Hello, me again.
I dunno how many (if any) people read this when I first had it up--I took it down because I hated it and needed to fix it.
I finally got around to it.
This story is very OC-Centric. Just a heads up--it's a character study of the main characters (excluding Zuko. This story takes place mid-season two.) because I find it interesting to write what a stranger would think about Aang, Katara, Toph, and Sokka upon first meeting them. Enter Toru.
So I fixed what annoyed me and stuff and here it is.
I don't own any canon characters, or even the world of Avatar (I created the village in which the story takes place, but...technicalities). I do, however, own Toru and Min-Jee.
--Phanny
As the sun rose upon the small Earth Kingdom village of Chul, many other residents rose with it. The early morning silence had yet to be broken by the sounds of squealing children at play, and the scent of the light rain from the night before had yet to be overshadowed by the scent of cooking food. There were very few villagers who were not among the early risers, most of them including infants, the elderly, and those who had caught a chill from the many rainy nights that had plagued the village. Only one person who still slept had no real justification for his long slumber.
"For goodness sake, Toru! If I have to come shake you awake one more time, I swear…" The village healer, Min-Jee, tried to pry her apprentice's eye open with a wrinkled, bony finger. The aging woman was usually very kind and gentle, at least to her patients. She cared very deeply for her teenaged protégé as well, but it would be much easier if he would just do what she asked of him.
"What do you want? Geez…" Toru's first words of the day were spoken in an irritable tone. He didn't flinch at the old woman's glare, and took his own sweet time rising from his cot, running his hand through his tousled black hair.
"What do I want?" Min-Jee asked incredulously, "I've got four sick patients in the front room, and I can't handle them all on my own."
Toru gave her no response except pointing to the wooden crutch leaning against the opposite wall, just out of his reach. Min-Jee handed it to him, and as the boy blinked sleep from his eyes, he stood up, struggling to gain balance without putting weight on his left leg. Said leg was twisted at an odd angle, looking grotesque and painful to those that saw it, even if Toru had told them specifically that he couldn't even feel the appendage at all anymore. Moving slowly, he exited his room, his early morning sluggishness hindering his usual limping gait.
"What did you need me to do?" Toru asked, having fully awakened at last. On his pale face lay his usual sour expression, and Min-Jee sighed, tucking a loose strand of graying hair behind her ear before speaking. Picking up a cup full of some sort of steaming liquid from a table, she handed it to the boy, who winced as the warm temperature hit his fingers.
"Take that to Bon-hwa, and make sure he drinks it all. When you're done with that, go see if Hana needs anything. She's due any day now."
With a roll of his eyes, Toru began his boring day of doing his boring job. If he were out training for the war, he wouldn't be bored, he thought bitterly as he looked as his leg.
Almost a year before, a rockslide had crippled Toru's leg beyond repair. The once confident and sweet-natured boy with dreams of fighting in the war alongside his father had been transformed into a bitter, angry, irritable teen in only a short period of time. A strong, capable warrior in training had been rendered useless in no time flat, and no matter how many times he was told to do so, he just couldn't move on. Even after his primary caretaker, Min-Jee herself, had offered him his current job, the boy refused to let go of his bitterness. Only Min-Jee, being his surrogate mother, was able to put up with his snappish, unpleasant demeanor, and she knew that he was smart and capable of being a great healer.
If it wasn't for the fact that he wasn't as patient and kind as she would have preferred in an apprentice.
Soon enough, Toru returned to Min-Jee's hut, still looking quite bored.
"I almost had to shove Bon-hwa's medicine down his throat," Toru began, and his mentor winced at his words, "and Hana was asleep, so I didn't wake her, and her sister said she was doing fine."
"Very good, thank you." Min-Jee said kindly. Toru grumbled in response and, with some difficulty, sat down on one of the cots in the corner. Min-Jee glanced at him, letting out a resigned sigh. "If you're so bored, there are some herbs to be collected. We're running low on a few that we'll need soon." Toru turned to look at her, and, upon seeing the expression in her eyes, realized that he really didn't have a choice in the matter.
"Ow!" Toru drew his hand back from the berries he had been about to pick. Why was it that every single plant on his mentor's list had thorns?
Toru had ventured deep into the forest that surrounded his home, searching for the herbs and plants that Min-Jee had requested. He dawdled slightly, in no hurry to return to his job of catering to the sickly residents of his village. He could always blame his slowness on his leg, as he often did.
Sucking on his pricked finger, Toru scowled at the bush, as though it had actually meant to hurt him.
"Are you sure this is a good spot?"
Toru froze. Who said that? Peeking through the trees, he could only vaguely make out human shapes moving back and forth. The trees were rather thick, as were the shadows they cast. His curiosity getting the better of him, Toru moved closer, not an easy feat for one who relied on a crutch for mobility and was therefore not the least bit graceful or sneaky. Luckily, the people ahead of him didn't seem to be paying attention anyway.
"Sokka," the pitch of the voice told Toru that the speaker was female, "this is the fifth place that we've stopped. The trees are thick, there's no one around, I think we can stay for the night."
"And I don't know if Appa can go much farther." A young boy added.
"To be honest, I'll be happy to stay on the ground where I can see without having to get up to fly again when someone finds the tiniest thing wrong with the campsite." Another girl, and this one was younger.
"There was a hornet's nest at the last place we stopped!" The older boy who had spoken first objected. Toru guessed that this was "Sokka".
"A hornet's nest with no hornets in it." The younger girl replied scathingly.
As the conversation went on, Toru edged ever closer. He'd never seen anyone outside his own village before, and this may be his only chance.
"You could have been wrong!" Sokka said, and Toru wasn't prepared for the small earthquake that ensued as the younger girl stomped her foot. An Earth Bender.
"I was not wrong." The girl replied.
"Guys, guys!" The young boy said, "please don't start this now."
"Sokka, we're all a little paranoid," the older girl spoke up again, "but it won't hurt to relax. No one is sneaking up on us."
"Wrong," the younger girl interrupted. Toru froze. "there's someone behind that tree."
In his head, Toru recited a string of swears that would have made even the Fire Lord sick to his stomach.
"All right, come out!" Sokka yelled, taking out what looked like a boomerang. It frightened Toru. He'd always seen a boomerang as a child's toy, but this one looked very much like a weapon. He stepped out of his hiding place, unable to wipe his default sour expression off of his face, no matter how hard he tried.
"What?" Was his only statement. Sokka lowered his boomerang, and he and his friends relaxed themselves out of the fighting stances they had taken.
The young boy let out a sigh of relief. Toru looked up at him, and his eyes widened. It wasn't the fact that the kid had extensive tattoos, or the fact that he was bald.
Frankly, it the humongous, furry, six-legged…thing that he was situated upon. As though hearing his thoughts, the thing let out what sounded like a roar.
"Appa, calm down! It's just a kid." The boy said. Toru frowned. Look who's talking!
"Who are you?" The older girl asked. Toru could tell from her appearance that she and Sokka were related in some way. Hearing her question, his natural demeanor returned.
"Who're you?" He shot back. "I live around here, this is my home, I'll ask the questions."
The girl's eye twitched in annoyance. "My name is Katara. And that's Aang," the young boy waved at him from atop his humongous beast of burden.
"Toph." The younger girl, the Earth Bender, said dismissively.
"Sokka." Sokka still sounded defensive. "Now who are you?"
"Toru." Toru sniffed irritably. "And why, pray tell, did you decide to camp out here?"
"We can camp where we want." Sokka said in irritation.
"Whatever." Toru said, "then I can eavesdrop if I want."
"How come this guy's only got one leg?" Toph asked suddenly. Toru looked at her in astonishment. Couldn't she see that he had two? Wait, was she even looking at him at all?
"He's got two, Toph," Katara informed her quietly, "he's just not using one, so you can't sense it."
Toru sighed in frustration. "I shouldn't have eavesdropped. You guys are so boring. I'm going home."
"Wait, you live nearby?" Katara inquired curiously.
"Yeah," Toru shrugged, slightly irked at the fact that he had told them that not a minute before, "in a village. What's it to you?"
It was obvious that Katara was trying to refrain from losing her temper. "D'you think we could come with you?"
"I don't care." Toru began to limp back towards his village, not stopping to see if they were actually coming along. He was only vaguely aware that he hadn't gathered any of the plants that Min-Jee had requested.
Needless to say, Toru's mentor was furious.
"One thing, I ask you to do one thing, and you come back with nothing!" Min-Jee's rant was in full swing, made worse by the fact that Toru wore an indifferent expression through the whole thing. "Every once in awhile I rethink my decision of taking you on as an apprentice!"
"Then why don't you just fire me, huh?! Send me out in the forest and wait for me to die? The perfect punishment for someone who can't take care of himself, isn't it?!" Toru said heatedly.
Min-Jee was not eager to get into this argument, the same one she'd been having with him ever since his accident.
"I know you're not helpless, and you know it too! Do not start this again!"
"I'll start whatever I want to start!" Toru said, "you liar! Everyone thinks I'm helpless, even you! I don't need your pity!"
"You won't be getting any from me." Min-Jee said firmly, "I know it's hard, but I've told you that you need to let this anger die."
"And what will that do?" Toru had lowered his voice, but acid dripped from his words, "that's not going to make my leg better, nothing is! Nothing is ever going to get better! Maybe it's easier to be angry, ever think of that?!" Min-Jee grabbed her apprentice's shoulders, her tone and mindset switching from mentor to mother.
"Maybe it is," the old woman looked at the boy whom she considered a son, "and maybe that's why this needs to end. Toru, you--look at me," Min-Jee cupped her hand around the boy's chin as he turned away from her, "you need to try. I want to stop having these fights with you, and I know you don't want to fight anymore either, but no matter how much I wish that this will stop, there's nothing I can do. Only you can fix it, Toru, and I want you to try."
Toru's expression was unreadable. Min-Jee's heart sank as she waited in vain for a reply.
"There were people in the woods." Toru spoke after a long stretch of silence.
"Really now?" Min-Jee jumped at the chance for a civil conversation.
"They were weird." Toru continued, "and they had a big hairy monster thing with 'em."
"That's interesting."
"They said they might come here. I don't know."
Min-Jee postponed her reply as she heard a knock on the door. When she opened the door, Toru's eyes widened.
"Those are the weird people!" He pointed at them. Min-Jee frowned.
"Toru, don't be rude." She turned back to Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph, her voice kind. "Pardon my apprentice. We don't get many travelers around here."
"That's okay," Aang said, smiling. "We were on our way to Ba Sing Se when we ran out of supplies. We were told there was a village here--"
"By me." Toru interjected.
"Toru, hush." Min-Jee scolded, before gesturing for Aang to continue.
"Anyway, we were wondering if there was a place to get some food? We can pay." Aang's innocent smile didn't manage to hide him and his friends' weariness.
"Of course." Min-Jee told them, "just next door, my nephew owns a shop. You'll find plenty there. But I wouldn't travel tonight, if I were you. There's a storm coming."
"Oh." All four of the strangers shuddered, and Toru guessed that they had been caught in last night's storm as well.
"But you are welcome in the village until you are ready to leave." Min-Jee added.
"That's very kind of you." Katara said politely.
"We don't have an inn or anything," Min-Jee admitted. "As I said, not many travelers. But I do have extra beds here in another room."
"Thank you." Aang sure sounded grateful.
"No thanks needed, Avatar Aang." Min-Jee smiled, Aang looked surprised, and Toru nearly fell over.
Turns out, he'd ticked off the most powerful person on the planet.
'Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat???'
Fun Fact: Toru's sort of a douchebag.
I have chapter two written up but I'm still tinkering with it.