Chapter 2: "Readjustments"
A/N: So, I figured I'd get one or two reviews. But FOUR! Holy crap that's like… FOUR REVIEWS! I'm glad you all like it and I decided to add another chapter into the saga this time centering on problems with Toph's new sight.
A special shout out to [Insert reviewers name here] for your contribution of the line [insert line here] I'm glad you contributed and actually gave me a few ideas for this chapter with your review. Thanks again CrypticMoonFang. Also the reason it's coming out this soon is because of your "oh so gentle" suggestion" to hurry up or you'd explode.
Toph awoke as she heard the sounds of her friends packing up camp. Sensing around she figured she could sleep several more minute if she really wanted to, however, she figured that she should at least stand up and get ready.
Rising to her full height, she pondered about her dream "I wonder if that's what sight's really like." She stated as she craned her neck until she heard a satisfying pop.
"Toph Yyou feeling okay?" A soft voice penetrated the young earth-bender's tent.
"Yeah... I had the oddest dream you know?" Toph replied back as she lowered the tent "AGH!" The young girl slammed her eyes shut holding her hands up to protect them from the pain that had just occurred.
"Oh my…! Toph are you sure you're okay?" Katara asked dashing a short distance to the girl.
"No! Something just hurt my eyes!" Toph replied annoyed at Katara's question.
"Well you just started seeing last night, you'll probably need time to get used to it." Katara said understanding Toph's pain a bit.
"So… it wasn't just a dream?" Toph asked her tone slow and unsteady as she absorbed this information.
"I hate to interrupt you're little girl talk over there Katara, but how about you help us?" Sokka called over to his sister as him and Aang struggled to get their supplies up onto the giant sky bison.
"I'll be over in a minute! Alright Toph, maybe you should try going over by that tree and look at it for a while. Get into the shade if you can." Katara said dashing off having no more time to explain if they wanted to make it to their destination by the time Sokka had predicted.
Toph didn't understand how staring at a tree would work but she did know what shade was immediately after going into the shade she opened her eyes the light was still a little painful but tolerable now.
Deciding that she couldn't do anything else she decided to look around. It was harder then she thought it felt like her eyes were trying to lift heavy weights. 'I suppose a life time of blindness does that.'
"Hey Toph!" Sokka shouted from atop Appa "You ready to go?"
Toph turned to look at the sky bison and immediately closed her eyes again. It was still too bright right now to look at. Walking in more familiar darkness she lifted herself to the top of the large creature.
"Toph, you're gonna have to get used to it eventually so you might as well open your eyes and get it over with." Sokka said reclining.
"I don't want to. It's too… too…" The young girl struggled to find the word she was searching for.
"Bright?" Katara offered.
"What's that?" Toph asked not knowing the meaning of the word. She had heard it before but since she was blind she figured she would never need to learn what it meant since she figured it was sight based.
"It's when something's painful to look at… kind of." Katara tried to explain.
"So kind of like Sokka's face?" Toph said with a small smile.
"Exactly!" Katara said smiling gleefully at the joke.
"HEY! My face isn't bright it's perfectly fine to look at!" Sokka defended himself loudly sitting up. "Admit that I'm not bright Katara!"
"Oh you're definitely not bright Sokka." Katara snickered with Aang and Toph joining in joyfully.
"Thank you… hey wait!" The young warrior started when he realized what they were implying.
"Calm down Snoozles it's not that big of a deal if you want I'll open my eyes." Toph finally conceded as she glanced around. "No one talk for a few seconds okay?"
The water tribe siblings complied by nodding but Aang was too busy flying Appa to really respond.
Toph started to look between where she knew the water tribe siblings were sitting. As she looked at the two she realized she didn't know which was which on just sight alone. "Um… which of you are which?"
"What do you mean?" Sokka asked totally confused, however Katara's reaction was much different.
"You don't know which is which?" She asked sounding a little bothered 'I don't look like him… do I?' she cautiously glanced at her brother before chuckling to herself.
"Well… I can tell who you are by sound but… I don't know. Just by… looking?" Toph asked cautiously not sure if this was the word to use. When Sokka nodded she continued "I don't know… You guys seem to know each other by sight so maybe mine's not working as well as it should?"
"Actually Toph, I think what's happening is that you don't know how to recognize face." Aang offered from his perch near Appa's head.
"That makes sense actually." Sokka replied once again reclining into his normal position.
"Of course! Don't worry Toph; children don't usually get that ability until a couple years of having sight. Facial recognition will come eventually. Besides you have your earth bending sense so you don't even really need it." Katara explained.
Under normal situation Toph would have objected to being compared to a child but in the world of sight she might as well be a child. The thought however didn't cause her discomfort. She saw it as a challenge.
Several hours later they spotted a large gathering of Fire Nation soldier "Aang take us down. They'll be looking for us." Sokka advised eyeing the large column cautiously.
"Alright!" Aang replied as he guided Appa down to a forest near a small town. They started to unpack their possession feeling it safest to wait until tomorrow.
"So those were fire nation?" Toph asked she hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary just what she assumed was dirt. It all looked to same to her.
"Yeah, you can usually tell because they wear red." Katara explained.'
"Oh… what's that?" Toph asked feeling as though she was missing an important piece of information.
"Oh right, she doesn't know colors. We gotta teach her that!" Sokka said from nearby.
Toph felt a stab of anger when he said that his tone annoying her but she understood that he probably didn't mean it that way so she let it go. "Snoozles?"
"Yeah Toph?"
"You should probably go get your stuff from out of that tree."
"My stuff's right here though." Sokka explained confused.
With a swift movement Toph launched a piece of earth from the ground knocking most of Sokka's possessions into a tree. Okay, now she let it go.
"MY SUPPLIES! MY BEAUTIFUL SUPPLIES!" Sokka shouted in despair as he swiftly attempted to climb the tree to get them. Luckily they were close to the ground so it wouldn't take too long to grab them.
"I think we should spend the night in town." Katara offered "We've been sleeping out in the wilderness for a while. We might as well go to an inn to get beds tonight since we're close to town."
"I don't really like the idea of leaving Appa alone. But I guess we can." Aang replied scratching his head. As much as he hated to admit it, he was starting to miss sleeping in a bed too. "I mean he can go one night without us, can't you buddy?" Aang asked sounding like a child wanting permission.
With a dismissive huff the bison laid down and started to nap which Aang took as a yes.
"Got it!" Sokka yelled from the tree as he finally grabbed his stuff from the branches grip. "Take that Toph!" he shouted down.
"Hurry up Snoozles or you'll be sleeping out here with Appa and Momo." Toph shouted from a small distance away, the rest of the group having started to leave.
"Hello welcome to the Twin Dragons Inn. Can I get you a room Mr…?" the lady at the front desk asked looking at the group of travelers who she thought resembled refugees but also had an air of power about them. The inn itself was cheap with very little in the way of furniture. Despite the lack of furniture though it still came off as fancy, perhaps due to the extreme cleanliness that it was kept in.
"Lee. Our names are…" Sokka said introducing each of the group with a fake name however Toph wasn't paying attention to that she was however paying a great deal of attention to the old man who was sitting at a nearby table.
He was smiling, as he nodded towards the door obviously wanting her to follow as he got up to leave. Even with her new sight she knew what he wanted just from his body language.
"Alright you're in the third room upstairs." Their hostess motioned up the stairs.
"Gonna come up To- Torimichi?" Katara asked almost saying Toph's real name.
"Yeah in a second." Toph replied heading to follow the man.
"Where are you going?" Aang asked curiously as he walked up the extremely clean stairs pausing to look back at the young earth-bender.
Toph reached the door before she recognized the question, her curiosity distracting her she said "To have a look at something."
A/N: Okay first thing is first: I apologize to CrypticMoonFang for being so late. My computer decided to be a jerk and delete all the work I had so I had to start over. Sorry I missed your birthday…
Secondly: At first I was going to just make the man a cameo thing, but then I got a brilliant idea for a plot of which he could partake so yeah…
Lastly: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It's a bit smaller than the first chapter but it's a transition chapter so you can't expect too much. Next month I'll release a new chapter if I can.
If you have any suggestions or questions or praise or money that you want to give me please put it into a review.
P.S. I will not accept money as I'd get sued.
