Chapter 1 out of 2
(Dedicated to WKSF1)
Toph is 15 hours old and cannot see. She never will. Her mother and father mourn. The doctors and nurses offer their condolences to yet another couple with a defective infant.
Mrs. Beifong gazes down tearily at her sleeping daughter. "Our poor, poor child," she whispers, her voice breaking.
Toph opens her eyes. They are cloudy and unseeing, and they are bright and alive.
Toph is 1 year old and her world is composed of sounds and textures. As she crawls around, she feels the soft carpet beneath her hands.
"I'm so sorry..." Her mother says, sounding sad and lost.
Toph bumps into a leg of a misplaced chair, and falls back laughing.
Toph is 4 years old and loves the mud, no matter how much her parents scold her for getting dirty. She runs around outside barefooted, navigating her way through the spacious garden. Toph feels this buzzing energy sometimes, and it intensifies when she's outdoors. And sometimes she can crush stones to dust in her hands.
Toph is 6 years old and manages to run away from the manor. She hides away in a cave. There she learns how to 'see' with earthbending, and uses it as an extension of her senses. Her parents find her a few hours later, and bring her back home.
Sometimes she hears hushed whispers when he parents have guests- blind, poor kid, they call her. Toph wonders why they sound so pitying; she can see as much as they can; maybe even more.
Toph is 7 years old and hates dressing 'like a lady' (as her mother puts it). The skirts and dresses Mrs. Beifong insists that she wear are just impractical- they were difficult to run in and just plain uncomfortable. And Toph couldn't care less about how her clothes looked.
"But you look beautiful, little lotus," he mother says when Toph expresses her discontentment.
'This isn't me,' the earthbender thinks, as Mrs. Beifong ties yet another pointless ribbon in her hair.
Toph is 8 years old and she can make the ground beneath her shake. She's laughing with pure delight, (this is me, I always could) and doesn't realize that her dad is near her until he grabs her by the elbow and leads her back inside.
Her mom envelops her in a vexingly protective embrace (I don't need to be protected, I can shape the world, rearrange it). "Shh..." Mrs. Beifong whispers in her ear, like Toph is upset and needs to be comforted. Toph is not upset; little do they know she started this earthquake, and she loves it.
"It'll die down soon," her dad tells her, trying to be reassuring.
'No,' Toph thinks, 'never'.
Toph is 10 years old and her parents finally (reluctantly) send her to a class to learn some basic earthbending skills. They don't know it's unnecessary- they don't know that for their precious, incapable daughter, earthbending has always been second nature. She already knows all the techniques that will be taught. But of course, Toph goes anyway.
As she steps into the classroom (a rather large, outdoor training area), she can sense 5 other students. They're all talking amongst themselves and they don't notice her at first. Judging by their heights and voices, Toph deduces that they're all about her age and male. Suddenly, one of them turns toward her, and the rest follow suit. Toph's heart is hammering in her throat- what should she say, what should she do- maybe she's actually make some real friends-
"Oh spirits, what's up with her eyes?" One of them asks. His voice sounds a bit startled, with an all -too- noticeable hint of repulsion.
"...It's the Beifong girl," the boy next to him replies. "Heard she's blind as a wolfbat."
"The Beifongs have a kid?" He sounds surprised. "But-"
"Yeah, my parents know Poppy Beifong. Heard that they wanted a son, but they're too scared to try again, because it could end up defective too..."
Toph has frozen in place, her mind whirling sickeningly.
"Hey," she hears one of them say, and somehow she knows they're speaking directly to her now. "What're you doing here?"
"I'm... here to learn earthbending," Toph managed. She hears a noise that sounds like an incredulous, muffled laugh, and she knows that something inside her that has been slowly cracking for years is about to snap.
"Get out," says one of the boys who hasn't spoken yet. He sounds slightly older than the rest. "Only boys are ever good at bending anyway. You'll get in our way."
Toph doesn't respond. His tone becomes vicious.
"Get out or we'll make you, you-"
"No," Toph interrupts quietly.
The atmosphere seems to darken.
"...What?" He asks.
The blind earthbender lifts her head high. "I said no. What makes you think I'd listen to you?"
"I'm warning you."
It snaps, and a warped smirk forms on her face. "Oh yeah? Well I'm warning you."
This spikes anger in the other students, and spurs them gradually into action. "Idiot," the boy bites out before moving swiftly to cross the distance between them. Toph feels the thrumming energy more than ever now, pooling at her feet and shooting through her entire body. And Toph knows in that moment, it doesn't matter what these kids said, what her parents said, what anybody said. She is an earthquake, she is a wellspring of power, and she is a force of nature.
Toph strikes them all down without attacking them with earthbending. Instead, she 'sees' with her earthbending, and adroitly defeats them in less than 2 minutes.
The last one she beats is the one who told her she would get in their way. After a few precise strikes and kicks, Toph grabs him by the shirt collar, and then throws him down. He lands on his back. "I may be a girl-" Toph is panting slightly, and her glare is harsh enough to melt rocks. "- and I may be blind, but I could tear you apart. And don't you knuckleheads ever forget it!'
The Beifongs receive complaints from the other students' families- (your child beat up our Rowan!) (two of our son's fingers are broken, thanks to your monster of a daughter!) Toph's parents are exceedingly perplexed and a bit offended. Their tiny 10 year old daughter? She couldn't even see, much less fight!