[A/N] Here's another chapter for you guys.
This one is in Toph's Pov.
Please enjoy!
She rolled her shoulders to alleviate tension before whistling sharply. A moment later, Helios swooped down to land on her shoulder, "Did you see anybody else while you were up there?" He shook his head, trilling softly.
She scratched the top of his head, "I guess we're done here then. Lets go see if there's anything worth taking and get out of here."
As she walked to the largest tent, the only one left untouched by her flames, she sighed once more.
'I hope Toph is having more fun than me…'
Toph was in fact not having fun.
The earthbender hissed in annoyance as Aang blasted himself into the tree line with another burst of air. She had been trying to teach him how to earthbend for what felt like days at this point to no success, he still couldn't even move a simple boulder, something most learned to do in their fist hours of training. Toph knew air and earth were opposites but come on.
She shook her head in exasperation, "No, not like that!" She stomped over to where she could feel him laying, forcing him into a standing position with a simple jab of her foot, "You have to move the boulder, not let it move you! Earth is the most stubborn element, if you don't come at it with everything you've got, it won't budge an inch." She gestured for him to stand back, squaring her stance and bringing an arm back, "Like this!"
Toph thrust her fist forward sharply, sending the boulder flying backward to smash against the cliff face, sending cracks shooting up toward the top of the cliff. She waited a moment for the dust to settle before turning back to Aang, forcing another boulder to rise from the ground, "There, think you can do that?"
She could feel Aang's hesitance, "I'll try Toph." She could feel him walk up to the boulder, footsteps barely brushing her seismic sense, and could immediately tell he wouldn't succeed. There was still too much hesitance in his stance, instead of being firmly planted like all earthbenders, he was barley touching the ground, as if he was ready to dart out of the way at a moment's notice.
He thrust his hand out similarly to Toph only instead of the boulder moving, a huge gust of air emerged from his fist, smashing uselessly against the rock and sending the airbender flying back once more with a yell.
Toph sighed, holding out her hand to catch him by the collar as he flew past her. She waited a moment as his screaming subsided before dropping him back on the ground roughly. She scratched her head in thought, maybe they were too early for practical stuff, she vaguely remembered that Air Nomads were mostly spiritual when they were still around, the exact opposite of earthbenders. Teaching one to earthbend would be like more difficult than teaching a natural earthbender. Wait…
She nodded to herself, that could work. She turned to Aang who was rubbing his butt from where it hit the ground so hard, "Alright my young student. I think we're too early for practical stuff right now so we're going to try a different method of training." She could feel Aang perk up slightly from his place on the ground, he jumped up with a gust of air, ruffling Toph's clothes in the process.
"What are we going to do Sifu? Are you going to teach me how to feel things through the earth, or turn sand into rock, or or or-" Toph held a hand to his face, silencing his rant before it could really get going. She could feel Katara standing on the edges of her senses, watching them train silently, Sokka was still off in the woods looking for something edible.
She shook her head at her student, "Not quite Aang, you aren't ready for all of that. You need to be able to move rocks before you can manipulate them like that. No, we're going back to basics." She removed her hand from his face before turning and walking back to her earthen tent, feeling Aang and Katara following curiously.
She reached into the tent and retrieved her pack, rummaging through it for a moment before removing her hand and raising it triumphantly, "Ah Ha! Here it is!" It her hand was a scroll, her fingers moved to the edges of the rolled parchment and she smiled as she felt the sigil of the Earth Kingdom inscribed into the metal ends.
"A scroll? Why do you have that?" Katara asked hesitantly as she and Aang came to stand beside Toph.
Toph laughed, " Well it's not for me duh. When I left my parent's to come with you guys, I asked one of our butlers to bring me one of Sensei Yu's training scrolls. Yu may have been a sleezy guy, but he was a pretty alright teacher all things considered. I was just better than him by the time I turned five."
She tossed the scroll to Aang, feeling him fumble to catch it before finally getting ahold of it, "That scroll should have a few basic earthbending stances in it. I was hoping we wouldn't need it but teaching an airbender to earthbender is actually pretty difficult. Who would have guessed."
Aang opened the scroll excitedly, only to be disappointed at what he saw, "But wait, these stances are nothing like the one's you use." He shook the scroll for emphasis, Katara coming up to look over his shoulder as the airbender flushed at the close contact.
Toph nodded, "What's in that scroll is probably the Armored Boar style. It's meant for beginners because it uses a lot of basic movements chained together to move the earth. It's mostly used as a starting point before earthbenders start branching out to other styles."
Katara grasped the scroll in Aangs hands, seemingly oblivious to his condition, though her heartbeat said otherwise, "These stances all seem to be pretty simple, how come you don't use any of them?"
The earthbender shrugged, "I was never trained in them." She said simply, "I first learned earthbending from the Badgermoles in the mountains near my family's estate. As I grew up, I mostly learned new techniques by watching others through my seismic sense and trying to do it myself. I've been told my style is similar to Southern Praying Mantis style with some slight variations but I wouldn't know."
Toph hadn't really had a teacher when she was younger. Oh sure, the Badgermoles taught her how to move the earth and use her seismic sense, something she was extremely thankful for, but they weren't really traditional earthbenders as they mostly just used earthbending to make their tunnels and fend off the few predators they had.
When she eventually did return to her family, she soon discovered that her seismic sense reached a cavern underneath Gaoling itself. At first, she just thought it was a big cave nobody had discovered until one day she began to feel people enter the cavern and sit at it's edges. As she continued watching, she was shocked to feel the vibrations she had come accustomed to in the mountains with the Badgermoles, people were earthbending down there. Not only that, they were battling with their earthbending, something that interested the young blind girl immensely.
Over the next several years, Toph would spend several hours at a time just sitting in her backyard and feeling the various earthbenders battle each other below her town. She would often attempt to replicate the techniques she felt, something that proved beyond difficult in the beginning but slowly grew easier as time went on.
Still, after years of simply watching, the yearning inside Toph grew greater and greater. She wanted to be down there, testing her mettle against other earthbenders as an adoring crowd cheered on. She wanted to feel the rumble and crash of boulders smashing against each other and the breathless feeling that came from giving your all to a battle. She wanted it so bad it hurt.
A few days after she turned twelve, she got her chance. Her guards had been especially lax owing to the increased heat common in Gaoling's summer months. All it took was asking for a glass of water and the two guards were all too happy to return to the cool insides of her estate. Toph took that opportunity to tunnel under her house and emerge in the cave under the city, she covered herself in dirt and tore her dress in several places. Hoping no one would believe the child of the Beifong family would look like a common urchin, she entered the cavern.
Questioning those who were there at the time revealed the fights she had been hearing were part of a tournament, the Earth Rumble tournament was open to any and all earthbenders provided they had the coin. Toph never went anywhere without money on her so she was able to pay the fee, though she had a feeling she overpaid if the feeling of the man's heartbeat was anything to go by. It didn't matter though, she was in. She'd finally be able to test her skills against other earthbenders, maybe she's even win the tournament.
She lost badly. A little blind girl who had never seen a fight in her life stood no chance against grown men and women who had been fighting longer than she had been alive. Still, even with her numerous bruises and cuts, Toph couldn't get rid of the grin on her face, she had never felt more alive. The yells and cheers of the crowd, the feeling of the earth shifting beneath her feet and blood rushing through her veins, it was exhilarating.
She returned the next week, and lost similarly. She returned the week after that and did a little bit better, actually defeating an opponent before being eliminated. The week after that, she defeated two. This went on for years, each time she fought she got a little bit better, made it a little bit further into the bracket until eventually, she was the champion.
And there she stayed, basking in the feeling of her victories until one day, she stepped into the ring with an airbender. Battling Aang had been both frustrating and enlightening, she had been on top of the world, only to bright crashing down with a gust of wind. And though she had been mad in the moment, when she sat down and thought about it, she was actually kind of happy. Fighting in the tournament had been getting boring, she barely had to try to defeat her numerous challengers anymore.
Fighting Aang brought back that feeling she had when she first started fighting in the tournaments, the feeling of seeing her techniques fail and having to adjust accordingly. It was exhilarating. She had joined Aang in hopes that she would get to test herself against other skilled benders again, be able to cement her status as the greatest earthbender on the planet.
Toph shook herself out of her thoughts and turned toward Aang who was staring at her expectantly. "I want you to practice the katas on that scroll until they're second nature, but-," She held up a hand, silencing the airbender as he went to protest, "there is a second part to it. Follow me."
She walked back to the clearing they had been training in before, she stomped twice before bringing her fists forward in a punching motion. The ground rumbled before a wave of earth swept across the ground, flattening it and pushing the debris from their training away.
She dusted her hands off, admiring her handywork for a moment before turning back toward the airbender. She pointed to the top of the cliff, "I want you practicing up there. I'll be doing my own training down here, you're gonna listen to the earth while you practice. Don't just meditate, listen. Listen to the vibrations of distant animals moving through the forest, the rumbling of rocks shifting in the ground. The earth has a voice, one that all of the greatest earthbenders learn to understand, learning to listen is the first step."
Aang nodded crouching down, "Got it Toph. Good luck with your training!" He jumped up, bolstering himself with wind and leaping from rock to rock on his way to the top of the cliff. Toph watched him go for a moment before turning to her own training.
She crouched, placing her hands on the ground and took a deep breath to focus her chi. As she did so, she felt Katara come up behind her, "What are you training for? Aren't you already a master earthbender?" She questioned in confusion.
Toph grunted, muscles clenching as she held her palms against the dirt, "Yeah, but that fight with the firebender made me realize something. I have no counter to an opponent who can fly, if they aren't touching the ground or made of earth, I can't see them."
Katara sighed, facepalming, "Don't tell me you were serious when you said you wanted to fight her again. She already beat you once, what if the next time she isn't as merciful!"
The earthbender smirked in remembrance. When she had regrouped with the rest of the group at Shu Yan, she had told them all about her fight with the firebender, including the deal she had made. Needless to say, they weren't exactly happy with her making deals on their behalf. Sokka especially was adamant against having a 'fire nation spy' join their group in the event she held up her end of the deal.
"Next time I'll beat her." She grunted and felt Katara throw her arms up in exasperation and walk away, most likely to find her brother.
Toph didn't really care what they thought. Aang needed a firebending teacher and where else where they gonna find one that didn't try to melt his face off the moment they saw his tattoos?
Not to mention, that firebender had given her one hell of a fight.
When she had confronted the bounty hunter in that abandoned town, she had been both wary and exited, she had never fought a firebender before and the cloaked woman seemed as if she would be a challenge.
And she was right, not only was the firebender a challenge, she was easily as skilled as Toph herself. The fight had been a close one, the flow of battle switching back and forth between them on a dime in the burning town. Toph had been forced to pull out multiple tricks in her arsenal that she hadn't used in years just to keep up.
And yet despite the danger, despite knowing the other girl was liable to kill her given the chance, she couldn't keep a smile off of her face as she felt her blood begin to pump once more. She was exited to fight such a strong opponent.
The battle lasted several minutes and ended with the other girl straddling her, sword resting against her face as they both panted in exertion. Toph believed she was going to be captured, subjected to horrible torture so the bounty hunter could find Aang but she was wrong. Instead, after several seconds of staring at her the bounty hunter just… stood and walked away.
The earthbender was confused, and demanded the reason why she hadn't been captured. The answer still brought a grin to her face,
"...it's been forever since I had a fight like that. I want to see how much stronger you can get, that can't happen from the inside of a cell."
The firebender was like her, someone who lived to test her skills against strong opponents. Toph had found someone who actually understood what it was like to be the best around with nobody around to challenge them. She had been ecstatic when the firebender had agreed to her proposition.
Though her face still warmed slightly when she recalled the other girl's parting remark.
Back in the present, Toph raised her hands from the dirt and slammed them back down again. Under her palms the earth cratered and buckled as around her, a massive cloud of rock dust spread quickly around the area, heading toward the tree line. Toph focused on the dust as it slowly approached the trees. The earthbender figure since she could sense things in the air if they were were made of earth, there was no reason she couldn't feel where there wasn't earth or dust in this case.
She waited with baited breath as the edge of the cloud approached the first tree, currently she could feel everything around her though it was a bit fuzzy, if her theory proved correct though…
The dust reached the tree and a massive grin split her face. She couldn't feel it. Where the tree was supposed to be was just a large hole in the cloud of dust, yet despite that, she still knew where the tree was by the shape of the void.
Toph cackled to herself as the dust spread further, more voids appearing in her dust sense as the cloud crossed into the trees. She calmed down, focusing her chi and making a pulling motion with her arms, grinning widely as the dust began to travel back toward her albeit extremely slowly.
She grit her teeth, sweat appearing on her brow as she exerted her fragile control on the dust particles, attempting to increase their speed. It was much more difficult to control than the earth she was used to, more wispy like smoke instead of the solid stone she was used to.
Still, it was possible and Toph would continue practicing this new skill until she got it perfect, hopefully in time for her rematch with the firebender. She just needed a name for the technique. She hummed in though before it struck her and she grinned, "Dustbending. Heh, it's perfect."
Toph grinned, sweat making it's way down her face as she began trying to increase her control on the dust cloud. She could just imagine the look on the bounty hunter's face when the earthbender unveiled her new skill.
"I'll show her Dustbunny, let's see how she does against me when I can see her no matter where she is."
[A/N] That's all folks. Next update is probably gonna be on 'Still Alive'.
Until next time!