Fieldtrip: Chapter 8 – The Servant and The Beast
"Tada?"
Zuko turned around and faced the in her uniform dressed Toph. It had been a miracle that he'd been able to convince her to put it on, including the ponytail, and seeing her in the outfit made him not regret his efforts to convince her. Not at all to say the least.
Bumi had required for Toph to braid her hair as well, and even though Zuko hadn't expected much of it he was truly amazed. Happily surprised.
Toph was small and young, true, but she looked magnificent. He had never seen her in a dress – she had always politely refused to wear one during one of his important festivities – and honestly he wanted to see her in a dress every day now. He knew that green really suited her, but when it was in the shape of a dress that seemed to match with her personality – somewhat simple yet stunning and unique – the colour stood out even more on her features. He didn't dare to imagine what she would look like in a few years.
After a little while Zuko also noticed she had thrown her braided ponytail over her shoulder, and so he also noticed it was really long – something that shouldn't have surprised him after he'd seen her with her hair loose in the water. For once she had pulled the bangs from in front of her face, and for a moment he wanted to ask her why she didn't show her eyes like that more. He luckily kept his mouth shut, the thought of getting scowled at in that way she did changed his mind rather quickly.
"Well, how does it look?"
Zuko shocked and automatically took a step back. He coughed awkwardly once he'd realized he'd been from the world for a little while.
"It looks great!" he quickly said, preventing himself from stuttering. "Really great!"
For a moment he was afraid he would get shot in the air for complimenting her, he wasn't sure if he was allowed to do such thing. Toph was in thought and lifted an eyebrow, not saying a word and not showing any real expression. Zuko was preparing to get hurt real bad and closed his eyes.
"It does?"
He opened his eyes in surprise – not only because he didn't get hurt, also because Toph's question seemed unsure. Zuko looked again at the small earthbender who, surprisingly enough, looked very vulnerable all the sudden. It felt like she had never gotten a compliment before, and maybe she did like to get compliments.
"Yeah!" the Firelord said, almost yelled. "It suits you. A lot."
For a moment he meant to see Toph blush, but almost instantly she looked like her old self again and was frowning at him.
"Well don't think I'm going easy on you just because you complimented me." She crossed her arms and stubbornly looked away from him. He smiled. "Besides, how do you look?"
Zuko shocked at her question, and he knew that he was as curious as her to find out the answer. He already had a feeling he wouldn't look too great wearing green, but wearing a headband as well would make it even more awful.
He searched for a mirror in the room they'd been forced into after changing, and luckily – or not? – he found one right behind him. He took a few steps closer to the mirror and his somewhat curious look changed into a somewhat shocked one.
The green pair of trousers was obviously too big, they looked insanely baggy. His shirt was worse though. Like his trousers, his shirt was too big as well, which caused his left lace to fall from his shoulder. He knew that no matter how much he was going to try to keep that lace in its place, it was still going to slide off his shoulder. Before looking at his hair – where his headband would be found – he checked his feet, which were covered with those grey boots. He smiled at how good they actually looked, in some way those shoes made the entire outfit look a little better on him. When he looked up and saw his head, he smiled even more. For some reason that green headband in his hair made him look tough, a little like a pirate. The headband wasn't that broad or anything, but still. Normally he would've pulled his long hair over it to make it look better and less... indecent, but seeing his hair that messy and not messy at the same time made him not do it.
Eventually he turned to his friend again to meet an impatient look on her face, but it didn't make his smile disappear. For once he was actually happy with how he looked like in a new outfit, and this time he wouldn't be afraid to say it.
"I look pretty good. Green seems to suit me."
Toph's only reaction was blowing up her bangs – or trying to, her bangs weren't there anymore and it clearly annoyed her.
"Don't brag so much about yourself."
**
Both benders stood in front of King Bumi, who sat in his fancy chair. They were slightly bowing in front of him, covering their fist with their hand.
"That's enough bowing for today," Bumi said, gesturing for them to stand up straight. "If you do it too long you'll destroy your back. And we wouldn't want that, would we?"
"What do you want us to do, Bumi?" Zuko asked firmly, hands clinged together.
"King." the old earthbender corrected before narrowing his eyes. "But," he started, looking as happy as normal, "That's a very good question! I decided that you two will be my personal servants." Toph groaned. "You," he looked at Toph, "Will be occupied with feeding me lots of things and washing my clothes. Also, you're going to keep an eye on your firebending friend here." Then he turned to Zuko. "And you, you're going to be my pet."
Zuko's face fell. "Your pet??"
"And my courier."
"What does being your pet have to do with being your servant??"
"Nothing." Bumi laughed. "I just love to mess with people." He continued laughing while Zuko and Toph looked at each other, the firebender looking desperate. Suddenly the laughing stopped and both looked in front of them again. "Now get down." Zuko cocked his head in confusion. "On your hands and knees."
As he tried to keep his angry growls to himself, the Firelord did as told and went on his hands and knees. He lifted his head to look at his temporary master, a small frown on his face. His master looked back at him with an amused grin playing on his features. Zuko didn't know what was going to come, but he knew that whatever it was wouldn't cause anything good.
"Now quack like a turtleduck."
"What??"
**
After Zuko had been sent away with about five huge packages filled with clothes – so Bumi had said – Toph remained in the palace together with her master. Her arms were crossed and a bored look was on her face. This certainly was a twist in the story, but not a twist she wanted. This didn't have anything to do with adventure, and so she couldn't wait to get out of the city.
Suddenly she shocked and turned to the old king.
"Hey, King Bumi?"
Bumi looked up. "Yes?"
"How long are we supposed to stay here and serve you?"
"What do you mean?" He lifted an eyebrow. "You don't like working for me?"
"No, no, it's not that. It's just-"
"Do you smell something?"
Bumi sniffed in the air and looked suspiciously. Toph could only look surprised. Nevertheless she got onto her toes and sniffed in the air too, only to get onto her feet again and put her hands in her sides.
"What?"
Bumi faced the tiny earthbender again with a huge smile on his face and laughed, snorts once again joining his laughter. Almost had he deserved a good earthbending smash from his fellow earthbender, who was able to control herself just in time.
"It's my laundry! And it needs to be done!"
For a few moments it was silent, Bumi's laughter fading away slowly as his personal servant kept standing on her place and didn't go to find his dirty clothes. His amused expression slowly changed into an angry one, and as he studied the look on the pale girl's face, he placed his fingers against each other and hid his face partially behind them.
A few moments of silence later it was Toph's turn to laugh, and just like her master, she didn't hold back anything. The thought of she doing laundry, his laundry, was just too unbelievable and too funny for her to actually go do it. It was so funny she even held her stomac – laughing had always been a weakness of hers, her stomac quickly hurt. After her laughing Toph wiped away a few tears that had appeared, and when she was completely done she looked seriously.
"No way."
Bumi kept staring at her, probably wondering how he could make her do his laundry. Suddenly his face lit up and a wide smile was on his features again. Toph simply lifted an eyebrow, trying not to show her curiosity. When Bumi all the sudden hit the ground with his right foot and the earth came towards her to knock her down like a wave, the blind girl jumped high in the air – leaving a pole of earth on the spot where she'd been standing – and shot herself through the wave, leaving a huge hole in it.
"What was that for??" she yelled after she'd landed in front of the attacker.
"If you don't want to do my laundry by will, I'm going to have to force you." He narrowed his eyes. "The choice is up to you."
"Wait," Toph had begun snickering, "You're going to force me to do your laundry by fighting me?" She didn't wait for him to reply. "Do you actually know who I am?"
"Do you know who I am?"
Right after the young earthbender had lifted an eyebrow once again Bumi attacked her once more. He jumped from his seat and hit the ground fiercly with his fists and feet, causing an entire stroke of earth to rise to the ceiling. Toph, who was standing on a part of that stroke, quickly had to jump away. She was a little surprised by the power her fellow earthbender had, and because of that she almost didn't hear the sound of a huge boulder being bended out of the ground.
She swung her head to the left to feel just in time that there wasn't just one huge boulder going to come towards her, but three. Not even a second later did her opponent shoot all of them towards her, and he didn't hold back. Not knowing what else to do, Toph jumped and dug herself into the ground, disappearing completely. As she sat and waited for the boulders to fly along, she breathed heavily. The boulders hit the wall instead of her and then... it was silent.
She dug herself a little deeper into the ground, softly so she wouldn't be heard. When she figured he wouldn't hear her anymore, she hit the ground around her and searched for his vibrations. She grinned when she found him.
"Sneak attack!" she yelled as she appeared from the ground behind him.
Her wide grin disappeared and she looked around her, trying to find the vibrations she'd felt just a few seconds ago. With eyes wide open she hit the ground with her hands, searching once again for her temporary enemy.
Before she knew it all too well she felt something behind her at the front of the palace, and the only thing she could do was turn around, yell and attack as fast as she could. The sound of a body fiercly hitting one of the walls made her grin again. The groaning she heard was supposed to make her grin widen, but when she realized it wasn't the right person's groaning she shocked.
"Zuko??"
Toph turned around immediately, only to find herself pinned next to her firebending friend several seconds later. Unlike him, her arms and legs were pinned widely from each other – probably so she couldn't earthbend. She quickly studied how she herself had pinned Zuko against the wall, and she was saddened when she felt he was simply hanging on the wall with ten sharp rocks in his clothes.
"Well, well, look at that." Bumi said while he came closer, his hands folded behind his back. "The servant and the beast, losing together."
"Beast??" Zuko yelled angrily.
"Losing??" his friend yelled in the same way.
"You know what, Toph?" The old earthbender stopped in front of her and smiled widely. "Sneak attacks don't work if you yell them out loud."
**
Once the defeated ones were taken off the wall, Bumi had decided to drink some tea with them. To their surprise, Zuko and Toph had followed him to his private room, which was decorated with mostly crystals. Toph loved it immediately.
"Did you deliver my packages?"
Both benders looked at each other with slightly widened eyes. The firebender put down his tea and looked at his master.
"Yes." A small frown came to his features. "They thanked me for bringing their rocks."
The Blind Bandit almost spit out her tea as she began snickering. Once she'd swallowed the hot liquid she laughed loudly, making Zuko's frown deepen.
"You made him bring rocks?? No wonder he could barely walk!"
"I still don't get it," Zuko said angrily, "Why do want me to bring rocks? And why didn't you bend them to them yourself, their place wasn't that far away at all! I mean, I was back in five minutes! Or... ten."
"I needed to be alone with Toph for a moment. I knew she would gladly accept my challenge to an earthbending contest, and I knew that any time soon you could walk in."
"So you used him as a bait?" Toph asked.
"No, no, as a distraction."
"And why did you do it?"
"To learn you two some lessons."
Toph and Zuko looked at each other again, both showing their confusion to one another. Then, with their eyebrows lifted, they faced the king of Omashu.
"Which lessons?" the youngest of the two eventually asked.
Bumi smiled at them. "Lesson number one: Don't make yourself ridiculous." Zuko frowned again at the memory of him acting like a turtleduck. "Stand up for your rights. Lesson number two: Don't think of yourself as the greatest." Toph frowned. "Even if you are. You can never let anything like that get to your head. You'll only be worse because of it. And lesson number three..." Bumi began to laugh. "Don't ever listen to a crazy old man!"
The Firelord and the earthbender's mouths fell open as their eyes went wide. They could've known that would happen. Aang had warned them while telling his stories, and they'd forgotten all about it. They were afraid they would get attacked or locked up if they wouldn't listen, but they had forgotten the most important thing: They were standing under Bumi's command.
"Oh, and one last lesson." The servants shocked. "Don't trust every kind of tea."
Both the servant and the so called beast looked down at their tea, and suddenly they had a painful look on their face. They each had a hand on their head and when they looked around everything was blurred.
"Don't worry," they heard vaguely. "You'll be just fine."
And then... everything went black.
**
He bumped his head against what seemed like a roof and instantly he was up. He anxiously looked around him and noticed he was riding in a carriage, and once noticing he luckily wasn't alone, he stopped looking around. He looked at Toph, who had awaken before him (or maybe because of him?) and was staring in front of her with her arms crossed over her chest. As if she knew he was looking at her, she faced him with a light frown. He shocked and backed down a little in his seat. Not that it would help.
"About time you got awake." He blinked a few times in confusion. "He gave us this," She showed him a letter. "That'll probably explain why we're here."
Getting the fact that he would have to read it, Zuko let out a somewhat tired sigh.
"I don't feel well, Toph," he said, placing his hand on his head, "Can't you read it?"
"Oh yeah, sure!" Toph cleared her throat and brought the letter to her face, in the meantime her friend put his head against the side of the carriage and looked outside one of the windows. "Dear Zuko, before I start my letter decently, there is one thing I must say." For a moment Toph paused. A few seconds later, the letter was thrown at his face. "Toph can't read!"
Zuko looked at his friend, who was giving him an angry look. He smacked his hand against his forehead as he let out a groan. How stupid he was for forgetting she was blind. He took the letter from where it had landed – the ground – and started to read it himself. First he had to get a better view at all the letters, his vision still wasn't as clear as it should've been.
After a short while though, he was able to read everything properly and so he cleared his throat.
"Young benders," he started, imagining Bumi's voice. "Sorry about the tea, it was something I had to do."
"Yeah right." Toph said annoyedly.
"No need to worry, it won't cause any strange effects. Now on to the point. When you wake up you're normally sitting in a carriage, and that carriage is bringing you closer to your destination. I had the feeling you were searching for adventure," Zuko quickly looked up to see his friend smiling. "And therefore I'm sending you to Kyoshi Island, where you will learn how to fight without any bending." The scarred teenager winced at the mention of the destination, remembering what he had done to the village a long time ago. "The ladies there are really nice – so I've heard – and I hope you two will learn more about fighting and each other together with these warriors. When the carriage stops and someone tells you to get out, then get out." Zuko rolled his eyes. "When you're out of the carriage you search for a boat. A big, brown boat with the Earth Kingdom symbol on it. When you find that boat, get on it. It will take you to your adventurous island. Well, good luck you two. You're going to need it. Your master, King Bumi."
Zuko lowered the letter to find an answer in Toph's expression, and the answer he found was one that he hadn't quite expected. He'd expected an angry answer, but the one that she showed was even angrier than angry. With her arms crossed, Toph had a deep frown on her face.
"When we get out," she started, "We're not going on that boat."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't feel like fighting with girls! And... wearing dresses!"
"Dresses?"
"Didn't you hear Sokka's story about Kyoshi Island?? He had to wear a dress!"
"You had to wear a dress too today." Zuko shocked when he noticed something before grinning. "You're still wearing one now."
"Okay fine, it's not that I have such a major thing against dresses. It's just..."
"You're afraid Suki will be there?"
"What??" Toph angrily faced her friend. "No way!"
"It's okay, you can tell me. I won't tell anyone else."
For a moment it seemed that the earthbender was going to protest, but strangely enough she didn't. She'd already opened her mouth and lifted her index finger to probably tell him that she didn't care whether he would or wouldn't tell anyone else, but no sound came from her mouth. Her face still showed her anger, but that soon changed. It changed into sadness. And as she dropped her head sadly, her finger did the same.
"I'm afraid I'll like her."
Zuko's eyes widened in surprise. He knew that it was something to admit to be afraid someone would be in your neighbourhood all the time, but now that he'd heard her say she was afraid to like that someone, he couldn't figure out how huge that was to admit. It was now that he realized how she might've been feeling about Suki and Sokka together, and Sokka alone as well. He had to find out as soon as possible if Toph felt something more than friendship for that Water Tribe warrior.
"As long as I'm here," Zuko said, placing himself next to Toph. "You don't have to be afraid of anything." He carefully put his arm around her. "The beast will protect his servant from anything." Toph laughed softly. "Anything."
To Be Continued