A small fire twirled and twisted its way as the flickering steps of each flame danced across unfolded fingertips whilst gently licking at the air within an outstretched palm. The room was fairly mutedly lit as all the fire torches had been dimmed and shadows danced about in unison with each and every flicker of the flames that licked so gently across the rough palm. A soft sigh resounded around the room increasing the intensity of the fire ever so slightly as it seemed to pause in the dance and waver. Each and every breath made the fire burn brighter before returning it to its originally dim state just to restart as another breath was in- or exhaled. A few moments of this continued as the fire danced about, frolicking tamely across welcoming fingers. The manipulator then sighed rather noisily and snapped his fingers extinguishing the flame a short while later with a small pop.

"The face of the enemy; the face of a scarred one marked with dishonour…"
"My phantom face…"

On the far side of Ba-Sing-Sei, near the worst parts of the Lower Tiers, a blue masked phantom lurks with a world renounced talent of fire-bending and haunts the old opera house whilst residing within the crystal catacombs. He is known to wear the blue mask in order to hide a scar that covers much of the left side of his once handsome face that was deformed through an Agni Kai between himself and a loved one long, long ago. The phantom, then an honour-stripped noble, left the fire-nation in humiliation and became a master of arts in the great, wealthy earth kingdom. It is said that he died in the opera house whilst passing on his talents of the arts to his favorite student. Nobody knows how or what happened but to this day, it is said that the blue masked phantom haunts that opera house and vanishes young girls under the impression of teaching them his great skills.

All around the campfire was utterly silent. A flame flickered quietly, leaving shadowed lines as it danced across four somber visages. The grinning, toothless countenance of an old man gazed brightly around as the impact of his age-old ghost story set in and stared through the faces of the four young travelers he had relayed it to. The Avatar and his companions sat in silence as they gazed pensively into the flames pondering the story. Sitting there, Katara could only think of her mother as the darkness threatened to swallow them all up while they camped out in one of the Bei Fong's other, currently unoccupied, residential houses in the Upper Tiers. In the old folk story, the old man had mentioned that a masked phantom had perfected the arts of the earth kingdom. That struck a chord with the young water bender as she remembered vaguely a time when her mother had once admitted to wanting to learn such arts. Katara sighed, not quite concentrating hard enough on the gist of the tale, considering it was a mere folk story, and wished briefly that the phantom existed so he could teach her those arts. Wouldn't it be such a nice way to please her mother watching? Katara's wish was only fleeting though as she then recognized the stupidity of it and disregarded the thought.

Seemingly also not following with the gist of the story, Sokka piped up and pondered aloud whilst tapping his boomerang to his lower lip slowly. The comment brought the whole group out of their meditative states and all attention was drawn to the water tribe warrior.

"How do you know he died? Can't he just be really old and haunting the place?" he asked simply. There was a moment of silence in which everyone's faces contorted in disbelief.

"No, birdbrain, you can't haunt something if you're not a ghost." a young earth bender, Toph, replied then. Quiet bickering came about and Katara sighed letting her mind wander again as she leaned back on her hands and thought over the story.

"How do we know where it is?" a loud voice complained. Three heads all turned and gazed at Sokka as a soft wind blew through the clouds around them. Appa groaned softly and Katara rolled her eyes.

"It's bound to be easily noticeable." she replied.

"Yeah; it's a giant, age-old opera house. How hard can that be to find?" Aang added from his seat upon Appa's head.

"Twinkle Toes is right. The Blue Skirted Opera House is pretty hard to miss unless you're actually blind and even then I can still find it." Toph yawned in response.

The group was currently flying across the Earth Kingdom territories just outside of Ba Sing Sei on the return of a trip taken earlier that morning. They had agreed the night before, after hearing the tale of the Blue Phantom, to visit the place that was rumored to be so haunted. Katara had taken particular interest though knowing that it was all a folk legend, and wished to see it hoping there might be some remains of the great arts from which she could learn in order to feel the dreams her mother had made when she was young.

"There," Aang substituted a short while later. Three heads all turned to the particular building to which the young avatar was indicating whilst Appa was directed to land beside it. With a soft grunt, the group landed beside a massively built up and intricately decorated structure. The opera house was all built out of stone that had been bent and shaped into complicated figures that danced along the columns that held up, what looked like the front entrance. All along the solid looking outer walls, other figures and masks had been carved into decorative characteristics.

Sliding off of Appa's back first, Katara landed upon the ground with an awed look as she stared towards the monumental structure. The three visible external sides where enough to astonish the girl and cause her to gaze up in amazement. The fourth side, the left wall, was pressed against a rocky outcropping and the opera house seemed to have been built into it as Aang and the others were soon to discover.

Sliding to the ground next, Sokka stretched, ignoring the vast construction before him, and let out a bored yawn.

"Alright, chop, chop; if we're going to stay on schedule, we better be quick here." Pausing to check a map-like schedule scroll, the Water Tribe Warrior nodded. "We can spend no longer than…I'd say an hour here." Nodding to himself again, Sokka rolled up his scroll and stuck it in his back sack. "Now, onward!" he commanded. Marching exaggeratedly, the boy began to lead the way into the opera house whilst the others followed wordlessly after exchanging un-amused glances.

Zuko sighed as he placed another tray of emptied tea cups on the counter in the back of his uncle's tea shop. The Jasmine Dragon was particularly slow running that day as the scarred bus boy slumped down on a stool in his exhaustion. The night before had been horribly fitful for the ex-prince of the Fire Nation for reasons Zuko didn't care to ponder. He knew the avatar was in Ba Sing Sei and it was all he could do to stay in the tea shop helping day after day as was expected by his uncle. The concept of the avatar being there, freely moving about carelessly - it took every ounce of self control Zuko had to keep himself from being driven over the edge by the thought. He wanted to be out there on the hunt. He felt as if he was just in reach of the ultimate prize but was being restrained by abstract bars of camouflage. It was maddening.

"Li, bring back another tray to table three please." his uncle summoned. Zuko glanced up and, with a bleary, frustrated nod, stood to refill the tea pot. Carrying the tea to table three, the exiled prince caught tidbits of conversation here and there but paid no attention to many of them whatsoever.

"The new mud bath at the Cozy Cufflink is absolutely horrible. I advise you pay it no mind."

"Oh, my sister did have a dip and in agreement said it was dreadfully smelly as opposed to others."

"Yes, yes. It is quite."

Zuko let out a soft grunt as he paused at table three and balanced the tray so as to pour the ladies more tea. He listened quietly to their conversation that carried no interest for the exiled prince whatsoever.

"But did you hear of that little zoo right by there? I heard the avatar fixed it up himself. Or he helped with something, I'm not sure." one of the ladies continued. With a nod of thanks, she picked up her tea cup and took a sip whilst Zuko's interest perked up ever so slightly.

"I did," the other woman replied. "Lovely place. My daughter visits it often and that boy is so nice. He's awfully polite too. So young though to already have taken the task of avatar on his shoulders. It's a pity he won't have much of a normal life what with this war and all." The woman's voice lowered ever so slightly as she spoke.

"But he does take time off. I've heard that today he's visiting the site of that old legend. The one about the Blue Spirit."

"Yes, that girl was interested in it was she not?"

Zuko's interest peaked as he set down the tea pot on his tray once more. Legend? Girl? Possible….plan? The woman who'd been speaking gave her thanks and picked up her own tea cup before taking a sip. Zuko nodded in return and readjusted his tray pondering what he'd heard as he made his way back to the counter. With a soft clattering, he replaced the tray in its rightful area and turned just as Iroh entered.

"Uncle," Zuko began. "What's this about a Blue Spirit legend?"

"Legend?" Iroh questioned as he turned to face his nephew. "Ah-ha. I see you've heard about the avatar's plans for the day." he chuckled knowingly. "Sit, and I shall tell you the story."

The sun had just begun to set over the infamous Blue Skirted Opera House as Aang and the others exited the beautiful building. Birds chirped softly in the warm summer breezes as Katara came to stand outside the entrance and looked back. It had been something of an interesting visit. The Opera House was definitely something to see despite Sokka's constant snide or sarcastic remarks and Katara was glad that she'd been able to explore its depths. Climbing onto Appa's back with the others, she smiled and turned her attentions to the group's ponderings on dinner as the flying bison took off.

Sunset had fallen as Zuko finally stepped into the apartment he shared with his uncle. All day his mind had been swirling with thoughts of the Blue Spirit legend and the avatar until he'd finally come to a decisive conclusion. Within a few swift movements he was on his feet and out the door once more.

Alrighty, I tried a new style but I'm not sure how much I like it. It's easier but…odd. Obviously meant to confuse you, I think I might stick with it for awhile. XD Review and tell me how you all like or hate it. No flames and the plot will be further revealed in the next chapter which, hopefully, will be far longer. This was icky short. It's mostly background though, hopefully it'll improve.