Footsteps to the Wedding

Chapter 1

"The Marriage"

Appa landed in the Bei Fong's garden. His huge tail swept the dirt off the ground. Three people climbed down from the bison, as one of them releasing a lemur from her hand. It flew to the tree nearby and ate the ripest fruit of all.

As the bald nomad helped his girlfriend got down from the beast, the ground shook. The three teenagers were flown up to the air. Luckily, there were a lot of bushes around them, and no one was hurt.

"Just like the first time we met, twinkletoes!" Toph said with a huge grin. She was wearing her usual long white petticoat dress, with a long sash, and a headband with flowers on it.

"Wow, you still remember that?" Aang patted his head.

"Of course! You three ambushed me in my own house! Who's going to forget that?"

"Well at least this time my face didn't hit the ground first. I guess this time I'm pretty lucky." Sokka tried to stand up.

"Ha! What luck?" answered Toph sarcastically.

"Oh Toph, it has been so long after we last saw you." said Katara as she hugged her.

"Yeah, it's like forever." Her brother continued. His hands lifted the blind girl off the ground.

"PUT ME DOWN! PUT. ME. DOWN. My feet can't see a thing!" she struggled. Her hands were waving in the air.

"Oh no! What a nightmare!" he replied. A huge smirk was formed at his face.

"Haha. So funny." She frowned. Sokka finally put her down, which seems like a bad decision, because he immediately received a punch at his ribs.

"Ah good old times," Katara gazed at the sky, "That line seems familiar, Sokka. Isn't that what she said when we're taking down the huge drill at Ba Sing Se?"

She gets a grin from the water tribe teenager as her answer.

"Come everyone," her tiny hand waved at them. Wind blew her clothes as she turned around and stepped into the house. "Oh, and don't worry about Appa, I've told my servants to take care of them."

"Okay Toph," answer Aang. He marched into the house along with Momo resting on his shoulder.

"Hey, what's that on your feet, meathead? Something made of metal?"

"Oh, this? Those are my braces. My leg was hurt at the last battle. You should've remembered it. You were with me and Suki that time."

"Right." Her face gloomed right after she heard that word. Suki. Of course. That one lucky girl.

A lady at her mid thirties came out from the kitchen. She's serving lunch for the honored guests in the dining room. A young man brought a jade green pot of tea, and poured it into their porcelain cups.

"Excuse me, good sir."

"Good sir?" a smile grown at Sokka's face, "I like this guy."

"Had I ever mentioned to you that you're tacky, snoozles?" the host replied.

Sokka squinted. He forked a big piece of roasted duck, took it into his mouth, and said in a high tone, "whatever."

There's a little silence after that. Aang is the first to break the ice by saying, "hey Toph, why didn't you reply my messages? Three months ago, I sent two letters and one last month!"

"What messages?" she raised her eyebrows and tilt her head aside. A confused look appeared at her face, "and why did you send me messages? I'm BLIND." She waved her left hand in front of her head.

"Well you can always make one of your maids to read them for you," Sokka suggested.

Katara ignored the young man and asked, "You mean… you didn't get any letter or messages from us?"

The avatar put some salad into his plate, "we sent you a letter saying that we're going to gather at your house today. And before that, Zuko sent all of us a letter to invite us to his wedding party."

"SPARKY IS GETTING MARRIED?" her chair was thrown backwards. She hit the table, hard. Unbelievable. She thought. Nobody told her before. Even Madame Chen, her main maid, who loves to gossip and tell her what happened around the world didn't say anything about her friend's marriage.

"Spirits. You really didn't get any of those, did you?" Katara gasped. "I bet you didn't even know that we're coming."

Toph shook her head. "Well you can come here anytime you want. My parents won't mind since you're my friends. But... Really? Goodness."

"Speaking of which, where are your parents?" Sokka asked. As his defense, he loves to question things because of his "natural curiosity".

"Gone for business trip or such, I don't know." She shrugged.

"The party is held at the end of next month. We're all invited. Even Katara's father is invited!" Aang even stood up to express his surprise.

His girlfriend glared at his statement, causing the silence of the avatar. "Aang is going to pick me and Sokka up at the southern water tribe, then get you and go straight to Zuko's palace a day before the wedding. Make sure you're ready, Toph. Don't make us wait-!"

"I won't." She shook her head.

"What do you mean by 'I won't'?" the water tribe girl slowly put her hands at her hips, trying to confirm what her friend just said.

"I won't ride Appa this time. Flying makes me sick, Katara. I've had enough headaches this whole time. And I can't see anything up there! I will not travel by air again."

"But you can't get to the palace by foot in a day, or even in a week!"

"Actually, she can." Her brother suddenly interrupted the girls' fight. He put his finger and traced his map, making some possible trips from Bei Fong's residence to the ember island. "You see, if she starts the journey any day of this week, she'll reach the place 3 days before the party, or even earlier. But she still has to ride on a boat or something to get to the location. Maybe just an hour or two, so don't worry."

"You're bringing that map this whole time?" it's pretty obvious that Aang is shocked to see him spread his map on the dining table.

Sokka raised his head, "actually just after you came to the South Pole and picked us up. We can't be sure you haven't forgotten Toph's house, right?" He got a punch at his hips. "Twinkletoes doesn't forget things easily like you, Ponytail." The air nomad grinned, agreeing her statement.

"Hey, I said 'just in case'!" Sokka defended himself.

Toph snorted, "No, you didn't."

"I did! Anyway you're not going there on foot ALONE, are you Toph?"

Yeah, you really shouldn't go there by yourself." Katara added. Aang nodded his head in agreement.

"Why? Because you think I can't handle myself?"

"No! Come on, you know we don't think of you that way. It's just… walking alone from the earth kingdom to the fire nation is dangerous!"

"So you think that I can handle myself, but can't handle bad people." She raised one of her eyebrows. She kicked the ground below her, trying to earthbend the avatar. Fortunately the avatar's light feet saved him.

"No no no! I mean…"

"I'll come with you." Sokka cut his friend's words.

"What?" the earth bender's eyes stared at Sokka. Well, at least she stared at where she thought the source of his voice was. His face did look serious this time. But going on foot with her for a month? That's questionable isn't it?

This time, Sokka's the one to stand up. "You heard me. I'll come with you. To the wedding. On foot."

to be continued

Disclaimer: I do not own "Avatar: The Last Airbender". This story is based on the characters and plot of "Avatar: The Last Airbender".

Please enjoy this story. This is my first attempt to write in English after finishing several stories in my first language.

I promise the next chapters will be a lot longer.

I've got a question, how many words would you like in each chapter? 500, 1000, 1500, or 3000? Or maybe even more? Please answer. I'm a newbie here.

Dedicated for JustthisGuyYouKnow. You inspired me to write a Tokka fan fiction.

Comments, critics, suggestions, corrections (especially in grammar), or anything related to the story are welcome. Just click the review button!

Thank you for reading this story.

Updated: thanks to JustThisGuyYouKnow, I had corrected my mistakes in the story and the summary. (Even in the summary. I really need to improve my english, aren't I?)

I would love to see more correction if I make other mistakes. :)

UPDATE: I compressed my stories. I combined every two chapters into one, but nothing changed in it though. :)