~Chapter 1~

It had all been a stupid mistake. A stupid, idiotic mistake. And a drunken one at that... I thought it was juice; I could've sworn it was! But apparently it was wine or something...I still couldn't remember anything. All I could remember was the throbbing headache I had when I woke up next to some guy I didn't even know. Was he a bender? Was he friend, foe, or pervert? I had no clue at the time, and even now I still don't. All I knew was that a month later, I couldn't earthbend correctly. And I still couldn't.

But the bigger issue was that seeing was becoming a horrible problem. It was true that I had been born blind, but I had learned to see using my earthbending. Feeling the vibrations in the ground had never once been a problem to me since I learned how to do it. But now...now everything was fuzzy and messed-up. During my training sessions with Aang, I'd hit both Katara and even myself! On several occasions, Aang had to use his own earthbending to redirect my boulders so they wouldn't kill someone. And many a time, someone would ask me what was wrong. I myself could never say. My 'vision' was blurred to extremes; I couldn't aim properly anymore. It was far worse than standing on one leg in a swirling sandpit.

Another boulder whizzed right past Sokka's head; he nearly passed out from such a close call with certain death.

"Did I hit anyone?" I asked.

"No," Aang's voice answered, "but you nearly knocked Sokka's head off."

I whispered a quick, "Sorry..." and sat down on the ground. It was strange, I mused, this ground was solid rock! The more earth was beneath my feet, the better my vision. But the picture in my head was twisted and bent, meaning I was completely unable to construct a landscape or even the people on it. This was bad; I needed to know what was wrong with me, and fast...before I really hurt someone.

"Toph, are you sure you're feeling up to this? I mean, your earthbending isn't...well...accurate," Katara said, from a safe distance away from the training.

"You forget that you're talking to the greatest earthbender in the world!" I snapped back. "I'm the Blind Bandit, remember! Not even Twinkletoes here can beat my skills!"

"Toph, I think Katara's right; something's wrong with your earthbending," Aang agreed.

Oh, please...he'd agree to anything Sugar Queen said! "Actually, I think something's happened to my feet. I can't see right anymore."

I heard a shuffle of feet and assumed everyone was surrounding me, eager to take care of the sight problem before I crushed one of them. But it was Katara's voice that questioned what was wrong with my feet. I felt one of them being lifted up and thoroughly examined, then the other one. After that, I heard a sigh as my foot was put down. I figured that the sigh was Katara's, and that she was sighing because she couldn't do anything to help me despite her healing abilities. I was useless to the group without my sight.

"Well, I can say one thing for sure, Toph. There's nothing wrong with your feet." Yeah, that was definitely Katara. Had to be. Her voice was always so...I dunno, motherly? Sweet, kind, and a little candy-coated. But when she was mad, her voice was venomous. Angry, testy, and a little I'll-kill-you. Either way it went, and whatever her mood, I knew her voice.

If nothing was wrong with my feet, then what was wrong? My vision was completely off! I couldn't see a thing, yet I had the weight of training the Aang for his big fight with the Fire Lord on my shoulders! Maybe I was just getting sick... Maybe it was nothing to worry about. After all, these past few days, I had been feeling nauseous. Heck, twice I'd even puked. This was something that I could easily attribute to a stomach bug, so I did.

But even after lots of rest and Katara taking good care of me, I still didn't feel any better. I had waited for two weeks, and still wasn't myself. And my vision only seemed to be worsening. There was no way I could train Aang when I was in such a condition.

"You're still not running a fever..." Katara's voice sighed heavily.

I felt my eyelids lift but I couldn't physically see anything. It reminded me too much of the days before I had learned to see through earthbending. It was disturbing me. I felt weak and helpless and blinder than I'd ever been. I hated it, every last bit of it.

The waterbending nomad had stuck me inside a Southern Water Tribe tent. She had told me it was blue, like many of their creative items. But she forgot that I was blind and couldn't see color. I had no idea what blue was or what it looked like. It must have been pretty, though, because she had gone on and on about it. It would protect me. It would keep me warm. It would shield me from rain. It would do this, it would do that.

It was shameful to say, but before this tent, I had tried to earthbend a tent for myself. I always felt comfortable when surrounded by a bendable substance. To say the least, I had failed miserably. Not to mention Momo. I think I might've scarred him for life...poor little guy. I hadn't seen him around me for days, but the others insisted that he was fine and would come near me eventually. They also managed to patch up his left ear.

"Then I'm not sick," I told the waterbender as I stood up and walked confidently out of the tent.

I felt warm light on my face, and knew at once that it was daylight. The light was that of the sun's, and I smiled as prepared to try my earthbending. A small pebble, of which the color was unknown to me, rippled backwards and hit the tent. Thankfully, the tent stayed in tact, but the point was...I just couldn't earthbend anymore. Not even the smallest little rock would obey my command, let alone a gigantic boulder.

What went wrong? Was I losing my focus? Earthbending was literally the only thing that kept me alive all these years. Without it, I...I didn't know what would've happened. But now it was gone, just like that.

I tried unsuccessfully to fix the image in my mind. I found it to be impossible. Something was terribly wrong with me, that much I knew. But what? I had no idea of my surroundings without being able to feel the vibrations around me!

I sighed with heavy emotion. Somehow, I had this creeping feeling that this wasn't just going to fix itself.

A/N

Yep, first chappie AND prologue (which would explain the shortness). Okay, so tell me what you guys think! Always open to new, creative ideas. Also, have any of you tried writing a story in Toph's POV? Not easy. But I have to say it was fun.

I know the summary to this story sucked, but I'd say the story itself was okay, right? I'm hoping to make each chapter better and better, so...yeah. That's all I have to say for now.

Please review!