Chapter 65: Trouble with Sandbenders
When the others had entered the tower, Toph had awkwardly shuffled around and then said, "What's up?"
Zuko smirked. He replied, "Are you talking to me or to Appa?"
Toph snorted. "Clearly I was talking to the bison, Sparky. Of the two of you, he is my preferred conversation partner."
He laughed.
Toph was walking back and forth in Appa's shadow. She kept kicking her feet into the sand and grumbling.
From his seat position leaning against Appa, Zuko asked, "There a problem?"
"Uhh, it's this stupid sand. I'm practically blind here. Everything is just… I don't know, blurry." She complained.
Zuko nodded. "That sucks."
"Yeah it does."
"It's why I wear the patch; well, its one reason I wear it. I can see a little bit out of it, shadows and movement, but it makes everything else seem so much worse. Easier just to use my right eye and keep the patch on my left." He said.
Toph paused in her pacing. "Katara know that? She seemed to think that you were only wearing it to cover up the scar."
"Yeah, I know." He said. "She's not wrong, it is a big part of why I wear it, but it's not the only reason. It was dragging my eye other down, so I figured I was better off without it. Figuratively; I'm not about to cut it out."
She snorted. "Good to know, Sparky."
"It sucked having to relearn depth perception, though. I had this wooden ball that I used to throw up and down, and hand to hand, to try and teach myself distances. Took forever."
Toph dropped to the sand a few feet away from him, also leaning up against Appa.
"When I was first really learning how to see with Earthbending, I had trouble judging distances. I'd know there was something in front of, but I wouldn't know how close until I walked into it. I got the hang of it though."
He nodded. "That's obvious. I've met a few blind people before but none of them move quite the way you do. With the same… confidence?" he chuckled. "Saying that, there are plenty of sighted people that don't have your confidence."
She laughed too, punching his arm. "Yeah, well, I'm, like, the world's greatest Earthbender. How can I not be confident?"
He smiled. "You know, I've heard that King Bumi is pretty good at Earthbending…"
She mock-frowned. "That geezer? He doesn't hold a candle to me. I could beat him with my hands tied behind my back. Spirits, I could beat him wearing shoes."
Zuko laughed. "I'm sure you could."
"Don't sass me, Sparky." She said with a smirk.
He saluted her. "No, ma'am. Never, ma'am."
She nodded. "Good to hear. As you were."
They burst out laughing again.
They'd been sitting there a while in silence. Toph turned towards Appa's head and said, "So… do you like flying?"
Zuko chuckled softly to himself. Appa pawed at his ear.
Toph nodded, as if the bison had responded. "Of course, I'm more comfortable on the ground, where I can see. Well, I don't see you way you do. I feel vibrations in the ground with my feet. Except when I'm on this stupid, shifty sand. It's too loose to get a good look. Everything just looks fuzzy."
Appa opened his large mouth and groaned. Toph said hurriedly, "Not that there's anything wrong with fuzzy."
Zuko said, "Toph, if you wanna talk, we can talk. You don't have to make one-sided conversation with Appa."
The bison turned his head and seemed to glare at the Firebender. Zuko sighed. "Appa, you have many wonderful qualities, but you have to admit, you're not exactly a talker."
Toph laughed. "Like you're one to talk, Sparky."
"Hey!" he said, smiling at her.
He shook his head. "With regards your 'fuzzy' vision, have you tried doing anything with the sand?"
She shook her head at him. "It's too small to do anything with."
He raised his eyebrow at her. "The Sandbenders don't have any problems with it. They're Earthbenders, just like you. Surely bending a little sand together should pose no trouble for the 'world's greatest Earthbender'."
He said it sarcastically, knowing it would rile her a little.
"Hey! Anything some Sandbenders can do, I can do better!" She jumped to her feet, about to prove her point.
He smiled. "So do it."
She thrust her hand out, sending up a burst of sand out into the desert away from them. She growled.
"Uhh, they made it look so easy."
He grabbed his staff and shoved himself up. He walked closer to her and leaned on the staff.
He said, "In fairness, they bend it all their lives. They're probably nowhere near as skilled with actual Earth as they are with sand."
She eyed him. "What's with that, anyway?"
He frowned at her. "What's with what?"
"You seemed to know a lot about the Sandbenders. Even spoke their language, which seemed to surprise the Professor. So, what up with that?"
Zuko shrugged. "About a year or so ago I was down near the Misty Palms Oasis hunting some Earth criminal; I'd caught him and had him in irons. I was looking to head back towards civilisation, collect the bounty, and we got caught up in a sandstorm. It separated us and drove me out further into the desert.
"I was lost and dehydrated and the Sandbenders found me. They helped me out, taught me some of their language, and escorted me out of the desert. They have a bad reputation, some of which they've earned, but they can be good people too. The desert's harsh, and it can make them harsh, that's all."
Toph grinned. "Sparky, you tell the coolest stories. What happened to the bounty?"
Zuko shrugged. "Don't know. Looked around for some sign of him, and the Sandbenders did too, but I haven't heard anything of him. Sometimes people get lost in the desert and they don't come out. He was probably one of them."
"How long did you live with the Sandbenders?"
He shook his head. "Not long. Maybe a month or so. Like I said, they were good people, but I wasn't one of them. I didn't belong out here."
She nodded. "You pick up anything about Sandbending?"
He shook his head again. "Not really. At least, nothing that I think would help you. I think that they compress the sand somehow, bind it together, but I'm not sure."
She sighed. "Yeah, I kind of figured that."
He shrugged. "I'm no Earthbender. Spirits, I'm not much of a Firebender."
She frowned. That had come out a little too self-deprecating to be funny. She said hesitantly, "You know that's just, like, practice, right? For the most part? I've barely even seen you Firebend, except for with Azula and when you light the campfire."
He looked away from her. "It's not exactly easy to practice Firebending, Toph. Anyone sees me and they'd report me to the Earth Kingdom Army. The Fire Nation would know I'm a traitor and a deserter. Most places we go are extremely flammable too. Besides…"
He trailed off. She prompted, "What is it?"
"Aang's scared of Firebending. You must have noticed? He flinches every time he sees me light the campfire. Sokka and Katara have always seemed vaguely uneasy about the whole thing. It's, I don't know, it's just easier not to Firebend much at all. I meditate and run a few Cold Katas now and then. Enough to keep some of the basics ingrained, but otherwise…"
He trailed off again. She said, "You know it's kind of bad that they make you feel bad about bending, whether they mean to or not."
He sighed. "Look, I get it, okay. Sokka and Katara, their Tribe was devastated by the Fire Nation. Their Mom was killed by a Firebender. As for Aang, he lost his people because of my Nation, my element. Plus, apparently there was a whole thing where he tried to Firebend and burned Katara. She healed herself but Katara told me he swore of Firebending."
The little Earthbender sighed. "Yeah, that just doesn't seem realistic."
"It's not. Eventually he'll have to address it."
She shook her head. "Still, you should practice it more. Try and find some scrolls or something, whatever you sighted people do to learn."
He cleared his throat. She corrected herself. "Sorry, partially-sighted people."
Zuko nodded, sniffing. "Thank you."
It made her chuckle and he joined in.
When he'd stopped laughing he said, "I've thought about it. It'd be… I don't know. It'd be nice if I could help Aang with his Firebending. I'll probably never be good enough to teach him, not in time for it to useful, but I could still help, you know."
Toph nodded. She said, "You know what you need to do then; go over this thing with Firebending, and get them over it too."
He sighed. "Yeah, you're right."
She sniffed herself. "I tend to be."
Zuko laughed at that.
Appa groaned loudly at them. Toph said, "I already told you, Appa, I don't want to snuggle."
Zuko chimed in with, "Yeah, Appa, it's a little warm for that."
Appa stood up, knocking them over. "Uhh!"
They turned when they felt the sand shifting under them. Zuko said, "The Library is sinking!"
Toph looked around. "Library's sinking, Library's sinking."
She ran over and thrust both fists into the wall of the tower, almost embedding them into the stones. It halted the descent, but sent tremors through Toph's entire body.
Zuko encouraged, "You can do this, Toph. You're the greatest Earthbender in the world. You can hold up a Library. It's just a bunch of books. You're Toph Bei Fong."
She nodded. Through gritted teeth she snarled, "Yes. I. Am!"
She pushed her fists deeper, halting the Library from sinking even more.
She buried her feet deeper into the sand, trying to compress the grains, pack them tighter together.
She sank a little into the sand as the Library slipper a little deeper.
Zuko looked on, feeling helpless. He clutched his staff so tight it was a wonder the wood didn't snap.
Toph was forced to let go. She screamed in frustration and pain. She slammed her fist down into the sand, compressing it as tight as she could, trying to build solid earth out of individual grains of sand.
Then she thrust both fists back into the tower wall, halting the tower once again.
She snapped at it, "Stay there, damn you!"
There was a rumbling coming from the desert behind them.
Zuko turned and spat a harsh curse. Toph gasped, "What is it now?"
"Sandbenders." He snarled. "Looks like the same group who were trying to steal Appa."
"Great." She growled. "How many?"
Zuko squinted through the sandstorm that proceeded them. "At least a dozen, maybe more."
"Perfect." She screamed, still struggling to keep a grip on the tower.
Zuko sighed. He threw his staff to one side and drew his dual Dao. He said, "Toph, don't take your hands off that tower until the others make it out. I'll do my best to hold them off."
She shook her head. "There's too many. They'll overrun you."
He sighed. "We don't have a choice. Toph, if you let go of that tower, Aang and the others die. We've got to buy as much time as we can for them to get out."
He walked away, still a little unsteady on his feet without his staff to support him. His swords were crossed in front of him.
Zuko stood with Appa, Toph, and the Library behind them. He was facing out towards the oncoming sand-sailers. There were four of them, each one with three or four Sandbenders.
He swung his swords around in some slow swings, trying to loosen up. He was out of practice, barely healed, and vastly outnumbered.
This was going to hurt. He sighed and gritted his teeth.
He transferred his right sword to his left hand, and then punch out with his right fist, sending a fireball towards the lead sand-sailer. It veered to the side, avoiding the flames but nearly colliding with the vehicle next to it.
A Sandbender unleashed a blast of sand straight towards them. Zuko shouted, "Brace yourself!"
The sand blew him back off his feet and continued past him. He looked up to see that Appa had planted himself between Toph and the Sandbenders, protecting her from the blast.
He nodded at the bison and forced himself back to his feet.
In Si Wong Silence he screamed, "Is that all you've got?"
It was not all that they had.
They sent wave after wave of sand during their approach, buffeting Zuko from side to side, the sand scratching at his skin and his eye. Tears streaked down his face, as did some blood.
When they were closer the Sandbenders who weren't piloting the sand-sailers leapt off, rushing towards the Firebender.
He lashed out with his swords, carving a path along one's chest. The man fell with a cry of pain as blood stained his pale robes.
Zuko could feel them circling around behind and turned, sending out a kick that trailed fire.
It caught one in the knee, popping it out of joint. The Sandbender screamed and clicked curses at Zuko.
He cursed right back, casting aspersions on every one of their ancestors, particularly their mothers. He mocked their Spirits and disparaged their traditions.
He hated himself for doing it, but he needed their attention on him. He had to buy Toph as much time as he could. The others' lives depended on it.
One of them punched out at him and a torrent of sand hit him in the stomach, knocking the breath from his lungs. He dropped to his knees, gasping. He saw one approaching him and dived forward, tackling them to the ground. He dropped his swords in the process and was forced to use his fists.
Each punch was backed with as much fire as he could muster in his weakened state.
Hands dragged him off the man, punching him repeatedly as they did.
One hit him in the temple and everything went black.
The last thing he heard was a voice screaming, "ZUKO!"
Toph could barely see on sand. But she saw Sparky go down.
"ZUKO!" She screamed. She took one hand away from the tower to throw a burst of sand at their attackers.
It allowed the Library to slip further into the ground and, what's more, she missed.
She cursed the sand and her inability to see on it.
Zuko came to in time to see the Sandbenders forcing a muzzle onto Appa and trying to bind his many legs together. The Sky Bison was fighting them, but it was a losing fight. There were too many of them and they were overwhelming the bison fast.
Zuko growled in rage, stumbling up to his feet. He saw the hilts of his swords sticking out of the sand.
He grabbed them up and rushed the distracted Sandbenders. He slashed into one of the Sandbender's side, cutting up under the ribs. The man wasn't even able to scream.
He swept out with his other blade and caught another across the throat. The man scrabbled at the wound, making gurgling sounds as he tried to breathe.
Zuko shouted in the Language of the Desert, "Come on, you bastards! I'm not dead yet!"
One of them, what looked like the leader, turned and raised his hand, palm down. He forced his hand lower and Zuko found himself sinking.
His mind went blank. All he saw was Sergeant Yan disappearing at Osaru. He saw Katara do the same at Tasini. She came back up but Yan didn't.
He screamed and the sand went over his head.
