A/N: Sorry to have not updated for such a long time. I had to find motivation.
Toph stomped though the forest. She could tell that it was nighttime, but she couldn't care less. Her goal was getting out of the forest, where all the trees and plants vibrations were giving her a headache. But she pressed on anyway; a little pain in her head was not going to slow her down. She Earth bended a better path for herself in one swift motion without breaking her pace. She couldn't wait to find Aang, so she could Earth bend his butt into the next century.
That one thought is what kept Toph walking on when it started raining.
The black haired girl that was waiting for the two boys to exit the hospital hissed a little as the rain started up. She let the fire in her heat up to the point where the wet rain drops that landed on her turned into steam.
She shifted on her feet anxiously as she waited for the two to exit the hospital. Her father had given her specific instructions to find out which kid was the Avatar. She figured that the Avatar would be traveling around, trying to master the elements. She also knew that the Air benders were all killed years ago, so this kid would be the only one who could Air bend. That's what she was looking for.
She saw three figures that looked like them and an extra coming out into the night. Azula's lips curved into a vicious smile. This would be fun….
Katara awoke in the middle of the forest with something cool upon her forehead. Her eyes fluttered open to see a blurry figure over her. She closed her eyes again and shook her head a little to make the blurriness go away, but it only succeeded in giving her a headache.
She re-opened her eyes to see the blurry figure leaving her. She didn't want that to happen, so she tried to get up, but found that it took her a lot of energy than she anticipated. She collapsed back on the ground in a coughing fit.
She weakly opened her eyes again to see that the figure was gone. Her eyes seemed to get heavy and close again by themselves. She could feel sleep about to take her again, but this time, the warm presence of another person was gone, and all she felt was cold. The freezing rain only made it worse.
When Aang walked out from the hospital, he noticed it raining. Silently he begged Toph would be okay. He looked over at his two companions. Sokka and Suki were hand in hand, their reason being because Suki needed help walking, but Aang knew it was because they liked each other as more than friends. They had just stepped under the street light when they heard a crackling noise from around the corner. They stopped in their tracks as the hair on the back of their necks started to rise. Then a bolt of lightning struck a few feet away from them that made them jump.
"Avatar!" a female voice called out to them. They faced the person to find that it was a girl with black hair and golden eyes. The trio stepped backwards away from the girl.
"You are my enemy! You must be destroyed!" she yelled out. The trio looked at her like she was mentally insane.
The girl rolled her eyes at them and shot a ball of fire at Aang. He screamed and ducked out of the way. While Sokka and Suki ran to hide behind a tree, Aang took a defensive position. Azula shot more fire balls at him while Aang maneuvered his hands so that the fire was extinguished in the air.
As soon as Aang did that, the girl stopped firing at him. Aang eyes were wide as a deer caught in the headlights, hoping to catch her next attack. But she did nothing. She stood there with her head down, as if contemplating on her next move.
The rain started to pour harder, even to the point where the ground beneath their feat was turning to mud. Aang had to keep shifting his feet to stay up.
Just as the girl looked up to reveal her golden eyes, a bolt of lightning flashed through the sky. This just made her look even more frightening.
"So it is you. My sworn enemy is only a child. So inexperienced, so naïve, so… fearful." As the girl hissed the last word, his anger rose. He didn't know why, but he felt like he had hurt her. He stomped his left foot out and punched his right fist into the air. This sent a blast of air towards her and knocked her off her feet.
Aang started breathing heavily from anger and was ready to attack again. The other girl stood up and brushed to dirt off of her. "We will meet again… Avatar." She said before disappearing into the trees.
After a few moments of eerie silence where all that could be heard was the pounding of the rain and an occasional lightning strike, Sokka and Suki came out of hiding. They were both wide eyed and Suki was clinging onto Sokka.
"What just happened?" she whispered.
Aang turned around to face his friends. "I don't know. But I think we should leave. She might come back." The other two nodded and they walked down the street in silence.
The city wasn't very good, so there were lots of alleys. The three of them looked at each other and all thought the same thing. They were a bunch of kids with no money and wanted by at least someone. No one was going to take them in. They would have to sleep in one of the alleys tonight. They searched for a while before finding an alley that had an overhang to protect them from the rain. Sokka and Suki slept together while Aang sat off to the side for a while, thinking.
He thought about Toph. She must hate him so much right now. He had no idea what she could be doing right now, but whatever she was doing, it probably wasn't any better than what he was doing. He knew she couldn't see when it was raining, and it made him feel even worse. He lied down on the wet ground and started to drift off to sleep, but not before he started to agree with the girl that called him fearful. She was right. He was scarred. He was afraid.
Toph tripped over a tree branch sticking up from the ground and landed face first into a pile of mud. She hated that she couldn't see what was right in front of her.
She pushed herself up and started walking blindly again. After running into three trees, and tripping two more times, she started to hear footsteps behind her.
"Who's there?" she called out. She took an earth bending stance and waited for the person to show up on her radar. Soon someone did, and she about to attack when they spoke up.
"Oh! My apologizes Miss. I didn't mean to frighten you," the man said as he bowed to her. She let her stance drop only a little as her vibrations told her the man was old.
"Are you alright there Miss? You seem to be shaken up a little bit," the old man said kindly.
"I'm fine. I don't need your help," she half yelled at him. She turned around and started to walk away from the man but rammed into a tree. She fell backwards onto her butt with an "oof!"
"Look, I'm not trying to pity you. I want to invite you into my home. I also promise I won't do anything to you." Even though Toph still couldn't very well, his words were so sincere they reached her anyways. She stood up and turned around towards him.
"Alright," she told him. It wasn't in a nice voice for a normal person, but Toph wasn't like everyone. But the man smiled anyways and reached out his arm for her to take. She took it and they started to walk towards his cottage a little ways away.
When they reached it, the old man tossed her a blanket and she curled up in it. She went over to the corner and crouched down in it. The man soon brought her some tea and sat down near her.
"So, if I may ask, why was a young lady such as herself wandering in the forest alone? It's not safe around here," he asked her. Toph let her head hang slightly.
"I'm looking for my friend. He left me and I don't know why," she said solemnly.
"That doesn't sound right. Why would a friend leave you?"
"I don't know. I think it's because of the fact that he's scared of himself."
"Scared of himself? What does that mean?"
Toph sighed. "Well, when we were traveling through the village, some people attacked us. They were starting to gang up on me and he was getting worried. Then he just lost control and he hurt them. It killed him on the inside because he's such a peaceful person. Then we go to sleep in the middle of the forest and when I wake up he's gone," she explained.
The old man sat and thought for a few minutes before answering. "It sounds like you're right. He does seem scared of himself. Maybe he's afraid he would have hurt you if he stayed with you."
"I don't know why. I proven to him time after time that I can take care of myself.""But if he's your friend, then he loves you and wants you to be safe. He doesn't want to be the barer of your griefs," he explained.
Toph's ears perked up at the word love. "Whoa there, you've got it all wrong. He doesn't love me. We're just friends."
"There are many forms of love Miss," he told her. Toph held up her hand.
"Please don't call me miss. It makes me feel old. Just call me Toph."
"Alright, then please call me Iroh." He turned to look at the clock behind him. "Well, Toph, it's getting late. You should probably get some sleep." He gave her a pillow from off the nearby couch so she could sleep on the floor where she was comfortable.
Once she fell asleep, Iroh took her tea cup, put it in the wash, and went to bed himself.
Zuko ran through to forest, trying to find his uncle's house. He wasn't sure if his uncle would let him in or not, because years ago he vowed to never talk to him again. He just hoped he would forgive him.
He saw the little cottage in the corner and ran up to it. He knew it was late and his uncle was probably in bed, but he had to talk to him.
He knocked on the door furiously. A few minutes later it opened to reveal his uncle half asleep. "Uncle, I need to talk to you," he pleaded.
"I'm sorry, but I already have a guest over." The door was about to shut on him but he stepped in the way. "Please Uncle!"
"Why should I help you? If I remember correctly, you told me that I was just a liar because I was jealous of my brother for becoming fabulously wealthy." He said rudely.
"Please Uncle! I was wrong!" Iroh sighed. "Come in, but quietly."
Zuko did so and was surprised to see a little girl sleeping in the corner. "That's Toph, Zuko. She's staying here for the night," Iroh explained.
"Uncle, why are you letting a little girl stay here? She's beneath you," Zuko asked.
Iroh sighed in frustration at his nephew. "This is exactly why I left the family Zuko. All you care about is how you look to others. Do you even think about what might have happened to this girl? Do you even think about what she might need? Do you?!" Iroh's voice was raised almost to a yell, and it woke up the girl in the corner.
"Huh?" she mumbled. She sat up slightly, rubbing her tired eyes.
Iroh turned to her. "I'm sorry for waking you Miss Toph. This is my nephew Zuko," he said, motioning to him. She nodded in response. Iroh turned back to Zuko. "Why don't you talk to her for a few minutes while I set up a place for you to sleep?" Itoh suggested.
Zuko looked over at the girl and reluctantly walked over to her. "Hello."
She said nothing in response, just looked at him. He scowled. "I said hello."
"What's your point? You obviously don't like me. Don't pretend," she accused.
He snarled at her. "You know, I'm trying to be nice to you, you could at least…" but he was cut off.
"Save it. I don't care. You're not trying to be nice to me. It's sucking up to your uncle," she said and lied down again, closing her eyes. Before she fell asleep, he heard her mutter, "You're pathetic."
Katara woke up and she felt very sore. She looked around her and found she was still in the forest and it was still night. The fact that it was raining didn't make it any better. She stood up and started walking by herself along the narrow road.
She kept on walking until she came upon a tree with notches in it. Her eyes followed the tree upwards and she saw that there was a tree house at the top. She stepped up to the tree and put her hands into the notches. It was very wet so she had to grip with all her might to keep hold of it. On her way up, her feet started slipping. When she made it half way up the tree, she lost her grip totally and went crashing to the ground.
She cried out loud when she crash landed on her arm. She heard the sickly crack anyone who just broke a bone would hear. She started to sob as pain washed over her. She looked up at the tree house through her tears and knew she had to get up there to be safe.
She once again grabbed hold of the notches on the tree even with her broken arm. Each time she put pressure on it she felt like screaming out in pain and she finally made it to the top, the pain was almost unbearable.
She noticed a puddle of water on the floor and crawled over to it. She laid her arm in it to hopefully ease the pain. She noticed that it started to glow after a while and the pain started to melt away. Her eyes widened when the glowing died down. She lifted her arm up and all the pain was gone.
Suddenly, fatigue took over her, and she passed out of the wooden floor.
Iroh looked around in his basement for the text his mother had given him years ago. Toph's story had reminded him of it so much; he was compelled to find it. Once he found it, he read it over to himself. A smile soon crept over his face. he knew how to help this young girl.
A/N: So, this is it. Hope you all like it! Comments are welcome.
Thanks for reading!