Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ When Ice and Lava Meet ❯ Quite a Story ( Chapter 11 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Disclaimer: I don’t own Avatar: The Last Air-bender, the very talented team of Mike and Brain own the show and characters. The rating maybe wrong but I did try to get it right.

By: year of the snake (at fanfiction) aka. crescentmoon (at mediaminer). And now Opal-Dreams on DeviantArt.

When Ice and Lava Meet

Chapter Eleven

That got the young water-bender to come home and sit in a somewhat relaxed position on her bed. “Are you sure you want to do this, Blind Bandit?”
“Yes, and my name is Toph, Toph Bei Fong. I am the daughter of an aristocrat, heir and only child of the Bei Fong fortune. I come from the Earth Kingdom.”
“But… Then why are you here?”
“Well, that is what I wish to tell you.” Toph gave out a breathy, self loathing laugh. “My parents loved me very much. They hired the best earth-bending teachers money could bring them for me. They bought me more clothes and toys then I could possible use. I had a personal servant. Every thing that needed sight, even things that my abilities made easy to me was done for me. I was spoiled rotten, but the one thing I wanted, I needed, they didn’t give. They could never except who I truly am, a strong, independent person who would just as soon take on an entire army alone than be locked away like they had me.” Toph took a deep breath. “So when I overheard some of the guards taking about an earth-bending rumble that was all the rage among their sons, I snuck out. That night all I did was watch through my feet. The men in the ring beat each other around with blocks of earth. It was an adrenaline rush that exceeded my thoughts, to be out of my home, in a place that my parents would say was too dangerous for their blind, helpless daughter…” She paused.
Katara, who could sense the unsaid but, said, “But?”
“But it wasn’t enough, I had to do something unleash who I really was. That is when I first took on a name that wasn’t my own, The Badger-Mole. I chose it because I had learned earth-bending from the badger-moles. And because the badger-moles and I share a trait, we’re both blind earth-benders. I shot to the rank of champion that night. And I went again the next week to defend my title and the next and the next. Then the next time my father followed me, but I was too high on my freedom to notice. That night the match was all of the other contestants against me. And my father watched. That night he banned me from ever returning to the arena. He locked me away even more. A constant guard was posted ‘inside’ my room. I was never left alone for more than five minutes.”
“So you ran away…”
“Yes, I did. I locked my guard in a tight stone box and left.” Toph sighed. “I ran to another town. That’s when I learned that I could cheat the conmen that worked on the side of the road. At first it was all about me. All the money I got I spent foolishly. I bought things I didn’t need or really want. I began to hoard money and things. And I would leave the things behind when they no longer amused me. I cussed and spit and did everything I could think of that my parents would hate me for. I was an out of control monster.
“I kept moving on to avoid the men my father sent out after me. Eventually I found myself in a seaside town. There I stayed for too long. The men my father sent caught up to me. They aligned themselves with local rift raft. And they managed to capture me in a metal box. That experience forced me to rapidly learn metal-bending.”
“You can metal-bend! That’s amazing!”
“Yes. Let me finish, Sweetness.”
“Sorry.”
Toph glared at her and Katara mumbled a muffled sorry into her blanket. “As I was saying, I taught myself to metal-bend. Then I locked those suckers in the very box they were using to contain me. Then I earth-bended my way back to the town as fast as my bending would go. I ended up on the docks. I heard someone talking to someone else about looking for a girl with a big reward on her head. So I ducked into one of the ships to let it take me away. I don’t like ships but I would do anything to stay out of the oppressive grip of my parents.” Toph paused again here but this time Katara stayed quiet.
“I thought the ship would just go to another Earth Kingdom town not too far away. The ship didn’t dock again until we were in the Fire Nation, on the island favored by the Painted Lady.” Toph left out how long and scary the ride had been for her. How she felt completely out of her element even though the ship was metal. “I didn’t stay there long. But I think it may have been the Painted Lady who guided me to a nice family who provided me with Fire Nation clothes and food. The day I left the family gave me my Painted Lady charm. It has been bringing me luck and a reminder of how there are good folks out there, since that day.
“After I arrived on the mainland I began my schemes again. But two days after I started I witnessed as only I can the cruelty the pour is subjected to. An old woman, frail and all alone was tripped by a man of ‘good standing’ and everyone pointed and laughed. No one reprimanded him, no one helped her up. On the impact she had broken her arm and all they could do was jeer her. That is when I realized what I could do. I could provide that woman and the pour like her with money taken from those that could afford to spare it.
“It didn’t take long for a name to surface, I was known as the Blind Bandit. The rich began to fear me and to carry less and less money around with them and the pour and unhealthy where able to afford to feed themselves, find lodging and medicine. The rich weren’t happy, but I think they rarely are.”
“Wow… Toph that is quite a story.”
“Yeah…” she sighed.
Katara stood to place a hand on the younger woman’s shoulder. “You miss them… huh?”
“What! Not in the least!”
“Toph, it’s okay to miss them. It’s okay to love them. They loved you, even if they didn’t know how to show it.”
Toph sighed and hung her head. “Yes, I do miss them…… Katara, would you help me write them?”
“I would be honored.”

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Hi everyone! I’m sorry this is late. But to make it up I have a surprise… I’m going to try to get the next chapter up tonight! Yes, I am giving you all a Halloween treat! I am better now, I just hope I stay that way.
Now on to my reviewers. I want to thank you all. Thanks to Alice Prince, xyzisme and Kaydreams from Fanfiction(.)net and allyonshinezutara from deviantART. Thanks so much! You’re all amazing!
Xyzisme won the ‘What does Ice and Lava make?’ contest. I will try to have her prize up tonight as well. She asked me to write a fan story on one of her stories. It wasn’t an option but I decided to see if any of her stories inspired me and one did. So I went with it. =D Check It out, it will be a sad Zutara story, named Wind Blown Ashes. Shhh!
Kaydreams demanded a rematch, hehehe! ;D And wanted to know if the kittens have names. Of course! There’s Carna (short of carnivore) and her sister Crybaby (Cry). Thanks for the well wishes.
Well, you’ll see more soon! Bye!