Katara laid Suten down in his crib, wrapping the blanket around him more tightly. Kneeing down by the crib she gently rocked it back and forth. The sun had now set, the light was starting to fade from the sky. "Once there was a brave warrior. When he was a young man, his father told him of his destiny. The kingdom that they lived in was being controlled by a evil king. The evil king had stolen power form his older brother."
The words seemed to catch in her throat again. Even though she was turning them into characters from a child's bedtime story, the people that she was talking about were still very real. They were real people that she had known and with one exception cared about. Aang and Iroh weren't characters she could just talk about with no feeling. She had been quite for to long, Suten started to stir again, demanding her to go on. She knew the part of the story that she meant to talk about, the part that Suten would enjoy the most wasn't long away, she just had to get through this part. "The warriors destiny was to take back the throne for the true king. To do this he needed the help of a special kind of warrior, one that controlled the earth it's self. They could move mountains, with the wave of a hand, feel a persons emotions through the earth. There were many people how had this power, but his destiny was to find the most powerful one alive."
Pulling herself to her feet, she picked Suten up and held him close. He had been making noises letting her know he was still very awake. She looked out the window at the figure on the ground, which she knew was Toph sleeping. It was stupid she knew, but she just had to make sure that Toph wasn't going to be able to hear what she was saying before she went one. Toph had been born into a life were she was treated like a princess, she was also now officially a princess of the fire nation, both of these things Katara knew Toph was not happy about and didn't like to talk about. Therefore making Toph the princess in her story was not something she wanted the earthbender to know about. That was also whys she realised she had picked Suten up, for support. Also Toph couldn't, wouldn't try to hit her if she had a baby in her arms.
When she was reassured that Toph was probably asleep and couldn't hear what she was saying, she went on. "It so happened that the strongest earth warrior was a princess from a small neighbouring kingdom. This kingdom had remained out of the fighting, as their king, the princess father was a very cowardly man. He lost his wife, the queen when the princess was very young so he took special care to make sure the princess was kept safe. To do this he kept her in the palace grounds at all times. The princess as she grew older came to hate being confined. She also began to become aware of her ability to control the earth. Desperately wanting to learn more about her talent, she would sneak out of the palace at night to train herself in the mountains that surrounded the palace."
Suten was now beginning to close his eyes a little as sleep was nearing, but he was trying to keep them open wanting to hear the rest of the story. "when the princess came of age at sixteen, she was already an expert earth warrior and was completely self taught. A same group of warriors from her kingdom would aid the efforts of the other kingdoms true king regain his throne. The princess wanted to go with them, but was forced to stay. When she could she was disguise herself and add them as much as she could, but she couldn't go far, so her help was limited. Despite this her reputation grew, as did her skill. It was for this reason when the brave warrior began to ask about
who the strongest earth warrior was, he was answered with, that it was a mysterious warrior who added them when they could. The brave warrior then asked who this person was, they told him what they knew. That the person seemed to be small in size and always wore a black cloak that covered their face, their voice was also muffled so not much was known from that. The brave warrior stayed with the rebels for a few days, hoping that the strongest earth warrior would soon come. One night when he couldn't sleep he took a walk down to the nearby lake where he saw a area of earth being risen from the lake to crate a path across it. A small figure in a black cloak began to cross it. The brave warrior ran out across the path to meet the strongest earth warrior. He asked for their help, but the figure simple lowered their head as they shock it. They then turned and walked back the way they had came. When they realised the brave warrior was fallowing them, they sank part of the path that was between them back into the water, separating them. In the morning the brave warrior left the rebels and swam across the lake to track down the warrior, who's help he needed to help him in fulfilling his destiny."
It was now almost impossible for Suten to keep his eyes open very much. Katara's voice had started to slow and become softer, as she realised how close to sleep the one year old was. She had started to plan the story out in her head while she told it, having only got the basic idea settled on before she started, now she realised she would have to wind it up soon. She knew that the best thing would be to just stop were she was and tell him the rest tomorrow night, but she felt an unknown need to finish it, so she decided to wrap it up quickly.
"The brave warrior fallowed the trail the earth warrior had left, he fallowed it all the way to the palace the princess lived in. he kept watch over the back gate till nightfall, when the warrior again left the place. Again the brave warrior pleaded with the strongest earth warrior in the world to help him, and again they refused. This time though they refused by removing their hood to look right in the eyes on the brave warrior, as the princess now faced him, she told him of the situation she was in. He reluctantly left her, but his heart had been taken by her bright green eyes and pale skin, he had already falling in love with her. The next day he marched right up to the palace and asked the king for his permission to take the princess away with him. The king of course refused, the brave warrior then told him of how strong the princess was, but the king didn't believe him. The king ordered his guards to remove the brave warrior, at this point the princess moved the floor under them to in case their legs stopping them from moving. Rising to her feet she walked to the brave warrior and told her father she loved him, but she had to leave now. The princess and the brave warrior left the palace, and journeyed to face the evil king on the brave warriors kingdom. They fought him and won, returning the throne the it's rightful owner. Soon afterwards the brave warrior married the princess, as she had fallen in love with him on their travels. In part this was because he given her what she always wanted more than anything, her freedom. They then lived happily ever after."
Katara finally layed Suten down in his crib again very gently, as not to wake him. He had just closed his eyes and with any luck he would fall asleep and sleep through the night. Once he was in the crib with his blanket wrapped around him, Katara found herself letting out a breath that she didn't realise she had been holding in as she let herself fall back onto the bed. Sleep would come quickly to the tired waterbender. She found her mouth was dry through, from the almost non stop talking she had been doing that day. She however was to tired to get up and get any water, even if there had been a water jug next to her she would have been to tired to bend any water to drink.
Sleep didn't come as easily for everyone that was staying in the house however. Toph had never been a good sleeper, she found it hard to get to sleep. That is what happened when you can feel an ants heart bear from a good few yards away. No one had noticed this much while they had been travelling, they had assumed that she slept very well as she never woke early, that in fact was due to the fact that she only managed to get to sleep in the early hours of the morning mostly. That was when things surprising were at there quiteist.
On this night Toph had drifted off to sleep for a little while, but was woken by a dream, these too were also becoming more common in her nigh-time routine. The dream had been about what had happened when she had gone back to find Kenshi alone after she found out about her really mother. Only this time she found she had the chance to change her actions. When she found she was going to do the something again she woke up. It was at this point that Katara was telling Suten all about the princess in her story. Toph knew full well who Katara was using as the inspiration for the princess, she also knew full well where the story was going, how it was going to end. Toph like almost all children had been told bedtime stories, to get them to sleep, in Toph's case however it was a maid that told them to her. Happily ever after, they all ended that way.
Toph never believed that, not even as a young child. That was to much of a complete definite ending, and Toph knew that nothing can just end like that, so clearly. Life was to messed up and complicated for that.
sorry it has been so long since the last chapter. I hope you like this one, and that this part of the story is a little more interesting now. I thought I should point out that the apart about Kenshi is in part 2 and talked about a little more near the end of part 4. also Toph's dreams are quit important, and always have a meaning to the next part in the story, or the part that is going on. There is also a reason for that, that will be given near the end of the whole story. Place review and let me know what you think, bye till next time.