I don't own Avatar and never will (Avatar deserves to fly free), this is just a fiction set from Bitter Work onward. This is a Toph fiction primarily with a hint of Kataang plus a little Sukka. All the characters you recognize I do not own, the TERMS, NAMES, and PLACES that you do not recognize I do own however. This is a long fiction and it as you will see starts out a little slow. But if it takes your fancy, read a little more. I am under the impression that it is very good.
Stranger
Aang was very pleased with himself for his advances in his training, the change from thinking like an airbender to an earthbender was hard and took time. As he said when they left the outskirts of the Bei Fong estate, Toph did indeed turn out to be a great teacher, albeit a harsh one. Still getting praise out of her made the struggle of training all the more pleasurable. Katara was still his favorite teacher not to mention he was in love with her. After training so much they had all decided to go to the beach and have some fun for a change. On top of that everyone was in a especially good mood as they had met up with some old friends; The Kyoshi Warriors. Suki had joined up with them and headed out along side her friends on the way to the Earth Kingdom coast, from all the ordeals they had gone through recently some fun at the beach was appealing.
Appa flew at a leisurely pace toward the coast then along it. The gang was chatting happily amongst themselves. Sokka was showing off his arms to Suki, rather proud of himself for his tone. Katara teased him about his compulsive need to flex his muscles whenever he saw his reflection. Aang himself was just daydreaming, looking forward to the day to come. Toph just hung on to Appa's saddle, she hated flying, the sensation made her uneasy. The beach was not her favorite place either, the sand was loose, the earth unstable. It limited her sight, if there was one thing she hated more than anything; it was not able to see. Aang spied from Appa's head the best place to land, "Over there…..no. Over there……no……. THERE!" he barked.
A quaint little valley in the beach, made of rocks with sand and a small beach, less than fifty feet in diameter. It also had a ridge that gave it some nice shade , "yip yip!" said Aang directing Appa to the shallow water in the mouth of the crescent. "Finally!" thought Toph in relief. The gang however was too busy chatting excitedly about what they wanted to do first to notice the small catamaran stuck in shallows.
Appa landed with a splash on the crystalline waters, but no one jumped off. Sokka was a bit oblivious almost hopping off, until he saw the small crooked ship. The ship showed signs of battle, the sail had cuts. And dents from the stern to the rudder, Fire Nation arrows were sticking out of it on all sides, the orange, triangular sail was torn and had smoke stains. The only thing visible on it other than the stains was a strange rune which was peculiar and unique. "Someone had a bad time at sea" said Sokka hopping off and going over to investigate the ship, "Sokka get away from that boat its not ours!" said Katara irritated by her brother's brash curiosity. "What's going on?" asked Toph, "It's a ship!" shouted Sokka, "The owner isn't around" he added.
The ship itself was very strange, it somewhat resembled two Fire Nation warships tied together save it was made of wood, and the sail was triangular with skeleton support beams fully stretching the sail open. Sokka looked around at the stuff on the ship, tied down urns with similarly strange runes, but these although they resembled the rune on the orange sail; they looked more like writing rather than a symbol like the banner rune on the sail, there was also a small cabinet with the glint of armor and weapons visible from it tied to the urns. Suki and Toph walked off Appa's tail into the shallow waters, Aang jumped off Appa spinning and landing on the ship in one fluid movement, "Any idea what happened to the owner?" he asked. "Nope" said Sokka reaching into an uncovered urn, "Leave that alone, the owner could still be around!" said Katara, "SOKKA! AANG!" she yelled at them as they reached into the urns.
"Katara look!" said Sokka pulling out some white, heavily spiced cheese and a coarse bottle "Cheese!...and sweet wine!" he said taking a little sip. Suki took hold of Toph's hand and led her to shore, ignoring the arguing of her friends. Toph could see vaguely the shapes of everything around her from the sound of the small waves and her friends arguing. Suki let go of Toph's hand on the shore, "I'm going to go check on the children" she said smiling and wading through the water towards the group. Toph sighed, her faded glassy eyes remained fixed in place as the surveyed her surroundings, she couldn't see more than fifteen feet around her and even then everything was blurry. "I guess I'll just find somewhere to lie down" she thought going to the crest of the dune leading to the sandy beach head itself. She half-smiled hearing the reactions of her friends, Sokka was apparently helping himself to the food onboard and Katara was scolding him and so was Suki. Aang was simply sitting quietly waiting for the situation to rectify itself while inspecting the ship curiously.
"Well I'm stuck here for the day, might as well get some shut eye while they sort themselves out" she said to herself as she reached the summit, upon taking a few more steps she was stopped by something. She found she was no longer standing on sand, but rather something more solid, that shifted as she shifted her weight, she wriggled her toes, it felt like skin, and a heartbeat. She squeaked in surprise, "GUYS!!!" she yelled at them quickly stepping off the body, the gang upon hearing Toph's tone came running, as they reached the summit Aang asked "Toph wha-" he stopped cold upon seeing the body. "Who is that!?!?" asked Sokka unpleasantly surprised, no one answered. The sand around the stranger's body was stained with blood. But the stranger himself was the most impressive thing: it was a boy around Sokka's age and height, his skin was somewhat pale and had numerous scars all over his body and was dressed in orange armor, very strange orange armor. The protective shell's design looked like it came from oceanic creatures, fish scales and crustacean carapaces but made of metal; probably bronze or brass, the boy's legs up to the waist was armored, and so was his right arm up to the shoulder. The arm armor was segmented and jagged, still grasped by the left arm was a large round shield with similar designs, the shield was large enough to cover the exposed chest and left side of his body. The metal helmet was a macabre, wicked thing, it was skin close, it possessed a thin spike that extended from the top of the helmet inclined forward as to be used as a weapon, it had other thin spikes extending from the forehead, forming a thorn crown, it was embedded with the same type of writing placed on the urns.
The visible source of the stranger's bleeding were three Fire Nation arrows still sticking out of his back. But from the scratches around his torso, he probably had more wounds than was apparent.
From the commotion, and as the group pulled him up so Katara could remove the arrows and heal him, the groggy stranger stirred. Everything around him as to sound was a blur, all he could see was Toph standing in front of him listening to what her friends were doing. "Hello" whispered the stranger barely audible, Toph heard the new voice and accurately looked at his face, she crouched down to his eyelevel, "Are you ok? What's your name?', the stranger took a deep breath and said only slightly louder than his greeting;
"Saturno"
His head tilted and fell forward again as he passed out again. Only Aang noticed the brief exchange. Katara bended the water in her satchel into her hands as she pulled out the three slim, maliciously sharp arrows. As she placed her hands on the stranger's back a low siren's call sound came from her hands as she healed his three wounds. The same question was going on through their minds "Who is this guy?".
Somehow the day was not as relaxing and ordinary as they thought it would be.
