I just realized that I forgot to add a disclaimer, so here it is: I do not own Avatar and never will.
First Sight
I remember how life used to be, before I could see. I never knew what was going on around me. I hate to admit it, but I was just the tiniest bit scared back then. All right, I was very scared… all of the time. There, I said it. My world had been nothing but a big black void. The one plus to being blind was that my hearing improved. I can identify people by the sound of their voices after only hearing their voice once. As I grew older I began to sense where things were. At that time I thought it was because I was familiar with where everything was, but that was not the case.
It was a few days after my fourth birthday that I discovered my earthbending and my 'sight.' On that day my parents had some guest over for dinner, so I was stuck in my room. Two guards were stationed outside my door. My parents said that they were there to protect me, but I knew that that was not the real reason. They were here to keep me in. I was a prisoner in my own home. Nobody knew about me except those that lived here, which wasn't many. I had been stuck in my room for hours and it was driving me insane. I hated being cooped up inside. I hated it! I hated it!! I HATED IT!!! I got so tired of being in my room that I climbed out of my window. I sighed in pleasure as my feet hit the ground. My toes curled around the blades of grass. I stepped away from the wall and headed towards the flower garden.
When I was about halfway to the garden I heard a noise in the air, like the beating of a bird's wings. I knew it was a vulture monkey, for I had heard them flying over quite a bit lately. I felt the vulture monkey grab my arms with his claws. I managed to bite back my scream as he lifted me into the air, not wanting the guards to know that I had slipped away. I could no longer feel the solid earth under my feet, only the claws digging into my skin. I felt the ground grow farther and farther away from me. Terrified, I panicked and kicked my foot up. I had never been so far away from the ground. I felt a piece of earth move upwards, closer to me. The bird squawked loudly as the boulder hit him. I felt his claws release me and I felt myself falling through the air. I pulled my hands up and felt the earth rush up to catch me. The earth slowly brought me down to the ground as I lowered my hands. I heard the bird flying away rapidly. A grin of satisfaction crossed my face. I, Toph Bei Fong, the blind helpless girl, had fought a vulture monkey and won. At that point in time I knew that I was meant to do more with my life than rot here.
After several minutes had passed I decided it was time to head back, knowing the guards could discover my absence at any time. I was about to head back when I realized the ground did not feel as it usually did. The ground was scarred from my earthbending. I fixed the land as best as I could. It taxed my strength, moving all of the big chunks of earth around. But, you do got to admit that was a pretty amazing feat for a four-year-old that was bending for the first time. I know that not even Katara, Miss Perfect, could have done that.
I had put all of the big pieces back and was working on the smaller rocks when I heard, or rather sensed, that someone was walking towards me. I sighed; knowing it was Master Yu, an earthbending teacher that lived here. I dropped my earthbending stance and turned to face him.
"What are you doing out here, Toph?" Yu had asked. "And were you just doing what I think you were doing?"
"I… I… heard something and got scared," I had replied. I hated acting like I was so helpless all of the time. It bothered me. But at the time I thought that I had no choice.
"You are all sweaty, Toph. Moving those tiny pebbles is too hard for you to be attempting."
It was then that I knew he had not seen all of my earthbending. He had just seen the very end of it, when I was moving the rocks that weighed less than a pound. "I was moving pebbles? I though I was moving big boulders."
"You need to be trained before you can move anything that big, and even then I'm not sure that you would be able to." He grabbed my hand with his large one. It was pretty smooth for an earthbender's hand. "Come. The guests have left. We need to talk to your father."
And after my parents found out about me being an earthbender they hired even more guards to protect me. I think that they thought I would hurt myself with a rock while trying to earthbend. If only they had known that my earthbending had given me sight. I wonder what their reaction to that would have been. It probably would have been bad, so I guess it's for the best that I don't know. But I do know that I am the greatest earthbender in the world, for I am the Blind Bandit.
Well? What do you think? I was looking at writing prompts and I found one that said start with 'I remember' and go from there, so that's what I did.
R&R!
I might add more and I might not. It's your call.