She heard a sharp noise. Then nothing at all.
Then she heard a voice,"Open your eyes the world needs you awake."
So she did, Toph slowly opened her eyes. And she saw. That was the problem is that she saw. She saw everything.
She had never seen. She entered into panic mode. Not only was she covered in mud, laying helplessly on the ground, but the fact she never seen it anything like it. Although such a simple place as a swamp might not shock many, Toph had never seen at swamp at all.
She began to cry. Then she began to sob. She couldn't understand any of it. As her eyes moved quickly across her surroundings. Everything was so odd, so different, and so strange. She felt like an alien who had just crash on a new planet. She was frightened and at the same time thrilled.
She her hands sunk deeper in the mud, she wondered what color it was. She wondered what color were the trees, what color made up this strange place. And then she cried harder. The colors, she wondered. I wonder what color is, which is yellow, which is blue, which is green… she thought. A disturbing thought filled her head, what is this was dream? A beautiful dream, or perhaps a nightmare, in which she could see everything, where she would wake up and discover it was not real? That would be cruel.
If she woke up, she wondered. If she woke up and everything was a dream, she thought as warm tears streamed down her face. And if it was a dream she credited she had a very unique imagination. She continued to sob at the thought of it.
Then she heard a noise. A loud noise like a motor of some sort. She stopped sobbing and she looked around her. At the end of the stream, approached a small boat or she assumed it was a boat. She most certainly did not know what a boat looked like. But it sounded like a boat and it felt like a boat. As the boat approached, Toph noticed two odd figures on the boat.
One was rather large and a darker shade, while the other was smaller and of a lighter tone. They had a quirky appearance and rags covered them. Toph wondered what who this humanoid figures could be. Their boat stopped in front of her. "Hey lady, are you alright?" yelled out the smaller one. Toph did not reply, she was too busy examining his appearance.
The smaller one turns to his friend and mumbled something. Then he turned back to Toph, "I said if you alright?" Toph did not know what to say. She wondered if she could still speak, perhaps she had gained eyesight but she had lost her voice. She couldn't tell because she had not tried to speak.
"Where am I?" she managed to blurt out weakly.
"Ha, I told she wasn't crazy, she's just lost," the smaller figure said to his large friend. Crazy? she thought. Why would they think that? Then Toph realized half her arms were covered in thick swam mud and her face was wet from all the crying, she definitely had the crazy look nailed down.
The smaller figure spoke to her kindly, "You are in the swamp, girlie. You must have fallen off a boat or something." Toph shook her head not understanding any of it. "I…I…I don't know," she said softly. The large figure said something to the smaller figure. The smaller figure spoke, "here we'll take you home, hop on." The boat pulled closer where Toph was sitting. "Here, watch your steps." Said the larger figure in a warm voice.
Toph was dazed but managed to stand up, she noticed her legs where covered in mud. She slowly stepped on the boat, she definitely feel the difference of the hard boat versus the soft ground. "Oh, how rude of me," said the smaller figure turning around, "my name's Nip." Then he turned around to his friend, "This is Tuck." The large figure waved weakly. Toph waved back. "What's yours?" asked the small man. "Uh, Toph, Toph Bei Fong," she replied. "Ha, weird name!" Nip said loudly.
As Toph began to nudge off the mud from her legs, she noticed how similar her legs were to Nip's and Tuck's. She also noticed her arms, still muddy, were similar to them. Toph became to come to the realization that perhaps they, too, were like her. Is this how people look like? she thought. Most importantly how did she look like?
"Are you guys men?" she asked curiously. "Yep, only the manliest of the manly." Nip said proudly while steering the tiny boat. Tuck let out a roar of laughter. "Yeah, Nip's manly, alright," Tuck said snickering. "Shut up, you're the one to talk, Mr. I'm-Too-Tired-To-Steer-The-Boat!" Nip said loudly. They both began to argue. Yep, this is definitely human behavior, Toph thought.
As she looked down the mud in her feet, she began to ponder. "What color is this?" she blurted out. Nip and Tuck both turned around to her, Toph was pointing at the mud on her feet.
"Hmm, I would say that is green." Nip said.
"Green? You blind? That's obviously brown." Tuck said almost yelling.
"How could that be a brown, can't you see the green, you ninny!" Nip said loudly.
"Well then, it would most likely be a brownish green." Tuck said reassuringly.
"I would say more like a dark moss green!" Nip argued.
"Wait, a second! There's a brownish green? How's is that possible? Aren't things just brown or green?" Toph said confused.
"No, girlie, that's the beauty of colors!" Nip said happily, "there are so many shades and so many possibilies! Take the color green for example, there are over 100 types of green and they're all different." Toph stood there in awe then she spoke, "There's that many types of green? And how you remember them all?"
"Well, you don't really remember, sometimes you make up names for them," said Tuck thoughtfully.
Toph looked down at the mud, "so this is brownish green?" she asked curiously. "Yeah," said Tuck. "Or moss green!" Nip yelled out. "So what would you call green?" Toph asked. "Hmm, I would say green would be something like your robes." Tuck said. She down at her robes, although they covered with mud, Toph could see a lighter more even color peering out. Green, she thought.
"Ha, and we're out of the swamp." Nip said happily. Toph looked around and saw they had passed the trees and her surroundings were no longer dark shades. Everything was brighter and much lighter. "Sure, is some pretty sky!" Tuck said looking up. And Toph looked up. And she began to cry. It was something so beautiful, so different to what she had seen. She realized how broken her heart would be if it was all a dream. As she cried she asked, "What color is that?"
"Blue." Tuck said softly. "Some would call it sky blue,"Nip said, "you know, because of the sky."
"I like blue, I like it very much." Toph said softly.
Sky blue, she thought. What a lovely color, she thought as she walked down the streets of Ba Sing Se looking up at the sky.
Then she thought about Katara, how her eyes seem to have that exact blue color. It was no surprise to Toph; Aang fell so hard in love with her. She was beautiful and her eyes were of such a beautiful color. It was just no surprise to her. Sokka had the same eye color, Sokka, she thought and she laughed. He was such a goofball and he hadn't changed much. He was very handsome, too, it was no surprise to her, she had a crush on him when she was 12.
But those days were gone and she missed those days. Those days with the gang, going around, saving the world, bending their way through troubles, yes, those were the days! There was so much adventure going around and so much excitement, now everything was dull and boring.
As she passed by the market bazaar, she heard a loud yell, "CABAGES! GET YOUR CABAGES!" She turned around and she saw a man with a cabbage stand. She inspected the cabbages; they all had a healthy light green to them. She could tell it was light green and not lime green because lime green reminded her of lemons and had a yellowish tint to it.
Yes, Toph going to the fruits and vegetables bazaar. She loved going around and picking out the fruit and vegetable's colors. She noted every single item had a different and unique color. For example, the apples although all red, all had a different shade of red. Some were blood red, others a velvet red, some a pink red, some a hot red, others had an orange red to it. And some were just orange.
Orange, she thought. Orange was Aang's robes. Orange was Aang's room. Orange was Aang's bed sheets. Her mind trailed off and she shook her head in disapproval. Yeah, the Airhead sure loved orange. But each thing had a different shade of orange; Aang's robes had a simple neutral orange, while Aang's room was a poppy gold orange. (She knew it was poppy gold because once for her mother's birthday her dad brought flowers to her mother, some were oranges and her mother referred to the color as "Poppy Gold"). His sheets were much gold tinted, like a tangerine orange, she supposed.
Toph was great a picking colors out. Ever since she had been able to see, she set herself on knowing every color out there. If it was color she hadn't seen before, she made it up. And speaking of colors she hadn't seen before, she couldn't nail down Aang's eyes colors.
Technically speaking, his eyes were gray. But what kind of gray? Not just plain gray, she thought. It was a different shade of gray. Not silver gray, or dark gray, or brown gray. They were just so bright and vivid. It was probably the most beautiful shade of gray she could think of. And gray was usually not a nice color. Yet she liked Aang's gray, that soft shade of gray. She liked his eyes. She liked his eyes very much.
Something interrupted her thoughts as she walked a loud snort. "Come on, Mindy, go out with me!" said a young, muscular man. He was pulling on a girl sleeves eagerly. "No, Cheng, I told you I already have plans with someone else and you're a jerk!" the girl said pulling her arms out his grip. "Jerk? I'll show you who's the jerk." He said grabbing a hold of her arm once more. "Stop, Cheng, you're hurting me!" the girl said loudly.
"Hey, you, leave that girl alone!" Toph blurted out pointing at Cheng. "Huh?" he said looking at Toph. "She said she already had plans with someone else, it's obvious she doesn't you want you!" Toph added. Cheng looked at Toph and giggled, "Look, you're cute and all, in fact if me and Mindy weren't an item I'd even go out with you. You're pretty hot. But beat it, ok? This isn't your business."
Toph's face wrinkled and her eyes widened. She looked down at her earth bending belt, Earthbending Champion, she thought. "Haha, go out with you? Why you couldn't even beat a little kid in an Earth bending match. Face it stud, you're all brawl but no brains!" Toph said with a wide smile.
Some onlookers snickered while Cheng's face reddened. "Why you! You don't want to have any trouble, do you?" Cheng blurted out angrily.
"Ha, trouble! I don't see any trouble here, the only trouble I see here is your ugly face walking the lady's way." Toph said snickering. More people burst off laughing. "That's it!" said Cheng letting go of Mindy's arm. "Beat it, girl, you don't want me to beat up a girl, do you? Plus, I'm an Earth bending champ; you're no match for me!" Cheng said proudly stroking his belt.
An old man approached Toph and whispered, "He's right! He's very powerful and he doesn't care if you're a girl, he'll beat you up!" Toph ignored the old man's comment. "Actually, I feel the same way, why would I want to beat up a girl like you? And actually, and you walk away now I might spare your life and not hurt you, so for the best of everyone go off and walk away." Toph said eagerly.
Cheng's face reached another level of redness, "THAT'S IT! IT'S ON PRETTY GIRL!" he yelled out as he tore his shirt off. "Ha, it was always on, wasn't it?" Toph said in a matter-of-fact tone. She pulled out ribbon string out her pocket and she tied up her hair neatly. Then she took her earth bending stance.
"What's wrong? Pretty girl don't want to mess up her hair?" he asked in a mocking tone.
"No, I just want to see you better when I beat you up." Toph replied mockingly.
Cheng let out a grunt and quickly let his feet hit the ground producing a chain reaction towards Toph. She quickly glided doing a double flip and landed on one of the market stand. "You must be quicker than that!" Toph snickered. She hit the ground a producing a ground reaction the hit Cheng's feet which made him do a painful split. "OWW!" he hollered. "Ha, that always works." She grinned. Cheng's wide eyes fell on Toph, "Why you!" he yelled. He let a rock soar towards Toph; she jumped out of the way. The rock hit one of the fruit stands. "OH NO, MY CABBAGES! CABBAGES!" the cabbage man let out a painful yell.
"Ha, isn't it funny that I'm the one in a dress and still you're the one fighting like a girl?" Toph snickered at Cheng. Cheng's face took another red shade, almost velvet red.
Meanwhile the people stared at the two fighting Earth benders, a man whispered to another, "You know she reminds me of an Earthbender I once saw in an Earth Rumble tournament, such a great skill, but it can't be her!"
Cheng rage builds up and he let out several hits and misses at Toph. He managed to knock her off her feet and into another market stand. Toph crashed violently into the tomato stand. Cheng grinned. "Face it, you're nothing but a girl trying to play around with the champs! And you can't beat the CHAMP!" Cheng yelled out.
Toph quickly wiped off the tomato juice off her face. Her face revealed a wide grin. "You know something, Cheng? You remind me of an old friend, The Boulder. You guys are very much alike actually, "she said as she slowly stood up. Cheng face looked confused. "Do you wanna know what happened to him?" she said as she took a stance.
"I BEAT HIM!" Toph yelled out as rocks covered her and she glided her way to Cheng knocking him off his feet and throwing him onto a watermelon stand. Toph grinned at the sight, while cleaning her hand altogether. The onlookers were shock to see this. Cheng quickly shook his head and blurted out, "It's not over yet-"Suddenly, a watermelon fell on Cheng's head and knocked him unconscious.
"Ha, whatever." Toph said sarcastically.
"Impressive" "Astounding!" "I've never seen nothing like it!" "That girl can fight!" were some of the comment that erupted between the crowds. She walked slowly over the watermelon stand and took off Cheng's earthbender's belt. She grabbed the belt and then tossed it at some two boys who had been looking at the whole fight. "Tell them, the Blind Bandit is back and she did this to their champ. Tell them if they have any better ones," Toph said as a matter-of-fact. The boys nodded anxiously.
"It's just bandit,now," she said grinning and walking away from the mess of market place.
She was back.
It was certainly a pleasure and very fun writing this! Toph's back,yay! ^^ The first intercept by the way, is Toph's remembering the swamp and remembering when she first began seeing. I know it's still ambiguous but things will be known eventually!
Also for all of you who have read this story so far and it seems very familiar. It's because I was and am on Deviant Art and the first four chapters were available there! So you probably read it there!
Anyways, reviews of anykind are appreciated and thank you for reading!
-Alex