Prompts:
Tree (easy)
Swamp (medium)
No dialogue (hard)
Words: 1128
He couldn't handle the noise.
Lao Bei Fong disliked noise in general, just as he disliked unpunctuality and poor hygiene, but this noise was different. This noise was his wife.
To add to noise, unpunctuality and poor hygiene, he also disliked being told he couldn't do something. He remembered as a child, being told he couldn't try to find spider worms in their garden, because it was not how someone of his high class should act. Other than that, the wealthy man generally got what he wants, which was why this was so frustrating. He wanted to see how his wife was doing, wanted to comfort her and be there as she gave birth to their child; he wanted to see their newborn, be assured that he or she was healthy and normal; he wanted to cradle the new life in his arms and kiss her soft forehead. He did not want to sit, tapping his foot impatiently, his wife's screams filling his ears and nervousness filling his chest.
/ / /
She wasn't sure if the pain stopped, or if she simply forgot about it when she caught a glimpse of the baby. The child was red and wailing, its tiny features twisted in discomfort, but the child was hers, and the child was beautiful.
It took a few seconds for her to realise that the midwife was talking, informing her that her child was female.
A girl. She let the thought sink in, a smile appearing on her face. A beautiful baby girl.
Poppy Bei Fong had never been so overjoyed.
She wanted to take the baby from the midwife's arms and hold daughter, never letting her go. She wanted to protect this new life at all costs, keep her safe in her arms where no one could lay a finger on her delicate frame. Even the sight of the midwife washing the child's pale, sensitive skin gave Poppy the urge to run forward and scoop the baby into her own arms, safe from anyone and everyone.
Fortunately, this impatient, nervous feeling knotting in her stomach soon loosened as the midwife gave her the baby to hold. The second the newborn's warm body was in her arms, a warm feeling seemed to flow through her blood and pump through her heart. Love.
At that moment, her husband walked into the room, immediately rushing over to see his child. The couple let their love for their child seep through their hands that held the baby's delicate skin, gazing at their creation in awe, until they noticed something was wrong. Something about those pale green eyes seemed blank, lifeless.
The midwife's words passed through their ears as they tried to deny what those blank eyes meant.
Their daughter was blind.
Blindness was not weakness.
Being blind did not mean she was weak, or fragile, of incapable. It did not mean she needed to hidden from the world, safely suffocating in her parents' overprotectiveness while other children led normal lives.
She was simply sitting on the wall outside her house, swinging her legs slightly as she felt the cool breeze on her face. She didn't expect the boy to approach her, asking her to play a game of tag, with a streak of dirt across his face and a lopsided grin.
Excitement suddenly pumped through her veins; she had never left the house before.
Just as as she opened her mouth to reply, guards rushed over to her, telling her to get down and come inside where it was safe. Sighing, she left the boy with dirt streaked across his face.
He no longer had a lopsided grin.
/ / /
Shouting. Shouting that she had heard many times before, of her carelessness and her safety and her fragility. Shouting that turned into a quiet, calmer voice, telling her that he loved her and wanted to keep her safe.
She let her anger block out her father's words, the ringing in her ears softening his voice to a muffled tone.
This has gone for two long. She decided, I'm tired of being hidden away. I want to see what's outside of my house.
When the time came, she ran.
/ / /
The outside world was much bigger than her house.
It was also much easier to get lost in, which was the situation Toph had found herself in. Suddenly, she wished she was back a home, with voices she knew and could trust.
Feeling tears stinging in her eyes, she ran once again, finding herself in a quieter place with warm air and damp ground. She sat, letting tears fall from her useless eyes and hang off her chin. Suddenly, she felt something touch her cheek. She would have jumped away, but the way soft whiskers skimmed her face, the way the creatire's warmth seemed to transfer to her from the kindness and concern the creature seemed to have for her, made her smile.
She felt the ground rumble and heard rocks fall to the floor as the creature moves its clawed paw. Earthbender.
Toph had always known she could earthbend. She had only moved pebbles before her parents caught her and told her not to use her bending, but here it was different. Here she could properly earthbend.
The creature, which she eventually worked out was a badger mole, seemed content to teach her earthbendig, not only as a weapon, but as a way of life. She learnt to move rocks and build walls, to feel vibrations in the earth and "see" through the vibrations.
She stayed there for hours and hours, following the badhermole's technique and perfecting her earthbending.
Blindness was not weakness.
This was a nice place to die.
The swamp was quiet, peaceful, solitary; the opposite of the battlefields, where her life could have been snuffed out at any moment. Here, she could simply close her eyes and drift off, letting her life slip away from her body.
She placed her wrinkled, muddied foot on the rough tree bark, letting the twisting roots guide her senses to her loved ones. Katara sat in a rocking chair, playing with droplets of water as her life slowly withered. Zuko drank a cup of tea, letting the steam warm his aged face. Su ate dinner with her family, smiling with her children as they talked. Lin drove home from her work, heSher calloused fingers tightly gripping the steering wheel.
She watched her family and friends, living their life without knowledge of Toph's ending one. This was the way she wanted it: no tears, no weepy farewells, no wishing of turning back time.
Everyone needed to say goodbye, eventually.
Toph Bei Fong closed her blank eyes for the last time.