Toph's Best Friend (Avatar The Last Airbender)

Chapter 8.

We got a long one, folks

Clouds crawled into the night sky as Lì sewed her fingers together. The wind blew her hair past her and her bangs jumped to the moon.

Sokka and Katara sat quietly with shy eyes and Lì's stomach burned.

She smiled at them yet the silence dawned on them like dusk. They approached the stadium quickly all the same.

"So what uh happened?" Sokka whispered. His sister glared at him, her fist punching his upper arm.

"That's none of your business, Sokka!"

"Well I don't know. It just got quiet all of a sudden." The group was in silent majority as Sokka continued. "And she said 'we were best friends' all dramatically. I just wanted to know!" Sokka's hands played in the air as justification.

"It's fine honestly." Lì smiled.

Her voice felt so dry.

"You know things happen. I just felt like leaving. That's it. End of story, really." Lì looked to the group who leafed through the many blanks of her explanation.

"You mentioned you had a family earlier." Aang's voice came from the head of the saddle. "Did it have to do with that?" He asked quietly.

Lì scoffed, tucking her hair behind her ear. "There's no way I said that." The group quieted once again and Lì clenched her fists.

"I don't understand why this is important, honestly. I know you guys have back stories and all but mine really isn't worth it."

She sighed, standing up on the brown leather. The wind licked her hair back as she planted her heels strongly.

"I knew Toph as a little girl. We caused some trouble around the village and things got a little..." She paused. In front of her stood Budgey, stained in blood. Broken arrows and the footsteps of murders crawling her home. "...serious. So I left. Toph stayed. That's it."

She sat down and the group settled. The tension lingered, yet there was a feeling of satisfaction between them.

"We're here." Aang said, loosening his grip on Appa's reins. The bison's feet pushed forward as his tail lowered to the ground.

Lì leaves the saddle first. She jumps from its lip, a scaffolding of rock erupting from the ground catching her feet, slowly lowering her toward the grass.

Sokka and Katara jump as Aang floats down, slightly behind Lì's figure.

Quietly Sokka whispers, "Well that was awkward."

Lì ran fast past the entrance. Arches branch out as a welcoming tunnel into stadium 6.

Darkness swallowed the empty seats. Without an audience- without an applause- the silence stings. There is no melody of cheers; no beat from chants. At the center of the emptiness stood Toph in a metal crate, and the men surrounding her. To their right, stood two terrified parents holding a pouch of coins.

"Lì wait-" Katara called out, rushing behind.

Lì turned her head, her bangs in her face. Her throat bubbled and her fist burned in her palms. She stomped the ground, a platform rocketing at her feet toward the center of the stadium.

"Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Beifong!" Lì said, landing at the edge of the platform and skidding toward them.

"Do we know you?" Toph's father asked. He clutched his wife, gripping her flower-print sleeve. He leaned backward, his heels shifting with a steel light in his eyes. Lì frowned, her eyes turning toward the stadium lights and Toph's small face in the metal cage: watching.