Chapter 1: Into the Twister
Toph always hated storm season.
Every fall, just after the harvest, tornados swept through the lands around Gaoling. They appeared on such a regular basis here that some referred to the area as Tornado Valley, with Gaoling sitting within the southern end. The worst of them had been known to tear swaths of destruction in the city, but tornados big enough for that usually only happened a few times each century. But there was always a fear that this year would have the big one, something that was always in the back of Toph's mind.
Of all the possible ways to meet an untimely end, only the tornado ever gave Toph nightmares. The wind had always been her opposite element, an unpredictable force of nature that was counter to the stability of earth. Without any kind of shelter the wind could take one off their feet, and then hurl the unprotected person into something very hard with lethal force. And it was just about impossible for Toph to truly anticipate a tornado with her vibration sight, as she could never see the air itself.
Momo didn't seem to appreciate it either.
The lemur was clinging to Toph's shoulder as she traveled across the countryside, riding a mound of moving earth that she controlled with earthbending. The wind was already starting to pick up around them, and Momo was growling while staring to the north-east. Toph picked up the pace and turned more southward, now heading parallel with the main road that led to Gaoling. There were no travelers along that road today, as no one in their right mind would leave their home during storm season.
For once Toph missed the big fluff ball Appa, who could have gotten her into Gaoling hours ago. But it seemed that the sky bison had known something Toph didn't, as Appa refused to fly into the area no matter how much Aang had tried to persuade him. So Toph had been dropped off as close to Gaoling as Appa would go, and she was left to travel on her own back home. At first Momo had been eager to tag along, but now it looked like the lemur was about to go flying back to Aang.
"We're nearly there," Toph said, trying to calm the lemur as best she could.
The Beifong family estate was on the northern side of the city, and Toph stopped her earthbending at the last hill before her destination. From there she walked the rest of the way, and the winds picked up some speed again. Loose leaves and other small debris were being blown across the land, swept away by the increasing winds. Toph reached the dirt path that led to the estate's front gate, and walked down that path until she reached a pair of guards standing in front of the main gate.
"You know who I am, let me in," Toph said, not even bothering to slow down.
Sure enough, the guards opened the gate to let Toph pass through. She quickly crossed the front courtyard to reach the manor, getting inside and closing the door behind her. Inside the sound of the wind went silent, save for the occasional stronger gale that rattled the walls. Now in the manor's parlor, Toph casually walked through it to go find her parents. She quickly found them in the dining room, and went straight there to meet them just before the evening meal.
"Um… I'm home?" Toph said.
All things considered, the family reunion could have been a lot worse.
It seemed that the letter Toph had Katara write for her several months ago actually made it here, with Sokka's former pet messenger bird Hawky sitting on a perch in the corner. So her mother was warm and receptive of Toph's return, even shedding a tear or two when they hugged as mother and daughter. But her father wasn't so forgiving, still resenting the fact that Toph had left last spring. Toph was already starting to think this was a bad idea, suspecting that she might not get to leave again.
There wasn't much talk happening during dinner. The servants laid out a dish of turducken with a side of spiced rice, being her father's favorite meal during the fall months. Mom and Dad ate with all the restraint of civilized folk, using their chopsticks and taking their time. Toph on the other hand was digging into her food with her fingers, stuffing her face and downing everything in just a few short minutes. At the end Toph belched, much to the disgust of her parents.
"Must you be so… rude?" Dad inquired.
"Just being me," Toph said. She laid back in her chair and crossed her arms behind her head. "Oh right, you only saw that once before."
"Don't take that tone with me," Dad scolded, slamming a fist on the table. "I'm still your father, if that still means anything to you."
"I'm here aren't I?" Toph said, waving a hand.
"And we're glad you are," Mom said. "We missed you so much."
Toph scoffed and turned her face away. "Enough to send bounty hunters after me."
"What?" Mom blurted out, turning to her husband.
"He didn't tell you?" Toph said, pointing at Dad. "He hired some guys to bring me back here."
Mom looked ready to explode as she glared at her husband. "You don't send bounty hunters after your own daughter!"
"I had to get her back somehow!" Dad yelled back.
Toph slammed her fists on the table. "I didn't want to come back! Not after you were going to lock me up in my own home!"
"It was the only way to keep you safe!" Dad yelled.
"I don't need to be kept safe!" Toph yelled. "What I need is for you to let go!"
"Enough!" Mom screamed, standing up and slamming her palms on the table. "We just got this family back together, and you two are already fighting!"
Toph stood up and threw her chair across the floor. "I knew it was a mistake to come back!"
"Wait, Toph," Mom pleaded.
"I'm done!" Toph yelled, walking out of the dining room and not looking back.
As much as she would have liked to leave home all over again, doing so right now would be suicidal. Outside the wind was blowing so fast that it picked up everything that wasn't bolted down, and then slammed that debris into anything standing out in the open. The furthest she could get to right now would be Gaoling, and even that very short trip had risks. The only safe way to get there would be to travel underground, and the effort of tunneling with earthbending just wasn't worth it.
So Toph instead returned to her bedroom, finding that it had not been touched in the half year she had been away. Toph quite literally crashed into her bed, not caring that she laid on it sideways. Momo landed and curled up on one of the pillows, making his own little bed out of the pillow about his own size. Although it was still early in the evening Toph tried to go to sleep, as there was nothing else worth doing here. It took the better part of an hour, but sure enough Toph found her way into sleep.
It did not last the night.
Momo's frantic chirping stirred Toph from slumber, and she was not very happy about that. But her annoyance with the lemur quickly faded, now that she could tell what had Momo concerned enough to wake her. The walls were vibrating enough to rattle the windows in the adjacent rooms, and Toph's vibration sight was getting slightly smudged by the shaking. And through the walls she could hear the fierce winds pounding against them, louder than any other wind she had ever heard before.
The big one was here.
Though she could not truly see it, Toph could certainly imagine the great twister threatening Gaoling at this very moment. Those who had working eyes, and were foolish enough to be outside to look at it, could see the five hundred foot wide tornado a mile away. The twister was already touching the ground and drawing up loose dirt and debris, turning it a dark brown while making the wind solid. All around the tornado fierce winds battered the estate, a harbinger of the approaching calamity.
"To the storm shelter," Toph told Momo, and got a chirp in response. But as she got up from bed a thought struck her. "Mom… Dad… you had better be heading there already."
Despite the rather heated family fight earlier, Toph still cared for her parents. Or at least enough to want to see them safe during this storm, enough for her to make sure that they got to shelter. Normally it would have been a simple matter to check their bedroom from hers, as her vibration sight would let her see past the walls and into her parents' bedroom. But the constant winds battering the mansion were vibrating the entire thing, blurring her sight enough to erase everything more than ten feet away.
So Toph hurried out of her bedroom and started running down the hallway, heading straight for her parents' bedroom. Along the way she couldn't see anyone within the ten feet of clear sight around her, a good sign as far as she was concerned. In a minute Toph reached her parents' bedroom and threw open the door, and when she entered the rather large bedroom she found it deserted. It was quite a relief, because if her parents weren't here then they must have left for the shelter.
"Time to get below ground," Toph told Momo. But then there was a tremor beneath her feet, shaking the floor and rattling everything hanging on the walls. "What in the world…?"
The twister was closing in on the estate, the bottom of the dark funnel cloud crossing over the northern boundary. Intense updrafts pulled on the mansion, shaking the whole thing all the way down to the foundation. The shaking clouded Toph's vibration sight so badly that he couldn't see at all, and the shaking all around her knocked Toph off her feet. She fell next to one wall of the bedroom, staying there while the whole mansion continued to rumble like it was going to come apart.
When her vibration sight suddenly cleared, her unfocused eyes opened wide. "That can't be right…"
It felt like the very ground had fallen away, stranding her in an island of clear sight consisting solely of the mansion. And that island of sight was moving too, spinning round and round fast enough to make Toph queasy. Momo was clinging to Toph's chest the entire time, screeching in panic all the while. From what Toph could tell it was only the two of them still in the mansion, which had seemingly parted from the Earth altogether and going up into the twister to be smashed to pieces there.
"This has to be a dream!" Toph screamed, although the more apt term was a nightmare. "Yeah… I'm going to wake up, be back in my own bed, and everything will be fine!"
Momo didn't seem to agree with her, screeching madly and tugging hard on Toph's shirt. A series of chirps that almost resembled speech followed, and Momo seemed to be tugging towards the other side of the bedroom. There had to be something beyond the window for Momo to be acting this way, but Toph couldn't see anything in the air. She wriggled her way along the bedroom wall, around the two corners, and put her back against the wall near the window to listen for what Momo was seeing outside.
Though she couldn't see it, Toph could certainly hear it over the howling wind. Toph heard laughter, from someone she knew, turning ever more warped and maniacal every second.
"Mom?" Toph blurted out. It didn't make any sense, for her mother had to be in the storm shelter right now and most definitely not outside the window. "How are you out there?"
There was no answer from outside, only more maniacal laughs becoming ever more warped and dark. But the laughs seemed to move away, fading away into the wind. It should have been a minor relief, if the mansion hadn't started to fall at the same time. A sudden feeling of weightlessness overtook Toph, all but compelling her to rise to her feet. She followed that compulsion to rise and then started running out of the bedroom, getting into the hallway and running for the very center of the mansion.
Toph only barely made it to the dining room in time. By then the mansion was falling so fast that Toph's own fall barely kept up, and she started to float away from the floor in free fall. A few seconds later she hit the ceiling, followed by Momo hitting her chest. Toph started earthbending the rock in the ceiling and all the rock she could reach, turning into a spherical shell of stone around herself and Momo. It might not make a difference, but Toph wanted some kind of buffer before the inevitable impact.
When it happened, Toph blacked out anyway.
Coming to with a monster of a migraine, Toph wondered if the dead could feel pain. She was sore all over her body, her muscles aching when she tried to move. Momo was certainly looking worse for wear, having plenty of bruises under his ruffled fur. The shell of stone Toph had made was cracked open in a few places, letting in the air from outside. Toph earthbent the stone away and put her feet on the dining room floor, and immediately noticed that something was very, very wrong.
"Momo…" Toph muttered, still trying to make sense of what her vibration sight saw. "I don't think we're in Gaoling anymore."
Somehow the mansion had stayed intact after impact, though so badly damaged it seemed ready to collapse at any given moment. It was eerily silent within the mansion's walls, telling Toph that the tornado had dispersed during her blackout. She didn't recognize the stone that now lay underneath the mansion, or the scenery that was now outside. Toph slowly made her way to the mansion's front door, taking cautious steps into the light with Momo in her arms.
One thing was certain, this wasn't Gaoling.
The mansion now rested at the edge of a very small village, the houses being substantially smaller than the usual houses Toph knew of. In front of the small houses was a small brick courtyard, which to Momo's eyes had a yellow and red spiral. There were two brick roads leading away from the courtyard, as well as a small stream that flowed out from underneath it. And on every patch of unpaved ground there were plants growing, from the simplest of bushes to the most exotic flowers.
And in those bushes Toph noticed something very suspicious. "Whoever you are, come out now!"
The nearest bush suddenly stirred, and was slowly pushed apart from inside. A squat little man emerged from his hiding place, cautiously approaching the stranger he saw. He would have seemed like an ordinary adult, if he wasn't the same size as Toph. This little man was wearing bright red clothes, and he was followed by two more little men wearing blue and yellow. Three dozen more little men emerged from all the other bushes, all wearing strange clothes that were a patchwork of primary colors.
That first little man seemed to represent the rest, slowly walking ahead of the others. "Um… Ma'am…" he twiddled his thumbs a little. "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?"
"Excuse me?" Toph questioned, though it startled the little men. "There's no such thing as witches."
"Then how do you explain the pink bubble?" the little man asked, pointing at it.
Indeed, there was a pink bubble floating in the distance. It was gliding through the air, so Toph couldn't see it coming. The little people certainly could though, and their eyes darted back and forth between the bubble and the stranger before them. The bubble made a beeline towards this place, and gently touched down in the courtyard. There the bubble disappeared and was replaced by a woman, who in Toph's sight had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"Are you the one that-"
"Katara?" Toph blurted out.
"Excuse me?"
"Since when do you wear a dress?" Toph asked, pointing at it.
It didn't make any sense, at least not for the Katara that Toph had gotten to know over the last half year. From what Toph could tell it was Katara physically, every bodily detail correct down the hair loops. But the clothes she was wearing were completely wrong, her usual Water Tribe outfit replaced by some huge and frilly dress of a foreign style. As if to convince Toph that she wasn't hallucinating, Momo was growling at Katara from behind Toph's leg.
"I've always worn this," not-Katara said.
"No you haven't," Toph said.
"Yes I have," not-Katara insisted.
"No you- oh forget it," Toph said, shaking her head. "What do you want?"
"I'm told someone dropped a house on the Wicked Witch of the East," not-Katara answered. "There's a house, here you are, and there's all that's left of the Wicked Witch."
Just then Toph finally noticed a body crushed underneath the mansion, with only the legs sticking out and apparently undamaged. "Huh… so it is."
"As the Munchkins asked," not-Katara continued. "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?"
"I'm not a witch," Toph said. "My name is Toph, and I'm the greatest earthbender in the world!"
If anything, not-Katara seemed a little perplexed. "Is an earthbender a kind of witch?"
Utterly dumbfounded by that question, Toph's jaw hung open and she could not say a word. After taking a moment to start thinking again Toph held up one hand, clenched it into a fist, and then jammed it into her side. Sure enough there was actual pain from that self-inflicted blow, telling Toph that she wasn't dreaming right now. But Toph still had hopes for hallucinating all of this, anything to prove that this crazy world she found herself in wasn't real.
"This…" Toph stomped the ground, and one of the bricks popped out of the ground for her to grab, and then clenched her fist to turn the brick into gravel. "…is earthbending. And I'm the best there is at it."
"I see," not-Katara said. "Well then Toph, I am Glinda, the Good Witch of the North."
"You're sure about that?" Toph asked.
"Yes, I am," Glinda answered. Then she turned to address all the little people coming out of the bushes. "It's alright everyone. This is the earthbender that killed the Wicked Witch. You may all come out and thank her."
All of the little men that were in the open approached Toph and Glinda, followed by many more of the so called Munchkins coming out of hiding from just about every place imaginable. Glinda escorted Toph into the courtyard, and by then there were at least a hundred Munchkins flooding the place. It seemed that Glinda's good word was enough to convince the Munchkins that Toph was a hero to them, and in a few short moments it seemed they were ready to throw a gigantic celebration.
"All this over an accident?" Toph questioned, scratching the side of her head. Then she closed her eyes and shrugged. "Oh well, an excuse to party is an excuse to party."
Somewhere a band started playing an upbeat melody, though Toph couldn't figure out where it was coming from for the life of her. She didn't really care anyway, not when there was a chance to party. Singing and dancing took over all of the Munchkins, their joy so infectious that it was difficult for Toph to keep any restraint. Then there was a small parade of marching Munchkins going around the courtyard, and Toph got to have a little ride in a chariot for all the other Munchkins to see her.
After the short chariot ride Toph got to meet several different Munchkins, from the mayor to the coroner to the lollipop guild and everything in between, though she doubted she would remember any of their names. All of them were so happy that Toph simply had to smile, if only to make them all even happier. For all the other Munchkins Toph resolved to smile and wave, taking joy in the joy it brought to them. It was quite intoxicating to be here, taking in the hero's welcome from all the happy people.
"I think I'm going to like it here," Toph admitted, and Momo nodded in agreement. Then she heard a collective gasp in the crowd. "Me and my big mouth…"
A plume of red smoke billowed up in the courtyard, not too far from the crashed mansion. The Munchkins fled from it as quick as they could, some of them tripping over themselves and each other as panic took over. In Toph's sight a woman suddenly appeared within the smoke, wearing what could only be described as stereotype witch clothing. Robe, pointed hat, broomstick, it was all there. Normally Toph would have laughed, if the Munchkins weren't running away in fear.
And yet, as this witch walked to the mansion, Toph recognized the body in the witch's clothes. "Azula?"
There wasn't any reaction to that name, at least none that Toph could find. But that still didn't rule out the possibility of some elaborate deception, as Azula was the only person she knew that could fool the way vibrations betrayed lies. Not-Azula stopped at the mansion and crouched by the crushed body, examining what was left of the woman underneath. Then she got back up and walked towards Glinda and Toph, with a very vengeful look on her.
"Who killed my sister?" Not-Azula demanded. "Who killed the Witch of the East? Was it you?"
"That was me, totally calling it," Toph answered. She heard Momo chirp something into her ear. "Oh, but the mansion did most of the work, you know, with the crushing and all."
"Well my little pretty, I know a thing or two about crushing too," Not-Azula boasted.
"Are you forgetting the ruby slippers?" Glinda asked.
"The what?" Toph muttered, wondering where that topic came from.
"The slippers… yes," Not-Azula said, and she turned to go retrieve them from the crushed body.
By now Toph was convinced that this Wicked Witch definitely wasn't Azula, despite the picture to the contrary that her feet were giving her. Toph watched the Wicked Witch crouch beside the body, hands reaching for the ruby slippers still on dead feet. But then the slippers vanished and the legs shriveled up underneath the mansion, much to the shock of the Wicked Witch. Toph felt something off from Glinda beside her, which gave her a bad feeling before something went very wrong.
"They're gone," the Wicked Witch said.
Suddenly the world Toph saw went very fuzzy, as if all the fine details had been mixed together. She could still see the people all around her, but their faces were blurred and it was difficult to read their expressions. Something was interfering with the vibrations as they went through her feet, altering the way they described a world she could not see. A second later Toph figured out what happened, her feet were covered by a pair of ruby slippers.
Toph backed away from Glinda, nearly tripping on a step that she would have seen if the slippers weren't messing with her sight. "What did you do?!"
"She put my ruby slippers on you," the Wicked Witch answered, already approaching Toph. "Give them back to me or-"
"They're all yours," Toph said, already dropping onto her rear end.
"What?" both witches said at the same time.
"I don't wear shoes," Toph clarified. Sitting cross-legged, Toph pulled on one of the slippers. "They mess with my- why won't it come off?"
Try as she might to pull it off the slipper would not leave her foot, despite finding nothing that could possibly be keeping it on. Toph switched to the other slipper and tried to pull it off, but like its companion this slipper was just as stuck to her foot. Then she tried pushing against the heel of one slipper with the bottom of the other, yet it still would not come off. So Toph put her hands on the ground behind her and held up both feet, pointing them straight at the Wicked Witch.
"On three, pull," Toph suggested.
However, when the Wicked Witch reached for the slippers, sparks shot out to burn her hands. "Augh…"
"It's too late," Glinda gloated. "There they are, and there they'll stay."
"The hell they will," Toph denied, standing back up and taking a few more steps away from Glinda. She then faced the Wicked Witch and held both hands apart. "Sorry lady, but they've got to come off."
Toph lifted her right foot, slammed it down as hard as she could, and the ruby slipper exploded.
"WHAT!" the Wicked Witch screamed.
Her sight clearing somewhat, Toph smiled at her success. Magical or not, it seemed that the ruby in the slippers was still vulnerable to earthbending. Only the sole of the slipper and the felt around her toes remained, though torn in places where exploding ruby had ripped the fabric. It seemed that the attachment enchantment was gone when Toph peeled off the tattered remains, and she set a bare foot back on the ground, and then proceeded to do the exact same thing to the left ruby slipper.
"Ah much better," Toph said, now that both bare feet were on the ground. Her vibration sight fully restored, Toph could see the abashed look on Glinda and the absolutely furious expression on the Wicked Witch. "What?"
"Those were magical ruby slippers!" the Wicked Witch screamed. "Do you have any idea the power you have just destroyed?!"
"Nope," Toph admitted. She crossed her arms and turned away from Glinda, through jerking her head in her direction. "It's not really my fault anyway. She's the one who put them on my feet in the first place. She really should have known this was going to happen."
Now Glinda was starting to look a little furious. "Why you insolent little-"
"I've heard it all before," Toph interrupted.
"You're both dead," the Wicked Witch threatened.
"Rubbish," Glinda said. "You have no power here. Begone, before someone drops a house on you too."
The Wicked Witch flinched, taking a glance up. "Very well, I'll bide my time. But you, my fine lady, have made an enemy today. True, I can't attend to you now as I'd like, but I will have justice. Until then just try to stay out of my way, just try."
Toph cracked both sets of knuckles. "You just try, I dare you."
Seemingly taking that as a challenge, the Wicked Witch pointed a finger at Toph. "Oh I will. I'll get you my pretty and your little lemur too!"
Her threat made clear, the Wicked Witch walked back to the spot where she had first arrived. A plume of smoke billowed out from where she stood, obscuring her from sight before she disappeared from Toph's. Seemingly for theatric effect a plume of fire erupted, and everyone winced from the sudden heat. When the flames and the smoke cleared the Wicked Witch was gone, though a cackling laugh told everyone that she would be back.
When that was over, Toph turned toward Glinda and pointed a finger at her. "I don't know what your plan was, but I'm pretty sure it's ruined now. So either tell me how to get home, or stay out of my way."
"You would threaten a good witch?" Glinda questioned.
"I threaten a lot of people," Toph said. "And a lot of them were much scarier than you."
Glinda scoffed and shook her head. "There is a wizard who lives in the Emerald City. He should be able to help you. Just follow the yellow brick road."
"Got it," Toph said. She turned away from Glinda and started walking in a straight line.
"Where are you going?" Glinda asked.
"Down the brick road," Toph answered.
"You're on the red brick road," Glinda said.
Toph stopped in her tracks, and then slapped her forehead. "They look the same to me, I'm blind!"
"Just go the other way," Glinda clarified, pointing in the right direction.
"Thank you," Toph said, turning around. She walked across most of the courtyard, then stopped and turned back. "Aren't you coming?"
"Excuse me?" Glinda questioned.
"You got me into this mess," Toph said. "You're going to get me out of it."
"I'm afraid not," Glinda said.
Before Toph could argue with her the pink bubble reappeared around Glinda, and soon she disappeared from Toph's sight within it. The bubble floated up and out of the courtyard, heading off into the distance before vanishing. For a moment Toph was alone, until all the cowering Munchkins started coming back out of hiding. Toph ignored the Munchkins and started walking down the brick road, starting a journey that she suspected would be a long and dangerous one.
"Well Momo…" Toph said, poking the lemur sitting on her shoulder. "Looks like we have to go find a wizard, and hopefully beat him up."
Momo chirped something into her ear.
"I'll get you back to Aang soon as I can," Toph promised. "First, we'll just have to see where we go on this yellow brick road."
A/N: This short story started as a bunch of blind jokes in a world based around color, and kind of took off from there.