Hey. This is my first fanfic so please review! This is going to be a short story but it's hopefully got a big plot. Chapter 2 coming soon!
Slowly, the creeping chill of winter was ebbing away to be replaced by the warmth of spring. Trees were bursting into beautiful pink blossom and the birds were singing sweetly in the morning sun. Life was steadily seeping back into the forests.
In a clearing, a lake, free from the icy clutches of winter, shines in the sun, as still and glossy as a polished mirror. Ripples suddenly break the lake's calm surface.
A girl was sat at the lake's edge, letting her sleek hand drift peacefully through the cooling water. Her hair was like black silk, flowing down her back to her waist, perfectly straight and sleek.
She wore a long, dark green dress with a yellow-green lining, held in place with a simple brown belt…the colours of the earth. Black bangs partially concealed her attractive face and pale green eyes. Not that this hindered her sight in any way…she was blind.
However, her lack of true sight did not prevent Toph from "seeing". She possessed an unusually sensitive perception of touch, allowing her to pick up the tiniest vibrations in the earth and "see" the exact location of everything around her. She would be able to determine a person's position, stance, and even facial expression just by their footsteps.
Her unseeing eyes gazed dreamily towards the water. Such a mysterious substance to her. Water always eluded her unique form of sight, shifting and bending the vibrations into an indistinguishable blur. She sighed, feeling the liquid dance tauntingly between her fingers. Sometimes, Toph wondered just what the elusive element actually looked like. Its cool, soothing touch mesmerized her as her hand glided through the water.
A voice brought her back to what senses she possessed.
"Toph?"
The teenager jerked, surprised by her companion's sudden appearance. Aang's footsteps were so light and gentle, it was a small wonder she hadn't sensed him coming.
"I told you to stop creeping up on me, Twinkle Toes," she snapped, calling him by the nickname she knew he hated.
"Sorry, Toph," said Aang simply. "Erm…we're going to be moving on in a few minutes, so I need some help packing up the camp, okay?" Toph felt Aang's foot brush the ground lightly as if he was about to go. But he paused. "What…what were you doing?" he asked curiously.
Toph dried her hand on her dress. "Nothing," she said. The Toph that Aang knew wasn't the sort to be daydreaming by a lakeside on a spring morning. "You go on, I'll catch up." The boy started to walk back through the trees.
Toph smiled to herself. She had always liked Aang, ever since she had first met him three years before. Admittedly the circumstances in which they first encountered each other could have been better, but she liked him nonetheless. She teased her friend constantly, almost in a sisterly fashion. But she kept her true feelings to herself.
Aang smiled as he wandered back to the campsite. He was glad that Toph had decided to stay with him after he had defeated Ozai. His other companions had been forced to leave him. Katara and Sokka had left to search for their father and Zuko had his own Firelord duties to attend to.
But Toph had stayed. She had had nowhere else to go. Her parents had been killed and Aang was the only true friend she ever had.
Aang was fairly skinny for fifteen and wore simple robes of yellow and orange. A cerulean stripe ran up his back, over his bald head and ended in a downwards-pointing arrow on his forehead. These symbolic tattoos also ran down his arms and legs, each ending in arrows on the tops of his hands and feet.
He was an Airbender, as his clothing and tattoos were symbolic to his people. Being and Airbender, he was capable of manipulating the air around him, allowing him to create devastating bursts of wind or just hover above the ground on a sphere of air. However, what made him truly unique was that he was the Avatar.
The Avatar was an ancient spirit, one that had come into existence thousands of years before. This spirit would be born into a human, granting them power over not only their nation's element, but all four. When the Avatar died, the spirit would be reincarnated into another nation, following an eternal cycle through the generations.
Despite this, Aang was, at heart, just a kid. He hungered for adventure and the freedom to travel the world. But even after almost three years, Aang still had business to attend to.
A large number of fire nation soldiers had fled after Ozai had died, trying to regroup and overthrow Firelord Zuko. Aang and Toph had successfully defeated fourteen troops over the course of two years and there had been sightings of another in the forest in which the two teenagers had camped out.
Aang started taking down his tent. He looked back through the trees. "What's taking her so long?" he asked himself. He shrugged and returned to his work. Suddenly, he heard footsteps through the trees, followed by the slight clink of metal armor. Whoever it was, it wasn't Toph. There were several sets of footsteps now. They grew louder before becoming steadily more distant, as if they had just passed the campsite.
They were heading for the lake.
Finally, Toph heaved herself up from the ground and stretched her limbs.
"Well," she said to herself. "Might as well help out Aang back at the camp." She started to wander back towards the trees. At that moment, she felt something; the faint vibrations of distant footsteps. Not Aang's, they were too heavy, too decisive. There was more than one. As they drew closer, Toph could "see" them in more detail. Five sets of footsteps, creeping between the trees. As the vibrations ran up their bodies, Toph could make out heavy armor of both metal and thick fabric.
Toph was about to call out for Aang but stopped. She could handle the soldiers herself.
The men leapt from the bushes into the clearing, believing they had caught their target unawares. Toph deliberately stumbled back and gasped in apparent shock.
"Halt, peasant," spat the soldier closest to Toph. All of them had assumed identical fighting stances, clenched fists pointing towards the seemingly helpless girl. "What business do you have in these woods?"
Toph feigned terror. "What? Who's there?" She scrabbled back away from the fire nation men. "Please don't hurt me!"
One of the soldiers looked at her face, noticing her unusually pale eyes. "I think she's blind sir," he said. "Hardly a threat. Maybe we should just head back."
"No," said the group leader, not allowing his stance to falter. "We've got orders to kill anyone who comes too close to our hideout."
Although Toph appeared to be scared, her mind was racing. Orders? This means they're not working alone!
The leader continued. "We can't let any information reach the Avatar. We've lost fourteen troops to him and his companion. This girl could be giving them information."
Toph couldn't help but laugh inside her head. They didn't know who she was…but they would soon find out.
Toph was on her feet now, but crouched low, pretending to cower from the advancing soldier. She even threw in a few fake tears for effect. She felt him raise his arm and heard a hiss, followed by a light crackling noise. She could feel the warmth of a nearby flame on her face. The Firebender slowly raised his fire-bathed hand, preparing to strike.
But Toph struck first.
She struck the ground before her attacker with a clenched fist. There was a rumbling beneath them, making the soldiers lose their balance. Suddenly, a pillar of stone erupted from the earth beneath the startled Firebender, sending him hurtling through the air.
The young Earthbender could feel the others shifting about, trying to regain their balance. She quickly slid her foot across the ground in a semicircle. Where her foot had touched, a wall rose up. She heard the roar of four blasts of fire, but they struck her rock barrier, leaving her unscathed.
Quickly, she crouched, lowering her hand towards the ground as she did so. She shot back up, a swirling tower of soil and earth following her hand. She let it arc above her head before it crashed down onto two Firebenders on the other side of the wall. She ran out from behind her protective semicircle of rock and pressed her hand hard against the mound under which the two soldiers were buried. In an instant, soft soil turned to durable stone, trapping the men completely.
Just as she stepped back, a scorching stream of fire seared past Toph's face. Her heart skipped a beat. Wow, she thought in genuine fear. I hadn't heard that coming. She swiftly raised her hand and a small boulder followed it, bursting up from the undergrowth. She stepped forward, throwing her hands in the direction of the attacker. The boulder struck true, crashing into the man's armored chest, sending him hurtling into the lake with a mighty splash.
But she had forgotten the fifth Firebender. There was a sudden fiery roar behind Toph. She felt the heat blazing towards her. There was no time to move out of its path. She closed her eyes and braced herself.
Suddenly, there was an almighty gale that blew the deadly flames off course. Toph felt the wind slam into her with incredible force. She twisted her feet and the earth consumed her feet and ankles, rooting her to the spot. The Firebender wasn't so lucky.
Aang continued to move his arms in complex circular motions, bringing on wave after wave of hurricane-like wind. The fire nation soldier flew through the air and into a tree trunk. The Firebender was dazed but not unconscious. He attacked Aang with a wave of searing fire. The young Avatar simple held out his hand and let the flames bend around him like water around an island.
The man was struck dumb with shock, giving Aang the chance to reach out towards the lake, summoning a whirling torrent of water from its depths. He thought he'd try a technique he had seen Katara use once. The water struck the man head on, soaking him in seconds. With a gesture of his hand the water crackled and froze, binding the man in an icy prison.
Aang look around. As well as the soldier trapped in ice, he could see one dangling unconscious from a nearby tree, two stuck inside a stone mound and one crawling out of the lake on the opposite shore.
Toph walked over to him. Aang would have expected her to be grateful for his help.
But she wasn't. In fact, she looked furious.
"What d'ya think you're doing?" she shouted at him. "Who told you to interfere?"
Aang was shocked. "Toph, I was only trying to help…"
"Yeah? Well I didn't need your help!" she interrupted. "Why does every think that I'm weak?"
"Toph," Aang said, failing to keep the irritation out of his voice. "That flame was pretty much at your neck! There's no way you could have blocked it. Why can't you appreciate that I was trying to help you?"
"Hey, I don't know if you heard me the last thousand times," said Toph angrily. "But I can look out for myself!"
"Well good luck with the 'looking' part!" Aang had shouted at her without thinking, but he felt a sudden wave of cold sweep over him. Toph's face was absolutely livid. He really shouldn't have said that.
But, surprisingly, Toph didn't hurl him into the air on a pillar of stone. She didn't send solid rocks flying towards him. In fact she didn't Earthbend at all.
It seemed that a clenched fist would suffice.
Toph punched him hard in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. She was stronger than she appeared.
Aang fell to his knees, spluttering and clutching his stomach as Toph ran away through the trees, tears falling as she went.
"Toph, I'm sorry!" shouted Aang once he could breathe properly again, but the girl didn't turn back. Aang closed his eyes and hung his head in guilt. "I'm sorry…"
