Hey, this is part 12 of the on-going story, where do we go from here. As always you don't have to have read the parts before this one to total understand this part, but it would help. If anything doesn't make sense then please just ask me and I will fill you in. For those of you who have read the whole thing, then thank you. I hope you are likening the way the story is going. I promise this part will be better than the end of the last one, at least I will try to make it better. I kind of lost focus there for a bit. Please review it really means a lot to me.
The carriage was shacking sharply from side to side. The road was very uneven. The full heat of the sun wasn't making the trip any better. The carriage was ordered to take Toph form the port at the fire nation to the fire nation capital, her father's idea. Toph had been staying with her father and stepmother for about half a year now, since Aang left again. She would have only stayed there for as long as it took to call her father out, but she was too weak to leave. The stab wound had held, leaving only a large ugly scar. The wound to her head still twinged from time to time, but there was hardly any scar now. She was a lot stronger than she had been when she went back to her father's house, but not strong enough.
She was trapped again. She was watched every minute of the day, her main bodyguard was sitting across from her now. He was nothing special, she could take him. What would she do then, she had nowhere else to go. If she was honest a part of her liked being in her father's house, only because it was the closest she had ever been to her real mother. She spent most of her time in her mother's study. It was small with a privet garden. It had taken some work, but she had been able to get the garden to grow again. This was her way go getting her strength back. Start of bending small things and work her way up. She read all of her mother's book, the ink was old so it was hard to really read some of it. It was because of the books that she was able to make an ointment that reduced her scars. Though it had little effect on the one one her stomach. That one would never really heal.
It had taken days of arguing, silent treatment for her to get her father to let her go to the fire nation, for Zuko and Katara's wedding. He said she was still not fully healed and strong enough for such a long a trip. She hated to admit it, even to herself, but he was right. She was still very stubborn, so in the end she got her own way. The only conduction was that she had to have a bodyguard with her.
She was so happy for her friends getting married, at the last wedding she had been too, that took place, she told Katara that she didn't mind being ignored and feeling left out by her friends, if it was because they were happy. So that wasn't the reason she was a little worried about going to this wedding. Again she would never admit it, but it was because she was worried that he might be there. The chances of that where very slim, that didn't stop her from worrying though.
Aang hadn't made much of an impression on Toph when they had first met almost six years ago. When they were twelve, but over the time they had spent together he had grown on her. Then he left, left them to deal with maintaining the balance that they had fought for. He had come back for two years, he spent a year of that time with Toph, then he left again. Deep down Toph knew that he wouldn't have left if he really didn't feel that he had too, but that didn't stop her from hating him. Mainly because she could never really hate him.
Toph had been pulled into a tight dress, and her hair had been pinned back tightly for the first time in six years. She was like a doll, a doll of her stepmother. Of course she would never see that. She wondered if any of her friends would recognize her, she didn't feel like herself any more. Since she had found out about her birth mother she had felt like she had lost a part herself. She had felt her light grasp of her identity falling away over the time she had been at the father's house. Everything that made her her was gone. In its place was the doll her father had always wanted her to be.
Technically Toph was still a princess of the fire nation. When she had been engaged to Zuko, to keep the balance of the world, she had to be made a princess so that they could be married. Katara had also had to go though the same thing. Even though she was accepted by the people of the fire nation, Toph was still viewed as the true princess and their briefed fire lady. This was due to her name, the Bei Fong's name was known even in the fire nation. As they had money and were of noble birth. Toph was seen as the better choice, but when had any of the group ever really been told what to do by the older generations. This had been Toph's reason, as to why she didn't come to the fire nation sooner, she didn't what to make it any harder for Katara. So she was going to arrive the day before the wedding. Lying that her father wouldn't let her leave any sooner.
They where a few miles from the capital, when Toph felt the air turn cold, and her heart race. They were travelling the same way she and Aang had less than a year ago. Toph had been to the places where they had fought, where she and the others had been hurt before, even where she had felt people die, but this was different. She clenched her hands on her legs, and for an unknown reason closed her eyes.
Breathe in, out, in, out.
After a few minutes she relaxed. Though she couldn't see it, she felt her bodyguards eyes on her.
"I'm fine." It was a lie, a automatic reaction, but what else could she say.
The carriage finally came to a stop, right in front of the palace a few hours later. Toph's bodyguard got out first, making his way round to open the door for her. After he had done this he held out his hand, to help her down from the carriage. She didn't take it.
The bodyguard was still getting used to Toph, so he turned red slightly, worried that he had done something wrong, been to familiar. Toph loved making his heart race like that out of embarrassment, or nervousness. It was one of her only freedoms at the moment. He let her walk on ahead of him, as he untied the luggage from the back of the carriage. Before she could reach out to open the door, it opened in-front of her. She wasn't really paying much attention, so she was a little taken by surprise.
"About time." Sokka's voice sounded so different to her. As he pulled her into a hug she tried to think of the last time the two of them had really spoken,she caught think of when that was. He had a family of his own that he had to take care of now, so he wasn't around as much.
After he let her go he guided her away from the door. He was talking, she was sure of that, but she didn't hear any of what he was saying. She was thinking of the last time she had been here. She had to block out those memories. She started to go through a list of all the things that she could bend in her head. This managed to calm her down a little.
When she was finished, she noticed that Sokka's voice that had been little more than white noise had stopped. So she spoke "So where are Suki and Suten."
"You haven't heard a word I said, have you." He really could pout, as well as any girl.
Sokka had noticed that Toph wasn't really listening to him. She was just going through the motions, walking along side him. He was really worried about his friend. She was like another little sister to him. Aang was also like a brother, but he was still mad at him for doing this to Toph. He hadn't really seen her in a long time, but he was sure this wasn't her, she was stronger than this.
"Suki is too far along to travel, so they are staying in the water tribe."
The wedding was going to be a three day celebration. On the first day, there would be a traditional ceremony in the fire nation, with a party after. On the second day the bride and groom and some guests would travel to the southern water tribe, for a traditional water tribe ceremony, that would take place on the third day. This meant Suki, Suten and Gran gran, who couldn't travel would still be apart of the wedding. Toph was not going to the water tribe, she made it clear that it wasn't practical, she would be total blind there. No guilt trip was going to change her mind on this.
"Sorry." That was when he really started to be worried. Toph never said sorry especially not to him.
"Come on." He took hold of her hand and pulled her along the corridor, to a side door that lead to the garden. He had just had one of his brilliant ideas or so they seemed to him. "Ok, I am going to run around the garden, and if you can hit me with a rock. A rock ok, not a boulder. Then I will be your date to the wedding tomorrow." As he spoke he bowed, unaware how much that act annoyed Toph, and reminded her of Aang. He used to do it to annoy her.
"I like the throw rocks at you part, but I think it's you that doesn't want to go to the wedding tomorrow on your own." Her trade mark grin was now on her face, for the first time in a long time. It was almost worth the possibility of being hit by a very likely large rock, to see her more like her old self again, almost. He wasn't that stupid.
"Ok if you don't want to..." He never got the chance to finish, as a rock was now heading for his head, at a very alarming rate.
He tried to run as far away as he could, thinking he would be safer hiding behind a tree, he keeled down behind one at the edge of the garden. He got his breath back, got to his feet to make a run for it. He remembered her being much faster, and the rocks being bigger. At least she was still throwing them at him. As odd as that sounded he was glad that he was able to bring her out of herself a little. He was never very good with feelings, but he could cheer people up.
Sokka again tried to move, but his feet wouldn't move. He feel face first onto the grass. After a few seconds he pushed himself up with his hands. Toph was standing over him, with the sun behind her, a rock in the air just in front of her, and her evil grin. He closed his eyes waiting for the hit.
"Toph don't kill Sokka now, Katara is going to be annoyed that you got your hair messed up before the wedding. You can kill he after the wedding." Zuko walked towards them. A grin on his face, to match his cheerful tone. It was a little odd coming from him, but nice. It meant he was happy.
He had been aware that Toph had arrived for a while now, and that she was with Sokka. He left them for a while, as Sokka was the best person to cheer her up. He had also left them till he got up the guts to speak to her. He had something he had to tell her, and he didn't know how she was going to take it.
"Ok sparky. Man she really has you whipped doesn't she." He couldn't help but smile at her, she was coping much better than he thought she would be, maybe she would be able to deal with what he had to tell her. He then looked at her eyes, and knew he had been to optimistic. Toph a was a very good actress, but not even she could stop the pain from showing in her eyes.
"Toph I have to speak to you." He didn't wait for her to say anything. He walked back towards the place. Toph was a little annoyed that he just expected her to fallow him, but she was sure it had to be something important, for him to act like that.
To Sokka it looked like she was just moving her arms around in slight circler movements , as she unwound the grass from his legs " Don't worry meat head, I'll still go to the wedding with you." She shot him a small warm smile, that let him know he had got throw to her, a little. Cause now he too could see her real feelings in her eyes. She ran after Zuko, as she did she felt all the time that she had spent caged up in her father house falling of her.