Disclaimer: Not mine. Nickelodeon's. Etc etc ad nauseum.
A/N: Takes place between 'The Desert' and 'The Serpent's Pass.'
Thanks to Button-Monki for Beta-ing.
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Old Bones
Toph's first impression was that there were hundreds of earthbenders waiting in ambush below the ground. Alarmed, she opened her mouth to shout to the others, but before the cry of warning could rise all the way out of her throat she realized that that couldn't be. She had felt people traveling underground before, and had done it herself on numerous occasions, and there was always much more movement. There was constantly movement with people, even if they were not walking or running or moving earth. There was heartbeat, and breath, and the constant pulse of blood rushing through veins, all making their bodies throb and hum and vibrate with life. Here, there was nothing. No movement except for the natural hum of the earth that underlies everything. It was as if someone had drawn pictures of people beneath the ground, visible only to her.
Toph frowned, and pressed her palm to the ground to see better. What was that?
"Toph, is everything alright?" Katara sounded tired, which was no surprise. Without Appa, they had been traveling on foot for days. "Come on, we need to keep going."
"Shh! I'm listening."
Toph sent a pulse down, listening to the sounds of the earth: the rustling of soil, the clank of stone, telling her its volume, its shape, its strength and density. This was all normal. But there, not too far underneath the ground, was the shrill ring of metal and a dull hollow clank that Toph associated more with the bodies of living people than with stone. She realized with a chill that it was bone.
The bones still held the shapes of the humans they had once been, but lay still and prone. Some were laid out carefully head to foot, while others were twisted and curled, still in the position of death. The sound of the metal revealed dented shields and broken swords, twisted spears and pierced armor. She recognized the shape of the earthbender's armor, as well as that of Earth Kingdom infantry, but there were other, more finely made and impressively spiked armors that she didn't recognize. There were bones in the shape of ostrich horses, and others in the shape of komodo rhinos. The dull creak of wood that was the roots of the young trees around them wrapped around the bones, forming the coffins that someone had been too hurried to construct.
Toph sent down another pulse, and felt the hidden battleground stretch out to either side, forming the shape of what had long ago been an open field. She let out a long, slightly shaky breath.
"Toph, what is it?" Aang's light footsteps stopped not far from her, and she felt the sounds of his own bones traveling through the earth, so much like those lying still beneath her but thrumming with life.
"Nothing," she said, "It's nothing." Her voice was too loud and her pulse too fast, but no one seemed to notice.