Tokka Week: Alone

Tokka Week Four

Prompt: Alone

It was relatively sunny out – at least, from what Toph could tell based on the warmth in her skin. One of the gang's best so far on their journey; there were only a few clouds in the sky, and plenty of animals were scampering through the underbrush enjoying the afternoon, as well. It was, all in all, the perfect day, and the only thing that could make it any better was about to begin.

       Toph grinned as she and her best friend – Sokka – made their way casually through the streets of the lonely little Fire Nation town. Both were using their own methods of vision (the warrior his eyes, and the earthbender her feet) to search for fresh victims—er, players. The blind girl picked up the vibrations of a particularly rowdy group of men in the alleyway to their right, just as Sokka gave his exclamation of, "Right down there, Toph." Oh yes, the fun was about to begin. With that, she did her best to clear her mind of everything but the task at hand, and put on her best 'I'm-so-blind-and-innocent' look.

       Soon, she and her companion were casually passing by the group, Sokka leading her by the arm (an action that caused her heart rate to momentarily speed up, before she reigned her emotions back in). "What's that noise, Sokka?" Toph asked sweetly, doing her best to look confused. After all the time she had spent with her parents, it was a role she could play nearly too well.

       "Oh, it's just some good folks playing a game." He replied, patting her hand.

       "That sounds like so much fun… I wish I could join…" Toph sighed, looking forlorn. And… cue the dramatic slow-in-pace.

       3…

       2…

       1…

       "Well, miss, if you really want to play, we can make some room," a gruff voice responded, sounding a little smug, "right boys? It may cost you a few, though. That's the way of chance."

       "I don't know, Toph. These guys don't exactly look-" Sokka started, before the little metalbender cut him off.

       "Oh, it'll be fine, Sokka!" she took a hesitant step forward, pretending to look momentarily unsure, and she felt two of the men nearest to her move away slightly. "I'd love to join, if you're sure about having me."

       "It'll be no problem at all," the leader said, standing and leading her forward gently. Sokka reacted to this as any older brother might (Toph decided he acted his part too naturally towards her for her liking, but wrote it off to having to take care of Katara in the past), and stepped forward worriedly. "Calm down, Sokka, my man. We're not going to do anything to her." He stepped back, but looked wary.

       "So what is it, and how do you play?" Toph asked, though she already knew through the vibrations in the earth underneath their feet.

       "Well, miss, all you have to do is roll these dice here-" he pressed the two aforementioned items into her hand "-and, if you get doubles, you'll get twice the pool. If not, you lose your bet.  You'll have to pay to play, though; them's the rules." The burly man grinned, most likely thinking to himself how much easy money he was about to make.

       "It sounds fair enough," she said, turning back to her 'brother' and reaching out her hand. "Can I have some change, Sokka?" With an over exaggerated huff (what was he trying to do, give them away?), he reluctantly handed over four gold pieces. She heard the collective gasp from the men in the group, and decided to only take two pieces for this little venture, just so they didn't draw too much attention. "Here's my bet." She held both pieces out in a seemingly random direction – which was, in fact, not at all where the man was standing – and smiled sweetly. The money was greedily snatched up by a sweaty hand as the other men added their own meager sums to the pool, and Toph asked, "So I just roll the dice? That's all?"

       "That's right, miss. Just roll them dice and see if you win." With that, the little blind girl threw down the stone dice, carefully sensing what they would land on. One and three; an easy enough change. With a gentle nudge of her foot, the precariously-balanced three landed instead on a one. Serpent eyes. There was a second group-wide intake of air in the small circle of men, and the leader stood gaping at the two pieces of rock like a fish, clutching to the gold in his hand for dear life.

       "I believe that means we won, right?" Sokka asked from behind Toph, and she could practically hear the barely-concealed grin in his voice. This was his favorite part, collecting the winnings.

       "Y-yes, that would be a win." The man stuttered, before he addressed the others. "Alright, men, you know what this means. Everyone fork over twice their bet." There were groans around the circle, but each worker and soldier complied, though somewhat begrudgingly. Soon, the young warrior's arms held several small bags of various money pieces, and Toph stepped back towards him – nearly forgetting for a second her act. She remembered just in time, though, and managed a falter in her step that nearly sent her tumbling backwards. Nearly. Because the great Toph Bei Fong never actually fell, whether it was for the sake of free winnings or not.

       "I think we should get going, Toph." Sokka said, readjusting the load in his arms. "We've been gone long enough as it is."

       "That was fun!" she replied. "Maybe we'll come back sometime and play again."

       "Well, I don't know, miss; this really isn't the type of thing for someone like you." Oh, he had no idea how wrong he was. "'Sides, we'll not likely be here next time you come around."

       "Oh, well…" she pretended to look sullen, before Sokka took her arm once more.

       "Maybe we'll see you sirs around the market sometime, eh?" he said, beginning to lead Toph away. Soon, the pair was out of the alleyway and far enough down the road that the men could neither hear nor see them. "Yes!" Sokka laughed, releasing Toph (to her dismay, though she wasn't exactly sure why she was disappointed) and greedily eyeing the bags in his arms. "That was awesome, Toph!"

       "It was pretty cool," she agreed, nodding.

       "Ha, Toph, you should have seen their faces when you flipped the di-" he stopped, faltering in his tracks for a moment as the blind girl continued on. For some reason, it always made her happy when he forgot her disability, but always seemed so apologetic whenever it happened.

       "It's fine, Snoozles; what were their faces like?" She asked, motioning for him to pick up the pace again. It was getting later in the day, and the streets were beginning to clog up. If they were going to successfully sneak out of the city and back to the group's hiding place without being noticed, they were going to need to be careful.

       "Oh, um, they were…" he trailed off, trying to think just how to describe their victims' expressions. "Well, their mouths were hanging so far open, they looked like they were about to fall off! And their eyes were all really huge, like badger-frog eyes! And they were all 'oh my gosh, we just lost to a little blind girl!'"

       "I was there, Meathead. They didn't say that."

       "Well, uh, they should have. It would have been funnier!"

       "And then you would have blown our cover by laughing, and ruined the whole thing!" She could practically feel his eyebrow twitching.

       "You know what? I'm going to go spend some of this money so Katara doesn't get so bent out of shape over this whole thing. You can go… over there." He huffed – rather immaturely, his younger sister would have commented – and stalked off towards a stall with various cuts of meat hanging from its rafters. Toph had to suppress a grin; of course Sokka would go for that first, before remembering that Aang was a vegetarian… if he even thought about it at all.

       With a sigh, she continued to slowly walk along. It didn't really matter how far she went, because she could always pick out the warrior's heartbeat among the throng of people. A throng that seemed to be getting larger with every step she took. The day was coming to a close, and many workers were heading home, taking the route through the marketplace in order to buy something for dinner, among other reasons. The vibrations of steady heartbeats, footsteps, and the occasional animal pulling a cart, on top of the escalating noise level, was beginning to give Toph a bit of a headache, so she decided to turn around and retrace her steps back to her companion.

       After several moments, her thoughts began to wander. To their next scam. The next town the group would travel to. Sokka. The war. The Fire Lord. The upcoming battle. Sokka. Dinner tonight. The impending argument with Katara that awaited her back at camp. Sokka. The metalbender's mind kept returning back to her best friend, and that fact was starting to annoy her. Why was he constantly on her mind? Why did she start to feel differently when they were together? Why was-

       And then there was nothing.

       Toph stopped dead in her tracks, all-too-aware of the abrupt loss of any contact with the earth, and – in turn - her vision. After taking a breath to calm her suddenly-racing heartbeat, she took a step back in an effort to return to the ground. Her ankle caught on something, though, and she found herself careening forward instead of reverse. The resulting fall mentally turned her around, and she was forced to accept that – as of right then – she had no idea where she was. "Excuse me?" she asked as politely as she could (not an easy task for her) after she righted herself to someone, anyone, around. When she received no answer, though, she gave an exasperated sigh and tried once more. "Pardon me?" Again, she was ignored, with caused her to become even more frustrated. She could hear the people around her, so why weren't they responding?

       In her frustration, she took another step forward… which did nothing but confuse her more. At this point, she decided it would be best to simply wait – as much as it pained her to admit – for Sokka to return from his little shopping spree. He shouldn't be much longer, right? No, he was probably just around the corner, coming to get her right then.

       Still, though, no Sokka came.

       In her frantic isolation, the sounds of the bustling and busy marketplace seemed amplified tenfold, and what was only the beginnings of a headache earlier became a migraine. Another attempt to reach the earth once more resulted in even further getting Toph lost even more than she was already, and she found herself becoming more and more aware of just how alone she felt in this crowd of people.  

       Sokka seemed to be taking an exceptionally long time to come find her.

       What if he couldn't ? What if he was looking for her, but didn't see her and gave up? What if he barely looked, thinking she had already made her way back to camp? What if he didn't even search at all, thinking she had left him? What if he didn't come looking for her, simply because he didn't feel the need to? Didn't care? Didn't want to be around her any more than he had to?

       What if she was stuck here, alone, until night fell and the streets cleared?

       A lump rose in the fearless earthbending master's throat, and Toph suddenly became very aware of just how small and blind she was at the moment. Suddenly, something grabbed her wrist, and she tried to yank away, startled and the tiniest bit afraid. "Gosh, Toph, it's just me." Came a familiar voice, and the girl could have jumped into his arms right then and there. She retained her composure however, and did nothing. "I've been looking everywhere for you! What are you doing all the way out here?" He made a grab for her hand again, and this time she let herself be led back out into the street – for she realized as soon as her feet hit the dirt pathway that she had been in an alleyway. An alley, she noticed, whose ground had been layered atop with wood while repairs were being made to the buildings alongside of it. She could had smacked herself, but she didn't. At least, she thought with some relief, Sokka hadn't noticed.

       "What, were you worried about me, Snoozles?" she joked, grinning at him.

       "Nah, I knew you could handle yourself. Katara and Aang would have killed me if I had showed up back at camp without you, though." Thankfully, she was too wrapped up in her own thoughts to notice that he was lying. Because he had seen the look on her face just before he had grabbed her wrist.