Tale Of Two Avatars

Mini Adventure: Suzume Reaches For The Toph

After several days of practising our earthbending with Toph, Aang and I decide to practice our bending in a more fun and creative way, in the form of a game of King Of The Hill, a free-for-all involving everyone in our group. We choose a barren earthen terrain surrounded by trees to play the game. Toph earthbends a hill of earth in the middle of all of us, challenging the four of us to take her down from her position. Once all of us took up our respective positions, we were ready. I leap onto one of the trees behind Toph, using the leaves as cover to conceal my position, concealing my thoughts from Aang as well while watching the others take her on.

My plan was a rather simple one, once everyone was exhausted, I'd leap down, take everyone out and hopefully win. I make sure to stay still, not wanting Toph to sense any vibrations from the tree.

"This ends now, Toph!" Aang yelled, charging at Toph on an air scooter. 

"It ends for you, Swoopy!" Toph smirked, earthbending a giant hand out of the ground beneath her. She snatches Aang from the air with great precision with it, tossing him aside onto the ground easily. Pain courses through my body and I curse silently, grunting as silently as possible while watching Katara dash to Toph from behind, bending a massive wave of water as she ran.

"You'll be sorry for what you did to Aang!" Katara shouted, launching the wave of water at Toph. 

"Yikes," Toph quickly earthbends an earthen wall to shield herself from the water. The collision between the water and the hill sends a pile of dust flying and once the dust settles, Katara gasps in shock and I do as well internally, the hill Toph was standing on previously and Toph herself nowhere to be seen. 

"Huh? Where'd she go...?" Katara looks around frantically and Toph reemerged from behind Katara, bending a new hill of earth and standing atop it. 

"Behind you, Katara," Toph smirked.

Katara whips around in surprise and glares at her. "No fair! You moved the hill! That's cheating!"

"Quit your whining and look down now," Toph points at Katara's feet and I instantly take a look at it, noticing the ground swirling beneath her and slowly sinking, dragging Katara along with it. 'Did she just make quicksand?'

"What...what is this? Quicksand?!" Katara exclaimed in fear.

"Yeah, and I couldn't have done it without you," Toph grinned, Katara now waist-deep in the quicksand. "The recipe for quicksand calls for water. So, thanks."

A boomerang suddenly comes flying in out of nowhere but Toph somehow manages to dodge it in time. 

"Nice try, Sokka!" Toph praised sarcastically. "It's going to take a lot more than that to take me down."

"I haven't even begun to try!" Sokka comes racing to Toph with his club in hand.

"Uh huh," Toph mocked, gesturing for him to come at her.

"You're going-" Before he could even complete his sentence, Toph shifts the ground underneath Sokka with earthbending, causing him to trip and fall face-first onto the hard ground.

"I'm waiting, losers," Toph stands triumphantly on her hill, while Aang, Katara and Sokka were all struggling and flailing. 'She just took down the Avatar, one of the strongest waterbenders in the world and one of the strongest non-benders all on her own. She's incredible.' "There's still one more waterhead that hasn't revealed herself yet. Come out, come out wherever you are," she begins to look around her surroundings, her eyes stopping at the tree I was hiding in. "Unless you're too scared, Zume!"

Concentrating on the air around Toph's ears, I slam the aforementioned air on her ears, distorting her hearing momentarily. Toph grips her ears, growling and earthbending a column of rock at the tree I was perched on. I leap onto the ground before leaping onto another tree with airbending, conjuring an air scooter from above and sending it moving rapidly around Toph's position, purposely maximising the sound it made by adding as much swirling air to it as possible. Knowing that she'd most likely take the bait, I begin drawing light from the Sun with my fingertips, adding as much heat into it as possible. I feel the light shooting out of the fingertips of my other hand and I swiftly shape the light into a massive scythe.

"That trick won't work on me!" Toph takes the bait, earthbending a pillar of earth at it, striking nothing and dissolving the air scooter. "Where'd you go?"

I swing the light scythe at the hill of earth she was standing on, slicing it cleanly in half and sending her falling to the ground.

"How'd you do that?!" Toph gasped in surprise. Before she could earthbend to keep herself standing and prevent her fall, I leap out of the tree, directing a massive gust of wind at her and knocking her into the quicksand with Katara. I quickly use a combination of waterbending and earthbending to send her sinking into the quicksand, making sure she was chest deep in the quicksand so she could not earthbend. 

Landing gracefully in front of four of my friends who were now on the ground, I earthbend a hill of earth smaller than Toph's, leaping onto it with airbending. I smirk at Toph, "You were saying, Toph?"

"You got lucky!" Toph retorted, scowling at me. "Plus, you cheated! How'd you even slice my hill in half?"

"With a little trick I learnt, it's something called lightbending. Don't know if you've ever heard of it."

"She kinda invented it Toph," Aang added, chuckling anxiously. 

"What? I never knew Zume could bend light! Much less create the whole thing!" Toph protested. "That's unfair! How was I supposed to know you could bend light?" 

"Well, always expect the unexpected," I chuckled. "Anyone else wanna try taking me down?"

"Okay, okay, you win, Suzume," Aang conceded, grinning broadly at me.

"Even though you weren't involved in the earlier part of the fight, you win," Katara sighed.

"You're the king of the hill," Sokka declared, still disoriented from his fall earlier. 

"Make that queen of the hill," I amended, smiling proudly and looking at Toph expectantly. "So Toph, do I win?" 

She struggles in the quicksand momentarily, trying to extricate herself from it but to no avail. She glares at me, conceding with a sigh, "Fine, you win! Now get me out of here!"

"And me!" Katara added, scowling at me and complaining, "I've been here long enough."

I waterbend them both out of the quicksand, both their shirts coated with a layer of it. Before I could even react, Toph crumbles the hill of earth I was standing on, making me fall to the ground. 

"Now we're even!" Toph grinned mischievously. "That's the only time you'll ever beat me, Zume."

"Don't be a sore loser," I teased, turning serious a few moments later. "Come on, it's just a game, Toph. Win or lose, we're still friends."

Toph sighs, helping me up before punching me on the shoulder, "You're lucky we're still friends."

"Ow!" I cry out in pain, glaring at her and wincing in pain as I rubbed my sore shoulder. "I wish you had less rough ways of expressing your friendship."

"I do what I want," Toph smirked. "And no one can stop me." 'Typical Toph.'