Blind Bounty
Chapter Two
Big crowds of burly men means that there is either a new wanted poster out, or a really good fight going on. Either one is a bonus for Toph, but she did prefer a new wanted poster. Little village fights were nothing compared to over-the-top moves in the Ring.
Toph moves toward the big mass of people, and hangs around the edge of the crowd. She keeps her black cloak over her face so no one can recognize her. Adoring fans were a big problem when she first started her job. Random people would just run up to her, automatically assuming she was ready for a fight. Being the Blind Bandit full time wasn't really fun, but she learned that buying a dark mysterious cloak took care of the paparazzi.
She walks closer to the murmuring crowd, and positions herself where she could hear everyone talking.
"Lot of money…"
Toph likes that, but is a little concerned at what she heard next.
"…Not worth the key to the Beifong's bank."
Now that is saying something! Curiosity peaked, Toph scoots closer to the crowd. By now it was obvious that the crowd is made up of bounty hunters, and they were looking at a more recent wanted poster. For some reason, this particular poster was more interesting than the others.
"B-but, l-look h-how much t-that's worth."
She rolled her eyes at the boy stuttering. He would get picked off from the crowd like a grape.
"And? Do you want to have both of your arms broken and be turned into a pile of ash? No money's worth something that dangerous."
So a dangerous mission? Against a firebender too. Now what exactly made this mission, or firebender, so dangerous?
"All of you are crazy! There's not one person in the world who would take on Princess Azula. Even if she does have the Avatar's girlfriend."
Toph's eyebrows shoot up. Who is dumb enough to mess with the Avatar? Toph thinks.
And especially his girlfriend, if he even had one. This Azula chick must have some power around here, the crowd's gone silent. If they were going to stand around like mute hog monkeys, she was going to step in.
"I'll do it."
The expected gasp from the crowd comes up, along with a few not so stifled giggles. She realizes she is the shortest person in the crowd, and what appears to be the only girl too. It wasn't like she hadn't been in this situation before. Bounty hunting tends to be a more masculine hobby. Then again, Earth Rumble Six is a "man-hobby" too, but look how good Toph is at that.
"You? You! Ha! You can't even see what's written on this paper!" One of the bounty hunters jests at her. Toph glares at him, as she realizes her cloak hadn't covered her eyes.
She snorts. "And? At least I can do what's on the paper. I'll take on this Azula chick no problem." Toph knows she is boasting, but didn't exactly care.
"You've got to be kidding me, do you even know who Azula is?"
"Yes I do. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be on my way to collect that bounty. Goodbye ladies." Toph says. She turns around, and begins walking in what she hopes is the direction of the reward.
"You can't even take on me." The stranger's voice floats up to her.
"Is that a challenge?" Toph asks, smiling slightly. Baiting people into fighting is easy, considering she had been the champion of Earth Rumble Six for two entire years. The guy isn't very big, and clearly isn't an earthbender either. Toph imagines she can probably teach him a lesson without hurting him that badly. Even if he doesn't want to fight, which Toph seriously doubts, having an arguement with him would be fun enough.
Apparently the guy wants to argue and fight.
"Challenge? There's no challenge here. " He says in a ridiculously 'superior' voice.
"Did you just learn that word today?" Toph coos. The crowd titters at her sarcasm. "Challenge. Challenge." She mocks. The man she is arguing with seems to be frowning. His cheek muscles are seriously distressed.
Ignoring Toph's comments, he breaks right to the chase. "Do you want to fight me?" he asks, walking right up to her. Toph smiles once again.
"Yes." She says. Toph snaps her fingers at the boy who stutters. "You, hold this. Don't drop it or I'll have your head." She orders. The boy quickly takes it for her, and lays it over his arm. Toph positions her arms near her torso, hands pointed to look like praying mantis claws. She crooks her elbows so her claws face her.
Toph's style of earthbending is not based on strength, but on breaking a person's connection with the earth, and using strategy to knock her opponent down. Her moves were very tight, sharp, and quick. She moves like a praying mantis, and attacks like one too.
The man doesn't seem taken back by her praying mantis position, and throws his cloak at the same boy.
"Let's just get this over with." He sighs melodramatically. He reaches behind him, and pulls from his scabbard two long broadswords. After a few unnecessary pretty girl moves, he points one end at Toph. "So you're the blind Blind Bandit." It was supposed to be under his breath, but Toph caught it anyway.
Unfazed, she says nothing, and waits for the man's temper to goad him to attack. She can feel his heart beating as fast as a jack rabbit, the anxiety of the crowd pushing in on her too. Was he sweating? Probably. It wasn't really muggy outside, so the sun must be going down now.
Suddenly the stranger lifts his leg in the same way the Boulder would do to start a fight. A small smile spreads across her face, as she raised her foot behind her slightly, and kicked the ground with her heel. A line of earth travels towards the area where his foot should land.
As Toph expects, his foot begins to come down in that area. Soon, though, the direction of the man's foot becomes clear.
Her eyes widen in surprise as in the split second of time, the man dodges Toph's attack, and lands gracefully a few feet from the line of rock. In slight awe and annoyance, Toph waits for him to come back up on the radar. Blip! He's back. The instant his feet land on the ground, he bounces back, and rushes towards Toph.
In a quick defense, Toph flicked three fingers out, and snapped them back. One of her favorite moves in the Ring. In response, a crooked wall of rock juts out of the ground, and strikes the man in the ribs.
Like a ninja, he finds a straight edge in the wall, and gets even closer to Toph.
She observes the way he runs, and gets a better sense of how he might attack. She uses that to her advantage, and picks up a few things. The way the stranger fights is somewhat of a Fire Nation style, just like the Fire Nation man. Just like the Fire Nation man, blech. Toph rolls her eyes at the memory of the sad opponet.
At times it almost looks like he is dancing. Also, he is left handed, and his left leg was stronger too. She flicks up another rock wall, this time on his left side.
The man doesn't expect the move, and is thrown roughly to his side. He hits the ground at an odd angle, and bounces across the ground a few times. The instant he comes to a stop, the man jumps back up, limping backwards slightly.
Got him now. Toph punches her fists outward, and then punches again. The second punch is to form the rock into an uneven line that makes it impossible for him to get a footing on. Even with his odd gracefulness, he won't be able to avoid the move.
The rock wall does hit him, but not in the way Toph wanted it to. Instead of hitting his side, the rock wall takes an unexpected detour, and hits him square in the butt. He lets out a yowl of protest, and zooms towards Toph again. His footsteps sound angry.
This time, he expects each of Toph's previous moves, and dodges them easily. He must have realized how her style of fighting works, and would use that to his advantage. The stranger jumps, twirls, and flips to avoid being seen by Toph. So far it was working. Toph only saw him every once and a while. Each time he appears to be getting closer, and closer.
"Yah!" the man drops right in front of Toph, and takes a swipe near her face. Toph jerks her head back to avoid the blade, and has to roll backwards to avoid it again. With each quick attack by the stranger, Toph realizes she is being pushed further and further back to a wall.
The challenger realizes it too, and jumps forward, lunges with one blade, the other not too far behind. Toph stumbles backwards, and slams against the wall.
The blade whistles through the air.
Toph clutches the wall, and moved the earth to cover her arms and legs. She raises an armored hand, and blocks the blade. In a silent but quick struggle, she wrenches the broadsword from her opponet's hand, and hurtles it high above his head. He jumps to try and get it, but the sword flies just over his fingertips. The crowd parts, as the sword lodges deep into the ground.
With a heavy stomp to the ground, she punches the man's gut with her fortified fist, and follows through with the punch, until the two land where they started the battle.
For a moment of silence, Toph's presses her fist into the man's stomach until he stops struggling, and gave out a cough. His grip slacked on his single broadsword. Toph let the surrounding armor on her fist drop to the ground, and stands up. The crowd around her surges towards her, chanting her name.
"Blind Bandit! Blind Bandit!" they chant, stretching the "I" in blind. They throw gold pieces in her direction, completely ignoring the loser of the fight. He had gotten up, thank goodness. It might not seem like it, but Toph actually cares whether or not the stranger had gotten trampled. She is ruthless in battle, but not as a person. Despite the tempting chant of the crowd, Toph finds that she is more worried about her opponent than how much the crowd likes her.
And the fact that there are so many vibrations around her bothers her too. Toph won't be able to pick out certain people if they don't like the fact that she had won the fight. Bounty hunters love revenge; Toph would know. She is starting to get really uncomfortable being around this many people. It had to be dark outside by now, and she still hasn't found somewhere to stay the night. It might have to be an earth tent instead of a comfortable inn.
Toph parts the tight crowd, and makes her way to the fallen challenger. The crowd makes a tight circle around her, murmuring curiously like bees. They probably are expecting her to finish him off. Toph was a crowd pleaser… she might consider it.
"Unless any of you want what he got, scram!" she snarls at the crowd. Surprisingly, the crowd complies, grumbling the entire way out. The stuttering boy carefully hands Toph the two cloaks, and runs away as fast as he can. Toph waits until they are all gone, and sits down near the challenger.
On closer inspection, Toph notices that the man isn't really a man. His lightweight body type fits the frame of a muscular teenager. No wonder he was able to avoid her attacks so easily.
She hears a hitch in his breath, and him shuffle a little.
"I'm surprised you're even breathing." Toph surmises, tilting her head at him. "What's your name?"
"Zu-Kuzon." So called "Kuzon" stutters.
"Okay ZuKuzon, you're breathing, so I think I'll leave now. Your cover up is over there, and you can take a few of those gold pieces. I have enough of those already." She says sarcastically. She stands up to walk away. Only a few steps later, does Kuzon call out again.
"Hey, wait. I need to ask you something."
"Nope. Not interested." Toph says without turning around. She keeps walking in the direction of the path that took her away from the Divide, and closer to a nearby Earth Kingdom town.
"It has to do with that wanted poster."
She stops dead in her tracks.
"I'm listening." Toph turns around. "Before you tell me anything, what's your real name?"
"I can't say." The teenager says. He crosses his arms defiantly.
Way to be hot headed. Toph shrugs. "Suit yourself. I'm outta here." She turns around and lazily waves her hand over her head.
Three. Two. One.
"You're not going to believe me." He admits.
"Try me."
Another melodramatic sigh. "Fine. My name is Zuko. Prince Zuko."
Toph's eyebrows shoot up, but she keeps her face impassive. Why would Prince Zuko be in the Earth Kingdom? Doesn't he know how much the citizens despise him? She could end him, maybe ending the war.
Toph thinks of these things, but decides against all of them. If she wanted to help win the war, she would've joined the army.
"What are you doing here, and how are you supposed to know the Avatar?" she asks, getting right down to business.
"Well it's a pretty long story…. But basically the avatar allowed me to join his group…cough. Just come on, the avatar is only a mile from here." He begins walking away.
"Tsh. A mile too long. You bring the Avatar here, and then we'll talk." she says. Zuko tightens, and says in a strained voice. "But it's dark out here, how do I know you won't try to make a break for it?"
"I'm not a baby, and I'm too lazy to run anywhere. Now go get the Avatar."
Zuko shrugs, and begins walking down the same path Toph had started on. "I'll be back, don't move." He says in a somewhat parently voice. Toph twitches slightly, but manages to grind out the words "Sure, sure."
Toph listens to his footsteps on the dusty canyon road, until they become another pair of lonely feet on the empty highway.
Mae Silver :)