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Post by Fateful on Aug 14, 2010 4:47:19 GMT -5
Toph looked over at him and shrugged it off. As long as she didn't have to deal with Katara, she was fine with that, but his learning Earth bending, in her opinion was more important than anything else. That however was most likely only because she thought Earth better than the other elements. Not that she was conceited or anything...
"Whenever you want. If we fly most of today then we can find somewhere to camp that's rocky and we can train some of the night and stay part of the day tomorrow so I can see if you've slipped or improved." She stood up, Momo running onto her shoulder from her lap. Stretching her arms and legs, the blind bender walked with the Avatar out of the small shop. "Unless there's something you need here, but considering you're a spiritual monk or whatever you don't really have anything except Appa."
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Post by belated valentine on Aug 14, 2010 5:00:09 GMT -5
Aang nodded. \"That sounds like a good idea.\" He said, following her out of the shop. The woman that had served them earlier waved a thank you and picked up the money, starting to clean the table. He smiled back and walked off with Toph. He made his way out of the city, spotting Appa and running over to him, falling against his head. \"Sorry for leaving you out here, I know it\'s hot. But I found Toph!\" He looked back at Toph as Appa let out a loud bellow, greeting the woman.
Climbing onto Appa\'s head he smiled down at Toph. \"Come on, let\'s get out of here. I\'m so excited! For once we\'re traveling for our own pleasure and not because of a war. I can\'t wait to see how everything\'s changed there.\"
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Post by Fateful on Aug 14, 2010 5:05:53 GMT -5
Toph walked with him, feeling his footsteps leave the ground, knowing that he jumped, and his vibrations soon returned when he landed on Appa. Walking to the bison, she rubbed his face happily and leaned against his body. As much as she hated riding on him, the blind woman had nothing against the bison itself. Just the fact that they spent so long riding on him, leaving her bored, sightless, and rendering her unable to bend.
Changing the shape of her meteor rock, she morphed it into a bracelet and reattached it to her upper arm. Using the earth to push her upwards, she landed in Appa's saddle, holding the small hole that could fit her arms through. Holding it tightly, she looked over at the monk who wasn't far from here. "Let's get out of here, the sooner we get out of here, the sooner we'll be on the ground and we can bend."
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Post by belated valentine on Aug 14, 2010 5:11:36 GMT -5
Aang laughed. \"You really hate being in the air don\'t you?\" He asked, glancing back at her. He muttered a quick \'Yip Yip\' to the flying bison and he floating up, darting into the air and carrying them towards the fluffy, white clouds.
It was somewhat like old times, except they were short a few people, but it didn\'t matter because at least now he was traveling with someone. Sokka and the rest of them had wanted to stay on Kiyoshi Island for awhile, refusing to travel anywhere just yet. They had helped rebuild the southern water tribe and were now taking a break somewhere less cold. He had stayed with them for awhile but had eventually decided it was best if he left, knowing he had to find Toph and focus on his earth bending for awhile.
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Post by Fateful on Aug 14, 2010 5:17:39 GMT -5
Toph nodded. "Yes, I really do. Let's blindfold you and remove all the air from around you and see how you feel." She muttered, looking in his direction. Despite not being able to see him, she knew were he was from his voice and the fact she knew Appa's basic body structure. "It's out of my comfort zone, I can deal with it, but if something happens I won't exactly know about it until afterward."
As they flew she felt the cool clouds brush against her face and body. Closing her useless eyes, she let out a small sigh, but felt content. Even though she'd never really admit it, she did miss flying, and did like it in small bursts, especially when escaping an enemy. Her body relaxed rather than tensing and she rested her cheek on her arms which were resting on the saddle to keep her attached to it in case something did happen. It was rare, but there was always that chance that someone could shoot something at them, Appa falling asleep, or another random event. Like the spirit world taking him or something. He was the avatar, that sort of shit happened frequently.
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Post by belated valentine on Aug 14, 2010 5:24:25 GMT -5
Aang laughed. \"Well, I would sort of die. I mean, everyone would.\" He teased, twisting her words around even though he knew she hadn\'t meant it that way. Looking back ahead, he held Appa\'s reigns loosely in his hands. Even though flying wasn\'t that exciting, he loved it. It made him feel at peace and gave him time to think, especially before the war when he\'d had so many things running through his mind.
After the war, he\'d felt lighter than ever before. He knew that there was nothing that he couldn\'t do now.
---
After hours of flying, darkness was finally slipping over the land. Appa was getting tired and Aang didn't want to push him any further. It wasn't like they needed to rush anywhere, they had all the time they wanted. Looking down, he slowly motioned for Appa to lower himself to the ground. There was a clearing up ahead where they could camp for the night and practice some earth bending before they started flying again.
After that, their next stop would be the Fire Nation.
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Post by Fateful on Aug 14, 2010 5:37:02 GMT -5
The flight was pleasant, not that they never were, but it was much more relaxing than normal. Toph had missed flying, the feeling of the wind, the breathlessness, the way you just seemed to float. Despite the fact she was unable to see, it was relaxing even if it was sometimes irritating, especially when those in Appa saw something in the distance that merits a good deal of attention. Whereas she knows what most architecture looks like, she never understood Katara's fascination with sunsets or colors. Being blind, neither one of things appealed to her because she had nothing to compare it to, in her world, they were just words without any real definition or purpose.
As Appa landed, she jumped from his saddle onto the ground, her legs making contact with the ground, firmly rooting themselves there. Standing up straight, she grinned happily. It was hot enough that they didn't need to build a fire because of the summer heat, and neither one of them had a sleeping bag. Toph preferred to sleep on the ground, and Aang usually slept on Appa or the ground. "This place has a lot of trees, but I guess we can work around them." She kicked a small boulder at him in a simple earth bending stance, expecting him to break it, catch it, throw it back... anything except get hit with it really.
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Post by belated valentine on Aug 14, 2010 5:47:53 GMT -5
Aang jumped off Appa, stretching his arms above his head and letting out a sigh of relief. When she hurled the rock at him, he quickly ducked. \"H-Hey!\" He shouted toward her, confused. However, he quickly realized and stopped, mentally smacking himself. \"Sorry, you caught me off guard.\" He said, laughing nervously. Fixing his stance, he drew a rock from the ground, lifting it up and punching it so that it flew at her. He needed some exercise to wear him out so he could fall asleep, that and he wanted some practice as well.
While Appa quickly fell over into a sleeping position, he jumped into the air and onto one of the boulders near by, knowing Toph could easily dodge his attack and would hurl something else at him as soon as he blinked.
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Post by Fateful on Aug 14, 2010 5:53:50 GMT -5
Avoiding the attack and being so caught off guard by it irritated her, but not because he was caught off guard. He didn't sense it in time to stop it, only to avoid it. Guess that mean she was going to have to drill him fairly hard until he got this right. He wasn't as bad as he was before, and she had also gotten much better through training and both learning and inventing new moves, so expecting him to advance his weakest element in pace with her was something impossible to ask of him. He was the Avatar, but he hadn't obtained mastery.
When the boulder flew towards her, Toph rose earth in front of her, but rather than being hard like rocks, it was softer and more dirt like. It bent to catch the boulder he threw and once it caught it, it flipped, inverting it's position to throw the boulder back at him without breaking it. Then the dirt hardened into rock and the earth bender punched it, a giant portion of it flying towards him with amazing speed and accuracy, catching up to the other one in no time, breaking some of it when they collided, causing a good amount of debris-both rock, dust and sand, to fly towards the Avatar.
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Post by belated valentine on Aug 14, 2010 6:55:23 GMT -5
Aang stopped. The dust and sand were clouding his vision. Taking a breath, he tried to focus like Toph had told him to, to sense the vibrations from the earth. Opening his eyes suddenly, he kicked his leg into the air, hitting the boulder as it was about to hit him. It flew back, hitting one of the larger boulders beside them and cracking open.
They spent a large portion or time just practicing, her mostly hitting him and knocking him off his feet or bruising him. Still though, he kept going. It was pitch dark now and he was starting to get tired. However, he made no attempt to stop. He hadn't noticed the shadow within the trees who made sure to stay as far away from Toph to make sure that she didn't sense them. A few finely carved daggers flew through the trees with great speed. They had been meant for the Avatar but it hit Toph instead because he had stepped aside in the nick of time. The person didn't seem to displeased with this. It hit one of them, and that was all that mattered. If Toph was injured and died, then Aang wouldn't have his earth bending teacher.
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Post by Fateful on Aug 14, 2010 7:02:56 GMT -5
Toph was starting to get tired as the night went onward. He wasn't much of a challenge for her on an earth bending level, but he did have many attacks that surprised her. He was always much better at defense than he was at attack. He did dish out some impressive attacks however, ones that caught her off guard but didn't injure her. As time wore on, she could hear his breathing grow louder and his stances became mildly weaker and more predictable. It was around the time she was thinking they should stop, but she was going to give this about 10 or so minutes to see how far he could take this.
He moved to the side as he threw a boulder in her direction. As she moved her arm to break the boulder a fairly small sharp object lodged itself into her arm, side, and stomach. Wincing and losing form the rock collided with the side of her body, pushing her backwards, but not off her feet. Her knees weakened and she dropped to them holding her side where the boulder had slammed into her, pushing one of the knives deep into her skin. "Fuck!" She yelled, feeling around her side, cutting a shallow wound onto her hand with the double edge blade. "Twinkle toes!" She bellowed at him to get his attention. "Any reason you're using airbending to throw knives at me!?"
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Post by belated valentine on Aug 14, 2010 7:13:18 GMT -5
Aang's eyes widened as the daggers flew passed his face and slammed into Toph. "I didn't throw knives at you! S-Someone else did, they came from the forest behind us." He looked back before quickly running over to her. Oh no...he really hoped the wounds weren't too bad, he hoped they weren't life threatening. It was just the two of them here, they didn't have Katara to heal her.
He honestly didn't know what to do.
Was he supposed to pull them out? Or leave them there? "Uhh..." He didn't know if he was supposed to go after who'd done this before they attacked again or to stay there and help her. Then again, it was probably best to stay near her. "Are you okay? Are you hurt badly?" He asked frantically. He touched one of the blades, going to pull them out but only managing to cut himself. "I wonder who would do something like this, it's not like we didn't anything that would cause it! And the wars over and...who could have.."
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Post by Fateful on Aug 14, 2010 7:20:17 GMT -5
Toph winced as she pulled one of the daggers from her arm and threw it into the ground. That one thankfully wasn't as deep. Blood dripped down her arm and onto the ground where small red droplets were collecting in Yue's light. "Idiot..." She muttered, not making it clear who she was referring to. Touching the one in her abdomen she managed to pull it out by bending some of the metal inside of it causing it to slide out of her skin a few inches so she could grab it and pull it the rest of the way out.
"I'll be fine twinkle toes, it was a little knife and a rock. I'm still standing and I'm not crying." Not that she ever could admit if she was hurt unless she was about to die. Complaining about injuries just made her seem weak, so it was never something she did. "Just because the war is over doesn't mean all conflict is... I',m sure there are still people in the fire nation that didn't want the war to end, and don't agree with the fact you let Ozai live." Sitting down on the ground, she closed her eyes tightly and drew her legs a little closer to her body. without Katara here, blood poured over her shirt and she just put pressure on it. It hurt like a fucking bastard, but there was nothing she could do about it. Pulling out the other knife, she threw it into the ground with the others.
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Post by belated valentine on Aug 14, 2010 7:27:33 GMT -5
Aang fidgeted, looking around and trying to figure out what to do. Quickly, he eased out of his shirt, tearing parts of it off. They had to keep her from bleeding to death. He took some of the ripped shirt, using it to wrap the parts that he could. He tried to work fast but it wasn't working out. How much pressure was he supposed to put on this? He didn't want to cut off circulation but he also didn't want her to bleed to death. "Tell me if it feels too tight." He said, continuing to wrap the wounds.
"I know...I know but if they were upset about me not killing Ozai then why would they come after us and not him?" He asked, staring down at the wounds, cringing at the blood. This blood, it looked horrible on her, it didn't fit her. How could he have let this happen? Why hadn't he paid more attention? "We have to hurry to the Fire Nation, you can get medical attention there. I don't know how to heal or..or. I can't let something happen to you." Picking her up, he ran back to Appa. The bison was already awake, having sensed the danger and smelled the blood.
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Post by Fateful on Aug 14, 2010 8:33:21 GMT -5
hearing him remove his shirt, she turned to face him, then felt his hands wander her body, pulling his shirt tightly around her, binding her injury. "Quite frankly, I think too tight is a better alternative to not tight enough." She muttered, letting him wrap her wounds, even thought she didn't like it. Of course now that she didn't want Katara around she needed her. Someone up there hated her for something. "Just wrap it tightly, if i start losing feeling, I'll let you know." Her hand rested on her side, feeling the blood soaking through his shirt.
"Well like there are those who opposed him, there are most likely fire benders who oppose you. Maybe it was meant to kill you and I just got in the way. I didn't notice either, so don't go all baby on me about this." Her eyes narrowed from the pain but soon widened when something grabbed her body and she went totally blind. Her arms locked around his neck as tightly as a petrified rhino-snake and her body grew stiffer than usual, unaccustomed to being carried, and not having expected it. "We're not going to make it to the fire nation, Aang..." She muttered, feeling him land on Appa and the bison leave the ground. "Why don't you just try healing, or something."
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