The wounds stung and burned as the bandages were removed, exposing them to the morning air. Water suddenly encased half the boys' face, stretching from nose to hairline, somehow both wet like any other water, but not wet at the same time. The stinging suddenly vaulted into a deeper, more lingering kind of ache as the water seeped into the deepest of the wounds.
It hurt so bad, and he suddenly became afraid that he would cry out. Biting his tongue hard and hiding clenched fists in his sleeves, he braced himself firmly against the onslaught. Then, just as fast as it began, it started to ease, a strange tingling thrumming it's way through the pain, neither pleasant or unpleasant. As it receded, the pain ebbed, until finally water receded from his face.
Booner gently reached up and touched his face, blinking up towards Katara, expecting the veil of darkness to vanish. Confusion filled him as the darkness remained, and he again felt where the wounds had been. The wounds were gone, as were any form of bandage, but the darkness remained unyielding, obscuring everything before him. Panic chased out confusion and hope as he struggled against the urge to claw at his eyes and remove whatever had stolen his sight.
Unfortunately, it was no use . . . despite Katara's healing abilities, she could not fix the core of his problem. He couldn't see . . . he would never see again. He felt like he was drowning once more; he cast about for any means of anchoring himself. When he had first lost his sight, he'd been further untethered by the devastating news when he awoke -
Bare feet pounding against the earth, shivers rattling his body and sobs wracking his chest. Pain, sharply stinging around his eyes, digging into him. . . . and his heart, filled with anguish, guilt, longing, and shattered hope, oozing from the inside out, numbing out anything and everything around him as it ached with flickering, dying flames. Gone . . . she's gone, and there's nothing I can do . . . .I can't . . . she can't be . . .it's . . . .it's all my-!?
- and he had recieved similar news from these people. But . . .
I am a mountain . . . . he gulped down a breath air, forcing himself to breathe evenly. He had no way of knowing for sure. Lee simply couldn't be dead; he was too strong, to smart. If this group hadn't see him . . . .
Mountains never fall . . . the storming sea of emotions began to settle slowly. Lee IS alive. I . . . I can feel it . . .
Battered and beaten, but they never fall . . . . he became vaguely aware of arms wrapped around him, and a quiet tune being hummed.
I am STRONG, I am a mountain . . . .I won't let this rattle me! Falling back on his mantra had helped, to some degree. Lee wasn't dead. He must've hid, or been in another part of the town. Injured or not, blind or not, Booner would find him. He had too, and he wouldn't stop searching until he'd found him again. He refused anything else to be an option.
Snapping back to the present, Booner was a more than a little surprised to realize that the waterbender had wrapped her arms around him. He tried to pull back. Emphasis on tried. She was very insistent, and very strong. He didn't feel all-to-comfortable with this. Affection from strangers was down-right foreign. He was used to his sisters genuine love, and Lee's rough worry.
"I'm alright now." he spoke up, keeping his voice level, and quiet so he wouldn't be yelling in her ear. "Just . . . a bit surprised." Understatement of the year, he sighed silently with relief when she drew back after a moment.
"Are you sure? You seemed really scared." she asked, drawing back, her hand lingering on his shoulder.
Booner oppressed the urge to push her away, saying, "Yeah, I'm fine. I've never been healed by bending, before." I didn't even know that was possible before. Mustering a slight, teasing smile, he looked in the direction of her voice. "Maybe you just look really spooky." he retorted, mock serious beneath the teasing. But . . . I can figure this out. Somehow. Healing with bending, being blind . . . I just need to find Lee.
Katara spluttered to respond, before huffing and retorting, "Oh, am I? Wooooo!" bits of water, almost like fingers, slapped gently at his clothes, tugging at his shirt and hair.
He flinched, trying to fend off the unexpected invasion of space with his hands, holding back flames and smoke by his fingertips. "Oh nooo!" he wailed with mock-fear, struggling to remain under control as he realized it wasn't a real attack. "The waterbender is trying to get me!" Spur of the moment, he scrambled to his feet and dashed back in the direction of the camp. He was moving now, at least.
Katara shouted in surprise. Her feet pounded on the earth in a steady rhythm as she tried to keep up. Despite Booners' vigilant effort to avoid running into things as he fled, he ended up half-tripping when his foot hit the edge of a dip in the ground. Reflexively, he tucked into a ball and rolled as he fell, minimizing the damage he would've recieved and getting himself covered in dust.
As it were, a scrape or two and some bruises were all he got. He pushed himself up and turned his head around. He'd lost his grasp of direction; he didn't know which way to run now.
. . . .he still needed to figure out how he was going to find the ghost-town, too. Which would be very difficult in his current state . . . . working against them wouldn't help him any here. If he wanted supplies and directions, working with them was his best bet. And to start. . . . befriending and getting to know them would be his best bet.
"Uh, Katara?" he called, sitting up more fully as he heard the waterbender approach.
"You alright, Booner?" she asked, grabbing his hand and pulling him upright.
He stumbled a little, surprised at the sudden change in height, but nodded quickly. "I'm okay." he allowed her to pull him in the direction of the campsite, before asking, "Is Sokka a waterbender, too?"
"No, he's not." A soft whap sort of sound, before her voice seemed to be directed more at him. "I'm the only Waterbender in the entire South Pole."
. . .ouch. Even without longing and sadness, it sounded like there were some bad memories around that. After a silent moment, he dared to ask, "Why? What happened?" All he could think of was something like a terrible ilness-
"It's all the Fire Nations fault!" she spat, bitter anger and hatred thrumming through her voice, her hand tightening around his. Booner couldn't help but flinch. She must've noticed, for her voice softened to kinder tones. But she couldn't fully hide her earlier emotions. Anger, hate; they rode on pain, sharp and wide and deep. It was personal, then. . .
"They took away all the waterbenders." she went on more gently. "I was the first one born in fifty years."
A frown worked its way onto the boys face. Something wasn't adding up . . . "Did you have to figure everything out on your own, then?" he could relate to this; he rarely used his bending in the past, when he wasn't encouraging flames in the bakery or bending heat away from hot pans. He didn't know any proper forms. Yet, a soft voice whispered to him.
He assumed she nodded, as she next said, "Aang was able to help, once we were able to practice together. Acquiring a waterbending scroll gave us some structure. But I got real training at the North Pole."
Booner looked up at her in surprise. "So you've traveled the whole world? It must've taken a long time."
A pause, and with her next words, he had to assume she'd shaken her head. He heard a faint rustling. "Only a few months."
Shock wasn't really strong enough to cover what he felt. He decided not to ask any further on it. "Is Aang from the North Pole, then?"
"No, he's from the Southern Air Temple. Didn't you see . . .I guess you wouldn't have, before." Katara replied. There was a baffled hesitance to her words, before she resolutely carried on. "Aang is the Avatar. I suppose you wouldn't have been able to see his airbending tattoos before, because of the bandages."
Booner stopped dead, eyes growing wide. He barely heard the rest of what Katara said. It was insignificant, in the wake of, The Avatar is here?! But he's just a kid!
"Booner?" he shook himself and picked up the pace, following after the waterbender once more, mind whirling with questions.
"I'm alright." he managed. I need answers more than ever . . . . I just need to figure out how to ask them. He couldn't be too obvious or blatant about them. They might figure it out, and from Katara's opinion of firebenders, she'd likely drown him on the spot if she somehow found out.
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Iroh watched calmly, if curious and concerned, as Zuko threw supplies back into bags, steam huffing out every other breath in his agitation. Hardly an hour ago, he had woken up since having been at the ghost town, facing down and taking a blow from Azula.
He had yet to learn why his nephew wished to return there now, and then run once more, as they had never been in the habit of returning to places they'd already been thus far. Especially considering how they'd battled there.
Finally, he stood, moved, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Nephew, I understand that our need for travel, to shake our enemies trail, is most wise. But we are still exhausted from the fight. We are safe here, and should rest."
Zuko pulled away. "You don't understand, Uncle!" Zuko snapped, smoke rising from clenched fists.
"Then help me to understand. What has worked you up so suddenly, Nephew?" Why are you panicking, when the danger has passed?
Silence, as Zuko kept packing their things. ". . . .I picked up a stray." he finally replied. "He was injured, so I took him to a healer. I told him to hide down in the village, so Azula wouldn't find him." he turned back to Iroh. "I-I promised to find him when the worst was over. And . . . ." his eyes strayed to Iroh's bandaged shoulder, and he looked away.
Iroh nodded a little. "In the rush to help me, you forgot. And now, you wish to find him again, and take him with us on our journey?"
Zuko nodded once. ". . . he's a firebender, Uncle. He's been rejecting his element. I only discovered this more recently, and was coaxing him into learning." He added softly, glancing down at his hands.
Brows raised, the retired general considered this. "A young firebender, so far from the colonies?" he murmured, mostly to himself.
Zuko looked back at him. "I thought he was an earthbender." a sharp sigh. "He acts a bit like one, too. The one time he blew up in my face, he stalked off and I found him near water, going through earthbending kata's as if his life depended on it."
"Hm. . . then he had at least one earthbender in his family, or one willing to teach him." Iroh mused. "Though, depending on age. . . ." he gave his nephew a look askance.
"Eleven, I think. I haven't asked him, but he looks around there." Zuko replies.
"A long time, then, to restrain his element, and his temper." Iroh muses to himself. He nods slightly, then grasps his nephew by the shoulder. "Let's go fetch him, then."
Zuko nods, expression stuck between gratitude and anxiousness.
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Booner was silent as he listened to Aangs' rambling, and the others more focused trails of speech as they recounted bits and pieces of their adventures. He made no comment, his mind wandering to and fro. Periodically, he reached out to the fire, just to feel the pulsing warmth. He wanted to try moving it around, make it dance or something. It was difficult to withdraw from the feeling of being Whole and keep it from flickering out of control.
But as the sun set and the air grew colder, he began to notice something. The fire produced heat; something he could sense. And he could sense it shifting and moving around objects. The closest being the others. An idea began to form then. He'd bent heat away from objects plenty of times before, back at the bakery. And he knew from traveling with Lee, that he could sense the firebenders' movements.
But would it work with people who weren't firebenders? That was the question, but even sensing how hot and cool air shifted and flowed would be infinitely useful. He ducked his head down and grinned. He could work with this. One way or another, his bending was going to let him see again. He thought over a few ways he could practice once he'd found Lee again. He'd have to learn how to sense people who weren't firebenders, eventually, but perhaps practicing on sensing small, harmless creatures would work, as well.
"So, Ashes." Booner started at the light punch to the shoulder, jerking his head towards the voice. "You an earthbender or what?"
"W-what? No. What makes you think I am?" he nearly choked, startled by Tophs' question.
"The way you move. Grounded to the earth, barely lifting your feet, things like that."
"You can. . .tell all that just from looking. . .?" He asked slowly, tilting his head curiously.
"I'm blind, but I 'see' with earthbending. I can feel the vibrations as people move and such."
". . .that's. . . Amazing, actually."
"Heh, thanks."
Booner grinned slightly when Toph punched his shoulder again. Maybe she wasn't so bad afterall . . .she'd been training with Aang most of the day, and that set him on edge in more ways than one. Then he frowned slightly, dipping his head down in thought, once again tuning out the conversation.
Toph had been training with Aang all day long, and far as he could tell, she'd worked him into the ground. But with all the noise and slinging rocks around, he'd been on edge all day. . . It was difficult to trust the ground he walked upon, or stray too near the cavern walls.
The vibrations were a warning that rang through his head, and he was prepared to dodge or run, bracing himself for pain. At one point he walked as far as he could and went through his forms, over and over, in a desperate attempt to calm himself, and avoid stirring up the fire with his fight-or-flight on high alert.
He was long-used to feeling vibrations in the ground, usually when his older brothers or mean earthbenders were throwing their weight around. But especially since he'd been blinded, he found it easier and easier to sense other peoples footsteps. . . But why? That wasn't his element. . .right?
He'd bent fire, and heat, but he apparently moved like an earthbender, and could sense the ground beneath him, to a degree. Was it. . . Was it possible that he could possibly have an affinity for earth, as well. . .?
He decided to test it later, and was further distracted from his thoughts when he felt a nudge, food pushed into his hands. He gave a quiet thank you, he kept his silence beside the fire, attacking the offered food like a starving dillo-lion. As his belly filled, he began to feel drowsy, but he was uncertain where he was meant to sleep. . .
Trying to organize his tired thoughts, Booner simply breathed. Deep breaths, through his nose, out through his mouth, trying to calm himself. His thoughts soon looped back around; He'd been on edge all throughout the Avatar's training; a tremble of earth that should be solid, a sudden crunch of stone against stone, a quiet shifting of dirt and gravel on flat ground; anything like that made his heart race and his mind prepare for varying types of pain, and a swift retreat.
And the manner in which Toph ran training sessions, he was on edge for hours.
Heat pulsed before him, growing closer before retreating into cold again. It was the fire. He focused more on it, taking deep breaths in and out, in and out, paying closer attention to how the fire flared and retreated as he did so. Could I bend the heat? Silly question, of course he could, to some degree. He'd done it at his aunt and mothers' bakery, after all; very useful for getting the trays of hot food out without hurting himself.
Better question was, could he try to . . . to "see" using his ability to sense the heat? Focusing once again on the fire, and the heat it created, he kept breathing, shifting into a more meditative pose. In, out, in, out, he felt the heat and cold come and go with the flaring of the fire.
Slowly, slowly, he started to pick out patterns; how the heated air curled over the ground, around objects. How the hot air rose and cooler air swept in to take its place. He smiled a little, despite the exhaustion weighing him down more heavily. He could work with this. He could make this work! Thinking on the possible ways to use this newfound ability as he stretched and yawned widely, a thought struck him.
He'd had and used this ability ever since Lee found him.
He'd sensed the firebender from a ways away, and from there, he'd taken it even further. From simply sensing where he was to "seeing" him bend the flames of a campfire. Everything gave off some level of heat, though . . . .
Booner grinned to himself as he curled up next to the fire. He couldn't see anymore. He'd likely never see again. At least, not with his eyes.
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In. Out. In. Out.
Zuko forced himself to breathe, struggling with the urge to set something on fire. He'd searched through the house he'd instructed him to go too. He searched the surrounding houses, too. And for nothing.
Nothing.
Booner was gone, and he didn't even know where to start looking. It didn't help that several of the buildings had been set on fire and half-burnt to the ground during the fight. He hadn't found a body anywhere, he knew the flames weren't hot enough to cremate any bones -
Stop, he told himself forcibly. Think. You showed him how to put out fires. He could've controlled any flames around him enough so he wouldn't get burned. Even then, he would've left and gone somewhere else. Wouldn't he?
Or would he have stayed put, following orders? Hoping for Zuko to come for him afterwards? To bend the flames away and rescue him?
What if he hadn't left of his own will?
Frowning, Zuko considered that thought. What if Booner had been scooped up by some other force, and taken away? Unwillingly, even? While it would definitely be wise to leave the building, even to stray from the village proper, the boy wouldn't have gone too far.
And the only people who'd been nearby was the Avatar and his allies, and - Azula.
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Booner had a newfound dislike of airbenders. Aang - or Twinkletoes, as Toph had nicknamed him - was too unpredictable. He bounced from one thing to the next with little thought, and the way he could just sneak up on him was fraying his nerves in a way that earthbenders never had before.
It didn't help that Toph could, apparently, sense every move he might make, so escaping by himself was an impossibility. However, his newfound hiding place was relatively brilliant. If a little itchy.
"ASHY, COME OUT ALREADY!"
He winced a little at Toph's shout, burrowing deeper into the fur of the enormous beast. He wasn't planning on moving anytime soon. Hiding usually worked with his brothers . . . why not a scary, blind earthbender girl?
A sudden breeze ruffled his hair and the fur around him, and a too-loud voice called out, "Found him!"
A hand grabbing his and trying to pull him down the gigantic fluffy monster he'd been hiding on. "LET GO!" the boy immediately jerked away, but he quickly lost his footing. He tumbled from the furred back and hit the ground in a sprawl of limbs and pain, the breath knocked out of him. He struggled for endless moments to inhale, exhale, ANYTHING, before finally choking down a breath and rolling onto his side.
A soft moan of pain, and he forced himself upright.
"Booner! you alright?" a gentle hand on his shoulder; it took him a moment to match the worried voice up to Katara.
He shrugged, still wheezing. Pain radiated through his chest, but it was manageable. Barely. "I-I'm okay . . ." he replies, hiding the worst of the pain from his voice.
Another brush of moving air across his face, and he couldn't help but flinch. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make you lose your balance like that." Aang apologizes, landing softly nearby.
Booner shrugs, keeping his head tilted in a way that kept his bangs over his eyes. Despite the pain and wounds having left, he didn't like having them exposed. He was sure that there were scars, or that his eyes were messed up, or -
"There you are! It's time to start on those lessons, Ashy." Toph stomped over, earth pulsing with faint vibrations that made warnings ring through the blind boys head.
"Lessons? I thought you were teaching Aang how to bend earth, not Booner." Sokka points out, closer to the heat of a dying campfire.
"I watched Ashy go through a lot of earthbending forms early this morning. He has them all down-pat, and I want to see if he can actually bend."
Booner felt the blood drain from his face at this, and rooted aroudn for some excuse or explanation. Thankfully, Katara spoke up for him,
"Now, hang on, are we sure this is a good idea? Especially if it turns out he can't bend?"
"Calm down, Sugar Queen, I'm not gonna just fling a rock at his face. Even if he can bend, I can't expect him to be as strong as I am."
Booner hunched his shoulders, whining under his breath when Toph grabbed his shoulder and dragged him along, biting his lip. "Don't worry, I won't rough up either of them too much."
. . . .by Oma and Shu.
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In. Out. In. Out.
Zuko forced himself to breathe, struggling with the urge to set something on fire. He'd searched through the house he'd instructed him to go too. He searched the surrounding houses, too. And for nothing.
Nothing.
Booner was gone, and he didn't even know where to start looking. It didn't help that several of the buildings had been set on fire and half-burnt to the ground during the fight. He hadn't found a body anywhere, he knew the flames weren't hot enough to cremate any bones -
Stop, he told himself forcibly. Think. You showed him how to put out fires. He could've controlled any flames around him enough so he wouldn't get burned. Even then, he would've left and gone somewhere else. Wouldn't he?
Or would he have stayed put, following orders? Hoping for Zuko to come for him afterwards? To bend the flames away and rescue him?
What if he hadn't left of his own will?
Frowning, Zuko considered that thought. What if Booner had been scooped up by some other force, and taken away? Unwillingly, even? While it would definitely be wise to leave the building, even to stray from the village proper, the boy wouldn't have gone too far.
And the only people who'd been nearby was the Avatar and his allies, and - Azula.
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She noticed the way his heartbeat sped up. The way every strong vibration in the eart had him shaking minutely with fear and anticipation. How at times he inched away when she and Aang were training a little rougher than she had with the younger boy, and how he planted his feet a little harder than necessary when it was his turn.
He was afraid. Earthbenders had hurt him before, hurt him badly, and he was afraid. But more than his fear, he stood his ground, willingly being pelted gently by pebbles, and attempting to deflect them back. She did it in a pattern, and the more they practiced, the more she felt it.
A faint stirring in the earth, the younger boy beginning to tap into his earthbending. It brought a grin to her face. All she had to do was figure out how to break him of his reluctance to embrace his element and push back against the rock all on his own.
She was dealing with similar issues with Aang, but she was still working out how to get him to see that there WERE no ways around, no other angles.
Ashy's issue was, she guessed, he was afraid of fighting back with his bending.
So, in an attempt to break him from this habit, she took him aside, placed some pebbles in his hand, and instructed him to fling them at her.
"For every one that doesn't meet it's mark, I'm throwing two back at you. When you manage to hit me, I'll stop."
"But. . .why? How is this going to help?"
"You can't hold back with your bending. You have to push harder than the earth resists, or whoever you're fighting will crush you into dust!"
He flinched, then nodded minutely. She stood back about five paces, and started shouting insults at him, taunting him as he began chucking rocks at him.
There was no force behind the rocks that bounced around her or at her feet, no energy possessing the stone. His emotions were in a twist, ranging from frustration and fear to hesitation and determination.
As the rocks continued to miss, she began to throw back. Not hard, of course, but enough. The first couple of blows, he held his ground, but then. . . He loosened up, and began to dodge. Narrowing her eyes, she changed her pattern, making it as random as possible, but he managed to dodge them all the same.
Finally, he had run out of rocks, and she was still throwing them. His pulse was racing; he was afraid, and in sharp gesture of his hand, the pebbles stopped dead.
Yes, Toph thought to herself, pushing against the pebbles, her grin widening as he pushed back, huffing softly.
Seeming to realize what he was doing, Booner's feet shifted, leaning forward, filled with shock and amazement.
"Didn't know I could. . . C-could. . ."
Looking around himself, he made a small, purposeful stomp, gesturing with his hands and yanking a chunk of earth up before him. Hesitating a moment, he twisted around and launched it at the cliff face with grunt. He flinched when it smashed into pieces, then turned and glanced at the ground, the small hole created, then down at his hands.
"Heh, you did it then, Ashy. Let's see if—"
A small hiccup left him, Quickly turning into sobs. Ashy curled in on himself, hugging himself tightly, his pulse fluttering with his pain and shock.
He whimpered, wiping at his eyes. Uncertain what to do, Toph walked over and patted him awkwardly on the back, and pulled him in the direction of camp.
"Come on. . . Let's go back. You've worked yourself up."
Katara was quick to take the sobbing boy into her arms, doing her best to comfort him. Ashy was greatly conflicted, taking comfort from the embrace but feeling guilty for it. That wall she could clearly pick out, but her ears told her a bit more.
". . . I was. . .th-they always. . . Just b-because. . .b-because I wasn't like them. . .th-they'd h-hurt me. . ."
"Who did, Booner?" Katara asked softly, gently wiping away his tears.
"M-my brothers. . .'nd other e-earthbenders. . .n-n-never lef' me 'lone. . .a-always h-hurting me. . .th-they. . ." He sniffled, clutching at his ribs, a ripple of pain through the earth, caused by memories and injuries. ". . .th-they blinded m-me. . .I-I-"
His reactions to her training suddenly clicked into place, and Toph felt guilt worm it's way into her gut. She hadn't known about the boys blindness, nor the cause of it. . .
Ashy whined and buried back into Katara's shirt, murmuring under his breath, shoulders shaking with his sobs. It was a long time before he had cried himself out. Exhausted, he soon fell asleep, curled up near the embers of the fire.
A/N: Soooo, this was a story I'd been working on about two years ago, and recently found my old notes for. Everything except the last scene is roughly two years old, and I may work on rewriting the whole thing later. LEt me know if you're interested, and I'll continue to add to this work and rewrite it at a later date. Thanks for readin' y'all!