Jaypaw woke early in the morning; he could tell from the breathing that everyone else was still asleep. He slipped from the pelt covering him and crawled to the edge of the camp. He knew there was a wall there because Toph said so last night. He sat with his back against it, his legs stretched out in front of him. Then he started testing his new body, folding and twisting his arms until he got an idea on how they were supposed to move, flexing his long wormlike claws until he was able to pick things up with them. He felt his face to get an idea where his mouth, nose and eyes were, along with his ears and new small patch of fur. Then he stood up on his strange legs and walked the length of the wall, holding on to the side to keep from falling. Again and again he walked along the wall, back and forth until he finally figured out how his legs were supposed to move.
"You're awake." Jaypaw jumped at the voice behind him, he lost his newly found balance and fell backwards to the ground. Toph laughed, "You're going to be fun to have around, I can tell."
Jaypaw stood up and wiped the dust from his pelts, "Ha ha, very funny." He said bitterly.
"Don't be so sour, I'm only teasing." Toph said, once she got within a fox length from Jaypaw he could sense her. "You don't have to be so moody."
"You'd be moody to if you didn't know where you were or what was going on." Grumbled Jaypaw.
"So what, you're lost." Toph snapped, "Stop pitying yourself, we're all lost. You miss your home? Your family? Well, so do we. Half the time we don't know where we are either, or what's going to happen. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and try to help yourself."
"Sorry." Jaypaw said, slightly taken aback, no one ever talked back to him at home, they just let him complain, he wasn't quite sure how to react."I'm just…"
"It's okay." Toph told him, "Now, do you want to learn how to see?"
"Yeah," said Jaypaw, "What do I do?"
Toph took his hand and put it on the ground, "What do you feel?"
"Dirt." Jaypaw could feel a wave of annoyance coming off her.
"Feel deeper." She said, "Feel the vibrations of the earth around you."
Jaypaw tried he concentrated on the ground under his hand, but he didn't know what to feel for. What vibrations? It was hard enough adjusting to other twoleg things without this. "I don't know how."
"Don't think of it as just dirt." Toph told him, "Use the earth as an extension of your senses."
Jaypaw scrunched up his face and put all his energy into the ground. Come on, come on, come on. It was just ground, he felt nothing but ground, he didn't know what he was supposed to feel.
Then someone moved over by the camp. Small rippled went through the ground like ripples of lake when a leaf falls in it. "Someone moved." He said,"I felt it, someone moved to the left.
"Yes!" said Toph sounding excited. "That's Katara. She's getting up to start breakfast. Now I'm going to move, you try to figure out where I am."
Jaypaw nodded, then remembered she was blind too and said "okay."
He felt the small ripples move throughout the dirt until she stopped, thinking of which way the ripples came from he turned to her, he turned and reached his hands out. He expected her to be only a tail length away, but when she laughed she was farther.
"That's good." Toph said, coming closer until he could touch her. "Very good, way better than twinkle toes on his first day."
"Be fair." Katara's voice said as Jaypaw felt her come closer, "Aang was working with his opposite. Jaypaw is learning from a clean slate, of course he'll show more promise than Aang."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to insult your boyfriend." Teased Toph.
"He's not my boyfriend!" Katara retorted.
"Whatever you say," mocked Toph.
Jaypaw could sense annoyance and embarrassment coming from the older girl. "Will you just let me out so I can get some berries for breakfast?" asked Katara.
"Sure." Said Toph, Jaypaw felt a shift in the earth and felt vibrations go through his feet that told him that something big moved to his left. He felt Katara leave.
"Can you see?" Jaypaw asked, "More than just people moving, can you see where they are and what they're doing?"
"Yes," Toph said, "you can too, if you keep practicing."
All morning Jaypaw and Toph worked, after he got the basic down she went from encouraging to demanding. She was bossier than Leafpool. She kept pushing him until he could sense where everything in the clearing was. He couldn't tell who was who, only Toph, the way she walked was way different than anyone else. Aang was different, too, he walked lightly sometimes barely touching the ground. But Zuko, Suki, Sokka, and Katara all walked the same and Jaypaw couldn't tell the difference in them until they spoke.
It was frustrating but he got that hang of it, by the end of the day he fell into bed exhausted.