AN:I know these Avatar stories are short but these are just drabble contest entries anyway. I will make longer stories in the future. P.S. This takes place a year before the Blind Bandit episode.
She loved the roar of the crowd, the firm earth beneath her feet, the way grown men would shriek like little girls before their bodies made bone breaking contact with the ground (She really loved that part). She loved it all. But what she probably loved the most was the freedom that it gave her, freedom that was a gift from the badger moles, freedom that she would never get from her parents.
Did they really think that locking her up in that house for the rest of her life was the best thing for her? The constant watch under a guards eye, the endless edict lessons and boring games, and not to mention the stupid frilly dresses that her stylist made her wear each day(That she couldn't even see!) But perhaps the worst thing was that she felt like her parents didn't even love her. Any time she would ask for a little more breathing room. A little more trust, she would hear the same things: "We are doing this for your own good." We want to protect you."
Protect her, huh? More like protect their own image. They didn't even let the earth kingdom know that their only daughter existed; they only saw her as a defect. To them she was just some porcelain doll they were afraid of breaking. If only they knew that when she was here, she was the furthest thing from breakable. When she was here she was free from their shackles. When she was here she could go all out, prove that she was the best eathbender in the world and was not held down by some greedy, idiot teacher and his "breathing exercises". When she was here, she was no longer a prim and proper little girl. She was Toph Beifong. And she didn't need anyone's protection.
A wide smile crossed an eleven year old girl's face as a man three times her size and age fell out of the arena with a satisfying 'thud'. The crowd whooped and hollered at her twelfth consecutive win. The little girl lifted a belt that would certainly not fit her, above her head. When the crowd died down the voice of the announcer, a large man by the name of Xin Fu echoed through the underground fighting arena. "That concludes this year's Earth Rumble! Your winner and still champion…The Blind Bandit!