Search for the Precious
Chapter 1
"Decision and Realization"
Prologue
"Katara! Toph is missing!" he rushed to Katara at the corner of the hall. He took her hand and his eyes scanned the room, trying to find Sokka. "Where's Sokka? We need to search for Toph immediately. She shouldn't be too far from Gao Ling right now."
She gasped in disbelief, hoping that she had misheard what he said, "What had she done this time? Ran away from her house?"
"That's what I heard."Aang shrugged. His eyes were still lurking at the corners of the area.
"There!" Katara pointed her hand and ran to a door which leads to the balcony, automatically dragged her boyfriend; Aang almost fell at the heave, but caught up with her right away.
"Sokka! Sokka! Have you heard that Toph is missing? She ran from her house!" she told her brother the news she had just heard, under her breath.
"What?" Sokka widened his eyes and choked on his drink in shock.
A girl in green walked into the Jasmine Dragon. She pulled a wooden chair and sat on it. Her right leg shoved a stool beside her, and lifted her legs on it. On her left, a girl with two hair buns was placing a porcelain cup filled with black tea on a wooden table in front of her. The table was square shaped and it was located at the left corner of the shop, near the kitchen.
"Where's the others?" asked the blind girl in green, known as Toph. "I thought they are going here too."
Mai, the girl with two hair buns beside her shrugged, and answered, "They're late, as always. Aang isn't coming. I heard he went to a meeting at the palace."
"About the earth king again?" Toph took a tea pot and a cup from the middle of the table, and filled her cup. Unfortunately, the pot was empty and she didn't get any of the tea.
"Maybe." Mai played with her tea cup.
"They are." An old man took the pot from the blind girl to the kitchen, and filled it. "The earth king is currently missing." Iroh said from the kitchen, then he brought it back to the table, filled Toph's cup and went back to his seat beside her.
"Thanks uncle," she thanked with a smile. "The last time we saw him, he said he's going all over the world. So I'm not surprised if no one can find him."
"Did he take his bear with him? What's his name again? You know, the one I let you took at the palace," asked the girl across Iroh.
"I don't know. Bus… Bos…" Toph replied with an unsatisfying answer.
"Bosco."
"Yeah! Bosco." She sipped her tea, and then praised Iroh for his tea. The old man laughed.
"How is Zuko doing? And how is your relationship with him going?" he addressed the question to the girl who was blushing across him."
"Ummm… fine."
"Uh oh, someone's heart is still blooming of the engagement a month ago." Toph teased her friend, with a huge smirk on her face.
"How about yourself?"
There was silence in a while, until she answered, "meaning?"
"Don't think I don't know." She replied. This answer made Iroh put his tea down with curiosity o his face.
"I think you don't know what?" the earth bender was confused. She really didn't understand wht the knife thrower meant.
"You and Sokka." She said with a winning smile, "you like him, don't you?"
Toph blushed a bit. She tried to cover her cheeks with her bangs. "No."
"Don't lie to me. I know when a person likes someone. They usually act differently when a certain someone was with them."
"I don't like Sokka!"
"But you love him." Mai lifted her tea, and raised her eyebrows, with a small playful smile on her face.
"no way! How could I love meathead?" she exclaimed as her face flushed furiously.
"calling him names is another hint too."
Toph was silenced by this statement. She leaned down her head, hoping nobody could see the changes in her face.
"Don't worry to admit it. It's only me and Uncle Iroh. We can keep secrets."
Iroh, who had been quiet while two of his young friends were arguing, finally spoke his mind, "it's okay Toph. Loving someone is not something foolish or embarrassing. I too have seen things between you and Sokka."
She bit her lip. Thousands of things was running in her mind trying to understand what they had said. "I… I love Sokka?" she said faintly.
Both of them nodded.
"But... no! This is so wrong. Sokka is with Suki. I don't have a chance."
"You have. Believe me." Mai put her hand on her friend's, trying to comfort her.
"I don't! Sokka loves Suki. Suki loves Sokka. They're happy with each other. I can't steal Sokka from Suki." She said, raising her head. "Suki doesn't deserve something like that. Plus, she had saved my life during the last battle. If she didn't come… the boomerang and space sword he had thrown to save our life is meaningless."
"Mai!" shouted a voice from the entrance. There were three teenagers walked together. A girl ran a little towards their table in the corner, and hugged the girl in dark red and black. "Congratulations! I'm so sorry I didn't attend your engagement party."
Toph hinted Iroh not to continue their little talk before.
"It's okay, Suki. I knew you're busy." Mai hugged her back.
"So… when is the marriage?" Sokka said with a grin.
"Shut up Sokka. Don't make her uncomfortable." Katara said, approaching her friends.
"Speaking of marriage, do you know my parents want me to marry as soon as I turned sixteen?" Toph said, as she took another mouthful of tea.
"Seriously Toph? You're thirteen! Who talks about marriage to their thirteen year old daughter?"
"Apparently, my parents do." With her cup still on her lips, she flicked her eyes to Katara. Or at least where she felt Katara was.
"So… you need to search for a boyfriend now? "
"Well, considering that it's MY parents we're talking, I guess it'll be an arranged marriage."
Katara and especially Sokka were frozen. The siblings looked at each other, understanding that they both had the same thought. Yue. The Northern Water Tribe princess, Sokka's lost love, who had an arranged marriage before she sacrificed herself for the sake of the world.
He then sat on the empty side of the table quietly, with her girlfriend followed the boy and sat beside him. She didn't understand what made him so silent all of a sudden. She switched her sight to his sister, with a questioning look in her face. Katara shook her head, with her hand covering her mouth, hinted the Kyoshi warrior not to continue the discussion. She then opened a new topic like nothing ever happened.
A firebender came out of the ship and fired at Sokka and Toph. She fell off and Sokka held onto her hand. "My leg! Hang on Toph!" he screamed.
"Aye aye, Captain." She said. She didn't know what happened next. She could only feel the warmth of the hand her life's hanging on.
"Bye, space sword." What happened with space sword? She thought. Did he…? No, no, Sokka would never throw his space sword.
"I don't think boomerang's coming back, Toph. It looks like this is the end." Did he throw his boomerang too? The end? I'm… going to die? She could feel the heat on her eyes, and something running through her cheeks. I'm going to die here? Here?
"Crash!" The airship was shaking horribly. Oh no… I can't hang on anymore! Help! Her hands slipped from Sokka's, falling down to the sky.
This is the end. She closed her eyes, slowly. She felt wind crashing her back, her hair flying off her face. Her tears were drying. She tried to accept her fate as she fell freely to the sky.
Toph woke up. Sweat and tears were flowing down her cheeks. She gasped, her lungs striving for air.
"It's just a dream. It's just a dream. It's just a dream." She chanted herself.
She felt guilt all over her heart, the scene of Sokka throwing his most precious treasures haunting her mind. She knew. He had thrown them, to save their lives. To save ME. She emphasized that one word. Ok that's it! I'm going to get Sokka's sword back.
"Bring me a map." She ordered her main maid, Madame Chen. She was sitting on a chair beside her bed, while hugging the chair's cushion. There was a small wooden table next to her, and a round window above it. She was in her house, the Bei Fong estate, in Gao Ling.
The lady was surprised for a moment, and then rushed outside the room and came back bringing a sheet of paper. "Here it is, Miss Bei Fong."
"Tell me how I can get to Wulong forest."
"Um… this nation is pretty big, so if you headed northwest through those mountains to Omashu city, and went past Kolau Mountains, or went through the Cave of Two Lovers, not recommended. Then go northeast. It is a far turn, because if not, you will have to deal with the desert, very not recommended. From there, you must go through a divide between two of the biggest island of earth nation. Go north, you will get past ruins of Taku, and go straight. Then go east for a while, and south, you will get to Wulong forest."
"Wow. That's far. How long will it take?"
"I guess... Two months on foot, and maybe two days on Appa." Yes, Toph had told her maid about the incredible flying bison of the avatar.
"Okay. Thanks for the explanation. You can go now." She waved her hand nonchalantly.
Madame Chen bowed to her master and left the room.
"It's going to be a long journey. I better start now if I want to attend Zuko's wedding." She giggled. She never actually thought that the fiery boy want to settle down this fast. Maybe it's just a part of his role as the Fire Lord. Then she said with a grin on her face, "three months, huh? Challenge accepted."
Toph stomped his feet to the floor, just for making sure Madame Chen was gone. But she felt someone in front of her door. It was her youngest servant, who was only a few years older than her. She snorted.
"Ling."
"Y-yes, miss?"
"You heard my conversation with Madame Chen, right?"
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to! I was passing in front of your room, and I overheard it. I'm so sorry!"
"It's okay. Just keep it as a secret. I'm going next morning. Tell Madame Chen to make sure that nobody else knows about this; and this works for you too. Or else…"
"Yes, miss."
The sky was crystal clear. There was no sign of clouds anywhere. The heat of the sun caressed the soft cheek of a girl in green as she walked down the road. "So… tell me again how do I reach Wulong forest." Toph wondered, thinking hard, trying to remember what her maid told her before. "First is Omashu, isn't it? Yeah yeah Omashu."
"Now how can I get there? Oma I never knew travelling would be this hard if you can't read a map!" she exclaimed a silent cry. She felt helpless once again. "I just need to head northwest and get out of this town, right? After that, no one will recognize me and no one will know that I'm blind." she walked along the roads of her hometown.
She stopped for a while and tried feeling her house once again. Feeling everyone in her home. Her mother was taking a bath and her father was still sleeping. The guards were standing as lazy as ever in front of her house. The resident chefs were making breakfast and getting ready for lunch. Her maids were preparing a bath for her.
Good, no one panicked. She thought. Good job, Ling.
Better leave before they get suspicious.
There she was. Up on the mountain. Under the bright moon. Under the twinkling stars. Eating canned food by the side of a roughly built path. Her back was leaning against a tree. Her unseeing eyes were gazing up the sky, as though she's looking to the other universe.
She was so alone. She felt just like how she was before she ran away and met her earth bending teacher. The two badger moles. Toph's first friends. She can relate to them. Albeit very young, she was a quick learner. They were the ones to encourage her to stand up and not to be the weak, useless, helpless girl she always used, and assumed to be. Moreover, they could do that without any word coming out of their mouth.
Surrounded by lots of people in Gao Ling, Toph still felt so friendless. Her parents said that they were always there for her, looking after her, but in reality, they didn't. They just gave her to the hands of the maids. Yes, she had gotten wealth, service, food, luxury, but like any other child, she needed attention and affection from her parents too. Sadly, the most vital things in a child's life are the ones she didn't get.
Her childhood was different. Her parents expected her to become the perfect heir of the esteemed family in earth kingdom, the Bei Fong family. She had learnt manners and customs of society. Yet now, she had thrown all that. She had tossed aside the things she had wasted her childhood on. All the time, people asked her, "why?" Because she felt she can't. She's not the perfect, flawless heir to them, and may never be. She has her disabilities. She's blind. She admitted it. And they had been hiding her from the rest of the world, making people thought that the Bei Fong family didn't have any descendant.
She closed her eyes and yawned. With her horse stance, she built a tent made of earth, and swept her things into it. She then crawled in and slept.
"Thanks Aang," Sokka said, as he climbed down of Appa.
"Thanks for the ride, sweetie," Katara whispered as she kissed her boyfriend's cheek. Sokka shuddered just by hearing how his sister called the avatar.
"Seriously guys," he said, shaking his head, "do things like that when I'm not around."
Katara turn her head to the guy talking and narrowed her eyes, "well, you do this too. So why can't I?"
He raised his forefinger, "First, I don't call Suki like that. Second, I do mushy things like that when we're both alone."
"Yeah. Right. Then what were you doing at the serpent's pass?"
"What did I do?" his eyes widened.
"Nothing. Nothing." Katara answered in a high pitched voice, and a toothy grin on her face.
Sibling's fight. Aang silently said as he shook his head.
"Oh yeah Aang," Sokka reminded the boy on a bison, "Remember to pick us up in a week."
"I will." He said and then lifted himself to the air, "yip yip!"
"Miss Bei Fong, would you like to have some lunch?" Hung said as she knocked.
"Click!" ah… the door's not locked. She turned the knob slowly, expecting her little mistress to yell at her for entering without permission.
But only silence replied her.
"Miss?" she peeked inside a little, examining the room. Her eyebrows furrowed, as she felt something wrong. Then she froze. Her eyes widened, and her hands covered her lips, she was struggling not to scream. In a flash, she ran to the main room in panic.
"MISS BEI FONG IS MISSING!"
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 second attempt to write in English after finishing several stories in my first language and one in English.
A special thank you for all of you who had added this story to their favorites and alerts, and those who had reviewed my story and especially to people who added me to their author alerts and favorites. Thank you thank you!
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.
PS: Hey look! Another Madame Chen! It's my friend's Chinese name, so I added her name here. HAHA YOU'RE MY SERVANT NOW HAHAHA okay it's Toph's but still. *ignore this part please*
UPDATE: I compressed my stories. I combined every two chapters into one, but nothing changed in it though. :)
((SPOILER: the prologue isn't what you think it is. ;P))
