Fuzzy - An Avatar: The Last Airbender One-shot.
"...Where's Appa?" Aang, already with a hint of worry and sadness on the tip of his words asked this simple question, which finally broke her.
All she could do was curl up and shake her head.
A few minutes passed while Aang let the reality of the situation sink in, an ever growing silence loomed on the group ever since that question was uttered, the only sound anyone could hear was the soft wind that blew the sand along to a new resting place somewhere else in the desert.
Finally, Aang spoke, "How could you let them take Appa?! Why didn't you stop them?!" this tone alone startled Toph, while he still wasn't completely yelling or anything, he was still almost as mad as she had ever heard the kindhearted monk get.
His ever increasingly harsh tone immediately brought up her defenses, she didn't know how to handle this at all. She tried to defend herself, even though deep inside she knew it was all her fault. "I couldn't! The Library was sinking and you guys were still inside and-" before she could finish her thought she was of course cut off by the Airbender. Sokka and Katara still loomed in the background awkwardly, both of them not sure how to approach the delicate situation.
"You could have come to get us! I could have saved him!" Aang sounded less mad now, the feeling of sadness starting to overtake it.
Toph was struggling, she could barely feel or see a thing in this dumb desert, she wanted to read his heartbeat to get a better read on him like she always does to people… but she cant feel a thing, there was simply to much sand. "I can barely feel any vibrations out here! The Sandbenders snuck up on me and there wasn't time for-"
"You just didn't care! You never liked Appa, you wanted him gone!" The angry tone in his voice returned, harsher than ever. This time however Katara stepped in, "Aang stop it, you know Toph did all she could, she saved our lives."
Toph of course was listening to everything that was transpiring before her, she couldn't help but appreciate Katara's attempts to defend her, but she didn't need anyone to say anything, she knew right then and there that Aang hated her, and that no matter what the circumstances losing Appa could have been prevented if she had been better.
So, she decided it might be best to just stay and hold her head down in guilt, she didn't know what else to do, maybe Katara was right, maybe Aang's anger towards her would die down, but Toph wasn't so sure.
Aang spewed on about how none of them cared, Toph knew it was directed more at her than anyone else, and he proceeded to fly off to look for Appa himself. I have only been in the group for a few days and I'm already causing it to fall apart, was the only thing she could think of at this moment… she would likely have to leave her newfound friends a lot sooner than she had hoped.
They had all been traveling through the dry desert for a few days now, Aang having joined back with the group his mission a failure, putting further guilt upon her shoulders, when they eventually ran into the very same Sandbenders who had taken Appa a few days prior.
What she however was not expecting, was what came next.
Aang walked forward a bit to confront the Sandbenders, his anger rising. "You stole Appa! Where is he! What did you do to him!" Aang was barely even questioning at this point, rather he was demanding.
"They're lying! They're the thieves!" One of the Sandbenders had spoken, and although Toph was of course more mad at herself than anything, this set her off, but what she wasn't expecting was that it set Aang off as well… AANG FOR SPIRITS SAKE.
She didn't know exactly what happened but she could feel enough to know Aang had just attacked them with a large gust of sand and had destroyed one of the Sandbenders vehicles, she also felt the wind picking up more than usual.
"You tell me where he is now!" Aang proceeded to destroy the other mode of transportation the tribe had with them, Toph had never seen him angry like this before, she didn't even think it was possible for Aang to get this mad.
"YOU MUZZLED APPA?" Aang went crazy after this, he destroyed a third sandbender boat and the wind around him was going at ever growing intense speeds. She was scared, she could barely see and didn't know what was going on.
"Tell me where Appa is!" Aang had asked once more, or at least she thought it was Aang, it sounded distorted, deeper, and loud. Like hundreds of peoples anger was being channeled through a single source.
She froze, she had never been more scared in her life, she didn't know what to make of this, and this fear only turned to worry as all Sokka said was "Just get out of here! RUN!" as he started tugging her arm away from the wind, of which she was grateful for because she could see slightly more than before now that she was away from the swirling gust of pure energy surrounding the young monk.
The next thing she knew, it was all over. Katara of all people had managed to calm him down and she heard both of them crying more notably Aang while she held him. This she didn't expect from the Water tribe girl who had mostly always seemed annoyed and mad at her thus far for one reason or another.
Her version may have been Fuzzy and full of noise during those events, but her memory was vivid, the anger Aang let out, the fear and guilt that loomed over her entire being, Katara's calm, All of it.
The group was in Ba Sing Se now, and she finally had a moment to further contemplate those days events now that they had to wait a while to meet up with the Earth King and had a bit of free time, and of course they still haven't found Appa.
She finally had a reasonable amount of time to herself, and with the guilt still weighing over her she began to do what she had been planning on doing ever since they had made the plan to head to Ba Sing Se, never failing at anything again! Simple enough.
While the others were doing...whatever it is they did during their long days here in the crowded city, she made her way to the edges of the inner walls where she would find plenty of sand.
Sand was still earth, just a bunch of small grains of earth, it shouldn't be much different from anything else… right?
Wrong. It turns out that Toph definitely was not a natural at Sandbending, due to the fact that sand was made of thousands of small fragments of rocks and minerals you had to be much more precise and almost gentle to be able to control it well.
She spent that entire day trying to figure out the correct movements and motions with her feet and hands, trying to decipher the types of stances she would need to use to be able to make the sand obey her direction. It was getting late as the sun was starting to set before she finally figured out one stance and was able to slightly shift the sand with her feet. It wasn't much but it was progress.
One thing is for sure, Toph was not used to struggling this much with bending, Earthbending and even the seismic sense ability came pretty quickly to her, though that's likely because the general technique for Earthbending better fit her tough personality type.
Weeks passed on and Toph slowly but surely honed the ability of Sandbending, learning different movements and stances to control the sand differently, learning how to shift it up and down, create waves, lift it in the air, and was now working on controlling larger and larger quantities at once so it would be more useful and effective, it was a much much slower process than she was ever used to in terms of learning a new ability or skill when relating to bending, and it was pure torture… but she had to learn.
Ember island was a very peculiar environment, different from the Earth Kingdom, and while in the Fire Nation also differed much from the mainland, it was slightly colder here yet still anyone who came here could feel the looming warmth that the Fire Nation would likely forever emit, the sand was also a rare site in the rather rocky and rough terrain much of the mainland had, it was a nice break for sure.
Though for Toph and the others the most noticeable change was the culture, Ember island seemed almost untouched by the war, sort of like Kyoshi Island up until recently, the only sign the island showed of the war was the casual propaganda on any random wall or pole in town, and of course the ember island players.
It had been quite a while since Ba Sing Se, and much has happened since, one of those things was Toph continuing to perfect and hone her abilities in the art of Sandbending, and she had yet to show it to anyone.
And of course the other major change that had happened in the events leading up to now as the fact that they had finally found Appa, it changed the entire mood of the group back to how it once was almost immediately and it was a welcomed reunion for everyone especially for Aang… and Toph, but she wouldn't show that… to much.
Appa's return had no doubt lifted a rather large burden and weight off of Toph's chest, but that doesn't mean she didn't still have tremendous guilt hovering over her constantly for letting Appa get stolen in the first place, after all that's what all that practice was for.
But then a rather perfect opportunity to show off the weeks upon weeks of practice had fell right into her hands, Sokka of course it was Sokka… suggested they all go to the beach and ran straight for the shore, and everyone but Zuko followed suit, ready to further push Sozin's Comet to the back of their minds after the agreement the four of them had made earlier in the week.
Sokka had made a rather bizarre interpretation of Suki out of sand and other random things one would typically find on a sandy beach like this one, seaweeds, shells, rocks, and other random little trinkets. Not to mention how deformed lumpy, and sad it looked.
Meanwhile Aang had made a rather impressive Appa sculpture with sand, and twigs as the horns, especially considering he could barely Sandbend if at all.
Toph figured this would be her time to shine, "Not bad Twinkletoes, but check this out!"
Toph made the first thing that came to mind when thinking of what to Sandbend, the very place where her practice began, A full scale model of the great city of Ba Sing Se.
She stomped her feet on the warm sand of the beach, and made a slight motion of her hands to fine tune the smaller details, and within mere seconds a perfect model of the enormous city was made indented in the sand, she even decided to include Kuei and Bosco for added effect… and to show off.
Aang looked down at her impressive model, "woah… you even made a little Earth King and Bosco!" Needless to say she thinks she impressed, and most important of all it was Aang who was impressed by it.
That is until Aang was then chased down and attacked by Zuko, and they all had to go and help and see what was going on.
Aang, Zuko, and Sokka had all gone to sleep a while ago now, and Suki was off in town getting last minute supplies for tomorrow's events. It was just her and Katara… great.
"I didn't realize you had been practicing your Sandbending" Katara said, obviously getting at something.
"Why wouldn't I? The greatest Earthbender in the world has to know how to Sandbend Katara!" Toph thought this a decent excuse, and hoped Katara wouldnt look into it much more.
"When did you start practicing?" Katara smirked slightly.
She got me… damnit. "After we got to Ba Sing Se" was all she said in response.
"Toph, I saw you throughout the whole journey through the desert, you looked miserable."
"We were all miserable Katara! We were thirsty, hungry, and tired! And Appa was gone!" probably shouldn't have mentioned that last thing.
"What I'm trying to get at Toph, is that I have been meaning to talk to you about the desert, and about Appa. I know you must still feel a bit of guilt over it don't you?" Katara frowned slightly.
Toph was getting apprehensive, did she really need to talk about this right now? "Of course I do Katara, I'm responsible for Aang almost losing his one connection he has left of his old life."
"You do know he forgave you almost immediately right?" Katara assumed Toph knew Aang better than that, but maybe guilt was clouding her mind.
"Even if he did, I don't see a point in continuing with you guys once the war is over, you guys would be better off without me." Toph said sombelry.
"Well if it helps, none of us think that way at all, especially Aang. You would be hurting him and all of us by leaving Toph, your part of the family."
Toph said nothing, she just sat there with a slightly sad expression sitting against a tree.
In response Katara continued, "No one's perfect Toph, not even you… no one blames you for what happened."
"Yes they do Katara! You know why? Because I blame myself, and that's enough for me." Toph shouted suddenly, before calming back down and curling into a ball slightly, putting her head into her knees.
"That's normal Toph, and I understand that, but hey look at the positives, that situation only made you stronger… you learned Sand Bending because of it and faced something completely new and different to you, you looked fear and weakness in the face and stomped on it."
"Yeah I guess so." Toph responded lamely.
"Thanks Katara… I feel a bit better." Toph then added after an unwanted 30 seconds of awkward silence passed between them.
"Anytime Toph, I just wanted to make sure you knew that." Katara said smiling now, before heading into her room next to Aang's.
Although her spotlight was interrupted earlier in the day, and now there plan to wait until after the comet was ruined by Zuko's information he revealed to them, she was still happy that she was finally able to not only perfect her Sandbending, but also Metalbending in the meantime. Though the guilt of losing Appa all those months ago still hung over her slightly, she guessed it would never truly go away for good.
But one thing is for certain, whenever she is in the sand from now on… her vision will not be fuzzy, but more vivid than even the human eye could comprehend.
Authors Note: I have had this idea for a bit now, and I wanted to have my go at the concept. Let me know what you think about my interpretation of not only this situation but how Sandbending differs from other types of Earthbending, I inserted quite a few minor head-canons into this one-shot.
I DO NOT OWN Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar: The Legend of Korra, OR Avatar Studios.