Here I am again at last everyone! Sorry to keep you waiting so long.
In one part of this chapter, italics will be used to indicate a conversation in Chinese. There will also be a conversation which will include very mild adult aspects.
"For the record, may I just state what an insanely dangerous idea this is?" Marco commented. "Okay, there are quite a few things that could rate higher on that list, but still, you're seriously going to get within touching distance of a grizzly?"
"I'm just going to touch one of their paws when they put it through the bars Smart Aleck," Toph confidently assured him as she began to focus her chi through her feet. "Then I'll jump back while it's still in a trance and tunnel back here. Besides, I have Olivia for backup if something goes wrong-You will back me up, right?"
"As I said, yes," the android reassured her. "While we Chee lack the ability or desire to harm another living being, we can still restrain them to prevent them from harming us or others."
"And you're sure no one will be able to see me through this weird holo-whatever?"
"It'll seem like you're standing right by my side the whole time."
Toph nodded. "Here we go then."
"Be careful," Cassie said.
As she pushed downward through her feet and hands, her arms tucked tightly against her body, Toph felt herself sink into the ground, shifting her body slightly once her legs were in so as to go in the dirt at a steep angle.
The dirt encased her, but she felt no fear as she continued tunneling to a certain point, using input from her feet and hands all the while to calculate her route. Then she stopped and pushed upward at a similar angle through her hands and feet, rising up and out of the soil like a member of some undead army, bending off any remnants which stuck to her.
While Olivia's strange "hologram" powers were apparently masking her activities from other people, the bears must've been able to see or at least smell what the bender was doing, for they were already right there in front of her, pressed together and intently focused, fascinated.
Their paws were probing, questing, waving between the bars. Claws like pickaxe points played a tune on the metal rods.
All she had to do was take one big stride forward, quickly press her hand to one of their paws, and then jump back. Easy. In theory anyway.
The smaller grizzly, Leah, idly pawed the air, and Toph lunged forward, her palms making contact with the back of the bear's massive paw. The fur was woolly and coarse under her hands as she concentrated.
And as expected, the bear became placid and calm.
It completely amazed the earthbender that this massive, hulking predator, at least four times her weight, could be rendered so feeble and impotent, simply by the touch of her fingers.
But her brother was still very much alert and active. Too active.
It all happened very fast.
Suddenly, Toph felt Samson's paw flick out from between the bars and wrap around her left leg in a brutal, crushing strike, his claws raking her flesh as he yanked her leg through the bars and she cried out in pain and shock.
"Aaahhhh!"
"Zhenzhu!" Olivia cried out as she began to spring forward, and both Sunshine and Smart Aleck tensed.
"Huh? What?" a woman cried nearby.
But even as Samson began to bite down into her leg, the blind girl had the presence of mind to let herself fall back and kick with her free right one, pushing up and out as she did so.
A sixty pound chunk of the strange, unnatural kind of stone that formed the interior edging in the bear's enclosure flew up into the air, striking Sampson squarely in the groin.
He gave a short, sharp "Wwooofff!" of surprise and pain as he let go and backed away, letting her drop to the ground.
In the blink of an eye, Olivia was right there, grabbing Toph in her metal arms and springing over the safety fence like a deer, stopping before gently laying her on the grass.
"Uuhhhh!" the bender moaned as the pain hit, smelling and feeling her own blood dripping over her skin, onto the grass. "That's a serious ouchie folks. Oh Shu, that hurts!"
"And that's pretty much what I expected might happen," Marco knowingly yet forlornly commented.
She felt Cassie hold her left hand as she asked, "Is your leg broken Toph?"
"I don't think so. I can still move it-ow!-just fine," she replied as she tested the limb and sat up to put a bit of weight on it, wincing as she did so. "But it still hurts like anything, and I'm definitely bleeding. Uhhh..."
"Yeah, those claws tore your skin," the other girl confirmed. "Other than that, it looks like your calf muscle got crushed and a major bruise is forming."
"I don't suppose any of you know how to heal with waterbending, huh?" she asked wryly.
"Sorry, but we never learned that in health class," Marco quipped. "You should try a partial morph to heal it though," he suggested.
That was a good idea.
"Then since you're about my size and you're already holding my hand, is it okay if I acquire and morph a little ways into you Sunshine to heal myself? It'll be just this once," she added.
"Okay," Cassie replied.
Once Toph had acquired the other girl, with Olivia keeping them screened by a hologram, the bender began to morph her, focusing on the legs and feet as she did so.
Unlike with the bat, there was very little change to her body this time.
She simply bent her tissues just enough so that she was still mostly Toph, but with Sunshine's legs, feet, and lower thighs.
"Wow," Smart Aleck commented, impressed. "Looks like you're not the only one who can pull this sort of trick off anymore Cassie," he said.
Toph ignored him. Right now she was just relieved that her injuries, even if mild, had now vanished, and stayed that way when she returned back to her whole form.
"Well, that was sure rather exciting," she dryly commented as she got to her feet and raised her arms in a stretch. "Still, I don't think I'll ever be doing that again."
"Hey, that's my line!" Marco whined. Becoming more serious, he added, "And I second that opinion."
"Got myself a grizzly morph though!"
"I wonder what Rachel's going to think of this development?" Cassie mused to Marco.
"You're her best friend Cassie. You tell me."
After using her bending to smooth out the soil and concrete, Toph and the others fed a few treats to the bears, and then moved on.
Having felt she'd acquired enough animals for the day, she spent the next two hours simply enjoying the company of her three new friends as they emptied out both treat bags and petted deer and goats and rabbits.
Cassie talked her into going on a camel ride, and with assistance from Carmen, its handler, Toph planted herself in the leather saddle just behind the long-legged beast's massive hump. Despite her initial skepticism, it turned out to actually be pretty fun as Carmen led the camel around by the halter for five minutes.
And it was nice of her new friends to want her to have fun experiences, to make memories.
They stopped at a large pond about three paces in diameter, which contained many fish called "trout." Not bass-trout, or pike-trout, just trout. Both Marco and Sunshine, who both ironically had this fish as a morph, claimed they were excellent eating.
Here though, the trout were the ones who got to do that.
There were two machines nearby, square boxes with a horizontal metal slot that you had to put a large coin called a "quarter" into. They intrigued her. Proper metal coins had nice square holes in the center, with four characters on the front, and were made of copper alloy, silver, or gold.
But these odd "quarters," named because four of them made the basic unit of money, a "dollar," were solid, slippery discs, made of three-fourths copper and one quarter nickel, emblazoned with the figure of a perched eagle with partly spread wings on the back (which she had to admit was pretty cool), and the profile of a man on the front whom Smart Aleck said was named "George Washington," the father of their country.
According to both him and Sunshine-and they swore on their lives it was true-they'd actually met him, been in his presence as this General Washington had led his troops across a bitterly cold "Delaware River" to engage the "British" military forces-an event that had happened 224 years ago! Apparently, it had all been part of an attempt to stop a rogue Controller from seriously messing up history.
Oh, and during that little freezing cold boat ride, Boss Boy had taken a "bullet" through the head, killing him, but had then been restored to life when it was all over. Yeah, it was all pretty complicated. And it didn't seem like they were lying-among other things, their voices were earnest enough.
Still, she couldn't help but wonder if this was all part of an elaborate attempt to make her brain explode. If so, they were well on their way.
Geez, and here I thought Sugar Queen, Sokka, Twinkletoes and I experienced more than our fair share of crazy shit together, the earthbender thought as she massaged her temples, aching from a futile effort to comprehend the situation. But that's obviously hardly anything compared to what these Animorph guys have been through.
Sunshine told her you then had to turn a short, rod-like crank, which caused a large handful of slightly greasy feeling, coarse textured pellets to fall into your palm. Although she could've easily used her metalbending to open the machine's hatch, Toph decided that being a thief would probably make a bad impression on her new friends, and so paid up.
When she flung the pellets into the pond, the surface erupted. The earthbender listened in excitement as the trout, creatures that belonged to a world she could never understand nor survive in, made the water boil, splashing and leaping, making wet smacking sounds as they snatched pellets from the surface.
Marco, Cassie, and even Olivia took turns tossing pellets to the trout as well while Toph idly dug in her right nostril and thoughtfully listened to the fish feed. Now that she had the ability to bend her body, there was nothing to stop her from becoming one of these fish if she wanted to, or any other creature of the water.
What would it be like, to swim under the waves, to breathe the cold, so terribly deep and unstable fluid that surrounded you, provided no support, to belong to such an alien world? The prospect both excited and scared and perplexed her to the core.
As if she could read her mind, Sunshine said to her offhandedly, softly, "While you've acquired plenty of wonderful morphs today, it'd be good for you to get something that's at home in the water soon."
The earthbender gave a sigh of unhappiness, tensing and fidgeting as she shifted in place.
"Uh, Sunshine?" she said. "Sorry, but I don't do water all that well, especially if it's deep."
"So you can't swim then?" Cassie asked.
"Not a stroke," Toph replied. "And I'm just not a water person to begin with."
"Hey, I can barely swim myself," Smart Aleck told her. "And I'd sooner soak up the rays on the beach instead of going into the waves. But when you morph a dolphin or a shark and start moving that tail, speeding through the water...oh man, you're not scared of drowning anymore, trust me. It knows what to do."
"All you have to do is be careful and make sure you have someone right by you to help whenever you change back to human. Knowing how to tread water really helps too-and that's pretty easy to learn, even for a blind person like you," he added.
"Good to know," the earthbender replied, pleased and a bit more confident. "As for morphs that are good in the water, what do you recommend Sunshine?" she inquired as she turned to Cassie.
"Well, both your snow goose and gull morphs are excellent for simply flying over water or resting and swimming on the surface, and the mink should be just fine for rivers and lakes. But like Marco said, a dolphin morph is the way to go out in the ocean. And even though none of us have ever acquired one yet, a sea lion wouldn't be a bad choice either."
Sea lion. Toph briefly frowned in puzzlement. She wondered if they were anything like the tiger seals Sokka spoke of hunting on the southern sea ice.
"Maybe we could go acquire both of them tomorrow?" she proposed.
"Sorry, but that'll have to wait," Cassie told her with a shrug. "I really have to focus on my homework tomorrow."
"Hey, I understand," the metalbender replied.
"Besides, we've got to go buy you a decent wardrobe," Olivia added. "Skirts, tank tops, shirts, dresses, shorts, and so on."
Toph silently sighed. Great. That sounded like yet more horrid car trips, and then the tedium of trying and taking off item after stupid item of clothing to make sure it was comfortable and/or "looked good on her."
"Well, just don't go overboard with it."
"Heh, that sounds like something right up Xena's alley," Smart Aleck droned dryly. "And she'd make absolutely sure everything you bought was so 'cute,' and 'stylish' too."
"You know," the Chee replied thoughtfully, inspired, "that's actually a pretty good idea Marco. I'll call Naomi later and ask her permission."
"Nice going Smart Aleck," she sighed. Still, the idea of getting to know this new gang's own fierce female fighter better and sharing stories of prowess in combat was very much an enticing prospect to look forward to.
After tossing a few more handfuls of pellets to the excitable trout, it was time to go home, Toph having successfully acquired all three of North America's great predators.
As they all walked back into the parking lot, her right hand slung over Smart Aleck's shoulder, the earthbender once more felt the telltale, eerie double heartbeat.
It was from the man who'd been by the elk pen, sorting things in the back of his own vehicle, a "sports car." The other, female Controller was already in the front seat.
Naturally, being in the presence of something so vile and wrong made her quail a second time, her face a mask of repulsion and dismay.
"Is it one of them again?" Marco muttered close to her ear.
Toph nodded. "One of the same ones as before too."
And this time she was almost eager to get back into the wretched "SUV," if only so she couldn't feel that slug's heartbeat any longer.
Once more, Toph buckled up, Olivia started up the horrid, gut-churning engine, and they left the parking lot.
Several miles away from the animal refuge, the Chee stopped in the parking lot of a "Holiday" store, telling the miserable earthbender she'd be right back in a few minutes.
Toph forcefully inhaled air until her stomach settled, then sat there for a few moments, listening to the motor idle.
"Well, this has been a pretty interesting Saturday, huh girls?" Marco asked rhetorically. "Not as exciting as whenever battles with Yeerks and morphing are involved, but still interesting all the same. Toph gets like the grand slam when it comes to acquiring all the local superpredators, got lightly mauled by a grizzly, we find out you can sense the heartbeats of Yee-"
"Thanks Smart Aleck," she blurted out suddenly.
"Uh, you're welcome and everything I guess Daredevil, but what exactly are you thanking me for?" Marco inquired, his tone rather confused.
"I think I know," Cassie slyly replied, causing Toph's cheeks to heat slightly.
"Well I don't," Marco huffed. "But then, that's the story of my life, always the last to know!" he sighed theatrically.
Bracing herself, Toph answered hesitantly, "What I mean is-thanks for coming along, Smart Aleck. You didn't need to. You didn't have to. I probably could've managed just fine with Sunshine and Olivia. But you did anyway, came to keep me company and help me out. That's really nice of you."
"Toph, please," he huffed dismissively. "You're making it sound like I regard you as some sort of charity case, that just because you're blind and have no knowledge of our soci-"
"Marco, just listen," Cassie gently chided. "Go on Toph."
"Anyway-what I'm saying is-uh, thanks. Thanks for being an awesome friend-and taking the time to do that for me, even though we still don't know each other all that well."
"Hey, it sure beats spending my day sweeping out the basement or playing video games for six hours straight," he wryly responded, causing the blind girl to laugh, even if she had no idea what video games were exactly. "And besides, you're pretty cool. I guess I even kind of like hanging out with you-don't you dare tell anyone what I just said Cassie," he warned, suddenly defensive.
"My lips are locked," she sweetly promised as Toph lowered her head and turned away, hoping her lengthy bangs would hide her reddening cheeks.
Olivia came back then, with a package of some type of baked good called "ginger snaps."
Sunshine opened the box, then the inner foil bag they came in (For the love of Tu Gong, why did these Earth people have to use so much needless packaging for their foodstuffs?), and gave it to the blind girl, who grabbed a handful.
She decided she liked these "ginger snaps" a lot. They had a wonderfully intense molasses flavor, were loaded with sweet tasting spices, and had a crunchy, light texture.
And best of all, the ginger they contained soon alleviated her nausea, although the inevitable headache remained.
Instead of heading back the same way they'd come, Olivia first made a detour to drop Smart Aleck off at his home, located in a settlement known as "Suburbia."
When the car came to a stop, Toph heard music playing from an unidentifiable source about seven paces away from the road, coming through Marco's open window.
She blindly stared. The music wasn't like anything she'd ever heard in her life. The tune, the beat, the underlying tempo, it was all so weird and unfamiliar.
There were no cymbals, flutes, drums or horns, no pipa or other string instruments here, just a bizarre, thin, excited underlying beat.
And while it was obviously being sung by someone, the earthbender still just somehow knew it wasn't an actual, flesh-and-blood human singer producing the music right here and right now. A real person though, an older man, was singing along as he sprayed a continuous stream of water on what the earthbender presumed were flowers or bushes.
"Ain't nothing gonna break my stride/ Nobody's gonna slow me down/Oh no, I got to keep on moving/"
"What in Oma's name is making that music?" the baffled girl asked. "Does your family have a parrot-iguana that sings for you? It sure must be talented."
The other three broke out laughing.
"What?!" she snapped, fury surging within her. "It's not funny! You know, just because I'm ignorant doesn't mean you guys have a right to laugh at me for it!"
"Ain't nothing gonna break my stride/ I'm running and I won't touch ground/Oh-no, I got to keep on moving/"
"Jeez Toph, chill out," Marco replied placatingly. "We weren't laughing at you."
"It's just that we, or at least I, thought the idea of a weird-looking parrot iguana thing, which is like nothing that exists on our world, singing the song was a hilarious image, that's why," Sunshine assured her, voice still laced with amusement. "Sorry if you took it as insulting."
"That's right. We certainly weren't laughing because we thought you were dumb Toph," Olivia said, cooling the bender's ire. "We understand that there are a lot of things that you don't understand about this world and society, and that you can only fall back on your own experiences to make sense of it all. I apologize for any offense."
"You're on a roll and now you pray it lasts/ The road behind was rocky/ But now you're feeling cocky/"
Evidently noticing them, the man got Toph's attention as he cried, "Hey there Marco! How was your day trip?"
"Who's that?"
"That's my dad, watering the petunias and listening to his Greatest Hits of The 80's CD," Marco explained, which only left Toph further perplexed.
Turning toward the window, he shouted out, "It was great Dad! Be with you in a sec, okay?"
"Anyway, see you later Daredevil," he said fondly as he opened the door. "Hope you have a nice time with Xena at the mall tomorrow."
"Thanks Smart Aleck," she replied warmly. "Have a nice evening," she told him, even as her left fist slammed into his upper arm.
"Ow, you're so abusive!" he whined, rubbing it.
"You look at me and you see your past/Is that the reason why you're runnin' so fast?/"
"Yeah, see you later Don Juan," Cassie playfully teased as he got out of the car.
"Ha ha ha Cassie. You're one to talk, the way you make eyes at Jake every twenty seconds whenever you're together," he groused defensively as he shut the door.
"Touché," she acknowledged.
"So, how's it going?" she heard him greet his father as he walked up the "driveway" toward him.
"Going well," his dad replied. "Euclid tried to see if he could make me fall on my face again today, as usual."
"That's his stepmom's annoying little poodle," Cassie explained as Olivia started up the engine again.
Not a poodle-pony or poodle-monkey.
"Not annoying, just badly socialized," the Chee pointed out.
"Where is he anyway?" she heard Marco ask. "Lord knows he'd already be barking his lungs out if he was around."
As the car began to pull away, Toph heard Marco's dad say, "Nora took him out just now to go for a walk and to visit his girlfriend Ruby."
Even though they weren't talking about her, the earthbender's cheeks and ears felt like they'd just been injected with molten metal at the mention of the word, and she shrunk down into her seat.
Girlfriend.
Girlfriend!
That's right! You're Marco's girlfriend, you're Marco's girlfriend, a little voice in her head teasingly sang.
It was a thought that capered and frolicked through a field of flowers like an excited poodle-monkey (Hah, was that ever an irony!) or mountain goat-deer. And it was every bit as prissy, and annoying, and embarrassing...and...and just so girly!
Stop that! she snapped in frustration.
She wasn't anyone's girlfriend, least of all Smart Aleck's. She still hardly knew the guy, for Tu Gong's sake!
You're Marco's girlfriend now, the stupid little voice insisted. And he's your boyfriend. Doesn't being around him, having him touch you, just drive you ccrrrraaaaazzzzzyyyy?
I said stop that! He's so not my boyfriend! He's just a nice, pretty cool Earth-person guy, her superego snarled back.
Both Olivia and Sunshine were silent, the Chee focused on driving and the girl on reading her "textbook" for school.
"Cassie?"
"Yeah Toph?"
"When Marco got out of the car at his house, you called him Don Juan. I get that it was a way to tease him, but what does that expression mean?"
She laughed lightly before saying, "Um, well, Don Juan is a slang term in our society for a guy who's a real lady's man, especially one who's Latino."
The earthbender both laughed and blushed again at the same time as she asked, "What's Latino? Tee-no."
"That's the ethnicity Marco belongs to, while I'm African-American, or just simply black if you prefer. Jake, Rachel, and Tobias in human morph are white, or Caucasian."
Black, Toph thought, and she remembered back to how she'd seen Cassie's face while in bat morph, how it had been "darker" than that of the others, a concept her mind still grappled with. And Rachel's face had been "lighter" in color.
But that wasn't the topic right now, she reminded herself.
Marco's your boyfriend! that damned little voice sang again, making the earthbender grit her teeth in annoyance.
She decided to smash down the wall.
"Sunshine, do you think he likes me?"
"Yes, at least somewhat," she replied. "Marco has always imagined himself to be irresistible to girls," she said with understated amusement, "but from what I saw of him today, he's developed a true fondness for you. Like you said, the fact that he chose to come along and spend his Saturday with you speaks for itself-not to mention all the hand-holding and punching that I noticed," she slyly added, which made Toph shift in her seat uncomfortably. "And to be honest, it sure looks to me like you like him too."
"Oh come on!" Toph fumed as she jerked upright. "You must seriously have gravel for brains if you think I actually have a crush on Smart Aleck! Just because I've elbowed or socked him a few times doesn't mean I'm hot for him," she snapped in denial, spreading her hands apart.
But Cassie simply replied, "You sure about that?" her voice knowing and perceptive.
The bender's defensive attitude withered away, and she shrugged wearily, leaning back against the seat. "Okay, I guess I do," she admitted. "Not that it does me much good to feel that way," she added. "I mean, the Ellimist basically sent me here to either help Rachel out of a jam or die myself in the attempt. Either way, it makes getting romantically involved with a guy kinda pointless for me, you know?"
"You're probably right," Cassie agreed. "Still, sometimes you just can't ignore the impulse, no matter how hard you try."
"Heh, tell me about it Sunshine," Toph snorted in amusement as she scratched her nape.
"From what I've observed, it's certainly quite a powerful one, even in the most aloof of humans," Olivia agreed.
"Also," Toph continued on simply, "while I haven't actually fought the Yeerks yet, Tobias and Antelope Boy have told me about some of the battles you guys have fought, and how desperate some of them have been. Now, considering how awesome I am, I'm really not that worried about the Yeerks getting me," she grinned. "But when it comes to you guys, who can't bend any elements...what if I go to all the trouble of falling in love with Smart Aleck, sharing tender moments with him-and then one day he doesn't make it out of a battle? I don't think I could stand it Cassie," she said sorrowfully.
"I think about that sometimes with Jake too," Cassie admitted softly. "And I don't have any easy answers for you. All I can suggest is that if you really want to have a relationship with Marco, than just go for it. Enjoy each other's company to the fullest whenever and however you can. And if he, well, you know, doesn't make it during a mission, try not to blame yourself for what happened. Remember the good times you had together, that he'd want you to move on and keep on kicking Yeerk butt for him-and he would, trust me. That's my advice at least," she finished thoughtfully.
"And very good advice it is too," Olivia chimed in as she made a turn.
Toph became more somber then, even edgy as she placed her hands in her lap and meshed her fingers together, telling the other girl, "What has gotten into me Sunshine? I'm usually not scared of anything. But these past few months, I've been losing control of my own body, and that really frightens me, all the new changes, feelings I'm experiencing-like being attracted to Smart Aleck."
"I understand," Cassie said sympathetically. "I've gone through the same thing recently. So has Rachel, and man, is it ever such a confusing, crazy time, having your body and mind change so drastically."
"Oh Tu Gong, yes!" Toph exclaimed. "It's totally freaking me out! I mean, having my tits growing bigger all the time, and getting all hot and pointy at the most random times-and usually when I don't want them! Then there's having the itchy hair growing around my snatch, and how it becomes all hot and moist whenever I think about how a guy's body is kind of attractive or touch him by accident-ugh, it's just creepy and gross! I hate that guys can make me feel this way now, and most of all that my body is forcing me to!" she snarled in helpless fury, throwing her hands up in the air.
"You know," she went on, "benders like me know all about being in control, understanding things! In control of our element, of our bodies, of our chi. I thought I had all that stuff figured out long ago Sunshine, and I've still definitely got no problem with the other two, but when it comes to my own body these days...I'm on pretty shaky ground here all of a sudden."
"Like I said, it's definitely an uncomfortable time," Cassie replied. "But it's both unavoidable and perfectly natural as you get older. There's nothing you can really do to resist it, so you might as well try to cope. And no matter how much your body may change, just remember that you'll always still be, well, you Toph. Inside I mean."
"Well it still embarrasses me Sunshine. And I don't think I'll ever manage to cope with the damn cramps," Toph spat miserably. "It feels like something's trying to gnaw its way out of you from the inside. The bleeding doesn't help matters either."
"So you've experienced your ah, cycle then?" Cassie asked discreetly.
"If you want to call it that, yeah," Toph shuddered in disgust. "My first time was five months ago. I thought I'd wet my bed somehow, something I haven't done since I was two or three, and I was pretty embarrassed. Then I smelt this coppery smell, and I realized what it actually was."
"That must've freaked you out," Cassie replied. "My mom had told me all about that particular fact of life already, and I still majorly freaked anyway."
"Did it ever! I was terrified Sunshine. My mom never told me, so I seriously thought I was going to bleed to death," she shuddered, recalling the dread. "You should've heard me scream!"
"Oh, I can imagine."
"It definitely woke up Jiao-she's my cook," she explained. "Man, you should've seen how she just came racing into my room, probably expecting to see her boss somehow being murdered. Anyway, while I'm shocked and flipping out, the poor woman had to explain to me that 'Guess what Toph? Yeah, this bleeding from your pussy business is totally normal! It means you're a woman now, with the ability to create life, and will happen every month for at least the next forty years of your life!' Like knowing I'll have to put up with being in pain, bleeding, having bruises on my thighs, and being as cranky as a boar-crocodile with a rotten tusk every month is oh-so-special," she snarled sarcastically.
"Yeah, we girls are just so lucky," Cassie sighed in equal disdain.
Toph nodded. "All that my dad and his brothers had to do to show that they'd come of age was participate in a ritual hunt with my Grandpa, while Sokka had to maneuver a ship through dangerous currents and rocks to prove his manhood. Then it was a done deal. Lucky bastards," she growled.
Mentioning her father made her think of how as soon as he and her mom had learned that she'd shed her first monthly blood, Lao and Poppy had wasted little time in traveling to meet her in Yu Dao. When they did, like Jiao, her mother had expressed great pleasure, telling Toph that this was a wonderful, joyous thing, for it meant that now she could make life, bear a grandchild for them.
She'd reluctantly performed a dumb ritual before her parents and a local priest, one that involved leaping over a flight of three steps three different times to ensure that her cycles would only last that many days and be more "bearable" as well. The family had also eaten a ceremonial meal of red beans and sticky rice together to commemorate the occasion.
"Speaking of cooks," Olivia cut in, "we're coming up to a place called Golden Lotus Garden, which is a popular place for Chinese takeout food in town."
"Takeout? Wouldn't it make more sense just to eat it in the restaurant instead?" Toph asked, raising her left eyebrow in confusion.
"You can do that," the Chee replied, "but soon I'll have to go to the casino for my night shift as a dealer, so we have to get you back to Cassie's farm fairly quickly."
"Okay then."
When the android parked a few minutes later and Toph got out of the car, contemplating the unnatural, odd "asphalt" underneath her feet, Olivia took her hand this time, leading her across the parking lot with Cassie strolling alongside.
It was bizarre, knowing that she was holding the hand of a being made entirely of metal and tough "plastic," one which had to be extremely strong. And yet, Yzark's hand felt no different to the touch than a person's, fleshy and smooth and warm. What lofty race, what unimaginable intelligences, had created technology this advanced, that it could mimic life itself?
The air was balmy and dry in the parking lot, causing Toph to sweat a little.
But when Olivia opened the door, to her shock Toph suddenly felt cool air sweep across her bare skin, a totally unexpected change in temperature that made her eyes widen in surprise.
True, the shade from the roof would obviously make it cooler in here, but still not to this extent.
"Why is it so cold in here Olivia?" she asked in puzzlement.
"It's because this building is air conditioned to keep people comfortable during hot days. They have a big, blocky machine behind the building that cools the outside air, and then pumps it inside."
"Kind of like the Cooler in the Boiling Rock prison Zuko and Sokka told be about-it's a long story," she dismissed. "You guys have so many weird machines," she commented in resignation, lightly shaking her head.
Toph decided she found the mechanically cooled air to be both novel and irritatingly chilly against her skin. It wasn't what she was used to, went against the laws of nature.
Nor did she like the fact that the floor was carpeted, rendering her truly blind and dependent on the Chee to guide her through the restaurant's foyer.
There were other people there of course, walking around, calming their children, chewing food, talking among themselves in English.
And there was another language being spoken, one which made her give a start of wonder and joy to hear. This was the one her new friends called "Chinese," the one that so inexplicably mirrored her true tongue. She could smell fried foods, chow mein, steamed vegetables, hot noodles and fresh rice, all mingling together in the air.
It almost made her dizzy with gladness, as if a small patch of the Earth Kingdom had suddenly appeared on this alien "planet," with Jiao there to welcome her.
As she picked her way across the carpet, still clutching Yzark's hand/paw, Toph carefully felt around in front of her with her free right hand.
After about one and a half careful paces past the doors, she felt her fingertips brush against a vertical surface of varnished wood as a male voice said in accented, choppy English-just like hers!-"Hello there. What would you three like to order today?"
"Ni hao," Toph replied to him.
"Nice to have a customer who can speak Mandarin," the waiter said approvingly, making Toph smile in delight. "Any idea what you'd like to order?"
"Not yet," she replied in confusion.
"As you can see," Olivia cut in politely, "my foster daughter here, Zhenzhu, is blind, so we'll need to sit down for a bit to go over the menu and discuss what she'd like to eat."
"Just ask me to place your order when you're ready then," he told the Chee. She felt his attention focus on her more sharply as he commented, "Why, Zhenzhu here has such beautiful eyes! They are the color of jade! How lucky and pure! Is she of mixed blood?"
"As far as I know yes, from what the staff at the orphanage told me about her," the android shrugged.
"Well, it can't be a large amount of foreign blood," the waiter commented, "since except for the green eyes, she looks quite similar to my own daughter. That is also a lovely braid you have Zhenzhu," he complimented her. "Nice and long."
"Xie xie," she replied with a small smile.
"Bu keqi," he dismissed. "Anyway, will that be here or to go?"
"To go," the Chee replied.
"Then just let me or one of the other waiters know when you've made your choice."
The thrill of having been able to speak in her true language stayed with Toph as she let Olivia lead her to a wooden bench, where they all sat down to discuss the entrees available.
Between Cassie providing input on what sort of dishes she lived best, Toph telling them about some of her favorite foods and flavors, and Olivia reading the headings for each section on the menu, they got their order figured out in about ten minutes.
After placing it, it took about twenty minutes for their food to be ready. During that time, it seemed like every waiter and waitress in the place stopped by to see, admire, and compliment the bender on her remarkable green eyes. It was flattering, she had to admit. She just hoped it wasn't arousing the suspicion of any Controllers.
When they cordially asked her, "Ni shi zhongguo nali de?" she smoothly replied, "Nanjing, Jiangsu."
Midway through waiting, she felt the urge to pee, asking Olivia, "Cesuo zai nali?"
"I'll bring you there," Yzark replied as they stood up.
For a girl who was used to using either latrines or earthenware pots to relieve herself, the concept of a flush toilet was an extraordinary one. All you had to was pull a metal lever, and the waste was washed away in a great WHOOSSSHHH! She could've "flushed" it several times, just to hear the exciting, wonderfully exotic sound which made her laugh.
But after the third time, her android "mom" had gently but firmly told her to desist, and she'd obeyed.
At last, a waitress had come with their food in a box made of a coarse, thick, fibrous type of paper Sunshine told her was called "cardboard." She'd ordered sweet and sour chicken, and pork chow mein to share with her parents when she got back home.
Toph had gotten herself three different dishes, each one inside a hinged box made of an airy, spongy material called "Styrofoam."
A bird's nest tray for an appetizer, three sweet and sour pork chunks with three cheese puffs in a shell of fried dough. Beef chow fun with rice. A double order of bananas in cinnamon coconut sauce, half to be eaten for dessert tonight, while the rest would make a great breakfast tomorrow morning before Tough Girl arrived.
It'd been a long, exciting, tiring day, and the blind girl was eager to get back in the car and head home.
After bidding their waiter "Zaijian," she went back out into the more customary, expected warmth of the outdoors. There she slipped inside the damn metal box on wheels, buckled her seatbelt, and got ready to endure her last ride for the day.
Raising the chopsticks to her mouth, Toph inserted one last piece of banana and chewed in pleasure, eyes closed as she savored the sweetness.
"You really seem to enjoy your bananas," Tobias observed as she placed the chopsticks back in the "Styrofoam" box and shut it, currently sitting beside her in his human form.
"Yeah, xiangjiao are pretty darn tasty," she said fondly. "Nice and sweet, especially when they're cooked."
"Heh, that's for sure," Hawk Boy agreed. "You should try banana cream pie or banana bread sometime," he suggested. "That stuff is outstanding!"
"That does sound good."
(Ah yes, banana bread,) Ax remarked appreciatively as he scratched his right side against a boulder three paces to her left to alleviate an itch. (When it comes to the multitude of human baked goods available on this planet, I find the taste of it nearly as delicious as that of chocolate chip cookies, frosted doughnuts, and cinnamon buns when I am in human morph.)
"You know," Tobias reminisced, "cold as she was towards me, one of the few good things I can say about my Aunt Tammy was that she did make pretty decent banana bread, pumpkin pie, and other desserts-when she bothered to take the time. Thanks for letting me have four of your banana chunks by the way," he added gratefully. "Been a long time since I've tasted anything sweet."
"Hey, my pleasure Hawk Boy," Toph replied as she picked up the weird box and stood erect, walking the half dozen paces or so back to her cave, her home away from home.
As a hawk, Tobias' tongue could only register a few primal tastes: the salty taste of blood, the ability to taste whether meat on a carcass was either fresh or too rotten to eat, and the difference between organs and red meat. The taste of sugars was now as alien to him as sight was to her, and he'd jumped on the chance to experience it again, savoring them even more than she had as he'd chewed with human teeth. It warmed her to have done him such a kindness.
Inside the cave, she placed the box on the floor before facing the left wall at a spot close to where she slept. Then she extended both arms and lightly pushed at the stone, rotating her wrists so that her palms were on the outsides and spreading them several inches apart as she did so.
With a cracking of stone, a small cavity, about the size of a small dresser drawer, was formed as Tobias watched in awe behind her.
"In-freaking-credible," he said simply as Toph then picked up the remains of her dessert and placed them in the hole before stepping back and sealing it with a partial, slow-motion clap of her hands.
"Really something, aren't I?" she grinned over her shoulder at him.
"Oh, like nothing this world has ever seen. Literally."
The earthbender walked back out into the ravine and crumpled both of the empty hinged boxes, the ones which had held her appetizer and main course, lengthwise before bringing them into the cave and shoving them into the shaft at the very back, tamping them down with a bent stone plug. Not only was this method of trash disposal a civilized gesture, but also a brilliant way to cover her tracks.
Hawk Boy meanwhile, graciously put more wood on the fire with his human hands, just like he'd been doing every few hours while she'd been out with Cassie and Marco. It was very considerate of him to take the time to tend to her only source of warmth out here like that, and she'd told him as much.
Then, feeling stuffed and drowsy from her dinner, Toph bent a small pillar of stone from the floor with a stamp of her right foot and after moving her braid aside, sat down to lean back against it, resting and digesting as she soaked up the warmth of the flames.
When Olivia had brought her back to Cassie's farm, Walter had been performing surgery on a fox, and hadn't been able to come out of the barn. That'd been all to their advantage.
Still, from what Toph had figured out, the Chee had performed a crazy sort of bait-and-switch maneuver with her holographic disguising technology.
As they'd rattled down the gravel road (ten times worse than asphalt, in her opinion), they'd formed a plan. When Olivia pulled into Cassie's driveway, she'd open her passenger side door and get out first.
If her father came out to greet them, she'd present him with their own two boxes of Chinese food and ask him to bring them inside.
When he did, or if he was unable to come out into the yard to begin with, Cassie would open Toph's door. It would then seem to anyone watching (Michelle wasn't due to return for about another hour) like the other girl was moving from the back seat to the front one in preparation for the ride home as Cassie made a show of considerately helping her out.
In actual fact though, Toph would then be loping away across the yard and into the fields, headed back to the cave with the cardboard shipping box held in her arms. An extraordinary visual illusion run by the android would mask her presence, while making it seem to Walter like she was still seated in the "car" and waving goodbye as Yzark headed home to get dressed and then leave for her shift manning the tables at Golden Bear Casino.
Even for a Chee, it was a difficult thing to keep up a holographic deception in three different places. Still, it could be pulled off, and as far as Toph knew, Walter never spied her as she used her bending to lightly glide across the fields of the farm and easily patch up the minor damage that resulted.
Both Antelope Boy, in his "harrier" morph, and Hawk Boy happened to have been flying around together not too far away, and easily spotted her heading back toward the ravine.
They'd hailed her, telling her it was nice to see her back as they swooped overhead and landed in the gully to meet her, Tobias staying as he was while Ax returned back to his Andalite body.
As always, Toph had regarded the morphing process with both wonder and a degree of revulsion. And now there was a current of anticipation, of eagerness, of wild, unfathomable speculation weaving through it.
Very soon, she would know what it was like to be a bird herself, to see in a dazzling, overwhelming variety of colors, to have a beak, to fly with them on feathered wings quite different from the bat's leathery ones. (She'd touched the wings of dead birds before several times.)
As if he'd read her mind somehow, she felt Tobias walk over and sit down beside her on her right.
"So," he asked, "how was your day out?"
"It was a lot of fun Hawk Boy," she told him, 'glancing' in his direction. "It was confusing too, but also educational. I'm sure grateful I have you guys and Olivia to help me understand at least some things about this crazy society and culture of yours," she said as she returned her attention to the fire.
"Well, we're happy to help you out, just like we did before with Ax-man."
She smiled before saying, "And I definitely had a great time getting to know Sunshine and Smart Aleck better. I've decided I totally hate riding in cars though," she growled contemptuously.
"Yeah, Cassie's really nice," Tobias agreed. "As for Marco, he can be a pain in the butt sometimes, and annoying as hell, but he's still a pretty cool guy."
"Well, that's why we love him," Toph grinned, even as saying the words made her cheeks heat up and her heart beat a bit faster.
Hawk Boy laughed, laughed for several seconds.
"Yeah, I guess it is," he agreed wryly, chuckling. "Anyway, I bet you acquired a lot of animals as morphs today."
"Oh did I ever!" she grinned in excitement, spreading her hands apart. "I acquired everything from a squirrel to a grizzly bear-and a cougar too!"
"A grizzly bear huh? I hope Rachel won't have jealousy issues over that when she finds out," he muttered to himself.
Her brow furrowed. That bear's cage mate had battered one of her legs in the process of acquiring her, and now Hawk Boy had the nerve to imply it was a bad choice?
"Are you saying that I shouldn't have acqu-"
"Not at all," Tobias quickly replied, lowering his torso in the hawk form of appeasement. "Trust me Toph, you can acquire and morph whatever animals you please as part of our team, no questions asked. If you want a grizzly bear to use as a battle morph, that's cool."
(That is right,) Ax agreed from where he was lying just outside the mouth of the cave, enjoying the evening sun. She felt his uncanny stalk eyes turn in her direction as he remarked, (While there may be missions that require all of us or some of us to acquire and/or morph a specific species of animal, or we may recommend in a given situation that you morph a certain species over another due to its superior agility, strength, speed, ability to remain inconspicuous, and so forth, your choice of species to acquire is very much unrestricted.)
"Glad to hear that. But why would Rachel be jealous about me having a grizzly bear morph?"
"It's because that's her favorite morph to kick Yeerk butt in," Hawk Boy answered, now sitting erect once more. "It's kind of like if you had a beautiful, special statue in your house that you're really proud of. Then one day, you visit someone else's home, and you discover they have the same statue as you. It would be kind of a blow to your pride, like they're copying you, you know?"
Toph nodded.
"Like I said this morning though, she's pretty impressed by what I told her about how you whomped firebender and Dai Li butt, so I suspect she'll be delighted that a master fighter like you also chose a grizzly."
"Well I'm sure happy to have done it-even if her brother did rough my leg up," she added, wincing at the memory of the crushing pain.
"Ooh, that couldn't have felt good," Tobias cringed sympathetically.
(Although acquiring large animals always carries a significant and unavoidable amount of risk, that is still quite regrettable to hear,) Ax agreed. (May I assume you used morphing to repair your injuries?)
"Yep. After partly morphing Sunshine and changing back, I was good to go," she replied, laughing at the sheer insanity of it.
"Anyway, out of curiosity, what types of birds did you acquire at Cassie's barn?" Hawk Boy asked.
"Well, although I'd already acquired you, she brought out another hawk for me to acquire called a goshawk."
"Great choice," Tobias approvingly weighed in. "I've seen goshawks hunt before, and they are completely amazing. Not only can they shoot through the air like a dart, they think nothing of zigzagging through branches and brush that you couldn't pay me enough to fly through when they're after prey. They don't miss a beat, and I'd sure hate to be the bird or squirrel that got chased by one."
(They are rather similar to my harrier in form,) Ax commented.
"Cassie told me that they'll actually chase down prey on foot if the brush is too thick for them to fly through."
"And you'd better believe it. I've seen them do that before too, chase chipmunks and rats around in thickets. They look like some sort of hell-chicken when they do that, the way their legs churn," he commented, causing Toph to laugh. "And they can kill some surprisingly big animals too, like geese and hares."
"Good Oma!"
"Yeah, they're pretty capable killers," he agreed. "Anyway, what other birds did you acquire?"
"Marco and I both acquired a raven, which also sound like very cool birds."
"Heh, figures he'd choose a raven," Hawk Boy said wryly. "Fits his personality to a tee."
"What are they like Hawk Boy?"
"Personally, I can't stand them," he told her in exasperation. "Don't get me wrong, they look like an excellent bird to morph, and they're a lot more noble-looking than crows, but they'll mob birds of prey if they get half a chance, even team up to steal kills from them. I've had them do that to me several times, and it gets really old really fast, believe me. It's especially fun when they strike you on the back with their feet or yank your tail feathers while you're just flying along trying to mind your own business," he griped.
"So they're like the ruffians of the bird world then."
"Yeah, basically. Like I said though, they're still a lot more respectable than crows. Cassie might've told you this already, but man, are they smart birds too. They're always thinking a step ahead."
"How smart are they Hawk Boy?"
"We're talking problem solving smart here. So smart it's shocking sometimes. They know how to open zippers, will watch smaller birds to learn where their nests are, will drop nuts and clams on rocks or streets to crack them open, and they always land on the ground in pairs or groups, so that coyotes and other predators can't sneak up on them."
Toph was impressed. "Sweetness," she grinned. "I'm going to like morphing this bird for sure."
"They're also very playful," Tobias mentioned. "They do amazing stunts in the air, will hang from branches by their feet or beak, absolutely love to roll and slide on their backs in the snow, and yes, prank other animals-like me," he growled in irritation.
"Cassie told me that it'll be an excellent morph for moving between here and Olivia's place without attracting too much attention."
"Yeah, you often see ravens in town and near the roads. They come there to eat animals that get hit by cars, raid the local birdfeeders, gobble up pet food, even make raids on trash cans. So yeah, you shouldn't attract too much notice in raven morph."
(All the same though,) Antelope Boy cautioned, (in the interest of security, I would advise taking different routes to Yzark's residence and arriving at different times each day, so as not to arouse the suspicion of any Controllers who may live in the area.)
"Definitely," Hawk Boy agreed. "Don't want them to realize there's a pattern. I'd also land and demorph in different places each time too, even it means a bit of a walk."
"Hey, whatever it takes to keep the slugs guessing," Toph shrugged. "And I've definitely got no problem with walking."
"Well, enough about the raven. What other birds did you acquire?"
"Let's see. I acquired a snow goose, a western gull, and a great horned owl. That was it for today."
"Great idea with the snow goose," Hawk Boy replied. "They're not exactly agile fliers, and they may not have any real weapons, but man, are geese ever good at getting from point A to point B in a hurry. They don't stop for anything unless they want to stop. I should probably acquire one sometime," he remarked meditatively.
"Kind of like earthbenders," she said with a proud smile.
He was somewhat more judgmental and scornful about the western gull, expressing his viewpoint that while it was a wonderful all-purpose bird morph, one that was perfect for traveling around urban areas, over water, and landing on the sea, they were still "greedy, screaming, undisciplined rats with wings."
In contrast, he made no secret of his admiration for her choice of the great horned owl...as well as his healthy fear of them.
"They mostly eat rabbits and rodents like muskrats, rats, and mice," he informed her, "but they will sometimes kill and eat hawks too. Any bird that's smaller than an eagle is fair game to them really. They sure put the fear in me when I roost each night."
It was a humbling, dismal thing for the earthbender to consider, how now that his true body was that of a red-tailed hawk, Tobias actually had to worry about things like that. Although he was a capable predator who had the freedom and safety of the skies-just like her bat-it brought home that his life was still very much a harsh, dangerous, terribly difficult existence.
"Sounds like they're quite the hunters."
"That's for sure. People think owls are cute and funny, but I can tell you they're far from that. They're no joke. You don't see them, and you don't hear them. Then WHAM, it's right there and grabbing you, never letting go until you're dead."
"Sunshine says they can kill turkey duc-I mean turkeys," she amended. I'm learning, she thought proudly.
"Yeah. I've seen them do it three different times out here in the woods-or at least the evidence that was left behind in the morning. And turkeys are pretty tough birds themselves."
"Whoa. That's one solid owl," she said, remembering the turkeys she'd sensed with her earthbending during her first day here in the forest.
"They dominate the night," he agreed.
(I apologize for interrupting,) Antelope Boy cut in, (but as long as Tobias and I are here to supervise and guard you during the process, perhaps you would like to practice morphing the horned owl and some of the other species you have acquired today?)
Eagerness and wild expectation surged up within the earthbender as she sprung to her feet, grinning in delight as she replied, "I'm more than ready to get started Antelope Boy. Let's head out to Sunshine's pastures and get to work trying out some new sets of eyes!"
"And you know," she added, "usually I'd walk to get there. But this evening guys," she knowingly self-proposed as she focused on the bat within her, feeling the itching sensation of the silky fur starting to grow, "I think I'm gonna fly there instead."
In Mandarin Chinese, xie xie means "thank you." Ni shi zhongguo nali de=Where in China are are you from?, while Cesuo zai nali=Where is the toilet? Zaijian of course, means goodbye. Interestingly, the waiter's response to Toph thanking him for praising her impressive braid translates as "Don't be polite." Basically, he was kind of telling her "Oh, it was nothing," or "I wouldn't have given you the compliment if it wasn't true."
I honestly did not originally intend to have Toph and Cassie discussing their journeys into puberty and the resulting frustrating changes together when I began this chapter. It was just the way the story wanted to go. The practice of leaping over a flight of three steps as many times is an actual Chinese ritual by the way, while the practice of eating red beans and glutinous rice to celebrate a girl's first period is from Japan.
Speaking of which, I just want to let all of you know right away, don't worry, we definitely will not be having any Toph/Marco lemons in this fic, or much more than heavy petting really. Considering that by my estimation, Toph is no more than fourteen and a half years old here, while Marco is a few months shy of his seventeenth birthday, that would just be gross people.
Next chapter will feature some interesting morphing and-finally!-conclude Toph's amazing awesome Saturday!