These Wars We Live
Full Summary: A deeper insight into the pasts of Katara, Sokka, Toph, Zuko, Azula, and Aang; all through the view of the most unlikely characters. Questions will be answered as new questions arise. Can be read in any order. Rated "T" for scenes and themes.
Author's Note: Glad you guys listened to my advice and reviewed! Keep doing so, I advise it!
Um...not much to say about this chapter. The sad part is I didn't enjoy writing it. And it seems rushed, also. I hope you guys like the OC in this chappie.
And since it seems to fit, horrah for the season finale! I never did like Zuko. I'm not giving him any props when his turn comes aroud. What kind of idiot is he, anyway? Turning down the Avatar like that...shameless boy.
For those of you who like Zuko, do not take this offensively. My best friend adores Zuko for some reason or another, and she flames Katara on purpose just to mess with me. He's a character, guys. If anything, I'm kidding.
But I still don't like him. :-P
-Playing my nifty Avatar DS game (which, apparently, isn't all that nifty),
Scorpiored112
Book Two: Earth
Chapter 2: The Library
Toph grew to be a clever child with an extremely witty mouth.
She also grew at an alarming rate. By the time she was one year old she was already taller than most of the village children, and could stand and crawl on her own.
A year later, though, when Toph was two, her parents grew concerned. Toph could walk, but what if she hit something? Lao hired even more executive suits to watch after his fragile daughter.
Toph learned their names and grew accustomed to using them. She gave them simple commands and could talk and express herself quite clearly by the time she was three. But then her father began to think outside the box, and trouble began.
"Our daughter is a genius," he'd boast to his employees. "Pure minded, beautiful, and smart. She's perfect." Little did he know that they'd scoff secretly that she was a blind beauty, useless in the outside world.
Perhaps it was his cockiness that drove Lao to bringing Toph a tutor from Ba Sing Se. Either his cockiness, or his hope that blindness would not stop his daughter from doing anything she wanted to. Regardless, Lao hired a woman named Chen Wei to teach his daughter how to read and write. He didn't care if special techniques were needed. What was important was Toph. Chen was sent for and Lao waited patiently.
"We have a present for you, Toph," Poppy told her daughter gently on the eve of her fifth birthday.
"What kind of present?" Toph asked her mother from the sofa. "Like candy? Clothes?" Toph sighed. "I have enough of both. I don't want any presents."
"Something better, dearest." Poppy bit her lower lip and edged nearer. Finally she shot her arms in triumph. "Your very own tutor!"
Toph was silent. Poppy inched nervously towards the sofa and sat next to her daughter. "What do you think, honey? She's a tutor that will teach you new things. Isn't that wondrous?"
"No."
"Toph, this woman came all the way from Ba Sing Se, another city. She's very excited to teach you..."
"How much is Father paying her?" Toph asked frankly, twiddling her thumbs.
Poppy grew red with anger. "Listen, Toph. I know you don't appreciate what your father is doing for you right now, but you'll have to accept it later on. Be nice to the tutor when she gets here. Be polite, and get rid of that distasteful rudeness. It's a long journey from Ba Sing Se to Gao Ling." Poppy grasped Toph by the shoulders and pulled her near. "Please dearest, just be nice."
Just as their conversation came to a close, one of Toph's security advisors came in, leading a short, stout woman behind him. Lao showed up behind the two, a large smile pasted on his face.
"Dr. Chen, this is my wife, Poppy." Poppy stood up apprehensively and walked over to Chen. They bowed to each other.
"It's an honor," Poppy claimed.
"Likewise," Chen replied. Chen straightened her naturally bent back and pulled a strand of white hair out of her face.
"And this is my daughter, Toph," Lao continued, leading Chen to Toph's sofa. "She'll be five tomorrow." He paused. "I'm sure she can't wait to get started."
Chen bent down to the girl and looked her straight in the eye. She studied her face and features and then stood up. She knew about her blindness, and Toph could sense it. "It's nice to meet you," she said slowly and clearly. "My name is Doc-tor Chen. But you can call me Chen."
"I'm blind, not deaf," Toph told her after clearing her ears with her fore finger.
Chen laughed heartily, but her smirk took the good will out of her intentions. "Witty, isn't she?" She asked her parents. "I'd love to get started right away, Mr. Bai Fong. That is, if it's fine by your daughter."
Toph jumped off of the sofa and crossed her arms. "I don't care."
"Yes Dr. Chen, come with me." Poppy, Toph, and Chen followed Lao throughout the halls of the house.
Toph had known that their home was large, but she couldn't tell where her father was taking her. The ground was no longer soft with platypus-bear fur, but hard like marble. The air seemed cold and thick with smoke. When her mother stopped walking, Toph stood erectly and tried to feel where they were. She could feel nothing.
"This is the library, Dr. Chen," Lao told the tutor. "It's where your lessons with Toph will take place. I'll show you to your room now if you'd like."
She's staying, Toph thought disgustedly. She's living in the house.
"No need, Mr. Bai Fong. I'll start lessons with Toph now, and you will show me to my room later." Chen smiled her crooked smile again.
Lao returned the smile and placed his daughter on a chair, then pushed her closer to the table. "I'm leaving my daughter in your care," he told Chen in a sternly smooth voice. The security advisor stayed as Poppy and Lao left. Toph fidgeted unsteadily in her seat.
When the doors slammed shut, Chen pulled out her glasses and studied Toph again. She clapped her dry hands together. "Well then, let's get started, shall we?"
Chen dug around in her bag and pulled out a withering scroll. She unfolded it carefully and placed it in front of Toph. Small blue characters were printed on the parchment.
Chen noticed Toph's sudden discomfort. "Tell me what you think."
Toph narrowed her eyebrows and felt the scroll. "It's old," Toph said. She felt the smooth paper, the marble side pendants. The thing felt like a soft tube. "It's old and expensive."
"Do you know what it is?"
"No."
"Come on, take a guess. Have you ever felt one of these before?"
"No," Toph replied, a bit louder. She began to get annoyed.
"It's a scroll. People use them to paint characters on." Chen took the scroll and rolled it up tight. "Then people read the characters off of the paper. This is a scroll a general sent in war to my father. My father read the scroll and knew that he was needed on the Terra Team."
Toph had heard of the Terra Team, but she didn't know what they were for, nor did she know what they did. But war? Toph decided not to ask. "Interesting." Chen's stories seemed like history lessons.
Chen dug around some more and pulled out an even older book. She handed it to Toph. "OK, feel that. Do you know what that is?"
Toph sighed as she ran her fingers through the worn pages, the thinning cover. More feeling? Toph grunted, "it's a book."
"Very good!" Chen exclaimed, as if Toph had just done something no one had ever done before. "And do you know what books are used for?"
"To get people on the Terra Team?" Toph asked sarcastically.
Chen narrowed her eyes. "They can be used for a number of things," she stated, her voice trailing off. "But can you feel what is on the pages?"
"No."
"Nothing? No little bumps or ridges?"
"No."
"Toph, try harder. What can people possibly put on the pages? It's there, you just can't see it. But you can feel, try feeling."
"I am! I am feeling the pages! There's nothing there, I don't need you to tell me." Toph slammed the book shut and threw it at Chen.
A heavy silence filled the room. Toph wondered if she had hit the persistent tutor.
But soon a large echo exploded somewhere in the background and Toph knew that the book had hit the floor quite some distance away. The security advisor turned around.
Chen sighed and looked at her student. "I know that it's hard, but you have to try."
Toph's lower lip jutted out stubbornly.
"It's awful to live in the dark...Reading can change that. You have to believe reading can change that. Reading can make you see what you can't feel, and sense what you don't know."
"How am I supposed to read when I'm blind? You know it's impossible! Even my father knows it's impossible. How much is he paying you?" Toph stood up briskly and pointed accusingly at the tutor.
Chen slammed her fists on the table. "Listen, it's none of your concern how much your father is paying me. What's important is that you learn how to read! It can help you."
"It can help you, too. How much? 300 gold pieces of help? Or more?"
Chen let loose of a high pitched scream. "My word! This child is impossible!" The security advisor had paced his way to Toph's side.
"Ma'am, I don't think Mr. Bai Fong would like to hear about this." The security advisor turned to Toph. "Mr. Bai Fong doens't like it when things don't go his way. And his daughter is very, very dear to him." Again, the security guard warned, "I don't think he'd like to hear about this."
Chen breathed in. She shook her head. "No...no, he wouldn't want to hear about this." Chen sat down again, still breathing like she had just run a marathon. "Toph, I'm sorry I yelled at you. I just want you so much to read. Not just for the money, for your sake." Chen stood up and walked over to Toph's side. "We got off on the wrong foot. How about we start again?" Chen tried to pull Toph to a hug.
Toph pushed Chen away. "I'm done with lessons for today. Take me to Mother, Ino." The security advisor, Ino, took Toph's hand and led her away from the Library.
Numerous lessons passed. Every day, Toph was escorted to the Library by Ino. Everyday, about fifteen minutes after the lesson had started, Ino would have to pull a crying or yelling Toph from a now emotionally ill Chen. The cycle ended a week after it had begun.
The problem was that Toph couldn't see the use of learning. Chen tried origami animals and letters; she even tried a thick glue to make letters Toph could feel. After countless attempts—the wooden letters, the glue—Toph still remained as stubborn as ever. And every lesson the question came up, "how much is my father paying you?" Toph became ruder and ruder to Chen, and their lessons merely became a way for Toph to vent her anger. Toph grew to hate books and the smelly old Library. The numerous attempts at teaching the stubborn girl to read faded, and soon Chen gave up.
"I'm sorry sir, I just can't take this madness anymore." Chen's neat, white hair had been frayed and pulled apart by depression and anxiety. She looked even older than she had just a week ago. "No amount of money in the world can keep me locked with that impossible child."
Chen caught herself. "Not that Toph is a bad student," Chen reported hastily, shaking her hands, remembering Ino's warnings. "She is willing to learn, but she doesn't seem very fond of me or my teaching styles. Perhaps it's time you hired someone else?"
"I'm very sorry to hear that you will be leaving us," Lao stated. His voice rattled with broken pride. Toph hadn't learned how to read. They hadn't over come the impossible. "I will provide you with a ride to Ba Sing Se."
Unfortunately for Toph, Fire Nation victories had plagued both Ba Sing Se and Gao Ling. Chen stayed with the Bai Fong's for about another week before the Fire Nation moved down south, towards the Water Tribes. In the time that Chen remained with the family, she kept trying to talk to Toph. The fate of reading was gone, so the tutor told Toph of her life.
"My brother and my father were Earthbenders..." Toph would hear every day. "They wouldn't let me learn it, I suppose that's why I'm so attached to my books and scrolls and such." Chen would sigh dreamily, poking her eyes out the nearest window. "Life is so beautiful when you know enough about it. Blindness shouldn't stop you from doing anything, Toph." Chen would pause. "Even Earthbending." But Toph never asked Chen what Earthbending was, nor did she care.
"Here, Toph. I want you to have this. Consider it a late birthday present." Chen was at the door, leaving. The Fire Nation ships had left Ba Sing Se alone. She shuffled through her bag one last time and pulled out the Terra Team scroll. "In case your father does hire someone else, and you do learn how to read, I want you to have that. Maybe you will learn to read in some other way...in either case, just keep it. And try not to hate me so much in your memories." Chen smiled, but her heart felt faint. The scroll was one of the few things she had of her father, and Toph knew it.
"I don't need this," Toph stated, taking the scroll. She heard Chen sniffle. "You need it more than I do."
"No. I've read a lot of things. And I have my father's Terra Team uniform at home. But you didn't know who the Terra Team is...and I know you find it a small victory for my father to join them. But they've protected our home for many years. And even the smallest victories count." Chen smiled warmly. "You have to remember even the smallest victories count."
Toph took the scroll. She didn't push Chen away when she pulled Toph into a tight, nervous hug.
"Can you read this to me?" Toph asked Poppy the same night, handing her the scroll.
"What's this? A gift?" Poppy unfolded the scroll and skimmed it over.
"It's from Chen," Toph stated. "She told me I should read it."
"Oh heavens...Toph, this is a war order. There's nothing interesting about this..." Poppy shivered. "You shouldn't be learning about things like this, anyway."
Suddenly Chen's history lessons became more appealing. "Can you read it to me anyway? Please?" Toph remembered Chen saying something about war. Why hadn't she asked?
Her mother sat silently for a moment "...It was a gift..." Poppy considered. She set fire to a candle and held it close to the scroll. "It says: Mr. Jon Wei is requested to join the Terra Team, an elite group of Earthbenders who keep guard over the city of Ba Sing Se. The Terra Team has asked Wei to report to the Elite Ring of the Di Lei before the winter solstice.
"Because of Wei's exclusive talent in Earthbending he will be assigned to the Outer Wall group. Wei should expect at least three years of serving. Afterward, Wei may return home or be assigned to the Inner Wall group. Wei's fate is in the hands of the Di Lei, Ba Sing Se's city officials." Poppy paused.
"That's it?" Toph asked.
Poppy sighed. "If Wei is to...to...pass away during service, his family will be supported by the Di Lei. The city of Ba Sing Se is not responsible for transport to or from the city walls."
Silence filled the room as Poppy rolled up the tattered scroll. "That's it. A war order, like I said."
"What's Earthbending?" Toph asked interestingly. Chen's drabbles became even more and more real. War? Earthbending? Why hadn't she asked?
Poppy bit her lip. "It's nothing, dear. Just...it's nothing, it's gruesome, if anything. Don't worry about it."
"What is it though?" Toph pressed. "It must be important."
Poppy looked towards the door. "It's time for you to go to bed, Toph. Maybe some other time."
Poppy closed the door behind her. Toph pushed herself beneth the sheets. Even the smallest victories count. Images of the unknown Fire Nation and Earthbenders danced in Toph's mind. Why did the world have to be such a big secret?
Suddenly Toph felt guilty. Perhaps Chen wasn't such a bad person after all. Chen may have been the only person who could open the closed doors of the world. Toph regretted fighting with her and having her quit.
But it was unimportant know. Lao would hire someone to replace Chen by morning.
Toph wrestled with herself to sleep. Even the smallest victories count. Toph wondered if she had accomplished anything by getting Chen to quit. Toph wondered until she fell asleep, and escaped into a world of Earthbenders and Fire Nation soldiers and Chen's voice...and blank scrolls.