I've had a few brain blocks... XD Sorry. I begin all of these stories and I can barely keep up with them!

-x-

Toph's blind eyes looked outside the window. Sure, she could easily take down those guards. But where would she go? Aang, Sokka, and Katara were all splitting up. She couldn't possibly track them down and intrude with their lives... Besides, her parents would find her sooner or later. She will just have to try a different way... But not tonight... some night they weren't expecting it.

The girl sighed and laid on her bed. She faced the ceiling, arms behind her head, and legs over one another. Quietly, she hummed to herself. Some song she heard in Omashu. In the middle of the song, someone at the door knocked lightly.

Toph unfolded her body and sat up in bed. "Come in!"

The door opened and tiny feet entered in. "G'evenin' ma'am. I am your new servant."

The blind girl's legs hanged over the side of the bed and stared into what she thought the servant's eyes. "...Servant?"

"Yes ma'am. Your father bought me from the Fire Nation a few years ago." Her soft hand lightly touched Toph's. "I've been assigned to you... To help--"

Toph moved her hand away. "Listen you! I am not the helpless little blind girl my parents think I am! I don't need some woman here to boss me around! If you think you can--"

"Miss. Please." The woman stood up straighter. "I know what you are capable of... ALL of the Earth Kingdom knows. Stories of the Avatar and his gang have been spreading around like a forest fire."

"Then what will you really do for me?"

"I'll keep you company." She smiled. "My name is Ahe."

"Well, Ahe, it's nice to meet you." Toph said flatly.

She sighed. "Like you... I am to be married within the year..."

"What the hell is with all these marriages?"

Ahe shrugged. "It's a duty of all women... To bear children..."

"I'm more of a fighter... Not a mother!"

She sighed. "Try and get some sleep..."

"How can I sleep? I'm engaged to some stranger!"

"Fine. Sit there and complain. But if you don't mind, I'll work on my sewing." Ahe sat on a stool at a little table near the window. She hummed a soft song which rung in Toph's ears.

"What is that?"

Ahe continued her sewing with thread and needle, "Want to hear the lyrics?"

"Sure."

"Okay." She put the fabric on the table and closed her eyes as she softly sang. "Oh, hard is the future of all womankind. She's always controlled. She's always confined. Controlled by her parents until she's a wife. A slave to her husband for the rest of her life."

Toph hugged her knees to her chest. "It's true... isn't it? We are controlled..."

"Yeah, it is..."

"Well, I for one, refuse to be controlled!"

"I said that before... until I was captured by Fire Nation Merchants and sold to Earth Kingdom... I've lost all hope..."

They fell silent for a while. Ahe sounded so young and hopeless... "Ahe, how old are you?"

"I'm seventeen..."