I do not own these characters (except for Lupin!!) or Avatar: the Last Airbender
Chapter 1
Lupin's POV
"Uh, Lupin we gotta get up now," the cautious voice I heard was Aang's, I could tell.
"Alright," I mumbled. "Jus' give me a second."
I got up slowly and stretched out my stiff muscles. I yawned hugely and looked around. The rest of them were getting ready and packing, except for Sokka who was still curled up in his sleeping bag.
"Sokka, get up!" Katara said, annoyed.
But Sokka just moaned and turned over.
Katara's expression looked extremely annoyed. Suddenly her expression softened into a smug smile. She waterbended some water from some animal skins strapped to her back. With some force, she hurled the water at Sokka's head causing him to yelp and leap to his feet.
"Great you're up! You can strap these to Appa's saddle," Katara told him brightly.
Sokka grumbled irritatedly, but did as he was told. I could tell Sokka wasn't a morning person.
"So where are we going?" I asked curiously.
"Ba Sing Se, Aang has to find an earthbending teacher," Katara told me.
For a moment I remembered one of my closest friends.
"Yeah and last night you never met my flying bison, Appa!" Aang said excitedly. "Thanks to him we get around the world really easily."
"Wow, so we'll be flying?" I said somewhat uneasily.
"Yes but Appa is a real easy flyer. It's not so bad if you don't look down," Aang reassured me.
"So what kind of an earthbender are you looking for," I asked casually as a human once we were in the air again. I shouldn't get my hopes up; Aang probably wouldn't want an earthbending teacher like the earthbender I had in mind.
"At first I thought my friend Bumi would teach me, but he is imprisoned right now. When we tried to bust him out, he told me he had to remain in his city so he could wait for the right time to take it back. He told me to look for a teacher who waits and listens before striking," he explained to me.
My heart momentarily skipped a beat as I realized my best friend fit his requirements perfectly.
"Um, what would you say if I told you I knew someone like that?" I asked.
"Do you?" Aang said giving me a funny look.
"Yes, but she's blind. Still an amazing earthbender though," I added the last part quickly.
"Great, we'll talk to her!" Aang said excitedly. I was overjoyed that I would be seeing my best friend again.
"But how do you know this girl if you live on an island?" Sokka wanted to know.
"Just because we live in a secret tribe of wolf people doesn't mean we have no access to the rest of the world. We know about the war and the Fire Nation and the Avatar." I informed him.
"We met a long time ago. She used to run away a lot and I did too. She had trouble with her parents and I was going through a hard time coping with my wolf part. The problems don't exactly relate, but we had each other. We met in a cave and I probably would have died if she and the badger moles hadn't helped me out." I explained. "Her name is Toph," I added, realizing I hadn't told them her name yet.
"How did she help you get out if she's blind?" Aang asked curiously.
"The same way the badger moles did. They are her teachers and they understand each other because they're both blind. The badger moles taught Toph how to earthbend not only as a martial art, but as an extension of her senses. She feels the vibrations in the ground as is able to "see", just not the same as we do."
"That's amazing," Aang said with his voice full of awe.
"So where to we find this girl?" Sokka asked as the four of them stood in the middle of a busy market.
"Well I'm not exactly sure. I've never been to her house before. What?" They were staring at me like I was crazy.
"You might have mentioned that before!!" Sokka fumed.
Just as I was about to give him a really good comeback, a man came up to us and put his arm around Aang.
"Hey kids, you like earthbending? You like throwing rocks? Then check out Master Yu's Earthbending Academy!" He told them in a business-like voice. He gave us a friendly smile, handed Aang a piece of paper and walked away.
"Look there's a coupon on the back! The First lesson is free," exclaimed Aang.
"Who knows? Maybe we'll find Toph at this Master Yu's Earthbending Academy!" Katara said.
"I don't think so…" It didn't sound like somewhere Toph would hang out.
"Well we have no leads so I say we check it out," said Sokka.
"Just to be sure," Aang added.
So Aang went in to see if he could find Toph by attending the first lesson. Several minutes later, Aang came back out looking dejected.
"I don't think she's in there," he said as he shook some gravel out of his ear.
"I think The Boulder is gonna win back the belt at Earth Rumble 6," came the voice of a boy who was walking out of the lesson with another boy.
"He's gonna have to fight his way through the best earthbenders in the world to even get a shot at The Blind Bandit," the other boy argued.
"The Blind Bandit? That could be Toph!" I exclaimed.
"Excuse me," Aang called after the two boys politely. "But where exactly is this earthbending tournament?"
"It's on the Island of Nunya, None-a-ya business!" the two boys burst out laughing and walked away.
"Ha HA ha ha! Ahh, I gotta remember that one!" Sokka laughed as Aang hung his head.
"Don't worry Aang; I'll take care of this! Hey strong guys, wait up!" Katara called sweetly, running after the two obnoxious boys. She returned moments later with an excited expression on her face.
"Get ready guys, because we're going to Earth Rumble Six!" she said.
"How did you get them to talk?" Aang wanted to know.
"Oh, a girl has her ways…" She said with an evil smile.
We walked into a huge arena with bleachers surrounding a large platform that was raised from the ground. Spectators cheered wildly, but not of them sat too close.
"Hey, front row seats! I wonder why no one else is sitting here," just as Aang finished his sentence, a huge rock hit the bleachers, narrowly missing us.
"Does that answer your question?" I asked him with a hint of sarcasm.
Just then a man jumped into the ring, his voice boomed, "Welcome to Earth Rumble 6!! I am your host, Shin Fu!" The crowd cheered in response.
Katara sighed, "This is just gonna be a ton of guys chucking rocks at each other isn't it?"
Sokka grinned. "That's what I paid for."
"The rules are simple; knock the other guy out of the ring, and you win!" Shin Fu announced to the crowd. He earthbended himself up to a seat that was the highest in the arena. "Round one, The Boulder versus the big, bad Hippo!"
Two huge muscley guys stepped to the ring and The Boulder roared to The Hippo, "Listen up, Hippo, you may be big, but you ain't bad! The Boulderis gonna win this in a landslide!"
And the tournament went on, The Boulder beating every opponent setting foot in the ring. I was getting a little concerned about Sokka though. He was getting a little too into this. The Boulder sent one of his opponents flying into the rock next to us and Sokka yelled at him.
"YEAHH WOOO!! The Boulder knows how to put the hurt in the DIRT! YEEEAAHH!!!" He yelled at the man.
The Boulder kept beating the fighters until finally the man was announcing the champion. I immediately sat up. This might be Toph!
"And now the moment you've all been waiting for, The Boulder versus the Champion, The Blind Bandit!!
We all leaned forward a bit as the fighter rose to the ring holding the champion belt.
"That's Toph!" I blurted, immediately recognizing my best friend.
The crowd was going wild so we could barely hear what was going on down below.
"The Boulder feels conflicted about fighting a young, blind girl," The Boulder said, again talking in third person.
"Sounds to me like you're scared, Boulder," she retorted.
"The Boulder is over his conflicted feelings and now he is ready to burry you in a rock-alanch!!"
"When ever you're ready, The Pebble!" She let out an evil laugh.
"She's the girl from my vision!" Aang whispered in amazement.
I wasn't surprised of course, but Toph beat The Boulder and very easily knocked him out of the ring.
"AWW NO!" Sokka whined when his hero fell. We all glared at him.
"To make this a little more interesting, I'm offering up this sack of gold pieces to anyone who can defeat The Blind Bandit!" Shin Fu shouted to the crowd. "What? No one dares to face her?"
Just then Aang got to his feet and before any of us could stop him, he was headed for the ring.
"I will," Aang told him happily.
"Go Aang, avenge The Boulder!!" Sokka shouted after him. Katara glared at him and I snarled which made him scoot away from me.
"Do people really want to see two little girls fighting out here?" Toph scoffed.
"Ooooo," the crowd said.
"I don't really want to fight you; I need to talk to you."
"BOO, no talking!" Sokka shouted.
"Don't boo at him!!" Katara said outraged and smacked him hard on the arm.
Toph made the earth under Aang jerk upward, sending him in the air. But Aang bended the air around him and floated slowly down.
"Where'd you go…" Toph muttered.
Just then Aang landed. "Please, wait," he pleaded.
"There you are," she said as she bended a rock and hurling it toward Aang.
Without thinking, Aang used airbending to shoot one gust at the rock and the other at Toph sending them both flying out of the ring.
Immediately sorry for what he did, Aang hurried after the earthbender who was storming out of the ring. "Please, I need an earthbending teacher and I think it's supposed to be you!"
"Who ever you are, just leave me alone," she replied tersely. She earthbended a hole in the wall and disappeared, slamming it shut behind her.
"Wait!" Aang shouted after the earthbender in vain; she was already gone.
"Aww man, we lost her," Sokka whined once he had calmed down.
"I'm sorry, I should have got her attention," I said feeling guilty. "She would've stopped and listened to me."
"It's fine. We can just go back to that earthbending academy. It sounded like those guys knew a lot about her," Katara reassured me.
We headed back to the school and sure enough the two boys were there.
"Aw great, you again," one said narrowing his eyes.
Katara faked a lunge at them and they whimpered and flinched in response. "Yeah, I didn't think so," she said with a smug expression.
"Nicely done," Sokka smirked and I stifled a laugh.
One of the boys saw Aang and a look of recognition crossed his face. "You're the kid who beat the Blind Bandit!" he exclaimed.
"We need to talk to her. Do you guys know where she lives?" Aang asked.
"The Blind Bandit is a mystery. She shows up to fight and then disappears."
Aang hung his head in disappointment, but Katara wasn't finished with them.
"Let me handle this," she told him kindly. Then she turned to the boys with a threatening look.
"You're not telling us everything," she snapped.
"No, no I swear it's true. No one knows where she goes or where she lives," he said nervously.
"That's because we're asking about the wrong person. In my vision I saw a girl in a white dress and a pet flying boar. Know anybody like that?" Aang asked hopefully.
"Well the flying boar is the symbol of the Be Fong family. They're the richest people in town, probably the whole world," answered the boy who wasn't cowering behind the other.
"Yeah, but they don't have a daughter," the other piped in.
"A flying boar is good enough for me. Let's check it out!" Aang said already heading for the exit. We started to follow, but heard one of the boys mutter something under his breath.
"Yeah you better leave," he said.
"Hey, I got my eye on you," Katara warned them before walking out.
"Water Tribe," Sokka whispered dramatically before following his sister. I just rolled my eyes and pushed him out the door.
Ok yes most of this came from the original episode where they met Toph, but I just couldn't change it!! And it's so classic Sokka lol love it R&R XD
