Chapter Twenty-Eight
"You said you were going to pay me. I'm here for my cut."
Across the room that served as makeshift private quarters for him, Xin Fu, proprietor of the Earth Rumble wrestling arena, regarded twelve-year old Toph Bei Fong with an appraising glance. However, he was not intimidated by his prize wrestler's indignant expression and, therefore, went back to methodically counting his money from the previous night. She was a pre-teen and was often in a funk about something. Xin Fu had long become accustomed to her mercurial mood swings even if they still did manage to annoy him.
"You tore out of here so fast last night, I thought you weren't interested," he remarked casually.
"The fight ran late," she replied, "You know I had to get home."
"Not my problem," he returned.
"I'm making it your problem," Toph intoned stiffly. "I want my money, Xin Fu!"
The proprietor released an aggrieved sight and pushed aside the money situated upon an earthen platform to fix Toph with his undivided attention. "Since when do you get a cut, Bandit?" he asked. "You said it was all about the bending for you."
"Things change," Toph declared implacably. "You made a ton of money off of me last night. It's not like I've ever asked you before and you told me that I was entitled."
"Things change," he replied, turning her earlier laconic response by onto her. "Besides, what need to you have for money, Toph Bei Fong?" Xin Fu demanded pointedly. Her features drained of all color with his pointed accusation. At Toph's sharp intake of breath, Xin Fu smiled in satisfaction. "That's right, Bandit. I know your real name and I have for some time," he confirmed, "I know who you are, just like I know you have very little need of the money I make here."
Though she was shaken by his admission, Toph quickly recovered from her shock. "It's my money!" she cried petulantly. "I earned every bit of it!"
"Why don't you ask your father?" Xin Fu replied dismissively as he returned back to his counting.
"If you know so much about me then you know I can't do that," Toph retorted. "If he finds out what I've been doing here, it's the end for both of us. Is that what you want?" She waited in silence for him to mull that over before adding, "I'll be fine. I'm a Bei Fong, after all. What are you going to do when you lose your cash cow?"
The silence following her question was deafening. Toph knew she had made her point, but what was more, Xin Fu knew it. "Here!" he spat, grabbing up a handful of coins and throwing them at her. Toph caught the money deftly in a makeshift cup she'd formed out of the front of her tunic. Xin Fu sneered at her. "But that's all you're getting out of me."
Toph scooped up the money with a frown, noting immediately that something was off. "This is it?" she balked, "This is all you're paying me?"
"That's five gold pieces I just gave you!" Xin Fu roared indignantly. "What are you trying to do? Don't be greedy, Bandit."
She well knew that he hadn't given her gold pieces at all. Granted, she couldn't see the coins, but she knew what the weight of gold felt like. She knew the texture. She even knew its distinct, metallic smell. And she knew with a certainty that Xin Fu had cheated her. Like many before him, Xin Fu had tried to take advantage of her blindness and, like many before him, he would soon regret it.
"You're right," she said, pocketing the money he'd given her. "I wasn't trying to be greedy, Xin Fu. It won't happen again."
"See that it doesn't," he grated. "Now get out of here. You're distracting me and I have work to do."
Toph did as she was ordered, but rather than going down the long corridor that led out of the arena, she tucked herself into a nice, dark nook outside of door and waited for Xin Fu to leave. Two hours later he finally did and Toph wasted no time bending herself through the sealed entrance of his private room. The interior was deceptively empty, but Toph knew better. She was an Earthbender who could see underground, after all. As a result, it didn't take her very long to find the spot beneath the floor where Xin Fu had buried all his money. She also discovered that he'd been doing that, apparently, for a long, long time. There was more money than Toph could have ever imagined, plenty for her to start a new life elsewhere on her own.
Her living arrangement with her parents had become untenable. Toph knew her parents loved her, but they didn't' know her and she wasn't certain they would want to. She could no longer continue living a double life. Leaving home seemed to be her only option, but in order to do that she'd need money. That was the reason she'd come to Xin Fu in the first place.
She had hoped that Xin Fu would be decent enough to give her a fair amount to get started. Toph didn't know why she'd even bothered deluding herself. Now that he'd proven himself the dishonest reprobate she'd always taken him for, Toph had little choice but to take what was hers…and then some. Mindful of her limited time, she quickly bent the money from the ground and began filling a small, canvas bag with the booty.
Toph had collected more than half when she sensed a presence in the corridor. However, by the time she was poised to react, a panel of the wall was already sliding open.
****
Katara contorted her body in a leisurely stretch, stifling her yawn of boredom with the back of her hand. "Why are we waiting for this girl again?" she asked crossly.
"This is the last place I saw her," Zuko reasoned. "You said she was the reigning champion, so obviously she comes here pretty often. The odds of finding her or finding someone who knows her are pretty good."
They had been searching for her most of the morning. Following breakfast, that had been Zuko's primary goal: find the Blind Bandit. That was easier said than done. The young wrestler's reputation preceded her and she seemed to have legions of loyal fans and yet not a single one of them knew her real name or even where she lived. It was as if, after every match, she simply disappeared into thin air. Zuko found that mysterious explanation of things absolutely unacceptable. He had already lost one earthbending teacher due to circumstance. He would not lose another.
Sokka seemed to understand his unspoken determination best and he placed a commiserating hand atop Zuko's shoulders. "I know what you're thinking," he sighed. "Our options are limited, but… I can't help but feel like we're wasting time trying to find a girl who obviously doesn't want to be found."
"She wants to be found!" Zuko argued heatedly, "And she said she would teach me!"
"Yeah, in a roundabout, that'll happen in a million years kind of way," Katara mumbled.
Zuko glared at her, partly because he feared she was right and partly because he didn't want her to be. "She meant it," he insisted, despite his misgivings.
"But we've been waiting for her outside this arena for an hour already," Sokka pointed out, "No one in town has been any help at all. They don't know anything more than we do!"
"I want her," Zuko maintained stubbornly. "I've made up my mind. I'm not leaving here without her. I can't, Sokka. She was meant to be my earthbending instructor. I can feel it."
"I thought you weren't a big believer in the whole destiny thing," Katara reminded him wryly.
"I didn't say I didn't believe," Zuko refuted, "I just didn't think it had anything to do with these particular circumstances."
"And what about that whole spiel about 'earthbending wrestlers being nothing more than a bunch of'…what was your word again…" he tapped his chin in dramatic thought, "…oh, I remember, 'glory-hound miscreants.'" He favored Zuko with a broad grin. "I guess you've changed your mind about that, huh?"
"Okay, okay!" Zuko snapped, "I was wrong! Does having me admit it out loud give you some kind of satisfaction?"
"Actually, it does," Sokka replied smugly. "It really does." Not even the dig in his ribs that he received from Katara could wipe the grin off his face.
However, the levity between them was quickly forgotten as their current problem reasserted itself. "We can't possibly stay out here all morning waiting for her," Katara reasoned.
"She's right," Sokka chimed in, "We'd make more progress if we split up." Anticipating the argument Zuko already had planned, he rushed to add, "I know that nothing good ever happens when we do that, but what choice do we have? We'll cover more ground apart than we would together."
Just as Zuko started to nod his head in agreement, the wall to their left suddenly exploded and the object of their pursuit came racing clear of the debris at breakneck pace, a burlap sack thrown over her shoulder. "Hey!" Zuko cried in surprise as she zipped past him. He ran after her, having little choice but to do so. Sokka and Katara followed. "Wait a second!" he panted. "I've been looking for you! You said I was supposed to find you and I did!"
"No time to talk!" Toph threw back as she winded her way through the marketplace, "Gotta run!"
"But what's going on?" Zuko wondered in confusion, "Who are we running from?"
His answer to that question came in the form of Xin Fu's outraged bellow behind them. "Stop that girl! She stole my money!"
Zuko had little time to process his shock. Toph immediately snagged hold of his wrist and dragged him with her as she ducked behind a crate of produce to catch her breath. Katara and Sokka found a resting place behind an adjacent cart. They barely acknowledged the frightened vendors they scattered in the process.
"I am so stupid," Toph grumbled to herself, "I should have seen him coming. I should have seen."
"Did you really steal that guy's money?" Zuko asked her.
"It's my money!" Toph replied sharply. "I only took what was mine!" Within moments, however, her indignant irritation was forgotten as she sensed Xin Fu and his lackeys begin to swarm the marketplace on all corners. The perimeters of the square were too fuzzy for Toph to accurately bend herself out on the other side, especially holding a bag of money. Now that she'd made it this far, there was no way she was letting it go now.
"Come on out, you little thief," came Xin Fu's enraged hiss from nearby, "There's no way you're leaving this market. But, if you return the money right now, I might be willing to forget this whole matter."
Beside her, Zuko pinned Toph with an expectant glare. Though Toph couldn't see it, she sensed it and her response was rather blunt and succinct. "Don't be an idiot! He's lying!"
"I know he's lying!" Zuko snapped back, "But exactly how far do you think you're going to get carrying that bag anyway?"
"I am not ditching it," Toph declared implacably and then to herself she muttered, "I just need a few minutes to figure something out."
"Make that a few seconds," Zuko said after a furtive peek around the corner of their hiding place, "He'll be on top of us soon." In a twist of irony, however, they didn't even have that.
"There!" one triumphant and embittered cabbage merchant pointed out to Xin Fu, "I know the ones you're looking for! They're right behind my cart!"
Zuko and Toph scrambled to safety only seconds before the boulder smashed into the cart, splintering it into a thousand pieces and raining down tiny bits of cabbage all over the market square. The cabbage merchant's wail of grief was drowned out by the rumble of earthbending that followed. As Xin Fu's minions rushed them, Toph secured the money bag in her teeth so that she could bend up a myriad of earthen spikes. Some were avoided; others landed their target spot on.
The kids turned to run down the opposite side of the row of carts, only to find themselves ankle deep in earth. Toph bent them free immediately while Zuko blew back their pursuers with a shaft of wind. Katara snapped forth a water whip with the intention of creating a freezing lasso, but it became a puddle of mud long before it reached its target thanks to Xin Fu.
The wrestling proprietor shook his head and tsked, "Your bending is sloppy, Bandit. Let go of the money and maybe you'll make a worthy opponent."
In response, Toph slapped the money bag into an unsuspecting Zuko's chest. He grunted with the impact, which Toph largely ignored. "Guard this with your life," she ordered, "If even one copper piece is missing, I will hunt you down like a rabid dog!"
"Get that kid!" Xin Fu growled to his cohorts, "I'll take care of the girl!"
As Zuko, Katara and Sokka dashed about the market place, trading blows of wind, water and earth, Toph faced off against Xin Fu. He cracked his neck in anticipation. "You have no idea how long I've waited for this," he murmured menacingly, "It's long past due that someone put you in your proper place."
"I'd like to see you try," Toph sneered.
He rotated his body, dragging his foot in a perfect circle across the earth so that Toph anticipated the jagged rock he carved out long before he kicked it towards her. She disintegrated it into nothing even before it could go completely airborne. Xin Fu tried again, this time locking her in earth up to her ankles so that she was immobile when he made his attack. Toph flipped back onto her hands, bending her feet free simultaneously. As the rock whizzed towards hers, she pumped her legs forward and stopped it with the pads of her feet before launching it back in the direction it had come. Xin Fu built up a shield of rock to protect himself while Toph regained her footing. They circled one another in the makeshift arena.
Their face-off inevitably drew a crowd, however, and very slowly people began recognizing Toph. Whispered murmurings of "bandit" quickly rose to a crescendo of deafening chants. Unreasonably angered by the crowd's loyalty, loyalty he had counted on in the past to make his money, Xin Fu growled in fury and bent an armor of rock around his body, so that every part of himself, save his eyes, was covered. Recognizing his intent, Toph did the same.
They went racing towards one another on a dangerous collision course, eyes fixed, bodies erect. It was the ultimate game of chicken. Neither of them had any intention of giving quarter. Xin Fu was convinced that Toph would lose her nerve before the final impact and Toph was convinced that Xin Fu still didn't understand who he was dealing with.
He got the message a split second before they crashed together. Xin Fu's world exploded with colorful stars as he was pitched across the air and into a vegetable cart some ten feet away. A thick cloud of gritty dust engulfed the square, reducing visibility to zero. People coughed and sputtered and stumbled around. Toph, however, had little trouble finding Zuko in the murk.
"You got my money?" she demanded brusquely. He nodded. "Then let's get out of here."
Twenty minutes later they made it back to the safety of camp. While Katara and Sokka began folding up their belongings in preparation to leave, Zuko and Toph talked. "So…uh…I guess I should thank you, huh?" she began a bit awkwardly.
"You want to thank me?" Zuko challenged, "Teach me earthbending and we'll call it even. If I wasn't sure I wanted you before, after what you did in the marketplace, I'm definitely sure now."
"Who says I want to teach you?" Toph challenged. "I've got my own life to live, you know?"
"Don't you know who I am?"
"Should I?"
"I'm the Avatar," Zuko declared almost proudly.
Toph only lifted her shoulders to shrug. "Is this the part where I'm supposed to bow down and kiss the ground beneath your feet?"
"I'm not expecting you to worship me," Zuko snapped impatiently, "I need your help! I'm trying to save the world!"
"Not my problem."
"You owe me," Zuko reminded her. "I stuck my neck out for you today."
"Because you wanted something from me," Toph pointed out.
"And you wanted something from me," Zuko countered, "and I delivered. Now it's your turn."
Toph stooped to the ground and flung open up her bag. "You want money?" she offered shortly. "Name the amount. I'll give you whatever you ask if it will get you off my back."
"I don't want money. I want you," Zuko countered.
"Whoa now," Toph replied, taking a reflexive step backwards, "I'm sure you're a nice kid and all, but I—,"
Zuko snorted incredulously before she could even finish the statement. "I don't want you like that!" he scoffed, "My interest in you is strictly professional. I want to learn to bend. That's it."
"And what do I get out of it?" Toph challenged.
"The prestige of having trained to most powerful being in the universe," Zuko supplied dryly.
"Wow, how tempting…" Toph considered with a sardonic eye roll.
Still, in spite of her protests and reluctance, she really had nothing better to do. Part of her was intrigued by the idea of training the Avatar and taking a part in shaping his destiny and future. Her initial plan had been to wander the countryside scamming people. The alternative seemed much better.
Having made her decision with very little internal debate, Toph blew a shaft of hair from her eyes and asked, "So what's your name, Twinkle Toes?"
Zuko immediately cringed at the moniker. "One thing before we go any further," he uttered stiffly, "Don't call me that. I have a name. Use it. Otherwise, we're going to have problems."
"Listen to him," Sokka piped in as he passed by, "You don't want to get on his bad side. Trust me."
"Okay…fine…whatever," Toph conceded in aggravation, "It would help if I knew your name though!"
"I'm Zuko," he told her, "And the guy who just went past, that's Sokka. And up there," he continued, pointing to where Katara stood atop Appa's saddle, "that's his sister Katara."
"And what about the furballs?" Toph prompted. "Are you guys trying to start an exotic zoo or something?"
"The bison is Appa," Zuko explained, "And the lemur," he went on as Momo landed on his shoulder, "…is Momo. You might think they're just pets, but they're more like family to us."
"So what's the deal? Do you travel the countryside alone with no parental supervision?" Toph wondered.
"Well, Katara and I have our dad," Sokka provided, "but he's away fighting the war."
"What about you?" Toph asked the aforementioned. "Where are your parents?"
"There's no one for me except Katara and Sokka now," Zuko replied. When Toph frowned her confusion, he added, "It's a long story and it basically ends with me being the last Airbender." Not wanting to dwell on that because of the gloom and anger he knew would follow, however, he quickly steered the conversation towards Toph. "What about you? What's your name? Where are your parents?"
"My real name is Toph," she said, "and…my parents are dead." It hadn't been her intention to lie to them. In fact, she hadn't even considered it before that moment. Yet, once the words were spoken, she automatically made up her mind not to take them back. "I'm all alone in the world too."
"Then it sounds like you're in the right place," Katara told her.
"Yeah, we're a band of misfits, outcasts and orphans," Zuko mumbled.
"Speak for yourself," Sokka shot back.
"So are you going to do this or what?" Zuko asked Toph, "Will you teach me earthbending?"
"Yeah. I'll teach you." It was a surprisingly easy decision for her to come to. All her life, Toph had been searching for a place to belong and now it had seemingly fallen into her lap without her having to search for it at all. "But I'm not very patient," she prefaced as Zuko, Katara and Sokka breathed sighs of relief. "I expect you to work hard and I'm going to push you. You don't want me to call you 'Twinkle Toes'?" she continued, "then don't act like a jelly boned wimp and we'll be fine."
Zuko rolled his eyes at the challenge. "Do your worst, Toph."
Toph smiled at his answer. From that second, she absolutely knew that she and Zuko were going to get along fine.
****
"Since when does the Firelord want me to have exercise?" Aang demanded suspiciously as he was dragged, still in chains, from his cell the night before his execution. It was the middle of the night and the prison house was quiet for the evening, prisoners and guards alike were sound asleep. Aang knew instinctively that something more substantial than an "evening walk" was in order.
"You have a problem with having a little night air?" the guard growled back over his shoulder. "Just shut your mouth and keep moving."
Aang didn't argue, especially when he noticed another prisoner, one who looked eerily similar to himself, being taken to the cell from which he'd just vacated. He and the stranger made brief eye contact, ending with his doppelganger giving him a brief nod, before Aang was dragged from view altogether. "No," Aang replied slowly, "I don't have a problem with night air at all."
Recognizing that there were bigger circumstances at play than he realized, Aang remained quiet and did what he was told when he was told. After what seemed like eons of walking, he was finally led into the deep bowels of the dungeons. There, he discovered two more guardsmen waiting for them. They wordlessly supplied him with a change of clothing and a supply of food.
"Why are you doing this?" he asked, grateful and confused as he took hold of the clothes and began to change.
"Some of us are still very loyal to your uncle," one guard explained, "The rightful Firelord."
"So you help me and what happens to you?" Aang wondered urgently, "What happens tomorrow when my fat—,"
"Don't concern yourself with tomorrow," his liberator interrupted tersely, "We all know the consequences involved in helping you tonight and we are prepared to face them. What is important here is your safety."
"I understand," Aang murmured.
"Listen to my instructions closely," the guard said. "Early tomorrow morning there will be a food delivery. The cart will be parked right outside that gate," the guard went on, pointing towards the exit at the end of the hall, "Conceal yourself in one of the empty baskets when it is unattended. It will take you outside the city walls. Once you're beyond the Palace City, go to a town called Bo Lin. There you will find a master swordsman by the name of Piandao. He will give you money, supplies and instructions for the remainder of your journey."
Aang paused in the midst of pulling on his boots. "My journey?" he queried blankly. "Where am I going?"
"Ba Sing Se."
****
"I hear you're having a bit of a problem."
Lao Bei Fong was hard-pressed to conceal his sneer of distaste as Xin Fu was brought before him in his private state room. Under normal circumstances, he would never allow such a filthy commoner to step foot in his home, but these weren't normal circumstances. His daughter had been missing for three days and Lao Bei Fong was beside himself with worry.
"State your business, sir," he grunted impatiently. "My daughter is gone and I have no time for games!"
"And that is exactly why I'm here," Xin Fu said, "I know who has taken your daughter. I saw it with my own eyes."
"Who? I demand you tell me this instant!"
"It was the Avatar," Xin Fu answered. "At first, I didn't recognize him, but later I realized who he was."
"Why would the Avatar want to steal my daughter?" Bei Fong wondered suspiciously.
"Who knows? I'm sure you've heard the stories, though," Xin Fu murmured provocatively, "He is a dangerous and volatile young man. He has destroyed entire armies almost singlehandedly. It would be a pity if your poor, delicate daughter fell to harm while traveling with him."
"Why are you here?" Bei Fong demanded, seeing right through Xin Fu's guise of benevolence straight to his greedy heart. "What do you want from me?"
"To offer my skills as a bounty hunter," Xin Fu replied, "I can't imagine very many people would want to go against the Avatar so you won't have many takers on that score. But, I don't fear him. To me, he's merely a boy. I can find your daughter, my lord, and bring her back to you…for a fee, of course."
"Name your price," Lao Bei Fong agreed without hesitation, "I will do anything, whatever it takes to bring my daughter home."
