Origin of the Blind Bandit - Chapter 3

She had heard some of the guards talking about something called Earthrumble. They had seemed excited about it, apparently it was some kind of earthbending competition where people with stupid sounding names like 'Dr. Crush' or 'The Hippo' tried to knock each other out of a ring. It sounded idiotic, but there was no other place that she knew about to try earthbending without interference from her father.So, the first person she came across she asked about Earthrumble.

"It's such a dreadful ruckus, my husband talks about it all the time. Why would you want ..." the lady hesitated for a second. "Why, you're blind! Why would you want to go to such a dreadful event when you can't even see?"

The woman had such a high pitched whine to her voice it felt like her ears were going to start bleeding. "Just because I'm blind doesn't mean I can't see, and for your information I'm going to kick every last earthbender they have in the butt."
"But, you're blind," the lady protested.
"Yeah, I know, thanks for noticing," Toph said stalking off.

The more people she asked the more infuriated she became, every single one of them discounted her because she was blind. Not one person noticed that she hadn't bumped into anyone or tripped over something in her way. To them she was just a little blind girl, an oddity not even worth noticing.

After a while what few people that were left on the street disappeared into their homes and Toph was left alone. She sighed in irritation, all that time wasted. She slowly began to walk back home to her boring, dull life. It wasn't fair, everyone seemed to treat her like she was a nobody and if she told anyone who her father was they might decide to take her back right away in the hopes of getting a reward.
"Hey, I can take you to the arena where Earthrumble will be held," a voice behind her yelled. She felt his footsteps as he jogged towards her.

"What? Where were you three hours ago?" About time someone in this town answered a simple question. "Let's get going I don't have much time to waste."
"Alright, but just so you know, they aren't fighting tonight."
"I know, I just want to know where it's being held."
"Okay," he replied.

Toph jumped as she felt the man's hand grip her arm. She reacted quickly breaking his grip in one swift move. A half a second and one leg sweep later she had him pinned face down on the ground."What do you think you are doing?" she was another half second away from breaking his fingers.
"Ow, ow! Lighten up, how can you follow me if you're blind?"
Great, another idiot. "I can hear you walking, just because I'm blind doesn't mean I'm an invalid.""Oh."
"Yeah, oh." She took her weight off of the small of his back and let him stand up.
"Well," he said as he brushed dirt of his clothes, "follow me, I guess."

Every few seconds she heard him look back at her, it was a slight grinding sound as the dirt between his feet and the ground pivoted with him. The sound was annoying, and his constant checking was getting on her nerves.
A few turns later he stopped in front of two people and one of them asked, "Is this the one?"
"Yeah, she is."

Now she was angry, "You had better start explaining things or I'm going to start breaking heads with very big rocks."
"It's simple," her guide said, "these fine gentlemen offered me money to bring you here, I get paid and you stay with them."
"Over my dead body," fear and excitement started to flood through the anger, she was going to have a real fight.
"There's no need to get drastic, we just want to talk," the first of the two spoke; the second snickered.
"Right, talk," like she would believe that garbage.
"Umm, my payment?" her ex-guide sounded nervous.

The second man flicked a coin at the guide and told him to get lost. When she couldn't hear his fleeing footsteps anymore she settled into a stance and waited.


Author's Note: I have already written the next chapter, but I will not be posting it until I get more of Chapter 5 written. If anyone notices spelling or grammatical errors let me know and I'll fix them. As well if something isn't clear, post what isn't and I will attempt to remedy them.
As always please do read and review and remember that all input is welcome, but not always appreciated.

Wow, I can't believe I forgot to split up the paragraphs, here's to the egg on my face and a paragraphed story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar nor any of the rights to said show.