Color.
Red. Green. Blue. Orange. In color you can see emotion, personality, and most importantly identity. It identifies whom we belong to; red and black for Fire Nation, green and brown for Earth Kingdom, blue and white for Water Tribe, and orange and yellow for Air Nomads. Without color, we have no one. We have nothing. Or do we?
I, Toph, wear green everyday, or so I'm told. I am different, a blind girl, she who cannot see faces clearly let alone the color of someone's shirt. To me, not having color is not a lost of identity or spirit, its just normal…it's just how I see things everyday. I could say that color does not matter but, when someone approaches, I have to be told who they are. When we don't know them, my friends look at the color of their clothing to identify who they're with and what side they're one. So maybe color does matter after all, color can be the line between life and death.
We sit upon an empty corner of the lot behind a teashop in the lower ring. A man approaches. Here is what I know from what I am feeling through the vibrations hitting my feet:
-this man is stealth
-he is sly
- he is strong
Do my instinct say run or do they say greet him? I have no idea.
"Run!" Katara whispers harshly, and we split. The man attacks, earthbending at me in every direction. I dodge and throw a rock straight at him. He tumbles. We run away, past the lower ring and into a safe haven: the shop of Iroh.
"How'd you know?" I ask quietly after we slip inside and greet our old friend. I am curious to know how Katara figured out he was bad, but feel stupid that I couldn't figure out if he was dangerous by myself.
"How did I know what?" Katara asked back, still shooken up from the commotion.
"That he was bad...that we had to run."
"I don't know..." Katara said as she sat pondering my question.
"Was it his smirk? He had quite a strange look on his face," Sokka suggested.
"Or maybe his stance? I felt his quickness," I added. "But it wasn't enough to make me think he was bad."
"It was his outfit. The green hat with brown rim and green coat seemed to scream, "Run!" to me. An image of jet's death flashed through my mind and I realized that the man was Dai Lee: the only people who are still loyal to Azula," Katara announced at last.
"I should have known! I could have recognized him. If he had earthbended, I could have recognized his techniques. It is times like this that I wish I wasn't blind, so I could see and judge situations by their appearances."
"Don't say that Toph! What you have is a gift. The monks always taught us not to always judge on first glances, to look beneath what we see," Aang tells me. "You have that ultimate ability that the rest of us can never reach. You look at someone and judge them on who they are on the inside."
"Do you know how much I want the whole world to be like that?" Zuko chimed in, feeling his face. "If they couldn't see my scar."
"That's why you were trusting Zuko when we didn't. You looked beyond what we saw: a firenation prince who is scary and untrustworthy. And look who was right? You."
"If I was alone in that parking lot I would be dead right now," Toph says vulgarly. "You know it, and I know it. I couldn't see the green or brown or whatever you call those colors. I couldn't see his smirk. I could only see his stance. What am I suppose to do? Run from anyone who might be a threat because they are strong? Zuko is strong, he is not a threat. Not anymore. Sokka is strong. Should I run from him?"
"Yeah. Sokka is evil." Katara states sarcastically, causing Zuko to chuckle softly and everyone else to give a "not the right moment," glance at Katara. "Sorry," Katara mumbles before shutting up.
Iroh walks over the table, sensing some need for his wisdom. "Toph, you are blind, and everyone here knows that you can't see what we see: physical appearances. But you have our eyes for that. Katara, Sokka, Aang, and Zuko can tell you the color of someone's hat, and which nation someone belongs to, but we have you to tell us what really matters: what's inside."