Bloodrush
Love. Guilty until proven innocent.
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Chapter 7: Falling
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In air, she just falls.
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"Hey! How come you never airbend me from Appa to the waters below when we're travelling? I can just hear Sweetness swimming the time of her life down there."
The Avatar makes a weird face.
"Uh, Toph? You hate water."
"I don't hate water, Twinkles. I've been learning how to swim by listening to the water pulses hitting my skin. I'm still new to it, of course, but I'm making progress. Wanna see?"
"Toph, wha—"
The blind earthbender jumps from the bison. Just as he was for a hundred years, the Avatar is frozen.
She's falling. Free-falling.
Water below, air around, fire in her veins. Her dear element has abandoned her or she, it, and she's never been more terrified.
Stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid!
She didn't lie, though. She was indeed learning how to swim, but she wasn't lying about her being a beginner either.
Idiot. I'm an idiot.
She has already fallen a long way, and a long way more she has to fall. Being blind, she has no idea of this, and free-falling for more than a few seconds makes her feel like she's suspended in this cold, earthless, spineless, foundation-less cruelty.
Air.
She wishes for the water to hit her now. At least there, she floats. In air, she just falls.
Katara looks up to see a speck in the sky plummeting downwards. She realizes that it was her sightless, staffless friend and immediately prepares to send a water column to catch her.
She stops and stares.
A long straight something appears from seemingly nowhere. Another speck follows it.
She smiles. Her friend is safe.
He found out he was the Avatar at age twelve, he woke up to discover that he was quite literally alone with no family to go home to, he faced the most ruthless dictator ever before he even was a fully-realized Avatar.
And yet he can say he has never been more terrified.
Move!
He doesn't need to tell himself twice. He throws his staff into the sky and dives in after it.
He's genuinely extremely grateful that he holds command of the air around them. Extremely, extremely grateful.
The singular sign of an impending tear has found its way to her unseeing eyes like the first dew forms on a lone blade of grass. She denies it freedom.
Crying is for wimps, Bei Fong.
She wonders where the ocean has gone. She's supposed to be sensing, or trying to sense where Katara is now so she could swim to her and hold on. But no.
She was still falling.
She calls to the water.
"Hit me! Hit me now! Where are you, oh vast sea of sissy water? Hit me!"
And something did.
It collides with her from her side and takes her on a new trajectory. Despite being the most hug-impaired person on the planet, she wraps her arms and legs around the flying object and holds on for dear life.
"Toph! Are you crazy?"
She stiffens.
Twinkles?
"Why would you do that? You could have died, you know that?"
"Oh come one Twinkletoes. Water is soft. I don't think I would've died on impact. Besides, Sweetness is down there and I don't think she would've let me drown."
He sighs exasperatedly.
"Would you stop being so reckless for once? Do you even think about things before you do them?"
"Don't be so dramatic, Twinkles."
"You are so inconsiderate! Don't you even realize that there are people who are going to be hurt when you do that?"
"Oh, so now I'm the fragile blind girl again."
He lets out a small scream.
"No, you're the earthbender who knows neither flying nor swimming! You're too ungrateful Toph! I just saved you and now—"
"Saved me?"
"Yes! I saved you because you were helpless out here and I—"
"Helpless? Alright that's it."
She ignores her fear of falling again and lets go.
This time, she hits the water fast.
"Toph!"
"Thanks for helping me, Sweetness."
Katara looks at her friend and sighs.
"You know it's no problem Toph. But why did I have to? I thought Aang had you?"
"He's annoying."
Katara ignores her.
"And what were you doing jumping off Appa? I know you're strong Toph, but you're not a bird nor a fish and you rely heavily on having something to step on."
"I wanted to swim, okay? And fly. And do things you guys can do!"
"What are you talking about? You're the greatest earthbender in the history of anything and here you're saying you wanna do things like we do?"
"Not entirely. It's just that, anyone steps all over earth. You just step on it and walk. Airbenders fly, waterbenders breathe underwater, firbenders—"
"You're not going to try and set yourself on fire, are you?"
"I was gonna say they have that mysterious inner fire thing going on, but thanks for the idea, Sweetness."
"Oh Toph. You poor little confused thing."
