Yeah… me writing in first person… not something I plan on doing ever again because it's a pain… anyhow, I'll put the name of who's speaking at the beginning of each section to avoid confusion. Aren't I nice?
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Toph:
I could tell something was wrong the moment that metal thing raced past me. I had wandered off from the campsite for a bit, since Aang and Katara were practicing waterbending, and Sokka was off hunting or something. Surprisingly, I hadn't felt any vibrations from the metal thing until it was about to run me over.
I managed to get out of the way, and the thing just continued to move away, leaving me confused. From the vibrations I had felt, it seemed like it was something from the Fire nation, but something wasn't right. The wheels on it were made of something strange.
I turned back towards camp. I knew the way back, but once I was where the camp was supposed to be, there was nothing there. Something was up. I continued in the direction I had felt Aang and Katara going. After a bit, I came to a small body of water, but there was nobody there.
I went back to the campsite. Once again, there was no trace of a camp, no fire, not even a sign of Momo or Appa. I started to panic. What if something had happened? It was doubtful that they had been taken by the Fire nation. There would have been signs of a struggle. Here there was nothing.
A chilling realization came to me. What if they had left without me? What if they had been forced to flee because of a Fire nation attack? No, that wasn't possible. They wouldn't have forgotten me. After all, I was responsible for Aang's earthbending education. They couldn't leave me. Besides, they weren't that coldhearted either. Maybe they were looking for me, but I just couldn't tell where they were because they were in the air.
I sat down to wait for them. They would probably check the campsite soon. And if not… I decided not to think about it. I didn't want to go home. My parents would just freak out and take away what little freedom I had left. No, waiting was the best way to go.
After a while, I felt some vibrations. There were two people coming. They were pretty close. Normally, I would have hidden, but something about them puzzled me. The bigger one was wearing armor, but the vibrations were off. It was like the armor was empty. The smaller one seemed pretty normal, but something seemed very off about his left leg.
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Ed:
I had noticed the girl while walking down the road with Al. She was just sitting there, all alone, and it looked like she was waiting for something. I pointed her out to Al, and we walked over. She stood up as we came close. There was a strange expression in her eyes. They were oddly blank, as if she didn't see us. I decided to offer some help.
"Are you lost?" I asked, as gently as I could. She seemed very young.
"Do I look lost to you, shorty?" the girl replied. She sounded a little irritated, but I didn't notice. I was too upset about the whole "shorty" thing.
Al put his hands on my shoulder and successfully prevented me from attacking the girl. While I was still struggling to get free, he started talking to the girl. "Well, if you're not lost, then what are you doing all alone out here in the middle of nowhere?"
"What do you mean, the middle of nowhere? There's a town really close by, isn't there? And besides, if this is the middle of nowhere, then what are you two doing out here?"
Al finally let go of me. I kneeled down and started drawing a map in the dirt. "We're following the road to a small village. It's pretty far away, but there's no train station in the town, and we missed the only carriage ride available."
The girl continued to give me a blank stare. "What's a train station?"
Al looked at her. "It's where you can get onto a train."
"And what's a train?"
I had started to take a drink of water from a bottle in my suitcase, but once I heard this question, I spewed the water out and started choking. Once I had gotten a hold of myself, I asked the girl, "You don't know what a train is?"
"No, I don't. I also don't know what that thing is that passed by a while ago. And also, what's with your leg? It's definitely not normal. And why is that armor moving and talking if there's nobody inside?"
That surprised me. I was wearing my usual outfit, so neither my arm nor leg was visible. Had she heard the almost inaudible metal noises my leg made? "H-how did you…"
"I felt the vibrations it made when you stepped on it. I'm an earthbender."
"You're a what?"
"An earthbender? You know, somebody who can bend earth?"
"What's bending?"
"You don't know what bending is?" The girl said, sounding as if it was a ridiculous idea for me to not know about bending.
"No, I don't. Is it a form of alchemy?"
"Alchemy? What's that?"
Suddenly, I realized something. This girl was definitely from around here. Her clothes and the fact that she didn't know about trains or alchemy, or even automail for that matter, were proof of that. Not only that, but she knew how to earthbend, whatever that was. I looked at Al. He seemed to have come to the same conclusion, because he nodded.
"Where are you from?" I asked.
"A town called Gaoling."
"And where's that?" I asked.
The girl's reply sounded a tad sarcastic. "Hmm, I wonder. I mean, it's not like we're in the Earth Kingdom or anything…"
"Earth Kingdom?"
"Are you stupid or something? How have you not heard about the Earth Kingdom?"
"Well, you've never heard of alchemy, have you? And I don't think you're in your precious Earth Kingdom anymore. This is a country called Amestris. Bending doesn't exist here."
"Then what do you call this?" the girl asked, stomping her foot. As it came in contact with the ground, a huge chunk of rock came out of the ground next to me and flew into the air. The girl stood in a certain stance and moved her hands. The rock then flew in the direction she was facing and crashed against a cliff.
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Toph:
I couldn't see the look on the midget's face, but I could tell he was surprised. He wasn't in complete shock like I thought he would be, but he was surprised.
"So that's earthbending?"
"Yeah, what did you think it would be?" I replied, losing my patience.
"Look, I have no clue how you got here, but this isn't a place where you can do things like that without getting noticed," the boy said.
"If it's not, then why aren't you very surprised?"
"Because it looks a lot like alchemy, if you ignore the different stances you used."
"What is alchemy, anyway? Is it a type of bending?" I asked.
"I guess you could say that. Alchemy is a science. You figure out the molecular composition of an item, decompose it, and recompose it into something different."
"Molecular composition?"
"Like what something is made of. Take my arm for instance," I heard the rustling of a sleeve. "See how it's made of metal?"
"Um, no, I don't see that it's made of metal," I said. "I'm blind."
"Oh, really? I couldn't tell."
"Well, now ya know. I've never been able to use my eyes."
"Then how do you get around so easily?" the armor asked. "And how did you figure out that this armor is empty?"
"I use earthbending to see. I can feel the vibrations of everything that moves."
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Ed:
At this point, I didn't know what to think. Here was a girl, who was completely blind, and yet had figured out our secret right from the beginning. I sat down.
"Look, I don't know how or why you ended up here, but we can't leave you out here in the middle of nowhere."
"Why not? I can handle myself."
"Maybe so, but if the wrong people find you, it could lead to bad things happening."
"Like what?"
"If the military finds out about earthbending, they'll want to use it as a weapon. You could be brought into a lab, or they could send you out to a battlefield, or something else like that."
"So what should I do then?" the girl asked.
"Come with us. We might be able to find a way to get you back to where you're from."
"How can I trust you?"
"Well, you don't really have much of a choice, do you? Besides, we're not the kind of people who like destroying other people's lives."
"What are your names?"
"Our names? I'm Edward Elric, and this is my younger brother Alphonse. What's your name?"
"Toph."
"All right, Toph, let's get going. We were going back to Central anyway, so you might as well join us."
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Yeah, this is another one I began over the summer, so there's a decent amount of it written so far… it's just a matter of continuing with it… and since I don't like writing in first person much anymore…
