Blistering heat, little shade and so many people to avoid and run from. This day is turning out great, I thought. After traveling for a day or two, I had stumbled onto this desert oasis that was being evacuated by the end of the week because of the approaching fire nation troops. Possibly the same ones I had been training with only days ago. I passed by a vacant shop, starred in my reflection, then closed my eyes to escape from the world for just a moment. Total war is such a needless tool. The fire nation could have easily just destroyed trade routes and broken people's spirits to win. It doesn't need to be this panicked, all the bloodshed just to calm aggresive people like Azula. There's no way to change it though...best to be moving on now, before someone recongizes you. I glanced back up towards the window and stopped dead, not daring to turn around. Toph was standing across the busy street, staring into my back.
She knows I'm here. She must be looking at me...and yet... I continued to stare at Toph through the window's reflection, trying to figure out why I wasn't worried that she could see me. It took me a little over a minute before I realized. Her eyes are white, colorless! SHE'S BLIND!, I thought. Trimuphant that she wouldn't spot me moving away, I walked quietly and quickly down a side alley next to the shop. Side-stepping a puddle of oil and a mound of garbage, I stopped dead almost on the other side of the alley, a shiver creeping up my spine. Turning around, I saw Toph standing there, looking at me again. Now I was worried and freaked out. Response to those feelings were immediate: RUN!
The chase was strange because instead of being a blur of shoppers, narrow escapes and fighting to get away half-blind, I remembered several distinct details, one from each of my senses. How strange it would be to look back later on in life and list off the things I did remember, each unique, each important.
- A multi-colored street, full of people, food and dress, weaving through an endless throng of chaos.
- The noises of a thousand cultures clashing together as panic rampaged through every pore of my body.
- Listening as I rounded each corner, only to hear again and again that short, steady noise of her breath, closing in on me.
- Blood in the back of my throat as my continual running took its toll on my body.
- Toph's hand, grabbing my wrist and spinning me into an alley then slamming me into a brick wall.
Toph spun me around and locked my feet into place with her power. Tilting her head back just the slightest bit, she starred into my eyes before moving her eyes back down to my heaving chest and breathless throat. Her hair shone in the sunlight, black strands straying away to flutter in her face. I starred at her, wondering what she was going to do. Take me to that infernal group of hers, or maybe just leave me here until I rotted away? "I'm not going to hurt you idiot", she quietly said. She stood her ground there, almost ignoring my presence before speaking again: "You aren't afraid...but you are angry and revengeful. So I think its safer if I take you back with me." Lifting her finger, she levitated my earthly bonds away from my body and began walking away.
After rubbing my wrists, I yelled out: "That's it?!, you're not even going to bother to bring me back?" She stopped a few meters away and replied: "No one said you had a choice in the matter. I just thought it would be nicer if you actually got to walk on your own." I stood there for a few moments as she kept walking then looking back the way I had come, I started to walk briskly to catch up with her. What the heck, I thought, it can't be any worse than the chaos out there... Walking alongside that girl Toph I glanced down at her for a second, then looking up said: "Cool earthbending style...where'd you learn it?" She smiled and began to talk.
Moonlight filtered down through a gap in the curtains of the room I was currently allowed to inhabit. My god, I thought, they've been through so much...and its finally come down to this last month...and the avatar still doesn't know firebending...he probably wont find a teacher...not my problem though. Cheerily I turned over then frowned, trying to get the stray thoughts of helping from my mind. My attempts were met without success. Sighing, I turned back onto my back and tried to sleep, insteading slipping back into the events that had transpired over the past three hours...
Toph had led me down street after street until we entered a more abandoned and less populated part of the town. Signs hung on loose hinges, swinging loosely in the breeze. More than once a wild animal darted in front of us, only to disappear down a side alley, a ghost in a ghost town. After walking for perhaps half an hour, Toph stopped next to an old well and said: "This is it." Starring around, then back at Toph, I asked: "There's nothing here...unless you carved out a cave or..." I trailed off as she showed a faint smile. "Hang on!" Rotating her hands, the earth moved unnaturally fast and deposited the two of us maybe thirty feet underground, judging by the pain in my backside where I landed. Oh well...it could have been a much bigger fall, I thought.
Starring around at the wide torch lit corridor, I was startled to find that Toph had vanished. Turning around, I saw her walking, no running, down into the earth. "Wait up!", I called. By firebending the air below me, I was able to gain upon her disappearing figure. Twisting around a corner at top speed, I couldn't stop quickly enough to avoid ramming right into a mound of fluffy white fur. Toph sniggered, saying: "I see you've met Appa..." Her sentence went unfinished as Appa knocked me backwards with a sneeze causing her to double over in laughter. "Nice", I said, picking myself off the floor and watched as Katara, Aang and Sokka walked into the room.
The group led me to a room off the main chamber where Appa was currently sleeping, sitting me down in a chair around a large and expensive Earth Kingdom table. Sliding my fingers along the oranete carvings, I shifted my eyes up to the group as they sat down and noticed Toph give me the smallest of smiles before adopting a look of bored indifference. Sokka twisted around in his chair, and after grabbing a map, placed it on the table, unrolled it then stared across the table at me. "So...you're the firebender that Toph managed to capture. Why didn't you run?", casting a suspicious glance at me. Rolling my eyes, I replied: "How am I supposed to escape from an earthbender? I can't get out of this prison as you all well know. And I highly doubt the exit will be shown to me anytime soon." Sitting back, I waited for someone to say something, however I was surprised when it was Aang that said: "I think you could have escaped Toph, so why did you come here?" He starred at me while I struggled to find an answer. Starring quickly around the table, everyone kept their eyes on me. I didn't know how to respond...I still dont.
The moon had shifted slightly since I had come back to reality. So...that had to be the most boring meeting ever. There was no challenge to my skill level, no questions against my summarized and edited past and afterwards...it almost seemed like they were starting to accept me. The ceiling's stoney cracks gave up no hidden mysteries as I searched them for answers to this almost instant assimilation into their group. They're either incredibly desperate, or they have something brutal planned for tomorrow. Shutting my eyes, I turned over and slept in a prison that would become my life, though I would be my jailer. Why does Toph smile so nicely...