverence for the dead. That he and the monks should leave food offerings, as well as pray and chant to soothe the souls.

"So, when Sonam returned to the temple, he led the other monks in holding a massive ceremony in memory of the dead. By the end, when Sonam finally fell asleep in exhaustion, he had a dream in which he saw his mother. She wasn't dirty and hungry and filled with pain anymore. Instead, she thanked him for setting her free, not just from her torment in the underworld, but from the spiritual poison of her hatred. With each year that the monks practiced the new festival, Sonam had visions of his mother and the other souls becoming purer and more at peace.

"When Sonam, himself, died at a very old age, Miaoshan appeared to him and told him that his good karma and lifetime of earning spiritual merits had freed him from the cycle of reincarnation and that he could ascend as an immortal master. But Sonam refused and said that he would never ascend as long as the land of the dead was still inhabited. So, there he remains, continuing to pray for those hungry ghosts until the day that the wheel of life, death, and rebirth is finally broken. And, because of him, the seventh month continues to be the time of the Hungry Ghost Festival."

"Wow, Aang, so you really just leave food lying out for dead folks?" said Sokka. "Even though they can't even eat it?"

"The ghosts absorb the essence of the offerings. And it's more about the act of remembrance than anything. To let the dead know that there are people who care about them."

"I think that's a wonderful gesture, Aang," said Katara. "In the South Pole, we do something similar around the summer solstice to honor our ancestors."

"We have something like that in the Fire Nation, too," said Zuko. "And that story actually kind of reminds me of one from the northern islands. Only that one involves a young fire sage novice."

"Well, the Fire Nation and Air Nomads have always been close," said Aang. His face fell when it dawned on him what he'd said. "Or, well, they used to be."

Zuko gave an awkward cough.

"Um, well, maybe there was some sort of cultural overlap or something," he said. "People do like to share stories with each other. Maybe the Fire Nation version is just a retelling of the Air Nomad one."

Aang gave a half-hearted smile. He appreciated Zuko's attempt to lighten the situation, but it didn't make the sudden reminder of the war and its consequences any less present. Sometimes, Aang wondered if he'd ever be able to go a day without those awful realizations and terrible feelings coming back. Perhaps that was how Monk Sonam felt after visiting the land of the dead. The things he'd seen could never be forgotten and he'd probably spent his whole life thinking about them.

"So…" Katara spoke up. "Does anyone have any more stories to share?"

"That's the only one I can remember right now," said Aang. He furrowed his brow. "No, wait, there is another thing. It's not a ghost story, but Monk Gyatso did tell me about a monster that lives around the Northern Air Temple."

"Oh, really?" Sokka said, his skepticism shining through yet again. "What kind of monster?"

"Monk Gyatso called it a 'Yeti.' It's a kind of big, hairy, ape-bear man who lives in mountain caves and sometimes attacks people who are out on the slopes."

"Okay, I get the ape-bear part, but you lost me when you added 'man' onto it."

"I'm serious, Sokka. It's a real creature. I don't think it's a spirit, though, because Monk Gyatso said it leaves tracks."

"So?"

"Well, obviously, a spirit wouldn't have left tracks or footprints or anything. They're not actually physical beings, they just look and feel like they are. That's what Monk Gyatso told me."

"That can't be right. I was dragged into the Spirit World and it felt pretty real to me."

"Oh, Sokka, why do you have to try and pick everything apart?" said Katara. She then gave a wicked smile. "Is it because you're scared?"

"No!"

"Really? So, if I were to, for instance, talk about the Snow Wolves, or the Tailypo, or the wendigo-"

"Katara!"

"Okay, now I'm really interested," said Zuko. "How about we hear some of those stories?"

"No. No more about monsters, ghosts, or spirits. We've had more than enough of that nonsense for one evening."

"Aw, but I just remembered some really neat Yeti legends," said Aang. He couldn't believe he hadn't thought to share them. Monk Gyatso had even claimed that he and some friends had seen one when they were kids.

"No more Yetis, either. We need to get some rest and be on our way first thing tomorrow morning."

"Sokka, if you keep stirring up negativity, you're going to get King Xook's attention," Katara said in a sing-song tone.

"Enough about King Xook!" Sokka's voice was cracking very badly at that point. "I am sick to death of hearing about him."

"So, what is the deal with this King Xook guy, anyway?" said Zuko.

"He's one of the spirits who preys on humans," Katara explained. "Whenever people quarrel, he gets stronger and can come ashore. Whoever is the worst offender in a dispute is the one he drags down into the water to turn into a shark warrior."

"Is there any way to make him, you know, not do that?" said Aang. "Not that I couldn't figure it out, or anything. I mean, as the Avatar, I'm the bridge between humans and spirits."

"Well, other than having protective talismans or getting an angakkuq to purify you, or just ending the feud, it's said that Kangee the raven spirit is the only one who can fight off King Xook."

"Yeah, because that makes a lot of sense," Sokka drawled. "Obviously ravens are the natural predators of sharks."

"You know, Sokka, you don't have to be a sarcastic jerk all the time," said Zuko. "I don't think the spirits will be impressed by it."

"Well, it seems we've got a real expert in spiritual stuff, over here."

"I wouldn't call myself an 'expert.' Maybe it just seems that way to you because you're ignorant."

Sokka responded in the best way he knew how. In other words, he started yanking on the handcuffs again. Zuko yanked back. This went back and forth until it resulted in the two boys having a kind of tug-of-war battle. Soon, it devolved into kicking, shoving, and hair-pulling.

"Sokka, if you don't stop picking fights with Zuko, you really will get the attention of King Xook," Katara said sternly.

"He started it!" said Sokka.

"Me?" Zuko said in disbelief. "What did I do?"

"You know…you…you're always insulting me!"

"Yeah, because you're the moron who handcuffed us together like a complete assface!"

"Well, I…uh…shut up, Zuko!" He reached up with his free hand and gave Zuko's hair a sharp tug.

"Ow! Stop messing with my hair, dickweed!"

"Guys, stop fighting," Aang said. "King Xook will-"

"Aang, there is no King Xook!" Sokka shouted. "No one is going to drag us down into the ocean and turn us into shark warriors!" He gave a sharp kick to a small beach rock, sending it flying into the ocean where it landed with 'plop.' "Now, for the last time, I don't want to hear another word about spirits, ghosts, ghouls, and monsters, all right? Not one, single, solitary-Ack"

He started rubbing a spot on the back of his head.

"What hit me?" he said.

Almost as one, the others looked down and saw a lone rock lying in the sand.

"Maybe you should stop tempting the universe, Sokka," Aang said, trying not to let his unease show.

Zuko grumbled and turned over, trying to get comfortable.

He hadn't been bothered by the scary stories. Not really. Spirit tales didn't frighten him that much anymore. After his mother disappeared, no one in the palace so much as mentioned her. It was as if she had never existed. Zuko, who'd been a frightened and confused child back then, had briefly considered the possibility that a spirit had snatched her away and made everyone but him and Azula forget about her. In his desperation for answers, Zuko had scoured the royal library and archives for information about spirits, hopeful that he could find out what happened and maybe save his mother.

What he got instead was an endless source of nightmare fuel. Each story had made him more and more afraid. And some of them came with dark and twisted illustrations that appeared in his mind every time he closed his eyes.

Still, he kept looking. Even after he finally accepted that his mother hadn't been taken by a spirit. He continued to turn to those haunting stories with a morbid fascination. They almost became comforting, in a strange way. A distraction from the pressure and anxiety that kept growing and growing during the years between his mother's disappearance and his own banishment. The Agni Kai had taught him what real fear was like. After that, those stories he'd read were nothing but childish fantasy. Monsters might exist, but they couldn't compare to the horrors Zuko experienced in the real world.

So, no, Zuko wasn't being kept awake by fear of spirits and monsters.

Try as he might, though, Zuko couldn't get to sleep and spent hours tossing and turning, often jolting Sokka awake and prompting an angry, sleep-deprived rant from him. Zuko just sort of tuned him out after a while as he was too on-edge to really listen. The thing that kept him awake was a realization that was more disturbing to him than any spirit tale.

He wasn't sure how it happened. He couldn't definitively remember when it had started. Somehow, some way, he found that he really did like this little band of kids and their crazy adventures. It was like he was a piece missing from a puzzle and had suddenly found the spot he was meant to fit. Even fighting with Sokka or helping Katara with meals or telling Aang not to touch snapping turtle-beetles almost came naturally to him, as if he had a role he didn't know needed to be filled.

It was…nice, he had to admit.

Feeling like he belonged somewhere, feeling needed, it was a strange experience for him. For so long, Zuko felt like his presence was an imposition, even a burden for the people around him. He knew he wasn't the most likeable person. He had a temper, he wasn't sociable and friendly, he made stupid decisions based on his emotions, he often said the wrong thing and offended people even when he didn't mean to, he was stubborn and reckless, he was a dishonored and shameful disappointment in the eyes of his family, he didn't have the power and wealth that his title suggested, and he wasn't an exceptionally talented firebender. Why would anyone like him at this point?

Apparently, the answer was: Aang, Katara, and…maybe Sokka. He wasn't entirely sure on that one. However, seeing as Sokka never did anything to genuinely hurt him despite their fighting, Zuko would take that as being fairly close to having a friend. With Aang and Katara, though, Zuko was reasonably certain that that counted as friendship.

It had been a long time since Zuko could honestly say he had a friend. In truth, the only real friend he could remember ever having before he met Aang, Katara, and Sokka was his cousin Lu Ten.

And he was not going to reopen that old wound.

Pushing aside those unpleasant feelings, Zuko tried to roll over onto his side. Forgetting, in his tired and contemplative state that he was still very much attached to Sokka.

"Hey, knock it off," Sokka said, giving him a light kick. There was no real force behind it, but Zuko kicked him back anyway.

The two got into a brief kicking war which didn't stop until Katara had enough and yelled at them both to give it a rest and let her sleep. Zuko and Sokka both pouted as they lay there, scowling up at the starry sky above them.

"Hey, Zuko?" Sokka said after a while.

"What?"

"I'm starting to regret handcuffing us together."

"No kidding." Zuko's tone was drier than the Si Wong Desert.

"Honestly, it seemed like a good idea at the time. You know, to keep you from trying to kidnap Aang."

"Uh-huh."

"Now, though, it seems that I might have, maybe, kind of underestimated how difficult it would be to keep this up."

Zuko gave a noncommittal grunt of acknowledgement and closed his eyes, hoping that Sokka would take the hint to go back to sleep.

"Hey, Zuko?"

No such luck.

"What now?"

"Is there some other way you can go back to the Fire Nation? Without having to capture Aang, I mean."

Zuko gave a deep, weary sigh that was tinged with bitterness.

"No. The terms of my banishment were very clear. If I don't capture the Avatar, I can't go home."

"There's really nothing else you can do?"

"Other than, I don't know, conquering Ba Sing Se. Would you be fine with that?"

"…Not as such."

"Then, no. There's nothing else I can do."

They lay there in silence for another couple minutes before Sokka spoke up again.

"You know, it's pretty messed up. Your dad banishing you and all."

Zuko groaned in frustration. He did not want to have this conversation.

"It was my own fault," Zuko said.

"Sorry, but I don't really buy that. I don't know what you did, but you don't seem like the kind of person to do something banishment-worthy."

"Just leave it alone, Sokka. I already talked to Katara about this. I don't want to discuss it again."

"I was only trying to-"

"Well, don't. If you keep prying, I'll follow Katara's advice and ask King Xook to take you away."

"Oh, come on. It's not like you actually believe in that."

"Why not? Stranger things have happened."

"It's ridiculous. Really, all this spirit stuff is so crazy. I don't know what my ancestors were thinking passing down stories like that."

"I wouldn't mock the spirits, Sokka. If your ancestors were scared enough of King Xook to warn future generations about him, maybe you shouldn't try to make him mad."

"Please. Someone just made the whole thing up as a way to frighten little kids into behaving. There is no King Xook anymore than there are hungry ghosts, Shadow People, or Hajime the killer scarecrow. And, even if there was, Katara said that Kangee the raven spirit will keep him away."

"I thought you didn't believe in things like that."

"Well, if King Xook is real, which he's not, but if he is, then I can suspend my disbelief in guardian spirits."

"…That seems like a very weird way of looking at things."

"Hey, until a few weeks ago, I'd never seen a spirit before. I've been reevaluating some of my thoughts about spiritual stuff, but I'm not willing to fully drink the mumbo-jumbo juice just yet."

"Well, on your own head be it. Don't say no one warned you."

Sokka scoffed and rolled onto his side, giving Zuko's arm one final yank for good measure.

Sokka wasn't afraid of spirits.

He barely accepted that they even existed, to be honest. If he hadn't been kidnapped by Hei Bai and trapped in the Spirit World for a whole day, he could have continued in being blissfully ignorant of the incredibly weird and messed-up aspect of the universe that was anything and everything connected to spirits.

Sadly, it was his lot in life to get caught up in things he neither understood nor wanted anything to do with.

Even as a kid, Sokka had his doubts about the spirits. Everyone always liked to talk about spirits in his tribe. As was obvious from Katara's story time circle, a vast number of Water Tribe tales involved spirits or human encounters with them. In most of those stories, though, the spirits seldom came across as good people. In fact, most of the time, the spirits sounded like arrogant jerks who did whatever they wanted to humans for any arbitrary reason. They were beings that existed outside the framework of logic, reason, or understanding. Even in Katara's story about the Shadow People, the spirits only became involved when they had become offended and hadn't cared at all about the innocents who'd been harmed.

Sokka didn't want anything to do with things like that. Frankly, it was better for his sanity to just pretend that spirits weren't real.

Hei Bai had changed that. It was the most confusing and frightening experience he'd ever had. Katara said he'd only been gone a day, but it had felt much more like years. He'd run for ages through a forest of bamboo that had gone on, and on, and on with no exit in sight. He'd heard cries for help and pitiful wailing all around him, probably from the trapped villagers. He'd tried to follow the noise, but all he saw was bamboo. Impenetrable, suffocating, and endless. He could very well have been stuck there forever if Aang hadn't pacified Hei Bai.

No, Sokka wasn't afraid of spirits. He was terrified of them.

The only spirits Sokka might give the benefit of the doubt were his tribe's guardians. Like Mother Sedna or the White Buffalo-Moose or Kangee the raven spirit. At least they protected people or helped hunters and warriors instead of kidnapping innocent bystanders just because they're angry about something. Besides, beings like Mother Sedna were also considered ancestors of the tribe and needed to be treated with respect. Or even the Water Mother, who was feared for her wrath but also shielded the tribe from even worse spirits that might harm them.

Well, that was the message Sokka had always heard growing up, anyway. He hadn't seen his tribe's guardians any more than he'd seen King Xook or the Shadow People or Snow Wolves, so he was never entirely certain they existed, either. And he also wasn't too keen on giving them more thought than necessary.

After all, if the tribal guardians were so powerful and actually cared about the Southern Water Tribe, they wouldn't have let his mother be killed.

As far as Sokka was concerned, the spirits who weren't outright evil were selfish, petty, cruel, or indifferent. It was best to have as little to do with them as possible and everything would be fine.

Squelch, squelch, squelch.

The sound roused Sokka from his contemplative drifting between sleep and awareness.

Squelch, squelch, squelch.

It was very strange. Almost as if large feet were stomping through wet sand in a pair of old boots.

Squelch, squelch, squelch.

It was getting closer. Unable to fight his natural curiosity, Sokka peered over the top of his sleeping bag. It was hard to see in the dark. The sky was cloudy and the fire had dwindled down to embers. Even so, he could just make out the shape of a large, dark, oddly-shaped figure coming straight towards them.

Just then, a breeze rushed through, stirring the campfire back to life for just long enough to illuminate a set of inhumanly large, pointed teeth and silvery eyes with slitted pupils before everything was engulfed in darkness once more.

That was all the prompting Sokka needed.

"RUN!" he shrieked at the top of his lungs.

He jolted from his sleeping bag, dragging a startled Zuko with him. With his free hand, he grabbed a dazed Katara by the wrist as she got to her feet and yelled at Aang to get moving. Normally, Sokka would have tried to stand and fight whatever opponent thought they could sneak up on him, but this wasn't a normal circumstance.

King Xook was not a spirit that humans could take on easily.

So, they had no choice but to make a run for it. They managed to get up the embankment and headed for the safe cover of the trees. Sadly, in his frantic state, Sokka had forgotten that he was still very much handcuffed to Zuko. The two of them ran to either side of a tree, causing the linking chain to catch and sending them face-first into each other.

"Sokka, what's going on?!" Katara said as Sokka and Zuko both rubbed at the sore spots on their heads where they'd made impact.

"It's King Xook," said Sokka. "I saw him, Katara. He had big nasty teeth and-"

"Oh, for goodness' sake, Sokka. Why would King Xook be here?"

"Maybe we talked about him too much and he took offence."

"I thought you said you didn't believe in him," said Zuko.

"Well, it's hard to be skeptical when a monster from the deep is staring right in your face."

A loud roar from their campsite suddenly shook the night air.

"It's Appa!" Aang said frantically. "We can't leave him behind for an evil shark spirit to eat!"

Aang, despite his earlier fears of being snatched away by King Xook, raced back down to the beach as fast as his airbending powers allowed. The rest of the team called after him and, realizing he wouldn't come back without Appa, quickly followed him. They arrived back at the camp to find Aang clinging to his beloved bison while Momo frantically chittered and bounced up and down.

But Aang and the animals weren't alone.

Sokka rubbed his eyes with his free hand to make sure he wasn't mistaken. A small, lean man with a pointed face and beady black eyes was standing nearby, holding up a lantern. He was dressed all in black except for a wooden clasp on his coat that Sokka thought looked like a bird. He was nothing like the figure that had startled Sokka out of bed and he would swear to it.

"Sorry to startle you kids," the man said. He had a scratchy quality about his voice when he spoke. "I saw your campfire and wanted to make sure you weren't in trouble."

"Who are you?" said Sokka, his sense of paranoia still running high. "Why would you think we're in trouble?"

"The name's 'Asuka,'" the man replied. "And I only ask because there was a nasty scuffle that took place not long ago and not too far from here." He pointed off towards the distance. "Over that way. Somewhere in the woods, I think."

Asuka raised his lantern higher and stared directly at Sokka and Katara.

"Water Tribe kids, huh?" he said. "You two especially need to be careful around here. There's no telling who or what might be wandering around in the night."

"What do you mean?" said Katara.

"Some Fire Nation admiral has been out for blood against the Water Tribes. Nearly caught a group of their warriors, I hear."

"Water Tribes warriors?" said Sokka, his interest piqued. "There were Water Tribe warriors around here?"

"Yep. Those men come and go with the tides. You never know where they might turn up."

"Sokka, do you think it could be Dad?" said Katara.

Sokka forced himself not to start shaking. It wasn't manly to tremble, even if it was at the thought of seeing his father again after so long. As he looked off in the direction Asuka had pointed, an unexpected warm feeling of hope bubbled up inside him and clashed against his intense and bitter pessimism.

"We should check it out at first light," he said. He turned back to Asuka. "Thanks for—hey, where'd he go?"

They all glanced around, but Asuka was gone. None of them had noticed his departure and no trace of his lantern could be seen in the darkness. As Sokka examined the spot where the man had stood, he noticed something else that left him feeling unsettled.

Asuka had left no footprints in the sand.

Iroh felt like he was losing his mind.

Not a single clue for days, and then, out of the blue, a letter arrived talking about ransom. The additional message from his White Lotus colleagues in Makapu was somewhat more reassuring, though not by much.

At least he knew Zuko was alive and – as far as the agents could tell – uninjured.

Still, he would not be able to sleep soundly at night until his nephew was safely back aboard the ship. Being a member of the royal family, Iroh was not immune to paranoia. In fact, when it came to Zuko, Iroh's paranoia seemed to become magnified a hundredfold. In the time his nephew had been missing, Iroh's brain had run through a variety of worst-case scenarios from Zuko having gotten hurt while out on his mission and being left to bleed out alone in the woods, to being snatched by spirits, to the absolute worst possibility that Zuko had been secretly imprisoned by Zhao.

Just the idea of that outcome was enough to make Iroh seriously consider breaking into Pohuai Stronghold, himself, just to make sure Zuko wasn't there.

Finding out that Zuko had simply gotten 'kidnapped' by the Avatar and his friends brought a strange mix of relief and worry. The Avatar was clearly a kind-hearted and innocent child who certainly wouldn't purposefully hurt Zuko, but the Avatar was also on the top of the Fire Nation's most-wanted list and Zuko could end up either getting caught in the crossfire of the attempts to capture the last airbender or Zuko could potentially be labeled a traitor if someone suspected him of helping the boy.

Knowing Zuko's real nature as he did, the second outcome was far likelier than even Zuko would admit. Iroh had a feeling that his nephew, as good and compassionate and protective as he was beneath his gruff and embittered exterior, would undoubtedly form a connection with the Avatar and his friends and would try to keep them out of harm's way. At the very least, Zuko wouldn't want someone else capturing the Avatar besides him and would definitely do something potentially treasonous to help the boy escape.

Iroh did have high hopes about Zuko befriending people of other nations and realizing that the Fire Nation was not the perfect epitome of civilization it purported to be. Zuko had a great destiny awaiting him and that destiny would only be possible if he put aside the indoctrination and prejudice of his homeland and learned to embrace other people and other cultures. When they were traveling, Iroh had tried to subtly point things out to his nephew, little inconsistencies with the Fire Nation supremacy narrative. At the Air Temples, he'd attempted to draw Zuko's attention to the Air Nomad's art and artifacts and how there was no hint of the warlike attitude the propaganda attributed to them; Zuko, of course, just ignored him and snapped about wasting time looking at paintings when they had to capture the Avatar.

So, yes, Iroh was extremely relieved that Zuko was now in a situation where he could learn to develop a better understanding of the truth regarding the other nations. That being said, he was still worried beyond belief and wouldn't feel reassured until Zuko was safe and sound back on the ship so they could have a lengthy heart-to-heart where Iroh would be able to properly explain everything the boy needed to hear. He was even prepared to finally start letting Zuko in on details about the Order of the White Lotus, just to make sure his nephew was better prepared for the future. However, to do that, he needed Zuko alive and well and back on the ship.

The letter had mentioned a ransom and a time and place for the exchange, but Iroh needed to see his nephew right away.

But how was he to find him?

CRASH!

Iroh hurried out onto the deck to see a fearsome vision of loveliness riding a shirshu and couldn't help but wonder if his friends in the Spirit World had been listening to his thoughts again and decided to give him a little help.

Since the sun came up, Sokka had the feeling that someone or something was watching them. But each time he looked, all he ever saw were trees and maybe a bird or two. Mostly ravens, from what he could tell.

Still, he felt on a much more even keel with the sun shining brightly after the weirdness of the previous night.

He was still convinced that the dark figure that had woken him was not that Asuka guy. He wasn't sure what made him think that, but his instincts told him that they really had just barely escaped a dangerous situation. And his instincts rarely let him down.

"I'm not crazy," Sokka said after Katara complained that he'd disturbed everyone's sleep for nothing. "There was something bad out there."

"All you saw was a local wandering the beach," said Katara.

"In the middle of the night?"

"He was probably just…doing night watch duty."

"I don't know," said Zuko. "That guy did seem strange. And none of us saw him leave."

No footprints in the sand, Sokka's brain reminded him.

"Well, whatever that was about, it's behind us," Aang said. "Let's just get back to flying."

But Sokka wasn't going to let the matter drop. Asuka had mentioned a scuffle had taken place nearby and that Water Tribe warriors had been in the area not long ago. If there was a possibility that it was his father and the southern warriors, Sokka needed to know.

After they finished packing up, Sokka led them into the woods to see if there was any evidence left of what had happened.

Sure enough, it wasn't long before Aang found a whale-tooth scimitar lodged in the ground. Sokka examined it closely and recognized it as being distinctly of Water Tribe make. A brief, painful flash of memory filled his head. The Water Tribe warriors loading their ships, preparing to set out for an unknown fate.

"Sokka? Sokka?" Zuko said, giving him a light shove.

"This is a Water Tribe weapon," Sokka said. He turned to Aang. "See if you can find anything else."

Sokka moved to join Aang in searching, forgetting once more that he and Zuko were bound together and accidentally yanking his arm hard enough that Zuko fell on top of him, sending them both tumbling to the ground. A nearby burst of laughter let them know that Katara had seen their mishap.

The two awkwardly got to their feet and brushed themselves off as best they could while still being handcuffed together.

"You two have got to get those handcuffs off," said Katara.

"No kidding," Sokka drawled. "Here I thought we were having a grand old time like this."

"Sokka, for the millionth time, it was your idiotic idea to handcuff us together, in the first place," said Zuko.

Sokka wasn't going to dignify that comment with a response. Instead, he turned and began looking through the nearby brush.

"Did someone lose something?" said Katara.

"No, we found something!" Aang chimed in.

As they investigated, a story began to unfold before Sokka's eyes. A battle between Water Tribe warriors and a group of firebenders. So far, he saw no evidence of casualties, but looks could be deceiving. If the Water Tribe warriors had won, they would have given any dead a water burial regardless of it was their own men or their enemies, so there would be no remains to be found. If the firebenders had won, Sokka doubted they would have given the Water Tribe warriors the same level of respect and would have likely just left their bodies to rot.

Sokka omitted that last part from his narration to the others. Aang would only be upset at hearing about death. Katara would get mad at Sokka for his grim yet realistic thoughts. And, though he hated to admit it, he didn't really want to bring up dead firebenders in front of Zuko in case it struck a nerve in the temperamental prince.

Not that Sokka cared about his feelings, of course.

"So, then what happened?" Aang asked as they once more set foot on the beach.

"I don't know," said Sokka. "The trail ends here."

"Wait, look!" Katara shouted.

There, half-hidden behind the rocks, was an unmistakable ship of the Southern Water Tribe.

"Is this Dad's boat?" Katara asked as they came closer.

"No, but it's from his fleet," said Sokka. "Dad was here."

Author's Note: Yeah, the Halloween spirit is getting to me. This was originally supposed to be the "Bato" episode, but I was having such a hard time figuring out how I wanted to change it up that I ended up writing this instead.

I get the feeling that Katara and Zuko are both really into scary stories. We know Katara canonically is, what with the "Nini" story, but I feel that Zuko enjoys stuff like that, too.

Sokka and spirits is such an interesting dynamic to contemplate. Even after everything he's seen, it's like he's going out of his way to be an atheist in a world where divine beings can show up pretty much whenever they like. He's traveling with the Avatar, who is basically a god on earth, but his reaction to almost everything is, "Nah, spirits don't have anything to do with this. Logic, logic, logic." Also, has anyone noticed that whenever Sokka suggests something weird or supernatural is going on he is immediately dismissed by everyone just as much as when he's being skeptical of supernatural things?

It always strikes me as odd in fanfiction whenever people write characters swearing by a spirit's name. Like, for instance, Sokka or Katara saying, "For La's sake!" or "For the love of Tui" and stuff like that. No one ever did that in canon and it feels sort of weird to me. Katara and Sokka never really seemed to know about Tui and La. Katara didn't even realize the full moon boosted her bending power until Yue pointed out that the moon gives "strength" to Water Tribe people. Personally, I think the Southern Water Tribe might revere different spirits, so that's what I decided to go with. I even unintentionally created the Waning Moon Spirit and the Water Mother to serve as sort of negative parallels to Tui and La. While Tui and La work together and are revered in the North, Waning Moon and Water Mother are always at war and serve as sources of fear in the South.

Kangee is inspired by various raven spirits from different Native American tribes. He's seen as a trickster, but also as a creator and a friend of humanity. Also, in my Water Tribe interpretation, he protects people of the SWT when they travel far from home. The name he gives when pretending to be human, "Asuka," is a Japanese name that can mean "fly, bird" depending on the kanji characters.

Most of Katara's stories are inspired by the legends of different Native American cultures. I even had her drop a "wendigo" reference. She also mentions "Tailypo," which is from Appalachian folklore.

Xook is a Mayan word for "shark."

The angakkuq is a spiritual leader in traditional Inuit religion.

Zuko's story is based on the short story "Harold" from the horror anthology "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark."

Aang's story is based partly on Buddhist tales of hungry ghosts and, of course, the Yeti comes from Tibetan lore. Also, during my research, I found an interesting article titled "Hungry Ghosts" by Natalie Linh Bolderston on The White Review. It explains Hungry Ghosts within a Vietnamese cultural context and the effects of the legend of Địa Tạng Vương Bồ Tát ("the Buddha of the Underworld") within the framework of generational trauma. Also, 'Miaoshan' is one of the incarnations of the Boddhisatva Guanyin (the goddess of mercy).

Your C-drama recommendation is "The Unknown: Legend of Exorcist Zhong Kui." Three immortal martial arts masters are reborn into the mortal realm and receive instructions from their master to fight against demons that seek to throw heaven and earth into chaos.

I only just started this one, but it's really just a lot of goofy, campy fun with silly costumes and some fun cliches. The opening arc involves two feuding martial arts sects and, of course, there are "two lovers, forbidden from one another." It looks like it's going to have more intense drama going forward, but, so far, it's been pretty basic. I mostly chose this because I wanted to have a sort of spooky-ish drama to recommend for Halloween (though, honestly, Word of Honor or The Untamed would probably have worked better).